Author Archives: Ana

On the road with Jack Kerouac and Google Maps

I wonder if today’s adolescents will get to know Jack Kerouac’s legendary novel through Google Maps first. Because, it’s possible.

Coming from an industrious German college student student, the “On the Road” project compiles all the roads, geographic stops and locations mentioned in the book and connects them in a single Google map, so adventurers everywhere can simply embark on a trip. It will take them around 272 hours and they will cover about 17,527 miles. Sounds like fun.

If this is something that strikes your fancy, you can download the e-Book for free here.

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Website of the day: What the f%^&* is my brief?

Planners can take a joke, right? Because, this entire site is dedicated to their gems. Enjoy.

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Worst client comments turned into posters

If you smile at this, it means that you work in advertising. We’ve all been there, eh?

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In Russia, online shopping comes with a human touch. Literally.

Lamoda is Russian retailer that employes curriers who double as style consultants. It’s actually pretty smart: because of Russian unreliable postal service, the currier option works great - and because we are dealing with fashion-obsessed consumers, style advice is a must. Customers can pick and choose which items from their order they would like to keep, and which ones they don’t like anymore, and pay on the spot. Of course, in the US and most of other countries this is all automated, but sometimes it’s nice to add a human touch - out of necessity or choice, it doesn’t matter.

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On-Demand Beauty Service? Sure, why not?

One more thing from “order it and it will be at your door in no time” department. Vensette is the new app that lets you select beauty and hair stylists that are just right for you, and then, next thing you know, they are at your door. This is not particularly amazingly new, as a lot of stylists do come to one’s home, but I suppose the process got sped up and quite automated by an app. Vensette also claims that they control the entire experience, matching you with the right stylist for your needs (and not just some random available freelancer), and that they control the quality of service. Well, that’s a nice touch.

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Tinder for Clothes? I am scared.

Moda Operandi is something of a digital fashion forerunner. First, it allowed its customers to shop runaway items only days after the show. Now, it takes it up a notch, with its new mobile app that allows fashion-obsessed to “yay” or “nay” the runaway looks in real time. Once the “yay” looks become available for sale couple of days later, you are of course first to know. This is a great example of entertainment, game mechanics, content and commerce, all in one. Good job, Moda.

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Labor of love gets rewarded by your love: send a message to the person who made your food

Oh god. This is probably the last thing that already overstimulated Brooklyn moms need: the ability to message the farmers that harvested the ingredients of their carefully selected, uber-organic meal. Yet, that’s what they have, thanks to Cisse Trading Co. The company prints QR codes on its chocolate deserts and cocoa drinks that allow customers to post a note to farmers whose labor created the ingredients. Once users scan the QR code, they are taken to the company’s Facebook page where they can leave a note for the wonderful farmers that provided for us.

While this is personally a bit of an overkill for me, I can totally see giants like Kraft jumping on this trend. After all, brands are all about sustainability and transparency these days, might as well work really good for them. Add this to your branding playbook.

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Citizen M is good for you

Forget about Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Citizen M is everything you need in terms of luxury lodging. Aside of incredibly straightforward home page (no silly photos of happy couples lounging at the beach at sunset), Citizen M offers accessible luxury that’s literally downsized. How does this happen? Based on the insight that frequent travelers, like professionals, globetrotters, weekenders, fashion-obsessed and “affair-havers” (in CitizenM’s own words, not mine!) look for luxury but not necessarily for space, this expanding hotel chain created tiny rooms packed with everything that defines the experience of a luxury hotel. The rooms are really, really tiny, though. I know that NewYorkers won’t mind.

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The new, incredibly safe world of online dating

Thanks to the Jess Meet Ken site, the chances that you’ll have a really bad online date are significantly diminished. Just like your friends would, female users of the site “introduce” others to their male friends they used to date. This tiny bit of information has proven to be incredibly popular among the ladies, who’d rather save their time and energy for someone who has proven to be a good fit. Good fit = good time.

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Discover that your neighbor is an excellent cook

How cool of an idea is this? Cooked up by three Londoners, Eatro is a crowdsourced service that allows ordering from neighbors. Eatro basically zoomed-in on an unmet demand of busy people living in big cities: their desire for a good, home-cooked meal. Then it built a business around it (Eatro charges chefs 12%). This idea can totally be a winner.

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