So a couple of night’s ago I was at the NZ Wireless and Broadband’s Forum’s Wireless Wednesday. I was there to pre announce a Location Based Services application development competition. If you have read my Bio, you will be aware that I was a founding member of this organisation in New Zealand and the first elected President. I still remember the day we were working on a name for our monthly get togethers and I came up with Wireless Wednesday. Well the name has stuck and Steve Simms, the current president said that there have now been around 163 of them!
I haven’t been to the Forum for a while because it wasn’t relevant to my current activities, but with this upcoming competition and a new focus on bringing LBS into the real world, things are going to change.
What was really cool for me is that it is around 10 years since the Wireless Data Forum (as we were called then) launched it’s first developers competition for wireless and mobile applications. Even more so was the coincidence that this week’s excellent presentation was made by Ghanum Taylor of The Hyperfactory. The Hyperfactory won that first competition all those years ago. At the time they were an enthusiastic family group, Derek and Geoffrey Handley and a few other people who were equally passionate about the potential of mobile cellular technology.
These guys never wavered from their passion and commitment and I think it is worth a mention that passion imho is the single most important factor in their rise to success. They worked tirelessly and dragged the advertising and direct marketing industries, kicking and screaming into the future.
Just like many other technologies I enjoy, the market has slipped into the mass adopter phase without anyone noticing. If you saw a txt to win coupon on a product, you would simply txt the coupon number to a short code today and think nothing of it. LBS marketing is coming big time.
I’m not going to talk about their campaigns, because they can do it far better than I. Just go to their website and it is full of video’s and campaign success stories.
I didn’t start this blog as a kudos story for The Hyperfactory, but I do think that they can take some credit for helping to change the face of tomorrow’s advertising world. Check out a few of these names and I’ll wager (their first application concept was designed to allow people to bet against each other at sporting events via their mobiles) that you have seen or participated in one of their mobile campaigns:
- Coca Cola
- Nivea
- Adidas
- Vodafone
- Motorola
- Tylenol
- Kellogs
- Jim Beam, and the list goes on.
I’m not big on advertising. Most of the time I don’t pay attention to TVC’s at all, with rare exceptions like the Vodafone commercial where the guy folds up his life and puts it in his pocket (I really like the song and the dobro guitar) or the new Ford adverstisement where all the instruments in the orchestra are made of car parts.
In general, I hardly ever read print ads. I read a book during the TV commercials and these days rarely listen to broadcast radio as I am educating and updating myself in podcasts. Advertising is creeping surrepticiously into podcasts, in fact there are companies specialising in ads for podcats, but they tend to be well targetted which means that I am probably interested in the products, or I can fast forward my iPod anyway.
Anyway, watch this space for news about an exciting new competition in New Zealand for LBS Applications.
Ngai Tahu Silenced Critical Tenants at Wigram
[Article appeared in local newspaper "Western News", retyped for your edification, wouldn't usually reproduce an article in it's entirity but this is from a community paper so I doubt they will mind too much.]
Full facts on airfield not heard, Wigram candidate claims.
By Cullen Smith
National Party candidate for Wigram Marc Alexander claims a gagging clause in Ngai Tahu tenancy agreements has prevented the city council hearin gthe full story on possible aviation initiatives for Wigram airfield.
The council this week accepted a petition of more than 4000 signatures from people opposed to the airfield's planned closure in February to make way for 2000 new houses.
But councillors then voted unaminously to approve a plan change that allows an 84ha portion of the 250ha airfield owne by Ngai Tahu Property Ltd to be subdivided for housing development.
Ngai Tahu Property served notice to all commerical tenants last month that the airfield would close on February 28. It will be closed to all air traffic from next month.
Mr Alexander, a former United Future MP who is standing against the incumbent Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton in the upcoming general election, presented the petition that was formally accepted by councillors on Thursday.
Mr Alexnder said petitioners urged councillors to defer approval for any plan to subdivide Wigram Airfield for housing until all interested parties had been fully consulted and briefed.
He told Western News he believed the council "got it wrong" by approving the plan change without hearing all the facts.
Under a clause in the Ngai Tahu tenancy agreement, Wigram tenants were forbidden to oppose any town planning or resource management submission made by thier landlord.
Mr Alexander said Mayor Bob Parker had reiterated to councillors that it was completely acceptable for landlords to impose such conditions.
"While that's true legally, the point has to be made that by doing so it denies the council getting more information before making an important decision," he said.
The council had been told in submissions that aviation had no future at Wigram and there were no commercial possibilities for the airfield.
"That was clearly misrepresenting the truth because the pilot school wanted to expand byt were unable to do so because Ngai Tahu basically curtailed their activities," he said.
He said he'd been told a gliding company had wanted to "set up shop" at the airfield but had been specifically prohibited.
"Ngai Tahu have every right to do those things, but to withhold that information and to give a false declaration as to the aviation possibilities at Wigram, I think was wrong."
Mr Alexander said he believbed there were some areas of Wigram that could be developed for housing without encroaching onm the possibility of retaining an airfield.
He said councillors should be "extremely sensitive" about the issue of retaining strategic assets for the city in light of the current controversy raging around the council's $17 million purchase of five inner city properties from beleaguered developer David Henderson.
"Retaining Wigram as an airfield is much more in the strategic long term interests of Christchurch than those buildings would be," he said.
[Article Ends]
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