Cocktail Hour: August 3, 2012

This week we celebrated Michael Phelps becoming the most decorated Olympian in history; the "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy overtook the Harry Potter series on Amazon in the United Kingdom; Facebook is now allowing developers to add localized images; and Craigslist deemed itself as an exclusive licensee of all classified ads posted on the site.

Did You See?

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign developed the Mitt's VP app that will be used to announce his running mate.

Google’s Project Glass shows a glimpse of what augmented reality is going to look like in a few years through contact lenses.

http://vimeo.com/46304267#at=0

The Hind Sight Project was developed to share career wisdom over a vast variety of creative fields from industry experts and professionals.

Government officials in Sao Paulo, Brazil, enacted a law five years ago that banned nearly all outdoor advertising and removed thousands of billboards. In response, General Electric created the ‘GE Gallery‘ — artwork painted on the panels of sides of buildings in the city.

How are you testing customer curiosity? Little Caesars launches the "Do Not Call" campaign that tests customers' quirkiness.

http://youtu.be/RZCAU254Xmw

Catch Up

• Daily Mail launches mobile commerce app (Marketing Week): “Daily Mail readers will soon be able to use smartphones to buy products from their newspaper’s pages in what is thought to be the first mobile commerce service of its kind. Readers download the app onto their phone and can buy products including music, film and books from the Mail’s newspapers and web site, and a dedicated ‘Mail shop’ within the app.”
• The Untapped Value of Complainers (Fast Company): “The mere fact that a complainer has already developed a particular point of view means that as soon as the company does something to contradict that point of view--reaching out to handle the complaint proactively, for instance, or apologizing sincerely and trying to make things right--its action has the potential to completely reverse the customer’s mindset, violating the customer’s expectations once again, but this time in a positive manner.”
• YouTube Channel Partners Learn to Reinvent TV Ahead of Possible Expansion (The Verge): "Google announced in May that it would spend some $200 million on marketing premium YouTube channels in order to attract premium content and advertisers, and today the Wall Street Journal has checkedin on the program's progress. Channel partners have thus far had mixed success creating content for YouTube, but they're rapidly learning how to deliver effective premium content on the platform."
• U.S. on Track to Become Top Mobile Ad Market (eMarketer): "Spending on mobile internet advertising in the US will top all other countries in the world for the first time this year, helping drive mobile ad spending worldwide above $6.43 billion in 2012, according to eMarketer’s first-ever forecast for worldwide mobile advertising spending. Until this year, Japan was the world’s largest market for mobile advertising, with spending reaching nearly $1.37 billion in 2011, up from $1.01 billion in 2010."

Cool Down

As the Olympics are in full swing and we’re coming up on the running portion of the games, here’s a toast to all the track athletes from around the globe.

Track Star

You will need:

• 2 oz. spice navy rum
• 2 oz. root beer
• 1 scoop vanilla ice cream

1. Serve it in a beer mug with a spoon and enjoy!

Please drink responsibly. Recipe courtesy of eHow Food.

Enjoy your weekend and tell us what you’ve been reading this week.

Cheers!