The Espresso: Edition 106
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Monday August 15 2011

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Letter From the Editor- Edition 106

The Overs

While at the gym recently I was watching a spin class getting ready to start. Five minutes before their class was about to start the cycle room was almost full and spinning away. There was one excpetion, a girl sitting on the bike, legs stationary, reading a magazine. It wasn't until the instructor (on time) said "OK, lets start our warm-up" that this girl closed her magazine and started to pedal. The minute the class was finished she picked up her magazine and walked out, not even waiting for the cool-down or the stretch. In Who Stole My Mojo I talked about how those with mojo are the ones who just do the overs. This girl was doing exactly what had been asked of her and that is exactly the sort of results and rewards she will receive. People who do just what is expected of them can expect just that. If you want higher rewards then you have got to do the work, you have got to do more than what is asked of you. As a mum, a dad, a worker, a leader or someone in the community working for a social profit venture, it's those who do more than what's asked that are the ones that reap the greatest rewards. Sure maybe this girl is content with her life but deep down I can guarantee she would dream of more. If you want more rewards, financial success, promotion, love, friendship or community then 'get to class early and do the overs'. Famed British interviewer Michael Parkinson was asked to state out of all the interviews he had done what was the one lesson he had learnt. He said he had interviewed every living superstar he had ever dreamed of. He said out of over 600 interviews they all had one thing in common...they all worked hard to achieve their success. It's time to go to work!

Fashion

Short Term Sunnies

There is no doubt that the global financial crisis has hit hardest at the retail level. However our desire for bling has not been dimmed and so French company La Fabrique de Lunettes has come up with a way where you can have the latest sunnies but you don't have to pay for the price tag of leading fashion designers. Fashion designers like Marc Jacobs, Andy Wolfe, Tom Forde, Chloe and Prada have come forward to provide an option for those people who want the look but not the price tag. La Fabrique de Lunettes  are offering a rental system over a three month subscription where you pay a price per month of twenty Euro and during that time you can swap over your styles as many times as you wish. You can also buy subscriptions up to twelve months long to give you the chance to have the latest look but not the price tag. We have seen it with clothes and handbags so it was only a matter of time before sunnies became the next thing. Maybe this is how Gaga continues to update her wardrobe on an hourly basis?

Travel

What Time is the Next Train?

There is nothing more annoying than sitting on a train and having the person next to you talk out loud, engaged in a conversation whilst you try and concentrate on your book. Well maybe there is an upside. Next Train is an app designed by New York City based digital agency Dense Brain that predicts the next train in real time by using mobile phone data from those on board in the US subway system. The unpredictable nature of train arrival times has been put back into the hands of the traveller. Here's how it works. Based on an algorithm created by Mobile Transit Solutions who partnered with Dense Brain for the creation of this app, Next Train monitors the data of people using their phones on the train you are waiting for. Next Train takes all of the signals from the people using the phone in the cabin, sends it to a central server which aggregates the information and uses it to predict the train's real arrival time, not the predicted time. Users who have the NYC Mate app can then open the app, check the appropriate station on their subway map which will then display both the official scheduled arriving time and the real time Next Train predictions. It's crowd sourced data and it's totally passive for anyone on the train in that you don't need to do anything as the app picks up the signals of those tweeting, texting, calling or using the internet. Naturally the accuracy depends on how many people are using their phone on the train but in this day and age you would have to think that would be a lot, so its probably pretty accurate. This is one that would scare the crap out of Qantas!

Community

Love Starts with L

The Espresso has talked before about the buy one and we will donate one vibe of brands around the world. One we wrote about that we especially liked was OneFourOne which is a campaign where if you bought your reading glasses from a particular retailer they would donate one to a child who needed them the most. What caught our eye with this one was the website address www.lovebeginswithL.com The idea is cool. Developed by L a Los Angeles company, they will donate one condom to women in the developing world for every one purchased in their site. Founded by Telia Frenkel a long time photographer for the Red Cross L's mission is to support women globally by focusing on their sexual empowerment. The vision is to prevent both HIV and unwanted pregnancies and L believes they can do that by condom distribution in the sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time they provide education, economic and cultural programs through peer to peer outreach programs. This is a for profit company that has teamed up with the right partners to make a difference. We are going to see more and more of these types of activities where brands or companies should champion causes and not just support them. 

Gadgets

Burnt...but fully charged

Now we are not sure if this idea is there yet but we love the thought provoking nature of it and the possibilities.VoltaicSystems recently brought out the Spark Tablet Case a solar charging case that can generate power for your iPad or other tablet device. It takes about 10 hours in direct sunlight to fully charge it and supposedly it's lightweight and durable. The is no doubt that lots of industries are trying to work out how they can harness energy and with this case you can harvest while you type. Although probably a bit clunky just yet, the thinking and idea is just great.

 

Advertising

I'm Not Here

Saatchi & Saatchi in Stockholm have launched a service selling ad space on out-of-office replies. It must have been a scenario where as someone was putting up an automated message for this staff member saying "I'm away from my office" they thought 'how can we make money from out of this?' It's amazing, is there nothing in the world right now that we can't sell. So the agency then took the message that said "I'm away from my office" and sold it to one of their clients creating an ad to replace the normal "I'm out of the office". The client bought it, created art for it, so now a piece of art pops up which has been sold and paid for to a client selling the message that your not here. This is getting way out of control.
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