Updated SMS choices get the message across
		Wine-focused videogame tantalizes oenophiles
		ISM news: Toronto, meet Emirates.

Online fast-food orders speeding up

Traveling to the dark side

Updated SMS choices get the message across

A recent crop of opt-in and automatic SMS options are bringing text back. Or more accurately, forward. It’s no secret that SMS is the communication mode of choice for lightning-thumbed Millennials on the move. And text alerts with a range of real-time updates on weather, news and flight status are seized on by world-weary biz travelers for whom information is a power point. Now, info-hungry mobile consumers across every demo are receiving more convenience, connectivity and security than ever before.

In Middlesex County, New Jersey, motorists avoid gridlock on the Garden State Parkway by signing up at the Emergency Traffic Network, which originally began as a fax service a decade ago. New York City is prepping a pilot program for 2008 that blasts red alert messages with pinpoint geographic accuracy, so only citizens in harm’s way receive the notice. Across the pond, the Brits are trash-talking via SMS, sending constituents Community Text reminders of the proper days to drag recycling to the curb. Text alerts are also making consumers feel good—or at least better. A number of health-oriented notification services are up and running with SMS. PillBell reminds pill-poppers to take their meds with prearranged timed alerts. Hospital admissions have dropped 32% in Surrey, England, with the introduction of a home care system in which patients respond via touchtone to a symptom checklist and practitioners are sent a text if conditions have worsened.

A host of other ingenious, targeted SMS services are available to help with everything from household chores to downtime on the couch. The CBS Eye-lert informs tube watchers when scheduled programs get bumped—and texts them again with the new time. eSuds texts dorm dwellers once their laundry is fluffed and folded; and Are You Watching This? sends sports fans a heads-up when game scores are close. In Russia, vodka imbibers can confirm that they’re not swilling bogus booze by sending the serial number from the bottle to a state-run agency and receiving a yea or nay response.

While big hands and small buttons equal textual dysfunction for many consumers, ISM sees voice-to-text technologies as an emerging alternative. SpinVox and Jott are two examples of providers that transcribe voicemail and send off the message as a text. Watch for this to become a boon for mobile users—especially auto commuters—who need their hands on the steering wheel, not the scrolling wheel. The bottom line is that forgetful consumers are embracing the convenience of set-it-and-forget-it text apps that act as watchdog reminders on everything from health to pop culture. At ISM, we consider them the Post-it Notes of tomorrow and are developing innovative ways to deploy them for our clients.

Don’t call them Nintendrunks. Beginners Wine DS, a videogame for wine lovers, is being launched in Japan. The title challenges wannabe oenophiles to test their wine-tasting and wine-selecting skills. DS players get quizzed on wine knowledge (the game has information on 120+ specific bottles), but they also get a guide telling them how to fake grape savvy in case they drink themselves into a corner. Wine manners also matter: players are tested on their glass-swirling techniques. Available as yet only in Japan, the game isn’t Nintendo’s first foray into the food world—the Wii’s Cooking Mama previously challenged players to slice and dice their way to the top of the kitchen.

Videogames long ago moved past first-person shooters and orc-hunting role-playing games. Beginners Wine DS engages the brains of nontraditional gamers as well as DS devotees by offering a savvy, helpful take on the often esoteric world of wine. ISM believes casual and on-the-go games will increasingly be a way to engage and educate customers as they look for quick hits of interactive entertainment in their off- and on-line journeys.

Legendary for its luxury and award-winning service, Emirates is no ordinary airline. So no ordinary thinking would do when introducing their non-stop flight from Toronto to Dubai, the newest of their over 90 international destinations. ISM has helped Emirates instantly become a part of the Toronto landscape by wrapping a downtown skyscraper, the first time it’s ever been done in this manner in Canada. Our ten-story remote control with 600 buttons represents the over 600 on-demand channels available on Emirates’ inflight entertainment system. Other innovative creative and media ideas in the Toronto launch include using elevator doors, three-dimensional baggage carousel messaging and even red carpets on floors leading to large posters in the PATH pedestrian tunnel system, along with radio, print, outdoor and online campaigns. Following on the heels of their tremendously successful North American introduction in New York City—with two new flights being added from JFK already—and based on pre-launch bookings, the forecast is nothing but blue skies for Emirates’ Toronto debut.

Fast-food delivery has entered the Digital Age. Instead of phoning in orders and getting stuck on hold, more and more people are clicking and texting their requests to local coffee shops and big national chains. As purveyors of America’s most-delivered food, pizza chains are in the vanguard of the movement. Every 60 seconds, 30 people nationwide place an online order at Pizza Hut, where internet sales jumped six fold from 2004 to 2007. QuikOrder’s just-patented FavOrder technology makes the process even quicker. Once customers enter their payment information, they can place repeat orders with a single click on a PC, PDA or cell phone. Helping to drive the trend? Cyber-savvy Millennials. Students at more than 300 U.S. campuses text food orders between classes via Campusfood.com, which is expanding its network. Ordering online doesn’t just save consumers time. It lets them specify every detail, from “no pickles” to “2% milk,” drastically cutting the chance of error. Restaurants benefit, too. Online orders free workers to process food instead of phones and virtually eliminate irate calls from customers with botched deliveries. Why be on hold with room service when you could more easily order right from your cell phone? With Americans wired to fast food as much as to cell phones, ISM says ordering meals online will soon be commonplace.

Whether it’s morbid curiosity or a backlash to fully packaged, theme park tourism, travel to sites of disaster, death and depravity has become popular enough to warrant a genre of its own—Dark Tourism. Lonely Planet 2007 Blue List offers a section on Dark Tourism, with information on such sites as Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic and Toul Sleng in Cambodia. In March 2007, the U.K.-based Dark Tourism Forum held a conference on current themes, issues and consequences of Dark Tourism (Dark-Tourism.org.uk 9.07). Exploring The Dark Side of humanity by slumming and experimenting holds a subversive thrill for experiential travelers. Remembrance of the past? Or just a secret pleasure in interacting with the ghastly—whatever the motivator, ISM sees consumers wanting access to avenues, resources and opportunities to fill a growing niche.

© 2007 ISM and Iconoculture, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published monthly by ISM in partnership with Iconoculture.