Neighbor dining for energy saving

A rather peculiar new idea by Creative artist Luong Lu and Vattenfal, one of the largest utlitity companies in Germany, if not Europe.

It is about the idea, that people living alone waste a lot of energy cooking meals for just one person. But, rather than choosing the obvious solution (ordering pizza), here is a much more original solution:

(neighbor dining is) a community website integrated with Foursquare that would detail the daily menu of all users. Interested folks would simply send a request to that user and join them for dinner. And what’s in it for the host? Members who serve the dinner get a discount on their energy bill when the guests ‘check-in’ to their place using Foursquare. We think its an excellent way to cure loneliness and save energy at the same time. (thanks)

Will Apple’s control-fetish impact the success of iAd?

OK, it‘ s a bit of  a strong title. Yet – the latest rumour states that Adidas cancelled their $10 Million contract – due to the harsh „quality“ controls by Apple.

The reason according to businessinsider:

Adidas supposedly pulled its $10+ million ad campaign from the iAd program because Apple CEO Steve Jobs was being too much of a control freak. According to one industry exec, Adidas decided to cancel its iAds after Apple rejected its creative concept for the third time.

The fact that there are such high standards for quality should generally be regarded as a good thing. Once users acknoledge the fact that iAd adverts are of good quality, acceptance – and hence clickrates – of these ads should increase. Leading to higher revenues for Apple and for the App publishers.

But what good is such a quality control mechanism if you upset all the advertisers? Adidas is apparently not the first company – Chanel already stopped their iAd ambitions, too, according to some sources.

Apple is a company with extremely high standards, which is the reason for their success (heck, I am writing this on a MacBook). But if they want to pull in other companies into their iAd System, they should consider, that they are dealing with clients – not suppliers (or employees). Especially, because there are also some other issues advertisers dislike:

In addition to Apple’s unusual control over the ad creation process, advertisers complain about the lack of control over and visibility into where their ads appear, lack of third-party ad serving tools, and other issues. Apple plans to open up the process once it’s more comfortable with the program, but it appears some advertisers have lost their patience.

Mobile advertising is one of the next (if not current) big things. With many strong competitors and antitrust investigations pending (what’s the latest status on that, by the way?), can Apple really afford to be this drastic?

Creatives on a walk for a job

What the heck is going on in ad land? How come, that several creatives are touring from one end of the nation to another? (While documenting their pilgrimmage online on Facebook).

Santiago Cosme and Victor Blanco, two advertising students, are travelling from NY, where they landed, to the HQ of CPB in Colorado.

In Germany, there are two projects like this currently going on:

Philipp Bertisch und Marcel Günthel, again two Students, are walking across Germany taking up the tradition of craftsmen who travel the country to assist and learn different masters throughout the country. They have been travelling since July already.

And Marcus Brown, who walks for Dr. Peter Figge, with the objective to have a chat with Peter Figge, who recently became CEO of Jung von Matt. Why? Because he wants to work for him. On his way, he hopes to meet interesting people.

What is going on here? Why do these three cases all appear almost at once?