Dirty streets = clever ads… Anti-social networking… Free internet with your coffee… Online design service

• Dirty streets = clever ads
• Anti-social networking
• Free internet with your coffee
• Online design service

Dirty streets = clever ads

Those who live in the inner city are used to grubby streets and billboard advertising. So why not combine the two? Springwise reports that British company, Street Advertising Services, prints brands, logos or adverts by “cleaning” them on to dirty streets use a high-powered, water and steam driven cleaning machine.

Once clients provide their design, company turns it into a giant stencil. Then, working at night, the SAS team blasts steam through the stencil on to dirty walls, roads, pavements or even road signs. The result is a sparkling clean image in the shape of the company’s logo or message standing out against its mucky background.

Nothing but water and steam are used, and it’s all perfectly environmentally friendly and legal, the company claims. Springwise reports that pricing for a street art campaign with 15 to 20 adverts throughout a city begins at £1000 per city plus initial setup costs.

TOP OF PAGE

Anti-social networking

Online social networking is fine if you’re the sort of person who likes company and has hundreds of friends. But what if you’re an angry misanthrope with a chip on your shoulder and an axe to grind?

Fortunately for the rest of us, these people now have their own home on the internet. Trendhunter reports that a series of anti-social networking sites have recently appeared, spoofing the likes of MySpace, Facebook and Bebo.

Instead, the dark and angry can try Enemybook or Snubster.

Unsure at first if the term referred to people against social networking sites, or if it was a community for people affected by anti-social personality disorder, it turns out that anti-social networking sites are spoofs of popular online communities.

“Web 2.0 faces its backlash in the form of sites parodying Facebook and MySpace. Sometimes perusing MySpace makes us just want to lock ourselves in the basement and listen to Hungarian black metal,” BuzzFeed explains. “We suppose this is the internet equivalent to that.”

Enemybook is a Facebook app that lets you “enemy” someone you don’t like very much. If someone agrees to become your enemy, the app asks you for more detail on the basis for your grudge, with options such as:

• We lived together and didn’t get along.
• We worked together and didn’t get along.
• John hooked up with my (ex/sister/etc).
• John killed my (…).
• John insulted my (…).
• John is my (ex, etc).
• John is the friend of my enemy.
• Facebook ruined our relationship.
• We became enemies randomly.
• I don’t even know this enemy, but I hate them already.

Snubster, on the other hand, encourages people to undermine and mock online social communities by allowing users to alienate each other by putting people “On Notice” or listing them as “Dead to Me”. Snubster has its own site and application.

TOP OF PAGE 

Free internet with your coffee

A new concept aimed at affluent “time-poor” coffee drinkers has been launched in Sydney and Melbourne, reports Inside Retail.

CafeScreen, currently available in 25 cafes, offers customers free access to the internet, as well as providing information, entertainment and advertising.

Cafe owners who agree to host CafeScreen will receive a share of the advertising revenue it generates. Ruwan Weerasooriya, the founder of CafeScreen, believes it represents an ideal medium for advertisers targeting well-off consumers not far from their workplace. He hopes to have CafeScreen operating in 50 outlets by Christmas. 

TOP OF PAGE

Online design for SMEs

Most SME owners might imagine they couldn’t afford to hire a team of 40 designers to work on their branding and logo. Well, thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can. Logoworks is a design agency, based in Utah in the US, that provides services to SME clients around the world via the internet.

Here’s how it works. First you select the design package you want, ranging from a basic logo to the deluxe start up package, including business cards, a full suite of stationary designs and a website design.

Next you fill out a comprehensive online questionnaire to give the designers a feel for what kind of design fits your business. Three days later, Logoworks sends a selection of draft designs, from which you choose your favourite and give any further feedback. Two days later you view a revised design, and then shortly after, and subject to any further feedback, you get the final design via download and on CD.

Apart from the initial questionnaire and feedback opportunities, you get a contact you can email or call during the design process. Even better, you don’t just have to make a decision on which logo design to go with yourself: the Logoworks website contains an online voting function that allows you to poll your friends and colleagues on which design you should go for.

The packages cost between $US299 for the basic service to $US1499 for the whizbang deluxe deal.

* Logoworks is a subsidiary of HP, which paid for the travel and accommodation of a SmartCompany journalist to attend an event at which this service was featured.

TOP OF PAGE