Incito MentisA blog by Syed Abdul Karim

Pepsi takes the lead with a cutting-edge innovation using IntoNow. What is IntoNow? It is an iOS app that does to TV what Shazam did to music. It can listen to a clip of any TV show live as it happens and tell you the name of the show and the specific episode. Plus it can do that for any show for the last five years. Amazing in it’s own right!

Now Pepsi has managed to pull off a breakthrough using this technology. Users who tag a Pepsi MAX commercial as it airs get a digital coupon redeemable for a free Pepsi MAX. A brilliant idea that has some profound implications. For the first time ever technology has enabled linking a TV commercial message with a real world action. This idea opens up a world of opportunities. The dynamic can be applied to develop many ideas that combine live TV content with real world action – from a promotional offer, to an experience that continues in the real world to something that unlocks exclusive access to a desired product or service. The possibilities are indeed many.

Another aspect of this idea is it’s ability to bring the analytics of digital to TV viewing. It is now possible to determine exactly what was the profile of the people who tagged the TV commercial. Of course, this could bring about privacy issues and I am not sure if such data was shared by IntoNow but even if broad demographic data is shared it is of great value to a marketer.

I think this is part of a larger theme of real time marketing enabled by mobile technology connected to the digital world. We have seen KLM deliver surprises in real time using location based applications. Here Pepsi is offering free product based on an event based application. This merging of the real world with the digital world is something of a trend that is expected to become more common in the days to come. A proof of it’s potential is the fact that Yahoo! bought IntoNow for a reported $20-$30 million dollars according to estimates by TechCrunch. Not bad for a service that has been running for only about 12 weeks. And this was announced days after the Pepsi MAX execution. It seems this was the final clinch to the deal. Watch this space! More real time marketing to come…

The Internet has done it again! Ted Williams a 54 year old from Columbus, Ohio – a homeless, jobless nobody just 3 days ago has not only got a home and a job! He has been a guest star on the “Today” Show, “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and is now probably on his way to becoming a celebrity. The Internet has just created a radio star and all this happened in a matter of days. This is the world we live in. The world of Justin Bieber, the world of the iPhone playing Korean applegirl, Kim Yeo Hee who also got discovered on YouTube sometime last year and has signed a record deal since then. This is the world of “The Lonely Island” a trio from Berkley, California that posted some comedy skits that went viral eventually landing them on Saturday Night Live and now they are a famous Hollywood trio. Ted Williams is the latest entrant among the internet famous. This is the video which made it all happen!

The guy is talented alright! But is he the most talented voice known to man or are the forces of ‘The Long Tail’ at play? What just happened! It seems the Long Tail has bubbled up yet another niche and turned it into a hit! Chris Anderson is going to be proud. This is a great example of technology discovering something in the Long Tail of talent and bringing it out to the world. A reporter from Columbia Dispatch takes a video of the “Homeless Man with the Golden Voice” and posts it on their website, which gets reposted on YouTube, gets over 13 million views in about 48 hours, Twitter goes crazy with it and here I am in Saudi Arabia reading and blogging about this guy from nowhere! Amazing. This could not have happened just 5 years ago!

For those 500 million smartphone users worldwide, the concept of what one can do from a phone has far evolved. Nokia – the giant that put a mobile phone in the hands of the masses gave us the Nokia Communicator. A phone which felt like a mini-computer. Then Blackberry with it’s Messenger and Push E-mail created an enterprise ecosystem which altered the divide between personal and professional. Not getting an instant response to an email or a message became something to be frowned upon. Then out of the blue came a system which brought together touch technology with an operating system that created a perfect marriage between technology and simplicity – the iPhone was born. What’s more is that it has continued to build on this powerful framework combining previous innovations with newer concepts. It was this holistic thinking that created the iPod phenomena. An mp3 player was nothing new, but combining it with iTunes was what changed the entire music industry. Similarly the birth of the App Store enabled continuous innovation in the use and experience of iOS devices – iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and so on. The question is what’s next?

It is very human to take what we have in the present for granted. Quite frankly a lot of what we can do today was the stuff of science fiction not so long ago. The Trekkies from the USS Enterprise gave us a vision of future communications and one such vision has become a reality today in the form of “FaceTime”. Similarly we can all feel like a cyborg from Terminator with an augmented vision of reality using our smart phones with an app like Layar, for example. Such technology is fast becoming commonplace by the day. Feeling quite comfortable and pleased knowing that I live in an era where technology has profoundly empowered individuals to do so much more than could have been imagined I got jolted out of my comfort zone when I came across another vision of the future. But unlike previous eras however I see such a future becoming a reality pretty soon. Perhaps by the time we get the iPhone 5! Have a look…

Impressed? Perhaps not so much! I don’t blame you. So much is happening so fast. 3D has revolutionized the cinema going experience and pretty soon a 3D home viewing experience is going to become something like wearing a wrist watch. We have gotten used to blazing fast leaps in technology. The likes of Apple have spoiled us silly. But what if I were to tell you that I got something that would truly blow you away! What’s even more surprising is the company behind this vision of the future – Mozilla. Yes, the company that gave us the Firefox browser is up to something truly remarkable. If a search engine company can get into the mobile phone business and God knows what else then why can’t a web-browser company do the same! Well, this is just a concept video but the vision portrayed by the guys from Mozilla Labs is simply out of this world! I can’t wait to get my hands on the Mozilla Seabird! Hold on to your seats before clicking on the video below. Bye-bye Apple, Hello Mozilla!

UPDATE: 3D Projection Mapping is exploding! Samsung has done it again. First it was in the Netherlands for the 3D TV launch (read below) and now it’s with Vodafone for the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Tablet in Spain. Great stuff!

Avatar took the world of Hollywood by storm when James Cameron introduced the world to 3D! Not that 3D was entirely a new thing up to that point but as Malcolm Gladwell put it – it has reached a Tipping Point. Since then we have seen Samsung and the likes bring 3D to our homes, Micromax is attempting to do so on our mobiles, NVIDIA is bringing 3D to the world of gaming and some fellows from the world of advertising are doing the same with marketing communications.

What am I talking about? 3D Projection Mapping. It’s not exactly the kind of 3D you see in movies but it certainly is eye-popping stuff and it’s getting big…fast! A quick search for 3D Projection Mapping examples revealed innumerable videos. Like all new marketing innovations many applications seem to have used the technology for the sake of it. Some however have combined the brand experience with technology to deliver some breakthrough executions. My personal favorite is by Samsung for their 3D TV launch in the Netherlands. Yes, what better way to launch a 3D TV other than doing a massive 3D Projection. This one is simply awesome!

Another gret example of 3D Projection Mapping was for Red Bull “Off the Planet” – a night event where snowboarders and skiers jump between two massive ramps and each landing is tracked via infrared to dynamically change the projections, thereby adding interactivity and greatly enhancing the visual experience. The results are splendid.

Looking ahead I think 3D Projection Mapping is going to get bigger, better and bolder! It takes augmented reality to a whole new level by taking real world architecture and giving it a fresh context. The challenge as always would be to make the right connection that not only creates a great execution but enhances the brand experience. If  you are looking for more 3D Projection eye-candy then check out this video by AC/DC from the Iron Man 2 Soundtrack done as a 3D Projection. Enjoy!

“Because life is not a spectator sport” – a tagline for Reebok in the 1980s is the mantra for brand building in the 21st century. Brands cannot expect consumers to be static spectators to their messages. Participation is becoming second nature in everything we are doing. Even the way we watch sports has changed. For anyone tweeting while watching the FIFA World Cup would have experienced the game in a way they have never experienced before. It was like watching the game with the world. Proof of this phenomena comes from the fact that a new Twitter record was created in the World Cup with 3282 tweets per second after Japan’s win over Canada (for perspective average Twitter usage is about 750 tweets per second). Brands need to engage consumers in the same way. They have to get in the field, play the game with their consumers and continue the relationship off the field. If there is a likability and genuineness in the engagement then hopefully they would be invited for the next game. This is a radical shift in the role of marketers. Like in a relationship the dynamics of media, mobile and the web have changed the way we interact with brands. Any attempt by a brand to fake it’s way into the consumer’s life is impossible. It’s like befriending someone with an ulterior motive. It’s only a matter of time before true intentions become apparent and the impending aftermath would be nothing short of catastrophic. Social media is simply too powerful and things can spread really fast. As we have seen in the case of BP recently social media has been unforgiving and the impact to the brand has been phenomenal (although a lot of what BP has done at any level is their own doing but that’s another matter).

Telecom brands would have to built based on these same principles. Fortunately the telecom sector is at the forefront of this change, experiencing the impact first hand. As people spend more time online operators are seeing a remarkable shift in data usage, for example NTT DoCoMo reports that approx. 90% of their network traffic is data, for Vodafone this number is about 70%. As Susan Wojcicki, VP Public Policy and Communications at Google put it “U.S. users spend 12 hours per week online, which represents about 32 percent of their media time.” People are spending more time online and doing so using their mobile with increasing frequency. In the US a 110% growth in mobile web usage has been noted in 2009. Point being that habits are changing. For a telecom operator besides the obvious business impact there are huge implications on the way a telecom brand is built.

Using the TeleCompass as a guide to determine a brand’s promise is one thing. Taking this brand promise forward is another. And it is here where the rules of brand communication are being rewritten. To illustrate this point I would refer to one brand who has embraced the new role of the consumer and ensured that everything the brand does is something which involves consumer participation, engages them in way that encourages sharing and builds a genuine two way relationship.

The brand is Koodo Mobile – an MVNO by Telus in Canada. Looking at the 8 spaces on the TeleCompass Koodo Mobile has taken the “Heroism” platform for their brand. By using an iconic character “El-Tabador” Koodo Mobile has taken upon itself the fight for phone freedom.

Building on this promise, Koodo Mobile has made creative use of YouTube to develop an interactive video game – something in which the user can participate and fight against Bloatimus Contractimus.

This is the kind of work that defines our era in which more people are using media that allows for greater participation and play. Koodo Mobile as a telecom player has made use of this new media by creating content that keeps the consumer actively engaged with the brand. As a follow-up to their initial work the latest YouTube interactive video game that went viral early this year was “Sugar Streak – Can you catch the Gingerbread man?”

Reposted from the Luciola Blog