Experience Manifesto

How Place & Information Will Change in an AR World

Ten years ago, I was in Poland doing an AudienceGames installation for Orange and had an experience that I think illustrates the future of information. We had a free afternoon and decided to walk into the old section of Warsaw to do some exploring. On the way, we passed a large, Catholic cathedral. Since everything was in Polish, we didn't really know what the church was or anything about its history, but it was a beautiful church to explore.

Towards the front of the church, was a statue of St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes (and probably my personal patron saint!). And covering the stature was hundreds of rosary beads, indicating that many people have prayed to this statue of St. Jude. And on the two walls behind this stature were hundreds of little plaques, each with one name on it. Again, it seems like lots of people came to pray at this stature.

That made me ask several questions:

1. What was so special about this church? Did it survive the bombings of WWII? Was it a main cathedral? What was its historical value?
2. What made this stature of St. Jude so special? Almost every Catholic church I've been in has a stature of St. Jude, so why did it seem that everyone came here to pray?
3. What were the stories behind the individual plaques? What were they praying for? Were their prayers answered?

As AR is now becoming a more accessible technology, this becomes the basis for several layers of information that I believe we're going to be expecting in the real world:

1. What's the official story?
2. What are the unofficial stories?
3. What are the individual stories?

As many of you know, I was a Glass Explorer back in the day and still wear them on occasion today. In fact, I wore them this weekend to take pictures and video of the ITP Winter Show here in NYC. With all of the announcements about AR glasses these days (and I expect to see many more at CES next month) and with both iOS and Android releasing AR toolkits for phones, there's no doubt that we're going to see a lot more AR in the coming years.

But, that opens up all kinds of questions that we haven't even begun to think about:

• What's the UX for this new, AR world? Do we really want unfiltered and/or sponsored information overlaid on everything we look at? What's the new input experience for accessing this content? Will we use gestures, voice, eye movement? Take a look at what Alain Thys had to say about the future of UX and see what you think of his ideas.
• What is the backend for all of this content? Ori Inbar believes that it will be the AR Cloud that will drive the massive adoption needed to use AR as part of our every day lives. Information needs to be accessible in a very precise location for it to have value to the audience.
• Who will own this backend and be responsible for the massive amount of data that will need to flow through the system in order for it to be universally used? If I can only access data on one platform or another, that will make it hard for mass adoption to occur. I frequently say if TV had started like tech works today, and you needed a different TV set to watch each channel, there wouldn't have been a TV industry.
• Given how much of social media today has been taken over by trolls and haters, what happens to a society where that hate can live all around us, visually, in the real world? How will we clean up the AR graffiti that we know we cover the world? Who will make the distinction between art and garbage?
• How do we handle the right value exchange for the consumer in this connected, overlaid world? They know when the work we're doing is really only of benefit to us and they don't like it. We will not be able to force them to opt-in to this AR world unless they have a good reason.

Now, this isn't a post about answers. Today we need to start asking these questions if we're going to create an AR world that regular people want to use. As you're building AR experience, make sure you ask this simple question - where does creating a great consumer experience fall on your list of reasons to use AR or any new tech for that matter. If it's not number one, better have a good reason!

AR Art with WallaMe

This weekend I had a chance to play with the WallaMe app during an emerging ARtists scavenger hunt in Ridgewood, NJ. I had our 2 foster puppies with me, so I was stopped about every 3' so people could pet them, so I didn't get to do as many of the sites as I would've liked to do. It's possible that they're still there and I will try to check them out later this week.

Have to say that I had lots of fun playing with them and judging by the number of people I ran into also playing the game, it seemed to be very popular. It was a great way to introduce people to both AR and some new artwork, so I thought it worked on both fronts. Lastly, it was also a great way to get people to walk around Ridgewood and maybe find some stores that they didn't know beforehand.

The WallaMe app was easy to download and was pretty easy to understand. I had some confusion with the WallaMe app and still don't know where pictures that I favorited went, but that could just be me. All in all, a fun experience that really helped people understand what AR is and how it can be used.

Shouldn't We Make Place Special?

Last week, during the NRF Big Show, there was a lot of talk about how to change retail to be successful in today's world. I spent a lot of time with Bob Phibbs and Marge Laney walking the floor and talking about what we were seeing throughout the show.

Dozens of companies were showing mobile apps (to be truthful, they were trying to show mobile apps. Thanks to the incredibly crappy cell service at the Javits, they frequently didn't work.) and it was the hot topic of numerous presentations throughout the program. The emphasis was on putting information into the hands of the people.

And, mobile shopping tools certainly seemed to be a big part of the 2010 holiday season as well. Anecdotally, it seems that the use of cell phone based price-checking tools was on the rise this holiday shopping season. Best Buy reported lower sales and speculation was that people were looking at the items at Best Buy, but buying somewhere else. I know lots of people who do that. Yes, I do it too.

Look at some findings by a recent survey by Motorola:

A majority of retail associates (55%) said that 2010 holiday shoppers, driven by increasing availability of online shopping tools and mobile phone applications, were better connected to consumer information than in-store associates, according to a survey by Motorola Solutions.

The survey found that retailers that aren't investing in technology to stay ahead of increasingly tech-savvy shoppers are hurting their own bottom line. Nearly three in 10 (28%) store visits ended with an average of $132 unspent due to abandoned purchases driven by deal-habituated behavior, out-of-stocks, limited store associate assistance and long check-out processes.

As the Motorola survey confirms, a lot of the conversations and presentations was about how since consumers couldn't get help from the sales people on the floor, just give them the information they need on their cell phone.

There was also a great deal of conversations about making the physical retail store work and act like an online store.

Now, I'm a big of creating Oneline™ brand experiences and have also been speaking for many years about the need to e-tail your retail. So, I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't give your shoppers more information or deliver it through tools like mobile, QR codes, etc.

But, based on many conversations I've been having lately, I'm also starting to think that we're missing a big opportunity to emphasize just what makes place special. As I've said in the past, I continue to think that there's a coming trend to socialize the retail environment instead of just merchandising the real estate space. And the more we try to use the space for our purposes rather then our guests, the more they'll stay away.

Can you afford to have hundreds of thousands (or millions) of square feet of retail space and all of the expenses that go with it, and just have it act like windows for people to do online shopping? And they may not even shop online at your store! Can you continue to support online social media efforts while creating physical spaces that are almost anti-social? Sure, open up your info so that I can get it on my cell phone. But shouldn't you also hire better people and do more to train them? And create better physical spaces?

I think that retailers with physical stores need to spend a little more time looking at what makes place special. Stop trying to compete with the online world by making your places more online-like and start competing by your rules. Use place to your advantage.

Every time I go to an Apple or Lululemon store, I wonder why more retailers don't copy their model. They work. They generate great loyalty from their consumers. And they generate great return for their investors. There are plenty of other examples of retailers, big & small, that use place as an integral part of their business success.

If you're putting more effort into turning your stores into a web site, rather then capitalizing on what makes place unique, you might want to start looking for a great real estate broker to help you sell off your stores.

Motorola Survey: Shoppers better connected to information than store associates | Chain Store Age.

Download Sticky Soul - Some Thoughts from a Retail Walkabout

Riddle Me This...

More Thoughts on the Value of Place.

Polinchock's Ponderings: Customer Experience.

Polinchock's Ponderings: Retail News.

Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers - WSJ.com

For years I've been talking about how new mobile technologies can turn physical retail into nothing more then giant "windows" for online retailers. I know that I price check using my phone and I know that more & more people will do the same.

Yesterdays Wall Street Journal had this article and news out of Best Buy (see Best Buy stung by weaker sales and earnings | Business Tech - CNET News) clearly showing that the tide is turning and that this is becoming a normal part of retail today.

As I've recently discussed during my future of retail presentations with the Retail Advertising & Marketing Association, I believe that retail will be divided into two main categories:

• Commodity shopping. This is shopping almost strictly on price. This could be items like socks, underwear, milk, etc. Those items that we buy frequently and sometimes we're not even aware of the brands we're buying. We're really starting to see this move into categories like consumer electronics, where people may be focusing more on price then the specific brand or technology.
• Experience shopping. These are the items that we pay more for based on the experience we get. This is why we pay more for Apple products or why we use one dry cleaner over another. It's why there are many restaurants of all different price points. Sometimes a dollar burger does the trick, sometimes we want the $20 version.

If all you're offering is product, then all you have to compete on is price. And if all you have to compete on is price, well, then people are going to use their cell phones to see if you have the best price. And price is is where online retailers can excel. But even online retailers understand the role of experience, just ask Zappos.

For physical retailers, there's an even greater challenge. For many of them, it's not like they can just close up their stores and move everything online. Think of what would happen to our economy if even a handful of retailers decided to close up all of their physical stores and lay off a few hundred thousand people. And how would it impact their business anyway? Sure Sharper Image saved a lot of money by closing their stores, but do they even still exist today?

Take a look at your retail experience from top to bottom. Are you offering anything of value other then the product? Are you helping the guests in a way that makes them feel confident in purchasing from you? Are your employees committed and engaged? Do they know your brand story? Online retail still only accounts for about 10% of the total retail industry, but cell-phone price checking tools might help change that for retailers with no other point of differentiation.

Tri Tang, a 25-year-old marketer, walked into a Best Buy Co. store in Sunnyvale, Calif., this past weekend and spotted the perfect gift for his girlfriend.

Last year, he might have just dropped the $184.85 Garmin global positioning system into his cart. This time, he took out his Android phone and typed the model number into an app that instantly compared the Best Buy price to those of other retailers. He found that he could get the same item on Amazon.com Inc.'s website for only $106.75, no shipping, no tax.

"It's so useful," Mr. Tang says of his new shopping companion, a price comparison app called TheFind. He says he relies on it "to make sure I am getting the best price."

Mr. Tang's smartphone reckoning represents a revolution in retailing—what Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Mike Duke has dubbed a "new era of price transparency"—and its arrival is threatening to upend the business models of the biggest store chains in America.

Until recently, retailers could reasonably assume that if they just lured shoppers to stores with enticing specials, the customers could be coaxed into buying more profitable stuff, too. Now, marketers must contend with shoppers who can use their smartphones inside stores to check whether the specials are really so special, and if the rest of the merchandise is reasonably priced.

Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers - WSJ.com.

ADDITIONAL READING

Polinchock's Ponderings: Retail News.

Download Sticky Soul: Retail Trends

Download Future of Retail

World Premiere Cafe

Ever have one of those ideas that you love and you know that one day, you'll find a way to make it happen? Well, the World Premiere Cafe is one of those ideas with me. Working with Greg Beck, I originally came up with the idea in late 1999, when we were working with a number of companies who were exploring themed restaurants. They all wanted a restaurant, the problem was that most of them didn't want to be in the restaurant business.

As I looked at what was happening in the space, I thought about the road theaters that I knew, places where road companies brought in the entire show into a basically empty theater. The core tools where there for them, like lighting, rigging, etc., but they would bring in all of the sets, etc., rather then have them made there.

So the World Premiere Cafe was designed as like a road house for themed restaurants. As described in the original deck created in 2000:

These locations will act as a “road house” for our ‘eatertainment’ sponsors, allowing them to have a complete themed restaurant and entertainment complex without the costs and expense of owning a permanent facility.

The big idea was that sponsors would sign on for specific time lengths (generally one calendar quarter) and we'd recreate the entire experience for them. For example, we'd:

• Re-theme the interior designs for the sponsor product.
• Rename menu items for the sponsor and create several key menu items based on the brand needs.
• Re-theme all staff wardrobe based on brand identity.
• Run promotional programs in conjunction with sponsors.

I saw the World Premiere Cafe as a 350 seat, full service restaurant with a 45 seat lounge, with a balcony area and VIP seating and a stage for performances and/or demonstrations. It would use lots of interactive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and others, to create unique guest experience. Table-mounted touch screens allow for ordering food & merchandise and playing interactive games, both with guests inside and outside the restaurants.

It's one of my favorite concepts and given my stand on how importance place is, I'm confident that one day, I'll see it come to fruition!

Base experience

The Sydney Games were happening, so I added them to the concept

Kinect & Human Joysticks & The Future of Motion Capture

Sydney & I had a chance to play with Kinect yesterday at the Augmented Reality New York Meetup last night and we really had fun. Understand that it's been selling well and have to say, as a first round of the product, it's pretty darn good! Biggest technical challenge might actually be space requirements, but in our playing last night, it tracked us very well. Here's some video of Chas Mastin & Sydney playing Kinect during the meeting.

And it's been fun to watch all of the coverage of Kinect has been getting these days and now that I've played it, I would love to have one (hint, hint) for Christmas.

If you knew me back in my days at the Brand Experience Lab, you know that I'm a big fan of the use of motion capture games. In fact, one of the first technologies that I brought into the Lab from the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU was this game:

Sure, people were occasionally offended by the content of that game, but people always enjoyed playing it. And even people who didn't play, enjoyed watching other people play the game.

In 2007, I led the BEL team that created NewsBreaker Live, the first in-cinema, motion capture game and we got a great response. Sam Mazur, creative lead on the SS+K team that worked on the msnbc.com game, coined the expression human joysticks, when he described the game. And the audience really had being human joysticks. For example, here are the results from the audience surveys we did after the games for msnbc.com & Volvo.

           msnbc.com  (USA)                               VOLVO (UK)

*       78%  played the game                           *  84%  played the game
*       93%  want more games in cinemas           *  68%  want more games in cinemas
*       86%  prefer a game to an ad                   *  74%  prefer a game to an ad
*       71%  unaided MSNBC brand recall             *  21%  better image of Volvo
*       75% more likely to use MSNBC                 *  37%  more likely to purchase a Volvo

The results really show what happens when you involve the audience in the experience. We had a 71% unaided recall rate of msnbc.com as the sponsor of the game. To put that in some kind of context, according to the Arbitron study of in-cinema advertising released at the time, 59% of all movie goers recall seeing commercials at theaters.

While Kinect is the biggest launch of motion capture, it's not the only one out there. Myron Krueger was doing interactive gesture work back in the early 70's. If you have younger children, you might be interested in what the DoCrew is doing. They've created an online game environment where the kids use their own body movements to play and complete the tasks in the game. It's a great way to engage younger children and, since it runs on the web, you can access it anywhere without needing anything special. Gesturetek has been doing motion capture for pushing 20 years. Tangibal has installed screens in the UK & Norway and Screenvision has a number of screens with motion capture systems here in the US.

As I traveled around the world with our in-cinema installations, I got to see firsthand how people reacted to these kind of experiences. It created a different group dynamic in the cinema, allowing strangers to interact in a different way. I used to joke that the usual social interaction was the "elbow waltz" to see who controlled the right position of the arm rest. These in-cinema games changed that dynamic. People talked to one another after the game and there was some indication, that people enjoyed the movie a little more after they played the game.

The challenge is that there doesn't seem to have been a big interest in repeat plays of motion capture games. It's a great one-off experience, for special movies, trade shows, theme parks, etc., but whether or not people want to play a game like this every time they come into a place like a movie theater remains to be seen.

Perhaps Kinect will change all of that. It has certainly created a new conversation about motion capture and what you can do with it. The content was fun and I'm sure it will only get better once developers start really start playing with what's possible. I hear there's already been an open source hack, so we see lots of interesting ways to use gesture tracking in the future. And once people start playing it at home, they may be much more open to playing motion capture games at other places, like movie theaters.

Sydney gave it the thumbs up and she'd be happy to have one at home. And when I see Chas playing with it, I know that he & his partners will do some pretty cool things with it too. I'm still exploring group games and we'll see where that leads in the future. But with $50 million in advertising behind it, you can be sure that people will know what motion captures looks like in the future.

msnbc.com NewsBreaker Live

An Interview I did on the future of cinema advertising

Volvo in-cinema game

The Future of Ad Agencies and Social Media

Steve Hall from Adrants (a blog I read every day) was quoted in a recent Mashable piece on the future of Ad Agencies and Social Media:

“With the ability to target people only when they are within purchasing distance, brands will be able to come that much closer to targeting nirvana. Offers can be made only to those meeting certain location (and even demographic) requirements, reducing waste and actually saving a brand a lot of money by minimizing its old school spray-and-pray mass marketing techniques. In a nutshell, mobile will, once and for all, make it possible for a marketer to target without waste.” (Emphasis mine)

And Jolie O'Dell, who wrote the article, finishes the section on location-based services with this:

Between the intelligence you can gather about your clients’ customers and your ability to find more highly qualified targets than ever before, location is indeed the holy grail for advertisers.

I know that it was a piece about advertising and the future of the agency, but in a world of "consumers being in control," we're still mostly looking at any new tools through the agency POV. Consumers don't really care about whether or not advertising can do their job without waste unless it has a direct benefit to them.

If the consumer's in control, then shouldn't any discussion about the future of the business talk about the value to the consumer first?

The Future of Ad Agencies and Social Media.

Digital: Study Says Most Marketers Should Forgo Foursquare - Advertising Age - Digital

A new study out by Forrester seems to indicate that there's not enough people using location based services for marketers to bother with them right now. Although they also suggest that people should experiment with these tools as well.

Well, I also have a study (well, not a study really, just a discussion with some smart folks) that I believe shows something pretty significant:

Most marketers, if not all marketers, should use the tools that best engage their audience, whatever those tools are. They need to stop listening to the many reports out there and start listening to their guts and their customers.

As I wrote here, I think it's even more important to make sure you're looking at everything out there and experimenting with what's right for you.

It's also why it's so important for brands to have a clear understanding of what their story is and who their audience is. As I recently tweeted, without a strong story, you may get attention, but you rarely get engagement.

So read the reports and the studies and then determine what works best for you. Not everything is good for every brand. That's been true for many years. But knowledge and awareness of what's out there and how to best communicate with your audiences is critical to your success as a brand today.

Digital: Study Says Most Marketers Should Forgo Foursquare - Advertising Age - Digital.

Podcast: Brand Experience Design with David Polinchock on 6/22/10 | Get Storied: articles, tips, and resources for the business of storytelling

My podcast with Michael Margolis is up, so click on the link below and enjoy the conversation between Michael & I about what makes a great experience, the socialization of place and how businesses can use experience as a point of differentiation. It was a fun program and I'm looking forward to doing it again in the future.

What exactly makes for a memorable brand experience? And how is technology changing the context for mastering this equation? Join us for the next episode of The New Storytellers, when we’ll talking with David Polinchock, a pioneer in the field of brand experience design and technology application. David has been an innovation catalyst for over two decades, exploring the socialization of place and the narratives dimensions of branding. David is equally passionate about the merging of our “offline” and “online” selves, and the implications this holds for a brand’s continuum of experiences.

Podcast: Brand Experience Design with David Polinchock on 6/22/10 | Get Storied: articles, tips, and resources for the business of storytelling.

Come Out & Play 2010, June 4 - 6

Just one more day until the 2010 Come Out & Play Festival and Sydney & I are excited to participate. As I mentioned, we're going to be asteroids in a game of Human Asteroids and we've been rehearsing to get ready for that event on Friday night at the opening event. I'll be blogging and uploading video from the event, so look for posts from the festival throughout the weekend.

Each year the Come Out & Play Festival settles in a different neighborhood and explores the limits of play and games in that space. We've played among the galleries of Chelsea, played amidst the thriving nightlife of the Lower East Side and navigated the throngs of tourists in Times Square. This year the festival lands in Brooklyn to explore a new set of challenges. We will explore the potential for play in a converted 100-year old bathhouse. We will find ways to engage a residential neighborhood like Park Slope with games. We will discover the playful uses of a post-industrial swath of warehouses and canals like Gowanus. And we'll make games from the rich texture of a historic public cemetery like Green-Wood.

And while it will be a very fun event, it's more then that. It's also a great look into the future of location-based experiences and what play might look like in the future as well. If you're creating events and experiential marketing campaigns and you're in the NY area this weekend, your imagination will be sparked as you see what's possible when you combine technology, place and lots of people.

Some of the games I'm looking forward to include:

Humanoid Asteroids. Play the vector arcade classic come to life. Jump in your ship, man your lasers, and get ready to fend off waves of human asteroids in this dance/game mashup. How long can you survive? (Plus you get to see Sydney & I being asteroids!)

Humans vs. Zombies (HvZ) is a game of moderated tag commonly played on college campuses, highschools and neighborhoods. A group of human players attempt to survive a "zombie outbreak" by outsmarting a growing group of zombie players. People should bring bandanas, socks and Nerf guns to use in the game.

GPS Alien Attack. A screen just isn't big enough for our video game characters. In GPS Alien Attack, they're leaping out from the confines of your phone and infiltrating your city! Your avatar moves and runs according to your real movements and position in the street. YOU are the video game hero, defending YOUR city from alien invasion! Your goal: destroy all the alien eggs before the monster catches you. And keep your eyes open for the eggs with special powers...GPS Alien Attack provides you with the ultimate step in high-resolution game graphics: the real world! Instead of immersing yourself in another gaming world, the game is embedded in your real life.

It Lurks in Gowanus. Project Seltzer has been studying a creature born from the pollution of the Gowanus Canal and now running amok in the streets. Your mission is to recapture the creature while avoiding all threats you may encounter along the way. Use your web enabled cell phone to guide you through an augmented reality adventure. Your team of 1-4 Agents will work together to solve the mystery. Just send an email to [email protected] anytime from Friday June 4th 3pm to Sunday June 6th 8pm to get started!

OMMRPG is a matching game using lasers. Each team has a shooter who controls the team's laser and tries to direct the laser point into the Goal. Helping him out are four teammates with mirrors who can try to reflect the laser around blockers and into the goal. Each team also has three blockers who try to disrupt the other team's laser path.

Unwritten Storybook. Once upon a time...in a land not so far away...lived a troll...scratch that...lived a wizard...hmmm...lived a giant? Playing the heroes of this real-world adventure across Brooklyn, your interactions with other teams of characters will determine whether you live as allies or enemies. All stories culminate in a festive gathering where the characters assemble together to write the final chapter over a feast of food and cider.

Ex Arcana. The Magicians are back, bringing magic, monsters, and mayhem back into a world full of brash young Guttersnipes with no understanding of how to wield such strange powers. In the Aetherspace above Brooklyn, something stirs- and the Arcanum have recuited you to join them in an Aethership Journey into the skies to do battle with this mystical Horror. Ex Arcana is a new kind of RPG.You will take part in a live-action steampunk adventure as the crew of the Aethership Tesla’s Hammer, which you will pilot against all manner of otherworldly horrors to defend the city! Costuming is encouraged, and a good sense of humor is required.

Shabbat-put! The Sabbath is a day to rest - no slaving, no schlepping! The Sages have laid out the 39 categories of work that are forbidden on this day, including writing, carrying and slaughtering goats. But what if you're an Olympic Athlete? This Greek Games / Orthodox Sabbath mashup gets teams to problem-solve and reimagine how you would accomplish certain basic games while observing the Saturday rules. Make your Bubby proud!

The GOurmet Game. This offering is hot off the griddle of The Go Game team-building stove. Inspired by the cooking craze that has spread through our office and across the country, we've combined our passion for team-building with all things kitchen-related to create The GOurmet Challenge -- a game that will inspire, entertain, and satisfy your taste buds all at once! Our crew of culinary masterminds will run you through a fast-paced game that will challenge your team in a number of areas: delegating, multi-tasking, communicating, and of course, stylish apron-wearing.

SMERSH. Two teams of Spies must avoid detection by as they try to be the first to locate their Informants, exchange their Challenge Phrases, and return two of their Encrypted Diskettes to their Handler. Spies wear no distinguishing markers, and can only be identified by their suspicious actions. Also, it doesn't help that the Diskettes they must recover are gigantic and neon-colored. Stealth, cunning, drama, disguise, and suspense will abound in SMERSH!

Ball-Pop. Ball-Pop is a series of original games and challenges that we'll play with parachutes and massive inflatable beach balls. Some will involve teamwork and collaboration, others will be competitive, and we'll end with an amazing daredevil challenge. The games - Ball-y-Oop, Juggalot, Ball-der-Dash, and Para-Shoot - get crazier and crazier as we go along. This is the perfect activity for everyone: children and adults, friends and neighbors, parachutists and beach bums. We’ll have a ton of fun, so we hope you join us!

There are many more, so click here to see the entire list of games. Registration for the games are at the festival headquarters from June 4-6 at the Brooklyn Lyceum.

:: Come Out & Play 2010 ::.

Big Games: New Yorkers Turn Midtown Into a Board Game -- Daily Intel.

Games Festival Turns Manhattan Into Playground - NY1.com.

Pitfall Live from the 2009 festival, Jim Bearden