Hasta La Ideas

Travelex’s chip-based card allows U.S. travelers greater freedom abroad

Since borrowing a London-based friend’s credit card in order to use the communal bike system in Paris a couple summers back, I’ve been curious about less-complicated solutions to the lack of “chip and PIN” credit card technology available in the States. Designed specifically for traveling Yankees, I recently started using the Cash Passport that Travelex launched late last year. The smart card not only gives users access to chip-enabled services (using it currently in the U.K. made buying Heathrow Express and tube tickets a cinch), but generally eases the woes of carrying personal credit cards.

Pre-paid with Euros or British Pounds, you don’t have to worry about daily exchange-rate fluctuations, incompatible ATMs and the threat of identity theft—unlike normal plastic, the Passport isn’t loaded with any personal information. (One of the biggest implications of these types of cards is cutting down on fraud globally.)

All this safety does have a downside. Travelex’s advanced security checks makes refilling online more difficult than it should be. Though their free emergency assistance is available 24/7, it’s the kind of process you’ll only want to go through if your card is lost or stolen. Load enough money to last the duration of your trip to avoid any hiccups or time-wasting phone calls.

On the upside, consider that Travelex doesn’t charge for balance inquires, ATM withdrawals or for receiving cash back from in-store purchases. When you get home, simply unload remaining balances—you can even transfer what’s left directly to your personal bank account or get a personal check. To learn more about how to feel like a savvy traveler rather than a stupid American, head to Travelex online.

If it works as it’s intended to, designers will love it: Wacom’s upcoming Inkling device bridges the gap from analog to digital, allowing users to draw on anything and have those penstrokes saved as digital files.

The Inkling package consists of an actual pen filled with actual ink and a sensor that tracks the pen’s position, with a few limitations—it needs line-of-sight, the tracking area corresponds with A4-sized paper, and you can’t get too close to the sensor—but considering it promises to get your scribbles directly into Photoshop, Illustrator or Sketchbook Pro, that seems like a small price to pay.

Speaking of small prices, I actually thought this would retail for a lot more than the projected price of $199, which is what the Inkling’s going for when it hits store shelves next month. Video demo after the jump and join in on the discussion in the forums!

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How the leader in fishing tackle innovation and technology has stayed that way since 1872

Inspired by founder William Hardy’s initial foray into gunsmithing in 1872, the Hardy family has designed intricate reels and rods for over a century, creating mechanisms as eye-fetching as they are functional. Their pivotal innovation came in 1880, when Hardy (based in Alnick, England) turned to the exotic yet industrious material of bamboo as a material for their line of rods, becoming the first manufacturer to incorporate the material into a tackle device. The Hardy Fishing legacy continues today, bridging traditional craftsmanship with advanced technical design, establishing it as the leading name in game fishing tackle.

Appealing to anglers, Hardy’s dynamic Demon Reels, made of high-impact glass spools, have launched the company into the 21st century with what Trout Fisherman magazine describes as “Beautifully engineered…totally different from anything else on the market.” With detail as the driving force behind their products, Hardy products have continuously pioneered the future of fishing, earning them numerous Royal Warrants and the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement along the way.

Ranging from the classic St. George Hotspur Salmon reel—made between 1920 and 1925 and just reintroduced— to the increased weight sustainability of the performance reel, the Angel 2 Reels, Hardy also keeps improvement at the heart of its production. The approach has brought the brand international recognition too as the first non-Japanese manufacturer to receive the Japanese Industrial Design Award five times over and being awarded the American Kudos Award for Design Excellence.

Hardy also takes a forward-thinking approach with its SINTRIX fly fishing rods, a carbon fiber comprised of silica nano matrix material that enables a higher resistance to line drag and a stronger cast. Originally designed for the aerospace industry, Hardy is the sole U.K. license-holder of the patent.

As the forerunner of fishing tackle design, Hardy has seamlessly expanded into performance clothing with its EWS MK2 Range and an accessory line featuring tools like scissors, nets and pliers. To learn how to angle with the best of them, Hardy also has academy training centers throughout England.

Reels and rods begin around $500 and reach $8,000 for the new lightweight Zane Ti titanium reels.

3D3A’s Anechoic Chamber

Have an awesome, show-off worthy, surround-sound stereo system at home? Apparently, no matter how high-fallutin’ that sound gets, you aren’t hearing it in 3D. “Pure Stereo 3D Audio” to be exact. Whereas surround-sound systems literally, well, “surround” you with audio, 3D sound plays the audio correctly spatially—so that what is on your left is actually heard on the left, and same with the right. Edgar Choueiri, rocket scientist by day, audio engineer by night developed Pure Stereo 3D Audio, recently unveiled by Kurt Andersen of NPR’s Studio 360.

Choueiri is Director of Princeton’s Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Lab, and thanks to his audiophile obsession and a grant from Princeton, also their 3D Audio and Applied Acoustics Lab. The phenomenon is best explained in the Studio 360 story and the 3D3A site, but as we understand it, Choueiri developed a digital filter applied to the audio signal, which eliminates “crosstalk,” freeing up rich sound already on the recording. Crosstalk is the interference that naturally occurs in stereo when the right ear hears interference sound from the left, and vice versa. Prior to Choueiri’s breakthrough, crosstalk cancellation had been attempted, but always produced problems in the tone of what we hear.

Studio 360 has some samples of water splashing for listening, embedded below, and some music samples in the story. There really is something noticeably different and rich in the sounds. To listen, sit equidistant between your left and right speakers.

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A new book celebrating brand-appropriate ingenuity in today’s marketing-saturated world

Today’s successful advertising campaign has evolved well beyond the simple television product spot or the full page fashion spread—formulas we’re sometimes so familiar with they almost disappear. Pointed out in Guerrilla Advertising, Gavin Lucas’ first book on the subject published in 2006, current marketing tools span all mediums and are so artfully crafted for their target audience, it’s difficult to sort out what is advertising and what is not. Lucas’ followup book, Guerrilla Advertising 2 revisits the subject, showing how effective unconventional branding and communication can be since the introduction of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the iPhone. Lucas also highlights how the sheer definition of advertising is constantly shifting, saying “It is not just impossible to come up with a new advertising formula—it is now completely inappropriate.”

The book is divided into five major themes, which include Street Propaganda, Site Specific, Sneaky Maneuvers, Stunts and Multi-Fronted Attack. Each of the 63 campaigns was selected for its remarkable ability to engage the public, using a method that was perfect for the product or service. Sticking a massive inflatable pig between two Toronto buildings, Saatchi & Saatchi’s Glide dental floss campaign appropriately sums up the book’s motive, showing how powerful even a simple idea can be when executed the right way.

Lucas explained in our recent interview, “consumer insight has to be plugged in at the beginning of the creative process in order for the right choice to be made regarding the approach to an advertising campaign.” One great example of this is Sony Music Creative’s tactic for AC/DC’s new album Black Ice. With a target audience of 30- to 40-year-old men, Sony decided to take on their attention at the office by putting the album’s practical information in an Excel spreadsheet, breaking through corporate firewalls. Even more cleverly, they included an ASCII version of the video for “Rock ‘n’ Roll Train.” The spreadsheet was downloaded over one million times, the video saw nearly two million YouTube views, and the spreadsheet links had an interaction rate of 31% while banner advertising only saw a 0.05% return.

TBWA made it difficult for the 13 million passerby at Zurich’s Central Station not to notice their “Impossible Huddle” campaign for Adidas, but the giant footballers did not only influence commuters. The large-scale installation was so captivating, every major European news outlet and dozens of international blogs spread the word, taking the message beyond its geographical confines. “Brands don’t just want us to simply see their adverts anymore. They want us to engage with, respond to, photograph, talk and blog about them,” Lucas adds.

People want to be involved in the process more than ever, and as Lucas points out, “consumers now play a crucial role in the distribution of brand messages.” Agencies need to know their customer as well as they know their client, because technology has taken the word-of-mouth concept to an entirely new level. “If a brand or its agency create something its audience want to share (things we think are clever, beautiful, funny, entertaining or awesome in some way), the audience is now set up to act as the perfect amplifier of the message.” Lucas also astutely points out the importance of getting the message right—”If you get it wrong, your audience is also in the perfect position to shoot you down.”

One example of technology’s newer capabilities is Ogilvy’s “True Evidence of War” campaign for the U.N., which displayed tangible evidence of conflict within the glass at bus stops, along with a request to donate €5 through simple text messaging. By putting the items right in the public eye, the straightforward concept is undoubtedly more successful than any infomercial, despite its humanitarian plea.

A more lighthearted interactive concept was T-Mobile’s take on the flash mob, making a TV spot out of the “impromptu” dance that took place at London’s Liverpool Street Station. Viewers who saw the commercial could press the red button on their remote to view extra footage, and a dedicated YouTube channel invited users to upload videos of them doing the T-Mobile dance.

An unequivocal look at brand communication in the tech-advanced 21st century, Guerrilla Advertising 2 is an essential read for advertisers and the public alike. The book will be available September 2011 and will sell from Laurence King for $40.