Travel

TOUR WRIST 360-Degree Panoramic Virtual Tour Hosting Company Engages GREAT! Agency for Strategic Alliance and Business Development

May 9, 2011 – Atlanta, GA USA – TOUR WRIST^®, a mobile and web-based virtual tour hosting company, has engaged GREAT! agency for strategic alliance and business development in the television, entertainment and travel spaces; ideation; and additional marketing services.

Video - Tour Wrist: Virtual Tours of Hotels & Real Estate

TOUR WRIST – already the destination for 19,000 virtual tour images since the platform launched commercially January 1, 2011 – will soon enable millions of consumers to easily shoot, upload, host, search, view and share 360-degree virtual tours using third-party smartphone apps, desktop software, and panoramic cameras when it makes its AmaTour^®Application Programming Interface (API) available in June 2011.

“As YouTube is for video, TOUR WRIST will soon be for 360-degree virtual tours,” says TOUR WRIST CEO and Founder Charles Armstrong. “GREAT! CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dan Smigrod shares our vision and passion for the TOUR WRIST platform. We’re thrilled to be working with GREAT! to develop strategic alliances and large-scale business opportunities for TOUR WRIST in television, entertainment and travel.”

“As exciting as millions of iPhone users visually mapping the world with their geo-tagged-virtual tour images – coming soon are 360-degree video virtual tours – also created with an iPhone using an iPhone lens accessory scheduled to ship this summer,” says Smigrod. “Television, entertainment and travel companies that get started now with TOUR WRIST will be ready to leverage user generated content.”

“We’re honored that TOUR WRIST selected GREAT! to help share TOUR WRIST large-scale opportunities such as: private label solutions; re-purposing libraries of existing 360-degree virtual tours; and mashups of TOUR WRIST in ways not even anticipated when the platform (mobile, web and social) was developed for the travel-tourism-destination and real estate sale spaces,” says Smigrod.

About TOUR WRIST^®

Spark Mobile, LLC has been doing business as TOUR WRIST^® since September 2010. The free TOUR WRIST viewing app (for iDevices) is available from the Apple iTunes App Store and has been downloaded over 150,000 times since its launch. The highly acclaimed TOUR WRIST app allows user to control what they see. On iDevices, it appears as a window to each space. So, for example, pointing upward may reveal the ceiling within a room and looking down, the floor.

TOUR WRIST was among the Apple Picks for Great Free Apps, Hot Apps, and New and Noteworthy for much of April 2011 in the iTunes App Store. Also in April, TOUR WRIST was among the Top 10 Free Entertainment iPad apps in the App Store. The current version of the app (2.1.5) is rated 4.5 stars from 275+ reviews; and four-stars among all versions of the app from 730+ reviewers. A mobile–optimized web app for Android devices is also being developed.

The TOUR WRIST company (private) is headquartered in Tampa, FL with satellite offices around the country. TOUR WRIST^® and AmaTour^® are registered trademarks of Spark Mobile, LLC. For more information about TOUR WRIST, please visit:

• iTunes App Store: www.itunes.com/app/TourWrist
• Web: www.TourWrist.com
• YouTube: www.YouTube.com/TourWrist
• Twitter: www.Twitter.com/TourWrist

About GREAT!

GREAT! creates, sells and delivers value for TV and other entertainment brands by conceiving fun; innovative; brand activating; creative and multi-platform: strategic alliances; imaginative integrated marketing campaigns, and ground-breaking buzz marketing campaigns that often include innovative new digital media technologies. The Atlanta-based agency was founded in 1987 by IDEAologist Dan Smigrod.

• Web: www.GREATtv.com
• Blog: blog.GREATtv.com
• Twitter: www.Twitter.com/smigrod

Related Tour Wrist Stories by GREAT! CEO & IDEAologist Dan Smigrod

• That’s GREAT! – Summer Tour Wrist: Seamlessly Shoot and Share 360-Degree Virtual Tour Photos and Video (4/27/11)
• That’s GREAT! – Two-Screen Marketing: TV Marketing Meets Tour Wrist Meets Immersive Consumer Engagement Experience (2/21/11)

Short URL For This Story

• http://j.mp/TourWrist-Engages-GREAT

TOUR WRIST 360-Degree Virtual Tour Scene of Mountain Junction General Store in Scaly, NC by Photographer Dan Smigrod

Ideation: ‘Zambia – Feel Like Royalty in the Animal Kingdom’ (Plus, 5 More Re-Branding Zambia Ideas)

February 25, 2011 – Atlanta, GA USA – The GREAT! team is helping Zambia re-brand the country.

While the Zambia Tourism Board has not engaged GREAT!, they did run an awesome world-wide contest seeking the best slogan – tag line – to replace, Zambia, the Real Africa. The prize: an over-the-top 15-day eco-adventure of a lifetime for two including: safaris to three wildlife parks; and a visit to one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls.

Count me in!

Victoria Falls – the Smoke that Thunders – Livingstone, Zambia

While you may know me as a creative CEO and IDEAologist of Atlanta-based GREAT! agency for 23+ years who has helped GREAT! clients give away (and fulfill) millions of dollars in prizes – including two houses; cars; thousands of trips; and a $100,000 dream-job to watch TV – you may not know that I love international travel (35 countries). My wife and I have never been to Africa. (“Not Yet”)

Plus, my agency conceived and implemented the AMC Planet of the Apes: Adopt an Ape Month that included 50 gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees adopted at 50 zoos across America – and apes watching Planet of the Apes movies – to call attention to the threatened and endangered apes (and to promotion Planet of the Apes on AMC.)

And, I am a passionate and prolific semi-pro photographer who has photographed natural wonders including the Niagara Falls; Iguazu Falls (including under the falls); glaciers and Mount Rainier in Alaska; and the Grand Canyon.

Add to this, I have always wanted to do photo safaris and visit Victoria Falls. I grew up on Daktari, Tarzan and the Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom television series and animal expert Jack Hanna “hands on” segments on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Wow! That’s a Prize!

So, you can imagine my excitement reading about the Zambia Tourism Department re-branding contest with a $30,000 prize package that also includes: international airline tickets; flights within Zambia; ground transfers; and all accommodations and meals.

While I will photograph and videotape the bungi jumping at Victoria Falls instead of taking the (big) leap of faith, I’m there … for walking with elephants and a canoe and fly fishing experience on the Zambezi river. While not included in the prize, I will add a bush microlight flight experience for some aerial images ”over the game in the Zambezi National Park without disturbing them.” Plus, a float plane that flies over Victoria Falls and lands on the Zambezi river near a pod of hippos.

Plus, I’ll shoot some 360 degree panoramic images while on Safari and from Livingston Island of Victoria Falls – with “its largest sheet of falling water in the world” – that will look amazing on the travel remotely/’teleport in’ Tour Wrist app (iPhone, iPad).

The official rules allowed three (3) tag line entries per person, so here are the six (6) tag lines that my wife and I entered between us:

1. Zambia - Feel Like Royalty in the Animal Kingdom
2. Zambia – Quench Your Thirst for Adventure
3. Zambia – Adventure Powered by Victoria Falls
4. Zambia – Victoria Falls For You
5. Zambia – Adventure In
6. Zambia – Victoria Falls For Us

To help us with ideation – short of flying to Zambia – the GREAT! team did a “deep dive” to immerse ourselves in all things Zambia tourism, including:

• Zambia Tourism Board Official Site
• Zambia Tourism Competition Contest Rules
• Cornell University Report: Marketing and Branding Zambia as a Tourism Destination
• Destination Zambia 2010-2011 Brochure
• Wikipedia: Zambia
• CIA: The World Factbook – Zambia
• Zambia Tourism on Facebook
• Zambia Tourism on Twitter

Our four key take-aways about driving Zambia tourism that we integrated into our tag line ideation:

1. Victoria Falls –  named after (royalty) Queen Victoria by Explorer Dr. David Livingston – is the unique and compelling selling proposition for Zambia.
2. Safaris – experiencing all kinds of wildlife of Zambia is an important driver of tourism; though safaris are not unique to Zambia
3. Adventure – Zambia appeals to adventure travel enthusiasts; Livingston – the home of Victoria Falls – is known as ‘Adventure Centre’ of Southern Africa
4. Differentiator – As one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls differentiates Zambia from other African adventure destinations that offer safaris and water falls. Victoria Falls is the “anchor mall tenant” tourist traffic generator that draws you to Zambia; once there, there are other great places; adventure and historic places to visit.

'Sanctuary Retreats' in Zambia

Plus we drew on some ideation process inspiration from Thinking for a Living by Joey Reiman. While there was no word count limit, we honored the request for “short and snappy” and we mashed up aspirational, personal tone and play on words in our tag lines.

For example Victoria Falls For You allows you to imagine that the Queen of England – royalty – has fallen in love with you; you will experience her misty-eye tears of happiness; that the Falls (For You) are uniquely special – personal – for your visit; and it’s a “short and snappy” tag line that leverages the unique differentiator of Zambia among other African countries in a positive way. [Do you have a favorite? Please comment below (and share why). Or, add your tag line ideas to promote Zambia Tourism.]

Photo Safari in Zambia

Now that the month-long deadline for entries has passed, the Zambia Tourism Board will post their short list of the top five – for voting – on the official Zambia Tourism Board re-branding competition website on March 14, 2011 and announce the winner on March 21, 2011. If one of our six ideas makes the cut, may I count on you for your vote?

While we can’t take you with us, you’ll get to Quench Your Thirst for Adventure at Victoria Falls – while we Feel Like Royalty in the Animal Kingdom – through my Zambia, Adventure In images that I will post here (if we’re lucky enough – with your help – to win the Zambia, Adventure Powered by Victoria Falls experience of a lifetime). Check out these – feel like royalty – prize sponsors to see the Royal Treatment that awaits the winner:

• South Luangwa – Bushcamp Company, Norman Carr Safaris, Sanctuary Retreats, Robin Pope Safaris
• Lower Zambezi – Baines River Camp, Chiawa Camp, Chongwe River Camp, Kanyemba Lodge, Sausage Tree Camp
• Kafue – Mukambi Safari Lodge, Wilderness Safaris
• Livingstone – Island of Siankaba, River Club, Royal Livingston Hotel
• Lusaka – Protea Hotel Arcades, Proflight Zambia and Sefofane (for internal flights); and Zambian Ground Handlers (coordination)

Plus, check out the Zambia Tourism Re-branding Competition Sponsors:

• Zambia Tourism Board
• The Department for International Development
• World Bank Group

If my wife or I wins the adventure experience of a lifetime, I will also post a Zambia, Victoria Falls For You travel log here – including Flip UltraHD Video and 360 degree panoramic virtual tour images – ’cause I know … in, Zambia, Victoria Falls For Us!

Short URL To Share This That’s GREAT! Article

• http://j.mp/GREAT-Zambia

Video: Sausage Tree Camp on the banks of the Zambezi River in the heart of the Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia

PostScript (3/14/11)

• Of the 4,445 tag lines submitted – from 2,017 individuals – here are the five (5) tag lines that made the Zambia Tourism short list: 1) Zambia – Beyond Imagination; 2) Zambia – Let’s Explore; 3) Zambia – Big heart, Big smile, Big adventure; 4) Zambia – Africa’s Smile; 5) Discover Zambia, Experience Africa. The Winner will be announced March 21, 2011.

• Looks like our adventure experience of a lifetime in Zambia is on hold until either GREAT! handles a VIP incentive travel experience to Zambia; or Zambia Tourism invites bloggers/photographers for an expense-paid exploration of Zambia to share our experience.