A Brave New ( Microsoft ) World

Digitisation of History

I loved this example of how the British Library is preserving and making history accessible

For example by clicking here , you can see a digital copy of the Proclamation of Emancipation with Mr Abraham Lincoln's signature at the bottom of course

Big Brother Mannequin

Italian firm Almax have introduced EyeSee technology into their mannequins to provide retailers with information abut the consumers passing by or through their stores.

Capable of facial recognition, the software can gauge reaction to outfits on display

“Any software that can help profile people while keeping their identities anonymous is fantastic,” said Uché Okonkwo, executive director of consultant Luxe Corp. It “could really enhance the shopping experience, the product assortment, and help brands better understand their customers.”

Perhaps one day we will 'hear' them talk to customers perhaps offering promotions or details of to where the clothes in the store

Rugby Tackle Your Way to a Beer

Ingenious , if slightly hazardous , vending machine that encourages the 'nudge' to get your can of beer out

Korean Teenagers Dance For Free Coca Cola

Cool bit of technology employed by Coca Cola in Korea enables a vending machine to check out the moves by teenagers in the shopping centre




Apparently, the technology employed in Microsoft's Kinect.

This is fast on the heels of Pepsi's innovative machine that gets consumers to play games and send drinks to friends as gifts in the form of codes they can redeem at machines

Lexus Print Ad Combines Physical with Digital

''Phygital'' Bottle Top

Volvo Goes Phygital with V40 Launch

The launch of the new V40 includes an outdoor component that allows consumers to create a personalised V40 while they are waiting for their bus or train. Their choice of colours and alloys etc, will then be translated into an interpretation of their personality in line with Volvo's positioning as being made for individuals

I'm not sure if the following is part of the campaign, but the real positive in this type of activity is where the interactive display allowed some form of data capture, perhaps to send you your personalised car or personality indicator ( and of course in return the brand have some data in return)

Very similar to the Best Buy in store screens.

This 'Phygital' experience developed for Best Buy shows how the retail experience can be used to cover the continued need for product information in store as well providing peer ratings and reviews by employing a Digital Blue Shirt - Blue Shirts obviously referring to the in store advisors who provide the service that Best Buy are famous for in the US.  .

This is all then capped with the opportunity to capture customer information when they leave the store allowing follow up at a later stage through email for example.


Digital Blue Shirt from Modern Climate on Vimeo.

Being Social...In Person

It's good to see that teenagers still like to meet up in the real world




There is hope !

Commuter Shopping with Peapod

Peapod the leading Internet grocer in the US Pilots Virtual Rail Program; Commuters Shop, Scan and Book Grocery Deliveries From Their Smartphones

We all lead busy lives and none more so than the commuters in the Chicago area. “Chicagoans spend, on average, more than an hour commuting to and from work each day.  That’s well over 200 hours a year in transit time alone,” said Elana Margolis, Peapod's Director of Corporate Communications

To help and make sure they don't run out of groceries, Peapod have set up larger than life virtual store shelves in a couple of busy locations.

The shelves are stocked with popular products from Coca-Cola, Barilla and Procter & Gamble that can be scanned and ordered via a smartphone.

Commuters are able to start shopping, amend lists and book deliveries

The App is available on both Apple and Android phones.

And the pilot runs off the back of a trial they ran in Philadelphia, described in the video below, working with Giant and Titan . There, commuters bought a wider selection of products and a with a bigger average basket size. 90% of commuters who scanned returned




Now of course not all organisations can help their customers in this way. It doesn't need to be on big scale with lots of budget.

As I wandered through my city centre last week, I came across this Estate Agent's window who made sure that just because they were closed you weren't able to view properties.

It doesn't have to be more sophisticated than that but Peapod's work ( very similar to the Tesco Korean example below ) is a great example of where physical meets digital to make lives easier

Give Us Our Daily Bread

Best Buy CRM? eCRM? Retail Experience? All 3 and more?

The retail experience is still alive an kicking.

There are still many of us who research on line but then still want to touch and feel the product before buying.

But of course a large proportion of purchase decisions are still made in the store - 40% I hear. And many potential customers walk out of the store without even buying or registering an interest.

This 'Phygital' experience developed for Best Buy shows how the retail experience can be used to cover the continued need for product information in store as well providing peer ratings and reviews by employing a Digital Blue Shirt - Blue Shirts obviously referring to the in store advisors who provide the service that Best Buy are famous for in the US.  .

This is all then capped with the opportunity to capture customer information when they leave the store allowing follow up at a later stage through email for example.


Digital Blue Shirt from Modern Climate on Vimeo.

It is a shame that Best Buy announced today that they would be closing all their UK stores.

N.dulge in a Conversation

N.dulge is the name of the Space NK rewards scheme.

For the unitiated Space NK is a retailer ( both off and online) who offer a carefully edited selection of high quality and original  beauty products from innovators and specialists around the world. They are a favourite of mine even though there isn't one near me.


This morning I bought a Tom Ford fragrance ( now you know what I smell like) from their Harrogate store and was tempted to sign up for N.dulge ( love the name by the way). 1 point for every £ spent and the promise of special privileges like exclusive invitations, new product previews and birthday treats.


I signed up at the till, no forms to fill out, the sales advisor entering my details directly into the POS system. I got my temporary card number with the promise of a card in the post. This was at 11-45am


Now of course with most of the schemes I sign up for that would be it until my card arrived . But no. Look what arrived in my inbox at exactly 11-45am

In this world of 'real time' CRM, Space NK had continued the conversation with me straight away by sending me a welcome email immediately encouraging me to go to the N.dulge website to complete my registration. They got the essentials from me in the store without wasting too much of my time using the email to try and get more information from me. Hats off to the CRM / Membership team.


Of course it's not perfect. They had not used my name which would have been a nice touch, and the whole email is an image so actually I didn't see any of this until I unblocked content. My details page online didn't know that I was male, but I think it's a good start. 


I'm looking forward to seeing what else I get my way an in particular if my offers and in particular my Birthday present is tailored to me being male.


By the way, the Tom Ford Grey Vetiver makes even me smell lovely

Amazon Lockers are Here

Amazon's Lockers are here in London at One New Change in the City. So if you don't want it delivered to your home, office or pick it up from the local Royal Mail sorting office, there is another option. ( If you don't want to pop to the shops that is)

Where Digital Meets Glass

A Day Made of Glass by Corning

Phygital* - Will The Real QR Code Please Stand Up

A read an interesting piece from Adam Hutchinson the Lead UX Architect at EHS4D ( in fact there he is sat 10 feet away from me), on the value of QR codes.

Adam argued quite legitamately that 'for all their wizardry, they are currently being used in exactly the same way as URLs. That is, to link to a web address'


And indeed in the majority of cases that's right. eConsultancy did show, however, some really clever uses in a recent article, my favourite being the one below





The jury is still out in particular as QR codes penetration is still quite low although recent experiments by broadcasters such as the BBC could very well increase awareness. The BBC One TV Program ''The Good Cook'' now has QR codes on screen to allow you to access recipes from the show.




Danny Cohen, Controller, BBC One, says: “I want BBC One to lead the way with interactivity and technological innovation so that we can keep engaging audiences in new ways. I hope viewers will find this experiment with QR codes to be a simple but useful tool to help them re-create the recipes they see on screen.”

But of course as soon as one technology is in the consumers hand, another one takes another large step forward. Why stop at black and white boxes when actually the object itself ,once plastered with a QR code, becomes the tag itself. Check out the video


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*Phyigital belongs to those clever people at Momentum

Where Physical Meets Digital

Or indeed where Physical Meets Data