New site lets you brag about your clothes- Reap rewards!

The new site RNKD (pronounced RANKED), the brain child of a Zappos founder, recently launched with an unusual value proposition. The profile-based site asks users to upload pics of their clothes and in exchange rewards them with discounts for the brands they purchase most often. They site is super newbie right now., Usage is limited and the only brand on board is Zappos itself, but the potential is definitely there. I played around with it for a bit and was pleased to find out a few things.

First, you don't have to upload pics of yourself wearing the clothes, but rather just pics of the clothes, bags, accessories, shoes etc. For some reason I thought people would be uploading photos of themselves posing in their Louis Vuitton jumpsuit, elbows out, Zoolander face on. (For the record, Louis Vuitton jumpsuits do exist. I saw Snoop Dogg wearing one during a concert at Cornell University- yes, correct, a head to toe denim LV in Ithaca NY. Normal.). As it turns out people are not as self-consumed as I thought, and most people just post pics of their clothes, which aren't necessarily designer brands. Cool.

Two, the rewards are quite generous. Zappos rewards range from $50 to $500 which is decent chunk of change, especially to spend at an online store which stocks already discounted designer duds and offers AMAZING customer service. Extra Cool.

We'll soon see. This could be another fashion site on my list of daily distractions, which currently includes Gilt, Rent The Runway, JossandMain, One Kings Lane, MyHabit, Fab, you understand....

As an aside, a quick word on URL101. While hip, RNKD sans vowels is not that easy to remember. Ranked.com would be much easier, and my guess is that many consumers will type Ranked.com, not realizing that Ranked and RNKD are different. A solution is for RNKD to purchase Ranked.com, which I checked, they have not done, but is currently available. An easy win. This is similar to Anthropologies' BHLDN website (yup, Beholden). But Anthro has purchased Beholden.com- those retail smarty pants!

Estimating Flu Outbreaks Using Tweets

Three researchers from Iowa released a study post H1N1 2010 that demonstrated how they were able to statistically estimate the regional pathway of Flu and H1N1 outbreaks using Twitter data. Similarly to Google's Flu Tracker which uses Search data to identify regions of Flu, the researchers used keywords found in Tweets to estimate where H1N1 would show up. They chose Twitter results because 1)  they felt that the Tweets provided more context and sentiment (such as "went to my doctor today with possible Flu symptoms"), than search data and 2) because the Tweets would provide an opportunity to proactively estimate where the Flu would hit next when overlaid with geo-tracking. Using machine-learning methods, they created mapping models that used keywords like "flu, h1n1, vaccine, shot, shortage" to follow disease outbreaks and then compared this information to CDC findings. They were then able to estimate on a regional level where the disease would appear (often 1-2 weeks ahead of CDC projections) using a similar methodology. This study was published in May 2011 and is available online. The chart below shows how their findings using Tweeter ultimately matched the CDC's reported cases.

* Chart From : Alessio Signorini, Alberto Maria Segre, Philip M. Polgreen. The Use of Twitter to Track Levels of Disease Activity and, Public Concern in the U.S. during the Influenza A H1N1, Pandemic (Via Mashable.com)

As we move into Flu season it will be interesting to see how Twitter activity trends. Will it provide the same insights as 2010 and will researchers be able to use it year over year? The H1N1 scare clearly created a high standard for Twitter volume; it also occurred at a time when Twitter was growing steadily (Twitter estimated a 100 million new accounts in 2010) and people were jumping on the bandwagon. A year later, according to comScore, Twitter's growth hasn't slowed, so it's possible that we will see another year of Twitter disease tracking. According to these three researchers, there are other groups around the world that are currently working on similar statistical analyses and projections for the 2011-2012 season.

x-posted from www.rtctreffpunkt.blogspot.com where I am also a contributor.

New Gilt HOME!!!

I'm obsessed with Gilt.com as is, and now their newly designed Home department has my heart all a flutter. They've added a clean, navigable layout with a main and sub navigation (previously you should scanned by sale to find an item you liked). They've added additional products and categories, while maintaining a section for their flash sales. There's now editorial sections and designer insights, complete with videos.

I guess other fanatics have gotten wind of this big reveal because as I was writing this the site crashed :)...

x-posted from rtctreffpunkt.blogspot.com

Now We've Made It Big Time!

Young & Rubicam Group's new page highlights my whole team at RTC. There I am at the bottom left. Don't be afraid to check out our team blog. It's the best place for slightly snarky, slighty weird, but always clever and hip digital know-how.

It's hard to write for two blogs

Apologies for not keeping TDS updated...it's been a very busy year with school, work and weddings. But you can always find my brain outputs at www.rtctreffpunkt.blogspot.com or slideshare.net/rtc. Enjoy!