HeartSmarter: October 2008

Enjoy! Remember, if you have anything to contribute, please let me know as I try to send these out weekly. I always like to share information with anyone who will listen!

Gaming:

Using online games to help educate and evaluate adults around traditionally boring behavior is getting more and more prevalent. Check out this new game from Allstate, where “beginning in Pennsylvania—home to the fifth largest population of Allstate customers aged 50 to 75,—Allstate is offering the program free to more than 100,000 drivers in that age group to test the impact of cognitive training on driving safety. The program uses InSight, a video software package from Posit Science that's designed to reverse age-related cognitive decline and improve the visual-processing skills needed for safe driving. Five games make up InSight, including Jewel Diver, which tests the ability to keep track of multiple moving objects at one time. Among the results of using the software, Posit says, are a reduction of dangerous driving maneuvers by up to 40 percent, an improvement in stopping distance by an average of 22 feet when traveling at 55 miles per hour and a reduction in crash risk of up to 50 percent. In the Pennsylvania tests, which will run through March, Allstate will encourage participating older drivers to devote at least 10 hours to the training exercises. It will then track accident rates for the groups that did and didn't use the software. If the results validate Posit Science's claims, Allstate says it hopes to offer discounts to older drivers nationwide who use the software.”

See more information about the game here - http://media.allstate.com/releases/4461-allstate-examines-brain-fitness

I wonder how something like this can be used to educate patients on healthy behaviors, to develop better habits or more?

Diversity:

Short little email from Yankelovich on African American Boomer Audience. What is most interesting is the information about Cause Marketing. It says that African Americans are very effective targets for cause marketing, but they value different things than the rest the population. And they are even more likely (twice to be exact) to buy a brand because if reflects their values. QUESTION: does the Cone yearly study breakout samples by diversity?

The other most interesting thing is that this audience wants marketing in channels that are targeted specifically for them, because for so long they were ignored in general market communications.

<<Yankelovich - AA Baby Boomers.pdf>>

The Quantified Self:

I got to hear Gary Wolf, a contributing editor for Wired at a recent conference where he spoke about the emerging movement focused on the notion of the quantified self. It’s about individuals collecting and generating more and more data about their bodies. This may not appeal to everyone, but it presents and interesting scenario in this new global health economy around self-care, self monitoring, and do it yourself health. Some of them are a bit crazy, and the word “narcissism” came up quite a bit. But to me it’s no different than keeping a diary about yourself. Who doesn’t like looking back in their diary from a few years ago to see everything in a different view and I don’t think data like this is any different. What do you think?

These were the sites that he mentioned.

· http://www.slifelabs.com/ - track your life or your teams and turn it into a visualization

· http://www.rescuetime.com/ - Time tracker so you know exactly where your time is going

· http://www.fitday.com/ - Diet and weight loss journal

· http://flowingdata.com/ - Site that turns your numbers into data visualization, the winner of a recent project turned his all his manual data such as beverage consumption to email spam into statistics. Check that out here. http://flowingdata.com/2008/09/09/winner-of-the-personal-visualization-project-is/

· http://www.zumelife.com/ - A mobile healthcare system gadget to track everything you do around health

· http://www.lenababy.com/ - For parents with a child age 0-4 with speech disabilities, so you can track everything your child does and see unprovments

· http://www.fitbit.com/ - clipon that tracks your fitness AND sleep. Very different from an ordinary pedomenter, it uses accelerometer information instead.

· http://www.bedposted.com/ - Track your sex life…hmm, enough said.

· http://www.trixietracker.com/ - Baby tracker for your iphone. Buy this and the diaper tracker is free. Eww.

Finally, another one I just found for those of you who are eco-friendly – Carbon Diem, which has launched yet, allows you to track your carbon footprint on your cell phone. http://www.carbondiem.com/product.html

Just for Fun: Can we have a smash shack at our work?

Demonstrating that it’s possible to profit from any human desire, Sarah’s Smash Shack was conceived to relieve people who are stressed-out. Customers in San Diego can choose fragile tableware from the Smash Shack Menu—for example a set of three glass flowers for USD 10, or the House Special, which consists of 15 plates at a cost of USD 45. They’re also welcome to bring in their own breakables to pulverise for a ‘corkage fee’ that starts at USD 20. After donning protective gear, smashers are escorted to one of the break rooms, where they stand behind a waist-high barrier and hurl their arsenal at a stainless steel wall. To make the process more personalized, customers are encouraged to bring their own soundtrack on MP3, and to write messages on whatever they’re about to throw. There’s also the option of flinging objects at a photo or mantra of choice. A VIP room is available for group smashes.

Since August 2008, the shack has helped quite a few customers vent their frustration and release their tension. Or just plain enjoy the process of harmless destruction without having to clean up after themselves. It’s hard to tell whether the credit crunch has benefited or hindered the business’s success, making customers thriftier but also more stressed and up for smashing... Aware that it’s not cool not to care about the environment, the shack donates its broken glass and ceramic to mosaic art programs throughout the United States.

While the whole concept might sound a bit nutty, this could be a lucrative small business to set up elsewhere, especially for entrepreneurs who can get their hands on cheap vacant retail space for a year or two. Entry costs are relatively low and, well, that human urge to smash stuff is universal ;-)

Website: www.smashshack.com

Anu Gandhi

Director of Marketing, Consumer Markets

American Heart Association, National Center

7272 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231

P 214-706-1906 F 214-706-5244 C 214-404-8924

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HeartSmarter

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Friday, October 24, 2008

From the world of Marketing - Week of 10/24/2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Forrester Research on Social Networking - highlights

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Pizza Hut Launches Ordering Application On Facebook

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Video Games for Social Change

Friday, October 3, 2008

Must Read on Social Media and Corporate Use

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Facebook Fan Pages vs Group Pages

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