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With cycling gaining ground as a regular mode of transportation, flat tires and broken chains are on the up, too. Which creates an opportunity for bike-loving entrepreneurs: mobile bike repair shops. In the Netherlands, for example, we've spotted companies like Fix Fiets and Bikemobiel, both of which do house calls in vans or trucks outfitted as mobile workshops. Service is even more mobile (and emission-free) in Cologne and Berlin, where stranded cyclists can call a 'Radambulanz'—a cycling mechanic with a small trailer containing tools and spare parts for fixing flat tires and performing other common repairs. While some mobile repair services tack on a small trip charge for coming to a customer's home or workplace, rates are generally comparable to those charged by brick and mortar bike shops. And although they've been popping up in Europe over the past few years, mobile services are far from commonplace. Time to launch a well-branded Geek Squad of bike fixers? (Related: Vending machines for bicycle parts — In the US, the AAA will be offering roadside assistance for cyclists in Oregon and Idaho.) Website: www.fixfiets.nl — www.bikemobiel.nl — www.fahrradambulanz.com — www.radambulanz.de Spotted by: Martina Meng — Raymond Kollau — Judy McRae |
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For committed pet owners, the joy of holidays is often diminished by the guilt associated with leaving a faithful friend behind in strangers' hands. Aiming to spare pets and their owners the anguish that can result, SwapaDog is a new network that helps dog owners in the same area connect and exchange pet care when they go out of town. With sites serving both the UK and the US, SwapaDog provides pet owners with a way to find other like-minded members in their area so that they can get to know each other and agree to exchange pet-sitting services when the need arises. Basic membership on the site—offering access to an array of dog-related tips, discounts, news and links—is free, while introductory pricing on a full membership, including access to other members, begins at GPB 9.97 or USD 17 for one year. (Ultimately, a full annual membership will cost GBP 25 or USD 47.) The result, SwapaDog says, is not just better pet care for the dog and less worry on owners' part, but also savings of some GBP 200—or USD 370—per dog in kennel bills for a two-week stay. Beyond lending, peer-to-peer services have already extended to include mentoring, camping and shipping; why not pet care too? One to bring to the rest of the canine-friendly world...? (Related: Social networking for dogs — RFID collar tag helps dog owners meet new friends — Flexible pet ownership.) Website: www.swapadog.com |
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Earlier this month, we spotted MyEex and Earth Aid, two initiatives that reward consumers for reducing household energy use. Taking a different approach is US-based Positive Energy, which compares households' energy consumption, adding a social twist to being green. The company works with local utility companies, which use its software to add persuasive information to customer bills. Instead of just listing their own energy use, it adds information for households on the same street or block, showing how the consumer measures up in comparison to all of their neighbours, as well as to the energy efficient ones. Households with low energy use are encouraged with smiley faces beside their usage. Positive Energy's approach combines technology, marketing and behavioural science, based on the idea that social pressure is more effective than enforced pressure from far-off governments and regulatory agencies. By changing the customer's mindset, long-term changes in consumer behaviour are likely to be brought about, saving both energy and money. While MyEex and Earth Aid use money as motivation, Positive Energy works on a transformative level by comparing individual practices against normative values, making low energy use a societal norm. Utility companies in other parts of the world: time to add some Positive Energy to your billing process? (Related: Energy meters get tweeting.) Website: www.positiveenergyusa.com Spotted by: Jenny Lau |
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Aiming to connect advertisers with local sports teams, Sport Driven has created a platform where sport clubs, agencies and individual athletes can list commercial opportunities and find financial backing. For GBP 30 per year, teams and athletes can create a profile and list the individual sponsorship options they’re offering, like ‘match day’, ‘back of shirt’ or ‘calendar’, along with basic terms like price and duration. A premium membership of GBP 99 a year gives access to a few more bells and whistles, such as uploading images and maintaining a larger contact database. Advertisers can search the database to find local or national opportunities that best align with their budgets and marketing plans. Launched earlier this month, the British startup will have to sign up a significant number of teams and athletes before it becomes a one-stop-shop for advertisers and sponsors. If it does, it could be an indispensable tool for an industry that's constantly exchanging visibility for financial backing. One to bring to your local market? Website: www.sportdriven.co.uk |
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It's long been recognized that tangibility and a sense of personal connection are key factors in encouraging potential donors to help those in need, as we've already noted in our stories about SmallCanBeBig, Rosa Loves, DonorsChoose and Family-to-Family. Working on the premise that such connections are particularly important to young givers, however, Jolkona is a new organization that promises tangible proof of the impact of every donation made. Targeting donors aged 15 to 35, Jolkona Foundation aims to use technology and social networks to make giving more immediate and compelling. Named for the Bengali word meaning "drop of water"—many of which of course can be combined for a big impact—Jolkona lets donors choose from a variety of projects based on criteria including price, location and focus area. The Facebook-connected microcharity partners with not-for-profit organizations around the world to profile deserving projects in five categories—public health, education, environment, empowerment and cultural identity—using a rigorous screening process to select those it believes would interest its audience and complement its mission. Once potential donors find a project they feel passionate about, they can then make donations as small as USD 5 easily and securely using Google Checkout. Perhaps most interesting of all, however, is that donors can not only monitor and track their giving activity, but they can receive tangible evidence of the impact of their donations. In addition to maps and charts on the site showing the aggregated impact of all donations made through Jolkona, each user's own "My Jolkona" page gets updated with tangible evidence of their own impact, using photos, stories and other means to show the effect on recipients. Based in Kirkland, Wash., Jolkona ensures that 100 percent of project-specific donations go directly to those projects; a separate fund finances its own operating costs. Using technology to combine the immediacy, transparency and personal connections consumers increasingly demand, Jolkona may just have hit upon the model of giving for the future. One to watch! (Related: Kiva's peer-to-peer micro lending.) Website: www.jolkona.org |
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Developed on the assumption that there's no such thing as too much choice, Coca-Cola Freestyle is a new self-serve soda fountain that can dispense up to 100 different drink flavours. The machine is being tested this summer at fastfood restaurants in California and Atlanta, with the intention of rolling out units across the US early next year. Flavoured teas, waters, juices and soft drinks will all be available from Coca-Cola Freestyle, letting customers select drinks based on brand, calorie content or caffeine levels, all through the system's touchscreen interface. Combinations will be pre-set, meaning Raspberry Coke and Peach Fanta are available on tap, but frat dares combining tea and Sprite won't be possible. Many of the flavours on offer are new to the US market. RFID tags will keep track of the syrup the machine uses, telling retailers when to refill, and providing Coke HQ with insight into popular flavours and locations. By tracking sales, Coca-Cola gains valuable insight into which drinks would be most successful if offered bottled or canned. Which means the intelligent technology doesn't just offer a new level of choice for customers, but also streamlines supply chain management and informs new product development. (Related: Drinks vended & blended on demand — Ice cream factory in a vending machine.) Website: www.thecoca-colacompany.com Spotted by: Sherri Scott |
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July 28, 2009 |
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Unconferences have become increasingly common over the past decade or so, notable in particular for their low-key structure and participant-driven format. LaidOffCamp is one such example, and now—inspired, in fact, by that initiative—the concept has been applied to education with the launch of (un)classes. Aiming to provide a more casual and ad hoc way for people to learn something new during their limited free time, the (un)classes website serves as a sort of marketplace through which people interested in learning about a topic can find someone in their area with the passion to teach it. Anyone can create a new class listing on (un)classes, and anyone can sign up to be a student or a teacher. Topics tend to be lightweight and fun, offering a way to learn about things not traditionally taught elsewhere. Examples so far have included How to Create The Greatest Rock Song of All Time and How to Be a Digital Nomad—the only guidelines are that they shouldn't be offensive or illegal. The website explains: "Ever wish you had the choice to get up off the couch and spend the afternoon learning to rock climb, cook, or maybe juggle? Well, we have and that's why we came up with (un)classes. (un)classes are premised on the belief that everyone has *something* to teach and learning doesn't always have to be a formal experience requiring big up-front commitments." The result can be thought of as "educational snacking," the site also points out—illustrating nicely what our sister site would call snack culture, in which consumers seek gratification in small, easy-to-handle bites. Offering entertainment, education, community and status skills, consumer-generated (un)classes have already been offered in cities around the world. One to localize for the lifelong learners in your neck of the peer-to-peer woods...? (Related: Free video lectures by top scholars — Local lessons, advertised & reviewed — Craft workshops for commitmentphobes.) Website: www.unclasses.org |
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Back in 2007 we wrote about EarthFriendlyMoving's Recopack containers, which offer an alternative to traditional cardboard boxes for moving. Bringing the concept out of California comes Frogbox, a Canadian contender that currently serves the Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., areas. Very similar to Recopacks, Frogboxes are green, industrial-strength plastic containers that are available in standard and wardrobe sizes. Consumers simply order the boxes they need, and Frogbox drops them off at their home using its biodiesel delivery truck. Pricing is by the week, and the company also picks the boxes up once the moving is all done. Moving dollies and packing paper are available as well. Frogboxes can be used hundreds of times before they get recycled, says the company, which thoroughly cleans them between uses. A one-bedroom bundle of 25 Frogboxes and one dolly is priced beginning at USD or CDN 79 for one week—the company charges in the customer's local currency—plus a delivery fee that ranges from USD or CDN 30 to 50, depending on the address. In much the manner of Save Your Logo, Frogbox donates one percent of its gross revenues to frog habitat restoration. Cardboard and paper waste make up an estimated 18 percent to 26 percent of landfill material, Frogbox says, so it's nice to see the spread of reusable plastic alternatives. The company is planning an expansion across North America; time to introduce "frogs" to your neck of the woods...? ;-) Website: www.frogbox.com |
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With all the mobile app stores that have sprung up in the past year, developers and brands have a raft of new ways to reach mobile users. As is so often true, however, opportunity brings new challenges, and in this case it's monitoring sales and performance across all those platforms. Enter Distimo, a Dutch startup that tracks prices and download activity on all the major app stores. Covering the Apple, Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Palm app stores, among others, Distimo functions as a sort of Google Analytics for mobile applications, monitoring and reporting on the details of each application's performance across platforms. In addition to a free monthly report focusing on Apple's App Store, the company also offers custom reports for the Apple and Android markets that provide data specific to a client's applications, including those of the competition. The free Distimo Monitor program, meanwhile—now in beta—offers a central place to monitor one's apps in all app stores. Updated daily, the Monitor program provides an analytics page that also includes information on the competition, such as which channels they're doing best in and how price changes are affecting their download numbers. As the world embraces all things mobile, there are opportunities aplenty not just for developers, but also for those who can help support them. The mobile tide is still rising—ride along with it, and watch your boat get lifted too! Website: www.distimo.com |
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Rental cars need to be transported between offices. And travellers love freebies. Combine the two, and you get free rental cars, organized by Transfercar. The New Zealand startup works with major car rental companies including Europcar, Apollo and Ace. Each rental company has a host of 'relocation cars' that need to transported to different branches. These are listed on Transfercar's website, along with the dates they're available, and interested customers can book online after registering with Transfercar. Drivers can also request to be notified by text message when cars are available for routes they'd like to travel. Most vehicles include basic insurance as well as ferry tickets between the North and South island, so no hidden fees. Rental companies often throw in a full tank of gas, too. Although some rental companies already offer transfer cars at little or no cost, they rarely publicize the fact, and Transfercar is the first venture we’ve spotted that aggregates vehicles from a range of agencies, making the process far easier for consumers. Everybody wins: travellers with flexible schedules can drive for free, and rental agencies reduce their transfer costs. One to set up elsewhere? (Related: Car swapping for the holidays — Hertz subsidiary cuts frills and prices.) Website: www.transfercar.co.nz Spotted by: P.J. Heta |
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On even the most tastefully appointed of houses, garage doors tend to be drab and monochrome eyesores, designed apparently without even the smallest nod to aesthetics. A German company aims to change all that, however, with large-scale posters that transform the doors through highly realistic 3D images. Style-your-garage.com's photo tarpaulins are available with a variety of motifs and images that are sure to cause neighbours, friends and passers-by to stop and stare. A photographic version of trompe l'oeil, some are designed to give the impression that unusual contents can be found in the garage, such as an airplane, race car or monster-sized kitty. Others aim to provide a glimpse of the world beyond the garage door, such as a Tuscan landscape or what seems to be the home's very own golf course. Another series, meanwhile, aims to give the garage door itself another look altogether, such as through a rustic wooden appearance. Consumers can also upload the digital image of their choice and have it turned into a customised photo tarpaulin. In fact, Style-your-garage.com invites consumers to submit ideas for new designs as well, and promises a share of the profits if their idea gets accepted. The company's posters are designed primarily for up-and-over garage doors but can be adapted for sectional or wing doors as well. Crafted from material similar to that used for truck tarpaulins, they are rip-proof, weather-proof and even come with a fire safety certificate. Special promotional pricing through the end of this month is EUR 169 for all but the customised styles. Coming soon from Munich-based Style-your-garage.com are Style-your-window.com and Style-your-door.com. One—or two, or three—to get in on early...? (Related: Parking garages transformed by large-scale ads — Sticky car art with a crowdsourcing twist.) Website: www.style-your-garage.com Spotted by: Katherine Noyes
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Razor blade refills are one of those purchases that tend to irk many consumers, primarily for the frequency with which they're needed and the relatively high prices at which they're often sold. Aiming to salve irritation on both points, Raz*War offers subscription plans for home delivery at prices beginning at EUR 27.50 per year. Launched late last month by Brussels-based Growth Bridge, Raz*War sells blades by the box—priced at EUR 1 per blade—as well as a starter kit including razor, blades and travel bag. Its biggest savings, however, are to be found in its subscription plans, which range from a yearly price of EUR 27.50 for 30 blades over the course of the year to EUR 75 for 90 blades annually. Deliveries are made in installments every four months, and a starter kit with razor and travel bag is included in the first shipment. Similar in many ways to Alice, which aims to take the pain out of shopping repeatedly for basic household necessities, Raz*War currently ships only within the EU. One to partner with or emulate for the shaving masses near you...? Website: www.razwar.com |
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Out to help those looking for a quick relaxation fix, a new drink from Canada offers ‘an acupuncture session’ in every can. An antidote to energy drinks like Red Bull, Slow Cow was developed to help people de-stress. Under the premise that caffeine-packed drinks tend to increase anxiety, Slow Cow contains theanine, chamomile, valerian, passiflora and other ingredients known for their calming effects. The beverage is meant to increase mental awareness while improving relaxation, without the post-hit dip that caffeine and other stimulants cause. Slow Cow, whose tongue-in-cheek logo apparently did not amuse Red Bull, might have found a gap in a market saturated with energy drinks of every possible variety. It's not the only beverage to position itself as a relaxation drink, mind you, (Drank is another), but Slow Cow gets our vote for best branding. Seems like a natural fit for spas, hotels, airlines—or anywhere else consumers could use a serving of relaxation. Website: www.slowcowdrink.com Spotted by: Sylvie Lafave |
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Airline travellers already have EUclaim and Miss Refund for help claiming compensation for flight delays and tax refunds on unused trips. Now giving them a chance to sell the tickets they can't use is Re-ticket.com, a site also out of the Netherlands. About 40 percent of all airline tickets are transferable, Re-ticket says, generally requiring simply that passengers pay a fee of about EUR 25 to get them reissued in a new name. Re-ticket.com is an online marketplace that helps facilitate that process, providing passengers, tour operators and transport companies with a way to sell their unused or leftover tickets for travel by plane, train, coach or ferry. Sellers begin by listing the details of their tickets for sale, including the price they'd like to be paid and a time limit for the auction period. Buyers, meanwhile, can search for tickets by departure and destination cities, dates and price. They can then bid on the ones that interest them; after the auction is closed, the buyer placing the highest bid wins, transferring their payment to Re-ticket.com. The seller, in turn, receives the buyer's name and makes the required name change with the airline company or travel agent, sending the ticket to the buyer once that's done. Within two weeks after the departure date, Re-ticket.com transfers payment to the seller. Much like Miss Refund, Re-ticket.com also helps passengers get refunds on airport taxes when they don't make a trip. Business opportunities exist wherever consumers feel pain in their daily lives, and the travel industry is still fraught with such sticky spots. Smooth the way for travellers, and you'll enjoy some smooth sailing yourself! ;-) Website: www.re-ticket.com |
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Where the Amazing Food Wine Company, which we covered a few years ago, created its wines for pairing with commonly enjoyed contemporary American foods—pizza, pasta, etc—Madeinmilan Wines has taken the opposite approach, focusing instead on a historical meal. The Italian label includes three wines from northeast Italy: Brutus (Sangiovese di Romagna), Paparazzi (Lambrusco Grasparossa) and Romeo (Cagnina di Romagna), and for Brutus, it recently launched a campaign that includes pairing with a five-course ancient Roman meal. Olive caviar, sweet ham, Imperial Chicken, herbed cheese and honey dates make up the specially crafted menu for the Roman banquet Madeinmilan suggests, with complete recipes available for download from its site. With so many competitors in the wine market already, focusing on ancient pairings is an innovative marketing angle that may well be attractive to consumers seeking new insperiences and maybe some status skills to boot. Which just goes to show, of course, that it's a rare product indeed that can't be upgraded, reconceived or repositioned in some novel way to make it new all over again in consumers' eyes. If that can be done for wine—surely one of the oldest products in the world—just imagine the possibilities for your product or brand! ;-) Website: www.madeinmilanwine.com |
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