Gigantic™

Friday. Love.

It's Friday! And while we're not sure about "green shoots" on Wall Street, we certainly see them on the Internet. Here are a few we love:

• Alice—Running your home just got a little easier.
• Oyster—See the truth before you travel.
• Cookstr—The best recipes on the web. 

  

Retail: Time to Track the Trends in Real-Time.

A recent article in The New York Times suggests that the need for tracking shopping trends in real-time is upon us.

An initiative known as “My Macy’s” requires the retailer’s merchandisers and other planners to go into stores each week to learn from the sales staff — who keep logs at the cash registers — what shoppers are requesting, snapping up or complaining about.

For instance, when strapless and bare-shouldered dresses were selling well everywhere except Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh, Macy’s employees in those stores knew the problem was that their customers wanted more modest dresses. So they passed that information on to the merchandisers. Out went the strapless dresses; in came dresses with cap sleeves. And sales went from lackluster to robust.

The article begins with the statement: "Shopping as we know it is on the brink of major change." and we couldn't agree more.

Friday. Love.

It's Friday. You know what that means: Love. This week, no links—just a quick note to dad, in honor of Father's Day on Sunday. Have a great weekend!

Here’s to you dad. Just wanted to say thanks for everything and then some. Like thanks for not getting too mad and being supportive when I wrecked that (Mustang, bicycle, golf cart) and for only scaring my (prom date, baseball coach, algebra teacher) just that one time. Thanks for teaching me how to (tie a four-in-hand, mix a martini, make pancakes) and reminding me that (mowing the lawn, cleaning out the garage, stacking cordwood) would make me a better person. To this day, the smell of (Brut, single-malt scotch, pipe tobacco) reminds of you and everything you told me would be important someday. Thanks for everything dad. It’s your day on Sunday and I simply wanted to wish you the best!

Life Streamz at You in Real-Time.

We just launched 3 sites that aggregate Twitter feeds into a stand alone web page. The sites cover Twitter users who are holding conversations around: Travel, Food and Fashion. Each site aggregates tweets, pictures linked to the tweets and allows for favoring of the tweets. Additionally, each site has a interactive Real-Time Trend Cloud that allows users to see who talking about a particular subject or trend.

These sites are built around our data pyramid of: Aggregation, Contextualization and Editing. Obviously each site is an aggregation and begins to add context by tracking trends and allowing for favoring. We plan to further enhance how context can be added and will be adding an editor for each site as well. Making each site a valuable real-time resource around each subject.

Why did we build these? We think these sites serve as Proof Points around the following beliefs:

• We believe there are users who can benefit from Twitter content but don't want to be actively involved in Tweeting. These sites will become a new kind of media helping users get a real-time view around each subject.     

• We believe that brands have to think about how to actually become media (as opposed to consume media) as the world becomes more social and connected—and Twitter feeds of brands are an example (in some cases) of the right kind of steps in that direction. Aggregating them allows for a great way to monitor them.

• We believe that the future of Twitter and other real-time media lies within the ability to build off of the API, adding value (context + editing) and users to already existing communities.  

Looking forward to your feedback on these (here or on Twitter) and thanks to everyone on Twitter who helped QC these. And a big shout out to the guys 14Four for an amazing job of programming.

 

Friday. Love.

There are those who say there is not enough in the world. We're doing our best to share some love. Every Friday. Here is what we love this week:

• Kickstarter—Crowdsource funding for your idea. Now get out there and make something happen.
• IBM Partner World Communities—Connect, collaborate and innovate for growth.
• UGC on YouTube for Carl's Jr.—Over a million views. What's not to love? (via Mashable)
• Eco-Friendly Key Cards at the James Hotel—Green Hospitality. Love it. (via PSFK)
• PopUp Wedding Chapel on the L.E.S.—Yep, hipster love is in the air. (via UrbanDaddy)
  

Let's call it Social Retail: Shopping Together, Alone.

Social retail is the latest technological twist on shopping. Harnessing the power of the collective to create better deals and make sharing part of the user experience, it's a mashup of social media and shopping.

First up, Charlotte Russe rolls out Shop Together app allowing friends to shop online together through synchronized shopping sessions. GNC and Lillian Vernon are also said to be using this technology.

Next up is eswarm which turns the idea of crowdsourcing around to amass a collective that bargains for better deals. Seemingly the place for for savvy deal seekers to gather, the real opportunity is for a supplier to move lots inventory fast. Not a bad thing in a down economy.

The 100 Top Brands on Twitter: A Big Vacancy for Hotels.

Yesterday Revolution (London) released a list of the 100 most mentioned brands on Twitter and we were quick to notice an absence of hotel brands on the list. Today, Barbara DeLollis from USAToday, reads our minds and follows up with a blog post about the hotel vacancy situation on her blog, HotelCheck-In.

We are following most of the lodging/hospitality brands on Twitter (we are launching a travel site on the Twitter API next week, following the launch of TweetLabel for fashion—still in beta) and we do see a few hotel brands doing some cool things, while most are still not really getting it right. Twitter is a conversation, not a place to simply shout out brand trivia and the occasional deal. To be successful hotels need an engagement strategy and a real messaging platform.

Of course, time will work it out and we expect they all will eventually get up to speed. (Or disappear?) But the real opportunity for success with go to the brand who is the fastest and best informed hotel brand in the Social Media space.

Friday. Love.

This week I spent Wednesday at the Creativity and Technology conference held in NYC by Creativity Magazine. Here are a few themes from the conference that I loved. Hope you do too.

• Data Visualization—From Aaron Koblin’s “Ten Thousand Cents” to the terrifyingly futuristic world of the AlloSphere, it is clear that the idea of aggregating data and giving it new meaning through shape is powerful stuff. 

• Augmented Reality—Looking at examples ranging from the highly entertaining Topps Baseball Cards to the Google Android powered Wikitude smartphone project it is obvious that augmented reality is going to be an important part of a brand experience. Smart brands need to start thinking about this now.  

• Storytelling—Over and over different presenters touched in many ways upon this theme. And what made me smile is the simple fact that as technology evolves at an ever staggering pace, we are still humans who need to make connections with other humans and tell our stories and share our experiences and beliefs. The same goes for brands.

Follow the whole CaT feed here on Twitter.

Happy Friday! —Bernard Urban, President + Creative Director, Gigantic

Thinking Big.

Social Media and Luxury Hotels. The Conversation Matters.

A recent article on Hotels Now reports that almost 80 percent of luxury hotel travelers have read a user generated online review and one in three has posted one. This leads to obvious questions for luxury hotel brands about the need to embrace, monitor and participate in social media.

Also of note, "Luxury travelers are demanding less pampering, more entertainment. Intercultural pursuits and opportunities for personal growth, such as shopping at village green markets, practicing foreign language skills and receiving a local gift at turn-down, now surpass the desire to be pampered."

Seems the definition of luxury is changing to reflect the desire to make connections and share experiences, which aligns nicely with the idea of using social media for luxury hotel brands.