SXSWi starts today and we’re eagerly awaiting the fierce barrage of interestingness that is forthcoming and inevitable.
The hype machine is already suitably buzzing. Previous years have thrown up the likes of Twitter and Foursquare, and there is a lot talk around what comes next. Some of what is being mooted is:
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The hype and expectation of the last few weeks finally ended yesterday when Apple launched the new iPad. With the new retina display – a better resolution than your HD TV – and a 5MP camera and HD video recorder, it’s another stunning device from the world’s most valuable company.
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Lucky Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China, downloaded the 25 Billionth iOS App the other day. He won a $10,000 iTunes card for making the landmark purchase. I think that will keep him in Apps and music for a while. With Android topping 10 billion downloads it’s clear that Apps have become THE growth medium of the last four years since the App store opened in 2008.
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Poor old Google. They act, the world accuses them of getting it wrong and then the BBC confuses everyone.
At 01:28 into this BBC breakfast interview http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17205754 Sian Williams speaks for the wider public. “Google knows this information, and GIVES it to advertisers”.
And that’s the real problem. That’s what the public think happens, but who would believe poor old Google when they try and explain what really occurs. Sadly no-one seems bothered about their own user experience any more.
It’s trending Worldwide, but St David’s Day is a surprisingly popular topic given Wales has a population of just over 3m. I’m guessing because Twitter is such a English (language) skewed platform, the patron saints are a common topic to share as people look for something to talk about on the first day of March.
Good for our client Visit Wales anyway… www.visitwales.co.uk
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus.
Is this the end of the credit card?
Vodafone announced yesterday that they have tied up a deal with Visa to offer their 400m customer base the opportunity to carry out Mobile Payments subject to having an NFC enabled handset (Near Field Communication – like the Oyster system).
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Our new Eurostar campaign has just started, highlighting that city centre to city centre the new London to Amsterdam route only takes 4hrs 40mins. Whilst this may initially appear a long time there is an interesting implied behaviour economics concept at work here.
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According to news stories today F-commerce is officially a flop. Retailers in the US such as Gap, JC Penney, Nordstrom and Gamestop have all closed the Facebook stores they opened up in the last year. It seems that customers just weren’t buying enough to deliver a return on the investment needed to maintain a Facebook store alongside the main website, mobile version, and apps.
This doesn’t come as much of a surprise – our own research into this last year showed that 44% of customers weren’t interested in buying from Facebook stores at all; while 25% would only buy through F-commerce if it wasn’t available elsewhere, and 17% would buy if it was easier to buy through Facebook than the main website (and generally it isn’t).
Ultimately customers ‘like’ retail brands on Facebook because they want special offers and discounts, competitions and freebies, and to keep informed on when new products and items come out. So just because it’s possible to build a fully transactional site within Facebook, doesn’t mean you should.
The most effective uses of Facebook drive engagement with loyal customers, in a value exchange that delivers a benefit to the consumer, not just the brand.
One of the ways we do this for Domino’s Pizza is to launch new products on an exclusive basis through the Facebook page. This creates buzz and interest among our most loyal customers, and helps generate word of mouth around the new products and pizza flavours before the main broadcast advertising campaign breaks.
Facebook Connect and social plug ins already give brands a means of deep integration between their websites and the Facebook platform, whilst providing customers a quick and easy way to share their shopping choices and recommendations seamlessly with their friends.
Ultimately, it’s not enough to simply create a Facebook store and expect business to come. The essence of shopping via Facebook has to be about the collective or shared experience; about getting recommendations from friends or comparing notes before you buy; it should be about group buying for special offers and further discounts; and rewarding your most loyal customers, to make them feel like they are members of an exclusive club.
As we frequently say at Arena, we have to think about the customer first, and understand their behaviour before charging off to develop the tech, just because we can. The technology should be a means to an end, not the end in itself.
Do you remember the first time you saw famous logos, from brands like McDonalds, Pepsi or Puma? I didn’t think so… Nowadays we’re bombarded with advertisements and brands every day, so that’s difficult to try having a fresh vision of what they mean and feel to us, like you’ve never saw them before.
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The Internet of Things has been an overtrending term over the last year or so that is used to describe the injection of connectivity and media in to real objects, and represents the intersection of people, systems and the physical world. It is a framework whereby the inanimate gain programmed personas and become hooked into our channels of conversation via the cloud.
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