Are you one of the Dutchies that have 3.3 profiles on social media on average, or more? Are you constantly logging into Hyves, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. and reading your e-mail every time you have a free minute? Chances are you suffer from infobesity: an insatiable hunger for information and fear to miss out.
While this syndrome has nothing to do with being overweight, it can cause both mental and psysical complaints: overtiredness, lack of sleep and concentration problems. Smartphones that facilitate being online anytime and anywhere you want, are not helping either. What's this new phenomenon all about and what can we do to prevent it? Television show Netwerk broadcasted an item about infobesity and its symptoms.
Newspaper Trouw also published an article about infobesity and suggested the following precautions, specifically aimed at high school students, which can be found on their website. What are you doing to get an information break every once in a while?
Tuesday 1 June 2010
Wednesday 26 May 2010
Go shopping, cast your vote
The Dutch elections are only two weeks away and not only the political parties are demanding our attention. Many other institutions benefit from the confusion among citizens: what to choose on June 9th?
Brand research company Brand Asset Evaluator developed the BrandVoting website. Based on your preferences as a consumer, the website gives you advice on which party you should vote.
Brand research company Brand Asset Evaluator developed the BrandVoting website. Based on your preferences as a consumer, the website gives you advice on which party you should vote.
Categories include brand preference in cars, beer, charity organisations, cheese (!), ice cream, jeans... Although every brand has a certain set of brand values which may be represented by a polical party, it all looks pretty silly. Brand Asset Evaluator is not clear about the realization of the BrandVoting monitor. I reckon it's combining its data of consumer preference and political preference of their panel members, and thus teams up brands with political parties. However, I think no-one should decide on who to give their precious vote based on their shampoo prefererence. Nothing wrong with fun and games, but use your brain!
Tuesday 18 May 2010
Spotify: never stop the music
After many months of anticipating by countless Dutch music freaks (including myself), the day has finally come: Spotify is here! The Swedish music streaming service is available in The Netherlands as of today. Yours truly has been enthousiastic ever since I visited my friend in London who was using it while I was there: it's free, you can find almost any artist you're looking for and you stream the songs online, so no more excessive data storage! Although I was sceptical at first (sometimes it looks like cool concepts like these never seem to reach our small country), I've tried it today and I must say: the rumours are true! Spotify is great! So what's the business model? Here's a commercial that explains Spotify how works and positions it as the next step in the evolution of music:
Spotify is a programme anyone can download for free and install on their computer. With a personal login code, you can access your profile with your stored playlists and favourite tracks from any computer (if the software is installed, of course). There are three kinds of subscription possibilities: Free, Unlimited and Premium. Users can get access to Spotify for free, but then they'll hear advertisements between the songs. With an invitation for a free account you have unlimited access, without one you'll only get 20 hours per month. Unlimited users pay € 4,99 and get no adverts, and Premium members get several extras for € 9,99 per month: enhanced mp3 quality, access to Spotify on your mobile and exclusive content.
Once you've chosen your kind of deal, you can start listening to the 8 million tracks that are currently availble. Spotify also has many plug-ins to connect your listening behaviour to social networks, such as Last.fm or Facebook. Happy listening!
Spotify is a programme anyone can download for free and install on their computer. With a personal login code, you can access your profile with your stored playlists and favourite tracks from any computer (if the software is installed, of course). There are three kinds of subscription possibilities: Free, Unlimited and Premium. Users can get access to Spotify for free, but then they'll hear advertisements between the songs. With an invitation for a free account you have unlimited access, without one you'll only get 20 hours per month. Unlimited users pay € 4,99 and get no adverts, and Premium members get several extras for € 9,99 per month: enhanced mp3 quality, access to Spotify on your mobile and exclusive content.
Once you've chosen your kind of deal, you can start listening to the 8 million tracks that are currently availble. Spotify also has many plug-ins to connect your listening behaviour to social networks, such as Last.fm or Facebook. Happy listening!
Monday 19 April 2010
Saving the world was never this much fun
Treemagotchi is an online initiative that helps saving the world bit by bit. After a successful start last year, the trees are up for another season in the 2.0 edition. Users plant a virtual tree, which is guarded by a gnome, and by conducting simple and environmental-friendly actions they receive credits. With these credits, they can decorate their tree and 'buy' things for their gnome.
This is my tree! I planted it last week and after a few days, the first actions were available. On the basic level, users can earn 'beukennootjes' (credits) by cancelling the telephone book. This is basically a no-brainer, why would you need 500 pages of non-info on your doorstep every year when you can look up everything you need online? On the second, more hardcore, level one can receive more credits by downloading a special ecofont. This font looks just like a regular font, except it has lots of tiny holes inside the letters. Because of these holes, the font requires a lot less ink while printing. A perfect example of saving the environment and saving money at the same time.
Overall I think Treemagotchi is a fun, playful way of making normal people like you and I aware of the little things we can do to help the environment.
This is my tree! I planted it last week and after a few days, the first actions were available. On the basic level, users can earn 'beukennootjes' (credits) by cancelling the telephone book. This is basically a no-brainer, why would you need 500 pages of non-info on your doorstep every year when you can look up everything you need online? On the second, more hardcore, level one can receive more credits by downloading a special ecofont. This font looks just like a regular font, except it has lots of tiny holes inside the letters. Because of these holes, the font requires a lot less ink while printing. A perfect example of saving the environment and saving money at the same time.
Overall I think Treemagotchi is a fun, playful way of making normal people like you and I aware of the little things we can do to help the environment.
Tuesday 13 April 2010
Giveaway buzzing with social media
Within the last 5 minutes, I was alerted for two give-away promotions on Twitter and Facebook. Coincidence?
Number 1: Febo, the famous wall of snacks, is giving away free French fries tomorrow between 14:00 and 16:00. This reached me through a RT (retweet) on Twitter. Since April 8, Febo is using 100% bintje potatoes for their 'traditional' fries and they want everyone to know (and taste!) that.
Number 2: Starbucks serves free coffee on Thursday for anyone who brings their own mug, to create awareness for the garbage issue. Quite an extraordinary deal for a company that is known for its disposable (!) cups. I found out about this through this advert on Facebook:
My prediction is that these promotions will be highly successful, although they take minimal marketing costs and effort. Giving away free stuff will probably always be a winning formula (because: hey, we're Dutch, right?) but using the power of social media to create a buzz around it is incredibly smart. As soon as people find out, they are likely to use their networks to tell their friends, they will tell their friends and soon a buzz is born. I just feel sorry for all those poor employees who have to serve the hordes of people.
Number 1: Febo, the famous wall of snacks, is giving away free French fries tomorrow between 14:00 and 16:00. This reached me through a RT (retweet) on Twitter. Since April 8, Febo is using 100% bintje potatoes for their 'traditional' fries and they want everyone to know (and taste!) that.
Number 2: Starbucks serves free coffee on Thursday for anyone who brings their own mug, to create awareness for the garbage issue. Quite an extraordinary deal for a company that is known for its disposable (!) cups. I found out about this through this advert on Facebook:
My prediction is that these promotions will be highly successful, although they take minimal marketing costs and effort. Giving away free stuff will probably always be a winning formula (because: hey, we're Dutch, right?) but using the power of social media to create a buzz around it is incredibly smart. As soon as people find out, they are likely to use their networks to tell their friends, they will tell their friends and soon a buzz is born. I just feel sorry for all those poor employees who have to serve the hordes of people.
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