Near Field Communication

It is almost here, the wallet in the cloud. Do we want it, can we live with it, and will it be safe? Those are the perplexing problems or questions that keep people guessing on the wholesale roll out of the technology. Much the same questions when we first developed checks, and then credit cards. Oh, and I guess there is the technology issues too. The standards for the protocol to control this communication between devices is a very tricky item. Can a iPhone from Apple communicate with an Android powered Samsung S3? And what about the newer Window based smartphones? 

But the true test is – will the public accept it. The implementation can be very interesting to say the least. Here is the basis of the technology in pure layman's terms. (The geeks in the crowd can tune out for a bit, since this may be maddening.)

The technology is based on the protocol of sending messages between machine over a very short distance. The distance is one of the security issues. But what it allows you to do is store your financial information securely on your smartphone and allows you to authorize the passing of information much like you do when you swipe a credit card, to a reader device or another smartphone. (In the EU, the use of a computer chip on the plastic credit card is a form of NFC, but very defined to require the physical contact of the device to the reader.) In NFC, you only have to be close to the “reader” to pass the information. The most obvious use would be to pay for a transaction. However, there could several other uses like file transfer to share pictures, music or video files. And since the technology is based on radio frequency, there is no need for a line of sight like what is needed for Infrared.

Let's look at some of the possible scenarios where NFC can be an enhancer to common everyday occurrences. For instance, dinner out. Taken to the extreme, the restaurant could have NFC communicators at each table. You can see your menu on the smartphone and place your order remotely or summon a waiter to give you a better explanation of the meal choices. Now, the wait staff can be very organized and more of an information giver. They could place the order for you or you could order yourself. Remember those times where you can't catch the eye of the waiter to order another beverage or a refill of the water or some more bread. Now you can order it and it just appears with a smiling wait staff thanking you for the additional order. Then when done with the meal, you review the total on your smartphone, authorize payment, and leave the restaurant all without another transaction, but a thank you from the staff and proprietor.

Or how about an easier one, you go to a grocery store. You place your items directly into bags to leave the store in your shopping cart. You finish getting what you want, hit the check out button on the smartphone and it asks for authorization from your cloud wallet. You agree and just proceed out the door with the bags. No putting things on a checkout line belt and having someone scan a bar code or weighing the produce (which you do at the point of picking it up). No hassle, no pulling out the credit card, no waiting in a line to ring up the items. And the list of items gets sent to you electronically, to put on a list of items that you might want to buy again. Perhaps, even giving you a re-order form which puts the items together for you on your way to the store, saving you a ton of time.

Now really looking into the future. Think about a NFC emitter that can be sewn into a clothing item that you provide. This emitter can trigger a bonus for the client to get a discount from you when it comes in close range at a check out stand for a grocery store, sporting good store and anyone with whom you want to partner. They get a bonus, you get a bonus in brand awareness from the client and you get more information on the right marketing approaches to your clients.

The future is coming.

Baseball – It Can Still Throw a Curveball

True baseball fans know the names of pitchers like Cy Young, Randy Johnson, Don Larson, Roy Halladay, and Phil Humber, right? Uh, who was that last guy? Well, if you know your baseball, these are pitchers who have thrown “Perfect Games.” Okay, so everyone doesn't know the latest hurler to achieve the feat. Phil Humber of the Chicago White Sox pitched a perfect game on Saturday, April 21, 2012 while visiting the Seattle Mariners.

So, for the novice to baseball, the perfect game – what is it? Each baseball game is scheduled for 9 innings. An inning is divided into two halves, where each team is able to bat to score runs. During each half inning, the batting team is allowed 3 outs. So, over a course of a game nine innings long, there are 27 outs allowed for each team. Well, the perfect game for a pitcher is to face 27 batters and get every single one of them out in consecutive order. There have only been a small number of people to do this in the modern era of baseball, and Mr. Humber's game was the nineteenth. So, it is a pretty elite group. Several have faced 28 batters, and several have faced more but not given up a hit or a run. Those games have special places in baseball history, but the Perfect Game is the cream on the top.

We all strive for perfection. We're no different. We like to get perfect deliveries all the time, perhaps even in just a year. Or maybe never making a mistake on a logo design on an embroidered shirt. But it takes a lot of luck, some descent skill, and providing the perfect performance on that day to accomplish what Phil Humber just did. For us it just takes attention to a lot of details and reliance on several good partners. We would love to be in the perfect club.

Oh, and the reference to baseball throwing curveball. There are two things. First, Phil Humber is not one of those elite pitchers that people talk about this year or any year in his career. Having a middle of the road pitcher do this is a quirk of fate. And the last out of the game came on a checked swing on a pitch that squirted away from catcher A. J. Pierzinski, who had to scramble to pick it up and fire a throw to first to get the out. Not a picture perfect play, but good enough to get it done.

Summer Games - A Great Branding Opportunity

Just south of Hackney Marsh, in a place called Stratford in the London Borough of Newham, (not to be confused with Stratford-on-Avon, where you won't find an Olympic venue) hundreds of thousands of people will descend on a 500 acre parcel of land that was reclaimed from waste and industrial lands and is now known as Olympic Village.

The 2012 Summer Olympic games are set to begin on July 27^th and run through the 12^th of August. They will primarily be held in this location but will also venture to two other zones in London called the River Zone (on the South Bank of the Thames) and the Central Zone which covers existing locations in central and west end of London at historic places like Hyde Park, Wembley, or the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, better known as home to the Wimbledon Championships. Then a few activities will take place outside of the city limits using football stadia as far away as Scotland, to some more challenging terrain in Essex and Surrey for cycling, at Windsor for the rowing, or 125 miles southwest of London to Dorset for the sailing races.

Less than a month later, more people will come back to the area for the Paralympic games taking place on August 29^th through September 9^th, using the same venues.Though the games officially start in a few months, the lead up to the games has already begun and suppliers of gear have made plans for endorsements, and created specialty items just for the athletes. Nike has commissioned suits that are faster than skin and shoes that feel like the person is wearing socks. But the battles may be on the field of play and off, since Adidas is the official sponsor of the British team, yet some of their top athletes have contracts with Nike. The competition is already beginning.

Once at the venue though it is not all games. Westfield Shopping centers has built the second of their expansive malls in the Olympic Village location to assist with shopping and eating venues for the visitors. And since some of the venues are in the center of the city and on the west end, attendees will have lots to do in this most hospitable international city.

Take advantage of the enthusiasm for the games by adding additional athletic gear to your promotional marketing mix. Whether with giveaways, uniforms, or executive gifts athletic gear will be a big hit with recipients. With our years of experience and close ties to all major sporting good brands we’ll be able to steer you in the right direction to achieve Gold in your promotions.

39,000 Miles of Testing Your Gear

In a world where reality TV has taken over the airwaves as smash hits, shows like The Amazing Race, Survivor, or Fear Factor tend to be considered the most daring. Well, when it comes to really harrowing experiences in life, there is the Volvo Ocean race.

A grueling 9 month odyssey starting from the port of Alicante, Spain on the Mediterranean, six boats launched on October 29, 2011 with the next port of call being Cape Town, South Africa. The roughly 39,000-mile voyage around the world will ultimately end in Galway, Ireland some time around July 7^th or 8^th. That is, of course, if Mother Nature and the mighty oceans of the world are kind to the sailors and their crafts.

Presently, they are on leg 6 of the journey that started this last Sunday at Italjai, Brazil headed for the port of Miami, Florida, USA. Only 5 of the original 6 boats have started this leg, with one boat out with a rudder problem.

The challenges are amazing. First, you have to outfit a sailing vessel with a crew of 11 and then provision for each leg of the race. At each port, there is an “In-Port” race, which would be more familiar to followers of the America's Cup. That is, a shortened version of day race, where the boats set out from a port, race around a course, and return to the port for the evening. So that part of the race is pretty standard. However, the Volvo race throws in legs of open ocean racing like the monster first one of 6,500 nautical miles from Alicante to Cape Town. The present leg into Miami is only 4,800 (that's 5,524 miles or 8,890 Kilometers for you land lovers) and is, luckily for the sailors, the start of the shorter legs into the finish line.

It is tests like these that put people into extreme conditions. Temperature swings from -5 to 40º Celcius (23 to 104 Fahrenheit) are only the beginning. Rain, storms, mammoth waves, strong and calm winds add to the misery or excitement. Not only do the boats have to handle these conditions, but the gear for the sailors needs to take into consideration these conditions to keep them safe, warm, cool, and hopefully dry. It's the kind of branded merchandise you can get from parsonsKellogg for your promotional activities that is filling the bill for the global racers. Technically, you have a chance to be part of it. But you don't have to put your gear to the tests these folks are enduring.

It is an interesting race and can be followed at www.volvooceanrace.com with real time updates and video of what is happening. The five boats left in the races should be pulling into port in Miami sometime around May 6, 2012 and the race village will be open from then until the start of the next leg across the Atlantic on May 20^th. This is well worth taking in if you are in the Miami area. To see the happenings during that time, go to volvooceanracemiami.org. Then come down to the docks and get a peek at these magnificent sailing ships.

Fentenial Celebration

“. . .Take me out to the old ball game.” 

That's how the last line of that famous tune goes. Today, April Twentieth, we will be transported back 100 years to the days when Fenway Park opened its doors for the first time. The Boston Americans, nicknamed the Red Sox, will be playing the New York Americans, which they called the “Highlanders” at that time. In today's parlance, it's a Sox – Yankees series.

Five days after the Titanic hit an iceberg off Newfoundland and sank; Fenway Park held its first baseball game. Today's game marks the hundredth anniversary of that date. Red Sox faithful will be out in numbers even though the Sox are off to a poor start for the season. But this is Red Sox – Yankee baseball and you will get the feel you are in a post-season game. The only thing is – you might feel it is post season in 1912. The uniforms will be replicas of the old school variety, the ones worn back then when the Red Sox beat the Highlanders 7-6 in eleven innings after waiting through a college exhibition and a couple of rained out games to inaugurate this venerable ball field. But the old wooden stands are certainly gone forever and the seating on the Green Monster was nowhere to be found in those days, let alone the Green Monster.

There will be lots of presentations and memories since the team has invited all of its former players back to the stadium for some pre-game festivities; and, if all goes right, a 37,000+ strong toast will be held to the old ballpark before the first pitch. According to Gary Bell of the 1967 Pennant winning team who lost a seven game World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, “It's nice that they remember us. A lot of clubs don't remember their guys that played years ago, so it's pleasant to have that experience. ... New England was on fire that year, man. ... Every day was a new hero." Though the Red Sox are not one of our many MLB team customers, it is events like these with custom promotional items that remind us as to how important a part we play in these types of commemorations. (Call us a little envious for not being part of it.) However, it is just this type of promotion that brings enjoyment and excitement to an early season game. There are plenty of opportunities like this one around, for which parsonsKellogg can help you plan out an engaging and meaningful tribute.

However, when the clock strikes 3:05 pm, it's back to the present and watching the 4-8 Red Sox taking on the 6-6 Yankees. The current names will be swinging the bats and throwing the pitches. It should be a great game regardless. They are always a rare opportunity, but this special “Fentenial” celebration puts an exclamation point on it.