Mike@OgilvyLabs

Blippar Augmented Reality

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:59:00 -0500

Blippar is an augmented reality mobile app for iOS and Android devices (Windows on the way).

Upon opening the app and holding the phone up to visual ‘markers’, traditional print media, advertising and real-world objects can be recognised and instantly jump to life with exclusive content and interactive opportunities. Users can literally ‘pull’ information, entertainment, offers and augmented reality 3D experiences out of the world around them, simply by holding their phone up to a marker. No clicks, no delays – just instant gratification.

For instance, an artist could have links to their website, social pages, and streaming music come up if the user points Blippar at their CD cover. Or a food brand could have a recipe book appear that showcases all the different uses for the ingredient.

A differentiator for Blippar against other AR apps is that it caches all live campaigns into the app as soon as the person open it for the first time. This way, users can still experience AR without a data connection - perfect for subway campaigns. Beyond that, it doesn’t require additional downloads or app updates to run each campaign. It simply refreshes the content each time you open the app.

Blippar’s clients include Heinz, Wrigley’s, Kit Kat, Asos, and many more. The majority of its campaigns have been in UK where its headquartered, however it is currently ramping up its sales efforts in the US.

For more information, visit Blippar.com.

Music+Tech Startup Demos

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:54:22 -0500

Last night I went out to The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn to check out the NYC Music Demo night. Great event, here are the companies that demoed:

Cantora Labs: Music+Tech incubator that allows technologists to focus on the tech by providing the business strategy and music industry contacts. They’re investing in about 8 startups over the next 2 years ($25-100k each) and will be providing space for all of the companies to work in. The founders signed and launched MGMT’s first album, and are now working with their first startup implementing a new tech solution for Lady Gaga’s upcoming tour.
PlayMySong: Recently featured on TechCrunch, PlayMySong is a free app for iPhone and Android that allows users to cue songs in participating bars and venues. Users can view all the songs in the venue’s library and choose which they want to play. Venues can limit repeats and requests per person.
TuneSat: TuneSat’s unique audio fingerprint technology monitors hundreds of TV channels and millions of websites around the world, helping rights holders collect millions of dollars that would otherwise have been lost. They can detect the audio even when its shrouded by announcers, crowdnoise, and more. It also captures the entire audio recording for proof of when the song was used.
Tomahawk: Tomahawk is an open-source music player that connects all of your accounts into one player - including your hard drive music, streaming accounts, and more. If someone shared a link from a service you don’t use, Tomahawk matches the metadata from the link and find the song on another service that you do use eliminating the barrier to listen and discover new music. It does this in addition to all the standard features of other music players like iTunes.
Blank On Blank: Not a music startup, but a cool guest demo. Blank on Blank gathers old American interviews that have never been heard before from famous figures like Martin Scorsese. It works with journalists and other media outlets to convert and edit tape and digital recordings that were never used into timeless content - ultimately reviving content that would have previously never been used.
Grooveshark: A free music streaming and playlist service, Grooveshark has over 40 million active users that use their service to discover and share music with their share. Unlike other services, Grooveshark allows anyone to upload their tunes to share making it a great distribution outlet for unsigned and other artists.

What Makes A Good Tweet?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:57:15 -0500

What Makes A Good Tweet?

Sh*t We Say: Lessons from a Long-Tailed Meme – Part 2

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:48:06 -0500

Sh*t We Say: Lessons from a Long-Tailed Meme – Part 2

HouseParty.com: Throw Brand-Sponsored House Parties

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:01:56 -0500

In their words:

House Party makes it easy to have a party in your own home and get exclusive access to awesome products for you and your friends. We provide the fun, you provide food, your friends and feedback and promise to have an amazing time.

Our parties are sponsored by the brands you love. By hosting, you and your guests get to try their products and receive an incredible Party Pack chock full of goodies! You don’t pay anything or sell anything. It’s a no-pressure party. Just tell us what you and your guests think.

House Party collects location, social, income, interest, family, and other data points to ensure the host is a good fit for the brand.

Brands on board at present include Playstation, HGTV, Huggies, Johnsonville, Dole, Courvoisier, and more.

To learn more, go to HouseParty.com.

Video Curation: Where You're Going to Spend More and More Time

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:10:50 -0500

Video is on the rise - big time. Youtube dominates the market, however even with its re-design it’s pretty poor at discovery. Social networks spark virality, however offer a terrible viewing experience due to all the non-video clutter.

Video curation startups VHX and Shelby.tv are out to solve these problems, and will be something more and more people spend time with in the near future.

Why?

Lean-Back: Video curation tools stream videos back-to-back with no breaks similar to how TV delivers content. Users simply need to select a channel, then sit back, relax, and consume. It increase time of engagement, and can be considered a substitute for television.
Relevance: Whether sites curate by social, interest, or location graph info, they offer much greater relevance than TV. Also, content is short-form, which is a fan favorite amongst Gen Y.
Any Screen - Although cable programming is doing a better job of offering content on any screen, its still expensive and nowhere as easy as just pushing play on VHX or Shelby. Shelby has iPhone and iPad apps, can connect to Apple TV, and work on your computer. That’s huge.

Although neither offer formal ad opportunities at present, they’ll ultimately be able to increase views, interaction, and virality as both platforms have built social into the core of their products.

i strongly encourage everyone to play around w/ both products and see what you think. Shelby’s strength is its social curation and any screen compatibility, allowing users to pull videos from their Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr feeds.

In addition to social, VHX offers a list of non-social channel including Boing Boing, Buzzfeed, and more. It also allows users to create and embed playlists making it a great solution for blog content.

Also, if you’re looking for music videos, the founder of VHX hacked together a Pandora for music videos called Music Video Genome. They don’t promote it, so it’ll be our little secret, okay?

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In conclusion, video curation is the future of content and will continue to eat up market share of people’s online viewing time in the coming years. These two players are ahead of the curve and are definitely something to keep an eye on.

nimay: The Future of Funding Startups David Beatty of...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:49:38 -0500

nimay:

The Future of Funding Startups

David Beatty of www.goldenseeds.com talks about trends and the future of funding startups (VCs, angel investors and friends/family) at www.wickedstart.com ‘s Entrepreneur Bootcamp in NYC.

Welcome the newest edition to the Ogilvy Labs team: Trixie. She...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:13:21 -0500

Welcome the newest edition to the Ogilvy Labs team: Trixie. She joined us a few days this week during a Bridgette’s dogsitting stint.

20 of Ogilvy’s finest digital thinkers headed to General...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:11:14 -0500

20 of Ogilvy’s finest digital thinkers headed to General Assembly yesterday to talk to 5 companies - Piictu, Rent the Runway, Movable Ink, 140 Proof, and Contently. It was the beginning of what we hope to be a long relationship w/ GA and the companies call it their headquarters.

thenextweb: Wikipedia’s SOPA blackout drove 14% more UK visits...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:06:13 -0500

thenextweb:

Wikipedia’s SOPA blackout drove 14% more UK visits to its mobile website http://tnw.to/1CrpY

Ogilvy’s Advanced Video Practice had a full house this...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:38:07 -0500

Ogilvy’s Advanced Video Practice had a full house this week to discuss Youtube’s re-design and its impact on clients’ video strategy.

thisistheverge: Game, set, and match. via @Encarta95

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:45:41 -0500

thisistheverge:

Game, set, and match. via @Encarta95

One Minute With: Quick Conversations w/ Incredible Designers

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:30:05 -0500

One Minute With: Quick Conversations w/ Incredible Designers:

In their words:

Our aim is to interview awesome designers, developers and creatives, and find out what makes them tick, where they get inspiration from, and much more. Simple as that.

Programming Jokes

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:30:05 -0500

Q. How did the programmer die in the shower?:
A. He read the shampoo bottle instructions -> Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Q. How many programers dose it take to change a light bulb?:
A. None – It’s a hardare problem

There are only 10 kinds of people in this world:
those who know binary and those who don’t.

Programming is like sex:
One mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life.

There are three kinds of lies:
Lies, damned lies, and "benchmarks

I just saw my life flash before my eyes :!
and all I could see was a close tag…”

Two strings walk into a bar and sit down.~
The bartender : “So what’ll it be?”
The first string : “I think I’ll have a beer quag fulk boorg jdk^CjfdLk jk3s d#f67howe%^U r89nvy~~owmc63^Dz x.xvcu”
The second string : “Please excuse my friend,” ,“He isn’t null-terminated.”

Wallbase.cc: Wallpaper/background Search Engine

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 09:30:00 -0500

Wallbase.cc: Wallpaper/background Search Engine:

Wallbase lets you find a ton of awesome wallpaper/background images free of charge. You can filter by relevance, date, popularity, or just have it pull up images at random. This is something I’ve been looking for for a long time.

teachingliteracy: A set of iPhone wallpapers with painful...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:30:06 -0500

teachingliteracy:

A set of iPhone wallpapers with painful truths about iPhone themselves, by Nico Ordozgoiti.

thisistheverge: Chaotic Moon’s ‘Board of Awesomeness’ is a...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:30:06 -0500

thisistheverge:

Chaotic Moon’s ‘Board of Awesomeness’ is a Kinect-controlled electric skateboard | The Verge

Went to visit our friends at Shapeways today for an office tour...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:11:16 -0500

Went to visit our friends at Shapeways today for an office tour and product showcase. Here’s some of the products they had lying around.

To design and print your own 3D stuff, go to shapeways.com

Waterproof smartphone coatings, diet-aiding armbands and 3D printing apps were all on show at CES

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:30:05 -0500

Waterproof smartphone coatings, diet-aiding armbands and 3D printing apps were all on show at CES

Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator's 2nd Class of Startups

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:30:05 -0500

The following list is from Betabeat - a solid online publication that provides the best coverage of the NYC tech scene. Click here to read this article in full. I’m only re-posting the startup overviews.
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Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator is a seed stage incubator based in New York City that just accepted its 2nd class of startups. Here is the complete list of startups:

Appy Couple:

Appy Couple lets you quickly, easily, and affordably create a gorgeous mobile app to share all the excitement of your wedding with invited guests. The Appy platform populates a mobile app in real time, and includes features like picture uploads, virtual champagne, countdown, and geolocation.www.appycouple.com

Cinchifieds:

Cinchifieds is the world’s simplest marketplace. Users catalog what they’re interested in buying or selling, and Cinchifieds does all the work, delivering matches directly to you. Cinchifieds makes buying and selling a cinch.www.cinchifieds.com

Dibsie:

Dibsie makes it easy to find, organize and discover products online by integrating social networking with powerful search capability. Dibsie streamlines the process for discovering and sharing products by allowing users to search thousands of retailers and brands, then bookmark favorites for sharing through a mutually-curated catalog.www.dibsie.com

LocalBonus:

LocalBonus allows consumers to use their existing credit and debit cards as their loyalty card at local merchants and gives merchants an easy way to deploy a rewards program to build customer loyalty.www.localbonus.com

Pictorious:

Pictorious is a photo-sharing game that creates a fun way to explore the world, meet new people and earn awesome rewards and prizes. Pictorious also helps brands and merchants engage with and attract customers.www.pictorious.com

ShareRebate:

ShareRebate is a referral tool that helps mobile app developers get more downloads. The referral tool seamlessly integrates into any mobile app and starts to offer users of the app rewards for recommending the app to friends and family.www.sharerebate.com

Stray Boots:

Stray Boots turns the walking tour on its head through its cell phone-guided, interactive urban games in cities throughout the U.S. Stray Boots curates the games and delivers them to customers’ phones via its proprietary software, taking urban explorers on an adventure that’s more fun, engaging and flexible than other ways to explore the city.www.strayboots.com

STYLYT:

Stylyt is redefining the way fashion brands acquire loyal fans. Partnering with contemporary and boutique brands, Stylyt launches collaborative fashion design campaigns that allow any user to customize an item in a collection, vote on user entries and even choose the winning design entry to be manufactured and sold.www.stylyt.com

Wizpert:

Wizpert is a real-time platform that instantly matches people who need advice with experts who are qualified to provide it on a wide range of topics from parenting to relationships and nutrition. Wizpert offers immediate access to a simple, helpful form of human communication. Talking. www.wizpert.com

WowWombat:

WowWombat is an event sponsorship marketplace that provides an easy way for businesses to find and interact with their target audience. A business selects events to sponsor based on the demographics they want to reach and scale they can afford—while event organizers post event details to receive sponsorship.www.wowwombat.com