It's in everything that I write and all my presentations. Oneline. And most times, I get people telling me that I have a typo and I have an extra 'e' and it should be online. But no, it's really oneline.
Online + Offline = ONELINE.
While we may occasionally decide to be offline, most of the time, we move from online to offline fluidly. I'm out having dinner with my daughter, she asks a question, I go to my phone to find the answer. I'm in a store and want to check the prices, I use the bar code reader in my phone to get the info I need.
Today, brands need to expand the Experience Continuum by thinking oneline. Online + offline. You'll see, in a few years, everyone will be talking oneline.
Reading through some old articles and found these quotes of mine from articles back in 1995. I think the key points still remain true today.
The first lesson for using any technology in marketing, he says, is to make the technology invisible and work on the content, not forgetting that people like to have fun.
It's obvious really. Polinchock uses what is becoming a wellknown metaphor in North American marketing: "If you went to a book conference and said you thought content was important, they'd look at you as if you were a moron. Yet we're talking like content is something new."
"Plus, a lot of ad agency people I've spoken to are intimated by the process of creating a VR experience. The trick is understanding the non-linear aspects of VR. And in the advertising world, that's an enormous, cognitive leap."
A few years back, the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU did a live theater experiment here in NYC where as guests came into the theater, they gave their cell phone numbers to the ushers. At certain points in the show, cast members would use the numbers to call audience members and have them participate in the show. The MIT Media Lab in Ireland also showed a technology a number of years ago where the audience could call actors in the movie, although no interaction really occurred. And one of the first interactive movies, I'm Your Man, allowed the audience to vote on how the movie should proceed.
Now a company in Germany has brought that technology to the movies. While I don't think people will want to interact every time they come to the theater, I certainly think that this kind of technology can and will be used quite well to create special events at the theater. It's also a great way to create a different experience in-cinema, something that could drive repeat business to the same movie. I think that one of the problems that I'm Your Man had was that since people could vote more then once, you didn't always how your vote counted. But with something like this, if you're chosen, then you can certainly see the impact that you're having. And people will like that. Of course, like anything else, content is king, so making good movies will be critical to the success of technologies like this.
What's more terrifying than a call coming from inside the house? The call coming from inside the theater. That's the thought behind Last Call, an interactive horror film in which the main character calls a random audience member for help.
Even though they knew their efforts were useless, moviegoers have long tried to help the ill-fated protagonists of horror movies. "Run!" "Hide!" "Don't go down there!" In Last Call, a new German movie, the characters are finally willing to listen.
Audience members supply their cell numbers at the beginning of the screening and, at one point in the movie, one phone is selected to receive a call from the character on screen. Voice recognition software listens for the moviegoer's commands and the story unfolds based on their instructions. From the looks of things it seems like it's a "left" or "right," "stay" or "flee" type of thing, so your exhortations for the main character to take off her clothes will likely go unfulfilled.
You probably won't be able to read this well, but this sign is in the window of the Hugo Boss store in the Meatpacking district in NYC. That pattern on the right is a Microsoft tag, that you can use with your phone to get additional info on the store. It's the MS version of a QR code.
But what you can't really read are the instructions. OK, I had it wrong, they actually direct you to go to their website from your cell phone. I still think it would be easier to direct you to an app store rather then the multi-step process of going to the web site to download the software. They direct you to go home, go to the Hugo Boss we site and download the software to read the MS tag from there. So, I'm standing in front of the store and you're directing me to go home, download the software and then come back to the store to try it out.
But, I was able to download the software needed right from the Android Market, so directing me there would've made this something I could do right away and then experience the value of the tag immediately. I have to think that if I'm good with this whole downloading barcodes readers to my cell phone thing, I know how to do that from either the Android or Apple app stores.
I'll go back and try it when I'm in on Friday, but there's a few, very important lessons here:
It's got to be easy and immediately actionable. If it's a multistep process that I need to remember when I get somewhere else, I'm not likely to do it.
I need to clearly understand the value proposition. And if the value proposition is better for you then it is for me, I won't do it at all. What's the value of shopping online from in front of your store, when I could just walk in the store?
Know your audience. A smart phone person who uses a barcode reader will visit the app store anyway, let them go there.
There's lots of good tools out there and there will be a day when most people use a phone-based, barcode reader to comparison shop. But, today, if it's not executed properly, it just makes it harder to drive adoption.
Saw this on the Cavi Digital Experience site and thought it was pretty cool. You make music by placing music notes on the table. Imagine having this as a tool for teaching children about music, now that would be pretty powerful. Very exciting to see how people are experimenting with computer interface.
If you've followed me from my earlier blog (Experience Manifesto) and read me here, you know that I believe that we're missing a great opportunity -- place. We spend lots of money & 2 months asking you to come to our store and then as soon as you walk through the door, we act surprised that you're there. As I was talking to my buddy Dave about this, he asked why people don't "fish in a barrel." After all, if that's where people are buying things, then why aren't we putting more resources into the physical space?
For example, watching the Oscars the other night made me think about this as it relates to the cinema. The reason 3D is so big right now is because is creates a point of differentiation from watching movies at home. Well, the night of the Oscars, we rented Inglourious Basterds. We hadn't seen it & thought we should before the Oscars. Well, watching it at home is not at all the same experience as watching it in the theater.
To begin with, we had to pause the movie because Sydney needed something. We lost where we were and edned up missing the end of the 1st chapter. Well, if you've seen the movie, you know that's a critical set-up for the rest of the movie. Plus, the whole time we were watching the movie, we were doing other things. Checking e-mail, going to IMDB to read the trivia or find out more about a cast member. Watching at home, we weren't engaged.
Here's a video of the first in-cinema installation we did back in the day. See how engaged that audience is? That's creating a unique cinema event. That's using the value of place to create an engaging experience.
When it comes to retail, most brands are completely unaware of the importance of place. They don't know how to control the experience that's delivered unless it's their store. And even then, they mostly act like they have no control. Brand managers turn over the retail experience to HR or OPS and hope that it all works out.
But if you've spent millions of dollars and lots of time convincing me to come to your store, what are you doing to show me that you care that I've made that journey? I say all the time, what's the value of being a fan on Facebook if you don't treat me like a fan when I'm actually engaging with your brand? How do you recognize me in real life, not online.
As Dave & I were talking about this idea, we started talking about IN-N-OUT Burger. For years, they've had in-store fans, people who knew about their secret menus, people who loved everything about the In-N-Out experience. Dave told me how we actually takes clients to the In-N-Out Burger in Vegas, brings bottles of wines and gives those clients a special picnic there. He didn't need Facebook to be a fan of In-N-Out Burger, he was a fan where it counted, where he spent his money.
It's not that you shouldn't have Facebook fans or Twitter followers, but you need to know how to also engage your fans where it counts. We all like to talk about metrics & ROI, but as Dave would say, there's one, very simple metric to measure. Did it convince me to buy. Not everything has to be a direct line to purchase, but if at the end of the day you haven't moved people to make a purchase, what have you accomplished?
My buddy Dave Peters over at Event Mall provided the sun for this Tropicana commercial, although he decided not to go himself. Something about living in Orlando and not wanting to be cold. If you're looking for event ideas, Dave is your go-to guy!
More AR, this time from Doritos in Brazil and it's the world's largest AR monster. If you go to the web site you can also make yourself a monster (although it didn't work for me. But, I also didn't understand the instructions either). We'll clearly see lots more of this kind of both promotion and AR experience in the future.
Interesting video of a fashion show from the UK that used augmented reality (AR) as part of the fashion show and the fashion itself. Opens up some interesting ideas about using AR at life events, having guests wear clothing with AR tags and creating an event on top of the event. Lots of creativity opens up for event producers who can really think outside the box. Thanks to @ydreams for the tip.
A few years back, I was invited to speak at a number of industry events about digital signage and it's role in the advertising biz. I took a different tack then most everyone else, especially since I thought too many people were using the same interruptive model that advertising has used for years. I've included a link to the full article below and have included some thought starters here.
With the information available today through your cell phone, what's the role of digital signage today? Is it destined to be just ambient, background noise or will it play a more vital role in creating a compelling brand experience?
If you’re currently working on an in-something digital network, ask yourself: Where does “create a better experience” fall on your list of reasons to install a digital network? My guess is that the top spots are occupied by “increase revenue” or “create opportunities to promote partners” and somewhere further down the line is create a better retail experience. And even when it’s on the list, my guess is that few people have actually defined how it will create a better experience for the consumer.
So, stop what you’re doing right now and look at your experience first. If it doesn’t
create a truly better experience for your audience first, I don't think you’re doing it right.
You're Not a Media Company
It seemed a simple enough announcement: P-O-P Times sat down with Evan Anthony, Kroger’s corporate vice president of marketing and advertising, to discuss roll-out plans for an ambitious, integrated network that will turn the nation’s largest supermarket chain into a “media company.” (Emphasis mine)
To be fair to Kroger, they are not the only retailer thinking this way. Steve Heyer, formally CMO at Coke, has been saying that Starwood Hotels are a media channel as well. This seems to be pretty standard thinking for retailers today—or anyone with a location that can now become a media dynasty!
Don’t we understand that the reason brands are seeing a decline in the effectiveness of TV advertising is that we don’t like ads interrupting everything we do? If you’re
involved in putting together one of these in-store networks, ask yourself: How many
of your friends, not in the advertising business, have said to you—“Hey, can you put
up lots of monitors in your store and run commercials on them?” My guess is not that many.
Advertising based on the fact that you can’t turn it off IS NOT A GOOD ADVERTISING MEDIUM. You don’t build a relationship with anyone when you start by talking about the fact that they can’t avoid you. You can’t think reach and frequency and relationship building at the same time. They usually, in fact, work against each other.
I was having a conversation with Marge Laney about the state of the retail and why everyone in the biz talks about how important creating the right experience is, yet they're all cutting budgets and letting people go and basically doing everything they can to make sure it's impossible for them do deliver a great experience.
And as we talked it dawned on me that:
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one
and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other."
Of course, this is from Matthew 6:24 and the end of this quote talks about serving God & money. But in this conversation, it's about the two masters that companies have to serve, their customers and their shareholders.
And unfortunately, these two masters are diametrically opposed to one another. The biggest challenge comes from the fact that shareholders, as a rule, don't really care about anything other then very short term results. Need to make the numbers for the month, just cut expenses. Quarter looking soft, layoff a bunch of people. It's all short term for them. And their only concern is making money, nothing else matters.
But as was discussed in Brand Experience Matters: Circuit City cost cutting madness - Polinchock's Ponderings, the shareholders pushed Circuit City management to let go of all of their high paid staff to save money. Those cuts led directly to Circuit City closing down. So, the shareholders demand to save money cost them everything when the company closed. Short term gain, long-term loss.
But, this is how most companies think. Their C-level staff is trying to serve those two masters and, not surprisingly, they're devoted to the shareholders and the customer ends up being despised. To often, the C-level staff doesn't even care what the brand is. Didn't a study show that the average tenure of a CMO was 18 months? Well, that means they're only working about 14 month, because they're spending the last 4 months looking for their new gig. And when the C-level staff doesn't really care about the brand, there's no way the frontline staff is going to care.
The question is, how can we possibly turn this around? Sure, there are all kinds of examples of companies that put the customers first, but most companies are not prepared to follow those examples.
So, that's my rant for the night. Wish it was a rant that had an answer, but not sure it does. But I'd be very happy to be proved wrong about this one.
