19 Dec Nike Augmented Reality, Microsoft’s Social Network, @Sweden, British | Topics That Are Igniting
Nike’s Augmented Reality Running Campaign Adds Real World Twist
A new campaign by Nike, entitled “Catch the Flash,” saw 50 runners decked out in ‘Flash’ running jackets and hooked up to GPS systems running around Vienna, Austria for 90 minutes. The game allowed passersby and participants to track the runners down using a mobile app. To catch the flash, participants would have to take a photo of the runner, which would reveal the special number as the flash hit the jacket. Because the jackets were made of light reflective material, it meant that the flash would reveal the number and whoever photographed the most numbers won the game.
Microsoft Launches Its Social Network
So.cl, pronounced social, is being billed as a site for student collaboration and information gathering. For now, Microsoft is calling it just an “experimental research project” and only making it available to students studying information and design at the University of Washington, Syracuse University and New York University. The site features a social search experience, powered by Bing, that displays search result data but also encourages students to share links as they search. Students can also build their own communities around subject matters or topics of interest. So.cl’s most unique feature, however, is the rich post, which is like a meta-status update and can include multiple links and images that are assembled together in a visual montage. Rich posts, just like status updates, can be commented on, but they can also be tagged and embedded elsewhere on the web.
Swedish Government Allows Citizens to Take Over Official Twitter Account
Announced last week, the Swedish tourism agency lobbied and convinced Sweden’s government to turn over access to the official @Sweden Twitter account to citizens. Called the ‘Curators of Sweden‘ project, the official Twitter account is turned over to a new citizen each week. That person can alter the current avatar and tweet about anything they want for seven days. However, the citizen is encouraged to tweet about places and things to do in Sweden as well as answer questions about life in the country. Upcoming Swedish citizens that will be tweeting from the official account include a teacher, a priest, an editorial writer, a coffee-drinking trucker lesbian, and an ad agency founder who owns his own farm. There’s no end date set for the experiment and it will likely continue for at least the next two months.
1 in 5 Brits Voice Complaints Via Social Media
When business software firm Sage UK surveyed 2,000 British consumers they found one in five (22%) turned to social media to make a complaint about poor customer service. According to psychological profiling expert Dr. Thomas Charmorro-Premuzic of Goldsmiths University in London, “Complaining effectively isn’t something that comes easily to British consumers, who are naturally quite reserved. Social media makes the process of complaining a lot less confrontational, so it’s no surprise respondents to our research are embracing the channel so readily.” However, despite this change in consumer behavior, it would seem few businesses are actively monitoring their social media channels or engaging with them. Less than half (40%) of those who turned to networks like Facebook and Twitter to vent their frustrations received a response.
