Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables, an exceptional product line from Intermarché.

Designed to reduce produce waste.

The post Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Yesterday Foursquare opened up its advertising platform to businesses. Between the ad creation and dashboard (pictured above), businesses can now target promotions and see the direct results of those activities.

Foursquare is fast becoming a great local discovery engine for consumers.

With the ability for fans to add tips and businesses to promote specials, I’ve found it’s been great as my go-to app for finding great local spots at home and abroad.

More from Austin Carr at Fast Company.

The post Foursquare for businesses is now self-serve. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Yes, we have Twitter. But, as a mainstream, near-ubiquitous social messaging platform, it’s now in the hands of the wrong people: media and advertisers. If we consider the Web services we rely on most, it’s one thing for search to go down this route, but even Google has been careful about seeding your email stream with ads. And surely, if Google started emailing you ads, there would be a revolt. But what if Gmail was the only email provider and had to do this to survive?

Twitter is, effectively, the only social messaging platform. And it doesn’t have the luxury of offering this service for free. Their choices are to charge for access to the platform, or control the content that’s delivered across the platform. And they’ve chosen to monetize content.

They’re now doubling down on ads and media partnerships, while actively working to close out 3rd party developers from arguably the most important messaging protocol since email. In other words, they’re adding noise to your messaging platform in order to ensure the survival of the platform.

This choice doesn’t bode well for the future of social messaging, users, or the platform.

Dalton Caldwell, who’s spearheading the App.net endeavour, shares his thoughts on platforms:

This word, platform, is a very important one. Companies like Facebook and Twitter have actively encouraged companies to think of their APIs as “platforms”. They want people to base their businesses on top of them.

If you unpack that word, they are saying that you should think of the APIs they provide the same way you think of an operating system like Linux, or a hosting platform like Amazon Web Services, or a programming platform like Ruby on Rails.

Platforms are great because they enable you to get all sorts of benefits from the work done by others. I am convinced that Facebook and Twitter really are platforms in that sense of the word, because if you choose to use their APIs you can do amazing things that would be impractical if you attempted to build the entire service yourself from scratch.

The concept of platforms is one of the key reasons that Web2.0 actually did meet its promise of widescale global adoption and technical innovation. Long live Web2.0.

However this “platform” word starts to get very troubling when talking about business models. Building on top of a platform is a foundational risk, and if your platform decided one day that it doesn’t like what you are doing, or likes what you are doing so much they want to compete with you, it’s Very Bad. Your platform partner can easily damage your quality of service, or simply shut you down. If that happens, your business is dead.

And slowly, but surely, Twitter has begun to batten down their API, either buying 3rd party developers or forcing more and more restrictions on existing developers. All while increasing content exposure for media partners and pushing ads into everyone’s tweet streams.

As an alternative, App.net intends to build a transparent API, with user-controlled content. The first implementation of this vision being the currently running alpha build of their Twitter like Web interface.

There’s more to be said about the future of Twitter, App.net, and the platforms we hope to rely on for many years, but now’s the time to check out http://join.app.net and decide if you want to get on this ride during the already successful fundraising phase. There are 8 hours left to get on board, get access to the alpha, and claim your current Twitter name, should you wish to do so.

The post Whither Twitter? App.net seeks to provide a social messaging and identity platform for users and developers, not advertisers. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

I’ll be at NXNE Interactive tomorrow with an exceptional panel talking about marketing your brand on Facebook and beyond. The Black Hole of Facebook talks about how marketers are spending all of their dollars on driving users to Like brand pages, but then what…?

Jay Goldman and I originally set this up as a dual presentation but he’s off to Boston on business…sooooo, I’m thrilled we were able to gather such an awesome panel of client and agency side brains to help walk through this topic with you.

Here’s who will be joining me on stage:

Aikta Chuch

For the last 3 years Aikta has been managing the digital, experiential and retail programs for both VitaminWater and SmartWater.

Prior to that she worked for the foodservice team at Coca-Cola; driving sales and developing tools for local foodservice accounts. She worked at the federal government for 2 years at Industry Canada where she worked to ensure Canadian industries were showcased and involved at global trade shows and conferences.

Lauren O’Neil

Lauren O’Neil is vitaminwater Canada’s community manager, video host, and blogger-in-chief.

A traditionally trained multimedia journalist, her work has appeared in The Toronto Star, MuchMusic, Cosmo TV and Canadian Living magazine among others.

These days, you can find her at the digital agency Entrinsic where she works full time, or Tweeting her head off from any event that can hold a hashtag.

Once hailed as “the geekiest blonde you’ll ever meet”, Lauren is deeply passionate about all things Internet and is rarely, if ever, spotted without a smartphone in her hand.

Sean Howard

Sean offers over 15 years of experience in digital strategy development and user experience design. From a Senior Strategist at one of the largest digital shops in Canada to the President of a seven-person social engagement firm, Sean has worked with clients of all sizes to more effectively engage their customers using emerging technologies.

So please join us at The Black Hole of Facebook, Thursday at noon at the Hyatt.

The post NXNE Interactive and the black hole of Facebook. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

This month’s Vice magazine has a tremendous interview with the deliciously outspoken George Lois, who dates back to the early days of DDB, around the time Bill Bernbach had the epiphany of forming a creative team that consisted of a writer and designer. This standard served the ad industry well throughout the 60s and well beyond.

Lois:

Now it’s all about eight people sitting in a room, picking things together. What the fuck? Are you crazy? People think the way to be a successful executive is to get the right people around them and listen to their thinking and pick the best of their thinking. I don’t get it…everything that’s great in this world gets done by one or two people together.

You need a team for production, but a team for creating ideas? Get the fuck outta here! That’s impossible. It really is. People say, “Well, if you get together, if there are 20 people…” I say the more talented the 20 people, the more trouble you’re in. If there’s one talent in the 20 and the guy has conviction, he can beat the shit out of the other guys. But if the entire group is talented then you’re in trouble. It’s impossible!

Read the full interview here.

The post George Lois on creativity. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Gap 2009:

American Apparel 2008:

Competitive hommage? How very, very peculiar.

And we’re not the first to notice.

The post Gapmerican Apparel appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Here’s a smart creative piece, well executed by South Africa’s Lowe (unlike their awful website), on behalf of WWF Sassi.

Click the image for a larger view, where the text reads:

Only a tenth of the catch in long line tuna fishing is actually tuna.

Most commercial fishing gear is not completely selective. As a result many endangered sea animals are also captured. To ensure the fish you buy is caught in a way that is environmentally friendly, text our fishms number (079 499 8795) with the type of fish and you’ll receive an sms back as to weather it’s in the red, orange or green category.

via nevver / A​d​s​ ​o​f​ ​t​h​e​ ​W​o​rld

The post Smart Sassi. appeared first on Say Yeah!.