Intro to New Technology - Todoist - Brittany Fanale

Todoist is an incredible app that allows you to easily create, modify, and sync a to do list viturally through multiple devices. The problem I have like many others is you physically write down a to do list and have to carry it with you 24/7 or you loose it. It does not allow for easy updating unless you scribble on it. Breaking free from paper lists will allow you to have your to do list with you on your mobile device and any computer you sync to. 

You can access tasks everywhere with apps and extensions or 10+ platforms, your tasks are always there: on mobile devices, web browsers, inboxes, and more.

Collaborate on unlimited shared tasks with anyone – colleagues, family, friends – and collaborate in real-time on shared projects and goals.

Your tasks are a big part of your life. Stay motivated and organized with Todoist’s intuitive and beautiful to do list.

Best Use of Existing Technology - ComEd

When you mention the utility name of ComEd people would immediately say "I hate them!", "customer service is horrible", "there slow in restoring our lights." and I can continue with more complaints I've heard from people.  After many years of backlash due to the poor infrastructure ComEd made changes and listened to there customers.

In 2012, ComEd launched an interactive online outage map and a new mobile app for smart phones. The map allow customers to see the area effected by an outrages as well an estimate of restoration times. In turn, the app allows you to manage your account and report outages. ComEd also utilize Facebook to inform the customers of weather conditions, company events and safety tips.

There are programs such as ComEd Energy Efficiency that provides you with ways to save money which includes, assessments of your home, in- store discounts on Energy Star products, appliance rebates, and recycling of your old fridge or freezer. 

We receive the quarter newsletter, and there are many accolades from customers that have thanked ComEd  by posting how appreciative they've been to witness all the enhancements the company has made. The major improvement was customer service and the change was so impactful because we listened.

Best Use of Existing Technology - Erin Cline

The existing technology of streaming services is something we see all over our culture in 2017. You can stream movies, television, concerts, and live events using all kinds of streaming technologies. There are specialty streaming services that focus on increasingly large numbers of what would have been considered niche audiences in years past. Do you like Criterion Collection movies? Did you know there's a streaming site for that? (FilmStruck) Do you like video games? Did you know that there is a streaming service for that? (Twitch)

The specific streaming service I would like to bring to attention, I feel, exemplifies this idea of niche audience streaming to a tee - FloSlam. FloSlam is a prowrestling streaming service that pools streams and iPPVs (internet exclusive pay-per-views) into one place and makes it all accessible for a monthly price of $20, or a one time payment for one year of $150. Why does this exist? Are there really that many people watching prowrestling? In a word, yes. The dominant prowrestling company, WWE, developed a streaming service (The WWENetwork) which has climbed to well over 1 million subscribers, and other, smaller wrestling companies have realized that the best way to get people to watch your product is to put it on the internet. People can't know about your company if they never hear about it, and people don't talk unless they can see your product. FloSlam takes many of these smaller companies and pools them into one place, making their products maximally accessible to far larger audiences.

By utilizing this kind of streaming service, independent wrestling companies are dramatically increasing their viewership. This increases ticket sales and leads to being able to book bigger names, which also increases ticket sales. Instead of putting their backs up and trying to pretend that other companies do not exist (as was the case for decades in prowrestling), the companies that are participating in this streaming service are finding that it's easier to challenge the giant of WWE if you bring eyes that are already looking for alternative prowrestling entertainment into a common place. If you like ProWrestlingGorilla, maybe you'll like House of Hardcore. Or, perhaps, if you're there to watch AAW you'll find yourself clicking into Shimmer or Shine - bringing in new audiences and building larger followings for companies that have been looked over or seen as inaccessible in the past.

Intro to New Technology - Erin Cline

One of the most exciting forms of new technology is the rapid growth we are seeing in the self driving/automated car field. Self driving cars is an idea that has existed in our science-fiction visions of the future for decades, and there have been enormous leaps and bounds made in developing and rolling out this technology. While the technology is not yet perfect, the testing being done on these automated automobiles has proven that the days of driver driven cars is limited.

By introducing driver-less automated cars into our society we are going to see a radical change in the way that businesses are run. One of the largest employment providers in the United States are those employing long distance truck drivers. These people literally keep our economy running. There are hundreds of thousands of delivers made to businesses for every kind of conceivable reason - food, clothing, furniture, cars, all of these things require long distance trucking in order to keep the (metaphorical) wheels of these businesses moving. With the introduction of automated cars this will rapidly wipe out hundreds of thousands of jobs currently filled with humans; why pay someone who has to rest and eat and sleep when you can just set a course for the destination and run your trucks 24 hours a day?

Another field which will be heavily impacted by the introduction of self-driving cars will be the private transportation industry. We have already seen how companies like Uber are aggressively moving to replace their human drivers with self-driving cars, working every day to improve their technology to eventually phase out the human element. This will start to bleed into taxi cab companies as well. It would be unsurprising if in the next decade we look around and see that most of the cars on our roads will be driving unassisted, piloted by computers.

Innovative technique: Alexis Casares

Web 2.0 technologies, such as Facebook and Twitter, have made it faster and easier for businesses and organizations to reach their target audience thus reaching their marketing goal faster than ever before. It is amazing how one post to social media can start a movement. These movements, in most cases, can even begin with consumers. Consumers with a passion for a charity, business, and/or product can quickly spread their ideas through their network of followers. This was the case when the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge made a huge impact in the amount our donations to the ALS Association.

The Ice Bucket Challenge originated as a way to motivate people into donating to different organizations. It began to spread rapidly among Facebook friends, but it was not until it reached Pete Frates, who was diagnosed with ALS, that it became such a grand movement for the ALS Association. Pete Frates had a massive network of supporters that helped spread the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge into such a successful movement.

In this case, the organization did not start the movement, but it incorporated the movement into its marketing to spread the word further. This in innovative marketing. The marketing department of the ALS association had nothing to do with the original idea behind the Ice Bucket Challenge, but they quickly saw it was becoming a success and started to ride the wave.

Imagine what types of marketing movements can be created if a business or organization just seeds the right people into creating positive social media posts. Or even better, if a business is in tune with what consumers are saying about their products and incorporate it into their marketing campaign. This type of consumer created marketing can be more powerful than any marketing a business can create because it comes from the end users. When a consumer is considering purchasing a product they look at product reviews to see if the product is a right fit for them. If consumers see social media posts created by other consumers these messages instantly hold more credibility than anything a business can say. 

Best Use of Existing Technology - Amazon

For quite some time, we’ve had the luxury of being able to buy or rent movies, books & music from a number of different websites.  This has made things incredibly convenient for us but with so many options to choose from it can be daunting at times.  There is also the issue of many of these things being segmented between different sites and services.  One of biggest companies to offer a great solution for this problem was Amazon.

Amazon was well known for being a great place to order almost anything you needed online and have it delivered directly to your home.  They also made a great name for themselves by offers free two day shipping through their site.  Amazon was able to up the ante with the services they offer and become the best deal in tech.

Amazon started to offer much more bang for the buck with their Amazon prime service.  They offered free 2 day shipping for products shipped through them but they also offered many more services.  Customers that sign up for Prime have access to free music, movies and books.  The subscription services if a fantastic value for customer and combines the ability of customer still being able to order products online and have access to the huge library of online content. 

Best Use of Existing Technology - L'Oreal

Everyone is familiar with L’Oreal Paris’ long-running slogan: “Because You’re Worth It”. Recently, L’Oreal launched a new campaign that ties closely with the slogan and coined it #WorthSaying, a hashtag that is meant to inspire women to talk about things that are important to them. This hashtag is found not only on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram but also in TV commercials, digital video and banner ads, and magazines. The quick commercial showcases beautiful, strong women as part of a campaign that aims to empower women.

The brand sponsored the 2016 Golden Globes and the campaign aimed to highlight the shift in beauty and conversations that occur on the red-carpet. Through this campaign, L’Oreal wants to remind women of their intrinsic worth. According to the brand’s research, most women agree that motivating language provides them with a stronger sense of confidence and self-worth. Celebrity spokeswomen-Julianne Moore, Freida Pinto, Eva Longoria and Jennifer Lopez are even promoting the campaign through their social media sites. Jennifer Lopez even posted a quote saying “Every girl deserves to have her voice heard” on Instagram with the hashtag. Involving celebrity spokespeople, especially young, spunky women is often an effective way of reaching out to the targeted audience.

In regards to this campaign, I think it successfully gets women thinking about what is important to them. It is not just about being beautiful on the outside but moreso about the beautiful things going on in a woman’s brain. L’Oreal does a great job in reminding women of their worth and that their thoughts and ideas matter in this world. If I already used L’Oreal makeup, I would definitely continue using it thanks to the campaign. However, I would not consider switching over to the brand because I don’t think the campaign goes quite far enough. To make the campaign stronger, the brand can create a TV commercial longer than 16 seconds and highlight what it means to be a woman in 2017, perhaps with career-oriented business women, mothers, teachers, etc. in banners, ads, Instagram posts, Twitter posts, etc. As a woman, I would like to see other women to whom I can relate, not just celebrities who walk down the red carpet. I also have not seen the hashtag being used frequently in social media or TV commercials and therefore, more emphasis is needed to really push the campaign forward. Therefore, L’Oreal takes an already existing technology- the hashtag-and has revolutionized its purpose to empower women across the world.