What’s In This Issue?
This Week’s Main Stories
Story 01Nissan Will Make Its Electric Cars "Sing" To Protect Pedestrians
Story 02The App That Lets You Brag About Disconnecting
Story 03Stop Selling Products & Services and Sell Projects Instead
Story 04A Store With Nothing To Sell Helps You Reclaim Your Online Privacy
Story 05Flavor Changing Skittles And Other Fun Halloween StoriesNissan Will Make Its Electric Cars "Sing" To Protect Pedestrians
Electric cars are too quiet. For years, unsuspecting pedestrians accustomed to listening for cars would walk into the road in front of electric cars, unaware of their proximity. At the Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan proposed an interesting solution: they will make their new cars "sing." As creators continue to innovate to make tech as human-friendly as possible - this move raises all sorts of sonic branding possibilities as cars may one day be imprinted not only with a "face" through their headlights and front grill, but also with a signature sound as well.
The App That Lets You Brag About Disconnecting
As more experts suggest that we should all stop bragging about how many hours we work, this app from Ariana Huffington is timely as it rewards you for disconnecting from tech and social media. Given how common it is for people to seek validation for achievements (like people who post about working out or finishing a tough race), it will be interesting to see if this app might encourage more boasting about the ability to survive without your phone for blocks of time. The app will be released in December exclusively for Samsung devices.
Stop Selling Products & Services and Sell Projects Instead
This post from GlaxoSmithKline exec Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez really got me thinking about a new way of selling. Rather than focusing on products or experiences, this article argues that the future might belong to brands who excel at selling "projects." He uses the case study of how Philips moved from selling medical devices to instead partnering with Westchester Medical Center to develop and launch the entire facility as an example. This is a great article to read and share with your team.
A Store With Nothing To Sell Helps You Reclaim Your Online Privacy
Sometimes it takes a blend of art and experience in order to bring an idea more powerfully to life. At the Glass Door retail installation in central London, the idea is that people can experience their own digital footprint through immersive tools - like a face scanner that pulls up publicly available photos of you, or an art installation called Where The F**k was I? that shows an artists location over one year as tracked by his iPhone. At the end of the experience, visitors get a "Data Detox Kit" with instructions to take back control of their data online.
Flavor Changing Skittles And Other Fun Halloween Stories
Given next week is Halloween - I thought it fitting to share a few related stories this week. The first is about Skittles "Trick Plays" bag which features candies that do not taste like their colors, which is sure to frustrate some die-hard Skittles consumers. Last week I featured Snickers hunger bars and this week I came across these stories too: Goth wines for people who take Halloween way to seriously, Teal pumpkins to make Halloween safer for kids with allergies and a last minute costume idea: eyes dripping blood.
