Social Hallucinations

Nomophobia

In a few days I am taking away on the vacation into the wild. I have been feeling kind of anxious the past few days and today I've just realized that it is simply because I will be visiting places where there is no mobile coverage. What scared me is not the fact that I will be disconnected, but the fact that I will not be able to Google things up when I need a help or guidance. It is rather scary how dependent I've become on the instant access to the information. I apparently suffer from nomophobia - the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.

Photo by Foomandoonian

 

For nomophobics access is everything. There are many companies who utilize this and provides the solutions like: iPavement - the first intelligent pavement with its own operating system and suite of apps that embeds WiFi hotspots in the street, or a "soda" machine that dispenses internet access to mobile phone in the public space by Coca Cola - Coke Happiness Refill. The name says it all.

Well, it all looks amazing but I guess it will be healthy for me to try to face my nomophobia and enjoy my time off without instant sharing with the world.

Ideas Beat Digital

I love this idea of low-tech augmented reality from Philips that came up from a simple consumer insight: Over 73% of Taiwanese men think that grooming is just about cleanness, preferring a clean-shaven look over any type of beard and stubbles.

How do you change the behavior than to create interest in grooming kits. No beard, no grooming.

Philips take on this is awesome; they have created "Low-tech Augmented Reality Mugs" to show any possible look the young guys can have when grooming. Simple. 

It proves that the great communication is not about "digital at heart" but about awesome ideas that address people needs and help them to make decision or have great experiences....and sometimes it may be that digital is perfect for this task, sometimes a simple mug is enough. 

 

 

QR codes Can Be Great When Done Right

QR codes are the new IT thing to have. Wherever you look there are posters, products, ads with QR code on. Looks nice and so tempting. You wonder what hides behind, you scan....and there is the disappointmend. Because what you discover are bad mobile sites, where apprently on one bother to think about what experience to offer once you bothered to scan. QR codes are cheap way to pretend the business is going digital, mobile, whatever.

But there are more and more exciting campaigns seeing the light showing how the simple technolgy can extend brand experience, enhance the campaign and make people have fun.

There are particularly two I like a lot:

Guiness and their QR cup. QR cup gets visible and readable only when filled with the right beer - Guiness. Once you scan, you can tweet, you get coupons and special promotions and Guiness content. Sounds like fun. After a few hours in the pub, any kind of enterteinment is needed ;)

 

This QR code campaign comes from South Korea and it is genius. QR codes get activiated by sun, from 12 to 1 p.m. and its goal is to drive sales in a E-mart store while there is normally a significant drop in sales. Scanning QR code within this period of time gives people access to Sunny Promotions and make them shop, smile and delivers results! This case shows that relevant, easy accessible solution that creates value for people always works!

 

 

 

Blinded by Technology

We are going digital. Indeed, digital is a place where many want to go these days. The destination is set but the ways of getting there aren't always clear. Forgetting what's it is all about, we chase the new shiny technologies and miss on connecting with people.

"Sometimes marketers forget that media platforms are enablers to big ideas. They aren’t the big ideas themselves."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

via tomfishburne.com

TV Role in the Digital World

People are no longer engaging with content on just a single screen. Interactivity plays larger role in the communication than ever. We live in a highly digitalized world, but it doesn't make TV dead. TV is still an important communication channel but only if we see it as the part of the whole communication experience brands create.

TV is the springboard for the greater and deeper experience. TV lets people know your brand is available by providing reach. It conveys stories and is a great conversations starter...if fed with the relevant content people can relate to. TV is where people's relationship with your brand can begin.

We live in a complex ecosystem of screens. We tend to favor one type of screens over the others, depreciting the value of TV as the one way communication channel and prizing digital. But the truth is that if the content sucks, digital is not a magic wand that will turn it into gold. 

The key challenge is to create while worthy pieces of content that work across various screens and connect them into an experience that is worth spending time on. The holy grain of media is integration of channels and experiences into a long-term journey we take on with our customers.

I've never been fond of killing the old technologies. They can be worthy if "recycled" and used in a new ways. Everything is remix today. So split, mix and mash-up the new and old technologies to create awesome. This is what you can do right here and right now.

Here more on the future of TV by the wise man Dan Wieden from Wieden+Kennedy

and remember "Half the time people who think they know what the future is, they're just making shit up"

 

Music is an experience and TV is social

What I like most about the technology is the new communication opportunities it brings. Clever thinking and creating synergies between stuff we know and the new possibilities, makes the same old story sound a bit more  new and refreshing. The to good examples of this are Black Eyed Peas and German TV show Galileo.

Black Eyed Peas has developed an iphone app BEP360 to promote (sell) their new album and video.

BEP360 is an interactive music video that provides augment reality experience (you just need BEP album cover to activate it). There is also option that gives user tools to create photo session with the band and share it with other fans. Pretty cool way to activate music on other level than just traditional video. Hope to see more such an initiatives.

 

Another examples proves that TV can be social if you make an effort to provide viewers with the relevant tools. 

German TV show Galileo used augmented reality browser app Junaio to run an interactive quiz for their viewers. Viewers had to hold their phone cameras up to the TV screen and point them at the answer they wanted to select. Image recognition worked out which answer was being selected and a tap of the screen submitted it.Viewers received instant feedback whether their answer was right or wrong. The quiz activity was promoted before  and the whole activity seemed to be a success with an increase in TV show share among 14-49 year old viewers. 

Something that wil stick or rather one time phenomena. Time will tell. But there is no doubt that TV can be a social and engaging experience. 

You can see a video of the TV experiment (after an ad) here.

 

 

You Brain on Google

'Technology changes. Humans don't.' We may not change but we adapt. The new technological advances and tools we take into use have an influence on how we behave, they make us not only discover the needs, we had no idea we had before but also they make our brains adapt to the new environment.

via Colectivo Planner

The Extensions of Man

Technology empowers. Photo camera that enables people to create memories that would be lost if not for the camera. Camera that becomes the extention of the man.Well captured by Samsung.

via Scary ideas

 

What is Facebook Places?

Facebook Places has been launched in US and will soon reach probably the rest of the world. Some deaths are being discussed (Foursquare) as we try find out what Facebook places will mean for people and marketers.

Facebook for marketing as other geo-location services has a huge potential but how the potential turns out depends on the inventiveness of companies in adding more meaning to checking in. Checking-in is fun, especially in the first phase. It is like a game. The thrill of becoming a mayor, getting the badge. Then comes competitiveness. Ousting your friends from places and taking over their mayorship. Trying the first specials...and it appears there are no more specials near you. You just check-in less and less often. You ask yourself - why I should check-in. You lack the purpose. I believe the success of Facebook places for business will depend on the sense of purpose it manage to deliver to people.

As it goes for people, Facebook places will make geo-location accessible to broader audience. It will be another tool for sharing with friends where we are and what we are doing. As my colleague Lara wrote in her post on privacy: "Places provides us with another way of keeping tabs on our friends, of letting people know what we’re up to, of sharing what is basically unnecessary information with anyone and everyone we choose. It’s also another foray in to our private world, and will no doubt meet harsh critique from users who suddenly realise that what is actually private about their lives is diminishing at a very rapid rate."

Watch how you can check in with Facebook Places

 

The Future is Anchored in the Present

Once we used to believe it will be Google and Amazon who share the power and newspapers will be dead. We had no idea about the role Facebook will play. Why? Because we are anchored in the present. We believe in linear development of media and technology. We believe that some of them will progress and evolve undisturbed, while other become extinct. Well, fortunately the universe and people are full of surprises. It is interesting though to watch this video from 2007 and see how things have already took a completely different route.

Hat tip to Helge Tennø

 

Technology Epitaph is Useless

The latest Chris Anderson's article in Wired on the death of web was rather provoking and caused quite a stir.

What always surprise me is the easiness with which we kill things around and present them as useless. Like we discard old clothes, we try to discard the technology. We've already tried to kill radio, TV and print. All three are still living and doing quite good, but the way they are used has changed.

As history shows, technologies evolve and being shaped by people and their needs they can coexist and merge.

There is some pinch of sensationalism in the way of declaring web dead. Alexis Madrigal from Atlantic responded to Anderson's article: "What's Wrong with X is Dead".

"From the vantage point of the present, it may seem that technologies are deterministic. But this view is incorrect, no matter how plausible it may seem. Cultures select and shape technologies, not the other way around, and some societies have rejected or ignored even the gun or the wheel. For millennia, technology has been an essential part of the framework for imagining and moving into the future, but the specific technologies chosen have varied. As the variety of human cultures attests, there have always been multiple possibilities, and there seems no reason to accept a single vision of the future." (David Nye, Technology Matters)

Killing the web seems like the attempt to simplify and feel more in control over the complex and unpredictable world of people behavior and interactions - choosing a single vision for the future. It is tempting to have a single vision, because it is more manageable and controllable but world keeps on evolving into plenty of parallel and intersecting paths.

There is no need to write an epitaph when nobody died.