Experience Manifesto

Movie Theaters Will Be Back

BARBENHEIMER WEEKEND

This past weekend was the now infamous Barbenheimer weekend at the cinema. As I'm sure you've read, Barbie broke multiple box office records, raking in an incredible $162 million in its opening weekend. Globally, it's done $337 million. Oppenheimer, a movie that couldn't be more different, brought in $82.4 million, exceeding all expectations. Combined, it's the fourth largest weekend box office.

We saw both and they were both packed. In fact, we saw Oppenheimer at an 8:45 AM showing (in 70MM) and it was almost sold out. The audiences we were with loved both movies and showed the absolute power of the group, movie experience. Check out some my thoughts on what needs to happen to create a better movie theater experience at A Tale of Two Theaters.

UPDATE

Was back at an actual movie theater this past weekend to see In the Heights. While the theater wasn't packed, it had a good crowd and we were certainly an enthusiastic audience. We had started to watch it at home on HBO Max and quite frankly, it wasn't at all the same experience as watching it in the cinema. It's not just the size of the screen, it's the entire experience. From the minute we walked in the door and got the aroma of the popcorn, to the seats and the screen/sound combination, everything is different. And the audience is far more focused on screen and the story in the cinema than certainly I am at home. It's why I am still bullish on the in-cinema experience!

Original Post

This has been a hard year for movie theaters, possibly their hardest ever. In October, Variety Had a dialogue on the future of theaters. Earlier this month, Warner Bros made news (and a few enemies) when it announced that it would release movies simultaneously on HBO Max and in-cinema on the same today. That effort kicked off yesterday with the launch of WW84.

As a little background on us as a movie family, we love movies! We went to the movies a lot, every week in the summer. I had the AMC Stubs A List and usually I made out pretty well with it. My wife & I did many a date night at the movies and my daughter and I made sure we were in the theater for every super hero movie that came out. You just have to watch those movies on a big screen!

Watching a movie in a movie theater is a completely different experience than watching something at home. At least it is for me. There’s a ritual to seeing a movie in a cinema. I only eat Sno-Caps in a movie theater, despite the fact that I can buy them other places. They get sprinkled into the popcorn to create a melted mess that’s awesome!

Seeing a movie in a theater with an audience also creates a group catharsis that almost never happens for me when watching at home. Part of the issue is the many distractions that I have at home that don’t happen in the theater. I’m constantly looking up trivia or checking emails or doing something completely unrelated at home. In the theater, I’m focused on the screen and the story. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been totally engrossed in a movie in the theater and sometimes even questioned how I thought I liked the movie when watching it at home. Or thought a movie was really funny when surrounded by other people laughing and then sat bored while watching it at home.

At some point today, I will admit that we will be watching WW84 and Soul here at home with the family. But honestly, only because it’s our only way to watch it right now. The smart move would be for these companies to bring them back to the theaters when they reopen later this year. I’d certainly pay to see them on a large screen in a darkened movie theater with my popcorn and Sno-Caps, surrounded by an audience all sharing the same experience.

Plus, I can assure you that my wife will never count it as a date night if we watch a movie at home.

Creating the Right Experience Post Covid19

 

A few days ago, I posted What will Retailers Do Post #Covid19? and started the conversation about what we need to do as an industry to recover when the coronavirus threat is over. It reminded me of a previous piece I wrote almost 20 years ago.

Back in 2001, I was on deadline to turn in an article that would be of interest to the theme park industry the week of 9-11. Needless to say, that deadline passed and it was another few weeks before I was able to write again. The challenge was that I couldn't figure out what was important about our industry in a world upside down post 9-11. Like today, we were asking the same questions:

In the weeks after the attacks, I spoke to many colleagues in the entertainment marketing field who all asked the same question: How do we go back to our business in the face of such a tragedy? What we do seems so trivial in the face of such tragedy…so unimportant. I, too, asked the same questions and wondered how I would get back to "business as usual" after these events.

Thanks to encouragement from industry friends and a great editor, Pat Esgate, I wrote a piece entitled The Great Good Places, where I talked about the important need to create fun. I wrote then:

As I thought more about it, the need for fun is a global experience. We may have fun in different ways, but we all like to have fun. Fun is one of the greatest tools we have to create a world of understanding and -- potentially -- peace. Hate can’t thrive in an atmosphere of fun.

Let’s ask how can we create experiences that bring people together to share a common, joyous activity. What we need today is more ways for people to come together and share joy—and that’s what we do. So celebrate the joy that you create.

Now that we're all forced to do most, if not all of our shopping online, what will stores do to change that behavior once this is over? While big sales may help in the short term, that's not a long term plan. Retailers and brands not planning right now for what happens when this is all over, will be far behind the curve and may not be able to catch up.

Are you thinking through the design changes that will be needed to recreate your shopping experience? Will you be merchandising the same way you've already done it?  Jim Ackerman, CEO of Unified was pretty clear on what we need - 

“Consumers after a quarantine and lockdown are going to be looking for one particular experience----FUN. It will be important for brands and retailers to make shopping fun again. Ask any Gen Zer what they will be looking for after being cooped up for weeks—it isn’t even close.”

We’ve already seen one change within the grocery industry this week. Retailers around the globe, including Stop & Shop here in the US and Woolworth’s in Australia are opening up early to give the elderly a chance to shop before the general crowds come in. In addition to protecting them since they are more susceptible to serious issues, it also means they won’t be in as crowded and stressful an environment. Wonder if that will continue when this is all over.

Additionally, Morrisons grocery stores has announced food boxes, including a selection of everyday items based on current availability, including food and essential household goods. These boxes have been designed for the audience that now can't go to the store, but that has difficulty in making online ordering work.

Companies like Two Bit Circus (pictured above) and Meow Wolf have received a great deal of press over the last few years for creating a better experience than other companies in their respective spaces have in the past. ARTECHOUSE (pictured below) has been creating unique pop-up experiences for the last year. And Showfields, which bills itself as the "most interesting store in the world,"has created a theatrical experience around retail, with actors portraying different members of the Showfields team.

I've been speaking with Jim Wiemer, head of Design for both Unified and the Brand Experience Lab, about his 25+ years of design experience and his thoughts on what retailers and brands should be doing next. He outlined some of his key ideas for me:

Connect in-home, on-line shopping with re-tooled retail experiences

Retailers will need to build on consumer’s on-line habits when they return to brick and mortar stores. We've been talking to brands, retailers, consumers and students from some of our college partners and many of them have told us that they will be looking for experiences that build on their current on-line shopping, browsing and dreaming. Retailers have a chance of delivering relevant content, products in a way that adds clarity, curated by what was “trending”, “top sellers” and offer original experiences not found on-line.

 Enhance desired lifestyle or activity

Items that complement featured products or enhance the desired activity/lifestyle will instantly connect with the consumer who has been waiting to move forward with life and the activities that they enjoy. Let’s remember a large population has been closed in for weeks, some months on end, and need an outlet to feel real again. Retail experiences, designed right, can be that outlet for them to reconnect and build relationships with retailers, their products, and the newly created purchase path. Many GenZ consumers have spent considerable funds on cell phone technology. How can that technology be used in an engaging way for them to make purchase decisions? How can they be entertained and build memories as they reconnect through physical interaction with products at retail?

Mitch Edelman, President of Unified and Principal in Brand Experience Lab, a third generation in-store marketing expert, also had some thoughts on what retailers could do next:

Re-format the display 

• Using the right material palette for display theme and proper configurations that allow for best practices like organization, segmentation and focal points that deliver engaging presentations that will connect with consumers.
• Removing clutter and focusing on featured, trending products with a connection to relevant information in video format, which will enhance and connect their experience when at home in their fuzzy slippers.

In fact, looking through the vastness that is the internet, I came across a piece from 1999 and honestly, much of the advice Mitch and his fellow experts gave in that article back then, stands true today!

Get floor space. That’s the name of the game. If you build it or show it, they will buy. It’s not an easy task. In the case of floor and counter displays, marketers for the most part pay for the display space.

Make it dramatic. The display or program must be dynamic in every element. The offer must be clear and succinct. The "shelf impact" must be arresting.

Marry product and display. The display only has three tenths of a second to do its job so product packaging and display must be inter-twined.

Seek non-traditional channels. Marketers generally focus their P-O-P guns on high volume channels like department stores, supermarkets, discount stores and category-busters, e.g., Home Depot. But the smaller, less visible specialty stores and boutiques such as salons, home craft stores, liquor stores and independent bookstores can be equally important P-O-P environments.

Be a trend watcher. Before designing the program, analyze the market and the customer. Keep an ear to the ground. Look for what turns them on.

The truth is that many of the things that have been true before are true today, but even more so. The coronavirus crisis will end, as these things always do, and retailers need to be ready to respond to consumer needs when it does.

If you're waiting until this all passes to begin planning what you're going to do and how you can get your consumers back into your store, you're going to be that much further behind.

The Brand as Experience

It's sometimes fun to look back at pieces I wrote some time ago and see what came true and what didn't. I think that this was originally written in 2006 and what's interesting is that some of these predictions happened, went away and have come back again. For example, Second Life was very popular at the time, but hasn't been as popular for a few years. However, they are now getting ready to launch a whole new experience Project Sansar. Podcasting started to get hot, went a little into a decline and today is hotter than ever.

Now clearly not everything worked. As much as I wanted bluetooth to be a thing in stores, it never really took off. Same thing with QR codes, although now with AR making a big play, we may see a different way for users to engage without needing the QR code at all. In 2006, we were just starting to play with things like mobile price checking & payment tools and now, of course, they're pretty ubiquitous. We now even have Amazon Go stores where you don't even have to stop to check out.

So, as with many predictions of the future, I hit, I missed and I really missed! But it is interesting to see where the world was less than 15 years ago and where we are today. Some of it's pretty amazing!

The Brand as Experience

When you look at the profound changes occurring in both the retail and media spaces it's only logical to explore how they are going to impact each other. The first place to look is the technology that it is driving much of the change on both fronts. And the key to success in harnessing technology for marketing or sales is to realize that technology has to be focused on creating a better experience for the consumer, not for the retailer.

Audiences have come to expect dynamic environments in everything that they do. They watch content when they want to. They receive information when they want it. The have bought into just-in-time marketing. When they are bored with our content, they make their own. So as you look at the technologies on the retail horizon, think about how you could use them to create something more unique for the consumer. Dan Pink, writing for Yahoo Finance, recently had this to say:

"Today, utility is abundant. We have more products and services than we can handle, and most function just fine. To stand out in a crowded marketplace, sellers must make a dramatic leap in utility-or stand out in some other way. They can try to compete on price, but that usually ends in a downward death spiral. So the alternative is to compete not on left-brain attributes like price and functionality, but on right-brain qualities such as emotion, meaning, and look and feel. Case in point: Target sells toilet brushes and vegetable scrubbers designed by superstar architect Michael Graves. Even the most mundane, utilitarian objects in our lives have been turned into objects of desire."

And that applies to technology. Forget trying to just put technology into everything that you do to make your business run more smoothly. Consumers want something easier for them and a more unique environment to shop in. They are very comfortable shopping online, so they need more then just merchandise to bring them into the retail space. Today, it's about creating a compelling, authentic and relevant brand experience.

This is not about wish lists. Some of these technologies and new marketing strategies are already in use; many others we'll be seeing in the not-to-distant future. Here's a look at key developments today:

SOCIALIZATION OF RETAIL SPACE & ONLINE SHOPPING

The impact of socialization of the retail space and the impact of online shopping on retail is growing daily. With the growing impact of Internet shopping, it's critical that the physical retail space adapts to this trend. What is the value of real estate for retailers today? Does a record store really need to exist as it's been for the past 40-plus years? What about banks, grocery stores, fashion retailers? If, thanks to the Internet, people are much more comfortable getting their purchases sent to them, rather then getting them right away, do we need that much space dedicated to merchandise? If we could do away with the inventory portion of most retail spaces today, what else would you do with the space? How could you make it a much more social environment, rather then being a retail environment? After all, this is exactly why places like Starbuck's or the Apple stores have boomed: they created a social space, rather than a retail space.

While people look at Starbuck's or the Apple stores and say "Yea, that's great for them, but it doesn't apply to me," I think that they're missing a huge opportunity. We think there's a coming trend to socialize the retail environment instead of just merchandising the real estate space. One such retailer plans to open this fall, Epicenter, where not only will you be able to see samples, but purchase using a "Buypod" and have everything shipped to you. They won't carry a deep inventory and may even charge you extra if you want to buy the item in the store. It will be very interesting to see how this concept works.

MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES & RETAIL

We are significantly behind the rest of the world in using our cell phones for a wider variety of experiences and we are just beginning to see how they can be used here in the U.S.

Some uses currently deployed include:

Cell Phone Shopping. As described on its web site, SCANBUY Shopper enables cell phone users to have the best bargain-hunting tool at their very fingertips. Get the best prices and all the product info you need to make smart and fun purchases. But it does more then that. Type in the barcode for a book or movie and find out all of the reviews as well. Amazon Japan has a similar service that let's you scan the barcode and search through Amazon for best pricing. You can then purchase it directly through Amazon, should you want.

Several companies are developing payment systems using your cell phone, including Paymint, which allows parking meter payments via cell phone—maybe stores in the future will give people cell phone pay coupons to pay for parking in the future. Of course, in Japan systems for items not only in the store, but in vending machines as well. unlicensed short range radio frequency. Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs), also known as IEEE 802.15.1. Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras and video game consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 via a secure, globally unlicensed short range radio frequency.

Several companies are starting to deploy Bluetooth in retail, allowing the consumer to gather additional information about products. And right now, technologies like Bluetooth don't have the same privacy issues that are facing RFID, because they require the consumer to opt-in before anything else can happen.

Dody Tsiantar, writing in Time about the use of Bluetooth technology for billboards, had this to say:

"Technology, in part, is driving the medium's rebirth. Consumers can now download music, play video games, watch movie trailers or custom-design a pair of sneakers and purchase them-all by interacting with outdoor ads. Signs can send a digital coupon to our cell phones, and soon they may even start addressing us by name, as they did in Steven Spielberg's 2002 futuristic film, Minority Report. "We're almost there," says Stephen Freitas of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, an industry trade group. "Outdoor advertising is evolving to a world of two-way advertising very, very fast."

Nokia came out with its Coolzone technology in 2005, allowing retailers to put a base station in the store and bring specific content to consumers with Bluetooth enabled phones. With CoolZone, retailers like music stores, phone shops and cinemas, can offer promotional or paid content, such as mobile games, wallpapers, videos and music, to consumers in their stores.

"For consumers, CoolZone is a new and easy way to get rich mobile content and information. Every time the consumer visits a store, which has CoolZone service, she or he can easily browse, preview and buy the latest content to his or her phone. When using the service for the first time, the consumer downloads a retailer branded application to the phone in the retail location based on instructions provided in the store. The payment for the downloaded content is done either over the counter using vouchers or using premium text messages," said Sakari Kotola, director, Nokia Ventures Organization. "CoolZone is a truly smooth content download tool for consumers."

U.K. music retailer HMV is attempting to play catch-up in the download market by launching Txt2Buy from July, a service that directs consumers from adverts in magazines to a web-site—accessed via their phone, allowing them buy on the move. The aim is to become a real multi-channel retailer, according to Gideon Lask, head of internet at HMV.

PODCASTING

A 2005 Pew Internet study showed that six million consumers have downloaded podcasts and a visit to the iTunes Music store shows an very wide range of podcasts available for download. Retailers are just beginning to explore how podcasts can be used in the store environment as a marketing tool. Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video programs, over the Internet using syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. (Note: Podcasting does not require the use of an Apple iPod or any particular playback device. The most common way to listen to/view a Podcast is with a PC.)

Ad Age recently reported that Vogue has embraced the podcast, and the first of the magazine's "Fashion on Demand" video podcasts—co-brand-ed programming that gives advice, often sprinkled with celebrity interviews, on everything from hair care to fashion—goes behind the scenes of Gap's new fall campaign in an interview with "Entourage" star Jeremy Piven. Future podcasts in the Gap series include interviews with other new Gap faces: actress Lou Doillon, musician Common and actress Mia Farrow. Old Navy and Redken also have developed Vogue podcasts for the fall, and other advertisers, such as Lexus and Jeep, plan to do so down the line.

NEW DISPLAY EXPERIENCES

From IBM's Everywhere Display to Gesturetek's Holopoint, companies are looking to new technologies to create new visual tools to engage the consumer. Unilever recently launched an in-mall program for the launch of Sunsilk from Unilever. Using directional sound speakers, we were able to create a "sonic blanket" to bring a new dimension into the traditional mall advertising. Sex and the City co-star Mario Cantone, who played the sassy, raspy-voiced "gay friend" Anthony, is the voice of the effort. "The audio and the tone of the campaign is very distinctive, and we looked for a way to incorporate that audio into the media in ways that had never been done before," said Susan Noble, group marketing director at Unilever agency Mindshare. "We've also tested the speakers on billboards six stories up and we've been able to hit the street with a clear audio signal."

Ralph Lauren has received a great deal of press for a new interactive window installation at the compa-ny's flagship store in New York. One very unique aspect is that you can actually purchase items right from the window. They have a credit card reader and on-screen keyboard to handle that. And, if you don't want to purchase right then, you can send the information to yourself via e-mail and complete the transaction at home.

Lexus used a holographic projection system in Times Square to promote its new IS car. According to an article in MediaPost, Robin Pisz, national interactive and relationship marketing manager for Lexus, describes a busy target demographic that demanded a new approach. "This is an audience that is always on," she says, referring to Gen Xers who live on the grid with iPods, cell phones, BlackBerries and more. "They are multitaskers [who] have completely bought into the reality of media fragmentation. They understand that they can get and consume content in multiple platforms at almost any time of day."

Wowing the shoppers of Berlin, MediaZest, together with German media group Axel Springer brought the famous Kurfurstendamm to a virtual standstill with its brilliant holographic displays at C&A's flagship store, promoting a new range of lingerie. In the shop window of the Berlin C&A store in Kurfurstendamm a life size holographic image of a woman modeling the new "Seite 1 Girl" lingerie dances, gesticulates and appears to interact with passersby. MediaZest has used its display technology to create this holographic image and its Whispering Window devices to project sound outside of the store.

Working with Jung Von Matt a website has also been set up to accompany the window display. The model, the lingerie and the reactions of passersby can be viewed on the website and one can vote from a list of 30 options for what the model should do next— options include "blow a kiss," "play the air guitar" and "strip." The web-site periodically aggregates the votes and the model will then act according to the favorite request. The website allows the audience to influence the advertisement and the retailer to gauge interest and reactions in real time.

WHAT'S AHEAD

Multi-touch user interface systems are being developed at a number of research facilities. Microsoft demonstrated a system last year and this year, work being done at NYU has really moved the technology forward. As NYU describes its system:

While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.

The opportunity to have multiple people engaging the system, rather then the one-on-one systems that are currently deployed, will greatly change the way touch screens will be used in the future. They can be larger and more interactive and will bring the technology of Minority Report to retail in the next few years.

We've also seen demonstrations of a "virtual dressing room," projectors that can project on any surface, fog screens and many other technologies that will help create a very different visual landscape. After all, now that you can buy a plasma TV at Wal-Mart, they're not much of an attraction in the store.

One of the most interesting things happening right now is the combining of the real world with the virtual world. Online environments like Second Life have seen a variety of companies create virtual copies of their businesses online. Studies have shown that people are spending approximately $5 million/ month in real dollars buying virtual items.

According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in an analyst call reported by Seeking Alpha, "We look at the amount of hours that are consumed by consumers and let's take 18- to 35-year-old males in the U.S. in front of a video game screen. So last year that was roughly 30 billion hours. Then you compare that to television watching which was to the same demographic roughly 30 billion hours."

According to the stats at Second Life today, there are 573,729 total residents and 257,850 of them have been on line in the last 60 days. More importantly, they've spent $358,699 online in the last 24 hours. One of the first companies to move into Second Life was Wells Fargo, which opened its Stagecoach Island last fall in Second Life. According to the press release disseminated by Wells Fargo:

"Wells Fargo today introduced Stagecoach Island, a free, multi-player, online role-playing game developed to teach young adults important lessons in financial literacy. Wells Fargo is the first financial institution to use an online game of this kind for both financial education and entertainment purposes. Young adults in San Diego and Austin, TX, are the first to experience the Stagecoach Island game in a pilot program that kicked off Labor Day weekend this year and will end in mid-November."

The Stagecoach Island game allows players to select a virtual character and participate in an "island adventure." Participants can choose to explore the virtual islandlush parks, hip cafes, dance clubs, trendy shops, amusement parks, hair salons and more. They can also interact in dozens of virtual, social situations—like skydiving, riding jets-skis or playing games like paintball with other participants. Many activities on the island are "free," but participants gain access to other experiences, such as dancing in a club or purchasing new clothes, by spending, saving and earning virtual money. Players can earn money by visiting the Virtual Learning Lounge and answering trivia questions about banking basics such as budgeting, saving and managing money. The Learning Lounge content is derived from Wells Fargo's signature financial literacy program, Hands on Banking®.

The popularity of online role-playing games is staggering-there are millions of people participating in roleplaying games worldwide and the typical college student spends nearly as much time playing video games (10,000 hours by graduation) as they do in class," said Dr. Rodney Riegle of Illinois State University, developer and teacher of the world's first online Role-Playing Course. "I think that young people who've grown up on computers and video games will embrace the Stagecoach Island experience, which is similar to a video game but actually provides a better opportunity to learn, explore and socialize in an immersive and interactive environment."

British band Duran Duran is creating a virtual island within online game Second Life, on which the musicians will perform actual live concerts. The band is the first major group to announce a virtual world presence in the game. "Since we opened in May, we've sold over 2,000 items to people outfitting their avatars," Raz At the Ralph Lauren flagship store in New York, you can actually purchase items right from the window, using a credit card reader and on-screen keyboard. If you don't want to purchase right then, you can send the information to yourself via e-mail and complete the transaction at home.

Schionning, director of web services for American Apparel, was quoted as saying in a recent article in Ad Age about this phenomenon. In addition, shoppers who buy virtual clothes get 15 percent off the same items in real life. We've barely scratched the surface about what's happening in the retail space. There's more to come.

I'll close with this: There's a big difference between the advertising model and the experience model in terms of making an authentic connection with your audience. It's relatively simple to get people to talk about you; it's much harder to get them to buy you.

Where does "create a better experience" fall on your list of reasons to create your processes and procedures? Remember, your audience is accustomed to using technology in their daily lives. To speak to them in their digital language, to delight them and engage them, you must find relevant new technology that helps tell your brand story more effectively.

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 for Advertisers - PICNIC 2007

Found this video from a presentation that I gave in 2007 at PICNIC in Amsterdam. Yes, 10 years ago! It really was one of the most fun conferences I've attended and I met some really great people there. And thanks to this video, I've reconnected to both of the companies that presented with me. Of course, one of my demos didn't work right, but that's what it's like when you're on stage talking about emerging technologies! And damn I wish my hair stayed that color and that long!

During the session we cover a number of things that back then really seemed like science fiction and today are just really getting into the main stream. The work we were doing at Brand Experience Lab and ydreams in interactive cinema was just starting and we all thought that there would be a huge opportunity for AR in the future.

Here we are 10 years later, with Facebook just announcing a huge AR effort, it seems that AR, like it's cousin VR, may well finally be on the road to mass adoption! And hopefully the three of us will hit a stage at a conference in the future and talk about some of the cool ways we've brought AR and VR to our clients.

Augmented Reality for Advertisers from PICNIC on FORA.tv

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.

Can Walmart's New Store 8 Save Physical Retail?

Walmart just announced plans for Store 8, a new retail tech incubator located in Silicon Valley. As Bloomberg reports:

The incubator will partner with startups, venture capitalists and academics to promote innovation in robotics, virtual and augmented reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence, according to Wal-Mart. The goal is to have a fast-moving, separate entity to identify emerging technologies that can be developed and used across Wal-Mart.

As I've written about extensively, retailers need to figure out what makes physical stores unique and different and play those strengths. In this original post from 2012, Walmart execs then were talking about upgrading their stores to take advantage of new mobile tools that were being developed. It makes sense to continue looking at new technologies that will impact the in-store experience today as well.

It's a huge challenge for retailers and there will be a great many closings in the near future. The news from Sears/Kmart doesn't look good these days, but all you have to do is go to most of their stores to see why they're failing. Hard to find both merchandise and employees, who wants to shop there?

As I wrote in Shouldn't We Make Place Special, retailers have spent billions of dollars to create physical environments that today they all too often ignore. It's hard to find merchandise, pricing and usually even staff. In today's economy, 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 social media efforts while creating physical spaces that are almost anti-social?

Are you treating your stores as an asset or a liability? Is the physical plant of your store up to current standards of both practicality and design? Do you treat your employees as an important part of the retail experience or simply one more line item on your P&L?

Without a doubt, technology will be critical in creating the next phase of retail experiences. However, 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.

AUSTIN, TX – A Walmart executive at the Mobile Shopping Fall Summit said that although the brand initially focused its mobile strategy around optimizing its dot-com experience, the company is now eyeing the in-store service as the best way to take advantage of the medium. “Our biggest asset is the 4,000 stores that we have across the nation." Wendy Bergh, senior director of mobile and digital strategy at Walmart.

Walmart exec: The biggest asset in mobile are bricks-and-mortar stores

Polinchock's Ponderings: Socialization of Place

Polinchock's Ponderings: Role of Experience

No Pictures Google Glass Edition

As you may know, I'm a beta tester for Google Glass and I've been playing with them for about 6 months. Last week, I had my first experience with being asked to take them off, at the Ginger Man here in NYC. I was told that it was the policy that people couldn't wear Google Glass there and I took them off without argument.

Now, as you may remember from a previous post, No Pictures Please, I'm not a fan of no picture policies in general. In the age of relationships and social media, I don't get why people don't want you to take pictures of their places and share them with others.

But I don't get when people create different rules based on technology. See, while I was told they I couldn't wear Google Glass as they were worried about the privacy issues, the two tables next to me were snapping pictures non-stop. If you've ever taken pictures with Glass, you know that you need to be pretty close to get anything good. There's no zoom and it's only a 5 megapixel camera.

I mean, my Lumia 1020 is a 41 MP camera with a great zoom, I could get much better, "covert" snaps with my phone. Plus, since I'm wearing something big and blue on my face, it's pretty obvious that I'm wearing them. I don't see the difference between taking pictures with Glass and taking pictures with cell phones.

So, if people can take all kinds of pictures with their cell phones, why a ban on wearing Google Glass? If you want to ban people from taking pictures, I think it's a bad idea, but it's your business. But a ban should be a total ban. You shouldn't ban one tool, that doesn't seem right to me.

Unlock the 007 In You

Just love this promotion program for the new James Bond movie Skyfall. It has everything a great promotion should have,. It's fun, it's place-based (you know how I feel about that!) and it's pretty darn engaging. Kudos to Coke Zero for putting it together. They really use the space well and the placement of people telling you how much time you have left adds to the excitement. Plus, it's great for spectators, as you watch people try to complete the mission. Sadly, liability issues here in the States would probably prevent something like this from happening here. Check out the video to see how they did it.

Come Out and Play 2012

Yes, it's that time of year, the annual Come Out & Play festival in NYC. Once again returning to Governor's Island on Saturday, this yera's events also adds a Friday evening program at the South Street Seaport. As always, there are lots of cool games for all ages and thanks to being at Governor's Island, I think there will be more families again. Sydney & I had lots of fun last year (sadly, she's away at camp this year) and I'm sure this year will be no different.

I'm particularly excited to have helped the AT&T Research team bring their GeoGames to Come out & Play this year.

In the simplest game, players move in the real world (RW) while leaving an ever growing tail of walls in the virtual world (VW). They must not crash into or cross the VW walls created either by themselves or others. The winner is the player who lasts the longest without crashing. Think the motocycle battle from Tron, but played for real and with you being the motorcycle!

There's a really full line up of games this year (it grows every year) and this year Come Out & Play will feature three main events, each with their own distintive games and flavor.

• On Friday July 13, Come Out & Play After Dark turns @Seaport and the surrounding streets into a twilight playground.
• Then on July 14, Come Out & Play Field Day returns to Governors Island for another day of wild new field games.
• Also on July 14, Come Out & Play Family Field Day brings fun and games for the whole family, with a mini-festival of family-friendly games organized by ESI Design, one of the world’s foremost experience design firms.

Hit the links below for additional information and make plans to Come Out & Play!

Come Out & Play

AT&T Research GeoGames

Come on, how do you not want to play games like these and many others! See you Friday or Saturday!

Hack Manhattan! has unleashed Brain Bats—a bigger, awesomer version of the classic pong video game on a giant 6 foot by 8 foot display, controlled by players’ minds. Participants interact with the installation through our NeuroSky MindWave headsets. These devices monitor brainwave activity, which we then channel to pit the players against our artificially intelligent Pong opponent.

An import-export business mogul has vanished and foul play is suspected. Take on the role of a cop, private investigator, or underworld hoodlum, and solve the mystery. Unreliable characters and confounding puzzles threaten to stump you at every turn. Do you work with other players to piece together what happened? Or do you frame things in your own best interest?

Grab your friends and dim the lights. Graveyard Snuggle will have you bending your bodies and entangling your limbs with ghoulish delight.

A lonely skeleton awaits, and he’s dying to play with you. Obey each of the skeleton’s commands by placing one of your bones on another player’s bone. But creep cautiously! Moving too suddenly would be a grave mistake.

The skeleton loves to put players in impossible situations, so use your imagination! You’ll know when you’re moving too quickly if you hear the skeleton’s bones shaking.

The battle is on! The kingdom's of Red and Blue have been annoying each other for years - and they've just declared war! The reason? I heard that a King of Red crashed the King of Blue's birthday party and stole his birthday cupcake! This means war! At the beginning of the game, players are dealt cards with numbers on them. Based on the card's color, red or blue, players are split into kingdoms. Some cards even give players special powers! Then, players must walk or jog to tag their opponents! Once tagged, on the count of three they show their cards, the higher numbered card wins the battle! Unless, of course, one of those players is a bomb! Do you have what it takes to defeat the opponent...and get back your king's cupcake?