Mobile Marketing: Just answer the customer’s questions!

This was a humorous and insightful post on MediaPost today about the mobile experiences that many QR codes lead to:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=156030#

So I turn the tables on my better, skeptical half and pose the question to her. “How would your smartphone best serve you here?”

She is a lifetime shopper. This is actually a no-brainer for her. She points to the cosmetics counter as we pass. “Tell me what shades match my skin color. There are too many choices here.” We pass by the women’s clothing section. “Tell me what that skirt goes with that you also have in the store.” We go to a restaurant and she suggests, “Tell me what the nutritional value of this menu item is — and whether it has any ingredients my kid might be allergic to.”

In other words:  Let the customer ask a contextual and relevant question and give them a reply.

This is exactly what our MOBILE FAQ product offering is designed to fulfill.  In fact, we’ve started prototyping a cereal product that touches on the specifics in the quote (allergies, nutritional value, etc.).

Carrying this one step further, this is why we believe that personalized mCoupons are going to replace the one-size-fits-all model — Customers don’t want to be pushed the same offering that everyone around them is receiving — They want their smart phone to deliver “smart” to them.

The closing paragraph is worth inserting:

Why would we as an industry squander that opportunity on half-measures and disappointing brand puffery that runs the risk of poisoning the well and turning people off to the prospect of a clickable world. They can tell us what they want to know, apparently without breaking a sweat, once we stop trying to impress them with what is new and cool — and instead focus on answering their simplest questions.

 

 

 

 

 

Why Cereal Boxes and Mobile are Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate

We use the “chat with a character on a cereal box” example to describe a great application for our platform often.

People “get it” quickly.

Then, they start thinking, “hey kids don’t have smartphones…”

Here’s the study:

http://adage.com/article/adagestat/25-toddlers-a-smartphone/229082/

25% of TODDLERS have used a smartphone (never mind, our cereal box example is more for 4-8 year olds; well, plus those of us who are older and want to chat with Cap’n Crunch, so, greater than 25% of population).

Now if 40% of mobile users have a smartphone, this means that Toddlers and kids are one of the largest mobile demographics!

We like the cereal box example.

One day we’ll put it into practice.

Mobile Technology and Developers v. Average User

Each day there’s a story about one platform, or another, being the winner-take-all in the mobile universe.  Or, a story about how some new technology/platform means the death rattle of another.

Today’s story is about an image recognition feature added to LAYER’s AR engine that sounds like Google GOGGLES, but, with more brand control on directing the action of the scan:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1771451/augmented-reality-kills-the-qr-code-star

Cool!

Except, how does anyone know when and where to use this?  How many people use LAYER to begin with?

These new tools and technologies are rushed to market before establishing user acceptance or demand.  Just when you think LAYER is one thing, it’s now another?

Market-Fit is forgotten in the excitement of new and shiny toys.

This blog post from over at CONQUENT touched on GPS and Location Check-in tools; which reminded me I hadn’t used Foursquare in over a year either.  Do regular folks with their mobile devices care about GPS enabled engagement, except for when using GOOGLE MAPS?  I don’t think so.  Yet, GPS based platforms still are funded and come to market almost daily.  Why?  Because Developers and the technology are cool.  Because it’s there.  Because putting things together in new combinations may come up with a killer app through serendipity, if not through smarts.

But, sometimes we come across mobile technologies that seem inherently “right.”

The TOUCHANOTE platform that uses NFC and EVERNOTE: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/8/prweb8686751.htm is one of those matches that seems really perfect.  OK, way ahead of the curve in many respects (by a year?), but, it seems practical, useful and maybe even fun.  It also seems that an “average user” (whatever that means) would find ways of applying this to their daily lives without a lot of complication.  We also see applications that are of great value for specific mHealth related applications using a platform and tools like this.

We spend a lot of time thinking about how the “average user” and their mobile device want to hang out together?  How do they enjoy acting together?  We’re not so focused on the early-adopter iOS user (less than 10% of the mobile population) since they tend to love all things shiny and new.  That’s great.  But, it may not indicate how the mainstream will behave.

We know that “short, text-based conversations” on mobile continue to be the #1 use of the device.  That’s where we remain focused, though we see these conversations being triggered from a range of interfaces.

QR Leads to AR without AR – Clever Mobile Campaign

This was an interesting post from @RickMathieson over at:

http://mathieson.typepad.com/genwow/2011/07/trident-lates-to-use-qr-talking-heads-video.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+GenerationWow+%28Generation+Wow%29

Showing a Trident print ad, with QR, that leads to an “AR’ish” experience without AR.  Near as we can tell, it’s just a video being pushed from the QR scan.

Here’s the Youtube link directly:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X62xhsDqdBQ&feature=player_embedded

What interests us about the format is how we could FIRST engage in a quick “chat” with the end user and then deliver, for example, one of ten, different videos so that it is a more unique and personalized experience for each end user.   It’s a very clever format to expand upon.  Let’s hope we see more uniquely mobile experiences coming off of QR codes (and NFC) rather than shrunken internet experiences.

 

Bridges to Mobile Engagement – Could Microsoft Tag add NFC features?

Despite moving a fair bit of attention over to Google Plus, I noticed a #qrchat on Twitter today that featured a Microsoft Tag attendee (never mind, Tags aren’t QR, so, the hashtag was technically inaccurate).

This grabbed my attention:

Ended with an :)

Slightly cryptic.

Makes you wonder what’s up?  Microsoft Tag have been continuously evolving their platform (the geo-location feature on a single Tag is impressive).  Could a Tag Reader serve as an NFC software app?  No clue.

More Thoughts on NFC and QR-2D: Defining a New Mobile Lifestyle Story

I’ve been mulling over how NFC could be a catalyst for cross-over, higher-budget and higher-profile, QR-2D applications in advertising and marketing, which in turn will drive greater user adoption as part of defining a new mobile “lifestyle.”

While “payments” may be the primary application with early NFC use, the range of it’s applications span a fair bit of territory where QR-2D currently resides.  From what I see, QR-2D is not delivering high-value campaigns that also serve to define QR-2D as being an essential part of  a User’s  mobile lifestyle – they seem stuck on delivering “information.”

There’s a big difference between saying “I’ll get you information when you need it,” and “I’m going to make your life more interesting.”

Looking at the video promotions for NFC here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/10/nfc_videos/

NFC is being promoted as becoming part of everyone’s daily life — and, improving it –  OK, the Nokia clip is pretty cheesy, but the message is clear.  They’re selling a good story.

This Barclaycard NFC spot is extraordinary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWp3pxatDyU&feature=player_embedded

As more money goes into NFC-based campaigns, someone is going to recognize that in many cases they should be complemented by QR-2D access as well.

I’m certain that NFC is both complementary to QR-2D in many applications as well as being a facilitator of defining how these related technologies are part of a new mobile lifestyle “story.”

We all know that we can launch more QR-2D campaigns today than NFC, simply due to market penetration.  That will level out over the next year.  The issue is how, or whether, QR-2D will leverage itself  to be part of the larger mobile lifestyle story that’s being told?

As a “mobile content company,” we see that using both technologies together will make sense in many cases; but the public perception of QR-2D needs to become part of the same story that NFC campaigns’ are promoting in order to legitimate media buys that result in high scan rates.

/adapted from LinkedIN post

NFC and Conversational Mobile Marketing – The Future Gets Closer

We spend an extraordinary amount of time discussing “how” people quickly and intuitively access mobile web sites.

Much of that discussion is around QR, 2D and image recognition coding – combined with printed URLs (and type recognition options!) – and, even sending SMS messages with URLs.

In the wings, with a building momentum, is NFC.

Most of the discussion is around “payments,” but, already the applications for mobile marketing are emerging:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/new-x-men-film-uses-nfc-advertising

http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/%E2%80%9Cnfc%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-not-always-synonymous-with-mobile-payments-15638/

http://www.nearfieldcommunicationsworld.com/2011/04/28/37158/hotels-com-and-new-york-times-back-nfc-advertising-venture/

While NFC can’t work in the print publications space, it does work when there is near physical proximity and that’s one of it’s pluses — It’s nearly tactile and is a physical gesture that’s simple and could become habitual.  Particularly, if the same physical habit and motion is used for payments, dare we project, this could become a “standard.”

The other theory that’s kicking around is how NFC will improve QR/2D campaigns.

What?

No, really.  NFC mobile marketing campaigns will bring in a whole different creative group and money to this space; and, many hybrid NFC/QR campaigns should emerge from this.  QR (or 2D) campaigns should improve and generate more traffic and awareness.

How does “conversational mobile marketing and entertainment” fit into the picture?

For us, it’s about being a part of intuitive mobile experiences.  2-way conversations (messaging) on phones remains User’s primary, habitual engagement.  If NFC fulfills the role of being the most intuitive format to reach our applications, that’s a good thing all around.

How NFC will Save QR

Here’s a theory that’s been brewing in the office. . .

First, we’re “mobile content folks,” so we’re technology agnostic when it comes to device, carrier, OS or “how” someone reaches the content.  We just want to encourage traffic and make it as intuitive and genuinely pleasant as possible.

Broadly, QR/2D Barcodes are now seen everywhere.  The only thing missing seems to be any evidence that anyone is scanning them. It’s been nearly a year since any hard and fast scan numbers were released.

Now, before it’s even viable (not enough devices in the market), the new kid on the block is NFC.  NFC test campaigns are already rolling out, stepping directly on the turf that QR hoped to exclusively own (or, were pleased to battle over with MS Tag and some image recognition technologies).

Here’s why NFC will save QR:

QR campaigns, to date, appear to have been run by print departments and in many cases they resolve to recycled  video footage to access from mobile; or, someone set up a really dull mobile landing page that is about as exciting as a piece of cold toast.

NFC is attracting “interactive” and “mobile” Creatives — and, bigger budgets.  Is it possible that NFC campaigns will succeed, but, that success will then spill over to QR-based campaigns?

That seems likely.  QR needs to get interactive Creatives and dollars behind it with a focus on the End User’s mobile experience; some of that attention may emerge from a new breed of mobile marketing team who start with NFC, but, will consider QR as well?

We see QR and NFC as being complementary and increasing the size of the pie, allowing plenty of slices for everyone.

Some recent NFC posts that set this whole theory brewing. . .

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/new-x-men-film-uses-nfc-advertising

http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/%E2%80%9Cnfc%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-not-always-synonymous-with-mobile-payments-15638/

http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/01/25/so-why-should-you-care-about-nfc/

http://blog.kimtag.com/2011/05/nfc-and-qr-code-combined.html

 

AdTech 2011…New Products … Uniquely Mobile Experiences

AdTech 2011 in San Francisco last week offered up a lot to consider with regard to both mobile publishing (our mLearning B2C initiatives) as well as a mobile technology and service provider for marketing, advertising and entertainment applications.

One big take-away was that a number of established, online advertising platforms are only beginning to wrap their heads around mobile – all too frequently, they are not grasping the unique User Experience that mobile requires, as they rush to port old static web solutions to mobile.

That said, there were a few gems in the mix as well as a number of prospective relationships where the contentAI platform is complementary and delivers a uniquely mobile User Experience, adding value to both the Brand and User.

One significant result that emerged from assessing the market during AdTech was the need to scale an economical product specific to delivery of FAQ” pages on mobile sites and apps.  Please see more on this offering HERE. While we will offer this direct to clients, it is also an offering designed for mobile web and mobile app developers to plug-in to their tool kit.  FAQ pages are a part of our web life; but, on mobile, they are nearly impossible to read and navigate.  While these are not “storied” experiences, the contentAI platform is ideally suited to provide a cost effective solution for mobile sites and apps that need to present FAQ data in an easy to use interface.

MIT, Intelligent Retail and Cereal Boxes…Where’s the Emotional Impact?

It’s remarkable how many new technology efforts are focused on the cereal aisle.  We’ve posted about the “light up” cereal boxes (from CES) before.

And, as you see, on our site, we use cereal boxes as our leading example of where interactive conversational engagement is a natural.

Today, we were looking at the YouTube video featured here:

http://blog.seattlepi.com/videoblogging/2011/04/02/youtube-retail-aisle-of-the-future-demos-mit-qr-codes-and-intelligent-inductive-ink/

While it’s great to see MIT thinking about cereal boxes, they seem to forget that the cereal boxes (except those on the upper shelves, out of sight of most kids and parents, are supposed to be fun!

It’s time to figure out how to get into the door at Kelloggs and suggest that these characters come to life and start interacting conversationally with us via mobile.   We can provide all of the passive data acquisition too (nutrition information, etc.), but, we can also create fun and memorable conversational experiences.

After all, it’s a cereal box.  It should be fun!