BRAND INFECTION » wifi

Smart Bins: When Recycling Goes Digital

Toni — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:04:07 +0000

Just when you thought that digital screen technology is limited at homes and offices, think again. Introducing “smart bins,” the newest digital screen network invades the streets of London in time before the Olympics 2012. Smart bins are more than just instalments slapped on the sidewalks. These futuristic, multi-functional recycling stations come equipped with a couple of massive LCD screens attached to every side, making them interesting for pedestrians as well as advertisers.

Its screens display impressive stock market infographics, current news from the Economist, and London underground service conditions and weather. It may sound quite costly but seems to be promising if its maker, Renew plans to pump up its features such as being Wifi-equipped as well as for notifying emergencies.

I’m not sure how most people including myself would consider this application in terms of usefulness versus cost. Let’s just hope this technology as seen on the Smart Bins is a smart investment. While 25 of these Smart Bins fetch a total cost of $47,000, the cost to actually maintain them in one piece both physically and internally is another story.

I mean putting out a form of technology out in the streets calls far more extensive measures to keep this application safe. If this Smart Bin happens to be in a corner at New York City where riots are rampant, it sure has a higher rate of mortality of either being peed on or totally annihilated.

Another 75 bins are set to be deployed as soon as the 2012 Olympics starts.

It will be interesting to see if and how fast these smart bins spread across other cities and how high the real maintenance costs will be. Also this might be great for advertisers with some sort of self-booking mechanism in place, extending the typical multimedia billboards.

[Image credit: Getty]

McDonald’s Free Wifi

Nader — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:18:54 +0000

Simple and great advertising by McDonald’s for advertising their free wi-fi.

“love free wi-fi”
Advertising Agency: DDB Sydney

Wifitising: SIXT Guerilla Marketing Idea

Nader — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:55:24 +0000

Airports usually have loads of car renting firms trying to pitch their offer to the customer. Here’s a great guerilla marketing idea for German company SIXT at the Hamburg airport: setup a couple of wifi stations and give them each a different name. What you’ll get is cheap but effective wifi advertising. I’d call it Wifitising :)

Showing up in the available wifi networks:

Fahren statt surfen
Das SIXT Flughafenspecial
Der BMW 3er schon ab 159 Euro

I wonder if other companies will follow and if we will have to find the real networks under all this “wifi spam”.