inside

Converging mobile devices. Location based services. Social media.

Buzzwords we hear so often that they start to sound like white noise. But when these technologies are linked to the way that humans live their lives, they become infinitely more interesting.

And when all three concepts work together, it’s something truly magical. Take this demo of ‘Photosynth’ from Blaise Aguera y Arcas, an architect at Microsoft Live Labs. It shows how ‘geotagged’ photos (images given real-world coordinates), contributed by a community (in this case Flickr), can be combined to create 3 dimensional virtual reproductions of real world landmarks or panoramas. It’s the perfect example of technology leveraging the collective intelligence to create something amazing (what I’m referring to happens in the latter half of this video).

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

“Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. “Perhaps the most amazing demo I’ve seen this year,” wrote Ethan Zuckerman, after TED2007. Indeed, Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and experience digital images.”

Hello. I’m Mark.

I’m the newest member of the Inside family, having come from the digital arm of a traditional ‘through-the-line’ agency. My role at Inside is simply to be the voice of the consumer. Too often digital marketers get carried away with buzz technologies or clever applications, all of which are great for getting planning geeks like me excited, but lose sight of our raison d’être – to understand how people live their lives, and how brands can become a part of those lives.

And the role that brands play in those lives is rapidly changing.

By now we’ve all heard about the “fragmentation of media”, how consumers, with so many media choices, will tend not to just choose just one, but a few at any given time – creating a state of ‘continuous partial attention’ that makes it increasingly difficult for brands to get their message through.

We already know that consumers are now able to filter communications like never before, as they are bombarded by thousands of advertising messages every day. You’d also know that, as PVRs (personal video recorders, e.g. Sky+), MP3 players, VoD (video on demand) and P2P (peer to peer technology) gain in popularity, the likelihood of a consumer sitting through an entire TV or radio ad recedes rapidly.

These are difficult times for brand marketers. Consumers are harder to reach and virtually impossible to engage. All of this means that in order to engage consumers with brands (and in turn generate sales and engender loyalty), we must give them something of value in return for their precious and scarce attention.

Add this to the trend for consumers to spend more and more time out of home and away from work, and it becomes much less effective to rely on the ‘first’ and ‘second’ screens of TV and PC exclusively to reach consumers – so how do we deliver the value we need to engage with them?

Yahoo! Has said that “more people will be accessing the internet via their mobile phones than their PCs in 10 years time,” and many are inclined to agree. Yahoo! boss Terry Semel has added up the numbers: “About one billion people use PCs to access the internet, but three billion people use mobile devices.”

With increasingly advanced technology, and with more consumer-friendly pricing structures being announced (flat rate data plans, ad-funded discounts and services), the mobile device is increasingly becoming a channel through which we can add the kind of value we need to truly connect with our consumers.

This basic premise leads us to the philosophy behind Inside’s core strategic model, what we’ve dubbed ‘pervasive digital marketing’.

Pervasive digital marketing is focused on delivering value to consumers across a variety of portable digital channels and devices.

This value may simply come in the form of targeted and relevant product communications. However it is more likely to be a useful application on their mobile phone, an entertaining piece of media that can be downloaded at a wi-fi point onto a consumer’s laptop or PSP, a helpful application on an Interactive Kiosk in a retail outlet, or an exclusive track downloaded onto their iPod.

Of course, the mobile phone sits at the very centre of this strategy. It has become such an indispensable part of the everyday lives of our consumers that it creates a multitude of opportunities for brands to connect – if those consumers can see the value in allowing these connections.

So, value-based pervasive digital marketing utilises the devices in our consumer’s world to give them cool and useful stuff; stuff that makes people want to spend time with the brand; stuff that effectively communicates what we want to say about our brand.

This blog will revolve around the idea or pervasive digital marketing; how brands across the globe are doing it well, how entrepreneurs are creating platforms that enable it, and (of course), how Inside can help your business to create effective marketing programmes for your brand!

Of course, getting consumers to notice us is only half the job. To forge truly strong brand relationships, we must invite consumers to participate in our brand, through ‘traditional’ interactions such as via sales, offers, competitions, customer service and CRM messaging or, increasingly via additional opportunities that leverage the power of consumers to shape the brand itself – such as ‘experience co-creation’, via transparent and collaborative corporate communications programmes, or through the creation / remixing / appropriation of brand content… but that’s a subject for another day and another blog!

Intuitive Media has launched a protected social learning network for children on Nintendo DS, PSP and Palm T.

By bringing their SuperClubsPLUS.com community for 6—12 year olds to mobile devices such as Nintendo DS, PSP and Palm T, children can now enjoy protected social networking and email wherever they go. The service is immediately available to the 110,000 children and 12,000 teachers already using the SuperClubsPLUS service in schools across the UK.

For their protection, all members are verified through their schools before joining the community and further protected by their teachers and Intuitive Media’s team of professional mediators, who ensure no-one is abusing the system.

SuperClubsPLUS has been used in schools across the UK since 2001. Intuitive Media’s Protected Learning Communities have won 13 major awards, including a Bafta and a Guinness World Record, for creating innovative learning tools, contribution to child safety and extending learning beyond the school walls. Children build homepages, email each other and join in a range of collaborative activities.

The mobile version of Intuitive Media’s GoldStarCafe.net — the protected learning community for 11—14 year olds is also under development.

Robert Hart, Co-Founder of Intuitive Media said, “We know that 40% of our users already have a PSP or Nintendo DS at home and we can now extend protected social networking and learning to these children wherever they are — in the library, at home and even on holiday. We also expect schools will subsidise hand—helds to open up protected mobile learning and online collaboration to more children.  

“With convergence of devices continuing at a great pace it is only a matter of time before mobile social learning becomes mainstream.   It is our mission to ensure that children receive all the benefits, without becoming prey to those who wish them harm.”

A number of Local Authorities, already using SuperClubsPLUS on traditional PCs are planning to extend the project to handhelds. 

Blyk, a free mobile operator aimed at young people, is to launch in the UK in mid-2007, and will be funded by advertising rather than customer subscriptions.
The firm has been co-founded by Pekka Ala-Pietilä, former president of Nokia and Antti Öhrling, Chairman and CEO of Contra Group (pictured) who were university friends

Blyk is a mobile media operator designed to let brands and agencies directly interact and engage with young people and receive real-time feedback.

The operator has been in development since January 2006 and is backed by individual private investors and Sofinnova Partners.

Commenting on the announcement, CEO Pekka Ala-Pietilä said: “We have been talking to a number of major brands and agencies about the opportunities to reach and engage with the 16-24 year old market via Blyk. We are going public now to invite all creative marketers and advertisers to join us in shaping this exciting new channel.”

The service allows advertisers a ”one-stop” mobile marketing suite including a consumer database for targeted messages, tools for campaign planning, tracking and follow up. The service is scheduled to launch first in the UK market in mid-2007, with other European markets to follow.

Co-founder Antti Öhrling added: “Our Blyk business model brings a fresh approach to the entire industry. We’ve assembled an outstanding and energized team to make this innovation a reality.”

For more information go to http://blyk.com/

Advertisers in India, large and small alike, are beginning to gravitate towards FM mobile radio as an excellent mobile marketing opportunity.

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FM radio is now available on most mobile handsets, and offers many opportunities for advertisers to promote their products and reach a mass youth audience at a fraction of the price of conventional TV advertising.

Under the Indian Government’s FM-II expansion plan, about 300 more new radio stations will be set up across 91 cities in the coming months.

Do me a favour!,.. kid go to school to learn not to chat to their mates!,..American parents are overwhelmingly opposed to banning mobile phones in schools.

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Scheduling and safety concerns are the main reasons why parents want their children to have access to cell phones during school hours. Virtually all parents want to keep the lines of communication with their children open during an emergency or a threatening situation, and 84% want to be in contact with their children in case of a change in school scheduling. Parents, however, are not oblivious to the social distractions of mobiles, and 66 percent are concerned about their children overusing text messaging or mobiles instead of focusing on school or homework and using mobiles to cheat.

Parents agree that school boards should be exploring alternatives to a mobile ban. Seventy-five percent of parents also agree that their mobile provider should offer a feature which allows them to limit their child’s cell phone use at school.

In keeping with these parent demands and concerns , ACE*COMM is offering a service called Parent Patrol to mobile service providers as a tool for parents who want to take charge of their child’s cell phone use. Parent Patrol enables parents to monitor and set limits on their child’s phone use by setting boundaries on numbers called, time of day, number of minutes used, and services accessed (for example, text messaging).

Other key findings from the survey: 78 percent of parents think it is reasonable to give a child a cell phone at the age of 14 or younger, and 59 percent of parents would provide a cell phone to a child under the age of 12 if their cell phone provider offered easy-to-use parental control capabilities.

South-African based software developer POGO has developed and launched the world’s first mobile phone file-sharing platform. POGO is looking to capitalize on youth demand for mobile phone applications with social benefits, such as file-sharing. The application entered the market in May 2006 after several months of development and testing.
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Here’s one for all you gadet freak’s, the ‘Bone Conduction Receiving System’!!:

7 augustus 2006

DoCoMo develops Finger phone

(Source: NTTDocomo) The FingerWhisper currently being developed at the NTT DoCoMo Yokosuka R&D center, in its quest for future communications possibilities, is a new kind of wearable telephone handset that utilizes the human hand as part of the receiver. Worn on the wrist, this watch-like terminal converts voice to vibration through an actuator and channels this vibration through the bones to the tip of the index finger. By inserting this finger into the ear canal, the vibration can be heard as voice. We call this process the bone conduction receiving mechanism.

For those of you that dont know!,.. we are hosting this mobile seminar on the 13th of September,.. let me know if you dont have an invite and would like to attend,.. numbers are very limited now!

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SEMINAR INVITATION ‘Meet the Customer’

You are exclusively invited to our mobile marketing seminar which will focus on consumer insights into how your target audience is using multimedia services in mobile today.

In the fast developing world of mobile technology, thousands of products and services are emerging that are technology-led. However, the age old lesson in the world of business is that products and services must be customer-led. Has the mobile industry forgotten about the customer?

MINICK and INSIDE would like you to MEET THE CUSTOMER. We will share with you exclusive market research, case studies, and insights into the world of customer-led mobile marketing.Key areas addressed during the session include:

• How do consumers use their mobile phones?
• Do they want mobile marketing from brands?
• What is their appetite for mobile videos, mobile TV, and user generated content?
• How can brands leverage mobile marketing to speak to their customers?
• What partners and tools do brands needs to power their mobile marketing?

As we have just moved to new offices in Clerkenwell, we would be delighted if you can stay after the seminar and join us for informal office warming drinks!

Date: 13 September 2006

Venue:

3rd Floor

Clerkenwell House

67 Clerkenwell Road

EC1R 5BL

Time: 5:30pm – 7:00pmEvent at venue will include: Drinks and Canapés

Important: This event is by invitation only and capacity is limited so RSVP as soon as possible. If you have a colleague or business associate that would like to attend, please have them email us.

ABOUT MINICK

MINICK is a pioneer of interactive mobile solutions. MINICK provides quality end-to-end mobile solutions for consumer brands such as Adidas, for network operators such as T-Mobile, Telefonica, and Swisscom, and for media companies such as MTV, RTL Newmedia, Channel 4, and Universal Music. MINICK has earned a reputation for helping build leaders in mobile marketing and mobile content in these industries. MINICK has offices in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the USA and the UK.

Website: http://www.minick.net

ABOUT INSIDE

Inside is a digital mobile marketing agency specialising in advising and managing mobile marketing projects for international businesses. Inside answer the following questions

What is the right mobile strategy for your business?

How do I maximise the value of my mobile budgets?

How do I evaluate and select the right supplier/s?

Who will manage the implementation?

How do I evaluate the success of the campaign?

Inside continually researches, develops and executes smart ideas that engage consumers.

Email:info@insidemob.com

Website: http://www.insidemob.com