Personalisation
One of my favourite subjects, mainly due to the positive results it can receive if done properly and something which
can be achieved through greater analysis of the customer, behaviour, buying history and other individual differentials.
Over the last few years we've seen advances in personalisation and tools to create it, be it online applications that
allow you to design your own sneaker design, wine labels, watches, bikes etc to mobile apps that suggest restaurants based
on your location, a friend, your other check-ins etc… the list is endless. It still surprises me how many companies don't
do anything, they don't even look at their own website analytics to study usage patterns, the tools are there today for free.
They still use models from the last century of ploughing money into a brainwashing formula. I'm not saying that doesn't
work in the short term, it just doesn't have the long term value of building brands and long term relationships that people
are looking for today and the next 30 years of advertising, brand marketing and media is and will be about.
Sure make snappy, disruptive and creative TV spots, but connect it to a bigger brand picture and steer that connection
into something more meaningful, a bigger experience, greater knowledge through interaction etc.
With the increase of personal data flows, tagging, liking and our sharing behaviours the potential for only being targeted
with relevant information, products and services is a must. By tapping into who we are, friends with, what we like, our
behaviours etc I hope that advertising can become more personalised. Facebook has be able of push it's IPO worth
back up recently by putting ads into mobile, tablet and phones. But I've only ever seen one advert that interested me,
why can't they suggest things based on my likes or what my friends like? I guess this is coming very soon.
into play and you can see subtle signs of this elsewhere. Prediction communication, advertising and third party tools
that help predict patterns through algorithms are set to become big. But I hope this does not defuse creativity!
A brand I seem to always use in presentations is Nike, but not because they are Nike. Yes sure they have the money to
do things on a large scale, but more importantly they tap into the right things. Over the last 6 years Nike has been able
to slowly bring other products and services into force, digital things that are personalised and take your own personal
content into a more meaningful context. They build experiences and products around people, enforcing a more
people centric model. Nike+, workout with the Xbox, mobile personalised workouts and now a real shift with Nike+ fuelband.
They weren't the first with this type of health device but it's the potential the device holds to connect the brand to new audiences.
Healthcare is a big sector which will grow dramatically in years to come. By using personal data to track your own health,
the positive brand effects this can create within a consumers mind can not be bought. Obviously this feeds back into buying
sneakers and tracksuits to workout in ;-)
Although I am referencing a large brand and case above which has been scaled over time to create spinoff
products, brands and companies need to start somewhere with personalisation and better digital databases
to create more personalisation. Start by asking things, so to create more tailored email newsletters, use cookies,
allow users to adjust content positioning on their web experience, the list is endless. The good mobile
application and startup companies have been very good at this, but more importantly it is the behind the
scenes learning, the personal data collected and the usage (what and where they click) that matters.
More about content to context coming soon!
Data
Data is the new oil (or so they say) and as the internet of things continues to grow pulling ever more data
information and insights, how to use the data for better becomes ever more relevate. On the surface this field
has a lot to do with personalisation (above) how to use data to learn about behaviours or your service, what is
working or not. To adjust quickly, rather than just saying it didn't work, let's never do that again, time to do something else.
how can we use data to actually improve peoples life and society. As cities become more and more
populated and with the vast increase and population growth of cities in the years to come, how can data
improve the functionality of the city, or road safety or eduction, the environment, energy discovery or healthcare.
The healthcare sector is set to increase dramatically and by combining healthcare with digital tools we'll be
seeing much more personal data via healthcare apps, mobile devices, digital doctors, DIY healthcare and home
hospitals become more mainstream. Predicting illness and disease will disrupt the pharmaceutical companies in
the years to come unless they can react. Illness and death is big business which is set to be vastly disrupted.
Many companies are sitting on data that can actually benefit their business, but few are using it. The ones who
learn how to leverage it will be the winners, it's not about creating fancy info graphics! Create info graphics to
help your customers understand your business, their progress, their account, a topic in big numbers…
don't do it for the sake of it. But use the knowledge and insights to leverage and improve services or to relay
a complex communication, learn from the data to create better instructions or UI design, products etc.
The evolution of personal data is something the masses are becoming more and more aware of due to services
and tools which focus on it and use it as a subtle selling point. It is natural for people to be attracted to this type
of information (if easy to understand) as it gives new insights, understanding and knowledge. Believe it or but
knowledge releases Dopamine, which might explain why people are addicted to social media or the internet or
constant connection, to gain knowledge or to not miss out on something. But that's for another blog post ;-)
Building in digital tools that allow users insight into their own behaviour has a huge benefit to companies
(in the right areas of course). Sharing content is not going away and we're starting to see apps and products
that will do this automatically. Why? Well it might be various reasons, ego, remembering moments, to lazy to
press buttons, forgets to press buttons.
The term lifelogging has been around for a while, but devices, apps and services will start to ship mainstream,
such as Google Glass, Autographer and Memoto. Obvisiouly this will take time to catch on, but has potentials as
well as downfalls. I will be exploring more about this subject in connection to AR Evolution later.
Back to TV
As media spend finally starts shifting more towards online and social media (finally) in 2013, the really exciting
place for digital application in the future will be on our TV. Or TV combined with mobile. As more people get
smart TV's and start viewing the web via their TV, the clever companies will be the ones connecting
experiences via your 2nd screen (mobile & tablet). Content will be the most valued commodity, but great UX
and UI design will add another deciding factor. Extensions such as social and interactivity should also come into
play later down the road. It's TV but not as we know it.
The popular shows on TV these days are the live ones and these create the most buzz socially. Building apps
and online (TV) experiences which enhance the entrainment is an exciting media evolution which will turn things
on its head. This will probably be more hyped this year and break into the mainstream in 2014 sometime
hopefully, or whenever Apple is ready to fully get into the game. Cable companies still make huge profits and
retain control on their models, although companies such as Netflix have moved the goal posts. How those
cable companies create new revenue models is set to become an interesting sector over the next few years.
By 2015 I hope there is more experience based communication and interactive programming via our TV.
Xbox 360 Kinect or another player may be able to jump ahead within these fields and have done already
to a certain degree. Microsoft on the whole can use the knowledge gained from the Xbox and pump it into more
products, on TV or making desktop interaction more gesture controlled, taking (HX) Human Experience to another level.
In the meantime If you are a brand you should probably start thinking more about your content in TV terms,
making your video content engaging enough to be a TV show etc. Although probably not the master plan from
the beginning, it's been interesting to see the evolution of Vice, from underground raw print magazine, to media
partner for larger brands, to the Vice TV hub, a content supplier to CNN and very soon content supplier to HBO.
Part 3 coming soon, including; AR Evolution, Collaboration and other hopefully interesting things.
