Another month – another twitter round-up.

Using the new and improved Hootsuite here are the most clicked links from the Trendplanner Twitter account for July. For other useful Twitter links on similar themes, check out Qapture which collects links shared by various people on Twitter (including Trendplanner).


1. Steve Jobs on why Apple doesn’t do market research – http://ow.ly/iyXN

2. Placement is key: Just look at these 15 Unfortunately Placed Ads http://ow.ly/gmbm

3. graffiti archaeology – brilliant. http://ow.ly/hBXu

4. Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality http://ow.ly/h6Uv

5. Mobile Phones let us change our plans – Geo-location could stop us planning altogether: http://ow.ly/i0Kz

6. Top 10 Augmented Reality Adveritising Campaigns so far. #ar #tech http://ow.ly/dsHv

7. Nike LIVESTRONG – Chalkbot. A great idea from nike for the #tdf http://ow.ly/gEQU

8. Freaky AR business card – http://ow.ly/hjiT

9. Lego:Pretty cool for a 50-yr-old. How has Lego succeeded where so many have failed? http://ow.ly/hmc7

10. Spotify iPhone app: 10 things you never knew. http://ow.ly/ihfR

Image: Monstro

Obviously Lego is a toy of many peoples’ past, but this needn’t be a negative thing. Lego has used it’s history to create a whole new audience for it’s product – people who aren’t kids any more. Lego is retro, retro is cool, so now you’ll find the Lego brand in some rather unexpected places. So people are loving Lego again, but perhaps they feel they’re a bit too old to be making things out of blocks? No problem, Lego has teamed up with fashion label Paul Frank to bring you Lego products that you can wear. You can also get your hands on a section of Lego accessories such as cameras and mp3 players, not all of these are official Lego products, but all go towards keeping that Lego brand in fashion.

It’s all very well appealing to new audiences, but this is no good if you end up neglecting your original and still primary audience. Lego are still providing products aimed at children, and key to this is the work they do around these products. Toys such as Lego face serious competition from digital content such as computer games and various online activities. Many brands would try and fight this digital technology, fortunately for Lego they are not one of these brands. Instead of working against digital technology, they have worked with it. Lego can’t stop kids playing computer games, so Lego have made their own, Lego can’t stop kids spending their time online on social networks, and online games, so once again they have made their own online content, and put themselves in the places people already are. More brand collaboration has enabled Lego to turn competitors into partners with the likes of SpongeBob Squarepants and Harry Potter Lego, and take the brand into new markets such as their recent tie in with Kickers school shoes.

Lego have not just been getting involved with the technology their audience are currently using, but they are heavily involved in developing the technology they will be using in the future. Augmented reality appears to be starting to take off, and Lego are one of the brands at the forefront of developing the technology and essentially directing the path it takes into the lives of their audience. Lego has used the technology to complement and assist the current product. Lego has installed AR terminals into their stores (above) in which customers can hold up a box full of Lego pieces to get a 3D image of what the product will look like when it’s finished. Then when the customer gets home they can even use AR to help them build the product.

Lego haven’t been doing the hard work by themselves, some of the best content has been done by Lego fans (see above) and can be found all over YouTube, and other Social Media sites. But then that’s what happens when you’ve built a brand people are happy to associate themselves with and most importantly when you’ve got a great product that lets your audience be creative.

Key to Lego’s success is synergy, isolate anyone element of the Lego offering and its very unlikely to perform at the same level, but together each element works along side one another which benefits the individual elemetent and the brand as a whole. Lego have managed to expand and evolve their product offering while staying true to their brand, be it amazing theme park rides or augmented reality experiences you can always trace it back to those original plastic blocks.

Here are 5 of the best examples that demonstrate what can be done and where this is going.

Lego

Lego have really embraced AR, as well as this advanced instruction programme, they’ve put AR terminals in stores where customers can simply hold a up a box full of bits and see a digital version of the completed model. Read on to see how BMW have taken this to the next level.

Ray-ban

A great idea to really boost the e-commerce potential for sunglasses. Put off buying shades online because you can’t try them on? Well now you can.

Carcade

Created by a group of students at Berlin University, this is a game that uses the real world as the in game environment. Very clever and not a bad way to pass the time on those long car journeys!

Wikitude AR travel guide

It’s all very well having all this clever technology, but if it only works when you’re sitting at your desk then it not actually that accessible or useful. But thanks to Google Andriod we can now experience AR through mobile phones. This clever application lets you see information about your surroundings by simply pointing your mobile camera.

BMW

So we’ve done mobile, but during complex tasks (say like fixing a car) using a mobile isn’t very practical. So BMW take things to the next level with the concept of wearing some clever glasses that let you see the digital content. They could even develop this for more complex tasks like putting together ikea furniture…

I recently threw together a list of things that might be ‘big in 2009′. On of which was Augmented Reality (AR). One of the best ways to get your head round it is to see it, so check out the video above.

So what is it?

‘Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data’

Sound like something you’ve only seen in films?

Not exactly, you’ve actually seen it all before. When we watch the weather report we’re experiencing augmented reality (AR), in reality the weather man (or girl) is just standing in front of a blank wall, but in the augmented reality we view through our TV they’re in front of a fancy image of the country informing us that those dark clouds are on their way. But in 2009 we’ll be seeing AR bring us a lot more than just rain.

Lego are already using the technology in their stores. Customers can view themselves on a screen, and when holding a specific Lego product box, their image will include a fully assembled model seemingly on top of the box so they can see exactly what all those bits should end up as. So AR can bring you the product before you actually have it in it’s physical form. Of course this could be extremely useful for those selling online, you could see exactly what that sofa looks like in your living room, or what that hat will really look like on you without actually having the product.
The mobile phone and the Internet are changing the way we can use AR. Our mobiles provide us with a portal into our augmented world, and the internet is building and maintaining this world. Soon (or now at a basic level on some phones) you will be able to point your mobile at anything in the ‘real world’ to reveal information from the ‘digital world’. For example walk down any street and point your mobile camera viewer to see a world that includes information about the things in front of you such as road names, shop names, restaurant review ratings, or any other information the internet might have.
It might not be long until our desire to view AR drives us to have devices that allow us quicker access such as glasses or even contact lenses. Look at anything and be delivered all the Internet has to offer, look at the cup of coffee a person is holding to find the nearest coffee shop, or look at the person to see their facebook profile.
We might not be there yet, but you might want to make sure you’re a firmly established part the digital world before it becomes fully augmented into the real world.

Here’s some clever stuff from Lego (not actually related to this picture).

Watch Video

The video shows how through a monitor you can see the completed item in a 3D image as though it is on the box you are holding.

Apparently Lego are using these in their stores, a great way for Lego customers to get a feel for what’s in the box. Especially products (like lego) that you get in pieces, so can you see what it should look like (if you don’t mess it up).

This technology could also be used out of store as an intuitive way for the user to view a 3D image of the product from all angles.

Photo: Reuters