The Belton Blog

Immersive Parking

It's all about the details. This is sometimes ignored in the parking garage. Sure there's a security guard and someone cleans the place up to make it presentable to customers but what about going even further?

This is where Carspaze comes into play. They take a normal dark parking garage and turn it into a space that immerses the visitor in a world that can be engaging, brand consistent or just esthetically pleasant when compared to the parking garages we normally park in. Check out all the spaces they've transformed here.

Gift Card Rescue

  On his blog, Seth Godin posts a scathing (and downright accurate) analysis of gift cards. The problem with them is many people never use the cards they recieve. In fact, in 2007 over $8,000,000,000 remained unclaimed - money never spent by the recipients of the cards.

Gift Card Exchange wants to take a bite out of that number by allowing users to exchange/sell their unwanted gift cards, or buy ones they want for a reduced price. 

As interesting idea as it is, I wonder what Seth Godin would think about having a middle-man broker for unused cards. I imagine he'd probably recommend just giving the gift of cash.

Ideaicide

Authors Alan Parr and Karen Ansbaugh have coined the term Ideaicide to describe the process of good ideas being "killed" by dictorial business models.

Luckily, the "Ideaicide: How To Avoid It And Get What You Want" manifesto is available as a free .pdf download. Don't let Ideaicide happen to you!

A Business With Real Balls

Know someone who needs to bounce back from a let-down? Did a special someone have a real ball the other night? Why not treat them to a Send a Ball?

Talk about a simple yet effective idea!

A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

If we all know that a picture can be worth a thousand words, maybe David Armano's illustration can be worth a thousand bucks to your business?
His eloquent illustration charts the paths - excuse me, stairs rather -  that lead to brand Heaven (loyalty) or brand Hell (disloyalty).

Be sure to take a peek at the full image on his blog!

Virtual Crosswalk

Who said you can’t improve on what’s already out there?

If anything, life is about change and change is constant. Take your normal crosswalk - red hand stop, green hand go - works doesn’t it? A South Korean Designer thinks it’s time to re-invent the crosswalk, or at least improve on it anyway. While the Virtual Wall may still just be in the concept phase, from a drivers perspective you would certainly notice. More information can be found at his website, Yanko Design.

Now That's a Quote!

"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."

Howard Aiken, computing pioneer and innovator

Create your own Song!

I'd like to thank Stacey R for giving me a heads up on this clever web based application Virgina Tourism is using to make it a bit of fun when you visit their website over and over and over again. Go ahead and send you sweetie a little ditty...

Jott This!

Ever have trouble remembering those great spur of the moment ideas?....... No need to worry anymore, Jott is an innovative program which allows you to call a toll free number and record your ideas. Within minutes it will send a text message and voice recording of your idea back to you! Now you can save your amazing ideas whenever you dream them up!!

Espresso Art

What will it take to make your customers gladly pay more for your products or services then your competitors? It's about selling the experiance. The next time your Barista whips up your favorite and he doesn't add a bit of WOW, send him this video to look at.

Sell the experience, your customers will gladly pay more for it.