MarcForrest.com

Category: On The Marc

  • Coke 125 year QR code campaign a #Fail

    Yesterday I picked up my copy of the Sunday Times newspaper, to be greeted with what looked like a cool campaign for their 125th year birthday celebration. On the front page there was a prompt to turn to page 3, which I did, and lo and behold, there was a QR code to snap. I was stoked. Finally, brands are climbing on the QR code bandwagon, and using them to enhance their advertising campaigns.

    This one was pretty plain & simple. There were a couple of instructions to SMS a premium rated number to get a download link to get the app. I didn’t bother downloading the app, and instead used my new favorite QR Code app, Qrafter (more on that tommorrow).

    If you sent an SMS to the premium rated number, it came back prompting you to go to http://www.coke125.co.za, which did have some info about coke and allowed you to download the Scanlife QR Code app

    I snapped the code, which lead me to a webpage. Imagine my utter dissapointment, when the code resolved to nothing, but a simple webpage – http://www.coke125.co.za/ar/, with a movie clip on it. Nothing else. Just a plain white page with a movie clip ??? Nothing to tell us about how addicted we have become to your product over the last 125 years ? Nothing about how many cans of coke you have sold in the last 125 years ? Really ? Not even a nice mobi site styled nicely for mobile screen.

    So I ventured forth & clicked on the movie clip. And all I got was a 31 second movie clip with a bottle of coke wasting some of the good black stuff, by spewing it out the bottle telling us they have shared a 125 years of happiness with us. Um, Thanks & Happy Birthday. Really.

    Seriously. I am totally dissapointed with this. Here is a global brand, who I’m sure understands what QR Codes & mobile is all about, and how to execute it properly. Coke spent around R210,000 (according to the Sunday Times ad rate card), and achieved nothing from it. Nothing (except this whining blog post).

    Honestly though, this has to be one of the most poorly executed QR Code campaigns I have ever seen. Next time gimme a shout, and I’ll give you some tips on how to properly execute a QR Code campaign.

    Sidenote: (If you sent an SMS to the premium rated number, it came back prompting you to go to http://www.coke125.co.za, which did have some info about coke and allowed you to download the Scanlife QR Code app, and some “cool stuff” My argument here though is, that if you didn’t send the premium rated SMS, then you would never land on their site. The QR code seems like it was just dumped in the paper to try and make it look good, and to get people to pay the premium rated SMS to “download” the QR App)

  • The next step in #Project2011

    The next step in #Project2011

    So you may have been following my Project2011 project, where my goal is to become leaner & fitter. So far it has been going really well, and although I haven’t been riding as much as I should have, I have been training Kettlebells quite hard, as well as following a proper eating plan. I also did another mudman triathlon event a few weeks ago, which turned out to be disastrous, thanks to all the mud. Horrible ! I do however plan to get back on the bike as soon as it starts getting a bit cooler in the mornings.

    Admittedly over the last couple of weeks, I have lost a bit of personal focus on the eating side of things. The training has been good, but with easter and the holidays, seems to have messed things up a bit. Overall, I am probably down around 15-20 kg’s in body weight since I started in Jan, but have turned a quite a bit of fat into muscle thanks to the Kettlebells.

    So I chatted to Sean from FluxMotion who has been mentoring me over the last few months with the whole fitness & eating plan, and he suggested we start with a new fresh project, and I’ll be the Guinea pig to test it out. So obvisouly I jumped on board strtaight away ;)

    So, in came Travis Gale from AppleTree who’s Motto is “Live Life Now”. Travis is the catalyst in the project, and takes the role of “Mental coach” to ensure I stay on the right path. This is exactly what I need and over the next 12 weeks, I will be working together with Sean & Travis in achiveing my goals, while keeping fit, trim and mentally stable :) You can read Travis’ take on the project on his blog – http://travisgale.wordpress.com/project-forrest/

    One of the key elements to the project is that I’ll be keeping a daily journal of my activities. This includes before photos (be warned), eating plans and training journals. It’s really just an online diary of whats happening, as well as a motivator for me to go back and read on. You can follow it at http://thinmarc.posterous.com

    I am really look forward to the next 12 weeks, as well as working with these 2 great guys, and can’t wait to see the results. Stay tuned, as I will be posting updates as I go along.

  • Medialoadr – The ulitimate Mac & WordPress app

    Medialoadr – The ulitimate Mac & WordPress app

    One of the biggest pains for me when using WordPress is the uploading of images for posts, especially in when you need to do a bulk upload. The uploading interface is simple, but can sometimes take ages to upload, and often leaves me frustrated.

    Enter Medialoadr (Mac App Store link – $4.99). The awesome Mac OSx app, that allows you to simply drag & drop your images, and upload them to your wordpress site.

    The Medialoadr interface is so simple to use, all you do is drag your images to the Medialoadr icon in your taskbar, and it starts uploading them. As easy as that !!

    From the Medialoadr site:

    medialoadr is a lightweight application for OS X that allows you to upload multiple files to any of your WordPress powered websites. Simply drag your files from Finder or drop a zip folder** onto the menubar icon, choose your account and watch as the files upload to your chosen account without needing to open your favourite browser.

    The app costs $4.99 and can be downloaded from the Mac App Store. I also have 2 app store codes to give away so you can download the app for free. All you need to do is leave a comment below, and a random winner will be chosen.

  • Powermonkey – The ultimate lifesaving gadget

    I came across this awesome gadget the other day called the Powermonkey. At first glance you could, well, be mistaken for its use, given it’s rather “interesting” shape, but this is one gadget that is a MUST have.

    The Powermonkey is essentially a battery recharge on the go. So, you out and about using your phone like a madman, tweeting, checking mail, connected to WiFi etc etc, and suddenly your phone beeps and says, ” Battery low” And you nowhere near a charger ! I know this has happened to me. Not once, but plenty times !

    The Powermonkey comes with a whole bunch of connectors for almost any device you want. You can plug it into your phone, PSP, camera, iPad anything, and your device instantly starts charging. The Powermonkey comes with a 60% charge as you take it out of the box, so you can use it straight away. You can recharge it using a USB slot on your computer, or with the supplied adapter, that comes with a whole whack of travel adapters. Recharging to full 100% takes around 3 hours, and then that should give you about 96 hours charge on your phone or around 1600 pictures on a camera.

    I been using one for the last couple of days, and I can honestly say, this this is a must have. Especially if you travel quite a bit, and always find yourself running out of battery power on your phone.The Powermonkey retails for around R500, and you can in a variety of colours. You can also download the full fact  & spec sheet with more info.

     

  • Gadgets & Gizmos in the Airport Magazine

    The guys & girls from Fabmags here in KZN, have recently launched an awesome new magazine called “The Airport Mag“. The FREE monthly magazine is distrubuted at King Shaka Airport, and focuses on lifestyle and local news from around the country. They also have a section on “best places” to visit in various cities around the country.

    The mag is designed to be a quick read while you on the plane, but also something you take home, to read again. I really enjoyed the layout of the magazine, and there are some awesome articles as well. In the next couple of months the magazine, should start being distributed at OR Tambo and then Cape Town airport. Monthly distribution is currently around 20,000

    I have been asked by the team to contribute to the Gadgets & Gizmos section of the mag, where I review a couple of interesting gadgets every month, and give more info about them. The info is pretty brief, but includes a larger image to get an idea of what it’s all about.

    In the first edition, I featured the iPad2, DSTV Drifta, The Nintendo 3DS & the XBox Kinect. You can download a copy of the section in PDF, by clicking on the image below.

    If you have any suggestions of Gadgets or Gizmos you would like me to review or if you would like your product reviewed, leave a comment below