Posts Tagged ‘iPad’

iPad + Sports + Grocery Shopping??

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

If any of you are like me, I loathe going grocery shopping on the weekends. The crowds, the chaos, lack of parking, etc. I’d much rather be playing at the park with my son, brunching or relaxing after a long work week. But, now that football season is upon us, the grocery shopping duty falls to me most often because there is usually some “Big Game” my husband just has to see.

Check out what those smart British folks have incorporated into their grocery carts — iPad-enabled shopping carts designed for viewing live sports. A partnership between Sainsbury’s and Sky is allowing shoppers to watch key sports events using iPad-enabled shopping carts with iPod docks with speakers.

It’s genius! When can these come over the pond to the U.S.? If we had these at my local Jewel, my husband would happily go grocery shopping every week. Of course…it would probably take him hours since he wouldn’t want to miss anything and perhaps he would break into the chips as he peruses the aisles, but I’m ok with that.

Talking Heads: Not the Band, the Product Placement iPad’s Missing

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Okay, so we’re not in the business of giving away valuable ideas or anything here (unless there’s a new client pitch involved; then let’s face it, anything goes these days) but I had to point out a totally overlooked opportunity I keep seeing for the increasingly media-and-culture-ubiquitous iPad.

 

Namely: as an integrated prop and information tool for the countless hours of talking heads scrambling for content on TV daily.

 

The reasoning is simple: iPad has already made great hay of product placement in prime-time TV shows, often at no cost to them simply due to its hipness factor and what that confers to a program’s brand—or more likely the producer and staff of the show’s desire to get a few freebies. Regardless, it’s an established and successful buzz tactic already in place.

 

At the same time, you have the denizens of 24 hour cable news, late night talk shows and others of their ilk literally scrambling for content to fill the hours and channels. To this end we’ve seen everything from comically overwrought election coverage technology (remember the touch screens and holograms?) to good old fashioned new clippings and oddities held up on boards by even the biggest name talk show hosts. Heck, I’ve seen local morning news anchors literally reading the newspaper on-air.

 

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So with all of that out there why not get iPads in all of their hands, stat? It would offer far greater reach and frequency muscle than sit-coms and movies with about the same halo effect and brand-alignment, if done properly. To say nothing of the ability to subtly position this strange new device as the sort of accessible, everyman necessity it’s designers intended it be. Show even the most behind-the-curve Luddite out there David Letterman reading Top 10 Lists off an iPad enough and the thing will become as commonplace as microwaves and DVRs to them.

 

It’s a true win-win I have to believe they’re already figuring out. But, if not, they can now send me a check when they finally do c/o MSI, 200 East Randolph Drive, Chicago.

 

Or, absent that, just a free iPad would be fine. Â