The Trickle-Down Effect of Augmented Reality

As the lines between online and offline continue to blur, thanks to augmented reality, the question remains: will consumers use it? Like any other niche media, social network or tech tool, it is all about mainstream adoption. There has been a lot of movement in this space by various companies but the recent announcement that heavy weights Coca-Cola and McDonald’s will step into the AR ring shows that this trend is officially mainstream. When Coke and McDonald’s release their promotions for Fox’s motion picture ‘Avatar,’ exposure of augmented reality will exponentially increase by reaching consumers that otherwise would be unbeknownst to the technology. The likely boost of adoption rates will create a positive ripple effect to any other marketers looking to include AR in their media and creative strategies.

The augmented reality bandwagon has been quick to increase its passengers.  Esquire Magazine’s latest issue was full of augmented reality features. Best Buy took their shot by incorporating AR into their Sunday newspaper ads. AR has also been leveraged in more practical ways, non-marketer driven ways, like the very popular Layar application that turns your smartphone into an on-the-go AR machine. It helps you locate restaurants, stores or discover cool facts about your surroundings by pulling info from around the web. With all these cool applications of AR paired with increased exposure, it won’t be too long til AR becomes a household name.

Are you Ready for the Cloud? Well, You Made It.

This week Google unveiled glimpses of its upcoming Chrome OS, the first web-based operating system. Unlike traditional systems, the Chrome OS doesn’t operate within your computer. Every function your computer performs will live in the web. Eventually, computers running on the Chrome OS won’t need desktop software, and will run entirely in the cloud style. What does this have to do with social media? What inspired Google to pursue its own OS (besides, presumably, the possibility of being a one-stop shop for everything related to computers), are the facts that users crave faster computers and that most activities performed on computers are done or can be done on the web. What this means is that our interactions with the web are no longer external computing activities – they are truly intrinsic aspects of using a computer. This phenomenon isn’t exclusive to work and productivity. Think back to the early days of the web and what “social networking” looked like. It was an added bonus to a larger experience, whereas now it seems to be one of the stars of the show. Social media functions have become such an integral part of the web experience that again, we are seeing a shift in what we see as added bonuses and what we consider to be headlines. Social media sites aren’t just extra ways for us to communicate, they are becoming main avenues of our communications, thus making the web an extremely important part of how we interact and how we think. What Google has done with the Chrome OS is make an operating system that is thinking like a modern person. The only question is, how well will it work?

Google Chrome OS

Can Social Media Bring Social Reform?

The Obama administration certainly hopes so, and has taken its message to the Twitterverse. Today, President Obama’s 2.5 million Twitter followers were pointed to a website that offers users the ability to tweet at their representatives. Users enter their zip code to have their representative included in a tweet supporting the insurance reform bill, being voted on tomorrow.  While Obama’s attempt to bring more citizens into conversations about public policy is an interesting use of social media, the schism between old politics and new media is pretty apparent. Typing the zip code “15301” (southwestern Pennsylvania) generates the following tweet:

There’s no tweet going straight to Senator Robert Casey (he doesn’t use Twitter). The most a user can hope for in this case is for Robert Casey or the bill itself to become a trending topic.

Other senators, such as Mel Martinez of Florida, have Twitter accounts and users from their zip code generate the following types of tweets:

This tweets directly at Senator Martinez, and feels like a stronger attempt at generating actual conversation.  Isn’t that what social media is all about?

Social Media Users are Talking About Your Brand

The results of a new study were revealed today and they overwhelmingly show what marketers had hoped for: users are actively talking about brands on social media sites. Of the 3,000 study participants, 46% have talked about a product/brand on Facebook and 44%have done so on Twitter. What is more astounding are the actions then taken by these users. The study found that 48% of Twitter users who saw a brand’s name on the site then went to a search engine to look for the product.

Users (~27%) are also receptive to things like branded invitations to events, special offers (especially coupons) and promotions that are received through these sites. This finding is what I find to be most important. It demonstrates that marketers must consider such offerings when creating social media strategies. Since users have demonstrated openness to product/brand messaging, marketers need to facilitate these conversations and find ways to easily have fans and opinion leaders share related content within their friend circles. Moreover, marketers should actively track these conversations in order to address any issues and develop more informed strategies.

via MediaPost

via Adweek

Shopping is an (Online) Social Activity

Shopping has always been a great social activity. What’s better than meeting up with a couple of friends and hitting the stores to drop a few bucks? However, now that people are spending more and more of their time online in social networks, retailers are trying to stay ahead of the social media curve. 75% of the top 500 retailers have some sort of social media presence and 57% of those are on Facebook, according to a recent eMarkter study.

What differs is the approach. Some retailers have been content in relying on simple banner ads while others have sought to create richer social media communities. The best innovation has been at the hands of companies like 1-800 Flowers who have used applications to create storefronts that live directly in the social network. Reducing the need for the user to travel across different websites is key to reducing drop-off as well as just giving customers more choices of where to shop. It will be interesting to see how the retailing industry continues to create synergies within social networks.

Via AdWeek.

Taking a Bite Out of Spam

Sanford Wallace, notorious spammer of both emails and social media, has been ordered by a California court to pay Facebook $711 million in damages. Wallace even faces jail time, as he has been referred to the U.S. Attorney’s office for prosecution for criminal contempt of court.

With the 2008 ruling against him in a similar MySpace case, this brings Wallace’s owed damages to around $1 billion. That’s a lot of spam! Will we see less spammy messages in our inboxes? Probably not, but doesn’t this feel like a great revenge for having to click delete all the time?

Source: NY Times

Bloggers to hit the stalls

Today’s marketers know the importance of bloggers. With a single post, positive or negative information about a product/service can be spread throughout the ever growing blogosphere. P&G’s Charmin hopes that bloggers will help it create excitement around its “Enjoy the Go” campaign.

For five weeks, five bloggers will operate as bathroom attendants at its pop-up bathroom in Times Square. While there, the “Charmin Ambassadors” will be blogging, tweeting and facebooking about their experiences. Having personally used the pop-up bathrooms that Charmin set up in 2007, I know that there will be a lot to blog about. What I found then was a room full of plush bathrooms, singing & dancing attendants, photo-ops with the Charmin bears and an interactive map that showed where all the people “going” were from.

The five lucky bloggers will earn $10,000 for their work and demonstrates an interesting strategy choice for the consumer products giant. Instead of just relying on organic blogger outreach, they hired their own blogger team of actual consumers. Will other consumers tune into these bloggers regardless of the fact that they are being paid by Charmin? Will people even care about what is going on in a bathroom? We soon shall see.

Oh and if this job sounds like a blast, Charmin Ambassador auditions will be held Nov. 5 at New York’s Hilton Hotel.

Via Business Courier

Luxe Brands Go Social

Luxury fashion brands, which have been slow to adopt any sort of online activity, are now making their own social communities and apps. This week, to promote its new line of sunglasses aimed at 18-25 year olds, Gucci launched its own social network. At Gucci Eye Web, fans of the brand can submit their photos to be displayed in rotating 3-D Gucci Eyeweb sunglasses and instantly share their Gucci images on their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Next month, Burberry will launch its own social network, Art of the Trench, which will feature photos of international Burberry fans by photographer Scott Schuman. Members of the community will be able to comment on the photos and share this content on their other social media communities.

By taking their brands into the realm of social media, luxury retailers are reaping the benefits of increased connection to consumers and decreased costs. “The new site already connects all corners of the world,” says Robert Triefus, Worldwide Marketing and Communications Director for Gucci. “The money we’ve committed to this project is a fraction of the cost of a traditional global media plan.”

Source: WWD

Teen Mobile Seminar Schools Adults

Over at Springwise, they uncover a Dutch group that helps business folks and adults alike, acquire skills on the mobile platform. The twist is, these seminars are tought by teens and at 60 Euros and hour (roughly $95), that’s good business.

Bellendoejezo—which roughly translates to “this is how you make a call”—organizes cell phone workshops that cover topics such as using predictive text, creating contact groups, enabling Bluetooth and exploring mobile internet. Not all of the students’ students are equally advanced, though, so sometimes they’ll stick to the basics, like locking a phone’s keyboard, sending a text message and using voicemail.

Makes sense.

Microsoft Surface and AT&T Stores

The promise of the Microsoft Surface is now starting to come to life. AT&T is starting a roll out of the Surface as way to help demonstrate phone capabilities and provide services to existing phones while in store.

The big U.S. wireless provider says its retail customers will be able to place specific mobile phones on Surface’s 30-inch screen to learn about features, accessories and rate plans. They also will be able to compare two phones at a time, and use their hands to navigate a high-tech wireless coverage map.

AT&T says it plans to add more features later, such as the ability to select ringtones, graphics and other features by dragging icons of them across the screen and virtually “dropping” them onto the mobile phone.

Makes us think about the possiblities for all consumer electronics and future placements of the Surface.

via SeattlePI.com