The Top Summer Gadgets for 2011

Every six months, I am looking out for the latest gadgets in the world that I think my readers might like as well – and I combine them with a draw. Of all products that I present below you will be able to win one of them. Cool, right…!?

The last time around christmas, I focussed on the 7 brand gadgets. This time, I will keep it more general on holiday gadgets which have a special design or technology feature that caught my attention. And like in December, every product reminds me of one post that I have written in the last six months…

Time is the new ROI – Casio G-Shock

Our days seem to be getting shorter and shorter… Time will become the new ROI. The reason is not that our time system has changed. Our days are challenged by speed of the internet which sometimes is like on an airjet that travels on high G forces in a race to be the first to know and to spread. We want to do much more than only ten years ago. In my eyes, we need to watch out for our own personal resources as well as the environment in order not to waste more energy than necessary.

I like… It’s fresh summer colour, the tough solar power, the multi-band 6 atomic timekeeping and the centrifugal force resistance surpassing 12G. Just an eye-catching gadget…

Gamify the beach – Angry Birds (Rovio)

The success story from Angry Birds is probably comparable to the Tamagotchi hype in 1996-1998 (until 2010 over 76 Tamagotchis were sold globally). If we look at Angry Birds today, there were 300 Mio. downloads for the app, 120 Mio. active users so far according to one of the latest interviews with founder Peter Vesterbecka. And one in seven people in the world seem to be fans of the brand. So, why not win an exclusive The Strategy Web package of their coolest merchandising products?!

I like… It’s easy to play, you can jump to and fro, just the way you manage to play and you are a kid again when you are playing, immediately. Just the game of the year – and not only for kids…

Relax in 3D – Samsung HT-D7200

People think our world will become more 3D with the evolution of screen technology around us. However, although Augmented Reality and barcodes are a fantastic mobile technology as well as an extension for print and TV that connects boths world, offline and online, the technology is more 2D barcode based than 3D. Television has moved ahead in technology and companies like Samsung are heading ino a new era by transforming 2D films in stunning 3D ones.

I like… The white design and built in Wi-Fi technology that makes it easier for our “Homo Buzz” generation” to watch and share on bigger screens. Just a stylish gadget…

Colour your living room – Sitting Bull Sitzsack Candy

Lounging in a nice bean back, listening to great music and enjoying the pictures and videos you have taken throughout your holiday in… Well, how can I know where you are traveling to. ;-)

I like… The colourful Union-Jack spirit, and I think this is a fashion statement – not white and black. Just a relaxing gadget…

Capture your life – Casio Tryx EX-TR-100

Years ago, Europeans and Americans have laughed about people from Asian countries capturing every little piece of their sight-seeing trips. Today, our young generation shares their lives through cameras like the Casio Exilim Ex TR 100, upload parts of events, or even apply for jobs by using cameras like these to describe their lives. Displays will organize our future and are a great tool to describe situations at work, to illustrate products and services without perfect product orchestration. Think about how you could make use of such cameras…

I like… It’s a stylish tech product with an easy twistable 360 degree frame body. Just an innovative gadget…

Stream every song in the world – SONOS Play:3

In the past, we had black stereo systems as big as cupboards. Times are changing. Today, SONOS streams up our lives. Their latest product Play:3 gives the option to use the speaker in a horizontal and vertical position. Thus, the system will fit exactly where it needs to go. Internal motion sensors detect the speaker’s orientation, adjusting the output so that you get the ideal sound wherever you are in the room.

I like…The amazing sound and the smartphone app which allow to use the system whichout another remote control in my dining room. Just a cool sound system…

C3PO saves your data – MIMOCO

This last gadget of this series found my son. As you might imagine from the picture: He is a real Star Wars® fan. When Volkswagen produced the funny commercial video for the Super Bowl, I had to give him my iPhone every time I saw him. He just loved the video. Yesterday, some promotion flyer came into our house and guess what he found… These funny USB MIMOCO flash drives. I had to promise him to write about them. That’s what you do for your kids…

I like…USB drives in most cases are just uncool. Tese are not! Just a geek’s gadget…

How to enter the competition?
Most companies have given me one product for a draw. Just write a Retweet (RT), comment, send us an email, and tell us which product you like most and why. Then you will get a ticket for the competition to win one of the products!

End of participation and date of draw: 31.08.2011. Good luck!

News Update – Best of the Day

Looking to increase the number of people who access your Facebook apps? A recent MIT study gives three insights marketers should watch out for…
1. Adding a personalized message feature (such as, “Hey! check out my new favorite app”) substantially increases adoption (three times more effective per message).
2. Notifications and invites outperform ad campaigns used in their recruitment phase on Facebook. Viral strategies are up to 10 times more effective than banner ads in converting users and around twice as effective as email advertising.
3. If companies and brands are looking to secure the most amount of committed users inside of a campaign app, personalized messages might be the way to go.
The study could be summarized that we are still in a trial-and-error mode in what works, what doesn’t work, and “how to improve–instead of choosing one strategy and praying it was better than all of the others”.

Finding valueable Augmented Reality apps is a time-consuming effort. Tripwire Magazine has done a trip through the AR world and found 45 (I would say 20) interesting iPhone apps that are worth exploring. My favorite five ones are… Star Walk, Yelp, Golfscape GPS Rangefinder, Theodolite Pro, and the best branded apps Stella Artois – Bar Guide.

Do you know what sharing means? One of the greatest sharing campaign comes from Casa do Zezinho: Share Project. Watch it, spread the idea, and support the campaign, so it can be expanded throughout the countires that could need it…!

News Update – Best of the Day

About one year ago Twitter started introducing their new monetization model: Promoted Tweets. Twitter expects 150 Mio. USD revenue this year with the program. Now, one year later the first “success story” have been published, and Gordon Mc Millan writes a nice summary “Do Twitter ads work?“. Not really, it seems…

Is tablet computing changing the future of the whole computer industry? Who can say that today? However, since tablets are equipped with advanced sensors like high-resolution cameras, augmented reality has become an interesting opportunity to facilitate help for customers, i.e. in the form of manuals. Metaio explains in their latest video how this works…

Have you ever wondered why Microsoft bought Skype? This infographic by Jess3 might have an answer for you. The infographic highlights the dynamic of geosocial networking, and the relative size of social networks, like Skype, Twitter or Foursquare among others.

News Update – Best of the Day

Are you suffering the FOMO effect with your Social Media efforts? Don’t know what FOMO means? No it is not “Female Only/Male Only Fellowships” or “Former Mormon”… It is the “Fear of Missing Out” that Millenials describe in a study conducted by MTV. Colleen Taylor quotes that 58 percent of study participants agreed that “when I’m unplugged, I worry that I’m missing out on something.” And although 66% stated that “what I post online defines who I am,”, they also admit that being always on is exhausting. One of the drivers for FOMO is the fear of Social Rejection. And what that causes can be read here.

A lot of media companies think about the future of publishing these days. Hugh Macleod cites Seth Godin and his theory that “The book doesn’t matter. The conversation matters”. I especially love the idea of the global microbrand which will become more and more relevant in the future. A shame that there is not really an easy way to monetize these tiny brands the way we have done it for decades…

Reporters without Borders wants to report about the real (life). Publicis Brussels created a nice augmented reality campaign that is another version of the extension of print to mobile. In the campaign the journalists talk about what is really happening in countries by using the pictures of leading politicians of different countries and replacing their mouth with an iPhone that tells the journalistic truth…

Web 3.0 – Let’s find a new title…

Many web evangelists are sharing their views about the future of the next web these days. What will The Web 3.0 be, and how will it be named? For years people have foreseen The Semantic Web. Some might say, it is The Mobile Web, and know how to illustrate the opportunities (i.e. Augmented Reality) in their video.

Others deny this theory and state it is The Spatial Web.

“What tend to define Web 3.0 as not semantic, but rather the extension of the Web 1.0 (content) and Web 2.0 (Social Graph) into the spatial domain. Web 3.0 web content and social nodes are both tagged with spatial relationships and able to form social relationships based on current location. (…) We at the Web 3.0 Lab thing that by adding more spatial dimensions you will get improved semantic understanding. Much of our social understanding is spatial. Reasoning that some people hope to get out of triplestores we think will emerge out of geo-tagging of information. Spatial arrangements of data will drive interesting conclusions about how that data relates to the real world, how it is used, and therefore what it means.”

And if we listen to the conversation of Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare, and Robert Scoble, at this year’s Web 2.0 conference, then the power of location-based data will be connecting the dots of user behaviour for future business and customer service strategies. Dennis envisions the future of Foursquare in “listening for what’s going on around you (…) You’re walking down the street and normally you eat lunch, but you haven’t yet. And Foursquare will tell you that you’re close to a sandwich place you read about in the New York Times three weeks ago. And that’s what you want to try.”

Thinking about the development of location-based technology the Web seems to move away from being The Global Web to The Local Web.

In the end, some proclaim Web 3.0 will be The Contextual Web.

“It is a robust procedural grid that understands us, and responds appropriately given the user’s current context.”

Spot On!
Isn’t it funny how we all try to invent our own Web 3.0 stamp as web specialists? And I could imagine different other namings or titles. The Authentic Web. The Realtime Web. The Live Web. And be sure, I will find some explanations for all of the above named. In the end, the Web is about people. People invented and continue to drive the Web – from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 – now more conversational, engaging and transactional than ever before. So, why not name it The People’s Web or The Human(ity) Web?

You decide. What title seems most appropriate for you? Come on, let’s discuss…

Is mobile the future extension of print (and TV)?

I have always quoted that there is a future for print. In trains, in planes and on quiet places where you will always be on your own… However print might need some partner media: mobiles… to becomes 3-D reality in combination with them.

The Commonwealth Bank used a Sydney computer graphics firm called Explore Engage and let them create a 3-D mobile extension. The print ad uses a smartphone’s camera to connect the print creative (launched in Melbourne’s mX commuter daily newspaper last week) with the 3-D reader software in the phone. The smartphone then opens a virtual town on the phone’s screen in which a virtual sales person introduces some of the Commonwealth Bank real estate properties.

The smartphone all of a sudden makes print (ads) attractive again. Augmented reality (AR) extends the opportunities of the static print value into a new engaging mobile world. Just think about the opportunities… Wallpapers could be scanned and then virtual promotions or commercials could appear on mobile screens on-the-go selling new products and services. Previews of movies could be taken from print ads instantly. The future of print seems to be mobile…

PS: Although it might be a bit challenging for some people, TV has also new opportunities to extend their offering. Just watch the latest KIA Optima advertising idea which also used AR technology to get people engaged in advertising…

News Update – Best of the Day

Does your surname start with letters tale in the alphabet? Then you are as a consumer under the “last name effect”. A research by Massey Graduate School of Business at Belmont University uncovers a theory which assumes that people with letters in the end of the alphabet are first to buy things, writes the Times. I am already seeing marketers checking their databases and sending out emails and promotions to uplift sales…

Social Media is good for humans gathering real-time information. However, IT pros and B2B decision makers still turn to traditional information resources first. According to a panel study by Chadwick Martin Bailey states that IT trade publications, IT vendor web sites, and specialized IT online user forums/communities are top information resources IT professionals use when looking for work related information. When IT pros are using “social” media, 73% approach online communities and IT online forums. In social networks LinkedIn (45%) comes in as number one, then Facebook (28%) and Twitter (19%) when they are looking for information.

Augmented reality will play a big role in the future of mobile. Nassir Navab and Tobias Blum at Technische Universität Munich developed a magic mirror that generated an overlay of a video image with volume visualization from a CT volume. The basis is Kinect technology that allows tracking of users without additional markers. Imagine a doctor has this tool to ct scan patients in real time? How exciting and educational (if bones and organs are tagged) could a visit there become…

Personal Scoring Index = The future of digital identity?

Three years ago, I was sitting together with a colleague in a coffee shop. It was snowing. We were watching the snowflakes falling down. We were talking some philosophy on how the future of individuality will look like ten years ahead, refering to the snow flakes and how their “individual dna” changes the world around us into a new one we have never seen before.

Sure, we were not sure what the future will bring. However, that day we were realizing some critical development that people define themselves through blog posts (like our fathers did with books), reviews (Amazon and the likes), ratings (in communities and networks, not only social ones…), and comments on articles and posts on websites all over the world. We saw that CV’s might loose their relevance for job search as there was an option to recommend a person’s capabillities and intelligence just by checking their digital engagement, output – their digital DNA. The feeling that humanity and ethic values will have a massive effect on how people might be defined from the outside world was obvious to us. Just like “perfect” snow flakes have somehow perfect formats than others. They have scored and thus indexed themselves as superior to the others.

Today, I know, see and read that scoring and indexing becomes a crucial part of our lives, our individuality, and our identity. Although it might just affect those who are really active social web users… for now. Still, the trend is alive. Platforms are tracking our digital footprints, our shopping behaviour like Blippy, our deepest desires, and try to predict our future purchase decision. The question is not whether we will continue to score value to our index, and/or if others will follow. It is more like… Will social pofiles, writing status updates, and sharing brain value enhance our individuality, and thus how will this influence our credibility? And who or which organization or association will be judging upon it? Or even more important, who will secure the validity of such an index process?

Just imagine we had some kind of trusted source or association that knows our scoring index on the personal likelihood of sharing some piece of information, the potential of reach and relevance? Ideas, news, rumors, and visions around brands, products and services would be addressed to that person via a newly-created trust agency. Agencies and brands would be much more interested in the long-tail ad market, in bloggers or in social medians in general. Artifical user reach would be shifting to real personal relevance. Brand intensity could be enlarged by user credibility. If the users voluntarily share their believe in brands, products and companies. But is this realistic? It must be, or how could Facebook pages have become so important for some of us? We love to score, define and index ourselves via the social web. And personal search engines like 123people or yasni are just two examples of possible scoring index platforms that undermine our aasumptions.

Obviously the social web will be changing into a pervasive web which people need to be aware of (and understand). Semantic impact needs to evolve, become a trustworty basis for credible metric which people could rely upon. And how does the amout of time invested in web engagement pay into the credit of our professional individuality? Is less more, or more less? How will Google change it’s algorithm and thereby the impact on our personal scoring index? Should we invest in Facebook, Diaspora or on Path (which by its definition may become the real base for our personal brandvangelism). And just think about the possibilities if you can match the personal index in a room via mobile and augmented reality tools? There will be no way around a personal web manager controling, checking and optimizing your personal branding in the future. Don’t you think?

“Like Larry Page and Sergey Brin changed the way websites are measured with their Pagerank, reputation scores will change the way people will be treated in the future. Reputation scores will change the classical customer relationship management as it was done bei companies in the past and will enable them to identify opinion leaders within their customers and attract them with special offers and treatment in order to use them as evangelists for their products. Knowing who the most valuable peers are provides marketing experts a complete new angle of doing campaigns – offline and online,” says Marcel Hollerbach, CEO of SiRANK (…a company that is working on a business model on indexing people’s reputation).

I am just waiting that there will be a platform that aggregates all the data that we leave as score data on the web, and that this platform then indexes us. Or is that a threat? Already becoming reality when we look at Klout, the first personal scoring index? Or is it just an assessment of social media influence?

Today, the snow flakes keep falling down…. Many of us have built an intense relationship on the basis of sharing and matching our most inner brain credentials. We work on our personal scoring index and hope whenever we need to differentiate ourselves from others, our social graph can enrich our digital identity.

Do you still wonder if and in which way some format of Personal Scoring Index (PSI) could become alive…?

dmexco 2010 – Flashback in Tweets & Quotes

The main message of the dmexco 2010 can be concluded as follows…

Marketers have to face the fast dynamics of a changing advertising industry. The new topics they will be tackling in the future are predictive behavioral targeting, multiscreen targeting, augmented reality as well as mobile device advertising and … of course Social Media.

Facing the social web challenge, this means marketers have to look for conversation with their clients, whilst still being authentic, honest, human, friendly, open, conversational, responsive. Business relevant topics are not meant to cross their minds such as contact management and generation, quantitative ROI measurement or sales-driven aspects – and I am not even talking of lead nurturing. At least from a social media user-perspective…

Respect to all marketeers who can make this challenge happen in the future!

My flashback…?
Doing the co-moderation of the conference program was a very exhiting and interesting job. It gave me the opportunity to talk to great marketers (Sidney Mock, Spil Games and Manish Mehta, Dell Inc.), real thought-leaders of the Internet industry (Russell Buckley, AdMob Inc. and Tom Bedecarrè, AKQA) and just fabulous web personalities (Harry Huj, Pepsico Investment and Dean Donaldson, Mediamind).

As there was not much time to look around the halls and the booths, I would like to summarize the event with the 10 tweets and quotes that represent the value, the mood and the atmosphere of dmexco from my perspective.

Future
1. dmexco 2010: The vision of the leaders http://bit.ly/bRyrlQ via @MkDirecto

Augmented Reality
2. Never heard of “augmented reality”? Check out the Museum of London case study http://bit.ly/aucZ4Y via Kaizenadv

iPad
3. Study #iPad Effects: “80 per cent use the iPad predominantly at home” #dmexco #research (translated) via tomorrowfocus

Gaming
4. Sidney Mock, Spil Games, counts 650 million online gamers worldwide via dmexco (More gamers than Facebook users…).

China
5. Harry Hui (Pepsico): “Los consumidores chinos se mueven a otro ritmo”. http://bit.ly/czFA8x via lpittol85

Social Media
6. Great interview with @ManishatDell (my boss) about the value of social media for #dell from the dmexco conf. http://bit.ly/9pjxaF via DennisMSmith

Facebook
7. Joanna Shields: “Marketing develops from a one night stand towards constant connection and ongoing conversations.” #dmexco #Facebook via dmexco

Mobility
8. Dean Donaldson shows the relativity of the mobile progress, reading out a SMS he received during the Mobile Debate. It tells him how expensive roaming is and explains how ISPs limit mobile opportunities like in the AOL age some years ago.

Future Media
9. The future of the media is mobile. Shame *none* of the world’s design/PR agencies have realised: http://cot.ag/dolCIO via Adam Westbrook

Summary
10. Tom Bedecarré, #AKQA, is excited about #dmexco: “What a high energy event with so many people!” via dmexco

Spot On!
After sharing my view, I would appreciate to get your ideas and thoughts. What did you think of dmexco 2010? How did you like the conference program or the debate hall concept? What was positive and negative? Did any of you use the blogger lounge? If so, what did you like or miss? Looking forward to your feedback…

PS: Next dmexco?: Cologne, September, 21. and 22, 2011 !

Foto Credits: Horizont

News Update – Best of the Day

Do you know which brands, names and people are the Twitter, Facebook or YouTube stars? Check out which brand has most followers, which Facebook page most fans (or likes? – sorry cannot help it…) or most viewers at YouTube. Just go to Famecount.

Guinness is for strong men and in some way ‘It’s Alive Inside’. By putting RFID technology inside rugby balls and on players the brand made their claim real. Fraunhofer Institute created the innovative technology to measure the ball’s location 2000 times a second and players’ location 200 times a second. This real-time data allows everyone to analyze the quality and quantity results of sports games.

Getting people engaged in offline world games is easy: Just use augmented reality and make the life of your customers a fascinating ‘hunters and collectors’ hunt. The way Volvo does it with their S60 campaign. The price: access to a private VIP party. Sorry, but sometimes I am asking myself if the customers of Volvo will take part in such games. Let me know if you do or would…

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