Apparently 60 pianos were scattered all around New York City from 6/21/10 – 7/5/10 as part of a unique art installation brought to the city by the organization Sing for Hope. The installation was a joint venture with a British artist, Luke Jerram, and was named “Play Me, I’m Yours”.
All types of art installations are popping up around cities across the world of late it seems, but to me this one seemed genuine and inspiring. In a sea of cars, trains and hectic, frantic people rushing everywhere, 60 pianos were able to dot the landscape and connect with people in the city in a new/unique way. Whether you sat down to play it, or whether you just saw it and wondered why it was there, there was still some level of connection made. Pretty cool if you ask me.
Target has officially made holiday shopping painstakingly easy by launching small Target To-Go shops in NYC, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. The lucky individuals living in these cities can now purchase holiday presents in just three easy steps:
1. Walk up to the counter
2. Choose one of the top 50 gifts by number
3. Walk over to another counter to pick up the fully wrapped gift
So, not only have they taken all of the annoyances out of holiday shopping (wrapping, aisle pushing), they’ve narrowed down the selection for you too. A great strategy for those that always end up double and triple booking themselves during this time of year.
So it comes as no surprise when I say that our economy has been on a continual rollercoaster ride the last year-plus. What you may not know is that due to economic woes, expense accounts at many a business have had to adjust accordingly. To all those fat-cat employees used to dining well on steak lunches/dinners on their companies dime, this has hit their stomachs and it’s hit them hard. For the over-the-top restaurants that have traditionally catered to this business crowd, profits are down. In this very symbiotic relationship, both groups of these poor folk have been suffering day in and day out, until they could see each other again and bask in the glory of tremendously overpriced food, paid for by someone else of course. Well, the day has come when they may get to see each other again. Kinda.
In an effort to generate some unique digital engagement with the Maloney & Porcelli brand (a Manhattan-based restaurant) and ultimately attempt to build business, we see the entrance of expenseasteak.com.
The tool is simple and markets the restaurant in a very tongue-in-cheek way. The concept is simple, albeit a little fraudulent in its approach, but heck, for those who really want that steak lunch and may have forgot about Maloney & Porcelli, maybe it’ll get them in the door even if they can’t expense it.
What, you say you’ve spent $3,000 on a meal at Maloney and Porcelli? Oh, no problem at all. Just go enter your check amount into expenseasteak.com and out will pop your expense receipts for things like $1,600 on toner and $1,000 on air-in-can dusters….. No one in accounting at your company will question that right????
Bottom line, the tool is truly a fun and unique way to get people to engage with and think about the Maloney & Porcelli brand, and I love it. Will it translate to getting butts into the seats? Only time will tell. For all those non-New York residents like myself, I’m just having fun putting in some numbers and seeing what comes out. It’s got me thinking steak though and if I were going to NYC anytime soon, that would be a good thing for Maloney and Porcelli, but certainly not for my checking account based on the $48 per entree lunch prices.
In an effort to learn and mingle with the greater design community, HyperQuake took an inspirational trip to New York to attend Gain: AIGA Business and Design Conference.
