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Another week, another rich harvest of interesting new business ideas from around the world: a travel agency for trips to virtual worlds, sticky art for cars, gourmet burgers, luxury loos and more. Our next edition is due on 31 October 2006. In the meantime, check out our daily postings on www.springwise.com, send us your tips, and please don't forget to tell your friends and colleagues about us. Much appreciated! |
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Here's a very clever and very 'now' idea: a travel agency for virtual worlds. Synthravels is the first travel organization to offer a guide service to anyone who wants to tour highly-hyped virtual worlds like Second Life or World of Warcraft. The increasing complexity of virtual worlds is making them more interesting, fun and potentially lucrative. But it's also creating a considerable threshold for newbies, especially for those who have little or no experience with online gaming. Compare it to snatching a tourist from his annual holiday in Myrtle Beach and dropping him in the back streets of Mumbai ;-) Which is why it makes perfect sense for two savvy Italian entrepreneurs to set up a service that takes curious explorers by the hand and shows them the wonders of metaworlds. A customer registers with Synthravels, picks a destination and preferred day and hour for the trip. Within a few days, he or she receives an itinerary by email. To prepare, a visitor has to download any software needed for the virtual world and should also create an avatar. After logging in on the selected day and time, the visitor will find an expert guide waiting to show them the ropes, from the basics of maneuvering to finding elusive and exclusive virtual hotspots. Tours and destinations are selected by Synthravels' staff: programmers, architects and experienced video gamers. Sightseeing excursions include 'Discover the Post Art Deco architecture of Paragon City', a shopping tour of Second Life, and a lastminute to Entropia Universe, including dinner with Deathifier, the legendary owner of Treasure Island. Synthravels, which launched last week, welcomes skilled avatars to sign up as guides. Sounds like a great minipreneur gig for experienced gamers, especially for those who can offer added value by giving specialized tours. There's a substantial market for services like Synthravels, from parents who'd like to experience how their children are spending all their waking hours, to thousands of marketing and advertising execs who want to dive into youniversal branding. Website: www.synthravels.com Spotted by: Emerce |
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There's a new premium commodity in town, and it's name is mastiha. Those of you with no ties to the Eastern Mediterranean or the Middle-East are forgiven for not knowing exactly what mastiha, or mastic gum, is. It's a product of the mastic tree, which is mainly cultivated on Chios, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. Small cuts are made in the bark of the tree, the sap seeps out and congeals into 'tears' of resin, which are harvested and cleaned by hand. The resinous result has been popular and highly valued in the region for thousands of years, and was traded from Venice to Damascus. More than just a sticky flavouring, mastiha is cherished for its antibacterial properties, used to reduce tooth plaque and treat gastric ulcers. It was once considered so precious that countries fought for the right to control its cultivation. (The ancients were very fond of mastic chewing gum.) Flash forward 20 centuries, and welcome to modern Greece, where the Chios Gum Mastic Growers Association started Mastihashop to stimulate demand for its produce. Mastiha is used in a wide variety of products, and Mastihashops carry everything from mastiha-flavoured coffee, biscuits and liqueur, to toothpaste, cosmetics and chewing gum. All well-branded and sleekly packaged. There are currently seven Mastihashops in Greece. But the cooperative-formed retailer has its eye on international expansion: both in the Middle-East, where mastiha is a familiar ingredient, and in the west, where the fragrant and exotic product has yet to catch on. Unlike olive oil or sea salt, Mastiha's hand-made and uber-local character ensure a lasting degree of exclusivity. The medicinal properties and nice branding can't hurt, either. Time to enquire about distribution and franchising? Website: http://www.mastihashop.gr Spotted by: Marie S. |
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Back in the sixties, the Volkswagen Beetle's iconic curves were habitually adorned with painted daisies and peace signs. Customization is still highly popular, though more often than not it's now an optional extra. In a world saturated with mass-produced products, Volkswagen UK has jumped on the custom-made bandwagon by offering customers the option to decorate their brand New Beetle. Consumers can customize the exterior of their New Beetle with special vinyl stickers, called Beetle Art, created by four up-and-coming artists and illustrators: Mibo, Parra, Steve Wilson and Jamie Cullen. The accompanying microsite lets prospective customers configure their desired car, choosing a body style (hatchback or cabriolet), body colour and decal design. They can pick from and try different colours for each of the decals. The durable vinyl decals can last for up to five years, are guaranteed for three years and cost from GBP 45 for a single panel to GBP 200 for an entire car. It’s a cost efficient way for consumers to distinguish their very own Beetle from the rest. And if they change their mind or want to sell? Unlike painted hippie art, the stickers can be removed without harm to the paintwork. Of course, going the full customer-made route would mean letting customers design their own decals. One for next year, or for another car brand? Website: www.beetleart.co.uk Spotted by: Jonathan Kyle Forward or comment on this article » |
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It's a bird... It's a plane... It's a picture of your wife on a camel in the Sahara, on a Boeing 737! Dutch airline Transavia recently held a photo competition that we couldn't help but notice. To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the holiday transporter invited passengers to send in pictures taken in or around one of their 87 destinations. Forty winning photos have been picked and will be printed on larger-than-life stickers, along with the photographer's name, and stuck onto several of Transavia's planes. It's a fun example of using gravanity: the ever-popular consumer trend – and faithful marketing standby – that lets the masses get their names and faces in lights, even if just for a moment. A previous pairing of gravanity and airlines was KLM's create your own luggage tag campaign, which is still running. Website: www.transavia.com Spotted by: Monique van Dusseldorp Forward or comment on this article » |
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Nothing seems to inspire innovators more than online dating. Adding to the plethora of new dating concepts, South-African yesnomayB is the world’s first dating site relying on collaborative filtering. The site makes recommendations to members on other members they might fancy. This is how it works: as a user, you look at pictures of other members, and select yes, no, or mayB. Your favourites are put into your own private 'blackbook', while yesnomayB then secretly puts your picture in front of those people, to see if they like you too. If they do, the site will let you know, and contact may be made. yesnomayB signed up 6000 members in its first three months in South Africa alone, and is live in other English speaking countries. A nice mix of 'hot or not', twinsumerism, social networking and some other 2.0 trends, this one feels ready to run with for entrepreneurs and big brands alike. yesnomayB is looking for partners, and the site is set up as a white label, tool. Forward or comment on this article » |
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Repeating our premise that everything can and will be upgraded, we bring you London's Gourmet Burger Kitchen – a rapidly growing chain of sit-down restaurants offering nothing but high-end burgers. Winner of several ‘best burger’ and ‘best cheap eat’ awards, the idea behind the Gourmet Burger Kitchen is to take what was traditionally a non-healthy, fast-food favourite and turn it into something that's still a fast favourite, but made from fresh ingredients and presented as both nutritious and sophisticated. Endorsed by internationally recognized chef Peter Gordon, GBK's menu features an extensive range of innovative and exotic burger combinations, some of which are likely to tempt even non-burger loving customers. On offer are classic combinations such as chicken, camembert and cranberry, and beef, avocado and bacon. Innovative alternatives include chorizo with sweet potato, and lamb with minted relish. Although the idea of gourmet hamburgers is not entirely novel (the idea for GBK originated in New Zealand), it's one that definitely has room to spread across the world. Which city couldn't do with another fast, satisfyingly simply, yet fresh and nourishing choice? Website: www.gbkinfo.co.uk Spotted by: Nicole Sultana Forward or comment on this article » |
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Tired of our Everything Can be Upgraded theme yet? We're not. Not as long as there are new business ideas like Igloos' Luxury Portable Loos. Offering the ‘ultimate luxury portable toilets for the corporate and private events industry within the UK and across Europe’, the company has beautified (and sanitized) events like the Brit Awards, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the Stella Artois Tennis Tournament, the G-8 Summit and the Volvo Golf Masters in Andalusia. Think luxury travelling loo trailers for outdoor events, vacuum loo systems for placement inside structures and bespoke systems. All of this is of course a no-brainer: in our surprise-economy, events are the new (albeit temporary) real estate , while mass prosperity is upping the standards for everything. Buy a standard portable loo company, upgrade the inventory, and you should be ready to go ;-) Website: www.igloos.co.uk Spotted by: Luxist Forward or comment on this article » |
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