Archive for the 'automotive' Category

.car Evolution

Published
by
Rick
on May 20, 2008
in Social Media, Uncategorized, application, automotive, inspiration and interface
.

(Disclaimer: I am personally involved in the development of Fiat’s digital presence with my work at AKQA)

BMW and Crysler DO NOT GET IT! (read the comments).
Gearing up for the .car Era | Autopia from Wired.com
Ford sounds like it’s right behind them…

It’s interesting to see how Fiat are describing and marketing their Blue&Me technology.
blue_me_fiat_500.jpg (JPEG Image, 475�316 pixels)
They seem concerned about the detail, which is always a good sign. They offer Blue&Me EcoDrive as standard and have Nav and Map add-on features.

Fiat EcoDrive is described in greater detail here, but essentially it measures your driving style irrespective of the car you drive. It puts everyone on a level playing field and gives them tips and suggestions on how to improve their driving style, saving them money by lowering their fuel consumption.

It’s a niche, but interesting, concept and importantly it’s engaging whilst not being disruptive. EcoDrive promises to ‘teach drivers how to go greener’. Drivers can fit whichever navigation system they choose to the car, rather than being tied down to a locked-in version, suceptable to bugs and poorly executed updates.

I’ll be interested to find out how drivers communicate between their car and their desktop computers to make intelligent use of all the data that’s captured and (possibly sharing that information within a community???), but it strikes me as a far stronger proposition than attempting to steal a march on the SatNav’s out there like TomTom and Dash.net in the US, who only last week announced that they were opening up their API to developers.

What do you think? Do you want to watch YouTube in the car? Is being online important?? Is this running before you can walk or a bold move?

General motors gets social

Published
by
Rick
on September 11, 2007
in Social Media and automotive
.

General Motors Europe has launched an innovative “social media newsroom.” Each press release on its new Web site has “links for easy sharing and tagging with popular social media sites such as Technorati, Digg, del.icio.us and Facebook, and each includes a comments area to encourage commentary and opinion from readers.”

The comprehensive Web site includes photography for reuse online that can be downloaded from Flickr — and a link to GM Europe’s video collection on YouTube.

The social media landscape is littered with companies like Walmart whose attempt at social media marketing has gone up in flames.

I have to compliment GM on this approach. By beginning with existing assets (press releases, pictures and videos of their cars) they can test the social media water. The tactics they are using have little chance of blowing up in their face, so the organization will be able to gain confidence in this new marketing approach. As Julie Hamp, GM Europe’s vice president of communications puts it:

“Everyone is learning about the value of the social media environments which allow open dialogue, sharing select information with other users and posting photos or information to share with friends of select users. Today, there is much more of an opportunity to create a dialogue with the consumer, and we are providing our news in a form that makes it easy to republish, comment on and pass along.”