In the 21st century, if you have a problem that needs solving you’re more likely to hear, ‘there’s an app for that’ rather than an actual solution to your problem. Why? Because, with more than a hundred thousand apps in the iPhone store, there really is an app for whatever trouble you might be having.

Look around. iPhones are becoming as ubiquitous in coffee shops and bus stops as conferences and boardrooms, and they’re not all being used to make calls or send text messages. Rather, users are gleaning news stories from their favourite apps, checking weather forecasts, or searching for that perfect Wednesday night casserole recipe. Apps are here to stay, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Encapsulating our excitement is Cliff Pollan who wrote in March 16th’s Online Video Insider: “there’s no reason this explosion must or should be limited to smartphones. The app phenomenon can and will transform the Web as well.” He continued:

Online, video transforms static content into something equally or more engaging than an app. An entirely new class of apps is emerging that is video-enabled. According to TechTarget, 72% of IT buyers use video to research IT purchasing decisions. And the numbers are even higher outside of IT.

This is the class that Vidrollr fits into, apps that are video-enabled, branded, embeddable and where interaction is high and results are measurable. Pollan clipped the tip of the iceberg when mentioning new levels of engagement with event promotion, customer testimonials and product announcements as potential uses for these video-enabled web applications. With video commenting apps like Vidrollr, companies and brands could approach customer service, product demos, socializing TV and interactive ad campaigns in a completely new way and with the tools that are already widely used: web applications.

Where do you foresee video-enabled web applications being the most useful in the coming months? Share your thoughts, we look forward to reading your comments below.

Memelabs is one of the world’s leading video contesting platforms. Now, we’re adding photo contesting to our arsenal.

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Unlike most existing photo contesting platforms, we work with companies to make sure that their brand is articulated in every element of design. Memelabs offers a range of options, from slick design templates to fully integrated white-label contests.

Our customizable Memelabs photo player makes it a breeze to view, scroll through and share images without compromising branding.

Our accessible CMS lets our customers easily run their own contests, from launch, through moderation to contest close. Memelabs includes simple-to-use tools for site content updates, contest monitoring, fraud detection, and promotional tools including client database controls and a newsletter manager.

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To explore our first photo contest, please visit www.memelabs.com/theblock

Memelabs is part of Memesuite, an agency toolkit with solutions for audio-visual delivery, contesting and client database management.

Posted by Saleem Barnard

* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity

From time to time, a company comes out with a brilliant product: clean, sleek, easy to use, and down right sexy. However, something even more rare and interesting than this is the halo brand – a brand that can do no wrong and spits out brilliant products. One worth mentioning is Apple.

Apple has proved themselves with their strong product success rate and high rate of user satisfaction. As with the case with the iPhone, just the mention of Apple creating a mobile phone created organic buzz, spin-off fan sites, and skyrocketing demand for a product that was just in the idea stage. Ultimately, few were disappointed with the final product. But the rarity lies in the amount of trust consumers vest in Apple. Everything they touch turns to cool. If Apple started selling re-bar, you would see trend setters carry around the various Apple colours like a patriot waving his flag.

Microsoft, oh Microsoft, is in a very different, and far less attractive boat. Take the Zune for example. Zune, their attempt at an iPod killer, does have superior technical specifications; but it just lacks. Brown as a core colour? Brown??

A cow in a pretty red dress is still a cow. The parent brand, plagued by “blah” publicity of their product launches and a growing increase in the love-to-hate attitude, falls flat by trying too hard to appear cool. You can’t create cool. Especially if the vision of cool is brown.

Posted by Jenn Lowther

* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity

Our office is located in the Railtown neighbourhood of Vancouver.? It is a great up and coming neighbourhood and we have an eclectic group of clothing designers, tech, interior design, and architecture companies that make this neighbourhood what it is.? One thing that this neighbourhood really lacks though, are places to eat at lunch.? Needless to say, when we heard that a new restaurant was opening on the corner of Gore and Alexander, we were ecstatic.

We waited patiently for months as we saw the place slowly come together.? When they were almost done, a couple of us popped our heads in and had a quick chat with the owners.? This is when we learned the unfortunate name of this new restaurant.

Now before I go any further, I have to comment on the restaurant.? They are awesome.? The food is great, the service is awesome, and the open atmosphere is ideal for the setting.? They have really incredibly reasonable prices for the quality and caliber of food we receive.? Each lunch, the place is packed – they have at least 2 lunch rushes each day – and there are always at least a few patrons waiting to get their lunch to take back to the office.

The actual name of the restaurant is 2 Chefs and a Table, but the connotation of 2 Chefs 1 Table is too close to not make the connection.? When we found out the name of the restaurant, we couldn’t help but laugh and realize that they have no idea what images the name of their restaurant evokes in our slightly warped minds – if you do not know what I am referencing here, consider yourself lucky.? Now I do realize that it is probably a small subset of their patrons that will make this connection, as only people who spend far too much time online will know the reference. But, given the neighbourhood in which they are located, I’m sure there are a fair number of us.

We really do like them and they have worked so hard to bring a great new establishment to the neighbourhood.? It is people like them that will make this a great neighbourhood to work and live in over the coming years. And for this reason, we just cannot bring ourselves to tell these guys what their name reminds us of.

But that really brings me to the point of my post.? Before you move ahead with branding for your company, do a little research.? I’m sure that a cursory search at Google for their name would have brought up what I am referencing.? With that knowledge, I am sure that they would have reconsidered the name of their establishment.

Posted by Jenn Lowther

The first time I heard the term global warming I thought ‘what’s the big deal, I could go for some warmer temperatures’. I know I’m not the only one who thought this – particularly since I live in Canada and the temperature can get rather frigid. So things warm up a bit who cares. I think this may have been one of the issues that slowed the main stream’s adoption of the issue. I now say that global warming wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t make things so damn cold! This observation brought me to my conclusion that the term global Warming is a misnomer.

Now consider some other naming possibilities that were open to the scientists

• Global Cooling
• Weather Suck Fest
• Endless Winter
• Perpetual Storm Generator
• Bat Sh*t Crazy Weather System Generator

*Update: I’ve gotten some excellent suggestions in the comments on better names, so good that I thought I’d add them to the post

• Atmosphere Cancer – Sporkist
• Pollution Death – Dario

Obviously most of these names are superfluous and are used strictly to demonstrate my point. These are names that people would pay attention to as they don’t sound all warm and fuzzy like the easter bunny, unlike global warming.

**Thanks to Rebecca for sending me the picture

These names are also more along the lines of what we’ve been experiencing in Vancouver. Really, it’s almost the end of April and we are getting snow storms. We rarely even get snow storms in December! Normally, we have already flocked to the beach to bask in the sun. Seriously, I would have paid way more attention to the issue had they said “Guys, it’s going to make things colder…Winter will now be extended to the beginning of summer and summer isn’t going to be as warm and sunny as what you’re used to and just when you think the good weather has arrived, we’re going to give you more snow”.

**Thanks to Nigel for sending me the picture

It’s too late to rename global warming now (and people are starting to finally pay attention anyways), but it is a lesson for us to learn as we move forward. When naming something, make sure the name not only reflects the issue/business at hand, but also is something that will make people sit up and pay attention.