Porsche launches world first interactive billboard
David McCowen January 8, 2015 The Age A new billboard in Melbourne is capable of recognising Porsches. Australia is set to be home to an advertising first, a billboard that tailors messages according to the type of car people drive. The new digital billboard on Melbourne’s Airport Drive will only show an advert for Porsche when one of the German brand’s cars drives past. The system uses a camera to detect Porsche vehicles before displaying a message that reads “It’s so easy to pick you out of a crowd” when a Porsche approaches. A spokesman for display advertising specialists oOh Media, says the world-first campaign was made possible by sophisticated vehicle recognition software. “This is the first time that image recognition software has been used to identify a car on the move,” he says. “It recognises the shape and expects of the exterior of the car, not the driver. “It…
Read MoreCSNews Industry Forecast Foretells Positive 2015
Don Longo January 6, 2015 Convenience Store News NATIONAL REPORT — With the unemployment rate dropping, real wages rising slightly and oil prices plummeting to their lowest levels in years, business conditions in 2015 are expected to improve for both the national economy and convenience store retailers. “There are a lot of positives going forward,†said Maureen Maguire, president and founder of ThinkResearch and chief analyst for the annual Convenience Store News Industry Forecast Study, now in its 13th year. “The price of gas is dropping significantly and that amounts to an enormous tax break for the American consumer.†Various sources suggest American motorists are saving $630 million a day on gasoline compared to what they paid at June 2014 prices, and that the annual savings would put $230 billion of disposable income into consumers’ pockets if prices were to stay this low for an entire year. However, the drop…
Read MoreFast food evolution – global super-brands are having to reinvent themselves to keep up
Rachel Browne and Esther Han January 11, 2015 inShare The fast-food giants, under attack from the rise of the upmarket chain restaurant, are having to tweak their traditional fare, writes Rachel Browne and Esther Han. With its timber-panelled walls, oversized communal table, retro coffee machines and motto “eat good food drink great coffee” emblazoned above an array of organic soft drinks and quinoa salads, The Corner seems more indie cafe than fast food giant. Among the clientele – a mix of staff from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and hip young Camperdown locals – only the very observant would notice the discreet McCafe tag tucked at the bottom of its logo. The Corner by McCafe is a radical departure from formula for McDonald’s, a fast food giant at a crossroad. First launched in Australia in 1971, the chain grew from one small outlet in Yagoona in Sydney’s south-west to become the…
Read MoreSmokers do notice health warnings: study
JANUARY 09, 2015 NEWS.COM.AU SMOKERS are almost twice as likely to notice health warnings on tobacco products that have packaging free of advertising. A BRITISH Heart Foundation study of almost 3,000 smokers and ex-smokers in Australia and the UK found that the number of those in Australia who took notice of health warnings almost doubled after tobacco packets were stripped of branding in December 2012. The foundation’s report said just a third (34 per cent) of smokers and ex-smokers noticed the health warnings before any other information in 2010, compared with two thirds (66 per cent) after the legislation was implemented. In the UK, where branded packaging still exists, just 24 per cent of people noticed the health warnings before other messages such as advertising. The report also found 82 per cent of Australians did not like the look of tobacco products after standardised packaging was introduced. The BHF said…
Read MoreSupermarket war not an eggs-act science
Sue Neales JANUARY 12, 2015 THE AUSTRALIAN THE supermarket war is hotting up, with eggs the latest weapon in the battle to create differentiation in the minds of shoppers between Coles, Woolworths and Aldi. As animal-welfare groups put pressure on retailers and fast-food companies to quit selling eggs or using eggs from intensive or “factory†farms, traditional or “caged eggs†are fast disappearing from supermarket shelves. Stuck in between the marketing hype are Australian egg farmers, concerned that consumers are losing out on choice and price options and not being told the full story about the merits of different egg production systems. Egg producers such as Bede Burke of Tamworth are also worried that sustaining production will be difficult if either legislation or altered consumer demand dictates a wholesale switch to eggs laid by chickens kept only in non-caged environments. Mr Burke, a cropping and cattle farmer as well as…
Read MoreThe cool and not so hot: we rank 13 Australian ice creams
Tom Cowie January 7, 2015 The Age Summer is tearing off the wrapper of an ice cream from the freezer at your local servo and gobbling it down before it melts. This is the definitive ranking of those ice creams and not at all the opinion of just one person. Weis Bar Oh Weis Bar, you are so painfully uncool. It’s for insurance brokers and accountants who enjoy “raspberries and toasted coconut” and “boysenberries and rich vanilla bean”. Sort of aesthetically pleasing, in a retro way, with two-tone art deco colours. Your parents ate it after downing a prosecco and scoffing pigs in blankets. A revival could be on the cards if the glorious 1970s range was to return (highlights included apricot brandy, peach champagne and muscatel). Groovy. Eskimo Pie The Eskimo Pie is the granddaddy of ice creams, having first come into existence in 1923. Minus the bells and…
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