This may be the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while.

Now I’m a bit of a coffee nut and also a serious fan of design and technology, so this one pushes all the right buttons for me personally. Plus, you can make coffee with your iPhone!

But even if you’re not into those things, you’ll understand that this is some serious innovation in a category that needs it badly. Search Amazon for Espresso Machine, and you get over 1,200 results, most of which are basically the same. Sure they have different logos on the front; some are silver while others are black, and you have a handful of different options for feature sets. But the last real innovation the category saw was the K-Cup, introduced nearly a decade ago and knocked off by everyone in the business, including retailers like The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

It’s not that any of those machines are bad, but none of the competitors really distinguishes itself from the others. By contrast, the Scanomat TopBrewer is elegant, functional, convenient, and above all, interesting.

Think about this: What can you do to make your brand or product all of the above?

Then think about this: Buy me a TopBrewer and I’ll make you coffee anytime you want to come over.

Throughout the summer, you can find the Madria Fruit Stand popping up at beer festivals, bridal shows, arts fairs and other lifestyle events. Brand Ambassadors will be on-hand, having conversations, cutting up fresh fruit, and serving sangria samples.

If you have an event and want the Madria Sangria Fruit Stand there, hit us up here.

In this interview with Seth Godin, in promotion of his 300th book We Are All Weird, Seth does a great job of explaining why Rebel Industries exists (thanks, Seth!).

Weird means people who are embracing individuality instead of working hard to fit in.

He goes on to say that the world is splitting into two groups: one that wants everyone to stay the same, and another that encourages individuality, tribal behavior, and weirdness.

Clearly, the tides of change favor the latter group, and this is the group that Rebel serves. We market to the gamers, music fiends, tuners, foodies, art enthusiasts, social media mavens, and others who define themselves by the things that make them “weird.” We understand what makes these people special, and what makes them tick. And we know what it means to brands who make products and deliver experiences that these people want.

What about you? What makes you weird? What tribes do you belong to? And what brands are doing a good job of appealing to your weirdness?

How sick is this video?

I’m a little biased. I’ve known Red Foo for 20 years. Been to his mom’s house. Gave him career advice (which he probably didn’t need and certainly didn’t follow), when he was a teenager sleeping on the floor of a studio off of Crenshaw Blvd. He produced a track for my first record deal — a demo deal with (then Columbia Records a&r) Randy Jackson for a girl group I managed. Okay, I know a demo deal isn’t a real record deal; that’s not the point.

The point is I want this guy to win, and he is. Big. People all over the world are unable to keep themselves from dancing to this track. Even the Kia Soul hamsters are in on the fun. So what’s the problem?

I don’t get Kia. It’s obvious that want to be cool so bad. And they’re close. The first round of Soul commercials (sock monkey, robot) weren’t bad. The hamsters are brilliant. Then they have some half-assed experiential programming — you know, hire the usual guys to do the usual parties, get coverage on the usual blogs. Who cares? They’re like Scion-lite with better TV spots.

What if they facilitated these Party Rock flash mobs? Set-up shuffle contests and impromptu dances everywhere? Capture it all on camera and really take that movement to the fullest? Make Kia Soul synonymous with dancing your ass off. Start with the shuffle and move on to other kinds of dances, done in public for fun and profit. That’s a brand that sounds like fun.

Rebel Industries kicked off a 12-event series for New Amsterdam Vodka last week at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, UT.

Guests at the Slamdance opening night party were the first to experience the New Amsterdam Shave Lounge, an early 1900s-style barbershop / bar setup that offered free straight-razor shaves, shoe shines, and of course cocktails.

You can read Event Marketer’s coverage of the program here

The New Amsterdam Shave Lounge will be seen 11 more times this year at key special events around the country. Hit us up to find out where, or to suggest an event that you’d like us to sponsor.

Don’t be one of those people!

Think about where you are wasting time that you can get back, for yourself. That time you could be sleeping, working out, practicing your art, traveling, or putting to good use to make more money for yourself and help Rebel Industries build a better company. You could be learning, exploring, growing. Or just having more fun.

How many meetings are you in that you don’t need to be in? Or that don’t need to happen at all? How much time are you spending commuting to an office you don’t really need?

How many conversations are you having more than once with the same people? How many times do you have to repeat yourself because other people aren’t communicating?

How much time is spent because someone was out of the loop? Because expectations were not clearly communicated? Because what was said was not understood?

It’s amazing to think about what we might be able to accomplish if we could just get out of our own way.

As a freelance account planner for Rebel Industries, your knowledge and expertise in market researchand understanding of consumers and culture will help define our future goals for our client campaigns.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop a consumer research plan that involves creating questions for street intercepts, surveys, andvideo interviews
• Analyze the data collected and provide actionable insights and opinions based on the consumer reports
• Monitor the success of the campaign as it runs, suggesting changes and improvements where necessary
• Present findings to illustrates key insights and implications for the brand and future marketing initiatives

What we look for:

• Attention to detail
• Highly organized
• Strong presentation delivery skills
• The ability to turn data into marketing intelligence and revenue-generating actions for clients
• Familiarity with the 21 – 35 demographic, “Gen Y” and able to define key trends in given markets

Qualifications:

• Must have 5 – 7 + years in market research and planning, with a core ability to perform reporting and analysis
• Proven quantitative and qualitative research experience (tracking studies, focus groups, in-depthinterviews, ethnographic research – any type of interviewing skills) with an ability to adapt insights.
• Must have strong data management and data quality skills
• Proven success at developing strategies that inspired with advanced thinking and creativesolutions.

Please submit your resume/questions to Cassandra@rebelindustries.com

As a freelance creative strategist at Rebel Industries, your ability to provide strategic solutions and activation plans for clients and potential new clients within social media and grassroots marketing will be essential to your success.

Responsibilities include:

•  Understand client goals and strategies to best understand how Rebel can serve them

•  Develop unique ideas and marketing concepts, specifically in, experiential, grassroots, and social media, for current and prospective clients

•  Produce client proposals and pitch materials (written and/or visual)

•  Brainstorm with the Rebel team to create original and innovative proposal and pitch ideas

What we look for:

•  Passionate about popular and underground culture

•  Resourcefulness and tenacity in finding solutions to problems

•  Ability to meet and work under tight deadlines

•  Humbleness, putting clients needs before personal agenda

•  The ability to communicate clearly in writing and visuals

•  Familiarity with the challenges faced by large consumer brands and the needs / perspectives / priorities of corporate marketers

•  Basic understanding of budgets

•  Demonstrates an understanding of how social media is influencing traditional methods of marketing

•  Driven to create marketing programs that give back

Qualifications:

3 + years working in social media and/or experiential marketing

Experience in working with Fortune 500 consumer brands

Please submit your resume/questions to cassandra@rebelindustries.com

Long and hot summer days are coming to an end soon, so who doesn’t want to chase down one last hot one with a Camarena Tequila-infused taco and a drink (or three)? We joined hundreds of San Franciscans who flocked into The City to score the free treats and share in the hype, and the buzz.

Urban Daddy, San Francisco’s e-mag that keeps city dwellers in the know, declared that every citizen should behold the taco truck’s month long stop.

7×7 Online updated its online readers about the truck as one of their top picks for the best places to booze on the cheap in SF. Really, what could be better or cheaper than quality for free?!

SF Weekly Online offered their foodies a link to register for the ticketed launch party where the open bar lasted all night. Just in case you were a bit late to register before the party sold out, Twitter savvy Eater San Francisco pointed their followers in the right direction by tweeting a Camarena RT campaign offering “the first 25 people to retweet a special message about Camarena Tequila a free ticket and a +1 to the sold-out party.”

Even the fashionable and chic were informed they should not miss this event via DailyCandy and their similar Twitter campaign that gave away free VIP +1 tickets to the first 50 followers who RT’d their post.