May 2013
13 posts
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Heat Sessions: My Goodness
On Tuesday, June 4th, we’re excited to host Seattle-based rock duo My Goodness for the sixth edition of Heat Sessions:
Reminiscent of The White Stripes, The Von Bondies, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, My Goodness will be stopping by the office to play a few songs before their FREE show that night at Brick & Mortar.
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Your New Gmail Wallet
At Google I/O, Google’s annual tech conference, a new feature for Gmail was announced that will let people send money directly through Gmail. It uses Google Wallet, and functions similar to the way you would send an attachment like a DOC or PDF. In fact, the button to send money actually appears right next to the Send Attachment button.
You can see a quick video about how the feature...
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Something Surprising: Mainstream Anonymity
GOING FULLY ANONYMOUS
Today The New Yorker launched a new service called Strongbox that lets you share information, messages, and files with the editorial staff while remaining completely anonymous and untraceable. They accomplished this with a technology called Tor, developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Last year, both Wired and Vice Magazine published articles about The Silk Road...
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Go Behind The Banner
Ok, ok, going ‘behind the banner’ doesn’t sound that interesting, but most people are likely unaware of the actual journey that a single banner goes through on its way to appearing in front of a web viewer. It’s a lot more complicated than simply an image with a message that gets handed off to a media team.
The Office for Creative Research did a visualization that...
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Betabrand Sets Up Photo Booth In Retail Outlet
Betabrand, the previously online-only fashion company made famous by a line of West Coast Workwear that includes a pinstripe hoodie, recently opened their first brick-and-mortar retail store in San Francisco.
To add some fun to the shopping experience, and to leverage showrooming to their advantage, they’ve basically turned their retail store experience into a giant photo booth:
While...
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April 2013
19 posts
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Going BIG for MINI of San Francisco
Parking around the office is just getting ridiculous!
Actually, we’re excited to announce that Heat will be doing the print, digital, radio, television, and social media for MINI of San Francisco.
Check out one of the first pieces of work we created for them, documenting the move to their new dealership at 799 Van Ness Ave:
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Something Surprising: Breaking News From The...
THE $134 BILLION TWEET
Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured via @ap
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) April 23, 2013
The hacktivist group Anonymous caused a ruckus this week with its most high profile operation to date. Upon gaining access to the official Twitter account for the Associated Press, they posted a rogue tweet about an incident at the White House. The...
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Heat Sessions: Maps & Atlases
On Friday, we’re excited to host MAPS & ATLASES at the agency, who will be stopping by for another edition of Heat Sessions.
They’ll be playing songs off their latest album “Beware & Be Grateful” (Barsuk Records) before their show that night at Rickshaw Stop.
Check out some of their latest:
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Something Surprising: Just Dip It
Leave A Tip With A Dip
A new startup has plans to help bring an end to the cash in our pockets by dragging tipping into the 21st century. DipJar is a small device that sits near a point-of-sale terminal which lets customers leave a predetermined tip just by dipping their card into the reader. With no PIN, no receipt, and no cash to manage, it’s easy to see how this could catch on and bring us...
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Something Surprising: Boredom Can Be Addictive
An Odd Sensation
A community called whisper or ASMR (for “autonomous sensory meridian response”) proves that even the most banal activities can form a rabid fan base. “ASMRtists” like GentleWhispering and QueenofSerene rack up hundreds of thousands of video views on YouTube as they speak softly while performing mundane tasks like folding napkins or tapping on surfaces. Others specialize in...
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Something Surprising: The Storefront Is Watching...
The Mannequins Are Alive
Airport clothing store United Arrows teamed up with Microsoft to create an interactive and lifelike way to test out clothing using Microsoft’s Kinect. Mannequins strung up like marionettes in window displays mimic the movements of shoppers who stop in front of the storefront to play. When most storefront window displays are typically ignored or noticed in...
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Something Surprising: Share With Strangers
Share-Fi
Those with access to their own Wi-Fi typically lock it down with a password and keep it for themselves. That’s what makes this idea so darn nice: a mobile hotspot that encourages you to share, appropriately named Karma. For every stranger you share your connection with, 100MB gets added to your account. Share more, save more and everybody wins.
–Daniel, 59 words
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Something Surprising: Everything Old Is New Again
The Secret Beauty Of Animated GIFs
With the Internet becoming an increasingly visual experience, we’re seeing a resurgence in one of the oldest internet image formats: the animated GIF. They’re more dynamic than a still JPEG, yet require less attention than a YouTube video - perfect for snack-sized length and suited for sharing. What has us most excited is actually how far GIFs...
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Something Surprising: Piracy Sans MS
A Comical Solution To Dealing With Piracy
If you frequently pirate software you might just end up stuck in a world surrounded by everyone’s favorite typeface: Comic Sans MS. That’s one developer’s approach to decreasing piracy and pushing people down the purchase funnel. The Mac-only text editor Chocolat is free to download and comes with a 30-day free evaluation. After the evaluation...
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Something Surprising: Tweeting Your Way Into Debt
Buy It With A Tweet
American Express now lets you purchase physical products just by sending a tweet with a particular hashtag. When you sign up for the Amex Sync program, it binds your credit card to your Twitter account and uses the billing address you already have on file. Once enrolled all you have to do is tweet a special hashtag being promoted on the Amex Twitter, confirm your order with...
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Something Surprising: It's A Match
Never Say No To A Match
Tinder, the hot new mobile dating game, has refreshed an old idea: you look at a photo and short bio of someone and decide whether or not you like them. That’s it. No questionnaires, no fancy matching algorithm. In a world of big data and analytics, Tinder walks the other way. Only if both people say “Yes” can they contact each other. And there’s even a bit of a cheat –...
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Something Surprising: Inventing The Pet Jellyfish
Aquatic Innovation
When Alex Andon created his company he also defined a new market. That company is called Jellyfish Art, and as of right now they have a monopoly on the pet jellyfish market. Alex launched his new venture on Kickstarter, where he received $162,917 – blowing past his original $3,000 goal. He later received venture funding from Paul Graham’s Y Combinator. For $500 you can get...
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The Internet Remixes Daft Punk's New (Unreleased)...
A few weeks ago, Daft Punk ran a :15 TV spot during Saturday Night Live teasing their long-awaited new album “Random Access Memories”:
With only :15 of new music available, fans have already begun creating some pretty amazing remixes/edits:
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Something Surprising: Dunk In The Dark
Real Time Marketing Wins The Super Bowl
Brands spend millions to get on TV during the Super Bowl, but it’s what happened off the screen this year that will be remembered. When the lights went out, Oreo was ready and quickly inserted themselves into the social discussion with a photo that aligned their brand with the real time conversation. The photo was Retweeted more than 15,000 times...
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Something Surprising: Self-Destructing Media
Snapchat
If you ask a 15-year old what the hot new app is today, chances are you’ll hear something about Snapchat. It’s a simple photo-sharing service that deletes all traces of an image 10-seconds after the receiver opens it. By design, Snapchat is un-shareable – acting almost as a counter-trend to the over sharing and spam found on Facebook. It’s perfect for pranks, jokes or anything...
“4.4 Billion: Pageviews Per Month”
– Digiday has a great rundown of 15 facts you should know about Reddit, but this one in particular stood out. That’s a lot of pageviews for a website with just 22 employees!
March 2013
16 posts
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Something Surprising: Good Night, Lamp
The Good Night Lamp
Here’s a lamp that connects with other lamps. When on, it lets your friends, parents or long-distant lovers know you’re home. Most communication devices are interruptive (text, email, call) but we think the Good Night Lamp connects people in a perfectly minimal way. Perhaps we’ll start to see a rise in a new mode of communication: less about passing along messages, more...
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Something Surprising: Our Government's Awesome,...
This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For
The White House demonstrated Yoda-like cultural wisdom by issuing an official response to a popular request — that the U.S. government begin construction on a Death Star to be completed by 2016. The note established the government’s Star Wars street cred by noting that it would be foolish to spend an estimated 850 quadrillion...
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Wolverine Introduces The 6 Second Trailer
Give credit to the new Wolverine movie, with one of the first mainstream uses of Vine with their new 6 Second Trailer:
Watch #TheWolverine exclusive #Vine Teaser RIGHT NOW! vine.co/v/bDExaiMjJ1F
— The Wolverine (@WolverineMovie) March 25, 2013
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CollegeHumor and BuzzFeed Play Fruitball
BuzzFeed and CollegeHumor are both content creation titans, so when BuzzFeed made a video to call out CollegeHumor on a sport they called Fruitball:
It was only a matter of time before CollegeHumor responded:
Let the games begin!
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94Fifty Combines Technology And Basketball
The 94Fifty is a Kickstarter project that follows in the footsteps of Nike+, and aims to bring data-logging to the game of basketball with a sensor-filled ball and tracking app.
The ball itself is regulation size and weight, and charges wirelessly. The Bluetooth sensor contained within measures data points like spin, speed, and arc angle.
The app then uses that data to allow you to monitor...
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Facebook's New News Feed
Facebook announced an update to their News Feed yesterday that aims to reduce clutter, put the focus on individual stories, and give users more control over the types of information that they see. The redesign brings over many of the features Facebook developed for their mobile and tablet apps, including an always-available left-hand menu, and new content notifications that allow a user to jump...
WatchHeat was honored to host the amazingly tallented Kishi Bashi at our office, and we shot this short video to share his talents with you.
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General Electric Gets Scientific On Vine
Great example of making the most of 6 seconds of Vine video, from General Electric:
Pour yourself a refreshing glass of #science. vine.co/v/b62gBUUX62D
— General Electric (@generalelectric) February 21, 2013
February 2013
11 posts
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Brands Climb On Vine
Brands are beginning to integrate Vine into their content strategy, and some are having more success than others. Here are a few examples of content that gets it right, and stays true to the medium:
The never-ending pack! #Magic #Trident #Gum vine.co/v/bvLwYw10wMH
February 13, 2013
The #Magic hashtag is for Vine videos that perform some sort of magic trick in just six seconds of video, and...
