Visit our stand, TT088, and find out how the iPad can help you target customers, enhance their experience and increase the time they are engaged with you.

• iPad – fastest ever consumer device to sell $1bn
• 94% of iPad Users are “affluent consumers” (Source: Yahoo)
• Travellers are switching to iPad rather than laptops and netbooks (Source: NPD)
• Sales conversion (2%) is 5 times higher on iPad than iPhone and Android (Source: Shopatron)
• Over 40 million units sold (Source: Apple Inc.)

We keep an eye out for technologies that would interest our clients and Popcorn.JS turns out to be one that has particular potential.

Among other things, it provides a framework for synchronising video with web content. Some scenarios might help you visualise this:

• A screen agency creates a video promoting key residential properties in its region. As the video runs links appear next to the video which, when clicked, takes the site visitor to a pre-prepared MovieSite(TM) web brochure for the property currently being shown on the video.
• A travel destination creates a video which shows top attractions. Next to the video there are links to additional information, a list of nearby accommodation providers and a map of where the attraction is.
• A training company’s video is complemented by direct links to the page in the printed manual, or to a quick “test yourself” quiz. In addition that part of the video could be favourited so the user can jump back to it later.

Video in itself is a powerful tool. Complementing it with maps, web links, text descriptions and any other web based content ramps it up from both a marketing and training perspective.

See a demo at Anchored Web (although at the time of writing their server was struggling to serve the video – not a weakness of Popcorn.JS)!

Contact david.sim@openbrolly.com if you have ideas for using the technology or want to know more about the potential.

This particular contract had an interesting set of technical challenges to overcome. There is no 3G mobile phone coverage and limited 2G coverage (i.e. no coverage in some places). The client wanted to be able to guide visitors to accommodation, attractions and restaurants across a huge geographic area and therefore location-relevant results were required. Up to date information is essential, particularly for special offers and events.

We addressed these challenges through load balancing data. Pre-loading all the data was not an option – it would rapidly become out of date and, in any case, the volume of data would have meant that the app would have to have been downloaded over WiFi (an Apple restriction) rather than anywhere with a mobile signal. Instead the app gradually populates with information, always looking for the latest information if it can get it.

You can download the application from the app store for free. Search for “Cairngorms”.

You can read about the launch and the circle conference here.

We, at Open Brolly, had the opportunity to discuss our model for a sustainable and quality Tourism product using our work with MovieSite and Social Media.

We have had several speaking engagements and are currently planning our Cannes presence. One of the key areas this spring will be to spell out that film tourism need not be difficult to implement. To plan and co-ordinate is a different matter

One area we have been mentioning to clients over the last year is that they need to think about mobile internet access to information. People want to do things as easily as possible and the uptake on using mobile phones for email and getting information is huge; how many Blackberries do you see on the bus and train? I am pleased to see we are in good company Sir Tim Webbers has recently said this is the way ahead. The good thing about the mobile web is that if you have planned your web presence and services well it should not be too difficult to add this service.

In 2009 we expect mobile offerings in our screen agency, tourism and social media offerings.

The key areas we have sought to understand are there:

1. Film-induced tourism
2. Regional collaboration
3. Co-production
4. Demonstrating value
5. Marketing of agencies and offices.

By definition, film tourism is likely to be delivered through a portal and so I’ve been doing a lot of desktop research recently on tourism portals. It has led me to understand the value of Destination Management Organisations (DMOs). DMOs are essentially formed by tourism businesses in an area (sometimes with public sector support) whereas, all too often, a portal is setup from the top down.

It is impossible to stimulate the involvement and commitment of front-line tourism businesses from the top. The best approach is to give them the means to work towards a common goal. Even in the unlikely event a central portal raises world awareness it cannot sustain dealing with it. The market always wins in the long run; unless it makes sense for tourism businesses to get involved it is not sustainable from the centre. My example of how not to do it is www.visiteurope.com!

My message is borne of experience from when we first set up web sites and Intranets over thirteen years ago. You have to empower those involved to help create something worthwhile. Otherwise, it eventually runs out of steam.

Does anyone know of any web sites / portals in that category?

We have been working on developing a film tourism business model that will work for our clients and ourselves. Its slow progress working out the up and downs of options but we think we are getting there.

If any project is to be sustainable it must be of such a benefit to its target audience that the audience puts time or money into it. This is a clear warning to agencies not to believe they can do such a good job someone else will take it over when the money runs out. It has to make sense to tourism businesses from the start. This leaves two options:

1. Your film tourism idea is so unique that businesses will willing support it through cash or time, in which case why are you doing it?
2. A low cost , low resource way of leveraging film office and agency information in such a way as to not impose a burden but allow the tourism businesses do the work.

I underline my point. No matter how great a web site is it will fail if it does not have money or people to keep it that way. I believe it is possible to combine the information that film offices hold with the latest web technologies to be seen as an important partner but not having to do all the work.