Eco & Sustainability, Marketing & Advertising.

Recently, we saw the Tierra Patagonia Hotel & Spa in Chile offer virtual seeds to its guests, giving them the chance to help reforestation in the hotels neighboring spaces. Now, beer brand Molson Canadian is encouraging consumers to greater appreciate their surroundings through its Red Leaf Project, which is providing beer coasters embedded with seeds to help them plant trees. Those buying crates of Molson Canadian or ordering the drink at bars will receive a coaster for the duration of the promotion. Each coaster is made of seed paper, which grows into a tree when watered, given the right conditions. The company plans to release one million of the coasters, which also contain a pin code that gives customers a chance to win a pair of tickets to an outdoor concert taking place in their part of Canada. When entering the pin code, users can enter their address and Molson Canadian promises to put money towards a park in the area and has set aside USD 400,000 for this purpose. Fans of the brand can also get a guaranteed ticket to the Molson Canadian Red Leaf Project show in Toronto by signing up to volunteer at one of its 100 Park Projects across the country. The campaign aims to encourage younger beer-drinkers to become actively engaged in environmental projects while also enjoying themselves and appreciating the Canadian outdoors. Marketing firms how could you help promote a brand while also encouraging eco-friendly behavior?

For rural people to reply to the messages

Weve seen a couple of ideas that aim to help illiterate people navigate text content on the web, from Question Box to Wordia. Now, EasySMS app is offering a more visual and aural way for those who cant read or write to understand and reply to text messages. Developed by students at the Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne in Switzerland, the Windows 7 Phone app takes received text messages and breaks down each word into an interactive button. Users can hear the whole text message read out in a synthesized voice, or click on individual words to hear them read out and then drag those words into their own reply. The app also contains a dictionary of visual symbols which can be incorporated into the text message reply. The users contacts list is also made more visual by adding avatars, which can be customized to contain memorable features. According to the team behind EasySMS, the dropping price of mass produced smartphones and greater mobile coverage means they are already being used in poorer rural areas of the world, where many of the more than 800 million people who are illiterate reside. The app enables those who cant read or write to take full advantage of the technology, as well as easily keep in touch with relatives and friends. The following video explains more about the app:

Bike sharing

This weekend, Paris placed over 10,000 bikes in just 36 hours, launching an ambitious bike sharing system that is meant to 'lead a revolution in the way Parisians move around the city'. Dubbed Vlib' (from velo + libert), the program aims to help reduce pollution and keep the people of Paris physically fit. Customers can pick up a bicycle from one of 750 self-service points. If no bikes are available, renters are directed towards a well-stocked point nearby. After identifying themselves and providing credit or debit card details, users can take out a bike. A day pass costs EUR 1, allowing users as many rides as they like, provided each trip is less than 30 minutes. An additional half hour is EUR 1, with prices climbing for additional time used; the pricing model is aimed at encouraging quick turnover. Bikes can be returned at any service point. Once all 1,451 are in place (end of 2007), the nearest service point will never be far off - one every 300 metres, which means they'll be 4.4 times as densely distributed as metro stations. The number of bicycles will also be doubled, bringing the total to 20,600. The sturdy grey bikes come with a metal basket on the handlebars and are heavier than standard bicycles, built to withstand heavy use. In line with the program's green image, Vlib maintenance staff get around town on 130 electrically assisted bicycles. A barge with 12 stops along the Seine will pick up bikes in need of major repairs. Cleaning staff drive electric vehicles and use rain collected on the roofs of JCDecaux offices. Like a similar scheme in Lyon, where 10 percent of the city's population has a subscription to the local sharing scheme, Vlib is operated by outdoor advertising giant JCDecaux, which is footing the bill in exchange for exclusive rights to 1,628 Paris billboards. For short journeys, shared bicycles are faster, cheaper and easier than public transport. With fuel prices still on the rise and increased concern about the environmental costs of driving, planners from other cities should head over to Paris to test Vlib in preparation for launching their own bicycle sharing program. And if you're in outdoor advertising, take a cue

After visiting the doctor for the flu or other common complaint, the last thing consumers want to do is to make a second trip to a pharmacist and wait while their prescription gets filled. InstyMeds, a US startup, has devised a novel way to make getting medications easy. The company's vending machines are designed to be placed in doctors' offices, clinics, emergency rooms and other healthcare facilities. Each holds 100 of some of the most often used medications that can range from pills to drops to creams and so forth. InstyMeds machines require that physicians create prescriptions electronically, which are then transmitted to the vending location. (Alternately, patients can take printed prescriptions to their regular pharmacists.) The machines include several safeguards to insure patients receive the proper medications their doctors ordered. From the patients' point of view, however, the ordering process is relatively simple. They enter their prescription number and birthday via a user-friendly touchscreen monitor, then insert either cash or credit cards to cover copays, while their insurance companies are billed automatically. Besides saving time for patients, InstyMeds machines also save pharmacists the slow and potentially error-prone process of counting out medications by hand. Indeed, relieving pharmacists from such routine tasks could turn out to be the machine's major benefit. With pharmacist salaries in the United States climbing over USD 100,000, the time savings can mean significant cash savings. The vending machines, which are accessible 24/7, likewise could help alleviate a growing shortage of pharmacists. Moreover, InstyMed's founders note that by handling routine prescriptions the vending machines let pharmacists focus on more important tasks such as counselling patients. While start-up costs are likely to be high for any new venture in the heavily-regulated health arena, InstyMeds illustrates how entrepreneurs can devise niche products that handily meet customer needs while potentially chipping away at ever-growing healthcare costs.

Urban bike-sharing is coming to North America in the form of Bixi, the new high-tech public bike system developed for the city of Montreal. Bixi follows the standard bike sharing principles: users take a bike from a stand, ride it to where they want to go, and drop it at another stand when they're done. To make the concept even more attractive to users, bikes will be equipped with RFID tags so that users can track availability online; real-time information is beamed to the web from the system's solar-powered bike stands. Users will pay a membership fee of CDN 78 for one year, CDN 24 for one month or CDN 5 for one day. The first half hour of every trip is free, rising to CDN 12 per hour for extended periods of use. The aim is to encourage short trips, and fees compare favorably with the price of

a monthly bus pass (CDN 66.25). One reason for the system's low cost is the long-lasting bikes, which were designed by Michel Dallaire and are expected to provide 75,000-100,000 km of travel. Bixi's full launch is scheduled for April 2009, when 3,000 bikes will be installed in 300 locations across the city. Taking Montreal's fierce winters into account, Bixi will operate from April to November. If it all goes according to plan, the city will end up with a financially independent yet affordable scheme that will keep its residents fit and safe and its environment clean and open. (Related: City bike schemes Bank-sponsored bike sharing.

In Italy, platform enables users to crowdsource small and last-minute grocery deliveries
Milk, Please! is an online service that lets consumers crowdsource help with small and last-minute grocery deliveries.

3rd May 2012 in Retail. Late last year we featured Massachusetts-based NeighborFavor, a site that lets college students earn cash by helping each other with their shopping, and recently we came across a variation on that same premise in a different

part of the world. Based in Italy this time, Milk, Please! is an online service that lets consumers crowdsource help with small and last-minute grocery deliveries. Consumers who realize they need a grocery item at home but cant make it to the store themselves can send a request to Milk, Please!, which is accessible online as well as via smartphones and special stations in supermarkets. From there, someone who is already at the store or planning to visit it soon can view the request and add the item to their own shopping list, if they so choose. They then drop the item off on their way home, and Milk, Please! handles their compensation. The video below depicts the Milk, Please! premise at work: Milk, Please! is now accepting requests for invitations to participate in the new service, and details are still scarce as to how it will work, including specifics on compensation for those who run the errands. It sounds, however, like advertisers will have an opportunity to make sponsored product recommendations through the service as well. Grocery brands around the globe: one to get involved in?