Marketer's Lab

Marketing To The Sixth Sense

Sometimes I wonder about whether many of the emerging marketing technologies are really solving the real issues we have as marketers.  There are some amazing new tools out there, but there are also plenty of marketing technology "solutions" I come across that look like a technology trying to find a problem rather than a new tool to address increasingly complex marketing challenges.  I am both a big marketing technology evangelist and a huge marketing technology skeptic.  The presentation below from the TED Conference, aside from being a real jaw-dropper, gave me a new perspective on how technology and marketing really fit together. 

I have no idea who actually said this, but someone much smarter than I once said something along the  lines of "the more powerful technology becomes, the less visible it becomes".  This idea of a more seamless integration of technology to our everyday lives is already happening at an amazing speed.  What we now call "Social Media" is quickly becoming so normalized that it's already almost ceased to be something separate, but rather an extension of ourselves and one of the multitude of ways we communicate and connect on a daily basis. 

As you watch the TED presentation, think about how the experiences and capabilities Pattie Maes and her genius student Pranav Mistry showcase will alter the way we will need to communicate with the world as marketers.  If you're like me, you will come away with new resolve about the need for incredible new tools and a completely new perspective on marketing.  

Augmented Reality Marketing

I've heard some pretty outrageous claims made by marketing technology vendors over the years, probably a whole post unto itself, maybe enough for a book.  When I received an email the other day from Noora at Metaio asking if I was interested in learning more about their new augmented reality product I thought this could either be the coolest technology ever created or the most blatant and ridiculous claim yet.  Either way, I was completely hooked by the pitch and had to find out more about it.

Here's what Mataio says about augmented reality right from their home page - "As a pioneer in the area of augmented reality technology, Metaio develops software products for systems driven by visual interaction in both real and virtual worlds. Our Unifeye software platform not only lets you place 3D animations directly into live video streams, but also supports the seamless integration of images from the external user environment."

Still a little fuzzy?  I thought it was helpful to dig into one of their tactical examples.  For a campaign  with Mini, they created a direct mail piece that includes elements which work with their technology.  When the direct mail piece is held in front of a webcam, a complete 3D "mini-Mini" is projected onto the surface of the direct mail piece.  Huge wow factor!

A similar example in Retail, working with the folks at Lego, Mataio created special packaging which when held in front of special in-store kiosks shows the shopper a 3D image of the assembled Lego toy. Great way to bring the product to life beyond just nice packaging. 

There is a small video segment on the Matiao website that does a great job of showcasing their work and the different possibilities.  It's easy to get excited about the "cool factor", but I do see some extremely interesting opportunities with this kind of tool.  If it can bring a cereal box to life, almost anything is possible (watch the video for this).    

Pricing for a campaign like this is hard to pin down, not surprisingly it varies dramatically based on scope and complexity.  No word on exactly how the use of their technology increased the results of these campaigns, but its not hard to see how Mataio makes any campaign much more engaging.  Yet another new marketing technology to watch.

Speed Date - Feedroom

If you're exploring web video one of the vendors likely to show up on the radar is Feedroom.  The team at Feedroom was kind enough to spend a few minutes on the phone walking me through their application and sharing a little about their business.  One of the big things the Feedroom team was pretty excited about was the launch of their new Feedroom 4.0 platform.  The new platform has been completely re-architected and utilizes the newest infrastructure technologies.  They feel this is a huge differentiator and provides their clients a host of advantages in terms of reliability, scalability and overall product capability. 

The Feedroom client base is evenly split between media companies/publishers and enterprise organizations using the Feedroom platform for internal communications.  Feedroom recently acquired Clearstory, a digital asset management solution whose technology is now used to power those elements of the Feedroom platform.  The brief overview I saw looked great, plenty of horsepower to manage a variety of digital assets. 

Amongst their roster of clients, Feedroom has a diverse lineup including everone from the Department of Defense to Sundance Institute to ESPN.  Pricing is always tough to nail down but my takeaway was that for a very small operation Feedroom might be a little pricey, but if you have a little budget to work with and plan to do a lot with video, they have a very nice solution.  They have a nice little piece on their site that gives a feel for their overall positioning. 

Antisocial Media

I maintain a presence on a couple social networks, but I'm not on Facebook, I don't Twitter and I only post to my blog every couple days. (Pause while marketers reading this gasp and then transition to chuckles about what a Social Media loser I must be).  My Google reader,  until a recent "reader bankruptcy" where I nuked everything and started over, was a logjam of unread posts and other content.  With all the buzz about everything social, my inability/choice to limit my social stuff has me feeling a little antisocial.

Yes we're in the "age of conversation" and 'everyone is smarter than the few" and we all need to be transparent and collaborate while we watch the "world get smaller", but how much is too much?  I came across a piece by Phil Johnson over at AdAge who did a nice post on this very subject.  Phil also points to a more inflammatory post by Peter Madden who calls out "Facebook as a freak show", not surprisingly drawing the ire of many a Facebook fan. Interesting to read the comments on the freak show post, here's a couple excerpts: 

From the "You just don't get Social Media" camp:

"you seem to be echoing the standard sentiments of a neophyte user"

"Um, is this a post from about 3 years ago that's been accidentally re-published? I can't quite believe it would be current."

"Facebook is an early look at the future of digital advertising and social/consumer CRM."

"Facebook is to the future of advertising as Google was for search."

"If this article is satire, it's only mildly amusing."

"If the author is serious, then he's just one more dinosaur stuck in the tar pit that is traditional advertising."

From the "Skeptical of Social Media" camp:

"I'm tired of hearing about who posted what on your message board. Get back to work"

"Facebook, like any form or social discourse, faces the risk that the overall tone of the conversation is dominated by the lowest form of discourse." - Robert Heath

"I guess if your looking for depth in an online community stop playing in the shallow end of the social networking pool"

"a conversation consisting of "Peter is getting on a plane in Las Vegas... Brittany is having french toast for breakfast... Gary has the sniffles" is a bore in ANY medium."

Religion, politics and now apparently Social Media?  Why is this so hard?  My theory is that everyone is looking for the "right answer", when there isn't one.  Every audience is different, every product is unique and the marketing dynamics for every campaign vary.  To claim Social Media, however you define it, works or doesn't ignores all these unique characteristics. 

I am wildly passionate about the opportunities Social Media makes available, but also appropriately skeptical that it's a magical world where all your marketing dreams can come true.  If there's one thing Social Media has taught us is that there are few absolutes, probably not a bad thing to keep in mind as we evolve along together.

If A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words...

I have to admit I'm pretty enamored with web video right now.  Web video is benefiting/suffering from much of the same hype as social media/social media marketing/etc. There's a wealth of coverage about how web video works with/against TV, how publishers are monetizing it, how marketers are using it and how it fits into the overall marketing and cultural media landscape.  Riveting perspectives and ideas out there in all the aforementioned areas, but I worry with so much attention on these other areas, we might be losing sight of one of the biggest web video opportunities.  The opportunity to bring a story to life. 

I think this is what advertising icon Lee Clow had in mind when he recently said:

“The ability to use the internet in terms of great brand storytelling is still at its infancy,” he said. “The internet advertising media, cross my fingers and hope to God, with bandwidth and with some ability, is going to become more artful; it’s going to become more interesting. … But it’s going to take creative people to embrace the possibilities of what you can do on the internet in terms of advertising and storytelling and make it a little better and smarter”.

It's easy to get sucked into the gadgetry, there are a multitude of incredibly exciting tools and applications making web video more affordable and accessible.  The technologies are tactical, web video strategy should be more about stories.  Many marketers just don't use the "marketing muscles" that drive the process of creating communication strategies involving video.  Not to stereotype too much, but it seems the B2B space has the hardest time with this.  

What every marketer should be crazy excited about is the fact we now have a medium with the proven ability to communicate messages in extremely powerful ways, the tools for creating, delivering and monetizing this content are getting better everyday and consumers in every category are embracing quality web video content.  Web video is a medium for all marketers, large and small, B2B and B2C in every industry. I challenge you to think about how you and your organization are using web video, and if you're not, consider why.  You have a story to tell, think about how to bring it to life with video.