QR Tech Alert: SnapTags Become Fashionable

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

You may have seen QR Codes and Microsoft Tags here and there in print magazine ads. But fashion magazine Glamour is looking to ratchet up mobile tagging in print media with their fall fashion issue. The magazine has partnered with Facebook to add “SnapTags” to the cover and inside ad pages of their September edition. Readers with smartphones will scan the SnapTags and be encouraged to “Like” either Glamour’s or a relevant advertiser’s Facebook page.

Introducing the Next World's Tallest Building

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

New concept pictures have just been released for the Kingdom Tower project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The one-kilometer-tall skyscraper will dwarf the current place-holder, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, by nearly 200 meters. Within, 59 elevators will race you to the observation deck at 10 meters per second. This is not a building for the easily queasy!

Check out the website of Chicago's AS+GG Architecture, the firm designing the tower, for awe-inspiring renderings of what the completed project will look like. Construction is expected to start no later than this December, and take about five years to complete.

Remember, while these are computer renderings, this is a building they are really hoping to build - not a piece of CGI scenery for the next Star Wars project!

QR Tech Alert: Subway Shopping

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

UK-based retailer Tesco is bringing the store to the shopper using QR codes. In South Korea, the supermarket chain has set up a virtual storefront in a Seoul subway station. Wall-length advertisements were designed to look like market shelves, displaying product images and price tags featuring unique QR codes. Shoppers, while waiting for their train, can scan the codes, adding them to their online shopping cart. Once the transaction is complete, the order is processed at a nearby Tesco Homeplus and the real groceries are packaged up and delivered to the shopper’s home by the end of the day.

The approach lets consumers who may feel that they do not have enough time to go to the grocery store make ample use of their waiting time during commutes.

Click below to see a video of the set-up of the virtual supermarket:

Bringing Social Media Into the Office

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

Social media sites can be a great way for businesses to reach customers, but it’s hard to keep an open forum like Facebook anything but informal. So how do you utilize social media in your business and still keep an aura of professionalism?

iPhone 5 Update

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

Looks like it won't be until October that we see the release of the next generation of iPhone.

See this story at All Things D for details, including how Apple employees have been blocked from taking vacation the last two weeks of September in preparation for the iPhone 5 release!

Photo Credit: All Things D

Tablets Are From Mars, eReaders Are From Venus

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

Is the battle of the sexes spilling over into our tech preferences? It’s about more than just a choice between the pink or blue iPod Nanos. A recent study found that women are more likely to own an e-reader, and men more likely to own a tablet.

Research firm GfK MRI polled more than 26,000 adults in the U.S. and discovered that women are 52 percent more likely than men to own an e-reader, and men are 24 percent more likely than women to own a tablet.

The Tipping Point in Mobile Communications

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

Analysts at Neilsen say we have reached that point: in May, for the first time, smartphone sales outstripped feature phone sales. Feature phones would be the pre-cursors to smartphones, which maybe could handle a game or two and would give you minimal if any Internet access, if any.

How did we ever get along without the Internet on our phones?