Posters of Missing Children on Flickr

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is using Flickr to spread the posters with kids' info (here's the corresponding poster for the Flickr image above).

-- thanks, Nishad

GE Launches Campaign of One-Second Commercials

Here's another example of how companies turn DVRs into their friends (remeber KFC's hidden coupon?) At the end of the usual TV spots, GE inserts a one-second bonus that consists of thirty frames viewable in slo-mo or in the frame-by-frame mode. You can watch the commercials and extra material at GE's website. They have also created MySpace profiles for the spots' characters (here's one for Elli the Elephant, created on May 2).
-- via NY Times

Earlier:
Advertising on MySpace

Korea Unveils Own Android

"Korea has developed its own android capable of facial expressions on its humanoid face, the second such machine to be developed after one from Japan. The name combines the first human name found in the Bible, Eve, with the "r" in robot.

The android has the face and body of a woman in her 20s, is 160 cm tall and weighs 50 kg. Ever-1 can move its upper body and "express" happiness, anger, sadness and pleasure. But the robot is still incapable of moving its lower half.

The 15 monitors in the robotic face allow it to interpret the face of an interlocutor and look back at whoever stands near it. Ever-1 also recognizes 400 words and can hold a basic verbal exchange.

The robot can serve to provide information in department stores and museums or read stories to children."
-- Chosun.com

Earlier:
Shopping Assistant Robot Ready For Field Tests
ASIMO Robot Fetches Coffer, Readies for Career in Advertising
Advertising Robots, Part II
More Advertising Robots

Keywords: advertising, robot, robots, bot

JetBlue Collects Customer Stories With a Booth

JetBlue set up a booth at the Rockefeller Center in NYC to record people's experiences and thoughts about the company. Wonder if they will make the stuff available as video or podcasts or use them in TV commercials.
-- more pics at Room 116, via Advergirl

White Paper on Value of Digital Asset Management for Ad Agencies

image: xinet

Account people and money managers at ad agencies will enjoy this whitepaper (pdf) published by Xinet, a maker of workflow and digital asset management systems:

"The most commonly used estimate of the amount of time used to search for a file is three minutes and the searched-for file is not found 40% of the time. The estimate of the number of searches done in a typical year is 2,500 per person. That equates to 15.5 man-days in 200 for searching.

A typical consequence for not having a digital asset readily available is usually a recreation of that asset or additional time spent hunting down acceptable pickup art. One conservative estimate calculates the replacement value of each asset at $400. If art must be redone for the 1,000 or so assets not found (40% of 2,500), and each is nominally valued at $400, the result would be a $400,000 ROI calculation. While this is not a bad starting point to assess your own savings, the truth is that companies with successful DAM system implementations are easily achieving this and more."

Earlier:
Industry Embraces Uniform Ad Identification
Digital Management of Advertising Assets

Distract Customers' Rational Side To Tempt Them Into Purchase

If thinking rationally about your product makes customers consider alternatives, distract the cognitive side so that people are more likely to go with their emotional impulses, says a business professor at Standford after conducting a study. "If you're asking consumers to, say, sample a new candy bar, it might help to have a TV playing nearby with distracting content."
-- CNN

Reaching Business Audience Through Blackberries

Adverblog points to Steve Rubel's post on how Blackberries are a great but overlooked medium that can help you reach business people. He also offers ideas on how Blackberry advertising could work:
1. Branded downloadable applications - games or productivity software - built for particular business niches.
2. Branded mobile virtual network operators, like ESPN's or Disney's mobile services for cellphones.

Earlier:
Columbia Pictures Promotes Movie With Blackberry Game

Microsoft Acquires Massive

"Microsoft said Thursday that it had acquired Massive Inc., a company that inserts advertising into video games, and will work to use Massive's technology for other online products. Financial terms were not disclosed."
-- ABC, Bloomberg

"Microsoft also has begun exploring how to apply Massive technology to incorporate dynamic advertising into other online environments, such as Windows Live and MSN, and to make it available on the adCenter advertising platform. "We are committed to building an advertiser network that serves a wide spectrum of needs," said Kevin Johnson, co-president of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft. "Our acquisition of Massive will expand opportunities for advertisers and enable connection to a broader audience of digital consumers."
-- press release

Accenture Installs Large Multi-User Touchscreen Displays

image: Accenture

Accenture installed a 7x10-feet touchscreen display that delivers news, weather, sports and entertainment features in Chicago's O'Hare airport. The second installation is planned for the JFK airport in NY. Some technical factoids: "Accenture's patent-pending touch sensing system has the ability to distinguish between touches from multiple simultaneous users. Additionally high-resolution cameras are leveraged to provide touch capabilities for simultaneous usage. The screen consists of a series of nine rear-projection DLP screens fastened together to display cohesive images at a clarity of 2100 x 1200 pixels/resolution. The network is managed and updated from a remote location to allow for content to be adjusted regularly."

Advertising on GPS: America Drives to Dunkin

Again, an old but interesting bit of news: a personal navigation systems maker TomTom put the 4,000 Dunkin Donuts and 2,700 Baskin-Robbins locations on its maps.
-- press release, Feb 2006