Forsman & Bodenfors wants to make sure drivers “drive 25 to keep kids alive,” and they’ve found an ingenious way to do it. Talking GPS are standard features in modern vehicles, but the agency has conceptualized an app that will switch the voice on the GPS to a child’s when within range of a school, daycare, or other area populated by children.

It’s currently available in Sweden, Finland, and Norway, and comes pre-loaded with all schools and daycare centers in the Nordic region.

The agency hopes that this will serve as an audio reminder to drive carefully and watch for children, reducing the number of accidents in school zones and other kid-friendly areas.

What Sparks Our Fire: Using innovation and unconventional problem-solving to draw attention to an often-ignored safety hazard

The next step for global connectivity? A smartphone for the developing world. And it’s designed by none other than John Sculley, former Apple executive and Robert Brunner, the designer behind Beats by Dre headphones.

The Obi Worldphone marks a greater push toward accessible technology–Sculley aims to provide developing countries in places like Africa and Southeast Asia with high-powered, affordable smartphones, which he predicts will replace their needs for personal computers.

In addition to its sleek design, the phone is tailored to its target consumers’ preferences. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, texting, taking photos, and banking are popular uses for smartphones, so the Obi Worldphone has features like a 13-megapixel camera and a diverse marketplace of applications.

The phone will retail for $200, a reasonable price to most first-world Americans, but still may be a problem for the standard income in a developing country.

What Sparks Our Fire: A quest for a high-powered but inexpensive smartphone that makes technology more available on a global scale.

Google+ has been suffering from what many tech blogs and business publications are calling a “slow death”—its initial launch established the site as an attempt to be a fully-integrated social platform, with its multifaceted approach rivaling companies like Facebook, Dropbox, WordPress, and Skype.

However, after failing to gain both traction and users in the social media community, it recently announced that it will be splitting the platform into three different components: Hangouts, Photos, and Streams. Hangouts is a video chatting service that will remain independent of Google+, photos is a storage space for images that will be added to Google Drive, and streams covers the rest of the Google+ experience along with News and Blogger.

While the idea of a streamlined, all-in-one social media platform sounded like a good idea, perhaps it was the ambition of the venture that led to its demise; users considered the Google+ login to YouTube a nuisance, found the interface unaesthetic, and the whole system a cheap Facebook facsimile.

Google has finally compromised, maintaining the best aspects of Google+ like Hangouts and Photos, and has removed the Google+ sign-in on YouTube, much to users’ delight.

The moral of the story: Don’t put all of your digital marketing eggs in one basket, especially if your product is at risk of being disruptive—and not in the good way.

What Sparks Our Fire: Google+ taking the next step forward and making smart decisions in the face of a highly-publicized technological failure.

Since its purchase by Facebook in 2012, Instagram has slowly and precisely begun to build out it’s advertising program. Designed to make the free app profitable, advertisements were introduced to users’ feeds almost two years ago, but were limited to a few core brands. Today, Instagram has announced that it will expand its advertising program, allowing all brands to participate in advertising on users’ feeds.

In addition to this expansion, Instagram is testing new call-to-action buttons on some sponsored content. These will include buttons that say, “Learn More,” “Shop Now,” and “Sign Up.” The addition of CTA buttons allows Instagram to remain hyperlink-free, as it has been since it’s outset. As with past adjustments to their advertising program, Instagram remains dedicated to disrupting the flow of users’ feeds as little as possible.

This expansion of their advertising program provides a new opportunity for all brands to tell a visual story on Instagram and target it to Instagram’s younger demographic. And while some critics will remain skeptical until the program’s roll-out, we see this as an opportunity. Brands will be able to share a deeper connection with consumers based on a creative visual story, and consumers will be able to take action when they enjoy sponsored content.

What Sparks Our Fire: Enhancing offerings to advertisers, without compromising the user experience.

With over 300 million downloads, AdBlock Plus has become the most downloaded browser extension ever. But with the shift away from desktop browsing, it was only a matter of time before AdBlock Plus had to come up with mobile options. While there has been an Android-compatible option for some time now (even if it is not featured in the Google Play store), the Cologne-based software company finally announced this week that an iPhone app has been in development and will be released this year. While exact details have not been outlined, this is huge news for the digital marketing world and businesses planning on advertising digitally.

Due to the logistics of mobile browsing, the app will probably come in the form of a mobile browser. This means that AdBlock Plus will not only be drawing away precious advertising revenue from Google (last year comprising 89.5% of their total revenue), but will also compete directly with Google’s own Chrome browser application. The impact of AdBlock Plus’ iPhone app on digital advertising is not limited to Google, however. This expansion into the mobile realm will inevitably effect all businesses that advertise digitally.

AdBlock Plus aims to filter out “intrusive” advertising on behalf of the user, so that means businesses advertising digitally will want to think about whether their advertising comes across as intrusive to consumers. Overlays and popups tend to draw the most ire, and will become more difficult to get in front of a viewer in the age of the AdBlock Plus browser. Instead, we predict that the shift to native and integrative advertising will be accelerated. Creative advertising that adds value to the content that consumers are looking for–instead of distracting away from that content– will be what is noticed.

What Sparks Our Fire: Following technology that could change the mobile advertising landscape.

Facebook has made it clear that direct messaging is a priority, through great investments in developing a smoother direct messaging experience with it’s own messenger service, on Instagram, and through the acquisition of messaging giant WhatsApp. Twitter‘s under-developed direct messaging capability has been identified by multiple sources as one of it’s greatest weaknesses, but they’re finally doing something about it.

Twitter announced a new feature that can potentially change the way that users and brands utilize the platform. Traditionally Twitter has been a forum for sharing information publicly. Twitter’s initial foray into the world of direct messaging required users to be following one another. Now, Twitter has introduced a feature that will allow users to receive messages from users they are not following. This feature is opt-in only, allowing users to choose if they like to utilize it (and potentially receive messages from anonymous accounts).

This development will change the way mega-twitter users and brands interact with their followers. It is a nearly impossible task for big brands to be following all of their followers– and now, they don’t have to. Users, who previously may not have been interested in tweeting @ brands on their feeds will be able to privately connect with them. This new form of messaging will allow brands to make a personal connection with a user who has direct interest in the brand.

What Sparks Our Fire: A new way for brands to connect with a captivated audience

Almost a year ago, Foursquare began rebuilding it’s company by splitting into two apps– Foursquare, for discovery purposes and Swarm, for check-in purposes– and shifting it’s business focus. At the time, the decision left many users confused (and even drove some away, reportedly), but as of today, it is clear what Foursquare aspires to do: corner the market on location-based advertising.

Today, Foursquare announced the launch of Pinpoint, a location-based advertising service that will use geo-location information to target ads to the relevant consumer. While Foursquare plans to use information collected in both of it’s apps, it also plans to target non-Foursquare users. Location-based advertising has been around for some time now, but Foursquare plans to use it’s extensive database of locations– something that could only be built with the help of it’s app users– to pinpoint “the precise places that [advertisers’ audiences go] to in the real world.”

Pinpoint will open up new ways for brands to micro-target the correct consumers. For instance, if a user has checked into Chili’s and Applebee’s, they might soon be targeted by Olive Garden, one of the first brands to adopt Pinpoint. Brands like Samsung, Choice Hotels, Land Rover and Wild Turkey have signed up for the service, as well.

As with all location-based targeting, brands will have to balance being seen as “creepy” with the value they can provide to customers. This balance is a priority especially given the specificity of the locations being shared. Brands might be able to manage this by offering deals directly to the consumers they now know will have the most interest.

What Sparks Our Fire: Exciting new ways for brands to reach their most receptive audiences

We’re big fans of Kickstarter, it’s a great platform for sharing new products that provides entrepreneurs the opportunity to garner loyalty and buy-in from potential future customers. Our newest favorite kickstarter project is the  Noke U-Lock.  This takes bike locks to the next level by completely eliminating the need for keys or codes. This bike lock is controlled through your smartphone allowing you to unlock it from your phone, share access to your bike with your friends, and control the alarm.. yes alarm. The app also provides GPS tracking to the lock, preventing you from ever forgetting where you left your bike. If your phone is within a few feet, when you push the button on the Noke U-Lock it senses your phone and instantly unlocks. When the Noke is shaken for more than 3 seconds or the wrong quick code is attempted more than 3 times, an alarm goes off that can be turned off from the app on your phone or the quick code on the lock, so your bike is always protected.

They’ve already met their target, which is great news for all you bikers who haven’t heard about it yet, support on kickstarter and get yours guaranteed before it hits the mass market.

What Sparks our Fire: A, well designed, incredibly useful accessory for bike riders everywhere.

No, we aren’t talking about a trailer.  We’re talking about your actual home. Our homes are getting smarter and smarter with the introduction of technology like wifi enabled lighting and thermostats, and universal voice activated remotes.  Now, there’s even a doorbell that acts as a security system, motion detector and video camera. Most of these advancements have one thing in common: they are controlled by apps on our phones.

The Ring™ Video Doorbell allows you to see whoever is ringing your doorbell via an HD video camera from your smartphone, even when you aren’t home. It also allows you to receive notifications to your phone through the Ring app when someone rings your doorbell…kind of like missed call notification. 

What Sparks our Fire: An app that redefines the limits of “Caller ID”

At this year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, an intrusive– if not innovative– ad for sci-fi thriller Ex-Machina has been the most buzzed about. The film used it’s star’s photo and her character’s name, Ava, to create an account on the dating app Tinder. Once a person initiated a conversation with Ava, she would ask personal questions and continue the conversation, and then eventually provide a link to her Instagram account– an account for the film.

Those who reached the Instagram page felt deceived and tricked, and have since voiced their outrage on Twitter. This stunt raises questions about the boundaries that brands must consider when trying to target audiences in sensitive spaces.

What Sparks Our Fire: Raising important questions about the future of our industry