There’s An App For That: Interactive Events Edition

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Jennifer Tsang

With the SXSWi kick-off clock ticking (9 days!), I’ve been exploring mobile apps I am going to utilize in an attempt to organize and explore the craze of the 7 daylong interactive festival. Aside from SXSW, these are great tools to use at any interactive event – conferences, traveling and otherwise.

Food & Exploring

Forkly – We’ve mentioned Forkly before on on our Favorite Foodie Apps of 2011 blog post, but it deserves another shout out. Forkly facilitates sharing of your food adventures by not only letting you rate your meals and drinks, but also matching your tastes with other Forkly users – giving you great food recommendations. Available only on iOS.

MapQuest Vibe – MapQuest has launched an app to “make you a local, anywhere.” The web and mobile-based app rates local services by giving them a “vibe” score according to popularity, edginess, walkability and more. You can download the app and find food, entertainment and just about anything else to fit the “vibe” you want. Available only on iOS.

Interactive

Hashable – The design of your business card carries a certain swag statement, but how many do you hand out or receive that will never see the light of day again? Hashable allows you to manage all your contacts on any device. “Hash” with people to save and remember connections with people you meet.

Unsocial – Meet business professionals wherever you are. Unsocial is a location based professional meet up tool that connects you with people that “you don’t know, but should know.” Unsocial also provides lists of events and conferences in your area.

Scheduling

Sched.org – For both attendees and developers, Sched.org has a mobile solution for scheduling conferences, meetings, etc. Developers can publish event schedules in multiple formats, make it available on the iPhone, Android and Blackberry, and integrates with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. MapQuest has also built out the unofficial SXSW schedule on Sched.

SXSW Go – Specifically for SXSW 2012, Womzit has built the official mobile app for everything SXSW. It connects to your SXSocial account, lets you see maps of events and view/build your schedule (which if you’re like me, is already way out of control).

Are you headed to SXSW? Let us know what you schedule is and what mobile apps you’re using! Both myself and Zenzian Courtney O’Rourke will be at soaking up information like a sponge – but we’d love to take some time out to meet you! Shoot us a direct message on Twitter if you’d like to meet up!

Pterodactyl eggs in Cardiff?

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Sarah Hardwick

Usually, my commute to work is pretty uneventful. I gaze at the beautiful stretches of sand and blue water, I take deep breaths of the sea air, and I get ready for the day to come. Last week, I was confronted by a surprise of prehistoric proportion when I looked out my window while waiting at a stop light in Cardiff. As luck would have it, I had my iPhone ready and captured the scene with Instagram.

While I puzzled over the appearance of Pterodactyl eggs, a clue appeared that provided a much bigger perspective on an eye-opening grassroots marketing stunt.

Get a behind the scenes look at the Cardiff Kook Dinosaur attack in this video, or read all about it in the UT article.

Federal Judge Topples ‘I Heart Boobies’ Ban

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Sarah Hardwick

Zenzi’s longstanding client The Keep A Breast Foundation takes an innovative approach to educating teens about breast cancer, with grassroots education and awareness program including the wildly successful ‘I Heart Boobies’ campaign. Recently, a Federal court case overturning a school district’s ban against the bracelets has resulted in incredible top tier national media exposure, including the thought-provoking article below.

Baby-pink ribbons they are not. But a federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that “I ♥ Boobies” bracelets — worn as breast cancer awareness accessories — are not lewd, either, and overturned a ban on them at a public middle school there. After the Easton Area school board’s vote on Wednesday night to appeal the decision, school districts around the country are watching the case, in part to learn the fate of their own prohibitions against the bracelets. But the dispute could also set a precedent for administrators’ authority to determine what is too lewd or vulgar for their schools.

The Keep a Breast Foundation has been making the bracelets since 2004, said Kimmy McAtee, a spokeswoman for the foundation, a California-based nonprofit, but interest in them has been on the rise over the past two years. Their intent is to spark conversations among girls and women ages 13 to 35, Ms. McAtee said.

Read the full article in the New York Times here.

White Paper: Shaping the Future of New Media

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Sarah Hardwick

It was every PR practitioner’s nightmare and further evidence of the fact that we as marketers are the most out of control and the most in control we have ever been. Editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and author of the book The Long Tail, Chris Anderson listed the email addresses of 350 names he has blacklisted from his email inbox on his very public and popular blog, thelongtail.com. The 350 offenders had allegedly sent Anderson irrelevant PR “pitches” one too many times. To the mortification of many public relations people who were on that list (with their company name in the email address), it served to show no one is safe from the fire hose, not even the people you hire to protect you from the fire (or to start it) depending on your needs. Anderson’s public protest sends the message that you must choose wisely when picking a PR firm to represent you, and it is essential you select one that knows the rules of the game and how to create compelling messaging directed at the right audience. The fact that mass distribution outlets for information exist these days is no excuse to spam irrelevant information in the hopes it randomly catches a reporter’s attention.

Continue reading →

Zenzi Takes Pink Tour Bus on College Campaign with Emergen-C and Keep A Breast

Posted on January 17, 2009 by Sarah Hardwick

Challenge: Emergen-C tasked Zenzi with the goal of promoting the Emergen-C brand and the company’s commitment to the cause of breast cancer awareness. Emergen-C’s objective was to promote its “Pink Lemonade” product to a youth demographic and make the community aware that 50% of proceeds for this product went to support their cause marketing partner, the Keep A Breast Foundation. Zenzi proposed a state-wide college tour with a wrapped RV bus, a great cross-promotional partner, “cool” giveaways and a doctor on board to educate women of the importance of breast health. Continue reading →

San Diego Restaurant Week Rises to Top of National Culinary Scene With Zenzi