Sweeeeeet Caroline… oh, sorry, got carried away for a second there.
As we alluded to in yesterday’s post, today we’re going to talk a bit about touch. Specifically, where touch is at, where it’s going, and why it’s finally relevant in-store at the point-of-purchase.
Oh, and why it may be inherently obsolete.
In one panel, hosted by some [...]

While we brace for the onslaught of location-based news at SXSWi, an unrelated press release from Telenav (maker of GPS devices) has already shaken things up.
The press release, available here, breaks down the most searched-for destinations on Telenav’s various devices. The list covers everything from top retail locations (WalMart tops the list) to most searched-for [...]

But you might need a little guidance.
Lucky for you, Upshot’s own QR code will help you find which bands are playing nearby during Interactive Week!
(When we told you that QR codes would be an interesting SXSWi subplot, we may have known a thing or two.)
If you’ll be in Austin this week, keep [...]

We’ve got a new Potty Posting available for your reading pleasure! We take a look at location-based social networks like Foursquare and suss out whether there are fruitful marketing opportunities.
Spoiler alert: there are.
Click here for the full-color PDF, and please feel free to share with clients!
Or, if you’d prefer the text only version, continue reading [...]

Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch. The economy’s not that bad.
Nonetheless, we’re seeing a lot of bartering examples popping up in unexpected places. While we’re not suggesting that marketers give up cash payments for beaver pelts, we do think there’s a lesson here for how to better incentivize consumers.
Consider the Dust Jacket Project from [...]

A: Um, everything. Duh.
eMarketer (via Cone) recently considered this question across a number of different categories (including many of our clients’ industries), and the results are unanimously un-unanimous. The data suggests that consumers want information and entertainment, and incentives, and a forum for feedback, and even marketing in these “new media” spaces. (Demanding, aren’t they?)
While [...]

Gahh! Your trusty narrators are swamped at the moment, and don’t have time for a full blog post.
We won’t leave you empty handed, though. Get inspired by the contenders for the Diagram Prize, a.k.a. the oddest book title of the year.
With everything from cheesemakers to potato chemistry to douchebags (hey, their title, not ours), you’ll [...]

Brands, are you really confident about the quality of your products and services? Are you certain that you could send your customers into your competitors’ arms, and they’d still come running back to you?
You’d better be. Welcome to the world of Ubiquitous Connoisseurship.
See, there’s a reason we made this trend #1 in our 10 Trends [...]

Since we recently passed along a handful of helpful tips for creating fonts in Photoshop, we figured we’d round that out with another tutorial on creating vintage/retro images and posters in Photoshop.
This link gathers 20 guides to vintage ads, retro concert posters, and other designs ranging from vaudeville to horror movies.
Everything old is new again.

In case you missed yesterday’s hoopla, Upshot and The Source released our 10 Trends for 2010. Be sure to request a copy of the deck by email.
Not surprisingly, we’re already seeing supporting evidence for these trends. For instance, Trend #5, entitled After the App, warns of the imminent sense of “app overload” that consumers will [...]