Is Your Mobile Message “Understood?” – Reading Comprehension & Mobile Devices

While we’re not big fans of anyone who treats mobile like the shrunken web — where they ignore  the User Experience (location), contextual relevance and personal space unique to mobile — This article and study caught our attention with regard to “reading comprehension” on mobile devices:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-content-comprehension.html

While the study looks like it focused on really dense text, it’s also likely that people “read” content on mobile devices differently than they do online, which in turn is different from print.  The “art” of communicating in order to be “understood” on mobile is not something we hear alot about.

One thing we know — People like short, conversational text messages.

It’s what they do with their device more than any other activity.  Reading a “conversation” and comprehending it — because you then will interactively respond to it — is far different than search/navigate/scan website reading.

Mobile was made for conversations.

Conversational mobile marketing delivers content the End User readily understands.

 

New Year. . .New Features. . .Conversational Mobile Marketing Evolves

That was quite a lag in blog posts. The Holidays took over (after an exceptionally busy December, in part, due to the consumer-facing MySantaTalk app); then, CES (yes, lots of tablets and 3D TV, but, in general, not the most exciting CES; some work in mobile health felt pretty substantial and game changing).

What’s up here?

We’ve realized that the perception of our platform is more “how do we compare to apps?” than “how do we compare to text messaging?” — The inclusion of rich media elements in our content, really, remove us from the text-communication space, even though that is the core of our platform.

To that end, we are in the process of enhancing the overall design and user navigation of the mobile web interactive chat experience. Watch for updates throughout Q1.

In the interim, as MySantaTalk prepares to take a rest for the year — There’s a short, mobile web, demo that features our favorite fictional brand character: Capn’ Wag — As a demo of fun, intelligent packaging for kids, we hope you enjoy. Access is found on: http://contentai.com/demos/capnwag Or, just scan the QR code below:

Near Field Communication (NFC) – Google Rolls into Portland for Retail

These are the days when being a mobile content technology and service are terrific.

Near Field Communication, which has languished and been plagued by security issues, is taking one giant step forward today with Google’s announcement of rolling out a limited program in Portland, Oregon at the retail level:

http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/12/cross-posted-and-excerpted-from-hotpot.html

Does this sound competitive to QR, 2D and Location Based (GPS) apps?

It is.

Will brands and advertising agencies be attracted to this?

It’s about the User Experience.

How simple and intuitive is the experience?

Being a Portland company, we’ll be trying this out and updating this post.  But, every indication is that NFC could be the next ‘really big thing” with mainstream mobile adoption.  RIM, Apple, Android, Nokia along with the major US carriers have all made announcements in the past month about their commitment to NFC at the OS, device and carrier level.

Why Mobile Virtual Agents Matter — Shoppers Prefer Smartphones to Store Associates

The headline from MOBILE COMMERCE – INTERNET RETAILER says it all:

Shoppers would rather use smartphones than consult store associates, survey finds

http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/12/06/shoppers-would-rather-use-smartphones-store-associates

This was based on “archive and search” solutions, not our drill-down and deliver contextually relevant information via “conversation.”  Which, we believe will extend this user preference.

It’s an excellent indication for our business that virtual clerks and mobile engagement with contextually relevant conversational experiences will be part of everyone’s typical shopping experience in the very near future.

That said, we feel that Retailers should find a method to balance and use “live” Store associates in an entirely new blend of virtual/smartphone and human engagement.  BEST BUY’S @twelpforce initiative that’s gone on for over a year is an interesting model to consider; however, our position is that the @twelpforce knowledge should be automated and constantly updated, so that an “ultimate” virtual sales associate could handle the online and mobile, and the humans could concentrate on the real world engagements.

Conversational AI – Wide Ranging Applications

Today was one of those days when the human conversations about “conversational AI” spanned a very wide range.

Interestingly, our MY SANTA TALK application works well as an example for both intelligent packaging and brand customer relations as well as for conversational mLearning, particularly ESL (See our ESL initiatives at:  http://ESLai.com).  Our SHOPGIRL application also is a terrific example of a very concise engagement that can work for both commercial and educational applications.

As we see sessions running from 8-19 minutes on the MY SANTA TALK app,  clearly, we’re engaging and holding the user’s attention.  Our original projections were that 5 minutes would be the maximum mobile web engagement period.  We were wrong.

We haven’t posted anything recently about mLearning — Our ESLai.com site has not been migrated over to mobile web applications — but, one of the primary reasons we embarked on mobile web delivery was around mLearning — the ability to incorporate graphics and video easily within the interactive chat creates a complete learning experience.

More updates soon.

Happy Holidays — My Santa Talk Unwrapped

It’s both a B2B “hello” — And, an example of mobile web entertainment for consumer-facing engagement:

http://mysantatalk.com

For direct access to the interactive narrative adventure story — complete with graphics, animation AND video.

QR and 2D Mobile Early Adopters? Start @ Age 5. Target’s Holiday Campaign

This was a fascinating post in Barcode.com:

http://www.barcode.com/QR-codes-and-2D/how-target-is-making-history-with-toys-and-qr-codes.html

With regard to TARGET’S Christmas catalog and a 5-year old’s quick and easy engagement via QR codes.

The article is correct that this concept should “go further.”  It’s right in line with our interactive story and character engagement platform, where we have always seen kids as being a group who would take to mobile conversational stories readily.  So, hopefully, next year, these kind of campaigns will include the child being able to “talk to the toy,” or to a doll, via mobile, as well as find hidden videos and images.  Creating a more personal engagement (that is still private and secure) will add real value to the “play” experience associated with the toys.

Mobile, QR, Conversational Marketing – Stars are Aligning

Today was one of those days when the news and perspectives offered in mobile marketing blogs all lined up to participate in telling a wonderful story.

Each of these separately are terrific, combined, is where a bigger picture emerges.  For contentAI studios, this is the kind of affirmation that when we decided, a year ago, to focus on mobile, it was the right decision.

From the NY Times, referencing how QR Codes lead to interactive experiences:

“this is the holy grail of advertising — interactive media in public places,”

NY Times http://nyti.ms/aiXUXb

Related, in what is our favorite QR/content and “location aware” campaign we’ve seen:

From TDA_Boulder Agency for 1st Bank: http://bit.ly/cLStOF

Why is it brilliant?  I read the sub-text here as “we understand you.”   The ad “understands” that the User is sitting around waiting and they offer them some fun diversion.

Finally, kudos to the Microsoft Tag team for their claim to the current thrown of QR/2D world and to bringing wider adoption of scan-to-mobile experiences to the Masses.

Their press release is here:  http://goo.gl/Z03i

How does this all point to virtual characters, agents and interactive stories in the Wilds of Mobile?

Give us a call or drop us a line to discuss how we can create engaging and valuable experiences.

conversational AI, virtual characters and “storied engagement” – more benefits

While we don’t have a dedicated section on our web site (yet) to how conversational AI can add to consumer insight gathering, however,  it is an inherent benefit of our platform.

This quote is specific to how “storied engagement” adds even more value:

“Asking consumers to write stories allows the benefit of context and adjective generation when it comes to finding out how they relate to a brand, product or category.”

The full blog post on Consumer Insight is well worth reading and found HERE.

It concludes with:

“Get more bang for your research buck by allowing consumers to work harder and be creative.”

In many respects, our conversational AI, story platform makes “working harder” more fun.  Text based “conversations” are “harder work” than checking off a couple of boxes on a form or survey — But, it’s also a chance for the consumer to express themselves, in a manner and style they are most comfortable with (text based mobile conversations).

We like the combination of anonymity combined with archived chat logs.  We get a lot of insight into the real feelings of those who engage with the virtual characters we create.

Allowing users/consumers to become part of the story making process is integral to the design and function of the contentAI platform.


QR and 2D Codes — Real Numbers (Finally) — Ready for Primetime?

It was great to see some real campaign numbers released on a QR or 2D campaign today.  The more we see like this, the more it’s clear that QR and 2D in the U.S. is about to shift from “early adopter” to “mainstream.”

http://www.gomonews.com/mobile-barcodes-allure-results-from-microsoft-tag-725k-give-away/

That can be combined with Scanbuy’s “general” numbers that were released last week here:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://blog.scanlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScanLife-Mobile-Barcode-Trend-Report_9.10.pdf

It’s still about “what does the QR/2D lead to?”  Is it valuable and intuitive for the User’s mobile experience?

But, as a legitimate new mobile marketing and content distribution channel?

It’s arrived.