Ever since Scarlett entered my world – I’ve been obsessed with all things (urban) cycling. This might be old news by now, but was super intrigued by this cycle project that has made its rounds in the cycling blogs – the Yahoo! Purple Pedals Project.
A concept borne from Yahoo’s Buzz Marketing team and executed by Uncommon Projects, these bikes when ridden will automatically snap pictures and upload onto flickr every 60 seconds – real time.
Each picture is tagged with the bike’s GPS location viewable on Yahoo’s interactive map. These bikes have been shipped to 12 locations around the world, including Tanzania, Denmark, Tokyo, Lebanon, and England. Impressively, the tech gear is weather-proofed, solar & dynamo powered . Check out some of the images the bike has taken here and the community it shares it with.
From a marketing perspective, it makes sense:
” Compared to traditional marketing it’s a hell of a lot cheaper. It’s also more novel–instead of talking about innovation it actually makes innovation, creating self-generating press along the way…it’s novel and it’s even helpful in that it lets riders document and share their rides with everyone. Finally, it underscores a commitment to fun and innovation that dovetails nicely with the larger marketing message that Yahoo wants to communicate.”
And in true spirit of open-source, the folks at Uncommon Project have written a behind-the-scenes on their blog as well as releasing the source code for DIY-ers out there. I want one!
