Free love can be dispersed in many ways, whether to all those who happen to be in the right place at the right time or to a select group of qualified recipients. Much like SOOPZ, a network through which food bloggers can sign up for the chance to receive free samples, Gitchers is a new site that allows consumers to sign up for the chance to receive a free, branded T-shirt.

Gitchers is essentially a database of people who want free T-shirts, either for themselves or for their dogs (special canine T-shirts are distributed through the site as well). To sign up, consumers tell Gitchers what type of shirt they're interested in—featuring the logo of a favourite brand or website, for example—along with key demographic information such as their birthday, gender and location. (Each Gitchers account is associated with only one T-shirt request, so users must create separate accounts—using distinct e-mail addresses for each—to request more than one type.) Participating companies, meanwhile, tell Gitchers what types of consumers they'd like their T-shirts to be sent to—women aged 35 to 50 in Columbus, Ohio, for example—and pay USD 10.99 each for a minimum of 100 shirts. The first Gitchers users in the database meeting the advertiser's criteria are then the lucky ones to receive the shirts.

There's no arguing with the power of free love, so it seems likely that there will be increasing opportunities for companies that serve as intermediaries, making the distribution effort more targeted. Consumers get free stuff, companies get targeted advertising, and the world just gets more love! ;-)

Website: www.gitchers.com
Contact: www.gitchers.com/email.php

If crowdsourcing can be used to improve product design, music promotion and sports team management—to name just a few of the examples we've written about—why not the process of finding sales leads? That question is about to be tested through a new site that aims to put the crowds to work as a sort of community sales force.

LeadVine lets users post the types of sales leads they seek along with the referral fee they're willing to pay; the community is then invited to earn that fee by making the desired connections. Fees listed on the site must be at least USD 50, but the range is considerable. One listing, for example, offers a USD 100 referral fee for help in finding companies in need of online chat support. Another offers USD 50,000 for investors to contribute USD 2 million toward an Oregon real-estate development project. Requests are listed by category, and buttons for each allow others to bookmark them, share them via e-mail or make a referral. The resulting transactions are conducted outside the site, but LeadVine facilitates the payment of referral fees via PayPal. Community members can also rate each other on the site to reflect the quality of each transaction.

The company explains: "Every day, people come across information that is useless to them but useful to someone else. Ever know of any friends looking for a new job, looking to add a new room to the house, looking to build a new website, etc.? What did you do with that information? Probably nothing. There are companies willing to pay for that type of information, from recruiters, construction contractors, web developers, etc. LeadVine gives you the ability to make money with information that is at your finger tips."

Now in beta, Kentucky-based LeadVine is currently free for users around the globe. One to watch—and experiment with! (Related: Tapping into the referral economy.)

Contact: www.leadvine.com
Contact: info@leadvine.com

Spotted by: Roberta Steinberg

Fresh and frozen gourmet baby foods are something we've seen several companies begin to offer in Europe and the United States, as we noted in a story last year. Now a California company is taking the idea one step further with a tasting bar and lounge that lets babies try such foods before their parents buy.

Pomme Bébé is an unusual restaurant in Newport Beach, that serves nothing but organic baby and toddler meals prepared fresh in its on-site kitchen. Pomme Bébé peels, steams and purees by hand the ingredients in its meals, which feature seasonal recipes developed by critically acclaimed, five-star chef Laurent Brazier. Fall flavours, for example, include Apple Cranberry Puree, Chicken Pot Pie Blend and Autumn Stew. With prices beginning at USD 3.25 for a four-ounce serving, foods are also available online or through Whole Foods markets nationwide. Prepared without high-heat processes—which can destroy vital nutrients, tastes and colours—Pomme Bébé's meals contain no preservatives, fillers, artificial flavours, chemicals, hormones or antibiotics.

What's especially interesting is that discerning baby clientele can sample Pomme Bébé's offerings—for free—at its onsite Tasting Bar and luxurious, sit-down Bébé Lounge. The Tasting Bar resembles a sushi bar—featuring high chairs where the stools would be—with simple, clean lines to avoid distracting pint-sized gourmands. The Bébé Lounge, meanwhile, includes seating for grownups as well and has reportedly come to serve as a local hotspot for playdates and parties. What's better than a load of coupons or one-way advertising messages? Tryvertising, of course—targeted in this case at notoriously finicky pint-sized consumers. When in doubt, let them try it out! (Related: Social tryvertising for busy mothers.)

Website: www.pommebebe.com
Contact: info@pommebebe.com

Spotted by: Mary Kincaid

As the holiday season approaches, parents around the globe are surely dreading the inevitable return of a phenomenon that shadows the giving of gifts of many shapes and sizes, but especially toys. Leaving in its wake a trail of victims with puncture wounds, bruises and lacerations—or simply in tears, Wrap Rage results from the virtually impenetrable packaging often used in shipping new products.

Fortunately, this year Amazon aims to do something about it. Thanks to a new, multi-year global initiative announced yesterday, Amazon is working with manufacturers to eliminate the causes of Wrap Rage while also minimizing the impact of packaging on the environment. The effort is focusing first on two kinds of items: those enclosed in hard plastic cases known as "clamshells" and those secured with plastic-coated wire ties, commonly used in toy packaging. As a result, 19 best-selling products are now available through Amazon in the US packaged in smaller, easy-to-open and recyclable cardboard boxes that protect the products within just as well, the company says. New, eco-iconic packaging on the Fisher-Price Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship, for example, eliminates 36 inches of plastic-coated wire ties, 1,576.5 square inches of printed corrugated package inserts, 36.1 square inches of printed folding carton materials, 175.25 square inches of PVC blisters, 3.5 square inches of ABS molded styrene and two molded plastic fasteners. Along with Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and electronics manufacturer Transcend are among the companies Amazon worked with on this first batch of products, and many more will follow in the years to come, it says. The project will expand across Amazon's international sites beginning next year. In the meantime, Amazon has also put together a "Gallery of Wrap Rage" featuring videos and photos of the phenomenon, and customers are invited to upload their own.

Eco-minded initiatives are all very well, but when they also eliminate a major source of customer frustration? Then they become a no-brainer. Manufacturers around the world: follow this example!

Website: www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200285450
Contact: www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/general-questions.html

When we wrote about Meet a few weeks ago, one of its cofounders noted that the meetings industry has been in desperate need of some innovation. Continuing on that upward trend, office furniture manufacturer Steelcase is gearing up to launch a new meeting space in Chicago that will not only host meetings but also serve as a testing ground for future products.

Situated within walking distance of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, Workspring is the brainchild of a team of work experience experts at Steelcase who imagined a network of extraordinary spaces designed to inspire and support creative collaboration, productive retreat and transformative exchange. Workspring is surrounded by the quiet natural beauty of an urban courtyard, with bright modern studios and a raft of collaborative tools. Five work studios are available with ergonomic seating, in-room storage, natural lighting and a ready supply of paper, pens, sticky notes and other supplies. Lighting can be adjusted to complement changing activities, and all studios are equipped with Springboards, or layered movable planes of tackable and writable surfaces that encourage teams to create, share and rearrange content. Common areas, meanwhile, include a cafe, forum and oasis space, with services including healthful food and beverages and a resource library stocked with inspirational books and objects, printouts and photocopies. Finally, and perhaps most interesting of all, Workspring will also serve as an ongoing “lab” for new products from Steelcase designed to enhance communication and collaboration among teams, the company says. Launching in mid-November, Workspring can be booked for morning, afternoon or evening sessions, with pricing of USD 140 per person per session.

There's no doubt the time was ripe for the meetings industry to be reinvented, and what better agent to make that happen than a company that's already involved? Never mind killing two birds with one stone—this is reaping two profits with one venture. A concept to emulate whenever possible!

Website: www.workspring.com
Contact: info@workspring.com

We at Springwise are always happy to chronicle the spread of a good idea, but never more so than when those doing the spreading are part of the Springwise community themselves. So it's with great pleasure that we bring our readers one more tale of free photocopying for students, this time launched by one of our very own Springspotters in his home country of the Philippines.

At the Philippines' Prime University Ateneo De Manila, Matthew Cua is project manager of Celadon, the university's official Chinese-Filipino organization. Charged with the task of planning the group's Mid-Autumn Gratia faculty appreciation day celebration for this fall, Cua says he was inspired by our free love coverage to incorporate free photocopying for students into the event. Scouting around for sponsorship, Cua found a receptive audience in Dr. Diana Cua-Balcells, a local breast cancer surgeon and alumna of the university, who picked up on the idea as a way to promote breast cancer awareness on behalf of nonprofit organizations including Bosom Buddies, I Can Serve, Pink for Life, Carewell Community and the Cuabang Foundation. Accordingly, among the festival's many offerings was a free photocopying kiosk that aimed both to promote breast cancer causes and to help support Celadon. Equipped with just a single photocopier, the outdoor stand in the middle of campus produced 8,200 free photocopies over the course of the five-day festival, serving some 500 students plus a number of faculty who made copies for their entire classes. Celadon even took the free copies idea one better by designing the paper used to serve as notepaper on the reverse side, allowing it to do double-duty in class or be reused afterwards.

Celadon made minimal profit on the event, Cua says—aiming mainly to cover its costs—but the group is planning a similar effort for November, this time with commercial sponsorship, that it expects will be more lucrative. And because "moist paper doesn't work in a photocopying machine," Cua also notes that better precautions will be taken next time to keep the paper dry in Manila's humid open-air environment, using heaters and special packaging. More projects are planned for Chinese New Year as well. Is there any mountain free love can't climb? We think not. :-) Be inspired!

Website: www.freelovephilippines.com
Contact: ateneo.celadon@gmail.com

Product placements and paid sponsorships help make much of the world's content economically viable, but creating the right match between advertiser and content producer isn't always easy. PlaceVine, which just launched last week, aims to facilitate that process with a site dedicated to brand-integration opportunities.

New York-based PlaceVine is a web-based information service that connects content producers across film, television and the web with brands seeking sponsorship and product-placement opportunities. The site's easy-to-use interface allows producers to post projects, list integration opportunities, browse interested brands and connect directly with marketers. Advertisers, similarly, can post listings for products and services, search through potential content projects and connect with the producers behind those that interest them. Deals are then forged offline. Using PlaceVine is free for content producers. For marketers, creating a product profile and receiving inquiries from content producers is free. Paid services include browsing brand opportunities using advanced search and filtering capabilities, and also subscriptions to ProjectStream, the site's monitoring service that sends email updates as new category-specific opportunities are added.

More than150 content producers are now using PlaceVine, as are global brands and public relations firms including Arnold WorldWide, the company says. Given that the brand integration market had already grown to USD 22.3 billion in 2007 (source: PQ Media), demand for assistance staying on top of it all is bound to keep growing too. Still plenty of room in this space! (Related: Product placement agency targets YouTube.)

Website: www.placevine.com
Contact: info@placevine.com

Spotted by: Laura Kreitler

As part of a new brand-awareness campaign to promote its corporate spirit, Yahoo recently equipped a fleet of GPS-enabled bicycles with camera phones and sent them out onto the streets of major cities around the US.

Launched earlier this month, the Start Wearing Purple campaign focuses on innovative ways to celebrate the eccentric side of life, as embodied in Yahoo's official colour. For the "Purple Pedals" portion of the campaign, Yahoo took a fleet of 20 custom-pained Electra Townie 8 bicycles and rigged each one with solar panels and a camera-equipped mobile phone mounted on the handlebars in waterproof housing. Each "yBike," as Yahoo calls them, was also given its own, dedicated Flickr account. The cameras were then rigged to take photos every 60 seconds while the bike is moving, and to immediately upload and geotag them on Flickr.

Yahoo handed out 14 of the bikes to photographer-cyclists including Amit Gupta of Photojojo and Gina Trapani of Lifehacker, who curate their images as they go. The result is a photo gallery of life on the American roads in cities including New York, San Diego, San Francisco and Bethel, Vermont. Four of the bikes will be passed from rider to rider, and one will be given away through a contest. Those interested need only visit the Start Wearing Purple site on 1 October 2008 and tell Yahoo why they deserve a yBike; the one deemed most worthy will be the proud new owner of one of the small but innovative fleet. (For those who don't win, however, Lifehacker recently posted instructions on making your own.)

In addition to giving Yahoo fresh visibility in the offline world—consumers do still spend some time there, after all—the Purple Pedals effort is also a nice example of what our sister site trendwatching.com would call a 'digital lifestyle lubricant', making it easier than ever to share offline experiences online. It's all part of the Off=On trend, which you can learn more about in trendwatching.com's September briefing. Be inspired!

Website: startwearingpurple.yahoo.com
Contact: ycorpblog.com/about/write-to-us

Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen

It's one thing to offer luxury portable toilets for hire at private events, the way Igloo does. For a company like Visa to sponsor similar upscale conveniences as a privilege for its customer members, however, is quite another matter.

Yet that's just what Visa did this summer at San Francisco's Outside Lands music and arts festival, where it set up a VIP Signature Lounge reserved exclusively for the use of its cardholders. Those in possession of a Visa Signature card could gain access to private luxury restrooms a far cry above the porta-potties provided for the masses, along with a private bar and a free blanket gift for visiting the lounge. For entry, cardholders had simply to present their Visa Signature card, their ID and any valid festival ticket.

In addition to sympvertising—infusing one's advertising with a dash of sympathy for consumers' current plight—Visa's effort provides a nice illustration of what our sister site trendwatching.com would call a brand butler offering, giving consumers some free but relevant assistance (branded, of course) to make their lives easier. Whether it's a luxury loo or laundry service at a festival, consumers today are more likely to accept help from your brand than they are to listen to your ads. So put your money where your customers are, in their real-world lives, and give them a hand! They might just repay your kindness sometime. ;-)

Website: www.visa.com/signature
Contact: https://corporate.visa.com/ut/contactus.jsp

Spotted by: Sarah Browne

As the US presidential election winds up to a fever pitch in these last few campaign months, there's no doubt passionate supporters in both camps are looking for ways to give their side an edge. One such tool now comes in the form of a custom e-mail signature that proudly displays the allegiance of its user.

Austrian E-Mail Charity specializes in the creation of e-mail signatures to support a variety of charitable causes, including Care and Doctors without Borders. Users simply enter their contact information as they'd like it to appear, and the company's specialized installer creates and automatically installs a signature widget including that and a banner advertising the charity of their choice. Now the same can be done to support either Obama or McCain in the presidential race. On the Obama side, available banners include Latinos for Obama, Republicans for Obama and Americans Abroad for Obama, while opposing banners include "McCain Stands for Experience" and "McCain—Country First." Creating and using E-Mail Charity's signatures is free, and virtually all e-mail clients are supported; text-only versions are available for webmail users. As the company explains, "If only a few of your friends join in on using E-mail Charity, a viral marketing effect for your cause/charity is launched."

The election signatures appear to be E-Mail Charity's first effort targeting e-mail users outside of Austria. One to help localize in a market near you to harness consumer marketeers for the change you believe in? (Related: Viral music sales through widgets.)

Website: election08.emailcharity.com
Contact: office@emailcharity.com

Spotted by: Lukas Z.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about how Microsoft's Surface technology is being used at Sheraton hotels, letting hotel guests use interactive touchscreen 'tables' to access local information and plan their stay. As we mentioned, the interactive tables are part of a wide-reaching partnership between Sheraton and Microsoft, which also includes new high-tech hotel lounges named "The Link@Sheraton experienced with Microsoft", thankfully shortened to Link@Sheraton.

Launching Link@Sheraton in a big way, the hotel brand invited New Yorkers to abandon their desks yesterday to work from Central Park, where it recreated its new lounges and set the right example by stationing around 600 of Starwood's own employees to work remotely using Link@Sheraton's technological offerings. The event, dubbed Global Out Of Office Day, was also celebrated in in Shanghai, where Sheraton took over part of West Nanjing Road, and in Sydney's Customs House. Last but not least, G.O.O.D. will be hosted at the Sheraton Lisbon Resort & Spa on Thursday, September 18th. Starwood—Sheraton's parent company—will also be offering free wifi in Central Park's Sheep Meadow through the rest of September. While tumbling markets made for rather awkward timing, especially since Sheraton hopes to attract more business travellers, the concept playfully combined a number of consumer and marketing trends that are still going strong: pop-up spaces, online oxygen, brand butlers and, of course, new spaces for mobile workers.

Website: www.globaloutofofficeday.com

Spotted by: RK

In a standard custom logo assignment, the average graphic designer develops six concepts for evaluation by the business owner client. Only one of those will be used, leaving five creative logos to be stored away—and probably never seen again. Enter IncSpring, a beta site that aims to help designers with ideas and business owners seeking same find each other for mutual gain.

Launched last month, Texas-based IncSpring is a virtual marketplace linking graphic designers and businesses interested in corporate logos, brands and corporate identities. Designers can upload brand concepts onto the site for the perusal of entrepreneurs, corporations and businesses without middlemen or agency fees; they also retain complete control over their pricing. Potential buyers, on the other hand, can search by industry, colour or name, evaluating and even assessing market reactions to the designs they see via IncSpring's social network, which lets users rate and provide public feedback on submitted ideas. Potential customers can also request minor changes to shape a particular design to their individual specifications. When a purchase is made, IncSpring charges a commission of 15 percent, the artist receives the rest and the buyer receives the brand in a ready-to-use digital format. As part of its site launch, IncSpring is currently holding a contest—with a deadline of Sept. 19—offering USD 2,000 in cash and other prizes for designers who submit ideas to the site. Membership on IncSpring is free.

In an industry where only a small proportion of ideas make it through to the finish, IncSpring will undoubtedly give designers a welcome way to capitalize at last on the many hours they put in, whether or not originally for a paying client. Entrepreneurs, meanwhile, gain access to a wealth of ideas that wouldn't ordinarily be available. It's a win-win for everyone involved and one to try out—particularly if you happen to be an enterprising Springwise reader on the brink of launching the next big thing! ;-) (Related: Crowdsourced graphic design.)

Website: www.incspring.com
Contact: feedback@incspring.com

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann

This year's Summer Olympics focused new international interest on Beijing in particular and China in general, so it's not surprising to see new products and services emerging with a Chinese twist. Case in point: a new series of MP3 audio tours of Chinese cities created by luxury brand Louis Vuitton.

Louis Vuitton Soundwalk MP3 audio guides, produced in collaboration with Soundwalk (creator of "audio tours for people who don't normally take audio tours"), are designed to give users a vibrant portrayal of three Chinese cities—Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Each is led by an icon of Chinese cinema, with Gong Li narrating the Beijing tour, Joan Chen describing Shanghai and Shu Qi leading the tour of Hong Kong. The hour-long tours blend walking instructions with nostalgic story-telling, accompanied by the signature sounds of each city, and are carefully synchronized with the itinerary. They are available in English, French, Cantonese, Chinese, Korean and Japanese, priced at EUR 12 each.

Narrated walking tours by MP3 are a relatively inexpensive way to give consumers some of the experiences and status skills they so ardently crave, even if they never actually make it to the location in person. Soundwalk already offers a variety of other MP3 tours of cities including New York and Paris, as well as Puma-branded running tours of Berlin, New York, London and Paris and a multibranded Da Vinci Code tour of the Louvre. It's not hard to imagine vintners, musicians and artists—to name just a few examples—creating MP3 tours of their own, guiding consumers through the highlights and influences of their city or region. How could a tour bring a new experience element to your brand...?

Website: www.louisvuittonsoundwalk.com
Contact: info@soundwalk.com

Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen

Regular Springwise readers no doubt remember Blyk, the Finnish free mobile operator that targets 16- to 24-year-olds with its ad-funded service. We covered Blyk's British rollout on several occasions over the past year or so, and now one of our spotters has come across a similar concept that recently launched in the Philippines.

ümobile is an invitation-only mobile service and community that targets 15- to 35-year-old Filipinos with what it says is the first ad-funded mobile network in Asia, offering a range of telephony services including calls, texts, MMS, internet surfing and downloads. Beginning in June, when the service was launched by Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprise (CURE)—part of Philippine telco Smart—potential users were invited to apply for membership through a series of invite codes that were given away virally (and free) by already-accepted members or through online social networks. Young consumers with codes could then fill out ümobile's membership application, which includes a range of personal information as well as lifestyle questions such as preferences in movies and music and whether or not they go to a gym, for example. Also required is a willingness to accept ads, of course.

Based on their answers, Filipinos who were approved by Aug. 31 were given their ümobile SIM cards for free—delivered at no charge—along with a free PHP 100 load every month for the next six months. Just how many ads users will be sent each day isn't yet clear, but viewing them earns further rewards in the form of free loads or discounts and freebies. A portion of the revenues generated by a brand’s campaigns is given back to subscribers, who can then purchase ümobile services or pursue product offers.

Is there any market free love can't conquer? Seems unlikely. Mobile operators: where will you spread some love of your own...?

Website: www.umobile.com.ph
Contact: customerservice@umobile.com.ph

Spotted by: Matthew Cua

The financial services industry isn't exactly known for giving things away for free, but a California-based firm is breaking the mould and offering free stock trading for investors.

Zecco is an online financial portal and community through which investors can make 10 free stock trades every month when they maintain an asset balance of just USD 2,500. The cost otherwise is only USD 4.50 per trade, and there is no minimum balance required to open or maintain an account. Further enriching the experience for users, meanwhile, is ZeccoShare, a social network for investors that Zecco launched last fall. Members of ZeccoShare can create profiles, contribute to blogs and forums and join investing groups. They can also share their portfolios (minus the dollar amounts), their trades and their performance for discussion with other members. Portfolio data, holdings and trade information are aggregated across all ZeccoShare member profiles, allowing members to scan listings of most-held and most-traded stocks, create specific groups of like-minded investors (such as “socially responsible investing” or “women on investing”) and more.

Making Zecco's free love possible is the fact that the cost of executing a trade has become very small, it says; in addition, it does charge for options trading, and it earns revenue from such other means as premium tools and online ads. Since its launch in late 2006, Zecco has gained over 90,000 trading customers; notable backers include shareholders Morten Lund of LundKenner (an early investor in Skype) and Dutch telecom pioneer Marcel Boekhoorn.

Free love has already proven highly effective with students, festival attendees and mobile-phone users, among others. Now it's investors' turn—one to emulate around the globe?

Update from Springwise reader Trent Smith: "Wells Fargo has been offering free trading for close to 2 years. They offer 100 free trades for a minimum $1000 investment."

Website: www.zecco.com
Contact: editor@zecco.com

Spotted by: Roel van der Meer