Inquisition's Blog

What augmented reality can bring to your business

Will Edgcumbe — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:32:53 +0000

What is the business potential of Augmented Reality in South Africa?

It’s harder to wow people nowadays. Since the advent of touch screens (and, if we get down to it, Apple’s iPod, iPhone and iPad) over the last few years, your average consumer has become a little hardened about what surprises them; we all expect a little bit of magic in every new device or app, and as these expectations get more complex they become harder to meet.

That said, augmented reality (AR) still has great potential to wow people, particularly in South Africa, where the average consumer is perhaps behind the curve in terms of technological adoption and so is more likely to be surprised or delighted by a simple AR application. But the marketing and advertising industry needs to realise that this is not enough – wow factors get stale, surprise wears off, magic quickly becomes commonplace. Good story telling (i.e. a compelling marketing message) and a fantastic user experience don’t, and these are some of major benefits AR brings.

“As the novelty of a product or service fades it evolves into everyday culture; this will be the case with augmented reality thanks to the convenience that a digital layer of information provides in our multi-influenced decision-making process,” says Tim Robinson of Pollen Creative Media, a company that specialises in AR applications. “In the same way that the computer has allowed us to research products and changed consumer buying behaviour and consequently how marketers approach the buying process, so AR will allow people to make decisions with on-the-spot and up-to-date informative content. I believe emerging technologies such as AR will open up the user experience side of digital marketing, enabling those brands that want to create a more immersive and memorable story for their product to do so.”

Until now, the average AR user experience has been a little cumbersome, mostly due to most tablets or smartphones just not having enough processing power. Even the simplest AR application requires a number of processes within a device to work together: the camera or GPS detects objects or positions which are then positioned behind a digital overlay, information which often has to be sourced online. Once you throw actions like tracking (as the camera moves, so does the digital overlay in relation to the object it’s positioned on) at the hardware, more and more processing power is needed. Simply put, most smart phones can’t cope with this, meaning slow, barely functioning applications that result in a poor user experience.

Fortunately, with the rapid development of small device processing power such as dual-core smartphone processors, when it comes to AR our reach is no longer exceeding our grasp. But as with all things technological, the user experience is everything, and in our post-PC era, one where device fragmentation is staggering and consumers’ hardware capabilities stretch across the processing spectrum, we need to be very careful about how we develop a compelling user experience.

“As AR technology starts to become a more day-to-day occurrence we'll see it in shop windows, glass surfaces and tablet devices performing to its true capabilities – the challenge is for the companies that make the brands to start looking to create an easier and more useful experience to aid the decision making process,” says Robinson.

London-based marketing communications consultancy Hidden conducted research looking at the effectiveness of AR as opposed to more traditional elements in the marketing mix. They found that customers who engage with an AR experience are more likely to buy a product and will do so at a higher price point. According to the research AR “can help sales people to sell more effectively … by using technology to tap into psychological sales principles and by applying technology to every step of the sales process, from lead generation, qualification, right through to delivery. By adopting marketing technologies sales people reap the benefits of placing a digital version of a product in a client’s hands. Not only is this a powerful way to sell, the intelligence gained from allowing a customer to explore a digital version of a product can provide very powerful intelligence on what customers like most about what they see. This mass intelligence can be obtained by examining the path the user takes in exploring the product, as recorded precisely by the system. This insight can be used to guide new or existing product development and ensures sales professionals tailor their presentations and pitches accordingly.”

The enhanced business outcomes of AR (when it’s done well) can be found all along the marketing chain, from creating demand, engaging with consumers, increased interactivity, creating a captive audience, demonstrating products and closing out a sale. AR is, however, still in its infancy and we’re only scratching the surface of what it can bring to business. In South Africa, where we're still experimenting with AR, there’s a great opportunity for early experimentation and success ahead of the market.

Community Management is not a junior role

Palesa Sibeko — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:24:28 +0000

At a time of the role of community manager is pretty much an important part of a company's social marketing team, it's vital to choose these individuals well and to remunerate them accordingly.

The role of community manager (CM) is relatively new and is continuously evolving as the social landscape changes. As it stands right now, this role entails managing online communities, steering conversations, creating talkability around products/services, listening in on the community and acting on this information.

More often than not, CMs are also responsible for communication strategy and implementation on these social platforms. This is not a junior role or, at least, it cannot be spearheaded by an inexperienced person. It bears huge responsibility as this person or the team essentially become the spokespeople of the company. As far as the person who comments on your latest Facebook update is concerned, the CM is the company. The CM clearly needs to have a deep understanding of the company's values, goals, share its passion and most importantly, has the maturity to deal with all kinds of people in all kinds of moods that are sure to be encountered on a daily basis. Crisis management is an especially crucial skill that is admittedly hard to master, moreso for a junior. Also needed is the ability to see trends and possibly link them to a context beyond that of that platform (this is where experience comes in handy).

With this much accountability and responsibility, this role does not keep work hours and as such requires remuneration to match its sometimes stressful demands. It cannot be a thankless job and agencies/companies need to fully understand this or there may be trouble ahead for them or at least, they won't get the best results possible.

I'm interested in your thoughts on this topic so if you'd care to share, please leave a comment.

Twitter launches brand pages, but is it too little too late for twitter.com

Vincent Hofmann — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:35:17 +0000

Twitter launches brand pages, but who will visit them?

25% of Twitter's current user base post their tweets using Twitter's native interface. 75% of Twitter's users make use of applications to interact with brands, friends and foe. So is Twitter's recent introduction of Twitter Brand Pages a waste of time? Not if Twitter has anything to do with it!

Twitter's development team fiddled a lot with Twitter in 2011. Changing the Twitter interface as frequently, if not more so, than their Facebook counterparts. Twitter's team have made significant changes to the way third party applications authenticate with Twitter's servers, and to Twitter's policy on an open Twitter ecosystem. Ryan Sarver's message to developers is clear, Twitter doesn't want to contend with application developers.

“Developers have told us that they’d like more guidance from us about the best opportunities to build on Twitter. More specifically, developers ask us if they should build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience. The answer is no." (TechCrunch)

Twitter needs us on Twitter.com - sponsored tweets are a source of revenue, but 75% of the users Twitter opens its servers to, don't view the ads which help to keep it afloat.

With this feature release pundits have started to compare Twitter to Google + and Facebook. The comparison isn't valid. Google "owns" access to Google + and Facebook ... Facebook doesn't like its friends shaking hands with strangers. At all. Ever. So, whilst Twitter has a feature similar to its rivals, it has a unique problem. How the hell does Twitter get 75% of its user base to abandon third party services like Echofon and make use of its interface?

My guess, Twitter shall make it damn near impossible for third party services to emulate Twitter's stream at all. Third party service providers will be forced to fight amongst themselves to create bolt on services. An example of which is Instagram, a social image service which relies heavily on Twitter integration.

In addition, I foresee Twitter acquiring more services this year. Perhaps Twitter will add Tweetbot and Echofon to their stable which already contains Tweetie and most recently TweetDeck. In a play best exemplified by Apple, Twitter may seek to completely rule its ecosystem - letting only those services not in direct competition with their primary platform make use of their API.

Early adopters like IBM have the requisite clout - read money - to rope in DJ Tiesto for their campaigns to draw users in. I wonder how marketers will make use of brand pages for those brands unwilling to fork out the cash required for once off experiences worthy of ditching a third party app and logging in to Twitter.com?

I cannot wait to get my hands on a brand page, and can only hope that Twitter has integrated an analytics dashboard. Ideally not unlike Google's and Facebook's. Such a service will have me logging in to Twitter.com on the hour, every hour and may indeed help to save the service.

How do you see Twitter growing its Twitter.com traffic? Will it acquire more third party services? Will it tighten the Twitter API?

Follow @vincenthofmann

Let's end opaque business speak once and for all

Will Edgcumbe — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:31:14 +0000

If as communication professionals we cannot say something simply and precisely, perhaps we're not equipped to say it at all. We might as well be pouring barrels of ink into the sea.

In business, there is a general and rather distinct disconnect between how we speak to our clients and colleagues and how we communicate electronically. I'm a classic example of it, and it's starting to bother me.

I've always been peripherally aware that how I explain something in person to a client is quite different from how I explain it in an email, but it's only since working in Thailand that it's become glaringly obvious. Dealing everyday as I do with Thai, Swiss, French, German and Turkish Nationals, not to mention a smattering of people from other countries, I've realised (more slowly than I should have) that the standard business speak used world-wide not only sounds ridiculous, but takes simple communication and obscures it the same way a politician can magically turn a yes/no answer into a multisyllabic smokescreen which makes the casual listener blink in consternation.

Now, I'm not really talking about well-worn and frankly unnecessary terms such as “touching base”, “paradigm shifting”, “taking it to the next level” and such, but rather the syntax it's so easy to fall into when emailing someone. Instead of saying “Thanks for your help”, we say “Thanking you in advance for your kind cooperation”, or “I'm busy with a few tasks” expands to “I'm currently engaging with the action items as per the meeting”. These are two pretty lame examples, but you see my point.

Much in the same way meetings make bored office dwellers feel important, bloated business communiques only really serve to make the writer appear more professional or intelligent. Though I do believe that business English should be as standard as possible so that everyone says what they mean and can be understood correctly, why can this standard not be plain? If time is money, and we can get to the point quicker by speaking plainly, why does more and more grammatical bureaucracy creep into our business language all the time? When lean speech communicates clearly and effectively, why are our sentences becoming flabbier? Not only do people for whom English is a second language battle to understand, it serves no real purpose beyond inflating one's own sense of self-worth.

Look in any company's corporate style guide, and you're not going to see sections educating employees that the preferred term for an easily obtainable deal is “low hanging fruit” or that the correct way to tell a subordinate that they've made an error is to smirkingly say they “screwed the pooch”. No, instead you'll be encouraged to spell words correctly and use proper grammar. Simple.

The next time you email a client or colleague, think about how you say what you say, and why you do it. If putting it simply doesn't help by clearing up a potential misunderstanding, it will at least not magnify the recipient's stress levels and will fight against the prevailing corporate grammatical culture. Expand this to writing press releases or marketing copy that gets to the point and is worth reading, rather than padding out one simple news item into 600 words of marketing drivel, and your product's potential end-users might actually care what you have to say. If as communication professionals we cannot say something simply and precisely, perhaps we're not equipped to say it at all. We might as well be pouring barrels of ink into the sea.

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