Advertising

The Countdown Begins: Xbox 360 on-sale dates

By Mike Hanlon

September 15, 2005 Fueling global anticipation for the arrival of its powerful new video game and entertainment system, Microsoft today announced that Xbox 360 will arrive on store shelves on Tuesday, November 22 in North America, Friday, December 2 in Europe, and Saturday, December 10 in Japan. The announcement, made on the eve of Tokyo Game Show 2005, marked the first time that a game console will be launched in three territories in the same time frame. In preparation for what is expected to be massive worldwide demand for the new system, Microsoft also announced that Xbox 360 manufacturing is under way. Read More

Touchscreens that Touch Back - Tactile Feedback Technology Creates the Perception of Pressing Physical Buttons,

By Mike Hanlon

September 14, 2005 The Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas this week has seen the debut of an interesting new technology that enables touchscreens to generate tactile cues, promoting a more intuitive and engaging experience. Users perceive that on-screen buttons press and release as if they were physical buttons. In addition, TouchSense tactile sensations can be synchronized with sound and graphical images, creating a more immersive, multisensory experience. Quite clearly the technology will initially be used in the lucrative gambling industry, but we can expect much richer information kiosks and touch screen user interfaces in the future. Touchscreens are increasingly used in casino gaming devices to provide a direct and flexible user interface for on-screen buttons that dynamically change from screen to screen or game to game. Growing numbers of game machines let users choose from a variety of preloaded games. New technology will allow devices to be reconfigured by the operator in real time to tailor the mix offered to suit the time-of-day or clientele. Read More

False Alarm Theory: How Humorous Ads Work

By Mike Hanlon

August 28, 2005 Some ads tickle us and make us laugh. Research shows these ads grab attention, and IF they are well executed, then the liking for the ad washes over onto the advertised brand. Despite E.B. White’s famous wry prediction ("humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process”), humor in advertising has survived extensive dissection, exposing insights into its anatomy, function and origins. Yet it is true that the creation of humorous ads remains a creative process that owes more to intuition than to science. Dr Max Sutherland examines the use of humour in advertising. Read More

Webradio Recorder: record, time-shift and burn web radio stations

By Mike Hanlon

August 15, 2005 Internet audio/radio is evolving quickly. There are now more than 5000 online radio stations listed at RadioDirectory, 8000 at RadioTower and 10,000 at Radio-Locator. Compared to the dozen or so “traditional” local radio stations we have access to, there’s every reason to believe you’ll find an audio stream on the internet that’s infinitely more in line with you tastes. Which is why we think the release this week of affordable software offering DVR-like capabilities for web radio is significant. Photo, video, and audio software company MAGIX, has announced Webradio Recorder, which lets consumers record multiple radio shows and music, automatically name tracks, and burn them onto CD or DVD. The array of powerful DVR-like functions even let you listen to earlier parts of the same radio show that you are in the process of recording. Read More

Fujitsu U-Scan Shopper Trolley designed to eliminate checkout queues

By Mike Hanlon

July 30, 2005 Consumers can say goodbye to long checkout lines and hello to the new face of retail customer service: the U-Scan Shopper. Developed by Fujitsu, the U-Scan Shopper features a wireless, trolley-mounted computer that gives shoppers information and scan-as-you-shop convenience as they move through a store. “The U-Scan Shopper is the ultimate customer touch point,” says Vernon Slack, director of the U-Scan Shopper solution, Fujitsu Ltd. “It will significantly change the future of the retail front-end. The U-Scan Shopper puts service and checkout in the consumer’s hands, reducing reliance on the point-of-sale for customer service and freeing store personnel to provide customer service in the aisles.” Read More

V2.0 of 'V-girl - your virtual girlfriend' is even more realistic

By Mike Hanlon

July 22, 2005 Artificial Life has released Version 2.0 of its flagship product: V-girl -- your virtual girlfriend which was introduced in V 1.0 last October and the new version of the evolving interactive game continues to meld reality with role-playing. The virtual girlfriend is described by company CEO Eberhard Schoeneburg as “a new mobile entertainment paradigm - an interactive mobile movie, an evolving mobile sit-com and an innovative mobile dating role play game all in one.” A massive hit in Asian countries, V-girl blurs the line between fantasy and reality perhaps more than the previous version adding locked and secret scenes, real time based calendar events and several interactive role play games in addition to all the synthetic girlfriend routines the player watches and becomes involved in an ever-evolving daily and weekly schedule which includes your girlfriend visiting her virtual home, work or bar, and shopping with her virtual girlfriends. Messages sent to your V-girlfriend are responded to with text and voice messages. Read More

Gentlemen, start your engines

By Mike Hanlon

We've shown some pretty amazing video game interfaces for motor racing simulation in the past, with the stand-out being the world's most expensive PS2 peripherals but this really looks like the business! It's the next production version of Force Dynamics 301 race simulator. Force dynamics was founded in 2001 on the philosophy that the missing link in racing simulation had changed - instead of computers struggling to handle the computations necessary to replicate a car accurately, drivers were struggling to drive cars without being able to feel them. In keeping with the company’s first and continual focus to replicate a driver's experience to the absolute limit of technology, the next version of Force Dynamics 301 machine is … Read More

Truth in advertising

By Mike Hanlon

June 2, 2005 If you’re an average person with a fundamental understanding of the laws of physics, you’ll no doubt from time to time leap off the couch when you see the claims of a television commercial and scream “that is utter bollocks!” It seems some people agree with you, at least about Gillette’s US advertising claims about its new M3Power razor. Judge Janet C. Hall of the United States District Court, District of Connecticut, yesterday granted Schick a preliminary injunction against false advertising claims by Gillette for its M3Power razor. Judge Hall determined that Gillette's claim that the M3Power raises hair up and away from the skin is both "unsubstantiated and inaccurate." The court found that that the product demonstrations in Gillette's advertising are "greatly exaggerated" and "literally false." Read More

ADVERGAMING: Microsoft plans to turn gaming into marketing and audience generation opportunities

By Mike Hanlon

May 31, 2005 Microsoft's next generation gaming console has been designed not just as a gaming environment but as a new kind of marketplace. Microsoft's new Xbox 360 console game system has been engineered to accommodate and advance advergaming concepts as never before and the company's global audience of gamers will be sold aggressively to marketers when the product hits the stores in Q3, 2005. Picture this. At the start of the season, 250,000 people sign on at US$10 a head to play a head-to-head 30 race series. The prize - US$1,000,000. Coming to the final rounds, the global audience watching the racing on-line could be measured in the millions, particularly if the events are promoted using Microsoft's media savvy. Synthetic Formula 1 indeed!! Read More

And then there were three: Nintendo shows its hand

By Mike Hanlon

May 18, 2005 Nintendo last night unveiled its contender for the heavyweight clash of the games console – called Nintendo Revolution. Surprisingly, very few specifics of the Revolution internals were disclosed – there will be wi-fi networking, wireless controllers, two USB 2.0 ports, and DS memory card slots but no details of the processor and graphics chips upon which the machine is based other than that the microprocessor will be an IBM developed with Toshiba. Like the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Revolution will be backwards compatible with previous game systems though the unlike Sony and Microsoft, the Revolution will be able to play Nintendo games from the last two decades. The company was also clear to point out that unlike its competitors, it does not seek to be the centrepiece of the loungeroom.

The Revolution is the successor to the Nintendo GameCube that finished a distant third in a field of three in the current generation of game consoles and the company’s future is dependent on the success of the machine. Since the release of its first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2 billion video games and more than 336 million hardware units globally, creating enduring industry icons such as Mario and Donkey Kong and launching popular culture franchise phenomena such as Metroid, Zelda and Pokemon. Nintendo appears set to continue to target a younger audience than its competitors and the Revolution looks set to have a lower price point too. Read More

Sony Computer launches powerful PS3 backwards compatible with PS and PS2

By Mike Hanlon

May 17, 2005 In case you’re wondering why the ground is shaking, the game console giants are preparing for the launch of their next generation gaming devices at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) tomorrow. Last time around, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft sold more than 100 million units between them with Sony winning the round convincingly. Penetration into loungerooms is so high in most countries that this next generation of consoles will probably be the centrepiece of the home entertainment system – this is an incredibly important strategic battle to win in the convergence war. Last week Microsoft was the first to come out swinging when it unveiled its next generation X-Box 360 and although little detail about the machine was released, there was plenty of hype and chest thumping. In most markets, Microsoft is the heavyweight, take-no-prisoners market leader, so it's interesting to see the company attempting to come from behind in the game console market. Last night Sony revealed its PLAYSTATION3 (PS3) but unlike Microsoft, which sold the sizzle and not the sausage, Sony has unveiled the detail of a technological masterpiece. The PS3 incorporates what is arguably the world's most advanced Cell processor with supercomputer-like power plus backwards compatibility with the PS2 which sold roughly two thirds of all game consoles in the current generation. In the new console game, Microsoft may have fired the first shots, but Sony has leapt to the fore with its first foray and it’ll be one hell of a fight. Now all that remains is for Nintendo to enter the fray. Read More

The first US$1,000,000 computer game tournament

By Mike Hanlon

May 14, 2005 As the world evolves rapidly into a digital age, the skills to which we ascribe value are changing rapidly. A good billiards player once signified a “misspent youth” but you’d be hard pressed to explain that to the hundreds of professional billiards and pool players on the planet … and who would have thought a century ago that someone would be paid a king’s ransom to kick an inflated pig’s bladder around a paddock. And you don’t need to go back too far to see computer and video games regarded by parents, the education system and main media as a complete waste of time. Now, the world’s best videogamers earn US$250,000 plus a year and this week the first US$1,000,000 tournament was announced. Given the rate of penetration growth into households, world championship gaming skills will undoubtedly be worth a lot more in time to come. It's now quite conceivable that we'll see videogamers earning as much as elite sportspeople. Read More

The rise and fall and rise of the Internet

By Mike Hanlon

May 7, 2005 The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) this week released the Internet Advertising Revenue Report including final numbers for Q3, Q4 and full-year 2004. If there was any doubt that the internet was back as a major force in the world of advertising and communications, it was dispelled by the reportThe report states that Search, Classifieds, Display and Rich Media continue to grow at a healthy rate. Overall industry revenues rose nearly 33 percent over 2003 totaling over US$9.6 billion and exceeded the previous revenue record in 2000 by nearly 20 percent. Q4 2004 revenues totaled a record US$2.69 billion, marking the highest quarter ever reported. Read More

The World’s most advanced (and expensive) Sony Playstation peripherals

By Mike Hanlon

One of the star attractions at recent motor shows around Australia has been Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution rally simulators, even if judged solely by the length of the queues waiting to strap into the genuine rally seats, in the genuine rally cars that simulate the rally driving experience with more authenticity than you would have thought possible. The simulators were developed for Mitsubishi by technophiles Rodney Robertson and Associates and began with two Mitsubishi Lancers and got waaaay more complex from there. The idea was to build two linked rally car replicas and have them side-by-side with the choice of two very large rear projection screens in front of the cars, or where space and circumstances dictated a lesser set-up, two large bonnet-mounted Plasma panel displays. The experience is VERY realistic. Read More

America's Army game approaches five million downloads

By Mike Hanlon

February 25, 2005 The statistics for the "America's Army: Operations" computer game are surreal. Launched on July 4, 2002, the game was downloaded by more than a million people in the first fortnight and the total number of registered on-line players is now approaching five million, making it one of the five most popular on-line PC action games because of its absolute authenticity. It aught to be authentic - it was developed by the US Army and at a development cost of just US$7.5 million, it might just be the most effective on-line advertising spend in history to this point in time ... and now there's a sequel. Read More

Klever Shopping cart begins roll-out

By Mike Hanlon

Feb. 23, 2005 Klever Marketing has begun licensing its technologies for electronic display and messaging devices mounted on the handles of supermarket shopping carts, the penultimate step in bringing its KleverKart shopping carts to market. The KleverKart features a built-in wireless computer that shoppers can use as a self-service assistant to scan items to check the price, a store directory to easily locate the item, automatically generated shopping lists based on individual consumer's prior history (via a loyalty card), seasonal promotions, electronic coupons, recipes (so you don't get home without all the ingredients) and you can even follow news and local weather. Read More

Product Placement in Advertising

By Mike Hanlon

February 16, 2005 Nobody is surprised anymore that movies and TV programs seek payment for allowing brands to make appearances in programs. Just as journalistic war reporting has become ‘embedded’ with the military, so too has brand advertising become ‘embedded’ with the mass media. When the current movie “Sideways” eulogized pinot noir wine, USA sales of it for January (2005) shot up 22%. After release of the movie “About Schmidt” in 2002 starring Jack Nicholson, child sponsorships for aid agency ‘Plan International’ quadrupled. (Nicholson played a retiree whose world is falling apart and by sponsoring a young Tanzanian boy, Ndugu, he finds something to live for.) While ‘Plan International’ did not pay to be in the film, it illustrates the potency of product placement! Is it any wonder that brands and companies are prepared to pay to get into the movies? Read More

Invisible digital post-it notes

By Mike Hanlon

February 12, 2005 In the future, cell phone users will be able to leave messages anywhere in the form of what might be termed electronic post-its. They will be able to post virtual messages referring to a specific location wherever they are needed. Siemens researchers have now created the technical basis and the computer programs for this "digital graffiti service." Post-its are exceedingly practical. They're a handy way of letting people know if you've gone out quickly to shop or to lunch, or for reminding you to do things. However, you can't stick these yellow memos in mid-air - at least not yet. But that will be possible in future with the virtual post-its from Siemens Corporate Technology's research laboratory in Munich. Dieter Kolb's team of specialists have developed computer programs that assign cell phone messages to specific locations. Read More

Haptic Arm Wrestling hits the net

By Gizmag Team

December 14, 2004 An internet facilitated "haptic" arm-wrestling machine devised to teach children "hands-on" applications of networking in the digital age is the hit of American museums and may spawn a new sports craze. The Haptic Arm Wrestling machine, currently on display at 6 science museums, including the New York Hall of Science in Queens, the Tech Museum in San Jose, and the Imaginarium in Alaska, allows contestants to arm wrestle remote human opponents over the internet while watching live video and audio feeds. Read More

Common sense 101 - The Most Hated Advertising Techniques

By Mike Hanlon

December 7, 2004 If you suddenly found that your company was doing something that resulted in a very negative response from your customers, would you stop doing it? If your answer is YES and you have a web site that runs advertising or your company runs web advertising, you'd better read this. Read More

Real world gaming with a GPS-capable mobile phone

By Gizmag Team

December 6, 2004 The growing utilisation of GPS technology in mobile phones has spawned an interesting new form of real-world interaction with with the announcement of the "RayGun" a fast-paced location game from Glofun. RayGun combines the mental intensity of a video game with the physical intensity of a sport, where the real world serves as the game board. Read More

Holo-Dek offers new concept in interactive gaming

By Gizmag Team

December 3, 2004 Straight from the set of Star Trek comes the "Holo-Dek", a unique virtual venue that offers multiplayer gaming on a fast-LAN network where all the action is projected onto high-definition viewing screens ranging from 6 to 16 feet in size. Complete with full-surround 7.1 Dolby sound, the result is an immersive environment that dominates the senses, delivering another step towards fully-fledged virtual reality and a blueprint for future interactive gaming theatres. Read More

Xbox brings a Virtual Personal Trainer to gaming

By Gizmag Team

November 27, 2004 The gaming market is expanding it's audience through the growth of the "edutainment" genre, with titles like "Yourself!Fitness" for the Xbox, Playstation and PC targeting gamers, women and a wider audience who want a workout from a personal "Virtual Trainer" in the comfort of their own home. Created by responDESIGN , this new approach to personal fitness takes the often sedentary pastime of gaming and gives it a healthy impetus. Customers will also be able to purchase the game online and sign up for newsletters, promotions and tips from Maya, the Yourself!Fitness Virtual Personal Trainer. Read More

Pac-Man classic arcade game enters augmented reality

By Gizmag Team

November 26, 2004 The latest application of augmented reality has hit the streets of Singapore - a physically interactive version of the classic arcade game 'Pac-Man'. Developed at the National University of Singapore's Mixed Reality Lab,

the "Human Pac- Man" is a working prototype that recreates the groundbreaking 1980 game within a new kind of computing experience. Players interact with each other and the digitised, 3D "Pacworld" environment overlaid on their field of vision through the use of wearble computers, a headset and goggles. One player acts as Pac-Man and the others roleplay the Ghosts, tracking each other down real-world streets or corridors with GPS receivers and motion technology linked to a central computer by a wireless LAN network. Read More

Trading cards get a DVD upgrade

By Gizmag Team

November 20, 2004 Sports trading cards have been with us for more than 100 years - a curious collectible that began as a tobacco and chewing gum promotion and has evolved into almost a currency in its own right. Now there's a new development which appears to be gathering strength as football trading cards get the multimedia treatment with the release of DVD Cardz. The DVD Card release will unite football fans with the latest in multimedia technology, bridging the gap between traditional football stickers and the contemporary video gaming industry. The cardz work in PlayStation 2 and X-box consoles, as well as standard DVD players and DVD-ROM drives. Each one contains 570 MB of interactive match video, superb photography, player stats, bios, music, trivia and strategy games. Read More