Mobile Virtual Agents and Interactive Characters
Mobile Marketing. Mobile Entertainment.
Mobile Learning.
What conversation do you want to start?
Extend your story from television, retail products or
print to Mobile, Tablets and Ultrabooks
The essence of how we use our mobile devices.
The number 1 form of written communication...
...in the World.
Chat on mobile-web = no per message costs plus delivery
of rich media
is a "Communicator"
contentAI studios are Communication Designers
Delivering compelling, real-time, 2-way Communication Experiences
Mobile Context is evolving.
2-Screen engagement now exceeds 50% of
Mobile and Tablet User Experiences.
Intuitively Extend Story & Ad Units Across Screens
Based on the success of our annual MY SANTA TALK app (mobile web, Android and AppUp), we decided to add a year-round children’s app to our library…
…MY TOOTH FAIRY CHAT is now on Android, with Updates to additional devices posted below.
Now in the Google Play Android Store
And in Amazon Apps
The MPAA are traditionally behind-the-curve (let’s say, “historically” on many issues).
So it was interesting to see this statement from their CEO, Chris Dodd:
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/piracy/mpaa-ceo-hollywood-must-get-connected-27074
“Our business has become much more than simply making a great movie and inviting our customers to a theater,” Dodd said. “This new age of the connected consumer is here, and so we must adapt.”
Driving more movie attendance through deeper audience connections with story and character (from their 2nd Screens) is our favorite topic.
Now, the issue for “Hollywood” really focuses on the Unions and their abilities to adapt to incorporate Talent (Writers, Directors, Actors) across multiple screens beyond “marketing” spends, but where it’s inherent to the Production and story itself.
*****
UPDATE: Some additional Nielsen numbers on “2nd Screen” concurrent engagement with TV:
According to Nielsen, 45% of tablet owners watch TV and use their tablet together at least once a day. A whopping 69% say they do so at least several times a week and only 12% say they never do this.
We’ve always referred to our platform as “conversational…” – Which has lead to discussions about how we define (primarily) mobile text based engagement. Our apps are “conversational writing” based. i.e. “conversation” does not require voice/speech.
It was terrific to read a NY Times story about “Conversational Writing” here:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/talking-with-your-fingers/
Where the author defines “Conversational Writing” as being different from “writing.” There are some great quotes, one take-away is:
Not surprisingly, then, the earliest writing was based on the way people talk, and that meant short sentences with a direct logical throughline. Researchers have found that even educated people today speak in word packets of 7 to 10 words a pop.
How does this related to “connected TV” experiences?
Nearly 1/2 of the Audience are engaged in “conversational writing” on their 2nd Screens while consuming television.
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/9685-the-five-cs-of-connected-tv
So, how about directing their “conversational writing” to include the on-screen characters?
We have had a few queries about whether or not our platform could also include “live agent” chat – especially for small businesses?
In one case, this was so that the in-store shopper could instantly connect with any of the store employees who are on the Floor, but they can’t find.
The answer?
Sure. Why not?
No apps to download. No messaging costs. The user’s privacy is safe.
Instead of talking to a bot, you talk to a person, through our XMPP to HTTP platform and engine.
The only variable we need to include is a “push notification” to the “live agent” so they know there is an incoming message for them.
If you’d like to get on our early Beta test list, just CONTACT US and request “live agent beta.”
Of course, for volume and high concurrent user engagement, the personalized experiences we create with “bots” is the most cost effective and provides a great user experience.
Heck, we’re human too…we understand…sometimes you just want to talk to a person…quickly!
We were asked to summarize some thoughts on 2nd Screen experiences and extending story, and emotional engagement, between screens.
Here’s the ‘in a nutshell’ version. . .
The studies are now in…audiences now participate in concurrent, multi-screen experiences – Prime-tme is multi-screen time — But, that doesn’t mean the content, stories and brand stories are migrating between screens to create seamless and deeper engagement.
How to naturally engage and extend television to digital-device-on-the-couch?
Extend the reason television remains the First Screen to 2nd Screen content applications: Extend the story.
Whether extending a :30 second television spot, a children’s animated series or a Prime Time drama, creating interactive narrative experiences taps into and deepens the audiences’ emotional connection to the First Screen.
2nd Screen experiences should be seen as a remarkable opportunity for television advertising and content production ventures…not to get clicks and Likes…but, to involve the audience within a personalized, conversational interaction. This is why we built the contentAI studios’ platform.
Chat with Gossip Girl to uncover hidden clues and story material?
Chat with Astral from Yu-Gi-Oh for advice?
Chat with Mr. Clean, the Skittle’s Rainbow or a myriad of other Brand Characters?
Next time you talk to a television character, they should also talk back to you.
Because the Audience is doing a lot more than just listening.
UPDATE: In addition to the Forrester Reports (Links in Post below), here is additional supporting evidence of the growing dual-screen phenomena: http://www.screenmediadaily.com/news-viacom-tablets-tapping-into-tabletomics-study-television-consumer-behavior-tablet-user-experiences-airplay-0014001843.shtml
Where’s the NFC Tag?
We’ll send you one. While there’s often someone from our team at a conference or off doing demos…we can’t be everywhere…so, we’ll mail you one. Just ask.
We are big believer’s in NFC. Once you’ve created one, tapped one and experienced the mindless/seamless gesture…something that seems natural…well, we hope you’ll agree that NFC will play a major role in connecting the world to the internet…making objects speak!
We’re extremely pleased with TAGSTAND and their NFC tags (as well as their App: NFC TASK LAUNCHER)…which is where we source our NFC tags; we’d be pleased to send you one, that connects to one of our Interactive Mobile Virtual Agents…Just CONTACT US and ask.
BTW: If you’re on LINKEDIN, please join the NFC CREATIVE Group and join the conversation.
We’re frequently asked about how to check both responsive design as well as page-load time for mobile web. And, “how can you test on the hundreds of Android devices)?
Here’s a partial list of what’s in our toolbox to address these issues:
In no particular order:
http://tools.pingdom.com (General speed tests and breakdown of problem areas)
http://www.howtogomo.com/en/d/ (Go at least 2x levels deep for in-depth reporting; this is from Google)
http://www.laurencegellert.com/software/css-responsive-design-testing-tool/ (New responsive design emulator)
http://quirktools.com/screenfly/
This just came out for testing Android (additional OS support pending), on real devices and emulators with one click – It’s extraordinary:
We have a lot of respect and appreciation for companies who’ve been working on “site agents” (virtual agents) on traditional web sites — Many have been in business for five years or more. Typically, those site agents are charged with bringing up various data elements or Links, which helps the User to better navigate the site (often because whomever did the original navigation didn’t really anticipate the site scaling up). The few who are working with video-based “agents” are interesting to watch, though their production quality fall short of where we feel it should evolve (a bit like watching local mattress commercials on television compared to a National ad).
The de facto standard for “site agents” has been to include a rather simple 256 color animated character that lip syncs to the voice (text to speech). The quality here again is less than stellar.
While surprised it’s taken so long, we are now seeing some of those companies starting to package up their product for “mobile.”
What’s really surprising is that they are porting their exact same product – Delivering links or complex/dense text data — And, including those simplistic animated characters and audio (just on HTML.5 instead of Flash).
Hmmmm?
At contentAI studios, where we’ve been thinking about “mobile user experiences with virtual agents” for over two years, we decided long ago that including animated visual faces and audio was counter-intuitive to the average mobile user experience. Often, the user is not in a location where they can hear. Also, they don’t want to have to keep their visual focus on the small screen – they are “scan/viewing” across products, the world around them, a television AND their mobile screen…not singularly focused on one screen.
In that respect, we decided to focus our delivery of interactive narrative accompanied by still images that could “establish” the personality of the engagement, without requiring more than a fraction of a second of User Attention. And, to deliver short, conversational engagements that are MOTIVATED by our virtual agents, not mere Q&A sessions “driven” by the End User – based on mobile experiences needing to be both contextual andget-to-the-point quickly.
Essentially, our virtual agents have a purpose specific to a Mobile User Experience…with the anticipation of the ENTIRETY of the experience, which extends beyond the screen, to the overall context of the engagement
So, will we include “animated characters with voices” on mobile?
No. There are other companies who we can recommend for that.
We don’t think most Mobile End Users are seeking a duplication of static web experiences on their mobile devices. But, perhaps, in some cases, it’s appropriate. But it’s not what we offer here. We also don’t believe that the current state of visual animated characters adds value to the User Experience; the lack of technical and visual quality is simply too much of a negative in our opinion. End Users will “buy into” their chat experiences based on an establishing “still frame,” and they fill in the blanks on their own, without 10 frame per second 256 color “visual bots.” We know this from our own research and analytics.
Because we never were in the mindset of “static web” virtual characters and have focused exclusively on “small screen” engagement, we aren’t porting over old assets to our mobile platform. Everything is designed specifically for mobile. To clarify, we also build for “desktop apps,” which are very similar experiences to mobile apps (small windows on the desktop; typically for extremely portable ultrabooks); but, most of our engagement is on mobile and tablets, based on our analytics.
What’s good for Brands is that they will have choices when it comes to how they approach adding a virtual agent to their mobile user experiences.
Based on price, quality and our exclusive focus on Mobile User Experience, we welcome an opportunity to present our platform in comparison to our competitors.
* Side note: Yes, we include HTML.5 audio and video on our platform too – But, we use that precious (user) time and real-estate for Brand elements, not for animated characters.
