non-high-tech innovations waiting to be innovated...
...along comes yet another “Why didn’t I think of that?” moment.
Perhaps you have heard: commercial airline passengers are not thrilled with having to purchase once-free snacks at around $5 a pop. Florida-based Air Advertainment, LLC saw in that a marketing opportunity. They came up with the idea of letting sponsors provide travelers with free snacks, with an advertising message attached.
While some advertising is interruptive — like when you click on something that interests you and are then forced to sit through a 30-second spot that doesn’t — this medium, handled properly, can actually leave consumers feeling beholden to sponsors.
The first advertiser to jump on the idea is Gilt Groupe, a membership luxury shopping service based in New York. Through Air Advertainment’s intermediary, US airways distributed 100,000 free snack boxes from Gilt to passengers over a three-week period.
High tech is wonderful. I thrill every time I discover that, yes, there indeed is “an app for that.” But for the astute, there are still plenty of low-tech innovations out there, just waiting to be innovated.
—Steve Cuno