Tag Archive for: Vision

Study: Content Marketing – a challenge? B2B hiding behind false excuses…?

We had written about a Curata content marketing survey some months ago. Now, I came across another research which is making it’s way through the web, and I am glad as I have been asked at a University St. Gallen event for some new insights on the topic today.

The Content Marketing Institute’s 2013 benchmarks shows what the challenges for marketers are: producing enough content (64%), producing the kind of content that engages an audience (52%), or producing a variety of content (45%).

Sounds like we have heard that before, right…?

If you think lack of budget is still the issue, you might find yourself being in the wrong corner. Just 39% of the respondents said that they lack budget. Furthermore, traditional restrictions and limits like buy-in/vision (22%) or finding trained content marketers (14%) is falling out; not even senior level buy-in is their biggest challenge (7%).

All lies? Well, seems like that… And when just 14% say, they are having problems hiring in this field, i would suggest some clever journalists or PR managers have found a way to market themselves.

Challenges For Content Marketing 2013So, a questions arises that also came up today in my moderation: What is the real issue, why marketers don’t challenge the content marketing business?

We have probably all heard what Outbrain told us today in their speech that push is the new pull, advertising becomes marketing, creation the modern editorial, campaigns are the always-on of tomorrow which makes sprints the new marathons. Still, the question is whether marketers understand why this should become the new budget engine for a change in an emerging shift towards content marketing and away from advertising?! Maybe marketers need to understand what makes them a media-house? Content curation, distribution and measurement might be more of a big bang theory to address…

Measurement for B2B Content Marketing Success 2013Spot On!
The challenge might actually arise in the definition where content marketing gets propelled. Many marketers see still search engine advertising (SEA) their wholly grail. If companies get turned around into SEO engines, the whole result-driven aspect of the fluid content marketing world would not be questioned any longer. It just depends on getting the right people engaged inside the office and to find the commitment that lets the formerly outsourced world stand in the shade. And have companies ever understood the value of content? Content is not a test budget! It is an attitude towards business, towards communication, towards social business. Or have you ever put into question why you send out newsletters, flyers, whitepapers, or even company brochures? Blogs, status updates, tweets… written in an intelligent way, is increasing the way your conversations will arise…

Are you really hiding in the content marketing fields, marketers – or is it a real challenge…?

Study: TV users are multitasking

choosing from images streamConsumers are multitasking and using other electronic devices like phones or tablets when watching television. This is the conclusion of a recent third annual Video Over Internet survey of 3,501 consumers in Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. It states that the majority watched video content over the Internet. Obviously the tablet is showing the biggest increase in multitasking use.

“Consumers can’t just watch TV anymore. The rise in multitasking while watching TV suggests that scheduled programming, also known as Linear TV, may be losing its appeal for sophisticated users, presenting both challenges and opportunities for broadcasters and content providers”. Francesco Venturini, Accenture’s Media & Entertainment industry group.

The key findings in a brief overview: 77% regularly use their computer while watching television (16% increase to 2012). Just 17% of people using tablets while watching TV said their activity was unrelated to the TV content they were viewing. The use of tablets is different though as it correlated more closely with what respondents were watching compared to laptops or smartphones.

The study indicates that TVs connected directly to the Internet might still remain the ideal method for buying and watching online video on a TV. However, the use of connected TV is on a decrease in the last year (36% to 31%). The study shows that consumers are still not sure about the available options for accessing online video. Just 16% indicated a preference for an online connection through a set-top box, whereas 30% responded to watch daily online content the other way.

The use of tablets during television viewing is said to have the biggest increase in the past year (from 11% to 44%). The use of local online video service providers is increasing from 37% to 40% iwth almost the similar amount of a decrease in use by global providers like Netflix and YouTube.
Still, the majority of respondents identified traditional TV broadcasters as the providers they trusted most to present video over the Internet on their TV screen.

TV Real-Time Translation: Closed Captioning and Google Translate

Although this translation vision still seems (and the hardware framework also looks) like early stages, it defines a translation reality that could become the future of Connected TVs. Easy Way Subtitles provides translation subtitles in any language for all people watching Brazilian TV through Closed Captioning technology combined with Google Translate via mobile devices. I cannot see this taking too long to become a real service via connected screens.

How about you…?

YouTube

By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

YOUM: Does Samsung show the future of mobile displays?

When I wrote about three magic inventions discovered at CES 2013 some days ago, I definitely missed out on YOUM. The rumors around flexible displays is out there for quite a while. Remember Yankodesign’s vision of a flexible multiscreen phone or the Motorola Flipout?

Now, at CES the first YOUM displays were presented on stage, alongside a funny commercial clip. The OLED displays are thin that an iPod, can be bowed and rolled up. It sounds like science fiction or a good James Bond film invention, and it will be as log as the technology needed to make the OLED’s work is not getting thinner.

In the presentation Brian Berkely, VP Samsung Display, showed with different prototypes how it is possible to build displays that go around the smartphone or tablet. There, you then could see the latest text message, email or calendar entry that might be relevant. I can imagine these displays will hit the smartphone and tablet market quite soon.

And the question will be what is Apple’s or other smartphone and tablet manufacturers’ answer to this invention…

YouTube

By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

Augmented Reality: Sight and the Google's glass project

Graduates need to take a look into the future. Some do it quite well and are creating an exciting picture of times and technical evolution ahead of us. The following short film “Sight” by Sight Systems was done from Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo. It was developed from a graduation project from Bezaleal academy of arts and is definitely worth watching.

It somehow reminded me of the Google Glass project, a research and development program with the intention to create products that are hands free displaying information. For now, these are currently just available to most smartphone users, and allowing for interaction with the Internet via natural language voice commands, in a manner which has been compared to the iPhone feature Siri, as Google explains.

Whether there are similarities between the two projects or not, the film tells a story of a world which gets new impact through augmented reality glass technology. And if we will wear traditional glasses, contact lenses or whether these are implanted in the end, only the future can tell. However, the vision created in this film is scary, eye-opening to AR technology opportunities, and somehow disturbing the fascination of the unknown, unexperienced and undiscovered. Life as it is.

But now, watch it and tell us what you are thinking…?

Vimeo

By loading the video, you agree to Vimeo's privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

An agency outlook into the future of our information society

Looking into the future of agency business, we have seen horrible visions. This project at Hyper Island by Åse Holte, Fredrik Davidsson, Fredrik Ekholm, Hjalti Axel Yngvason, Kristoffer Jansson & Rasmus Stenbergh gives some positive outlook into motion pictures and information technology, and why brands should consider working with agencies.

The video discusses how motion graphics will continue to influence our daily lives, whether we will have bacterial lanuguage in the year 3.000, if Twitter and Facebook still exist, and or will Google run the world? These are just some thoughts of today’s creative brains…

The main challenge was mentioned by Nico Casavecchia from Boolab addressing companies communication activities “You need to find the balance between commercial and non-commercial work!” However, the opportunities for marketers in the future are nicely put George Giampuranis, Creative Director at Sid Lee into the quote… “You can’t just live in yourself. (..) There are so many more contact points to a brand. Basically any medium that serves as a communication tool.”

Vimeo

By loading the video, you agree to Vimeo's privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

Information Society from Hjalti Axel Yngvason on Vimeo.

Study Gen Y: Moving communication to social networks

Many managers don’t believe that the next management generation might communicate differently from today. So, every proof we have could be beneficial to score here and it is necessary to obey the signs in every region in the world.

In India an increasing number of the Gen Y generation prefers to communicate via social networking platforms to stay connect with their peers. And they do it on mobile devices as their preferred tool for communication.

A recent survey called The GenY Survey 2011-12 by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) asked 12,000 high school students between 12-18 years in cities like i.e. Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune from July to December 2011. It finds that a “total of 88% respondents from metropolitan cities had a Facebook account while other platforms such as Orkut and India-based Apna Circle, Ibibo and Hi5 were more popular in small metros”.

The study states that 40% of the Gen Y’s have internet access on their mobile phones. However, television emerged as the least favorite gadget with not even 1% voting for it. An emerging trend is the use of tablets with almost 14% using these new devices, it quotes.

Some more findings of the study…
– 85% use social networking sites such as Facebook
– 84% have internet access at home
– 79% own a mobile phone
– 28% value the mobile phone their favorite gadget

Spot On!
There are already 38% of respondents in metros using Facebook or Twitter to communicate. Tweeting is now being used by one in three students according to the study, though just 1% mentioned it as their preferred site. Text and chat were said to be the preferred alternatives to voice calls with 50% of respondents in metros explaining they used SMS most frequently to communicate, 45% used instant messaging. Apart from that, they also value information technology as a career option followed by engineering and medicine.

Curiosity – Brand anarchy is to create invisible advertising

Curiosity is it what makes the world get mad. Whether it is IKEA’s smallest shop of the world put in a banner, some invisible commercial.

Lynx, in cooperation with Soap Creative, know how to produce some curious innovative digital art work. They have created this campaign which just went live in Australia. This is the world’s first invisible ad installation. It is using some special LCD screens that can only been seen with polarised glasses.

People passing by in some street in Sydney got some polarised glasses which unlocked the curiosity of the invisible screens, scenes the normal eyes could not see by the naked eye. And finally, then the content was unleashed. Couples were to be seen while having their pleasures and random dogs swimming in a room of water. Actually in my hotel they are swimming on the television but that is another story.

YouTube

By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

Nielsen study: People trust in peoples' word of mouth

Now, I have used this Nielsen graphic in seminars and conferences for two years and always wondered when the next study is going to be published.

Finally today, I came across the latest Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising report. And again, the results are similar to what they where back in 2009. People still don’t trust advertising. Well, let’s say… at least not as much as they trust recommendations from people they know like friends, family and peers. However, it is still somehow scary to bear in mind that people trust consumer opinions expressed online… very often without verifying who say what in which scenario and which stage of life.

According to the Nielsen findings, which surveyed over 28,000 Internet people in 56 countries, 92% of the respondents said they trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising. This equals an increase of 18% compared to 2007. Consumer opinions posted online come in at the second place of most trusted source. Of the consumers surveyed globally, 70% indicated they trust messages from online platforms. This makes up an increase by 15% in the last four years.

Publishing houses and platforms still get a lot of trust from their users. Editorial content (58%) finished in the thread place, just before branded websites (58%), and opt-in emails (50%). The traditional platforms for advertising like print, television, and radio are significantly lower from a trust point of view. The drop in value since 2009 goes down by 24%.

Spot On!
The results show the importance of content marketing carrying the truth about your company, brand or products. Openness, authenticity and transparency are still rated very high amongst your customers. They want to “know what they get”. They want to engage with you but also being told the truth if there is something bad or uncertain to say about brands and their development. And above all they want you to respond to their input. They want you to give them some attention, some feedback, some credit for the time they spend. Then you will earn their trust, and then they will share your voice.

Augmented Reality for kids – Sesame Street

Qualcomm is always working on new opportunities for Augmented Reality. One of their latest kind of blew my mind. This new technology solution not only enables developers to create some new app in minutes, it also really connects the offline and the online reality.

Now, Qualcomm comes up with an Augmented Reality app for kids which is illustrated with the Sesame Street character Erni and Bert which Netbook News just published. Both characters come alive immediately when putting them on a specially designed board, or when you put a television screen on the board.

Just imagine what opportunities this offers in terms education and knowledge you can integrate in this technology. Smashing!

YouTube

By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video