Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Rapper Lil’ Wayne once boasted that he’s approved million-dollar deals from his iPhone. But a new report out from Adobe Digital Marketing Insights suggests

the hip-hop star would be willing to spend significantly more if he owned an iPad.

According to the study, which Adobe released today, tablet users spend over 50% more per purchase at online retailers when compared with smartphone visitors,

and 20% more when compared with traditional laptop and desktop visitors. Adobe analyzed roughly 16.2 billion online transactions from 150 top U.S. retailers in

2011, finding that the mobile market has quickly become a lucrative cornerstone of the e-commerce industry.

Tablet visitors to retail websites, the report concluded, are three times more likely to make a purchase than smartphone users. What’s more, tablet visitors

spent an average of $123 per purchase in 2011, the most compared with other devices and a figure that spiked during the holiday season. Desktop and laptop

owners spent $102 on average, while smartphone owners spent just $80 per purchase at retail.

Adobe’s report is a yet another indication that online retailers must take advantage of new mobile customers–and many already have. In 2011, for example,

eBay did roughly $4 billion in mobile transactions, thanks to its focus on tablet and smartphone apps. “These findings suggest that retailers can no longer

afford a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to mobile optimization because Tablet Visitors and Smartphone Visitors are distinct customer segments,” the report

said. “Retailers should evaluate the opportunity that Tablet Visitors offer and develop strategies to better attract, convert and retain them.”

The report is also especially good news for mobile-device makers. Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others have all produced tablets or smartphones with the

intent of driving more sales in their online stores, where they hawk everything from books to movies to music. The findings should be a good sign for Amazon,

in particular, as analysts explore whether

the Kindle Fire will help drive up revenues and margins for the online retail giant.

The holidays have been particularly jolly for the gang making Raspberry Pi, the tiny Linux-based PC that’s going to cost just $25. If the reports coming from the site are to be believed, you could be able to buy one as early as next month.

Right before the holiday, the creators got a batch of circuit boards in for testing. The site says all the initial testing showed the boards to be performing “as solid as a rock,” despite an issue with the power supply.

However, that problem was easily fixed via a red wire and a quick soldering job, and the team promises it won’t appear in any future units. Once fixed, fired up and connected to a display, the prototype Pi appeared to effortlessly output a 1080p video through its HDMI port:

The final Raspberry Pi will come in two flavors: A $25 version with 128MB of RAM and no network connection and a $35 one with Ethernet. Both versions will have USB and HDMI ports as well as analog video and audio outputs. It’s driven by a The 1080p video magic is driven by a 700MHz ARM processor, and the whole thing is powered by a 5-volt power supply.

The whole idea behind creating a small, decently powerful computer is to provide something cheap enough that anyone can afford — even kids in developing countries. The key is that it’s also programmable, letting owners hack and modify the 1.4-ounce machine at will. Of course, if someone just wants to use it as cheap machine for everyday Web browsing and email, its ideally suited for that, too.

The site promises to auction off the recent crop of boards before Raspberry Pi goes on sale next month. Will you get one? What will you do with it? Let us know in the comments.

via The Verge

Santa Claus is awfully busy this time of year, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have enough time to robocall the person of your choice, free. He’s also ready to listen to his voicemail.

There are two separate Santa-related delights Google is offering this year. First, you can let Santa know what you want for Christmas by leaving him a message at his Google Voice number — 855-34-SANTA (855 347-2682). According to the official Google blog, it’s a free call for residents of the United States and Canada; outside those areas it will cost $.01 per minute.

If you live in the U.S., you can delight your favorite kid (or amuse your friends) by having Santa immediately send a customized voice message, complete with the person’s name, state, and a variety of other customizations, which can all be combined for hilarious results (see graphic below). It’s fun — try it at Google’s Send a Call From Santa site, or listen to a sample message here.

Here’s the interface:

The Muppets are back! On Nov. 23, Walt Disney Pictures is bringing its next live-action Muppet film, aptly-named The Muppets, to movie theatres across the country.

The film release is the culmination of a multi-pronged marketing campaign that has embraced the social and digital spheres, and in the process, helped reinvigorate the Muppet brand.

It’s rare to see such solid execution on so many digital and social channels and for that reason, we wanted to take a deeper look at the various aspects of Disney’s and The Muppets Studios’ efforts.

Going Viral to Revive Interest in a Brand

Over the last two years, The Muppet Studios has embarked on a proactive social and viral campaign. It all started with an epic cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and was followed by more songs, iPhone apps and responses to episodes of Internet backlash with just the right amount of aplomb and visual humor.

In retrospect, the timing of these viral video endeavors was perfect. It coincided with the original announcement that a new Muppet film would be coming to theaters.

Getting the Right People Involved

The key to a successful project, especially when it involves a storied and beloved brand, is having the right people on board.

Jason Segel co-wrote the script for the film alongside his Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller. If you’ve seen Marshall, you know why this is important. Both men are bonafide Muppet fanatics and already had a working relationship with the Jim Henson Company.

After Disney decided to greenlight the project, two members of Flight of the Conchords — James Bobin and Bret McKenzie — signed on to direct and handle music supervising duties. Amy Adams also signed on to star in the film alongside Segel, Kermit, Miss Piggy and the rest.

As a huge fan of The Muppets, I know my interest in the film was greatly enhanced by the fact that Segel was so involved with the script and the storyline. There is a sense of trust that the brand, characters and situations will be handled properly.

Using Social Effectively

Over the last eight months, Walt Disney Pictures has done a lot to virally and socially promote The Muppets across social channels.

In fact, we would go as far as to say that the campaign for The Muppets is one of the most socially savvy we have seen from any studio for a major release window. Let’s take a look at some of the ways social and digital have come together to promote the film, connect fans and spread the word.

Facebook

 

If you spend half as much time gift shopping as you spend on Facebook, my guess is your holiday shopping would already be finished. So, why not combine the process?

Many of the apps below produce personalized gift suggestions for your Facebook friends. Others match those friends to products on specific sites, such as Etsy and Amazon. Some of these apps crowdsource cash or creative contributions for truly special (and convenient) gifts.

The gallery below features 10 online social tools for discovering and sending gifts this holiday season. Please share more in the comments section below.

Connect your Facebook account and search for Etsy gift recommendations by friend. The results are based mainly on Likes and interests, not necessarily on your friends’ status updates, so privacy doesn’t seem to be an issue.

Also filter by price preference to tailor gifts to your budget.

Amazon’s gift recommendation app is similar to Etsy’s. Sign into Facebook and search for friends to find Amazon recommendations. Usually the first items to pop up are books, music and movies, which Amazon collects from the Facebook profiles of your friends.

Amazon’s gift suggestions are fairly accurate, especially if your friends have detailed Facebook profiles.

Create wishlists and send them to your friends and family via email. Then recipients can choose to contribute money toward your wishes using PayPal.

It’s a little self-indulgent, but practical for many occasions besides the holidays: weddings, showers and graduations too!

Don’t write off larger, more expensive gifts. Instead, crowdsource the money through eBay and PayPal’s service and then use the cash to buy and send the gift to the lucky recipient.

eBay’s service is ideal for coordinating long-distance contributions and deliveries.

DreamBank recognizes that some of the best gifts are experiences, rather than physical items. Use its service to post your dream vacation, perfect wedding or down payment on your first house. Then, invite friends and family to contribute money toward your dream.

Even better, DreamBank donates 10% of all net transaction revenue to charities of the dreamer’s choice.

The Present Bee web app searches your Facebook friends’ interests for gift suggestions. Plus, you can ask mutual friends for their opinions. Does Cameron really want a Shake Weight?

Choose a Facebook friend, input that person’s gender and age, and apply their Twitter handle if applicable. GiveEmThis will suggest gifts that, while accurate, might apply to an older audience.

Givvy doesn’t recommend gifts by specific social media friend, but rather, the Facebook app narrows gift suggestions by type of person.

Tap into the app’s top gift curators for some great suggestions.

Send ultra-personalized gift cards via email, Facebook or snail mail. The recipient can redeem the gift card by presenting the resulting smartphone receipt at any location of your choosing.

Further customize gift cards by selecting the dollar amount and uploading photos to the card from Facebook or Google. Or just choose a stock image — they’re equally cute.

Sometimes the simplest ideas produce the most special results. “From a Birdie” invites people to write letters to a shared friend or family member. The group collectively uploads memories, well-wishes and photos, which are finally compiled into an “Album of Letters.” Specify a day for delivery and your recipient is sure to be delighted!

We make choices. Every day, we choose many times, from the moment we wake up, until the time we choose to fall asleep. What makes this interesting, however, are how many times we believe that we didn’t have a choice, and acted as if something was decided for us, including our reaction.

Our Choices

Yesterday, I was sick with a head cold. I chose not to blog at chrisbrogan.com. I also didn’t get my Blog Topics letter published. These were choices. I could have written enough posts and had some in draft so that I didn’t miss either publication, but I didn’t. I chose to use that time for other things, like my upcoming book. These choices impacted my day yesterday. But even then, I made the choice not to feel bad about it, because I wasn’t feeling well, and it just didn’t feel as important.

I have many choices in front of me today. We all do. That’s the point. There are choices all around us that need to be made. But we make so very many of them without thinking.

Recognizing Our Intentions

Answer some questions:

• Is rest and sleep important to you? What time did you go to sleep and wake up? What did you do instead of going to sleep? Which choices did you make instead?
• Is your health important to you? What did you choose to eat yesterday? How much time did you schedule for your fitness?
• Is your future important to you? What moves did you make yesterday towards advancing that future? What did you do with your time instead?

If you stopped and answered those questions honestly, you’d see your choices in action. But more interestingly, you’d hear the voice of guilt, the voice of justification, the voice that excuses make to dull your guilt. You’d hear many little decisions and self-talk click in, all of which serve a purpose (most of which is the purpose of avoiding pain and discomfort, or the perceived pain and discomfort we associate with guilt).

We are Addicted to Excuses

What I’m saying is that we all grow very comfortable with our excuses and justifications. This impacts how we do our job. This impacts how we relate to those we love. This impacts how we face every moment of the day.

And the gravitational PULL of excuses and justification are huge. Think about it. “I really should work out today, but I’ve got so much stuff on my plate.” The word “but” is your indication that you didn’t mean what you said in the first half of the sentence.

The truth is, in the above example, you will always have so much stuff on your plate, and if you don’t, the excuse will be that you really should work out, but you’ve gotta search for work, so that you can have a lot of stuff on your plate.

I’m right there with you. I’m addicted to excuses the same as you, the same as everyone. But that’s also not an excuse, not license to do nothing. It’s a call to action.

Live Your Plan

If you don’t have a direction or goal or path in mind, how will you know you’re going the right way? I’ve recently made a commitment to my fitness and health. I now have a very simple path that I can clearly explain. When I’m not on the path, it’s really clear. So I make choices that keep me on that path. In my case, my simple path is to eat more meals than not according to my goals, and to make time for fitness five times a week. There are no excuses allowed for this. Even with a head cold, I’m working out today.

The trick to this all is creating enough simple paths and putting success in our way every day (I wrote about this recently in a post about discipline.)

But then beyond that, it’s becoming acutely aware of choices, and of seeing each moment that they come up as an opportunity to practice the response that is in better alignment with your goals. I’m writing about this today because I saw a very obvious stumbling point of my own come up. And for once (and yes, it’s rare for all of us, and even that is something to think about), I made the right choice in this specific instance.

Success Breeds Success

One last point and then I’ll let you go. The more times I choose to honor my paths and avoid excuses and justification, the more times I can leverage that success for other things. My eating better and getting more healthy remind me to stay more disciplined about other things in my life. All of this together is leading me towards even better choices. There’s a snowball effect at play here. The more we can work on our choices, the more times we can have small victories and bring that success to bear on other choices in our lives.

If you stopped right now and just wrote five choices you’d like to think about today and for the rest of the month – just five, I bet you’d have a better time of things. If you had even the simplest of guides to the path you’d prefer, versus what comes up or what can be excused and justified, even if this is just a starting point for something else, I promise you’d feel better.

What do you think? Are you willing to make that choice?

The Social-Savvy Food Truck Series is supported by the Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Truck. For more information on the scoop truck and where it stops, click here.

Fueled by demand for inexpensive, quick and delicious meals, gourmet food trucks have swept cities across the world, offering up specialties, such as grilled cheese sandwiches, tacos, pickles, cupcakes and meatballs.

The past few years have seen an onslaught of social media-savvy food trucks, empowering on-the-go customers to follow their favorite truck’s whereabouts on Twitter or learn about nearby deals on Foursquare, among other advancements.

Food trucks are becoming increasingly smart with their social media marketing, running campaigns to support particular efforts, deals or events. Here are five examples of innovative social media campaigns created by food trucks of all types.

1. DoubleTree CAREavan: Celebrating a Milestone

DoubleTree by Hilton gives out approximately 60,000 chocolate chip cookies each day when guests check in, amounting to more than 21 million cookies annually. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of its signature chocolate chip cookie, DoubleTree by Hilton suited up a food truck for, in their own words, a “10-week, 10,000-mile, 50-city journey to deliver hundreds of thousands of smiles to weary workers, tired travelers and local charities across the country through the pleasant surprise of a sweet chocolate chip cookie treat.”

The campaign is driven by social media, including the following components:

• Facebook: The DoubleTree Facebook page features an app with a real-time map of where the cookie CAREavan is, relevant tweets, a sweepstakes entry form for free stays at the hotel, YouTube videos and related promotions.
• Foursquare: The CAREavan’s location is updated on Foursquare, where the truck is running a special to promote its free cookies, as well as its Topguest partnership.
• Topguest: Topguest members receive 50 Hilton HHonors Bonus Points and 25 Virgin Elevate points with each Foursquare checkin.
• Twitter: DoubleTree is running a contest on Twitter to give followers the chance to win a “sweet break,” in which the truck team chooses tweeters using the hashtag #SweetBreak and hand-delivers 250 chocolate chip cookies to each of the winners’ offices. Twitter followers can also stay informed about the CAREavan’s whereabouts and activities.
• YouTube: DoubleTree is capturing “Cookie Confessionals” of fans talking about why they love chocolate chip cookies and posting them to its YouTube channel.

While DoubleTree isn’t a food-centric brand at its core, it is known for its warm chocolate chip cookies, and this campaign definitely plays on that nostalgia, bringing a bit of sweetness to each city it visits.

2. Mexicue: Crowdsourcing Recipes on Facebook

BBQ truck Mexicue is on a mission to crowdsource seasonal offerings on its menu. This summer it is running a Summer Market Special Contest, in which one lucky winner will be picked to have his or her seasonal recipe featured on the menu for one month.

Using a Facebook app, Mexicue announces an ingredient and accepts recipe submissions that include that ingredient. Then the Facebook community can vote for the recipe that will be featured aboard the Mexicue truck that month. Each month this summer, a new menu item is featured. The creators of the winning recipes win a $50 gift certificate to Mexicue and a Manhattan Messenger bag by Lexdray. The second and third place prizes are $25 and $10 Mexicue gift cards, respectively.

This contest is a fun way to engage a community and empower aspiring taco artisans to craft recipes for the chance to be featured on the menu.

3. Ninja Snowballs: Building Excitement During a Dead Time

There are only so many months in a summer when pedestrians want to stop for a snow cone. Baton Rouge snow cone truck Ninja Snowballs decided to combat slumping sales in September and October by running a flavor contest.

Bite and Booze blogger Jay Ducote partnered with Ninja Snowballs to run the contest, which asked foodies to invent a new flavor combination for the truck. Entries were accepted via Twitter and Facebook.

So, how did the campaign do? The truck was able to vend a few more weeks than it usually would have as a result of the buzz around the new flavors available for customers to try during the contest, says Ducote. Furthermore, the contest details page racked up 1,500 visits, and the top 16 submitted flavors drove a lot of buzz during the six rounds of judging, in which votes were counted by how many people ordered each snow cone.

The winning flavor, called “Lemon Fluff,” was submitted by marketing consultant Julie Perrault and featured a blend of fresh-squeezed lemonade and sweetened condensed milk.

4. Chi’Lantro BBQ: Offering a Deal

Chil’Lantro BBQ, a Korean and Mexican fusion BBQ food truck based in Austin, uses social media to keep its fans abreast of the truck’s latest news, locations, giveaways and specials of the day. Owner and founder Jae Kim actively uses Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and Foursquare to do just that.

Kim says his truck’s most successful social media marketing campaign took place during this year’s SXSW conference. Teaming up with mobile payment system Intuit GoPayment, the truck offered 25-cent tacos to customers who followed the truck on Twitter and paid with a credit card.

The campaign generated “tons of buzz” and was a “huge success and win-win for everybody,” says Kim.

5. Wafels & Dinges: Promoting a Relevant Holiday

In celebration of Belgian National Holiday (July 21), New York City-based Wafels & Dinges is introducing its Belgian Madness ice cream, which features its now-leaked secret ingredient, Hoegaarden white beer. From 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET, the Wafels & Dinges truck will be handing out free cones of the new flavor. To make the event even more fun, the Astor Place cart is crowning the “back-up King of Belgium” at 10 p.m. ET. The details for entering are explained on the company’s blog:

“Come dressed up as royalty (or at least in uniform worthy of a King) and give a 1-2 min speech about the role of Dinges in the expansion of the Belgian empire! If you convince our Belgian jury, you might win a free catering event for 50 people anywhere in NYC! The second prize is a gift certificate for 5 WMDs! And under the Belgian motto of ‘participating is more important than winning,’ all the contestants will receive a free jar of Spekuloos!”

The waffle truck is promoting its campaign on Twitter — where it has a following of over 15,500 — and Facebook, where it has 7,500 fans. Since this promotion ran on the day of this article’s publication, success metrics could not be determined.

Your Favorite Food Truck Campaigns

The Social-Savvy Food Truck Series is supported by the Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Truck. In New York City or San Francisco and want a free scoop? Follow @BenJerrysTruck and @BenJerrysWest for details!

Images courtesy of Mexicue; Flickr, speedye, somethingstartedcrazy

Skip1, the charity that asks you to skip something to feed a child, has announced a “Day of Skipping 1.” By choosing not to drink water for an entire day, you’re invited to skip doing a number one. You know, the bodily function. Because hungry kids also tend to go without water in a given day, this is an opportunity to feel empathy towards kids who don’t have what you have.

“We believe that by skipping going number one all day, that people will really start to understand what it’s like to have it bad,” reported Shelly Brin, who helps out at Skip1.

Personally, I’m ready to skip doing number one all day. And while I’m feeling all dried up and avoiding all that bathroom time, I’m going to donate to Skip1, a real charity doing real good work.