Digital illuminated billboard addressing women
29-5-2015
The beer brand Astra’s digital billboard is able to target its messages only to women, using gender-detection software.
Agency Philipp und Keuntje created the first digital illuminated billboard advertisement for the German beer brand Astra (from Hamburg). The billboard was installed outside the ‘Zum Silbersack’ pub in Hamburg. Philipp und Keuntje shot around seventy short videos with the comedian and journalist Uke Bosse in the leading role, all with the aim of inspiring more females to try the beer.
The digital illuminated billboard in action
At the billboard, the comedian addresses passersby and specifically women with the aim to encourage them to sample an Astra beer. The billboard has been equipped with a camera and the latest gender-detection software, allowing to detect the gender and the age of the individual. Check the video for great examples of the video messages the billboard uses to ‘sell’ Astra to the passing women.
The Dangers of Selfie Sticks – by Pizza Hut
26-5-2015
Pizza Hut has published a humorous and sarcastic video on 20 May about the use of the selfie and the selfie stick hype. Pizza Hut combines the actuality and humor in this great video, with the effect that now 7 days later, nearly 2.5 million people saw the video and probably smiled about it.
Using selfies and selfie stick in your marketing
We wrote about using the ‘selfie’ in your marketing earlier and we see more and more great examples. Like the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Paris, which offers a ‘selfie in Paris’ tour. A select number of Marriot Hotels offers their guests the possibility to test a free GoPro camera during their stay. With the camera guests can share their vacation experiences with family and friends.
Selfie sticks aren’t unlimited popular
The hype of the ‘selfie’ stick has exploded to major proportions in the USA. We have heard that at several events the selfie stick is even prohibited. Recently friends of us experienced this at a baseball match of the Yankees.
Pizza Hut increases the ‘danger’ of the stick in this video and offers potential guests a smile. The only question is whether the relatively small connection with the Pizza Hut brand in the video works out and if the video will generate more guests for their restaurants.
Dutch town of Sneek is iBeacon capital
20-5-2015
During the eightieth edition of the Sneekweek (August 1st till 6th) in Sneek, there is an innovative iBeacon app connected to the program. The app shows you where you are, what’s going on, where your friends are and what square or café is most popular at that time. By connecting with Facebook you can give friends access to your specific location. This way you make sure that only they can see where you are.
What are iBeacons?
iBeacons are small transmitters that can send targeted information to mobile phones when you’re in the area. When users wish to use the iBeacons that are scattered throughout Sneek during the Sneekweek, they must also have the Lightcurb app on their phone. The app runs on iOS (Apple) and Android.
Interactive map
On the interactive map this app provides, you can see your current position, those of friends and various party locations. It’s easy to only show relevant information by clever filtering options. A bluetooth connection allows the app to connect to hundreds of beacons throughout the city.
Push notification of the program
Visitors can prepare themselves to the Sneekweek by putting together a personalized program. The app will automatically send notifications when the user is not on the right square if a selected part of the program starts.
Developers
The app was developed by Near Able Labs of Leander Sikma in collaboration with StOm Design and will be available as free download in the App Store and Google Play Store from July onwards. Light Curb provides the iBeacons that app gets its data from. More information about the app can be found at beleefdesneekweek.nl.
Bonaire’s beer is here: Bonaire Blond!
18-5-2015
Bonaire Blond is island inspired and brewed with ingredients of Bonaire. The pale beer has a fresh hint of lime and an aromatic spiciness from Aloë Vera flowers that grow at the local Onima Aloë Vera Plantation.
Bonaire Blond
Bonaire Blond is an artisanal brewed pale beer with a double fermentation in the brewing process and a third fermentation on the bottle. The pale beer is made from Barley malt only and has a light yellow-gold colour. Bonaire Blond is fresh, tasteful and the only Bonairian pale beer with character. This beer has aged at least four weeks longer than normal, which enhances the flavour in every aspect.
Another great initiative from the owners of Restaurant At Sea
Bonaire Blond is an initiative from the owners of Restaurant At Sea (watch their story here), who thought it was a deficiency that the island did not have its own beer. Consumers responded very positive and therefore, they have decided to sell it at other places as well. The beer is now exclusively available at Jibe City Hang Out Beachbar, Little Havana, La Cantina and Restaurant At Sea.
In 2014 the owners of Restaurant At Sea launched a commercial for their own At Sea Cornetto.
Shadow Wi-Fi system
13-5-2015
The premier Shadow Wi-Fi System, developed by Happiness Brussels, launched with the support of the Peruvian League Against Cancer. The president of the Liga Contra el Cáncer, Adolfo Dammert Ludowieg about the system: “Shadow Wi-Fi has changed sun-worshipers’ behavior and educated them about the value of becoming shadow-worshipers at the most harmful hours of the day, between 12 and 4pm.”
We want the Shadow Wi-Fi system at the Dutch beaches as well this summer
With the summer ahead we could use some inspirational warnings against the harmful sun at the beaches in the Netherlands as well. It’s a new call for being extra careful while sunbathing especially directed at our youngsters. Check the video to see how it works, a little bit more info: a directional antenna ensures that the Wi-Fi is only delivered to the shadow area. A sensor tracks the movements of the sun throughout the day, changing the rotation of the Wi-Fi antenna. The system allows for more than 250 users to connect to the network at once. Once users log on to the network, they also received an email from the Peruvian Leage Against Cancer. According to our source the towers have been wildly successful in Lima (Peru) and will be scheduled to be rolled out in San Francisco and New Zealand as well.
Shadow Wi-Fi’s developer, Happiness, has released access to the software for non-profit use. Cancer foundations around the world can set up the system, without ICT knowledge.
The chefs of restaurant IDRW will be cooking from a vintage outdoor kitchen on location
13-5-2015
A culinary twist to the trend of outdoor cooking. Marcel Zomeren and Justin van den Berg, chef-owner and chef from the restaurant In Den Rustwat (IDRW) in Rotterdam will be cooking on various location this summer with only the basic essentials. They will use a wood-burning vintage field kitchen from 1944, complete with army tent.
Vintage outdoor kitchen
The chefs from restaurant In Den Rustwat (with a Bib Gourmand rating by Michelin) are available to cook underneath the starry sky at all kinds of parties and events. The outdoor kitchen is part of a new joint initiative called ‘Your Personal Chefs’. At www.yourpersonalchefs.nl you can hire the chefs for a culinary feast on location. The culinary duo is for hire with or without the tough field kitchen. The vintage outdoor kitchen will be pulled by a DAF army vehicle from 1955. Anyone that wants to extend their style can rent the army tent as well.
The chefs can also be used without the vintage kitchen, at any location. The dishes are prepared in camping style, but on a very culinary touch. Think of a perfectly prepared cote de boeuf, grilled tuna, stew or duck. Or flammkuchen, the Alsatian version of a pizza.
Project Foodography: plates that guarantee a perfect picture of your food
12-5-2015
We have already written many articles on how to handle the wish of your guests to photograph your dishes. Project Foodography is a concept that is developed around the art of food porn: dishes photographed on specially designed plates. The plates, called ‘The 360’ and ‘The Limbo’, offer ideal conditions to photograph the Michelin cuisine of restaurant Catit in Israël.
A perfect photo
There are quite a lot of solutions for chefs to ensure that the pictures of his or her dishes look as good as possible. In 2014 we wrote about the Dinnercam and the Apicbase.com was introduced in the Netherlands during Chefs®Evolution by Jonnie and Thérèse Boer (from The Librije***) in September. The device offers a chef and his guests the opportunity to make great quality pictures of what they eat and directly place the picture on their social media channels via the APIC device.
Project Foodography does this through special plates which reflect the light better or you can simply rotate the plate. ‘The 360’ plate has a rotating pedestal allowing customers to spin the dishes around and photograph the dish from all angles. The another plate, ‘The Limbo’ is kind of a mini-studio, it has a high back which reflects the light. This Instagram optimization dinner costs 100 pounds per hour (including the meal).
Foodography is a collaboration of restaurant Catit in Tel Aviv and Carmel Winery from Israël. Ceramic design artist Adi Nissani is responsible for the design of the plates. We spotted Moshik Roth, chef from & Samhoud|Places in Amsterdam in the video and we hope that he will introduce the plates in the Netherlands!
Pair music with food and activate the fifth sense
12-5-2015
Former chef Barbara Werner wrote a book about pairing music with food and runs Musical Pairing pop-ups. She shows you how to create the perfect bite by combining all 5 senses: sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing.
Only BYOH at this event where they pair music with food
(BYOH) Bring Your Own Headset and Barbara Werner will teach you the essentials in assigning a numerical value to the food (FPN – Food Pairing Number) based on a mathematical formula. FPN is based on the primary ingredient (protein), the richness of the sauce, the weight (cooking method) and the heat index. You then find an equal numerical value in a musical piece (MPN – Musical Pairing Number), which is based on the following: primary instruments (musical family), beat, tempo and genre category.
What do you get when FPN = MPN?
For example: hot and spicy Mac & Cheese with as music: Coolio Gangsta Paradise. Vanilla ice cream with Pachelbel’s ‘Canon’. Tuna ahi with The Go Go’s or filet mignon with Pavarotti. Just BYOH to Barbara’s pop-up and enjoy all five senses. There’s also an app and a book on this subjet. A video of a pop-up get-together is to be seen here.
Spotted at a list of pop-up restaurants at the website of Fodor.
Bathing pond art installation opens at London’s King’s Cross
11-5-2015
The King’s Cross Pond Club, a naturally filtered outdoor swimming pool, is part of the redevelopment of King’s Cross in London. Soil and Water (the name of the project), will be the UK’s first man-made bathing pond that’s filtered using natural processes.
The pool is designed by studio Ooze Architects (Rotterdam) and Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč. The pool is built two metres above ground level, with salvaged bricks and stones used to create a basin that measures 40 by 10 metres. The pool is both an art installation and a public facility and will be cleaned using wetland flora and submerged plants rather than chemicals or machinery. The local community participated in key aspects of the planting.
Swimming pool is located at London’s King’s Cross
It is located within the new Lewis Cubitt Park, close to the campus of design school Central Saint Martins, which forms part of the 27-hectare redevelopment of the area behind King’s Cross station. The swimming pool will open in May 2015.
“The project is an attempt to capture the dynamicity conveyed by the changes within the area, a moment in time where new possibilities and possible futures arise,” said architect Eva Pfannes, who co-founded Ooze with Sylvain Hartenberg. Architects Ooze and artist Potrč have been collaborating on projects since 2008. Ooze’s projects are of a participative and multidisciplinary nature. “The project is a small-scale enclaved environment, a living laboratory to test balance and to question a self-sustaining system including one natural cycle – water, land and the human body. The aim is communication with visitors, describing the balance of man with nature, and the balance of living in a sustainable city,” she continued.
The King’s Cross Pond Club is engineered and built by Europe’s leading natural pool designer BIOTOP and its UK partner, Kingcombe Aquacare Ltd. The pond will be operated as a swimming club by Fusion Lifestyle.
Exhibition of ‘Golden Moments’ in ‘A bar’ in the Amstel Hotel
11-5-2015
From 12 May to late June a selection of photographs from the book ‘Gouden (golden) Moment’ will be on display in ‘A bar’. Anita Bos, General Manager of the Amstel Hotel, was moved by the beautiful pictures and amazing stories of the children. The Amstel Hotel supports the foundation with the exhibition.
What’s the ‘Gouden Moment’ foundation ?
‘Gouden Moment’ foundation aims to create a special moment, to fulfill a wish for people in a special target group and for organizations representing the interests of these people. They do so by organizing and facilitating meetings between persons belonging to one of these special targets, in this case children with Down Syndrome and their idols. The idols can be very different; someone from the immediate surroundings of the child or a well-known athlete, actor or singer. The encounter with various idols was captured and distributed through various media channels such as the Internet, books, television, and the exhibition at InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam.
About the book ‘Gouden Moment’
To realize the book, 77 children with Down syndrome got the chance to spend a golden moment with their idol. They had a ‘meet and greet’ of 1,5 hours and this special moment was captured on film. Marco Borsato was the first to say ‘yes’ and Hans Klok, Giel Beelen, Jeroen van der Boom, Roel van Velzen, Bobbie, Bassie and Adriaan followed, like many other celebrities. This resulted in moving moments for both the children and the celebrities. Pictures are displayed in the book ‘Gouden Moment’.
About ‘A bar’ in the Amstel Hotel
A bar is a contemporary bar in InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam. Here, it all comes together what’s special about the city and its surroundings and they serve great contemporary cocktails.
