Consumers To Send Video E-Mail Postcards At Times Square Burger King
From the Burger King restaurant at Times Square, visitors will now be able to send video e-mails of themselves to friends and family all over the world via 3Com HomeConnect PC Digital WebCams.
The Times Square Burger King restaurant offers customers who purchase a value meal the opportunity to surf the web and send video e-mails. The two-story restaurant houses 16 PCs, each equipped with a 3Com video camera. Additionally, customers can videoconference with Burger King’s Wall Street location, creating the first-ever online video chat between two quick-service restaurants.
Coca-Cola And America Online Form Global Marketing Alliance
The Coca-Cola Company and America Online have formed a multi-year global strategic alliance to develop innovative online and offline marketing programs. This alliance marks Coca-Cola’s first worldwide interactive marketing initiative and AOL’s first association with Coca-Cola.
Taking full advantage of the companies’ unmatched global brand power and assets, the alliance will focus on several key marketing themes, including music, movies, sports, holidays and community, such as promotions built around the AOL Moviefone brand, The Coca-Cola Company’s sponsorship of the Olympic Games and the Christmas holiday season.
“With this exciting new alliance, we will bring together the unique strengths of America Online’s international family of interactive brands with Coca-Cola’s global distribution network to create innovative and effective consumer marketing campaigns both online and offline around the world,” said Bob Pittman, President and COO of America Online.
Coca-Cola will make America Online’s interactive services and products available to consumers around the world through its extensive distribution channels worldwide, including advertising, merchandising, packaging and in-store promotions. America Online will market The Coca-Cola Company’s brands online across its family of global interactive brands.
The Outernet Store Provides On-Site Customized CDs
AD&P, a Minneapolis, MN-based conglomerate has created “The Outernet,” a totally new form of retail chain that will provide CDs that can be customized on-site to contain music, games and other forms of digital audio-visual entertainment and educational software.
Targeted at the Echo Generation (0-25), the first 20 Outernet locations will open this summer in New York and Minneapolis. Each entertainment complex (more than 10,000 square feet) will be fully automated and unmanned. Every location will house in excess of 150 wide, interactive media screens, and over 50 CD and DVD burners where customers can “outload” their selections, in less than two minutes.
Target Enters Strategic Multi-Channel Marketing Alliance With E*TRADE
Target Stores has entered into a strategic multi-channel marketing alliance with E*TRADE Group, Inc., a global leader in online personal financial services.
The agreement calls for piloting an in-store E*TRADE financial service center at a SuperTarget store. The alliance also includes the creation of a co-branded Target/E*TRADE website for Target guests. There will also be cross-promotional arrangements between etrade.com and Target Stores to bring added value to customers and guests for each of the companies. The pilot at the SuperTarget in Roswell, GA, will feature a devoted E*TRADE financial service center at the front of the store, allowing Target guests to conduct on-line banking at E*TRADE terminals or open an E*TRADE account, in addition to having the opportunity to speak with E*TRADE about the range of financial products and services available through E*TRADE. An E*TRADE Bank branded ATM will also be included in the center.
Two Interactive Entertainment Venues Open In NYC’s Times Square
Bar Code and Galactic Circus, two highly stylized, high-touch interactive environments, are making their U.S. debut in New York City’s Times Square by Australia’s Entertainment Development Group (EDG).
Through a cyber-inspired environment, the latest high-tech virtual, proprietary internet and interactive games, live DJ’s, a state-of-the-art sound system, innovative lighting and video design, and fully licensed bar, Bar Code combines the best elements of a bar, nightclub, and entertainment venue in one modern setting.
Galactic Circus, the “astronomically charged” family venue located just above Bar Code, will also boast a large selection of high-touch interactive games, and classic carnival games of skill and chance, as well as motion simulator rides, festive lighting, live performers, hip graphics and quirky props.
Majors Prints Books In Minutes
J.A. Majors Company, and Sprout, Inc., the first distributor to bring Books-On-Demand into bookstores, have completed installation of the Sprout book production system in the Majors Scientific Bookstore in Houston, TX. This technology provides immediate digital printing of hard to find or limited availability titles. A customer selects a title from the digital inventory, the book is downloaded, printed and bound in the bookstore within 15 to 20 minutes.
“Customer service is the focus at Majors,” said Kris Naylor, V.P. Retail Operations. “The Sprout System combines the latest digital technology with production innovation to provide customers the books they want without waiting for a special order.”
El Pollo Loco & Hollywood Entertainment Join For “Dinner And A Movie” Event
El Pollo Loco, Irvine, CA and Hollywood Video have joined forces for the “Dinner And A Movie” event, whereby El Pollo Loco customers will receive a certificate for a free five day video rental from Hollywood Video every time they purchase an 8 or 12 piece meal. “Families today are increasingly looking to spend more time together,” said Margaret Jenkins, V.P., Marketing, for El Pollo Loco. “By pairing the food families love with entertainment they enjoy, we are making it easier for them to do just that.”
El Pollo Loco restaurants will feature a customized counter card identifying the Hollywood Video locations closest to each restaurant. The event is being communicated through a wide mix of media and p.o.p. vehicles including banners, translites, and drive-thru signage.
Blockbuster And InMotion Pictures Provide Rentable DVD At Airports
Blockbuster and InMotion Pictures, which rents portable DVD players and movies within airports across the U.S., have signed an agreement to provide rentable DVD players and movies to travelers. InMotion Pictures will now feature the Blockbuster name on its locations.
“This alliance with InMotion Pictures builds on the company’s mission to provide entertainment to consumers however they want to receive it,” said Nigel Travis, President, Stores Division for Blockbuster. “We realize that consumers associate our name with the comfort of watching the movie of their choice at home, and we are delighted to associate our brand with a service that can enable them to do that while they are on the road.”
Wolf Camera Opens ‘Vision’ Location
Wolf Camera, the Atlanta, GA-based photo chain, has opened its first ever photography theme superstore in New York City. The 4,200 sq. ft. “Vision” location incorporates many elements of photography into the decor. Lenses are used as lighting fixtures, colored filters are blended into counter tops, and theatrical lighting creates a warm and welcome environment.
The store offers a complete array of traditional photography and digital imaging products and services. An in-store gallery features various rotating artists’ work on display and for sale; a children’s play area is complete with a giant Canon camera and Kodak film slide, and a computer kiosk connects customers to GoStreamIt.com, where they can record video messages and send them via email in seconds.
Borders Plans E-Listening Stations
Borders Books and Music Stores has introduced E-Listening stations, interactive kiosks that enable customers to access and preview virtually any music title in the store’s inventory, simply by scanning the product barcode.
The kiosks, similar in appearance to existing CD preview stations, are equipped with headphones, but do not rely on manually maintained CD players. Instead, weekly updates to the inventory are stored on a database and can be accessed by scanning a specific CD’s barcode at the station. Customers will be able to hear approximately 750 music titles from start to finish. For the remaining inventory, a 45-second preview of up to 12 tracks per CD will be available. In addition, Borders will be testing hand-held, portable, wireless headphones and scanning wands, which allow customers to move about the store sampling music on the go.
Chapters Features Cyber Cafes In Stores
Info Touch Technologies, Burnaby, B.C., has successfully completed a rollout of customized cyber cafes at Chapters stores in Canada. Info Touch has deployed custom Surfnet software that will be used on each terminal in the bookstores’ cyber cafes.
Chapters, the largest book retailer in Canada, has installed over 500 e-commerce kiosks in its 70 superstores. The e-commerce kiosks provide in-store shoppers with access to a central database of millions of titles. If the product is available in the store, the kiosk will provide details of the item’s location in the store. If the product is not currently available in the store, shoppers can order titles at the kiosks and have their selections shipped to their home, work or as a gift to friends or family members.
Barnes & Noble.com Goes On Tour
Barnes & Noble.com is going on tour with an 80-foot interactive technology center to visit more than 40 cities throughout the U.S. The tour will benefit First Book, a nonprofit literacy program dedicated to providing underprivileged children with their first new books. Steve Riggio, Vice Chairman, Barnes & Noble.com, said “Barnes & Noble.com is dedicated to educating consumers to be more comfortable with today’s newest technology whether reading from a handheld PC or shopping online.”
Conducted by M3 Marketing, the tour features a truck outfitted with state-of-the-art computers, supplied by IBM. The tour will offer thousands of people the opportunity to step into the truck’s living room setting to experience first hand the impact of technology on reading today and in the future.
Back to Top
To See Previous Issues of Online Weekly in Creative's Archives, click here.
To See other Creative Online Newsletters click here
