Here’s my entry for Future Lions – 2009.

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Brand: Nintendo Wii

Video game makers develop cooking games

Video game makers have come up with a range of games designed around cooking.

Nintendo has introduced Personal Trainer: Cooking for the Nintento DS for $19.99. This digital cookbook includes 245 recipes that you can sort by ingredient, calorie count, preparation time or country of origin. Each recipe includes extremely detailed, illustrated instructions.

Atari has launched What’s Cooking? by Jamie Oliver for the Nintendo DS for $29.99. The game includes around 100 recipes.

Ubisoft’s Hell’s Kitchen for the Wii for $39.99; and for the Nintendo DS, $29.99 combines kitchen work with restaurant management.

Source: Foodservice.com 12-17-2008

Everyone wants a Wii…. (including me)

Xbox LIVE Rocks(ed) The Vote

Cool idea that no one thought about! Microsoft had partnered with Rock the Vote to allow gamers to register to vote through Xbox LIVE. That’s right, registering to vote is now as easy as downloading a gamer pic from the Xbox Marketplace.

I really feel this is a great way to get gamers involved in the political process. What’s better than mixing something boring (like registering to vote) with something you love (games), and then making it super-easy to do both at the same time? There’s even going to be a presidential poll! I can’t wait to see what other gamers think: Obama or McCain?

As we all know that gamers suffer from the stereotype of being lazy, but this was an excellent way to do what’s right without getting up from your couch.

There are over 12 million gamers on Xbox LIVE , most of them in U.S. Imagine if Sony followed through with PS3 and Nintendo did the same with Wii. There could have been potential for a huge amount of gamers to stand up and make their voices heard.

This initiative will either be highly successful (a lot of people sign up) or fail horribly (no one signs up, or everyone has already registered, so they don’t have to). Honestly, it could be taken either ways. I just feel that this idea was cool !

Can mobile marketing get bigger?

Mobile is no more limited to a 3.5 inch touch screen phone with mp3 capabilities & what not. Its no more a mobile phone,but it is a 3.5 inch wizard loaded with unimaginable capabilities. From online streaming of videos to Social networking, from high quality gaming to making presentations you can do it all! Phones are your new navigators, personal assistants, gaming tools! Day is not far when Xbox, PS or Wii may come up with mobile phone loaded with gaming capabilities!

Smartphone unit sales almost tripled from 2004 to 2005, and increased by 50% in the first half of 2006 over 2005 , reports In-Stat. In another research suggests that Smart phones will comprise 9.3 percent of mobile phones sold in 2009! It is the closest way a marketer can get to a consumer. No other medium is as personally engaging. Hurray!!!! again a whole new toy for the marketers to play with.

One area that has caught marketer’s attention is Mobile Search Marketing, though it is still at a very nascent stage, its evolving rapidly as more 3G cellphones erode the market. Industry analysts have forecasted humongous growth in MSM. For 2007, mobile industry-watchers predicts $1.7 billion in revenues & have estimated $11 billion by 2011, making it a promising frontier to look out for!

The search engines are naturally interested in extending their ad platforms to the cell phone. In early September, Google began allowing its Adwords marketers to create mobile ads to run on the networks of cellular carriers in Germany , UK and the United States. Microsoft & Yahoo are also exploring opportunities into this frontier.

Wow! isn’t it too much for a small device called mobile phone. I sometimes wonder how microscopic can we go in pursuit to enhance brand experience & gain consumer’s attention. I am sure, at this point of time earth is the best place to be in.