Even while playing the latest video game, say Starcraft 2, you may be interacting with people and accomplishing something together, but it is very rudimentary in its interaction. The mentality of “Just one more level…Just one more level” can come to permeate a players psyche and they can lose touch with reality and some of their personal interactions.

My solution when this happens? Peace and quiet. No email, no phones, no Starcraft 2. I retreat to The Bruce with my wife and son and we do everything outdoors. It’s important to me that my family and I experience nature and all of the things that the outdoors can offer. Obviously, living in Canada only allows for a certain amount of time a year when people can experience the outdoors in comfort, but we have the best backyard in the world – we need to explore it to its fullest!

Whether it be the Bruce Peninsula or any of the other great outdoor spaces that Ontario has –  get out there. Pick your own apples, ride a horse, take a hiking or canoe trip, visit a farm. All of these activities – while devoid of the newest technology – can also make you feel more complete and will occupy a space within your soul that technology never could.

Remember that as technology continues to evolve and we continually become more entrenched in the newest innovations, we must remind ourselves that at some point, just like our pieces of technology, we all need to shut down and reboot our systems.

Watch Stan on ING DIRECT’s Facebook  page and while you’re there, become a fan.

Facebook has been busy.  Open Graph, new  design and layout changes to Pages, it’s all making it easier for brands to work with and communicate on Facebook. It’s no wonder,  integration is on every marketers to do list. Add a couple of movies featuring the social network and all seems very well for Facebook. And they continue to roll, all systems go.

This week Facebook officially announced it’s rumoured and hotly anticipated new check-in feature – Places. Check-ins aren’t anything new, a few players have been at it for a bit (Yelp, Gowalla, and Foursquare) but even their combined user base doesn’t come close to Facebook’s 500+ million users.  Facebook could easily show up and crush these smaller check-in services, but they didn’t. So why not? Well they’ve all partnered through some form of integration. Why would Facebook even consider this? And why would the others hook up with Facebook?

What’s in it for Facebook.
The learnings from the other services to start. Facebook has sat back and watched and examined the errors and successes of others, and hopefully applied the learnings to their new product. The big reason is easy adoption. Foursquare alone has 3 million users and these users should be considered early adopters by Facebook. Furthermore these early adopters are most likely influencers in their social circles, so by including them through integration, their social graphs who are not into check-ins will be more likely to adopt the habit on a platform they are familiar with.

What’s in it for the Others.
Well really it’s an extended lease on life for the others. They have the opportunity to evolve their service to integrate with Facebook. This for them is a much better option than being trampled by the giant. For them to survive they need to adopt and evolve plain and simple. They too will also gain from the added exposure to new users through Facebook. Foursquare had their biggest day for sign-ups after the announcement of Facebook places. At least for the time being, Foursquare is reaping the benefits of Places.

So how does it all work?
Although the service is not available to Canadians yet, there is an iPhone app, a HTML5  based mobile site (http://touch.facebook.com) and a desktop client to be released in the future. Basically users can check-in to venues, see who’s around them , and find out “cool new places”, sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it?

When a user checks in, the update appears on the Place page of the venue, and a message is posted to a friend’s wall. At that time, a list of friends will briefly appear, and the user has the option to either check their friends in, or be checked in by  others.

According to Facebook If a friend checks you in, you will receive a message. You will have the option to approve or reject the check-in. If approved, you will appear as checked-in. If you refuse to be checked in, you can still be tagged, if you allow it. Users also have the option to un-tag themselves, this works similar to photo tagging on Facebook.

At this point it’s unclear what opportunities advertisers and brands will have with Places. I imagine a similar deals and offers currently available in Foursquare could be in the works.  So will you be checking yourself and friends in using places? Or do you just find this way too creepy?

What better way to celebrate ING DIRECT’s new chequing account THRiVE than with a synchronized swimming number. But not just any swimming, fountain swimming.

Berczy Park, 12:43 : a troop of dancers clad in orange bathing suits decorated with a THRiVE arrow and Your185.ca emerged from a dark van. Music started up, the girls took their place and the dance number kicked off. It was wild. The girls danced their heart out in the park’s fountain. A mix of synchronized swimming moves paired with jazz and modern dance lured the crowd closer. Kids were clapping. People were snapping photos. I personally couldn’t help but cheer. And as if the dance number wasn’t enough, the dancers handed out baggies of money – your bank fees. A crowd favourite no doubt.

And then it was done. The music came to an end as the dancers posed on the edge of the spraying fountain. The crowd cheered and applauded, Voila, our stunt was a huge success. The perfect way to end a day packed with amazing events. Big thanks to the dancers, crew and of course, ING DIRECT.

Stay tuned for videos of the Fountain Dance.

A mere four weeks ago Operation THRiVE was set into action. Dashboard, GWP, Maverick and Response Innovations – ING DIRECT’s four media partners broke away to make magic. Today all the hard work paid off (in more ways than one).

When ING DIRECT announced to us that they were launching THRiVE Chequing we knew it had to be BIG. This online, no-fee daily chequing account that will allow Canadians to deposit, withdraw or transfer money for free, while earning interest is ING DIRECT’s biggest announcement since they came to Canada.

To make noise and get Canadians excited we devised a national campaign that spanned all media. And it all started with $185 – the average amount Canadians pay in bank fees (or did).

The campaign kicked off weeks ago with a very obscure website – your185.ca. We wanted to demonstrate what your annual fees look like. On this site, pages filled with 185 images (cupcakes, pigeons, sparkling diamonds) cycled through. After every fifth pattern came a simple message, “August 18. Take back your 185.” Designed to create buzz and build SEO, the site got people talking and wondering out loud on Facebook and Twitter.

Which takes us to today, August 18…

The day began with radio remotes broadcasting from ING DIRECT cafés in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal. Listeners were driven to the cafés for a chance to “Win Big on the Spot”. Participants stood on large orange circles and were randomly chosen for prizes of up to $185.

Then, using street team videos, we captured Canadians passionate reactions to the outrageous fees they pay annually. Just to stir the pot!

Meanwhile, ING DIRECT Savers received an exclusive email from Peter Aceto, ING DIRECT’s CEO. In a sneak peak video, Peter shared the exciting news with Savers first.

Also, commuters in Toronto and Montreal came head-to-head with their annual bank fees. Giant pedestrian billboards covered in loonies, toonies, quarters, nickels and dimes hid an important message. As passersby pulled off the coins, the big news was revealed, “Stop being nickel and dimed. Meet THRiVE.”

At 12:00 Peter Aceto took to the podium at the Toronto Eaton Center to make the news public.

All roads led to Your185.ca. The hub for all of the day’s activities. You can see the money wall in action and watch Peter Aceto’s press conference live. A Twitter feed pulls in all of the online chatter, while the Flickr feed streams in images from the events. And most importantly you can learn about THRiVE and register for the preview.

What a great day! A huge success for our friends at ING DIRECT. But wait, the fun’s not over…

As technologies change the all flash website still has its purpose but for us and our users it just wasn’t the case. We wanted to provide our users with quick access points to our creative portfolio and contact information. Creating great user experiences means giving the user what they want and need. Sure making things spin, pop, and fly around the screen may get us excited but is it what the audience is looking for? Users are looking for specific information and they want it fast. Mobile browsing and usage growth is testament to this. Content on demand whenever and wherever.

Today’s  users are also expecting some form of social engagement on websites. Facebook open graph, tweet meme, and social bookmarking are all norms, and almost every client wants them. The key is how you integrate them, simply adding these elements to any all content on your site isn’t the right approach. Of course Facebook would love for all of your sites content to be social elements. One may even venture to say they are on a mission to kill the website and bring everything onto Facebook.

Whatever platform or technology you employ be sure you know your audience. Build your digital property based on what your user is using and not what you think is cool. Know their platform of choice, browser usage, and connection speeds. This may mean creating multiple versions for mobile, and browser delivery but by having a handle on these key pieces of information it will help you deliver engaging content to your users on their terms.

As you can see just this morning one of our account co-ordinators sat in with the programmers to get a better understanding of some of the languages they’re currently employing on our active projects.

Err…Nevermind…they were all just playing  Starcraft again…

“With a proven track record and in-depth knowledge of our industry, Dashboard, is a valuable asset and a welcome addition to our team. Dashboard brings expert resources and strategic thinking to our business,” said Mark Nicholson, Head of Online Experience, ING DIRECT Canada. “We needed a partner who knows digital inside and out and Dashboard’s expertise is evident in our daily interactions with them. We’ve already begun working together on several campaigns and the partnership is certainly meeting our expectations.”

Since its Canadian inception, ING DIRECT has been a strong player in the digital space. For over 13 years, they have operated and marketed as a direct bank. A partnership with Dashboard, will further ING DIRECT Canada’s interactive initiatives. With big news for the bank on the horizon, both teams have already begun working.

“We are thrilled to add ING DIRECT to our growing roster of excellent clients,” said Daryl Aitken, President, Dashboard. “ING DIRECT was one of the first digital marketers in Canada, essentially digital veterans, so they are ready to go to the next tier of digital presence that Dashboard delivers on time and time again. Our team is already at work doing smart and innovative work.”

Click here to see the original news release