Blippar or the new advertising revolution

The advertising world is changing so rapidly that we barely have time to get acquainted with a technology that a new one comes up. After the QR code, meet *drum-roll* Blippar!

What is Blippar?

Blippar is a London based startup that was launched in Summer 2011. It uses the augmented reality technology to give advertising the WOW effect “enabling you to make a social and emotional connection with your customer [...]“

How to use Blippar?

Reasons to use Blippar:

According to Blippar, these are the reasons to use it:

Innovative: Your brand can communicate with customers in a whole new way that makes all your above-the-line ad creative (print, outdoor, in-store or on-packet) come alive. Your customers can experience your product or service in a fun and innovative way via their smartphone screen- and crucially, they actively request and ‘pull’ that content as opposed to it being pushed to wash over them.
Low Cost: Above the line spend is expensive for most brands and consumes a large proportion of the marketing budget. By using the Blippar AR (Augmented Reality) platform, you can significantly improve ROI on existing spend. With a Blippar campaign, you can have more brand interaction at a fraction of the cost of print advertising. And crucially, the platform itself works on a google-style pricing model, where the entry cost to the platform is low and ongoing costs are performance related.
Measurable: With the Blippar AR platform, you can track and measure how your traditional advertising formats are performing – wherever your ‘Blipps’ are located – whether in a press campaign, outdoor campaign, on-pack or in-store. Blippar comes with full AnalyzAR suite which tracks user behaviour, location and interaction patterns in real time.
Location Based Targeting: With Blippar AR platform you can target your users with bespoke AR interactions according to the time of day or the location of the user. You can find out more about your customer’s buying behavior and target them with more contextual content out of your print media and outdoor advertising.

I would you also add:

Visually attractive: Blippar uses the advertisement itself as a trigger to the virtual content.
Allows a various choice of content: Blippar doesn’t just open pages on the internet. Mobile AR is the use of a computer algorithm to recognise an image or object through the camera function on a mobile device and return a response which ‘overlays’ the trigger image. This response could take the form of an interactive 3d graphic layer, a video or an HTML page superimposing content or imagery over the camera’s view of the real world.
Doesn’t require much: All you need to do is download the app, click on it and your done! Find the Blippar “b” logo and your set! From you TV screen, to anything print on paper from a business card to a billboard on the road or even a grocery product.

Overall, I think it has quite an advantage over the QR code because you never know what to expect when you hover your phone over something “blippable”. The only thing is that unlike the QR Code, you can’t create your own content for free.

Blippar can be found on iTunes here. The Android version is still in Beta. So if you have an iPhone you can try it by using the images found here. It’s FUN! Now, the challenge will be spreading awareness about it and encourage people to download the application on their smartphone. With Blippar, advertising just reach a whole new visual level.

Now, I wonder which Lebanese company will be the first to revolutionize the way we go about advertising!

More about Blippar:

Sources:

Blippar

Roadster Diner’s new menu!

Roadster Diner never ceases to surprise: it has recently launched its new menu! It’s also always heartwarming to meet fellow bloggers and test new things.

So what has changed exactly, you might ask?

New Items:

Curly fries: Twisted french fries.
Texas Steak: French bread, marinated with beef filet slices, sautéed onions, lettuce and Philly Steak sauce with melted Cheddar cheese.
Ambassador Steak (Click here for my review)
Rd Cheese-At-Heart: Rd special patty stuffed with Swiss and Cheddar cheese, lettuce, crispy chips sprinkles with our Classic sauce.
Rd Double Diner: Double patty, lettuce, tomato, pickles, sautéed onions, Cheddar cheese and Cocktail sauce in a two layered bun.
Rd Double-Steak: Grilled beef filet slices, sautéed mushrooms and onions, Swiss and Cheddar cheese, with mayonnaise and Philly Steak sauce in a two layered bun.
Rd Texas Chicken: Grilled chicken, Cheddar cheese, grilled oinons, lettuce, pickles and our special sauce.
De-”Light”-Ful Brownie: Low calorie chocolate brownie topped with light cream cheese.

New Recipes:

Frankfurter
Philly Steak
Crispy Club
Swiss Mushroom
Low-Cal Tuna

The changes are quite substantial. The menu has also been reorganized to include a Specialty Burger Platters and big juicy images that show exactly what to expect when you order.

From the new items, here my top 3 personal favorites:

Rd Cheese-At-Heart: You can’t go wrong wrong with this one. A Specialty burger that will leave you speechless. It will make you close your eyes and go Mmmmmm!!! There is nothing like it! THERE GOES MY HEART!
Rd Double-Steak: Juicy, yummy, orgasmic. This Specialty burger is enjoyable to the very last bite.
The Ambassador Steak: A colorful eye-candy! This one is for the BIG hungers.

Roadster Diner just raised the bar even higher. It’s going to take a marathon to be able to compete with the quality and the taste.

With this, Roadster Diner wins a place on the “ritakml likes” list!

On that note, happy drooling and sahtein!

For more about Roadster Diner:

Tuer le père by Amélie Nothomb

This book review was posted on The Cube.

Tuer le père

When I first read the title, I immediately thought of Sigmund Freud’s Oedipus complex and wondered how the father will get killed.

Nothomb, who lived 3 years in the USA and still visits it, placed the story in the Nevada desert. She used the aspects that touched her the most about the area such as Burning Man (A week-long annual event dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. Participants leave one week later, having left no trace whatsoever.) and Las Vegas.

Joe Whip, a 14 year-old boy interested in magic gets kicked out of the house by his mother and her boyfriend.

His life changes when a couple; magician Norman Terrence and his girlfriend Christina take him in to live with them. Weird dynamics develop between the members of this newly founded family: The adoptive parents will experience what it is like to have a teenager at home and somewhere along the way, the story takes what will be a “sick” turn for some and an excepted one for others when Joe falls in love with Christina…

The author is exploring the subject of paternity. Although I felt like I read a summary of some bigger story and expected more from the writer, this short novel is entertaining and a quick light read.

The book is also available in English.

Featured on LBC International: The streets – Backstage

LBC International featured my article on 19 January 2012.

People from all walks of life meet on the street. More often than not we see kids, old people and mothers holding babies under the blazing sun or in the icy winter’s cold in dirty and torn clothes asking for money or trying to sell gum, flowers and other items…

Some have worn out shoes, others walk barefoot. Some of them are handicapped and have serious medical conditions. Most of these people are illiterate and have never been to school. When they see a camera they run away, especially those who come from nearby countries; they are afraid of being recognized and deported. They have no papers and often sleep wherever they can… in abandoned buildings, under a bridge etc.

This is the situation that we see, but what’s really going on backstage?

You will find kids that were given up for sale by families who can’t afford feeding them; you will find kids that were kidnapped from families while they were out for a walk. You will find raped women with a kid and nowhere to go; you will find lonely sick people who cannot afford medication. You will find people who traffic humans for a living, exploiting their misery, forcing them into begging and prostitution.

While other kids are tucked in a warm bed having happy dreams and going to school, the unfortunate ones are on the street at 3 a.m., fighting sleep, running after a car or walking behind people asking for money. The thing is that their “keeper” imposed a certain amount to be brought back. The consequences of not doing so are heavy. The fear is obvious. They get beaten, denied food, raped, humiliated and the list goes on. And because of this, some spit on the windshield to scare people or become aggressive when they are told to move away.

Years go by and the same people remain in the same spots. Many more are pouring in. This phenomenon is blowing out of proportion in Lebanon… I once heard two of them screaming at each other: “Go beg elsewhere! This is my area! Leave!” which startled me: That’s how the same people are on the same spots… It’s organized! I also saw a pick-up truck to which the kids ran and climbed into: There was a man yelling and pulling them up…

In a country that doesn’t have clear laws against abuse, where an abused migrant worker that runs away from the home she is employed is imprisoned and later deported; human traders run free and go about their business under the nose of traffic police. Orphanages are overloaded; taking in kids is a long time responsibility; until they can get an education, a job and become financially independent where could they go to? Who would take of them? What about the elderly who have worked all their lives to find themselves at an age where no one would employ them, with no family and nothing left; not even their dignity? What about the handicapped whose chance to find work is nonexistent because not only the streets are not wheelchair friendly but also the companies?

In 2011, Lebanon decided to do something about the street beggars: a joint security, judicial and social approach is expected to be implemented in 15 days. I hope it’s going to be something more than just banning their presence on the highway; most of these people need a chance in life.

Rita Kamel is a blogger and contributor at LBCblogs. You can find her on Twitter here or check out her blog.