Hotel Arena in Amsterdam launched a radio commercial that uses Dual-tone multi frequency signaling that allows the ad to dial the listeners phone in order to book a room.

In a small engineering studio in Bronxville, New York, Cosmos Lyles and Paul Dowd eagerly take turns at the dry-erase board, sketching out diagrams of springs, levers and tension curves. This may not seem very rock ’n’ roll, but what they’re creating will let the musicians on their current client list, including Slash and Rob Zombie’s guitarist John 5, shred harder than ever: a bridge that keeps the instrument continuously in tune.

Guitar strings need constant tension to stay tuned, but they’re easily loosened or tightened if the temperature changes, the instrument gets knocked around, or the guitarist just plays too hard. In an EverTune-equipped guitar, the bridge, which holds the strings in place, contains six spring-and-lever contraptions, one at the end of each string. These keep the strings’ tension constant even if the tuning pegs get turned or the strings become loosened or tightened accidentally.

Each string is attached to a lever, which is in turn attached to a spring. To tune up, the guitarist tightens an adjustor screw at the bridge that alters the position of its corresponding spring, changing its leverage to obtain the right tension. If the guitar string loosens or tightens after being set, the lever shifts, but it is counteracted by the spring so that it holds the desired tension, until it needs to be replaced. (The guitarist can change the tuning anytime simply by readjusting the screws.)

How EverTune Works: The guitar is tuned by turning a screw on the EverTune bridge (no tuning pegs are used), which adjusts the tension of a spring that corresponds to one of the six strings. Each spring attaches to a lever that holds the string in place; the lever shifts if the string loosens or tightens, but the connected spring maintains the proper tension to keep the guitar in tune.

More here.

There's a lot of brutally boring, politically correct beer advertising in Canada. A complete waste of money in my opinion. If beer doesn't = fun, then what does it equal?

Maybe they can take a lesson in understanding the customer from this case study.

Although it's not the most gripping advertising film I've ever seen, it's still nice to see the BS being replaced by honesty. Domino's had the guts to listen to their customers, admit their mistakes and improve their product. Something all companies are going to have to do. Or, else.

There's a few obvious brands I can name that are in the 'or, else' category right now.