Localisation is a key buzzword for businesses promoting products and services, but advertisers aren't the only ones innovating at the local level. There's an exciting range of new enterprises targeting communities and helping neighbours connect. Here are five recent spottings with a neighbourhood focus:

1. STREETBANK — Streetbank in the UK aims to help neighbours get to know each other, simply by being nice. Users indicate something they'd be willing to lend, help with or give away. Having done that, they can see what others are offering in their area, or they can make a request for something specific. The result: people get to meet, share something, and hopefully become friends.

2. WIJ BOUWEN EEN WIJK — Wij Bouwen Een Wijk ("We're building a neighbourhood") isn't a company: it's a community effort to design and oversee the construction of every aspect of the neighbourhood in which project members will eventually live. Participants with the most innovative ideas can even get a street named after them!

3. DEHOOD — DeHood is a social network application that focuses entirely on location: everything and everyone that users see is in their immediate surroundings. To encourage a sense of community, users are encouraged to report what's going on nearby, from traffic accidents to get-togethers. Shoppers can share deals that they find in local stores, and promotions featured at chainstores are aggregated and passed on to users.

4. GASTOWN BLOG — The Gastown district in Vancouver has a lively website listing local events and promotions. It was formed in partnership between local government and businesses, but now features active participation from the wider community. Earlier this year The Gastown Blog attached QR codes to various historic buildings in Gastown, enabling passersby to instantly call up detailed information about the buildings.

5. CABSENSE — Featuring a smart use of the publicly available data gathered from New York City taxis' GPS devices, CabSense is an iPhone app showing locations where users are most likely to find a cab in their area. CabSense's algorithm uses the GPS statistics to calculate a probability score for successfully hailing a cab at any given street corner, at the current time (or at a time specified by the user).

Spotters: Jane Durney, Kevin de Caluwé, Cecilia Biemann, Kevin W.

Consumers going out to a bar or restaurant can already check in via sites like Foursquare to let their friends know where they are. Now, GetGlue aims to bring like-minded capabilities to the world of entertainment, giving users a way to share, rate and discover new books, TV shows, movies and music.

When they first begin using GetGlue, consumers are asked to rate their favourite movies, books and music to begin building a profile. Based on that input, GetGlue will begin offering personalized recommendations for new items the consumer might enjoy. Then, as they sample new items, they can “check in” to let the world know what they're trying out and rate each item with their considered opinion. Profiles are updated in real time as consumers rate new items, and users can view each other's profiles for ideas on new things to try; they can even subscribe to each other's profiles in Twitteresque fashion. A variety of stickers—both virtual and physical, apparently—are used to reward the site's most active users, as is “guru” status for topic leaders. Even more interesting, though, is that thanks to a new partnership with HBO, users who check in to HBO's hit shows can reportedly win exclusive branded stickers. Some 4.5 million new ratings and check-ins for TV shows, movies, music and books are submitted on GetGlue every month. The free service is available via browser add-on or iPhone app as well. For developers, an API is also available.

Services based on check-ins have been growing in popularity—witness Topguest and Plancast, to name just two—but now that we're seeing increased brand involvement, the premise makes even more sense. Entertainment companies large and small: time to brainstorm some GetGlue rewards of your own...?

Website: www.getglue.com
Contact: support@getglue.com

Spotted by: Barbara Klein

Hard on the heels of our story about Gatwick's Runway Models contest comes word of another innovative promotion at the airport: free spray tans.

Research conducted by the airport apparently found that pale skin is among travellers' top worries upon heading off on a summer holiday. In response, the airport's Gatwick Glow initiative—held in partnership with self-tan brand St. Tropez between July 28 and August 1—offered travellers a free spray tan from St. Tropez Experts in specially appointed tanning booths in the airport's North and South terminals. “Gatwick Glow is designed to give our passengers a boost,” Kim Francis, marketing manager for the airport, told the Daily Mail. “We want them to head off on their holiday feeling great about themselves.”

Which, if course, is what any consumer-facing business should be striving to do. What kind of brand butler could *your* enterprise create to help give consumers a boost of your own...? (Related: Portland airport installs bike assembly station for travellers — Singapore airport's four-storey slide rewards duty-free spending — Heathrow Airport installs Alain de Botton as writer in residence — Free dance lessons at Paris airports — Light therapy for weary travellers.)

Website: www.gatwickevents.com
Contact: mail@gatwickevents.com

Spotted by Daily Mail via Jim Stewart

The “buy one, donate one” initiatives are coming fast and furious. Hard on the heels of our stories about two such efforts targeting children—namely, Happy Blankie and Whitten Grey's Project Little Grey Dress—comes news of one designed to help homeless pets.

Launched this spring, the Plus One Movement from Canadian pet food maker Darford International aims to provide fresh, quality food to abandoned dogs awaiting new homes. How it works: Attached to every Darford box of treats and food is an extra meal of the company's Zero/G dog food intended specifically for donation to a dog in need. Specially designed collection hampers have been placed in-store at the roughly 3,000 US and Canadian retailers that carry the Darford brand. Consumers can simply drop their donation meals into those hampers, and participating animal shelters will pick up and use the donated food for local homeless dogs. The video below explains the project:

Some 4 million dogs are euthanized each year in the US and Canada alone, primarily for lack of room and food, Darford notes. Other pet-friendly brands and retailers: time to step up and do your own generous part...?

Website: www.ilovealldogs.org
Contact: info@ilovealldogs.org

Spotted by: Peter von Hahn

For St. Louis's City Museum, salvaged garbage helps create a hyperlocal feel. For the Save the Beach Hotel, it's not just a building material but also a warning about the current state of Europe's beaches.

Led by Mexican Corona Extra beer brand, the Save the Beach effort aims to recover at least one European beach per year from destruction by pollution and other human-caused damage. Last year it was Capocotta beach in Rome, and votes are currently being accepted online for this year's choice. To draw more attention to the challenge, the Save the Beach effort this summer built a hotel from garbage collected off Europe's beaches. Created by German artist HA Schult and installed next to Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, the Save the Beach Hotel was open from June 3 through 6. Some 12 tons of garbage collected from Europe's beaches—more than a million pieces—were used to build the two-story structure, which could accommodate up to 10 people. Its very first guest was former supermodel Helena Christensen.

Schult explains: “The philosophy of this hotel is to expose the damage we are causing to the sea and the coastline. We live in the era of trash and we are running the risk of becoming trash ourselves. Do we really want this world?”

If a picture is worth a thousand words, just imagine how many could be packed into a trash-based hotel—not just about the problem at hand but also about the Corona brand's eco-generosity. One to be inspired by! (Related: Pop-up cafe is a (straw) monument to sustainability.)

Website: www.coronasavethebeach.org
Contact: www.coronasavethebeach.org/contacto/

Spotted by: Martina Meng