The Eternal Ice Drop

For cooling your cognac.

Via

A couple of important wine innovations for Crimbletime

The Inventorspot blog describes these two vital drinks innovations. Firstly, Playboy Wines offers "a once a month delivery service of unique vintages of wines which come with a label that features a vintage playboy magazine cover".
And not entirely unrelated, although it's not clear whether this is meant to benefit the wearer or her companions, is this wine rack bra, which really needs no further description.

Root Organic Spirits

From Lovely Package:

“At 80 proof, ROOT is unlike anything else on the market today and is the first true American liqueur since the Pre-Prohibition Era.

It is lively, and rose gold in color, this rustic spirit has a full, rich smoky flavor, inspired by an 18th century Pennsylvania folk recipe, which eventually evolved into Birch or Root Beer. The recipe stems from Root Tea, which goes back to the 1700s, when Native Americans taught the recipe to settlers. Over generations, Root Tea grew in potency, particularly in Pennsylvania, where the ingredients grew in abundance. During the Temperance Movement, a Philadelphia pharmacist removed the alcohol and ironically rechristened it Root Beer. This is our creation and interpretation of a genuine potent, Root Tea.

ROOT is a certified organic spirit made with North American herbs and pure cane sugar. All botanicals are painstakingly selected and tested for purity. Using all natural, organic ingredients, like anise, birch bark, cloves and cardamom, with hints of spearmint and citrus, the sugarcane based liquor is distilled in limited batches to ensure maximum quality.”

This is great fun. And beautifully designed. It seems like a genuinely innovative idea with a story. Nice.

iBar is very cool

From Springwise:

"We wrote recently about the interactive wine bar at Adour in New York City's St. Regis Hotel, and since then we've spotted several mentions of iBar, a related innovation by UK-based Mindstorm.

Unveiled in 2006, the iBar is a customisable surface technology that turns any bar into a giant version of an interactive, touch-sensitive screen. Integrated video projectors can display any content on the bar's milky surface, while built-in intelligent tracking software continually maps the position of every object touching its surface. That input is then used to let the projected content interact dynamically with the movements on the counter, allowing coloured lights, for example, to illuminate, link and follow every movement of hands, bottles and glasses. Multiple people can interact with the iBar at once, and virtual objects can be "touched" with the fingers, enabling a game of pinball where players shoot with their thumbs, for example. Content that can be displayed on the iBar includes internet content, interactive games and advertising; bars can also be fitted with Bluetooth technology to allow consumers to download their own content. The iBar is a stand-alone system comprising modules 2m long, and it can be networked wirelessly to allow interaction between two or more separate units.

The iBar has already been used in events, exhibitions, product launches and top night spots all over the world, Mindstorm says, including BMW's head office in Munich, Geneva's Pimp Club and a gala dinner at Google. Such technologies certainly have the potential to transform the consumer experience at bars, restaurants and other venues, as well as providing a wealth of new advertising and point-of-sale opportunities. One to try out early!"

Check out the YouTube version of it.



Great piece of talkability for bars and brands. Have a look at this page for the branding effects they are capable of.

Absolut 100 - Sexy Black Bottle

This looks incredibly alluring. I want one! Design job done!

From Absolutads:

"Singapore Changi Airport and DFS Singapore will be the location for the debut of the new Absolut 100 premium vodka this month before the brand is offered elsewhere.

“The world premiere will be held at Changi airport in Singapore in March,” says Anders Olsson. “We will then roll out the launch of ABSOLUT 100 worldwide throughout 2007, executed by MAXXIUM Global Travel Retail, who handles the V&S brands in [the] global duty free and travel retail market. We are convinced that the market will be as excited about this new product and concept as we are at ABSOLUT.”

ABSOLUT 100 is the first ever ABSOLUT product to be initially developed and launched exclusively for the global duty free and travel retail market.

The company says: “We have created the unique qualities of ABSOLUT 100 by adjusting our production processes in order to achieve a smoother high proof vodka. ABSOLUT 100 is rich and full bodied. The taste is distinct, yet smooth and mellow, with a grainy character and notes of dried fruit. The stylishly rustic, masculine qualities of ABSOLUT 100 are emphasized in the tough, no-nonsense design concept and imaging, based on a bold minimalistic colour palette of opaque black, chrome silver and subdued grey.”

The launch of ABSOLUT 100 will be supported by a tailored marketing campaign in the duty free and travel retail market. ABSOLUT 100 will then be sold exclusively in travel retail/duty free outlets worldwide. During the introductory phase of the launch, ABSOLUT 100 will only be available in 100cl bottles."

Guinness Wholegrain Bread

More marketing innovation from Guinness. Previously we showed Guinness Marmite, the Guinness rugby chair, Guinness Hands, their awesomely clever anamorphic coasters, Guinness Red, their partnership with Le cool and the Guinness blog... now we've got Guinness Wholegrain Bread!

It's been much anticipated but now it's here. From Snackspot:

"Ah thinks the Kaptain, the moanses you told the Snacking Spot of the lack of sightings in the homeland has instead yielded a new reward for the Kaptain. He brings you the Guinness Wholegrain Bread, brew baked in the Northern Ireland by Irwin's bakery. Sampling the bread the Kaptain was rewarded with delicious malty whole wheat tasting trembles. The alkyhols sacrificed in the heats of the oven flames, but the malty beer stenches remaining. The Kaptain wonders if the komarades on foreign shores will enjoy its tastes, he hopes so, he hopes so very much."

"Produced at Irwin's Portadown bakery the bread has an authentic 17 per cent real Guinness content - giving it a richly dark appearance and the unmistakable malty taste of the beer."

Apparently it tastes like dark soda bread and can be bought in Waitrose. Some of the comments also point to the existence of Guinness fudge, which sounds like it didn't go down too well!

To find out more about it read this article from the Irish Times.

It seems that Guinness have updated their thinking and are leveraging their powerful platform with some Marketing Innovation a la John Grant. It's a great way of super charing your brand.

Innovation's what you need... if you're gonna be a record breaker...

From Flickr.