Anita Leopold has a little surprise for anyone who thinks vending machines were created to dispense lightly salted snack food and sugar-laced temptations.

The top treat in the sleek, high-tech machines operated by her company and ZoomSystems at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is a top-of-the-line Apple iPod that fetches $349 before tax. It comes with a money-back guarantee, and it doesn’t drop from anywhere.

A sophisticated robotic arm gently guides the mini-music machine to the buyer’s hands.

“We’ve done about $55,000 in a month in gross sales just for the one on Concourse A,” said Leopold, executive vice-president and owner Business Traveler Services. “This is becoming the future for some high-end products in places like airports where space is at a premium.”

Mark Mullins, Zoom’s executive vice-president, said his company now has machines, which, depending on the location, dispense everything from skin-care products to batteries. They are in more than 300 locations nationwide, including universities, military bases and more than 126 Macy’s stores. Mullins said there are 11 Zoom machines in metro Atlanta.

“We put in some iPods and found we couldn’t keep them in stock,” he said, “We found no customer resistance to swiping a card and buying a $300 item from a machine. We’re selling thousands (of iPods), and the machines at the Atlanta airport are major contributors to that.”

I’ve seen Cast Away and only really remember Tom Hanks getting a Volleyball that comes onto the beach in a package which makes me chuckle a little at this commercial. The FedEx employee gets stranded on a deserted island with only his package. A long time later he ends up at this women’s doorstep and she opens the package to reveal a satellite phone and many other goodies which could have saved him a lot quicker. Human misery is always funny with FedEX!

In this obvious spoof commercial, an old man farts into a ‘pure’ water bottle and when someone opens it up the fart is released. Pretty interesting if you are into that ‘weird’ style of humor. For anyone who knows French, fill us in please.

That’s right folks. Those idiotic Bedazzler bead commercials and informercials are back on the viewing air waves for all to enjoy. I thought this product was a flop and just disappeared but it is making a second coming. The ads encourage ‘going bedazzler crazy’ but for $19.95 you only are provided with 300 rhinestones which really isn’t enough to ‘go crazy’.

Does this remind you of your job as a ‘yes’ man on the telephone? In this commercial (a spoof that contains swearing) is a quite ubiquitous ad that has driven many of us at Caffeine Marketing insane. You’ll find yourself picking your brain after watching it so enjoy.

The rise and fall of the PlayStation 3 on eBay is one of the most talked about gaming stories of the year. In order to paint a broader picture, I’ve tracked pricing trends from preorders to Christmas Eve and surveyed retailers to determine just how hard the PS3 grey market has crashed. In the days leading up to the PlayStation 3 launch in mid-November, people all over the country lined up with dollar signs in their eyes, hoping to cash in on what was sure to be the most sought after gift this holiday season. I talked to many people planning on financing college, cars, vacations, and countless other dream items with the fruits of their labor.

A week later those hopes and dreams were crushed, as reports of plummeting eBay prices poured in. Just how fast did the PS3 grey market crash? Take a look for yourself, and feel free to click the graph for a larger version.

Within two days of the system’s launch the going price dropped by over $1000. eBay prospectors across the country were stunned at the rapid depreciation of their investment. While they were still looking at $600 profit on average, it was a far cry from the windfall everyone had been expecting. Read the rest of this entry »

At a new breed of “Robin Hood” restaurants, diners pay what they can afford — and what they think the meal is worth. Deciding between the spicy peanut stew and the pesto chicken, or the squash soup and the avocado, chicken, lime soup, are not the only decisions tempting patrons at the One World Café in Salt Lake City and the SAME (So All Might Eat) Café in Denver. They must also decide what the meal is worth.

These pay-as-you-can cafes have missions that are unapologetically altruistic—call it serving up fare Robin Hood style. “Our philosophy is that everyone, regardless of economic status, deserves the chance to eat healthy, organic food while being treated with dignity,” explains Brad Birky, who opened SAME with his wife, Libby, in October. Customers who have no money are encouraged to exchange an hour of service — sweep, wash the dishes, weed the organic garden — for a meal. Likewise, guests who have money are encouraged to leave a little extra to offset the meals of those who have less to give. “We’re a hand up, not a hand out,” says One World owner Denise Cerreta, who prides herself on the fact that everyone can afford a meal at her café.

Ever wondered what company logos mean and whats the significance behind them? Wonder no more! Take for example the Amazon.com website logo. You might think the arrow does nothing here. But it says that amazon.com has everything from a to z and it also represents the smile brought to the customer’s face. Wow, that is quite deep.

Find more at Fun On The Internet

Hope Community Church is trying to rebuild its name after spreading the word about its former website. That former website’s domain name was bought by a porn company when the domain expired and the church forgot to re-register it for the next year. Pastor Steve Spearing said Friday the mix-up happened a few weeks ago when the church changed Internet service providers. Spearing said he believed the church could keep its Web site name, which contained the words “life” and “Christ.” But the old service provider put the address up for sale and it was bought by a pornographic Web site.

But the old service provider put the address up for sale and it was bought by a pornographic Web site.

Social networking website, Bebo, is set to launch its first advertiser widgets which are small web based applications that social site users can embed in their personal profiles.

One of the widgets is an advertiser supported photo-sharing widget from Slide, Photobucket, and Rockyou. The company plans on adding a variety of other widgets users can add to their profile such as video and music players. The ad widgets are part of what Bebo vp of sales and business development Jim Scheinman calls “engagement marketing,” designed to combine Web ads with user-directed viral marketing. Visitors to a profile with a widget for their own page can add it with a couple clicks.

“If it’s great content, it’s going to engage the user so much more,” he said. “To the Beboer, they don’t look at it like advertising but great content.”

Kellog is banking on printing trivial pursuit questions on their famous Pop-Tarts to help boost sales. There are over 200 varieties of edible “Trivial Pursuit for Kids” questions and answers that will be imprinted on millions of Strawberry Pop-Tarts in the year long campaign titled “Printed Fun Pop-Tarts.”

The promotion began last week and this is the first time that Kellog has used ink-jet food technology on their best selling brand. “Pop-Tarts are enjoyed by kids of all ages,” said Marta Cyhan, vp-promotions, Kellogg. “By incorporating this breakthrough ink-jet technology, we are able to deliver added fun to one of their favorite foods.”

The big Hollywood studios have been aggressively promoting their hot new movies with online EST (Eletronic sell-through) mediums such as CinemaNow, Apple’s iTunes, and Movielink with minimal results. Looking back, in 2006 we were introduced to the next wave of movie formats to help pick up the slumming industry including HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc. Both of this, unfortunately, cost nearly $1,000 for a player and $20 - $40 for a movie disc.

At the end of 2006, as we look back we are noticing that high-def discs and online movie downloads are just a blip on the radar as the home entertainment and DVD market is begining to resurge during the 3rd quarter of 06′.

As Kelley Avery, president of worldwide home entertainment at Paramount Pictures, put it, “Contrary to popular belief, reports of the decline of DVD have been exaggerated.”

“What we’re looking at is a market that is up slightly from last year, overall,” Sony Pictures Home Entertainment president David Bishop said. “But if you break down the components, we’re projecting DVD sales to be up 3%, year-over-year, and rental to be up about 12%. What drags the industry down to a flat or slightly up basis is that VHS sales and rentals are virtually going away.”

Allens Arthur Robinson paired up with Westgate agency and friends for this ‘Doodle Campaign’ to demonstrate the creative nature behind the advertising industry. Check out the Campaign File from Best Ads On Tv.
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Hi-Fi Klubben illustrates a woman dressed as your favorite KISS character, Gene Simmons in this recent print advertisement which reads “Something wrong with your favorites? Change your stero! Hi-Fi Klubben.” AdPunch has more from this campaign including a ‘Like a Virgin’ spoof ad.

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On Aug. 12, a group of 12 fans of the Web browser Mozilla Firefox, which competes with Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer, used two-by-fours and rope to hollow out a 30,000-square-foot impression of the brand’s logo in an oat field outside of Salem, Ore. The handmade crop circle wasn’t the first time Mozilla diehards had displayed their support for the brand publicly. In December, 2004, a group raised enough cash to buy a two-page ad in The New York Times to thank those who had contributed to the launch of the beloved browser.

But neither of these stunts was orchestrated by a PR firm or in-house marketing guru. What’s more, the more than 10,000 programmers who are constantly tweaking the open-source coding and performing quality controls on the Firefox browser are volunteers, not employees. And the 60,000 Web sites that have linked to Mozilla’s site to encourage people to download the browser receive no compensation.

It’s this growing community that has allowed Mozilla, a small company with about 60 full-time employees, to compete with juggernauts like Microsoft. “One of our distinguishing characteristics is that we’re a small organization competing on a large playing field,” says Asa Dotzler, community coordinator for Mozilla. He says the company owes its success to its users and their “passion for Firefox.”

The branding success of companies like Mozilla, Pom Wonderful, Craigslist, and others show that you don’t have to be big for your brand to be big. By building a dedicated group of users or customers, small companies can create formidable brand power.