groupeReflect and Design is Dead‘s project ‘MONA’ or Museum Of Neverending Art was launched in the good company of its “making of” video, as requested by Microsoft. Instead of a dry technical tutorial on how MONA demonstrates Internet Explorer 9′s functionalities, we opted for a fun and narrative sequence demonstrating the concept behind MONA. An approach which Microsoft applauded. Buckle up for some Hillbilly-fun and the story of MONA’s birth!

Facebook has officially announced the launch of its localisation service, called Places.

The launch was more than just the launch of a simple feature: it is also a way to move the geo-localised social functionalities out of its early adopter status and moving them into the mass market segment. Facebook has been smart and has set up a partnership with the main geo-localised social players (foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and Booyah) allowing them to use Facebook Places within their application. As a result, Facebook has made the competitive features of Places easier: the current players are now competing for badges, points and other rankings and they can focus on their core business: to offer an additional service to companies in order to better sell them advertising. Even though it is not (yet?) possible to retarget a user who has checked into a store, the gathering of user knowledge has indeed begun. It is possible to link a physical place (Place) to a public page (Page). The page administrators will rapidly be able to access the data of their physical visitors. The possibility to export these data is not yet available but we can already imagine the commercial animation that may follow, on top of qualified traffic knowledge:

Relaunch fans of a restaurant chain who haven’t visited for a number of months. Offer reductions or special offers to people present in the store. Offer reductions to groups of friends who are present in a store.

For the moment, the fields offered by Places are just informative: they don’t allow for the crossing of data in the style of ‘Your friends who like these groups go to this kind of places’, nor can the data be published on external sites (Open Graph) but that won’t take long. This will for instance allow users to connect with friends who have gone to a particular city to ask for their advice when buying a plane ticket or booking a hotel (some kind of enhanced TripAdvisor Trip Friends).

This is not yet available in Europe but we will follow its adoption (or lack thereof) in the States and the first experiments done by different brands. by Olivier Legris

Wednesday, Microsoft launched its beta version of Internet Explorer 9, the new enriched version of its navigator, with groupeReflect and Design is Dead, who won the pitch involving some of the most creative agencies in the world and by this entered Microsoft’s « Beauty of the web » hall of fame. . The MONA project (Museum of NeverEnding Art) is a virtual collaborative museum to which every surfer will be able to bring his own artistic contribution. This canvas, which is white at the beginning, will evolve over time and will be filled with new pictures, new designs or new texts. They can be either uploaded or they can be made in the web navigator itself. This will be a great international collaborative work of art, that is destined to live forever after… In order to meet the MONA challenge – one of the technical difficulties is managing the contribution of thousands of surfers -, a team of 8 persons, working in Paris and Antwerp, worked for a period of four months. On top of the technical challenge, they had to face a tight deadline: the entire production of the campaign needed to be done in just a few months. This international campaign is the fruit of the first close collaboration between the Antwerp agency Design is Dead and its Parisian homologue groupeReflect. The two Emakina agencies share a passion for creative and technical excellence. Since September, Design is Dead has also become the official creative partner of the Parisian branch. A selection of Design is Dead designers will now regularly visit France to support the digital team of groupeReflect, under the supervision of Creative Director Hendrik Everaerts.

It was hard to miss the launch of Shopkick (New York Times, Techcrunch or KNTV Press Here).

This mobile application, now available on iPhone and soon on Android, allows you to gather points, called kickbucks, for each action you do (enter a store, scan a product) and to receive promotions in the store. At first, it seems quite a traditional concept: gain customer knowledge to offer a better service and offer an incentive in the point-of-sale for the supplier, whereas the customer benefits from promotions. Nothing new so far: this is the same as we have seen in LBSN (Location-based Social Networks). However, Shopkick is different from its competitors… – Automatic check-in Unlike services such as Foursquare or Gowalla, you don’t need to take your phone in order to gain points. There are terminals at the entrance of the store and the customer only has to enter the store in order to be registered. Thanks to this technique, the application is very easy to use and it’s not possible to cheat. All data are precise but of course, this raises questions about privacy. – Partnerships with store chains The downside of this technique is that it requires the installation of terminals and that there’s a need to set up partnerships with the stores. But Shopkick has successfully tackled this. It has set up partnerships with Best Buy (1150 stores), Macy’s (800 stores), American Eagle (1100 stores), Sports Authority (460 stores) and malls in the regions of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. – The secret weapon: CauseWorld

The company had to approach retailers but CauseWorld has allowed them to check out brands as well. The idea is to win points (karmas), each time a user uses his mobile phone to scan a product of one of the partner brands. The user can give points that are then transformed into money which is given to charities. Whereas Shopkick has no social functionalities, the CauseWorld user can publish causes or associations he supports on his different social networks. We will attentively follow the download numbers of Shopkick, which will not only seduce geeks but will also win the hearts of soccer moms who want to manage their budget. In less than 5 months, CauseWorld has been downloaded 550 000 times and it is said to have generated almost 1 million dollars in donations. by Olivier Legris

Make no mistake about location-based services. There’s more to consider than their current low number of users, especially when you take into account the potential they offer to retailers who can learn much, much more about their customers. At the beginning of this week, Forrester published a study on LBSNs or Location-based social networks. Only 4% of adult US surfers have already used an LBSN service, and only 1% uses it at least once a week. Although it is connected to Facebook and Twitter, the real interest of Foursquare is limited to the ego boost when one wins points and badges. But back now to the enormous potential of LBSNs, especially when it comes to click & mortar strategies. We see two reasons for that. First of all, the mobile phone is gaining field in the buying process and context. In its 2009 study, called The Emerging Opportunity in Mobile Commerce, Forrester found that of all Americans having used their mobile to buy a product, 62% have used it to find a shop nearby with the product on stock. 42% used their mobile to look for information on a product in the shop and 39% used it to compare prices within the shop itself. To those who can’t see what this may lead to in the near future, we would recommend they have a look at this demo by Pattie Maes of the MIT. Retailers such as Fnac have understood. They offer a barcode scan in their mobile application. And they link it to their loyalty card system. This week CardStar announced it would link its application with Foursquare. CardStar’s mobile application has already been downloaded over 1,4 million times. It offers the possibility to group physical loyalty cards in just one mobile application. This functionality is interesting because it increases levels as the customer knowledge increases. The activation of the card is only done when a payment is made but when you link the app to Foursquare, it is active the moment you step into the store. Just like an e-commerce site that can track the number of connections of a client and his or her interest in products, the interconnectivity between the LBSN and the loyalty card is the key to a better customer knowledge in the physical network. Taking things still further, it could lead to an integrated physical and digital customer knowledge. As a result, retailers but also restaurant chains should digitalise their loyalty cards and link them with LBSNs, whilst pushing offers that reward customers who flag their shop. The LBSNs offer the opportunity to enhance the offer, service and customer knowledge: it would be a pity if retailers didn’t take it… by Olivier Legris

After 23 years of presence at the Superbowl, the greatest unifying event that makes every creative mind drool, Pepsi has decided to stop investing in Superbowl advertising, which costs no less than 20 million dollars. So, what are they going to do with all that money, I hear you thinking (“Darling, I’ve found some savings under the mattress. How about some serious spending?”). Well, Mr. Pepsi has decided to make a courageous choice. One that is in line with the current media environment. He is indeed going to invest this money in social media! And the new project got a name as well: it’s called the Pepsi Refresh Project.

No, Pepsi is not going to stop its TV advertising. But the TV commercial for the Superbowl does have some symbolic value for a brand, no? Choosing not to do it, is indeed the sign of a new mindset: go beyond prototypes and one-shot tests of digital campaigns and invest considerable resources in a new type of relationship, not to mention make a sustainable promise to consumers. In short, we have Coca-Cola, which is the brand of story-telling, of impressive commercials that tell a story that appeals to all ages, that activates our fantasy and that tries to be our good soft drink friend that makes us dream. And then we have Pepsi: a brand that lives in the real world, that is people-centric, the everyday brand, the brand that helps us to reveal our talents and to make the projects of everyday people possible. It is the soft drink that becomes our everyday friend on whom we can rely. The splendid but surreal story against everyday stories of real life, of practical and simple changes. Look at this, you’ve got to admit it’s quite impressive :

Let’s look back at the key 2009 facts, when Pepsi announced its change of tactics…

The business efficiency of social media is a proven fact. The question is not whether to go for it but how to go for it and how to best prepare the organisation to learn new reflexes, after years of traditional advertising. This Metrix Lab study for L’Oréal shows Digital and TV are equally efficient and that results are optimized when both media are combined. The WetPaint Altimeter survey (July 2009) shows that brands that have gone ‘social’ have made +18% profit compared to -6% for the others.

So, in this context, I am confident the spontaneous brand awareness of Pepsi will dramatically increase. And I am fairly certain sales will follow the same growth curve, at a very reasonable cost, with attractive and long-lasting communication. Indeed, the difference between TV and web is that the latter has a memory. An advertiser’s efforts leave traces that will reach other surfers via spontaneous searches. So I congratulate Pepsi to have taken the time to rethink its brand, to choose a media-neutral approach, to implement an Attention Marketing approach. And to celebrate the occasion, I am going to buy a bottle of Pepsi Max to see whether I’m not wrong about my preferred Coke Zero. And I can tell you that as a great fan of soft drinks, my consumption habits will change, if the product is good (that being of course the underlying condition of any type of communication). Manuel Diaz

Recently, groupeReflect developed a relational programme for Panasonic Viera in the framework of which Emakina/Motion was put in charge of the design, direction and post-production of 20 films for the HD portal of Panasonic France. These films highlight the features of the new series of Panasonic plasma screens and their place in a digital environment.
Emakina/Motion has come up with three types of films, giving each a different objective: - A first series situated in a purely graphic environment that emphasises the aesthetics and purity of line of Panasonic NeoPDP screens as a result of their elegant and refined motion design. - A second series of more educational films, presented in the realistic setting of a living room, the aim of which is to guide the consumer through the various stages of using the new screen. - A last series, still in production, whose aim is to let consumers speak by presenting three families, chosen because they are entirely equipped with the company’s audiovisual equipment. Emakina/Motion is responsible for the entire audiovisual production of this series of films, from the design stage to the actual filming and the audiovisual post-production.
With this series, groupeReflect and Emakina/Motion aim to demonstrate to the general public that the innovative use of video can enrich and reinforce the emotional link of a brand, making it a major asset in the framework of a relational platform.

Aujourd’hui, la vraie performance d’une marque ne se calcule plus en temps d’exposition, en nombre de pages vues, ou en nombre de clics. Elle se mesure dans l’attention générée chez le consommateur. Ce concept d’Attention Marketing, groupeReflect l’a bien compris, et vient de partager ses idées sous la forme d’un livre blanc dédié à la juste valeur des marques, à la notoriété, à l’interactivité, l’engagement et la co-innovation. Nous ne serions que trop vous conseiller de lire ce document dont le but est d’ouvrir le débat le plus possible. Emparez vous du thème et echangez votre propre point de vue.

Our French agency groupeReflect just launched I Love Lumix, a product-based community promoting the Lumix digital camera by Panasonic on the French market. After registering on the platform, users are able to publish pictures, share tips and tricks, meet other photographers with similar interests and participate to special contests. In addition to these social networking functionalties, I Love Lumix also features exclusive content built around Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, aka the famous electronic music duo Justice who accepted to endorse the Lumix brand to support the release of the Lumix G1 in France. Users could e.g. check out backstage pictures taken by band producer Pedro Winter during the latest world tour and catch a glimpse of what was happening behind the scene. A very good illustration of the “building brand experiences” concept that is at the heart of Emakina’s philosophy.

A fruitful harvest for Emakina Group agencies at the WebAwards 2008 : - “Outstanding Website” for BrusselsAirlines.com. As online sales account now for 30% in the total turnover of this airline company, we’re quite proud to build and manage this e-commerce website that will get new developments in a near future. - Also in the “Travel” category, our French colleagues of Groupe Reflect received a “Travel Standard of Excellence” for CityShare. This website can be described as a bespoke cityguide that provides local insights (bars, restaurants…) into cities where the Novotel hotel chain is present. All of these “bunches” are brought and commented by users themselves in a “Web 2.0″ spirit. - In the “Real Estate” category, Immoweb received a “Real Estate Standard of Excellence”. This distinction highlights the long-term relationship we’ve built over the years with the leading real estate portal in Belgium. - Last but not least, we won a “Consulting Standard of Excellence” for the new international website of consulting company Krauthammer. On a side note, Emakina is not the only Belgian company rewarded this year by this award competition: the folks at ContactOffice are the recipients of a “ASP Standard of Excellence” for the new Ajax version of their virtual office. Congrats!