The New Digital Divide: between brands and consumers

This is a useful infographic by we are social Australia, based on global research from the CMO Council, illustrating just how far apart marketers and consumers are when it comes to expectations of a branded social experience.

In particular, marketers are failing to connect fans with each other. They're not enabling customers to troubleshoot each others' problems. They're missing a trick when it comes to crowdsourcing innovation. And, they're not adequately rewarding loyal fans, providing little incentive for ongoing interaction and support. Reward doesn't have to be financial, it can be as simple as making the online experience more playful, like a game, and more connected.

A breakthrough in plant-human communication

The Botanicalls Project has developed a way for plants to Tweet their owners when they need feeding. Via psfk

Colour coded image search

This is my favourite image search, much better than the usual Google results. The images are more interesting and you can search by colour as well as keyword.

http://labs.ideeinc.com/

Kraft in Greece uses packaging to send personalised messages - without changing the packaging. Through a mobile app, Kraft’s Lacta brand lets people use augmented reality to write a message on a chocolate bar. The recipient is notified via Facebook and uses their camera phone to reveal the message on any Lacta bar. (Via Springwise).

It's a smart initiative, driving consumption without adding packaging cost.

And the customisation craze is still going strong. A recent survey by IBM, "The Smarter Consumers Survey" indicated that people are still looking for a more personalised shopping experience. Moreover, they're willing to share their personal data with trusted brands to improve their experience.
75% said they’re willing to provide their media usage to retailers.
73% would provide demographic data.
61% would be willing to share their name and address.
59% would share lifestyle data.
56% would give their location in return for a more relevant shopping experience.

Compare Travel Insurance - the unfeasibly happy midget

It feels like one of those ads they make up as a game on the Gruen transfer, but this had me crying with laughter when I saw it at the cinema the other day. They must have had fun with this and it shows.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

This is a nice piece of collaborative storytelling from people at the Burning Man festival. Based on Dr. Seuss' "Oh the Places You'll Go!" it recounts the highs and lows of life, the thrill of exploration and the inevitable slumps. Beware the sinister Waiting Place, a prison of our own creation, where people are perennially waiting for something to happen while life passes them by!

Icons Transformed by Colour

This is uncanny. Check out the set, which includes iconic images of Einstein, Che Guevara and Hitchcock, among others, at Ufunk.

Facebook Timeline: Anti-Drugs campaign

A campaign from Israel's Anti-Drug Authority uses the new Facebook Timeline feature to tell the "Sliding Doors" style story of a guy who, in one version of his life, becomes a drug user and in a parallel life lives drug free. It's a familiar storytelling device to highlight contrasts, but the use of Facebook Timeline is novel and the side-by-side profile pics are powerful. People live their lives on Facebook, so seeing a life unravel in this space is all the more hard hitting.

Google's Zeitgeist 2011: Year In Review

  

And to compare, here's Twitter's version of 2011: