Ads On a Plane: Free Wi-Fi Coming to Airlines

Mobile media company JiWire and satellite broadband provider Row 44 are teaming up to deliver an in-flight Wi-Fi system that will come to you for free via advertising support.

Southwest and Alaska Airlines have already begun to test the new service, which will make it possible for advertisers to target the coveted “business traveler” demographic in exchange for free Wi-Fi. The system is expected to launch fully on at least those two airlines this fall.

The company doesn’t specify exactly how the ads will appear, whether via pre-rolls or some sort of browser framing experience. Row 44’s Skytown Center is mentioned as one place where ads will appear — a virtual shopping mall and content portal unique to specific airlines. Perhaps a mandatory stroll through the virtual mall will be required for entry into the wild and wooly internets.

The service sounds like a boon to consumers, who will benefit from free Wi-Fi (that’s hopefully not too caged by the ad experience). It should be a good opportunity for advertisers as well considering a recent study by the Wi-Fi Alliance showing that 76% of business travelers would pick an airline based on Wi-Fi, and more than 70% would choose Wi-Fi over a meal service.

When you travel, do you pick your flights based on Wi-Fi availability? Would you leap at the chance for a free hot-spot in the air, or are you content to shell out a few bucks for an ad-free experience? Let us know in the comments.

[via Marketing Vox]

Tags: advertising, Airlines, free wifi, jiwire, planes, travel, wifi

Coke Zero Facebook App Searches for Your Digital Double

When big brands try to create novelty Facebook applications, the results are often disappointing (remember Whopper Sacrifice?).

It’s too early to make a final judgment on Coca-Cola’s Coke Zero Facebook tie-in, but the idea is fun enough that it just might work.

The Coke Zero Facial Profiler app aims to use Facebook to find your digital double. Coca-Cola promotes its Coke Zero brand under the guise of “having Coke’s taste but with zero calories” so finding an identical stranger is an interesting tie-in.

The app is pretty simple. Grant the Coke Zero Facial Profiler app access to your Facebook account via Facebook Connect and it will search for photos you have uploaded of yourself and scan them with its face recognition software. If you don’t have enough photos uploaded or if the photos aren’t right for the software, you can upload a photo from your computer or take a picture from your web cam.

As soon as the app has enough information, you’re added to the database and asked to invite your Facebook friends to join in on the fun too. Once the database is large enough (how large isn’t specified, but it was 22% full as of this writing), Coke Zero will show your doppleganger.

Coke hints that you might be able to have some fun with the information after a match is made, but is playing coy with the details. If you decide you DON’T want your photo in Coke’s database, you can request that it be removed and Coke says it will comply within 48 hours.

Like iPhone apps, Facebook applications are increasingly being used by small and large companies to promote or reinforce a brand. Personally, I like the idea of this app and can’t wait to see who it matches my face with!

Tags: coke zero, coke zero facial profiler, facebook application, MARKETING

Your Opinion Counts: Help Google Build Better Maps

The team behind Google Maps today reports several interesting improvements to the service. First of all, they’ve created a new base map dataset, which includes several publicly accessible geospatial government-created datasets, with information pertaining to toll roads, bridges, road networks and the like.

In practice, this simply means more data and more details in Google Maps. For example, maps of college campuses and cycling trails have been vastly improved; cyclists should soon even be able to check out biking directions directly on Google Maps, a feature which I’ve personally been anxiously waiting for.

The most important new feature, however, has to do with you: the user. On the bottom right of Google Maps you’ll find a new link: “Report a Problem”; you can also find it by right clicking anywhere on the map and selecting it from the drop down menu. It’s not related to technical issues with Google Maps, but rather to mistakes in the actual geospatial data. For example, if you see outdated or just plain wrong data – a street name, direction, or a missing road – you can now report it through this link. You’ll soon be able to see what difference you’ve made, as Google plans to resolve reported issues within a month.

See an overview of this new feature in the video below.

Tags: geospatial data, Google Maps