Menu Wine Breather Featured on The Today Show

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29054368/ns/today-kathie_lee_and_hoda/#45738249

Danish Restaurant Aamanns-Copenhagen Features Menu

Danish restaurant Aamanns-Copenhagen recently opened a New York City location in Tribeca. Treat yourself to a traditional Danish open-faced sandwich and catch a glimpse of some Menu top-sellers in their element. The restaurant is using the Menu Wine Breather Carafe, Norm Thermo Cups, Menu Wave Glasses and Menu Red Trivet Propeller in their kitchen and the Menu Lighthouse Oil Lamps to help create a unique ambience in the dining area.

NYIGF Fall 2011 Top 10

In case you missed our booth at the New York International Gift Fair, here are the Top 10 Fall 2011 products.

Download press releases here.
Please e-mail julie@creativedanes.com for high res images.

1. Menu Cool Breather Carafe

2. Color Double Candleholder

3. Bottle Grinder Set, Small

4. Menu Wineset

5. Menu Water Jug, Color & Stainless Steel

6. Menu TWOgether Candleholder

7. Menu Viitri Storage Glasses

8. Menu Howdy Owls

9. Menu Pipe Tealight Huuricane

10. Bird Feeder

Fall 2011 Collection

Please check out Menu's Fall 2011 Collection.

8 Reasons why every e-commerce site should get serious about video

The truth about doing business online today is that for many companies, increasing market share requires winning customers from competitors. Using online video to build business is one tactic that has been rapidly gaining popularity in the past few years. It delivers benefits that include personalization, competitive advantage and cost-effectiveness.

By using QR codes on all gift boxes and having videos available for all new items Menu is pioneering the use of video. All videos are available for download in Menus image bank:

http://www.menu.as/en/press

1. Video Attracts New, Relevant Search Traffic

No conversation about ebusiness is complete without discussing search engine optimization (SEO). An ebusiness cannot gain on a competitor until consumers know it exists and can easily find it through organic search. Today, ebusinesses that utilize video assets are at an advantage, since Google is structuring its search engine results to reward sites that include video. According to Forrester, any given video in an index of searchable keywords has a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page.

To better promote their video investments and derive the greatest SEO rewards, ebusinesses are making videos more accessible to visitors, scaling videos to reach long-tail keywords, and automating video production in order to have video available as soon as new products are introduced.

2. Video Assets Can be Easily Syndicated
Online video is usually channel agnostic. By syndicating video properties to multiple sites — includingYouTube, the second largest search engine today — ebusinesses extend their reach to innumerable eyeballs. In addition to traditional channels, online video plays equally well via mobile networks, TV, and in-store screens. It is a cost-effective way to maintain brand consistency and strengthen consumer awareness.

3. Videos Encourage Sharing
Videos are far more likely to be passed and shared than text-based pages. Additionally, a video thumbnail on a social media platform — Facebook, for example — grabs more attention than static text and often results in more comments, more “Likes,” and more traffic to the brand’s website. When you like or share a video link, a thumbnail appears on your wall and is also seen by your friends.

According to a study from YouBrand, pictures and video within Facebook get engaged with and clicked more often than just text and questions.

4. Video Engages Site Visitors
Video provides a familiar user interface for site visitors. When videos are properly produced, they captivate the user. Instead of the need to navigate, scroll and click to access information, the video is a one-stop shop for information. It takes less energy than the hassle of reading and the user is engaged until he or she is ready to follow an embedded call-to-action. Today’s automated video production platforms easily enable this flow, in many cases directing visual and auditory calls-to-action that guide the viewer to a shopping cart.

5. Video’s “Halo Effect” Drives Conversions
Video can give customers an in-depth view of a product or a demonstration that quells any hesitancy they might have about purchasing online. The peace of mind the customer gains from the video seeps into the way he or she feels about the brand and website overall, building trust and credibility. This is essential to gaining market share, especially for businesses that sell products with a lot of competition.

6. Video Increases Customer Loyalty
Video newsletters are more likely to attract consumer attention. By some estimates, the open rate for a video newsletter is two to three times higher than for a text-based newsletter. While many brands compete for consumer attention with the latter, those who employ the former stand out from the crowd. These video communications can be personalized for each recipient with individualized greetings, references to previously purchased items, or offers based on shopping history, geography and segmentation.

7. Video Creates Online Personalization
By improving and tailoring the customer experience, online retailers in every sector have increased customer loyalty, conversion rates and average order price. The quality of online personalization continues to rise and in many cases can rival or outperform the “live” shopping experience. This is a key factor in gaining market share, since consumers increasingly shop online but still express a desire for the personal touch and the social aspects of in-person browsing.

When prospects go to a store, they get recommendations and help from in-store staff who point them to relevant products. Video delivers this experience online, with far less variability and chance. With new technologies that offer personalized video created on-the-fly, ebusinesses can bridge the gap between live and virtual experiences.

8. Video Production Costs Are Falling, ROI Is Rising
Online video clearly has an impact on competitive advantage. But is it feasible for most ebusinesses? Thanks to today’s automated video production technology, the answer is “yes.”

Two decades ago, the market struggled to replace the labor-intensive process of website management. Today we hardly think about the steps required to update or add web content: Images and text are now template-based, database-driven and easy to manipulate.

Video production is experiencing a similar change. While many website owners once fought the limitations of manually produced videos — including slow production times and prohibitive costs — today’s solutions tend to be automated, cost effective and high quality. With relatively little human intervention, online video production can increase a business’s competitive advantage while creating a better shopping experience for the user.

By Yaniv Axen
Mashables.com June 2011

The Story of Scandinavian Design

"This article was written by Katrin Eyporsdottir, our talented and hard-working trainee from Iceland. As a designer with background in product design, Katrin is presenting her understanding of what has influenced the works of designers from Sweden, Norway and other North-European countries as well as the key attributes that these works possess."
-Smashing Magazine

"While the countries of Scandinavia have extreme differences, they do have some common cultural, geophysical and historical threads. Without implying that certain principles apply to all art and design in this area, this article gives an overview of the influences and state of art and design in the Nordic countries." Read more of The Story of Scandinavian Design: Combining Function and Aesthetics here.

Panthella Lamp (1971) and Panton Chair (1967), by Verner Panton. (Image credit)

Interior of Stockholm Exhibition, 1930 (Image credit)

The staircase and furniture in Aarhus Radhus (Aarhus town hall) were designed by Arne Jacobsen and his partners between 1937 and 1942. (Image credit)

-Katrin Eyporsdottir, Smashing Magazine

42 Concepts - Menu Cool Lunch

Summer is coming, and that means food at entirely the wrong temperature. Danish designer Jakob Wagner comes to the rescue with this beautiful lunch bag.

Cool Lunch is the funky reinvention of the classic lunch box. Cool Lunch is created with one very specific ambition in mind - being a special treat for one person and holds a small cooling element that keeps food and beverages cold and fresh.

A clever handle with velcro allos the Cool Lunch to be mounted with ease and brought along anywhere, anytime: On a golf bag, on a backpack, on the computer bag or over the handlebars of a bike without the lunch being squeezed or demolished.

It comes in either black or white, with the lining in either grey, red or lime.

-42 Concepts, 42concepts.com/design/cool-lunch-bag

QR Codes on Every Menu Product!

Did you know? Each Menu product has a QR code on its giftbox!

How it works: Using the "I-Nigma" app on your Iphone or Android (free on app store and android market), you snap a picture of the QR code and it sends you to the Menu explanation video for that product. On other mobile phones, get a free reader via mobile browser from http://www.get.neoreader.com/ This is a great feature for stores that have customers who are curious about how a product works.

Check out the Menu Wine Breather QR code:

Top Gemstones & Jewelry Sales Rise

Great news for jewelry retailers! According to the National Jeweler, 65% of jewelry retail stores reported positive same-store sales growth for 2010 as a whole, which is up from only 39% in 2009. In addition, retailers interviewed by National Jeweler said that this positive momentum from 2010 is carrying over into 2011.

The best-selling semi-precious gemstones include amethyst quartz and pearl. Our Rabinovich collection boasts a wide variety of pieces featuring amethyst quartz and pearls ranging in color from white to green, so there's something for every taste.

Danish Restaurant Named World's Best

Noma, the restaurant in Copenhagen whose chef Rene Redzepi forages for ingredients, was last night named the world's best for the second year straight.

"The World's 50 Best is important because it's a global tally and there aren't many of those, " Boulud said yesterday in an interview at his London venue, Bar Boulud. "People compare it to the Michelin guid, but they are completely different and we need them both. Also, this event brings together chefs from around the world. It's almost creating a new family."

-Richard Vines, Bloomberg News, London

NYIGF Spring 2011 Top 10

In case you missed our booth at the New York Gift Show, here are the Top 10 Spring 2011 products.

1. Menu Tea Pot




















2. Menu Bottle Grinders
















3. Menu Drop Bowls



















4. Menu Carafe with Wrap

















5. Menu Cool Bag



















6. Menu Cool Lunch















7. Menu Spike Torch



















8. Menu Nordic Wool Thermo Cups

















9. Tealight Shadow - Springtime















10. Knowledge in the Brain by Karim Rashid

John Gidding - Menu Chocolate Fondue Set

Check out the TV segment where HGTV's John Gidding demonstrates the Menu Chocolate Fondue Set.

Danish Chef Named World's Best Chef

Danish Chef Kofoed Rasmus won the prestigious 2011 Bocuse d'Or biannual cooking contest, where the top culinary professionals meet in Lyon, France. This is the first time Denmark has won the world title - beating out 23 other competitors. When he's not busy winning cooking competitions, Rasmus runs his own gourmet restaurant, Geranium.

Rabinovich Spring 2011 Catalog

The Spring 2011 Rabinovich catalog is here!
Download it here and let us know what you think!

HGTV Curb Appeal's John Gidding - Menu Chocolate Fondue Set

Check out this video of HGTV Curb Appeal's John Gidding talking about the Menu Chocolate Fondue Set on Your Life A to Z.

www.johngidding.com

Bounty Hunter Wine - Wine Breather Review

Check out this Wine Breather demonstration video by Bounty Hunter Wine Director Rhett Gadke!

www.bountyhunterwine.com

The Taste Spot - Menu Wine Breather Feature

Check out this video feature on the Menu Wine Breather from The Taste Spot

TheTasteSpot.com

Check out this explanation of the Menu Cool Bowl set by Danish Chef Umahro Codagan!

NYIGF 2011 :: Menu A/S from Core77 on Vimeo.

NYIGF 2011 :: Menu A/S

At this year's New York International Gift Fair there was the typical mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. A standout from the Accent on Design section of the fair this year was Menu A/S, a Danish houseware design company that was founded in 1979 to supply steel products to the catering industry. Since then, Menu has collaborated with an impressive group of Scandinavian and international designers to produce highly functional and beautiful designed tools for living. This season, the brand introduced some great pieces to help you transition from Winder to Spring.

The Glass Kettle Teapot, designed by Norm Architects, can be placed directly on your stovetop and includes a retractable tea egg attached by a silicon "string" that is built into the cap of the kettle. Once your tea is steeped to your liking, simply pull the string and the tea egg secures to the top of the kettle - minimizing post-steeping drips and mess.

An ode to Nordic knit design, the double-walled ceramic cups are a great complement to the teapot. Nordic fishermen would wear these woolen knits out to sea -- each knit pattern is unique to a specific village. If, for some reason, the fishermen didn't make it back to land, their sweaters would wash up to shore and people would be able to identify casualities by the specific designs in each sweater. There's been a recent interest in the fashion world with heritage craft and this series celebrates the ingenuity of Nordic design.

Spring picnic prep came in the form of the reversible carafe wrap, a neoprene cozy that, when soaked in water and then slipped over the Water Carafe, is self-cooling. The carafe itself was a Red Dot winner -- the steel collar and flat, self-closing lid opens with gravity so a simple tip decants liquid!

A product for all the seasons is their Wine Breather, an aerator that has a leak-proof top that allows wine to be aerated directly into the decanter. The unique beaker-like design aerates the wine as it flows along the glass walls of the carafe. With an hour-glass motion, you can poor the wine back into the bottle with a quick flip.

Danish chef Umahro Codagan was onsite for product demonstrations from the Spice Book, a mini recipe takeaway authored by Codagan for Menu featuring healthy Danish snack recipes in both English and Scandinavian. The porcelain, stack-and-serve Steam Tower, a great example of the oven-to-table trend in cookware was on display and my favorite product, a Norm-design Cool Bowl Set -- a serving tray and cutting board combo with a cooling pad option and bowl/cover.

- LinYee Yuan, Core 77

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/nyigf_2011_menu_as_18456.asp