Monthly Archives: October 2005

Thoughts

Using recycled plastic to minimize collision impact

My wife told me about the difficulties with recycling plastic, and that so little of it can be re-used for the same purpose. Most of it can unfortunately only be used for utility purposes such as benches, garbage cans, etc. Immediately I thought of its potential use to minimize collission impact on our roads. We’ve all seen how concrete pillars are wrapped in collapsible plastic so that head-on collisions will be somewhat dampened. We’ve also seen big plastic containers filled with sand or water and placed in front of highway bifurcations, so that high speed head-on collision impact will be somewhat dissipated by the sand or water. Well, how about these next uses for low grade recycled plastic?

  • Instead of using sand or water, this low-grade, non-tensile strength recycled plastic, made from grocery bags and other cheap recycled materials, could be used instead of the sand or plastic. It would be naturally porous and somewhat elastic. I think it would work well to dissipate the impact and reduce the deceleration force encountered by a vehicle.
  • Different iterations of it could be used inside vehicle bumpers as well – instead of the foam or polystyrene currently used.
  • It could also be used in highway railguards, not to replace the steel bumpers but to bolster them and reduce damage on a car, should it bounce off the rails.

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Thoughts

Audience-inclusive advertising

After the new video iPod launched, and the possibility to purchase and download ad-free TV shows came to light, I realized that the advertising industry would have to come up with some clever ways to keep their audience if they were to maintain revenues. The following ideas sprung to mind:

  • A site can be set up and maintained by a consortium of advertising agencies and brand owners or a neutral body, that would either track viewer product preferences through data mining and random surveys, or would actively encourage users to register and provide product preferences. Alternately, existing user data could be compiled from various databases.
  • Advertising during TV shows that certain user groups watch could be more closely targeted to those groups by ad personalization. Users could register for the chance to have an ad dedicated to them. For example, a sample user we’ll call Jane could indicate that she likes the MINI Cooper, and so when an ad for the Cooper runs during a show that she likes to watch, names can be selected at random from the database of users, and if her name comes up, that ad could say: “This goes out to Jane” before it runs, and end with a “Thanks, Jane!” Quite simple, really, but it serves to capture the audience, since people will stay tuned during the ads just to see if their name will come up.
  • This concept can be expanded to include groups of users, perhaps up to 3-5 identifiable users per ad.
  • Through the medium of the website, brand owners can also take a cue from the users about the kind of products they need to advertise, this time in a more direct way, through hard data. Even more, they can more easily survey the users about the kind of new products they want to see.
  • Another way to keep the audience is to offer prizes for watching the ads and picking through clues that are weaved through both the ads and the shows. Entries can then be registered on the show’s site or at this main site for a chance to win something, perhaps even products featured on the show, or something as banal as an actor’s coat, or the actual bottle of perfume used by an actress on the show. These aren’t things that cost much but mean a lot to the audience.
  • People are making a big deal about product placement, but I think that reaches a saturation point very quickly. You can’t plaster products all over the screen and detract from the value of the story or the entertainment. Product placements works when it’s subtle, weaved into the story, and reinforced through the regular ads.
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