Getting your Z's on the Go

Although sleeping is a necessity for all humans, neglecting the need for enough sleep is a common practice among many adults…especially professionals.

Some just can’t get enough sleep at night because their lives are filled with obligations that consume more than 18 hours of the day. Wouldn’t it be nice to get a 20 minute power nap once in a while without having to spend all the time of going home, getting undressed and relentlessly trying to slow down your mind?

Two guys took notice to this market and created a system to allow business professionals or anyone who needs it to enjoy a mid-day nap in the ideal atmosphere for earning a decent rest. Metronaps is showing up all over the world in hospitals, airports, offices and anywhere that someone might have the need for a quick snooze.

Although each ‘pod’ costs around $8,000 at $14 a nap, this money is returned quickly. What a brilliant idea! These idealists have partnered with organizations to create “nap only” institutions around major cities including New York, London and Dubai. These nap stations are marketed towards business professionals, located in the heart of business districts in major cities and provide a “freshening up” center to clean up your breath and face before returning to that important meeting.

The idea came from two professionals in the financial industry that took notice to afternoons in the office full of sleepy and lethargic employees. They gave up their careers and invested in the venture to devise an ideal napping environment. They knew that their idea would take off due to the statistics of sleep-deprived professionals. Several studies show that over 50% of working professionals are sleep deprived and that small power naps can have serious positive effects on short term and long term health and most importantly, brain efficiency.

Not only are these “napping clubs" present in major cities but corporations are buying the metronap pods to keep in the office permanently. The company widely known for their positive work environment and high employee moral, Google, bought a few metronap pods to keep employees rejuvenated throughout the stressful work day. The pods are available for purchase by individuals or corporations.


The pods provide a perfectly ergonomical place to rest your head but they also include features to help you get the most out of your nap. Calming music soothes you to sleep and you can request certain scents as well. The pod doesn't wake you up with a harsh alarm but with a series of dim flashing lights and a mild vibration. Just writing about this makes me want to try one of these pods!

This avantgarde product might not change the world but as metronaps continues to make money and help people feel more rested, it makes difference and has a positive effect on the health of overworked professionals around the globe.

RedBull Says 'Jump' and We Say, 'How High?'

Sponsoring famous athletes is one of the best and often most expensive marketing tools. The biggest stars in world-known sports like football, basketball and Formula1 are real heroes for a wide range of people. These individuals represent something unique and certainly all the big brands know this. Some stars embody the brands’ key communication messages. Just think about the world cup’s Nike “Write the future” ad with Cristiano Ronaldo: simply the best - this is what Nike wants to say. Although the campaigns are effective, this type of sponsorship costs an extremely large sum of money and there are many competing companies in each sport market. So what can a brand do if its aim is to sponsor as a marketing tactic but doesn’t want to get lost in a completely penetrated market? RedBull knows the answer.

The energy drink giant noticed that the most effective way of marketing is doing something spectacular to raise the public’s interest. By choosing this method, the company started to invest in various types of extreme sports. Not just on an individual or team level; comprehensively into the whole world of dangerous but spectacular sports. Their flags are everywhere, from small snowboard shows to the most well-known technical air races. With a brilliant sense of business and communication RedBull has become the first brand to support an entire sport market.

Of course, the phenomenon fits perfectly into RedBull’s brand messages: almost all the sponsored parties are doing something unbelievable and full of adrenaline, for instance Crashed Ice. Or the "10 biggest and best jumps ever" video, a selection of the craziest and more daring jumps recorded in the history of mankind. You get the feeling that they have and you want to have the same…or at least something similar. The video is not an official ad, but the RedBull brand appears 6 times, meaning they are on the right track. This strategy made them one of the world’s best lifestyle brands.




It has an inestimable value: almost everyone that is attracted to extreme sports knows RedBull is his friend. With this communication strategy the brand has achieved more than just sympathy from potential costumers: it is almost a “common thought” that the company is behind everything that is related to extreme sports. By choosing this method of communication they reach many young potential costumers who are presumably in a good financial situation. The numbers speak for themselves: they have more than 12 million fans on their FaceBook site. To put it in context: the world’s 5th most valuable brand, Coca Cola has 19 million fans but another well known giant, Nike has only 3 million.

RedBull is a leading company: they are in the core position of the energy drink market and their communication activity is worth the spending. A completely innovative approach: placing the brand as a monopolistic sponsor of a sport market. They have achieved their goal- if you watch extreme sports on TV or on the web and you don’t notice any brand or logo, odds are RedBull is behind it. The marketing and PR teams did a great job: your brain associates a certain brand with videos of a phenomenon. Ruling the entire image of a genre of sports? Avantgarde thinking.

The Delicate Balance of Work and Heavy Metal Life

Everyone knows that it’s difficult to balance a career and a family but Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of the famous metal band, Iron Maiden, has added another facet to this challenge by expanding his career in the business sector. This famous, 52-year-old musician not only balances his rock star career and family life but now serves as the Marketing Director of Astraeus, a Gatwick-based charter airline where he has served as a pilot for several years. Where does he find the time?

The airline decided to expand its commercial team to see more growth in the market and with Dickinson’s straight forward communication skills they believe he is just the man for the job. Dickinson claims that taking this position is somewhat of a natural occurrence for him and that he will not cease to tour with his band.

It seems from the airline’s communication that they really don’t see this hiring decision as a big deal. It’s only the millions of Iron Maiden fans that feel the shock. Is it possible that this rocker’s entire career was filled with down time of striving for corporate life? Were this man’s days spent getting to know the aviation industry inside and out so that one day he could wear a suit and tie to work every day instead of a black leather vest? It’s unimaginable for most but guess what? He is not the only one.

Here at Avantgarde Group we have a similar situation as our own marketing director is the lead singer in a rock band. Actually I have come to know several business professionals that rock out pretty hard on their free time. Is there some direct correlation between cut-throat business and front man characteristics? Well, I’ll tell you it’s no coincidence. Businessmen and women tend to have excellent communication and leadership skills. Business professionals must also exude a certain level of confidence and have the ability to ‘perform’ their trade in front of many people. Does a front man of a band need to possess these qualities as well? Yep.

Maybe it’s the inherent need to feed an alternative part of the self. If you wear a suit and tie all day, don’t you want to loosen it up and go crazy on your free time? Doesn’t everyone need this balance? Maybe it took Bruce Dickinson 40 years to realize that he needs this other aspect of life but it’s never too late! Props to him for following his ‘other’ dream and making it a reality!

It is extremely avantgarde to have the ability to balance such a double-life. It takes courage to take on the scrutiny of being both a band’s front man and a working professional. I think we can all take some advice from Bruce Dickinson on how to successfully maintain a multi-faceted existence.

Vietnam's Small Steps Towards Green

As global warming and deforestation has caused an increase in awareness for the protection of the environment, some communities are joining the brigade on a local level. Hearing all of the hype about “going green” makes us all want to do something but what can one person really do? Cities in Vietnam joining a corporate partner seem to have the right strategy.

The Ministry of Education and Training, the Vietnam Environment Protection Agency and the local governments of Hai Noi, HCM City and Da Nang have partnered with Toyota and other non-profit community organizations to carry out the “Toyota Vietnam Go Green Program” which calls students, volunteers and other community members to join the efforts of saving energy and creating a more green Vietnam.

Toyota developed a website to support the initiative with interactive trivia, local event posts and forums allowing the public to get involved in the project. The campaign promotes awareness which in turn, leads to action. The message takes “going green” down to a basic level, encouraging community members to start with small habits such as turning off the faucet when not using it or making sure energy is not wasted in homes. In addition, “Go Green” will help the central Da Nang University to research and use biogas fuel for power generation at breeding farms in central provinces.

The campaign advertisements contain short messages, such as ‘Remember to Tighten Me’ (to be pasted on water taps), ‘Clean Before Using’ (to be pasted on microwave ovens and irons), and ‘Turn off the Screen When Not in Use’ (to be pasted on TV screens and computer monitors). These low-cost tactics are aimed to create new practices in the community, creating a more environmentally friendly Vietnam.

The campaign hosts events each weekend, calling to action local volunteers to get their hands dirty to help the environment. In local schools, “Go Green Clubs” and other after school activities support the project from a younger generation. Toyota is also funding local awards for “Green Ideas” and office initiatives that significantly reduce energy consumption.

The campaign is a three-year long program that reaches out to several communities in Vietnam. If only every community could organize an initiative like this? We can learn from this program that awareness and a small effort from individuals can make a huge difference. Find a corporate partner, gather up some volunteers and turn your community green!

Artificial Leaves Save the Planet?

100% natural, it writes. The product is 80% recyclable. No animals were harmed, no forests were cut, but keep it away from children. Why? This is what we hear and read each day while trying to stay as eco-friendly as possible. Somehow aren't managing to do so and if we ever do it could be too late.

Dandelion Environmental Consulting and Service Ltd.'s, new service calculated our ecological footprint and according to their report an average Hungarian person would need over 1.5 Earths for the lifestyle they live and for the pollution they create. Hungarians are not the worst…

Without crucifying any nation, let’s just say that any of us who sits on a plane or drives a car helps CO2 emissions which penetrate the atmosphere and will warm our planet for many years. Reforesting the whole planet would not help either because the decaying trees release carbon as well.

According to Klaus Lackner and Allen Wright, the solution could be something they call artificial trees. There's that word artificial again.

In Lackner’s lab at Columbia University he and colleague Allen Wright are experimenting with a type of plastic (artificial leaves). The plastic is a resin of the kind used to pull calcium out of water in a water softener. When Lackner and Wright impregnate that resin with sodium carbonate, it pulls carbon dioxide out of the air. The extra carbon converts the sodium carbonate to bicarbonate, or baking soda.

Yay! Sounds overly interesting and quite incomprehensible for those who never really mastered the science of chemistry (like myself).

So now will we plant artificial trees all over the planet? And what would we do with the trapped gas, to where would be it released?

The two scientists have an answer for that too. We add hydrogen to the CO2 that we collected and convert it back into liquid hydrocarbons. If the energy for that came from renewable sources, engines that burned the fuel would emit no new carbon. The key here is to produce no new carbon, I suppose.

We could keep our cars and gas stations and maybe even have bigger cars and planes and still prevent Sweden from becoming an orange plantation. Maybe our ecological footprint could be narrowed down to one!

This situation reminds me of a South Park episode where the citizens were asked not to poop because the ozone layer was in danger. Those who did that ended up spontaneous combusting, so the idea was dismissed and people were asked to continue their everyday lives moderately.

If we look at the artificial leaves and trees from this aspect it seems like the optimal solution. We should continue living our lives, of course, try to be a bit “greener” day by day, but also work on a solution that prevents us from giving up too much of what we created, which is totally against human nature.

My Faith, My Voice Campaign Speaks Out

Discrimination and hate crimes persist all over the world, even in countries that pride themselves on democracy. Recently coming to light in the United States is the hate campaign of Muslims due to the plans to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York city. An uproar of protests continue near the building site, fueling American Muslims' decision to speak out.



The group, labeled My Faith, My Voice is an non-affiliated organization aimed to dissolve stereotypes linked to the Islamic faith and educate the American public about previous misconceptions. Not only are they visiting the ground zero site to protest the hate campaign, they have decided to both digitally and on television, create an educational campaign to promote understanding and tolerance.

The campaign highlights the peaceful nature of the Islamic faith and individual American Muslims who follow the Quran. The Youtube video channel linked to this campaign allows individuals to create videos from their own computers, telling their own stories of following Islam. This personal approach reaches out to the hearts of the American public and asks for empathy and compassion.

This year is especially conflicting as the Muslim fasting practice, Ramadan will come to an end on September, 11th, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the twin towers in New York. Muslims all over the United States have decided to respectfually celebrate the end of this holy month on the 10th of September to avoid an uproar of protest groups. Despite the efforts of Muslims to avoid confrontation many conservative Americans continue to organize discriminatory practices, such as "International Burn a Quran Day."

Americans seem to misunderstand themselves, in this regard. These conservative Christians supposedly preach peace and understanding of others yet they hold discrimatory events to destroy the sacred word of another religion? Maybe the efforts and funding for this hate campaign could be used as well as "My Faith, My Voice" to educate and inform the public of their own practices. The discrepancy is obvious: those who preach understanding should practice understanding and tolerance.

The "My Faith, My Voice" campaign should be an example to all for how to fight discrimination with education and peace. It may not reach and change the mind of every American bigot but the word is getting out and will most likely have an affect on the hearts and minds of many non-Muslims living the US.

The Future of Transportation

Throughout the 20th century mankind has solved many problems by speeding up life and as a result the whole planet has become a „bustling hive”. The main characteristic of this era is everything moving at a much more rapid speed than it used to. Just think about how much more time it took to buy a special book a hundred years ago by sending letters to the publishing house and of nowdays via internet or how long it took to cook your lunch in 1915 and now in 2010 made of pre-prepared ingredients.

These changes manifested quite visibly in public transportation and trucking as well. In the 19th century the most modern ways of transportation were to go by ship, cart or landau. When trains appeared, this mode of transportation became famous in a short time. Eventually, automobiles and airplanes took over the lead of the transportation industry and continues to stay at the forefront.

With new methods appearing in the system, older solutions became less and less fashionable. Landaus and carts totally dissapeared –except romantic rides in Vienna- and it is a delicate experience to go somewhere by ship these days and nost of the time long-distance journeys are made by airplane. For a while it looked like train transport would be a part of the history ending in the 21th century.

Although trains were previously thought to be out of fashion, they got another chance from Japan (Tohoku Shinkansen), France (TGV) and England (Eurostar, La Manche Tunnel). These high-speed trains entered in the competition and were greeted by travelers with open arms and minds. These lines were and are linking cities mostly within their borders, with train routes for longer journeys not being the most efficient solution.

Now there is a country planning to make a revolution in train transportation – you can bet which one it is. One of the most innovative and definitly the fastest developing land, China is planning to connect London and Beijing by a High Speed Rail Link in 2020. The rail line will fly through 17 countries at speeds reaching 200miles per hour. The whole journey will take approximately two days.

Inside the country China already uses the technique, for instance Shinghai Airport is linked with the city center by a High Speed Rail called Maglev. China incorporates their own benefits in business with the countries the rail line goes through: they will build the infrastructure in exchange for rights to natural resources in the nations that benefit from the high-speed links. At the same time, China gets a fast, efficient means to pipe them to cities within its borders and smaller, sometimes isolated nations get a high-tech, high-speed connection to the greater global economy.

There are many goals and advantages of rail transport. First of all, it is the most environmentally friendly solution, it carries many people and loads and at the same time it’s calculable. It looks like the future of transportation is in the past.