New Monopoly Edition Comes with Branded Tokens

NY Times: "An updated edition of [Monopoly]will include tokens that are styled after name-brand products. Five of the eight tokens in the new Monopoly Here and Now edition will be branded, offering game players the chance to be represented by miniature versions of a Toyota Prius hybrid car, an order of McDonald’s French fries, a New Balance running shoe, a cup of Starbucks coffee or a Motorola Razr cellphone."

-- Buy on Amazon ($29.99)
-- Computer game is coming out, too.

Earlier:
Monopoly Switches to Plastic

B-Student Optimizes Panhandling Through Emotional Targeting

Business Week this week runs a great story about a biz student whose internship project was to increase daily revenue of a panhandler through adjusting the emotional pitch of the cardboard sign:

"The concept behind the experiment: Marketing products through pricing or product features alone results in only one-time purchases. However, if a customer feels an emotional attachment to the product, there is a greater chance for repeat buying and loyalty. "My goal was to create an emotional attachment between people on the street and Amy so that they would become 'repeat customers,'" says Zimmerman."

I was writing a story for my undegrad newspaper once about how much money the panhandlers make. I went undercover, got me a wig and a tin can, and spent a day on a lively city square. Got about $8 in two hours. That's in Bulgaria, where the average monthly salary at the time was around $100.

Patent App Shows How To Make Ads Visible in Fast-Forward

Colin Davis from UK submitted an application to patent a method of showing ads in DVRs' fast-forward mode: "When a PVR fast forwards it saves processing power by displaying only the key frames. So the new system lets a broadcaster concentrate an advertising message in those key frames. A simplified version of an ad should then still be visible during fast-forwarding, albeit without sound."
-- NewScientistTech

IPG Launches Emerging Media Lab

Media Post's print issue writes (free reg.) about Interpublic's new Emerging Media Lab in NYC LA. "The Lab’s main area comprises a series of wall-less “rooms” — kitchen, den, clubhouse, and conference space, among others — that represent areas of the home in which consumers interact with media. Conspicuously absent is a bathroom. However, there are several mobile carts, fully loaded with Apple iPods, Nokia SmartPhones, LG Vcast cell phones, Sanyo streaming videophones, Sony Walkman MP3 players, and Location Free TVs."

File-Sharing Networks as Focus Groups

Just ran across this old Wired article back from 2003 about how music labels use file-sharing networks to study demand and adjust radio rotation. The company the article mentions, BigChampagne, is still in business even as RIAA is suing the networks into oblivion.

Mobile Phones to Get DVR Functionality

"Texas Instruments has announced that they will be adding TiVo-like technology to mobile phones sometime in 2007."
-- i4u

Students to Create Chevy's Next Super Bowl Ad

And you thought Chevy would give up on the whole consumer-generated-ads idea after what happened to their Tahoe initiative. No, and this time they are doing something very cool:

"All US college students can participate in The Chevy Super Bowl College Ad Challenge. Teams of up to three students will create the concept for a commercial promoting Chevrolet’s new lineup of cars and crossovers, specifically the Aveo, Cobalt, HHR, and Equinox. The winning team will participate in the production process as their concept is developed and made into a 30-second television commercial. The students' commercial will then air during Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007."
-- press release (thanks, Nellie)

Lonelygirl15 Probably Connected to Hollywood

LA Times writes about online fans of the YouTube phenomenon lonelygirl15 who think they have traced the cute big-eyed girl back to the Creative Artists Agency. "Indeed, if a commercial project does result, lonelygirl15 may prove to be a model of how to harness a groundswell created on seemingly populist, user-driven websites such as YouTube and MySpace."
-- via adrants

Spore To Offer Printable Game Characters

Looks like Maxis and EA will let players to order their custom Spore characters as physical figurines for an extra price.
-- 4colorrebellion

Furniture 3D Models in Games and Google Earth

I wrote before about Google Earth and SL-like games becoming increasingly alike. Here's a nice illustration.

An Ikea bed model for Sims 2.

An Ikea bed model for Sketch-up and Google Earth (gEarth?).

Here's an Ikea table for Second Life itself.

Also, a video of a project "named 3D IKEA Manual [that] aims to show the potential of augmented reality (AR) in domestic use".