Issue no.48

Added value to customer experience

“With the economic climate tight this year, consumers are witnessing retailers going the extra mile to get their business this Valentine's Day. One wine retailer, Cellar360, approached nine international winemakers and one sports legend to sign their wine bottles for gifts and is even dipping wine in chocolate.”

“Called the "Signature Series", Cellar360 is offering a collection of wines signed by the individual winemaker. These are then wrapped in tissue paper and gift boxed along with the tasting notes. Winemakers include the 2005 and 2008 Wine Enthusiast Magazine's "Winemakers of the Year" Peter Gago of Penfolds and Margo Van Staaveren of Chateau St. Jean. Other powerhouse celebrity Winemakers include Ed Sbragia of Beringer Fame, Kevin Morrisey of Stags' Leap Winery and Jon Priest from Etude, among others.” Read more...

I personally think that this “extension”(signature wines) of user experience is simple gimmick that in fact doesn’t make much difference while the chocolate makes a great addition and perfect sense. Since it is real experience, not just a signature on bottle that ends up in waste bin, drinking wine, and selling of course, has got a piece of new dimension, for whole new dimension we still have to wait.

This week’s special - Spankvertising

In order to promote the oldest S&M magazine in the Netherlands, MASSAD, during S & M fetish parties, Sofia Valentine—a well known Dutch porn actress—walks around and uses a very special S & M advertising weapon on the crowd. Whenever Sofia decides to use the so-called Spankvertising Whip, the message ‘Massad, the SM magazine’ appears on the red glowing buttocks of her subject for all other visitors to see.

See it here

Blight – venetian blinds with solar cells

The sun provides us with energy every day. How can we use it directly for indoor applications? Blight is an optimal indoor lighting solution that is able to replace current lamps without any need of electric supply. With Blight we have not produced a new object; we have just created the design of an everlasting product: the Venetian blind. We use all the current functions of this object and add a little technology to give it a new function - to catch solar energy and convert it into electricity.