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The mobile channel has had its fits and starts in the last few years when it comes to receiving live and up-to-date content. Every carrier has its own platform, each with its own quirks that consumers need to navigate to get online or receive content. For a lot of potential mobile content users it is just too much of a hassle--they'll wait and try it once the technology is easy to use and content easy to navigate.

I received a press release today about a service that may take the mobile market one step closer to realization. The product is from a company called ZenZui, which is financially backed by Microsoft, and the application is its ZenZui Zooming User Interface. Essentially, mobile users can use the service to organize their favorite mobile content categories in a visually appealing format on their mobile screen. The release included this YouTube link of a quick video demo of how it works--I found it appealing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r12eUXJNbl8

What do you think? Is this what the mobile market needs?

Posted by Allison at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The forthcoming 12-million copy print run of the final volume of the Harry Potter series will be printed on 30% recycled paper, and a deluxe edition will be printed on 100% recycled paper. If you watched the Academy Awards a few weeks back you couldn't help but be brow-beaten by the go-green speeches of Al Gore and his supporters. A new skyscraper going up in Manhattan, at 55 stories it will be second in height only to the Empire State Building in New York, will be the most eco-efficient building ever built. Being good to Earth, it appears, has finally caught on.

How do you suggest marketers parlay this new consumer (and business) awareness into something they can champion in their own products and services?

Posted by Allison at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I like Rachael Ray. I'm a fan of her original 30-Minute Meals show on Food Network and I've got a couple of her cookbooks that I use a lot. But I think Rachael is balancing precariously on the border of being over-exposed. Just the other day she signed on with Dunkin' Donuts to be their spokesperson through 2010.

I think the donut thing runs contrary to what she's already selling through her--let's list them out--4 shows on Food Network, 1 talk show in syndication, 1 national magazine (launched with some fanfare thanks to Oprah Winfrey), her set of cookware (plus another that she endorses), and 17 book titles currently in print. Dunkin' says she'll advise the company's product development team on more food options, so maybe we can expect some non-donut food choices in the near-term. But really, how much Rachael Ray is too much Rachael Ray? I know there are a lot of Rachael-haters out there already, but that is besides the point. At what point does the dominance of a celebrity personality start losing its value? I'm a fan, but even I'm growing tired of her over-friendly brand.

Posted by Allison at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)