Incito MentisA blog by Syed Abdul Karim

Long time ago in a land far, far away Shoaib Qureshy, the man who introduced me to the world of Strategic Planning asked “What is the core purpose of our business?” Why do clients come to us? Is it because they want a TV ad? A poster? Or a campaign? The answer was IDEAS! They come to us because they want creative solutions to their business problems. If we don’t come up with ideas that deliver results then we have failed. It’s not about mega-productions or great art direction. It’s about creativity that moves people.

Creativity and ideas are very subjective topics. They are similar to a word we use so much in our industry – insight. Everyone has a different interpretation of it. Everyone talks about it but very few get it right when it comes to putting it into practice. I think both an insight and an idea require skillful craftsmanship. I guess it works like that for every industry. Watchmaking for example is a fine art of craftsmanship. Take Vacheron Costantin’s Tour de l’Ile. Known to be one of the most complicated watches ever made and only seven of them were produced. Each watch is made up of 834-parts and took more than 10,000 man-hours to be completed. It costs about $1.5 million. Of course the price is not only for craftsmanship – it has an 18-carat silver gold dial with an alligator leather hand-sewn band and a pink gold buckle.

The point being that in every line of work skill and craftsmanship are key. Creativity in advertising and marketing is no different.

So what is the point of this post? Well being in the advertising business I may not be responsible for coming up with the biggest and best ideas in the world but I am certainly witness to some of the finest. As a brand strategist I find ideas of all kinds very exciting. In this series of posts I would like to talk about different types of ideas. Obviously there is no formula to ideas but there is certainly a structure that one can learn form. Based on my observation of creative work here is an attempt to break down ideas and look at some structures that have made it big.

This post builds up on an earlier one I did for the Interplay Blog. It talked about coming up with big ideas in general. You can read it here if you like. Now I am taking the discussion further.

One theme of big ideas I have noticed are event ideas. When hunting for big ideas it is interesting to explore the dynamic of an event. The power of an event is exponential. Events provide a great opportunity to build hype and anticipation. One can either lead-up to something big or simply unleash with a bang and then amplify the experience post-event, which in the world of today means coming up with compelling content that spreads like a virus.

So what are some big event ideas! Surprisingly there are not too many of them, but whatever is out there is superb! I think it is one structure that is rather underused and it is route with a lot of potential. Here I am going to share two such ideas. The first one is T-Mobile “Rain of Flowers” and it’s beautiful. For a brand that promises ‘Life is for sharing’ a rain of flowers is the perfect event idea that creates a moment which everyone would love to experience and share. Check it out!

T-Mobile Rain of Flowers (2 Min) from Rosen Regen on Vimeo.

The second big event idea is a staged robbery! That’s right. Audi for the launch of it’s A3 decided to create an interactive spy movie that kicks off with a real-life robbery and then gets the audience to become private investigators on the hunt to find the new Audi A3. It’s a brilliant example of using the event dynamic to engage a target audience and then turn it into a full blown social media campaign. Here is the Audi – Art of Heist Case Video!

These are just two examples. Have you heard of a Big Event Idea? If so, please share. I would love to hear of more big ideas centered around events.

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!

“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

Not yet? Well you could do what you have always done or if you have a smartphone you are only a few apps and clicks away from planning your dream vacation, right now and the on the go. As part of my trend watching on the Telecom Sector one of the most exciting trends I have come across is known as “Techpowered”. This trend looks at how technology is empowering individuals to do some remarkable things with their internet enabled mobile phones or Smartphones.

Like so many areas, travel and tourism too have been transformed by the developments in mobile technology. So what are we talking about? What if I were to tell you that by using a series of applications on a mobile you can not only plan and book your entire trip but manage everything before, during and after your vacation. Skeptical? Allow me to illustrate!

Plan & Book

If you don’t already know where you want to go. You can check out apps like Globetrotr and Arounder Touch, which will allow you to explore some breathtaking views and hot locations complete with 360 views from all around the world. Let’s say you want to go Italy and you need a visa. Get the Travisa app which will give you visa requirements to over 200 locations. Need the right picture for your visa application. You need PassportCAM to tell you how your photo should look like – snap away, crop and fit. Book a flight using the Expedia app. If you want to book your hotels over a Google Map get the Hotels app. It will map out all the hotels on a map with their prices. Put in your details and get confirmation within the app itself. How about renting a car? Most major rent-a-car companies now have a smartphone app or if your are looking for something cool try Zipcar. They not only let you do the standard stuff like locate, browse and book but give you some extra features like using the app to honk your car, or remotely lock and unlock using the smartphone as the key. Not bad? Want to track flights – get Flight Track Pro. It would give you updates of flight schedules, gate details and inform you in case there is a delay. What’s more if you are tracking flights in US airspace you get the same in-flight information as the passenger on your smartphone which includes details like altitude, speed, expected arrival time, exact location on a map in near real time (meaning it does not update by itself, you need to hit refresh and update it yourself – not that I am complaining) Need help packing? There is an app that can help you make sure you get everything you need. All set to go!

Let the journey begin…

OK. Now what you are going to do when you get there? You can get a voice navigation app and be on your way in your rent-a-car as soon as you land and navigate your way around despite the fact that you are a first time visitor. But what about the language? You dont speak Italian. Well beside the multiple language, key phrases and gesture apps available for Italy you could get something far more cutting edge. How about an Italian OCR (Optical Character Recognition) app? This would allow you to take a picture of any road sign, brochure, leaflet etc and have the smartphone app translate it for you in a language of your choice. You will never have to worry about reading Italian ever again. Want to dine out in style? Use Open Table to find a restaurant, read reviews and make reservations all in one place. It lists over 13,000 restaurants from all over the world. Looking for adventure? You can complement your navigation with a couple of location based social networking apps like Foursquare or Gowalla. They would give you an idea of what’s around you. If you want something even cooler you can get Augmented Reality apps that tell you what you are looking at through your phone camera, pull out Wikipedia data, find restaurants etc. For example if you are in Tuscany you can use this app. The first official Augmented Reality tourism app. See a video demo below.

Ready to fly! How about a mobile check-in? Even better a mobile boarding pass in the form of a QR code. If you are travelling by Lufthansa or Air France. You can go paperless all out.

Next Generation Travel Ecosystem

What we have tried to demonstrate here is a sample of the next generation travel ecosystem. There are still a number of areas that need to come together for it to work for most people. One of the biggest issues is data access cost for travelers. There are a few solutions that club various Wi-Fi Hot Spots together under one offering but it is still not enough, without which data roaming is going to remain a premium luxury for the few. The government side of things is also a major area that needs to be integrated into the digital travel ecosystem. Already we are seeing RFID chips in Passports as a step towards the same. Combining this with NFC technology that is being used in Japan we can see applications like ID documents, NFC to pay for train/bus tickets and integrate with transit systems as a secure access and also leading to a possibility that mobile phones could be used as a hotel key card for example, all taking the travel experience to an unprecedented level.

Reposted from the Luciola Blog

In the Luciola Global Consumer Trends report one of the trends covered is Virtunity. What is Virtunity? It’s how digital technologies like the internet and mobile are enabling individuals to live and interact within virtual communities and in some ways allowing us to indulge and explore our alter ego.

Now another dimension is being added to Virtunity, something touched upon in the report, and that dimension is money. Currency is taking a whole new meaning as community members use virtual money in some very interesting ways. One of the pioneers of virtual currency is Second Life with their Linden Dollars. By the end of 2009 the value of SL’s virtual economy was as high as $567 million, a 65% growth over 2008. While the world grappled with a recession there was one economy that was certainly booming! Now it seems the rest of the world is catching up.

Facebook too has become a big player in the virtual goods business. Imagine this; people are paying $1 for a virtual gift which so far contributes about $30 million to Facebook, a good 10% of their total revenue. No wonder Facebook has recently moved to trademark its Virtual Currency Platform.

Another big contributor to the virtual goods economy is gaming. In this arena World of Warcraft has led the way. To progress in the game players need (virtual) gold. To facilitate players an entire industry had been setup in China to farm for this virtual gold and sell it for real cash! Estimates for this industry stand at anywhere between $200 million to $1 billion. So much so that the Chinese government has had to intervene and put on ban on trading of virtual goods!

According to a report by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), which is an EU agency the worldwide annual trade of real money for virtual goods amount to nearly 1.5 Billion Euros. In another report by an analyst from Wedbush Morgan Securities social gaming is expected to grow to a $4 billion by 2013, which today largely comprises of sale of virtual in-game items. It seems traditional banking has one more challenger to their age old system.  With 4.6 billion mobile phones to 1.6 billion bank accounts, the ‘under-banked’ are already a big potential area for mobile network operators especially after the success of models like M-PESA and SMART Money. But from what we are seeing micro-transactions for virtual goods is also turning out to be a big business as well especially for targeting the younger population between the ages of 13-24.

So far gaming companies and social media networks seem to be the prime beneficiaries of this virtual economy. Is there an opportunity for mobile network operators here as well? Apparently so! Mobile payments companies like Zong, Boku, Paymo make it all look very easy! They are integrating with wireless operators and have a reach of over 1.5 billion customers worldwide. They simply enable a customer to pay for virtual goods using their mobile phones and get charged through their prepaid balance or mobile bill! Another player Mobile First has also entered the arena combining social gaming with their service. These are indications of how ease of use and mobility are being combined to make transactions in the virtual economy fast and simple.

Reposted from the Luciola Blog