What Vocus (and many others like them) provide is often described as a customer-centric marketing service: they help you understand your potential customers better so that you can tailor offers (and product) to their needs.

Technology development means that the potential for this kind of targeting is going to increase exponentially (as it has been for the past decade).

But is this really customer-centric marketing, or just old-school direct-selling techniques with newer, sharper tools?

For me, customer-centricity has to be about a lot more than targeting.  Finding out about people so you can sell them more stuff (whether they need it – or even really want it – or not) cannot truly be described as acting in that individual’s interests.

Here’s the Dictionary.com entry for customer-centric;

I suspect that “focusing on customers rather than sales” is still a heresy within most corporations, including those who think of themselves as customer-centric.

So here’s the billion dollar question… in a world where the technology allows targeted, personalised, geo-targeted messaging opportunities that infiltrate every aspect of consumers’ lives, how can we create a true and truly loveable customer-centric proposition?

Here’s one answer to the question… by LISTENING!

We’re working on concepts with several clients that are based around turning off conventional push messaging and creating services that allow customers to specify their wants and desires.  An inversion of the traditional selling model.

That’s properly customer-centric.

The post Re-imagining customer-centricity appeared first on Corke Wallis.

Burberry has long pioneered the art of multichannel marketing and selling. The brand has nearly 15m Facebook ‘likes’ and 1.5m Twitter followers. The last few years have seen the introduction of various successful interactive digital concepts, including social-networking site The Art of the Trench and, most recently, live-streaming of the catwalk shows.

When it comes to innovation, however, Burberry’s latest flagship store on Regent Street is an inspiring breakthrough. Burberry’s Chief Creative Officer, Christopher Bailey, has created a theatrical, digitally-driven store that has left retailers worldwide scratching their heads and wondering why on earth they didn’t think of it first.

How does it work?

The space is designed to be a bricks-and-mortar version of the Burberry website, known as Burberry World Live. The first thing to greet you when you step into the initial chamber is a vast digital screen – the largest of its type worldwide and the first of many digital screens around the store – giving the consumer the sensation of physically landing on a homepage. This central chamber contains the brand’s popular, laid-back ‘Brit Collection’. Each floor or chamber leading off this central hall contains a different collection or product type, ranging from a dedicated shoe gallery to a separate floor for the exclusive Prorsum Collection.

This clear category segregation is combined with fluid navigation and ease of access. A network of fast lifts ensures that the customer cannot get lost or be forced to wait around for Burberry assistants to walk miles to a store room.

Taking a leaf out of the revolutionary and popular Apple stores’ books, the Burberry assistants walk around with iPads, taking orders and enquiries on the spot, eliminating the need for lugging products to a till and waiting in line. Dressed in black and lurking in every corner, they are barely noticeable as you browse, but instantly available (and smiling brightly) when needed. Customer service at its best.

Most remarkable, however, is the store’s use of RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology to bring product information to customers in an elegant, innovative way. A chip hidden inside each product triggers RFID-enabled mirrors on the shop floor and in changing rooms to transform into digital screens, displaying information about craft and detail that cannot easily be communicated in a traditional store environment, but that is so fundamental to a brand. Futuristic, surreal but highly intuitive.

What is the result and what can other brands learn from it?

The overall effect is thoughtful, innovative, intuitive and bold. Even for a first time visitor, the concept is a natural, seamless step into a new retail era.

Burberry’s experiment brings together the digital and the tangible – two elements of multichannel retail which have, up to now, been mutually exclusive. Ecommerce alone will never replace the ritual of going into a store to touch the fabrics and try on products before buying and walking away, bag in hand. But in order to satisfy changing consumer demands and survive, the store experience must be enhanced.

In a world that sees constant and rapid evolution, no brand can afford to be left behind.

The post Burberry: A seamless step into a new retail era appeared first on Corke Wallis.

“Fake-product advertising can be irritating, but this campaign, from London agency Corke Wallis, gets everything right. The video is extremely well produced and believable—the retraction demo, in particular, is hypnotizing. And the banner on the website is just so unassuming that you have to smile. Being fooled never felt so good.

Now, can someone work on a real prototype for this, please?”

Big thanks due to our partner Paul Dixon of MoveMakeShake for his vital work on production, direction and CGI effects.

——-
References:
Adweek coverage of Hertz ‘Ski Brogues’ campaign
‘Keycopter’ campaign for Hertz / Advantage

The post Ad of the Day on Adweek appeared first on Corke Wallis.

It doesn’t sound like a revolution.  Haven’t people always done this?

For the past month we have been working on a brand project in Insurance.  The product is an add-on policy that has real (money-saving) value for many consumers, but most don’t know that this kind of product exists and so are not searching for it.  As a result, conventional direct response channels for customer acquisition don’t work.

Our answer has been to create a product offer that rewards customers for recommendation.  Given a little-known product with clear benefits this seems like an obvious business model.  But the ramifications of this product/marketing offer are profound: at heart it is a re-engineering of distribution.

Motor Insurance

Let’s look at the UK market for motor insurance and its current distribution, based on 2011 figures.

For each £100 paid in premium, £79 goes to pay claims and £27 goes on expenses.

The alert will notice that this adds up to £106.  So at a basic level, the UK insurance industry makes a loss of £6 on each £100 of premium (GWP – gross written premium).  Some of that is clawed back via investments, and cross/up sell, as well as ancillary income (referral fees etc.).

Breaking down the Expenses into Operational and Acquisition (distribution) costs is a little tricky, but as insurers are allowed to defer the costs of acquiring the business over the lifetime of the policy it is derivable from statutory returns. Acquisition costs have been rising, but industry sources suggest a figure of £12 (per £100 of GWP) seems fair.

If we take a figure of £500 to represent an average premium (currently £488) we arrive at an indicative figure of £60 to acquire a customer (CPA).

Many insurers on aggregator websites do no other advertising.  So here’s the kicker…  if we can halve the CPA by giving back £30 to the customer acquired through social distribution - rather than paying intermediaries £60 on an average sale, this would return the UK insurance market to profit.

What Next?

The savings inherent (advertising cost, broker / affiliate commissions etc.) in the social distribution model must offer real opportunity to product providers who can construct credible brand and product offerings in this space.  We’re working with some providers to try and make this happen.

And what about ‘Social Distribution’ as a term?  When I mentioned the term in conversation with Alan Mitchell of Ctrl-Shift he assumed that Social Distribution was a descriptor in regular use.  Follow-up on-line research produced the somewhat surprising insight that no-one seems to be writing about social distribution as a business model in financial services (or any other industry for that matter).

This will surely change.

Links and credits:

——-

Mintel: Motor Insurance – UK – March 2012 – headings only for non-subscribers, but helpful resource

With thanks to Nigel Godfrey at Digital Animal for Insurance Industry insight.

The post ‘Social Distribution’ could save the UK Insurance industry appeared first on Corke Wallis.

The internet of things is becoming a reality. Soon people will be sharing photos and ideas with the products around them, just like with their friends. Objects that are still fairly dumb will soon be able to do all sorts because they too will have internet profiles.

Imagine a bike that knows how much it’s worth, when you’re wearing your helmet and when it’s been stolen. Or imagine a camera that can tell you when you’re near a great location for a shot – or a bottle of spirit that will pay for itself if you can get six friends around to drink it with you. All this is happening right now and it means you can:

Save money
No more cardboard: ultra smart personalised point-of-sale means no more shipping tons of cardboard and paper around the globe – create completely unique one-to-one “moments” with passing customers straight to their smartphones.

Make money
Cross sell Nirvana: just show your new credit card/car/coffee maker to your phone and connect to your customer services representative, order refills and get an accurate insurance quote instantly.

Know what’s working
Fail faster: get really really useful real-time behavioural data.  Know what when why where and how people are using your stuff to a degree of accuracy and detail you never thought possible – tell a good idea/product/service from a bad one very quickly.

Maintain premium prices
I’m genuine: the web of things is bad news for counterfeiters. Things will be able to prove they are who they say they are. No more fake Whisky, knock off Prada bags or pretend Chemo drugs. People pay more for the real McCoy.

The post What the Internet of Things could do for your business appeared first on Corke Wallis.

a new application called ‘Collections’ that allows retailers to create a catalogue in Facebook and post ‘like’, ‘want’ or ‘collect’ buttons on product images within newsfeeds.

The article makes the point that Facebook has consistently failed to get the much vaunted ‘f-commerce’ movement off the ground on any scale.

“Cracking the commerce side of the business is essential if Facebook is to turn around the negative perception of its future profitability,” says Mark Cluer, MD of PMA Digital. “In the wake of its share price dive post-IPO, Facebook has been under pressure to come up with ways to increase its value. The ‘want’ button is surely an attempt to convince investors of Facebook’s future value.”

There is no doubt that Facebook has struggled for years to try and engineer-in monetisation to the epic levels of users and usage that it enjoys.

What if they have simply been going about it the wrong way?

Arguably, Facebook has been trying to smash together old-fashioned advertising business models (impressions, CPM, etc.) with a new kind of community service whose users – in the main – find this kind of advertising unwelcome and inappropriate.  That’s why they have struggled historically and will continue to.

So why not turn the model on its head.

From CRM, to VRM (ref.).

We think Facebook could become the Vendor Relationship Marketing platform for the globe.
Facebook Collections – which is being written about as a competitor to Pinterest – seems to us like a step towards VRM, whether Facebook realises it or not.

Imagine it, Facebook 2.0… All advertising banned (if you are signed-up to the Facebook VRM personal data management service): individual FB users managing their personal data (likes, wants, needs) and only granting commercial suppliers access to it when it suits them.

The concept of self-managed data is already part of Facebook’s DNA.  Most Facebook users have some idea about how to manage privacy levels on their account, which means that one significant barrier has already been overcome.

If 10% of Facebook’s users were prepared to pay $5 a month for Facebook’s VRM personal data service, it would generate $6bn in annual revenues.  Current Facebook forecast for 2012 revenues from advertising is $4.2bn.

So that’s why Facebook should turn its back on Advertising.

From privacy supervillain to superhero, at a single bound.

——-
References:
TechCrunch on Facebook Collections : 8th October 2012
Doc Searls’ Project CRM (Harvard)
Forbes.com – Facebook advertising revenue forecast : 30th August 2012
eMarketer – Reduced Estimate for Facebook Revenues : 31st August 2012

The post Why Facebook should stop smoking the Advertising crack pipe appeared first on Corke Wallis.

Yet research from BDO published this week suggests that nearly 90% of retailer CFOs are not concerned about showrooming.  Complacency?  Perhaps all these CFOs are justifiably confident that their multi-channel strategies are in good shape.

What is clear is that this trend is not a minor irritant, it is a re-drawing of the rule.  There’s overwhelming evidence that shopper habits are being changed by ‘always on’ access to the mobile internet.  An Econsultancy report published last month showed that 43% (up from 19% last year) of UK shoppers use their smartphones while on the move to compare prices and read product reviews.

So what can bricks and mortar retailers do?  Here are 5 top-level strategies for coping with the Showrooming storm to come.

1.  Be cheaper

This is not possible for most bricks-and-mortar retailers vs online…  Surely there will only one winner in this fight?

Perhaps not.  Asda has announced that it is installing free Wi-Fi across its 550 UK stores.  Clearly this makes price comparison easier, so it is a confident step by Asda to allow more shopping-time scrutiny of their prices (the Asda Price Guarantee is also a very confident, head-on approach to this issue, more on this later).

2.  Don’t be comparable

Change the product name

In January 2012 Target sent memos to suppliers asking them to change product names for Target to make price-comparisons more difficult, a move that caused some derision from retail commentators. In a socially networked world it’s hard to see this strategy having a positive effect, at least other than in the short term.  You can’t fool all of the people all of the time, and when they find out they have been fooled…

Modify the stock for uniqueness

While Target’s attempt to thwart comparison might be seen as misguided or at least short-sighted, it is not a million miles away from what retailers like John Lewis (in support of their ‘never knowingly undersold’* promise) have done for decades: working with suppliers so that stock lines are exclusive to your stores.

Be both supplier and retailer

There’s no point in showrooming at an Apple Store. Apple products are proprietary and discounting is almost non-existent. The same goes for Kindle (the enemy’s weapon, currently banned from both Walmart and Target because of Amazon’s widespread encouragement of showrooming).

3.  Make it easy to compare

Hang on, doesn’t that argue with 2?  Yes it does, but strategy choices can be profoundly divergent, the point is to understand the context for the choice and how it could deliver on an individual retailer’s brand promise.

Free Wi-Fi

Increasingly, customers want a multi-channel experience when they are shopping.  There are many research reports that suggest free Wi-Fi brings customers into your store, keeps them there for longer and encourages larger basket spend.

This is not a long-term solution though; once free Wi-Fi has become a given, the competitive advantage that it might offer to Asda (see 1.) over the next 12-18 months will inevitably decline.

Provide your own comparison service

We see the Asda Price Guarantee service mentioned earlier (which is growing in significance – see Google Trends figures for growth) as a shining example of how to take a grip on the showrooming issue.  It’s not a new programme, having first run in the mid-1990 before reappearing in 2010, reconfigured for the digital, mobile age.

4.  Add value through physical space, service and add-ons

Use the physical space

The new ‘Audi City’ showroom in Piccadilly, London, launched in July 2012, doesn’t actually have any cars in it (OK one, some of the time).  In effect, the showroom is like getting inside a website, with a charming and well-trained guide.  Visiting Audi City is a very contemporary experience – and using virtual technology is both true to the Audi brand and highly practical, because it means that Audi can bring their brand experience to the high street in much smaller, lower-cost spaces than traditional car retail requires.  Audi UK plans to open a number of other Audi City showrooms.

Get social

Shopping online is social: you can share the fact you’ve just bought a dishwasher on Facebook!  Er, no, that’s not exactly a brilliant scenario, or very credible, is it?  But going to the high street is intrinsically social and always will be: you have to talk to people when you make your purchases, and, more than that, the weekly shop as a form of ‘social routine’ is part of the fabric of community.

So how can ‘social’, physical retail fight showrooming?  Surely you can meet your mates for a latte after scanning the barcodes in the high street and order from Amazon or eBuyer?  Saves lugging stuff around, too.

What if you could combine social activity, education and retail?  Jamie Oliver has, with his brilliant Recipease concept. Recipease is an multi-dimensional approach to the use of retail space that allows and encourages people to get closer than ever to the fresh-baked, oily-handed (cold-pressed oil, natch) heart of brand Jamie.  Why would you buy your ingredients somewhere else after you’ve had your cookery classes at Recipease?  And it’s a great place to meet for lunch, coffee etc…

5.  Get out of retail.   

Sounds a bit fatalistic, but read what Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) professor Z. John Zhang has to say:

Wharton marketing professor Z. John Zhang suggests that showrooming may also prompt some retailers to completely rethink their business model. He says this will lead to the adoption by some players of the “store within store” format where retailers essentially rent space out in stores to other vendors. “If you go to Asian countries, most retailers there are really real estate property owners,” Zhang says. “Those vendors pay both a straight rent and also fees based on sales revenue. If you do that, you can control for the showrooming effect because if customers go to the store [to browse] but buy online, you still get rent. In addition, vendors themselves do not mind the showrooming effect, as long as consumers buy their brands online or offline. I think that is the future.”

——-
References:
How the Internet Can Save thee High Street – report from Econsultancy, Sept 2012.
Asda to roll out click and collect grocery service to 100 shops by year end : Retail Week, 9th October 2012
Why retailers need to embrace mobile internet in stores : Econsultancy, 7th February 2012
Some good ideas are emerging on ‘showrooming’ : Retail Week, 9th October 2012
Turning the Retail ‘Showrooming Effect’ into a Value-add : Knowledge Wharton, 26^th September 2012
Audi opens first digital showrooms : Marketing Week, 16^th July 2012
Recipease website.
http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/Retailers_relaxed_about_showrooming.news?ID=30468 – BDO research published 8^th October 2012

* “Never knowingly undersold” was first used as a price promise by John Lewis (Peter Jones) in 1925, but its roots can be traced back to 1846 when a subsidiary of John Lewis called Bainbridge ran an advertisement that stated  ’Bainbridge and Muschamp are resolved that they will not be undersold by any House in the Kingdom’.  Source Wikipedia.  Price comparison is not new.

The post 5 things retailers can do to fight Showrooming appeared first on Corke Wallis.

A shift in power is inevitable, towards more ownership and control of personal data by the individual.  This shift is at the heart of the next phase in the development of the digital economy.

It’s hard to avoid acronym soup when you discuss this subject – VRM, PIM, VPI etc. – but the reality of businesses offering their own customers more control and the proliferation of data warehousing and management platform providers tells the real story.  Legislation in privacy law is inevitable too, but it is the individual consumer’s realisation – on a mass scale – that they will be better off (financially and in other ways) if they take control that will be the real driver of change.

The million dollar question – if you’re a brand agency like Corke Wallis – is what does this mean for brands?

Let’s look at some monster brands to bring the key themes to life.  We’ve picked stars who all, in their different ways and from very disparate brand ‘start points’ are well positioned for the Personal Data Revolution (let’s call it PDR^TM and add a new ingredient to the acronym soup!) – either because of steps they are already taking or from the nature of their business models. There’s one wild card too…

Dell is a corporation whose life blood has always been customer data and direct marketing techniques.  The PDR has big implications for Dell.

Over the past few years Dell has already taken steps that should help it to survive and even flourish in the new personal data landscape.  IdeaStorm is now 5 years old and was a significant move to change the relationship between Dell and its customers to a more equal,  listening dynamic.  The Dell Education Challenge is another example.

Upside – working with customers to create more pure, core product.  A value exchange where good ideas are rewarded both financially and in other ways.

Tesco.  Famously, back in the 1990s after the Clubcard scheme had been live for a little while, Tesco held back on using the amazing marketing potential of personalised communication because they were worried about a public backlash. Pet Club was the first overt initiative from Clubcard, which since then has grown to be a much admired pioneer and leader in database marketing in the UK.

So it is fitting that Tesco seems to be leading the way again when it comes to the Personal Data Revolution. The Clubcard Play initiative – which we wrote about  last week – is a very positive step that speaks volumes about Tesco’s strategic intent.  At heart, however much it seems to be about gamification and fun, Clubcard Play is about ceding some control of data to customers.

Unilever.  I don’t know how many customer databases Unilever currently maintains (a quick web search suggests that their Food and Beverages division alone has 300).

So it might appear that Unilever has become reliant on database marketing to the point that the PDR would leave it vulnerable.  But Unilever and the other leading FMCG corp’s are past masters at re-inventing themselves for new times.  We have been very impressed over the past couple of years by what Paul Polman (CEO) and Keith Weed (CMO) have been saying about crowdsourcing and innovation more generally.  Their corporate commitment to sustainability is comprehensive and is spearheading the move to more transparency in their relationship with customers.

Lockitron.  Who?, you ask.  Lockitron is a start-up with a single product.  Here’s how they describe it: “Lockitron replaces keys with your phone. With Lockitron, you can instantly grant family, friends and guests access to your home or business from anywhere in the world using your internet enabled smartphone”.

Lockitron seems to us to be successfully doing things that older, bigger companies might struggle with.

What does the PDR mean for Lockitron?  The ‘co-creation company for solutions for living’ that Paul Polman said Unilever will become is what Lockitron is at birth.  “Would you like us to make you one of these?”  The product does not ship until March 2013, but already Lockitron has $1.75 million in pre-order funding against a $150,000 target – 11,686 people have ordered the $149 dollar device and are prepared to wait 6 months for delivery (demand is so high that Lockitron has, in the past few days, created a second batch order).

Clearly, Lockitron has managed to build an impressive level desire and trust with its customers, from a standing start and without any significant marketing spend.  If they deliver on their first product promise then Lockitron could have a huge future.

Picking up on the themes identified above…

THEMES

Desire.  The direct marketing strategy ‘mail all of the people all of the time’ (© Capital One and MBNA) will no longer be viable.  Your products and services will have to do more of the work of ‘selling’ in the new marketplace where people are drawn to companies that help them rather than ones that sell, sell, sell.

Listening.  It is nearly impossible to find a company that doesn’t think it understands its customer, but the PDR version of listening is different.  It requires systems and processes.  A platform or platforms.  You’re going to have to employ more data people!

Control. Businesses need to give some away.  Control of brand (please take our advertising and parody it on YouTube) and control of personal data.

Transparency. Drive towards it before the lack of it runs you down.  Transparency of business model is just as important as corporate culture.

Value exchange.  This takes me back to the early days of e-commerce and data-collection forms.  The principle that if you give information you want something in return has never and will never go away.  The PDR just amplifies the need to create really smart offers and transactions that customers will ‘get’.

One last thought.  The consumer as a brand.  The taking of control is about individuals owning the commercial value their data.  One aspect of this is how you behave socially – share, like, recommend, slag-off…  Celebrities, politicians and many others pay for brand thinking, so why wouldn’t this kind of service become more widespread and democratised.

——-
References:
Dell Challenge – “A mobile application which allows students create/join groups and share information based on different interests. Students can crowdsource information on scholarships, exam advice, tutorials and much more.”
Unilever to crowdsource content for 13 global brands : Brand Republic, 20 April 2010.  “ Unilever is calling on consumers to produce ad content for some of its biggest brands including Lynx, Ben & Jerry’s, Dove and Vaseline.”
Experian research : Sept 2012, into consumers’ willingness to share personal data.
Ctrl-Shft : ‘Don’t target me -ask me (and make it fun)’.  Free report from Ctrl-Shift.
Privacy by Design : a consultancy whose specialism is “embedding privacy into the design of technology”.
Lockitron : Lockitron website.

The post Brands vs. Personal Data appeared first on Corke Wallis.

The brief to JLL & Arup (online at london.gov.uk) includes the task of stimulating “investment at key locations” and ensuring “Tottenham makes a good first impression”.  New technologies, supported by public Wi-Fi, present an opportunity to achieve both of these commercial and community objectives.  JLL’s views on Wi-Fi in retail – as quoted in Estates Gazette a couple of weeks ago – might be a little lukewarm:  “It is not a big selling point for us, but it is a nice amenity to have.”  In our view, though there is not yet firm evidence of the linkage to property asset value, the positive value of Wi-Fi in retail (and other types of space) will be significant.

We suggest that the Tottenham taskforce, JLL & Arup, should have a ‘smartphone strategy’ as an integral part of their approach.  Here are 10 ways that smartphone technology could help to regenerate Tottenham:

1. Public device charging stations.  Phones don’t work when the battery’s flat.  Juicebox in New York City have demonstrated a viable revenue stream ($30 per day at the weekend, per charging station) and a positive impact on footfall and consumer engagement:  see the coverage at psfk.com.
2. Unified free public wi-fi.  Wi-Fi is a hugely important supporting technology. It’s not the free wifi that property owners should expect to return value, it’s the smartphone technologies that rest on it.  It works best when it’s a single network: a unified platform means people don’t have to login each time they move from one shop or building to the next; services are consistent and available everywhere; and the data that enables and enriches the services is consistent from one shop or building to the next.  Virgin Media did it across the London Underground network:  virginmedia.com.
3. A smartphone-enabled Tottenham store loyalty scheme.  Local loyalty schemes reward retail customers for supporting their community with a share of their spend; but this is also about measurement.  By their data-driven nature, we can track the usage of digital smartphone services; and with smartphone payments, or integration with a Tottenham store loyalty scheme, we can report on the economic impact of these services and calculate return on investment.  Go Outdoors is winning awards and driving engagement with its smartphone loyalty scheme (bikebiz.com); Tottenham should have a unified scheme of its own; and Euclid (euclidelements.com) is already showing what can be done with “Google Analytics for the physical world”.
4. A location-aware town guide with a shop directory and a product directory.  This will let prospective customers navigate through Tottenham, and guide themselves to specific stores, including those that sell the product for which they’re shopping.  They can check prices and read customer reviews.  It all promotes healthy competition and keeps customers shopping for longer; and it returns data about customer behaviour, like footfall analytics, which is valuable for property owners, investors and managers.  See what ZuluTime (zulutimecorp.com) are doing with location-aware mobile services on Wi-Fi networks.
5. A local advertising platform.  Local advertising will stimulate the local economy.  We’re not talking about smartphone services sponsored by national brands; rather local businesses placing their own adverts.  Prospective customers, local to Tottenham, will sign up for promotional notifications:  vouchers or special offers. Search online for “local advertising platform” and you’ll see Nejola is just one of many existing smartphone-enabled local business advertising platforms:  nejola.com.
6. A market bulletin platform.  This will let customers announce their intention to purchase:  you arrive on the high street and post a bulletin with your phone, to the effect of, “I’m in the market for a pair of Diesel jeans and I’ve got £70 to spend.”  Retailers’ systems will automatically respond with their best offer, in competition for that £70, and the location-aware town guide (above) will help the customer navigate to the winning retailer.  The technology for this suggestion is actually a little way off, but it’s coming.  Search for ProjectVRM online.
   
7. A local community directory with #tottenham twitter search integration and digital neighbourhood watch software.  A local community directory will promote safety and community cohesion, and it will ease access to local authority services.  The directory will showcase messages about #tottenham via twitter.  Digital neighbourhood watch software will provide a location-aware, convenient, easy, and personalised way for community members to protect their homes and public spaces.  This platform would combine services like Devon County Council’s online community directory (directory.devon.gov.uk) and OWL’s online neighbourhood watch services (owl.co.uk), and make them mobile.
8. Smartphones for the other half.  Over 50% of the UK population already owns a smartphone (comScore 2012).  At a couple of hundred pounds per person, lending a smartphone to half the new tenants in Tottenham is a feasible cost for guaranteeing the underlying infrastructure for a 21st century community.
9. A digitally-enabled community skills market.  This will let people trade their talents and hobbies outside their working lives.  One person is handy with a paintbrush, another can service a car.  Communities around homes and the workplace can be strengthened by community currency, as demonstrated in Japan and China by Fureai Kippu (wikipedia.org) and in the UK by the growing Time Banking movement (timebanking.org).
10. Gigabit internet access at home, work and in the back office.  Smart, group buying; online social networking; connected businesses and communities; individuals managing their own data; rich, engaging, timely content:  all these things get bigger and better with really fast internet.  We’re not talking about 30 times faster than we’re used to now; we’re talking 100 times faster, for both sending and receiving information.  Google Fiber (fiber.google.com) is doing it in homes in the US right now, and companies like Venus (venus.co.uk) are offering it for London businesses.

When place meets technology, you get benefits for retailers, office tenants, property owners and investors, shoppers, residents, and local authorities.  Smartphones and internet access let people live, work and shop smarter.  Smart living, working and shopping makes a place more valuable.

The post 10 ways smartphones can help regenerate Tottenham appeared first on Corke Wallis.

So what could you do with the Enjoy Work brand that could maximise your investment? Here are 4 ideas:

1. Enjoy Work Preston  - Enjoy Work Chiswick Park is a lovely space (huge windows and floor-plates, park and lake in the middle etc.) but the real heart and soul of the brand are the people delivering it. From the outset, the onsite management team provided fun, imaginative services and events that knitted the tenants together and created a real buzzy community. Their ideas could be replicated, packaged up and licensed to places that wanted to apply some of the values that regularly got EWCP voted as one of the best places to work in the UK and Europe.
2. Enjoy Work Consultancy services – The statistics for EWCP around reduced sick days, employee satisfaction, increased time on site and attendance of extra curricular activities are amazing. The pound note value of this to a brand that has an issue with staff retention and morale is huge. Many organisations would pay good money for a proven program of steps and initiatives that would help them keep people.
3. Enjoy Work App – like a Nike fuel band, the Enjoy Work app and bracelet will monitor stress levels and tell you when to go for a stretch or a walk – and of course it would be constantly uploading your health data to a central server so that employers can see when you a likely to be sick or need time off. And this will of course make the Bupa real time employee health cover a lot more efficient.
4. Enjoy Work Swap – skill-swap markets are popping up all over the place. Lots of people have a hobby or passion outside of work that is valuable to someone else. Jewellery making, carpentry and photography skills can all be traded. The Enjoy Work brand could be a credible online local skills market that regularly manifests itself in the real world as a pop up market in business parks.

Michael Wallis

——-
References:
Enjoy Work
Property Week news item about sale of Chiswick Park – 4th Oct 2012 

The post Enjoy Work 2.0 appeared first on Corke Wallis.