Internet was always about faster access- access to content and access to people.

And just about lately- the powerhouses of the web are moving towards real time internet- in an unprecedented manner.

Just when we thought real time location based chek-ins and personalized content dissemination were becoming mainstream and conversation monitoring systems were coming of age- the biggies of the web almost surreptitiously inserted more social, more ‘instant’ features on their interfaces- taking things a step further.

The phenomenon is noteworthy because the net product is more than the sum of its parts.

Shalabh Thinks: Innovation on the web proliferates faster than Moore’s law on processing power of chipsets. Sometimes little steps for the internet can be one giant leap for mankind.

Two examples that caught my attention recently - are Google and Bing- both riding the social wave. And in an unconventional manner (they have been trying their hands at it since some time)- direct integration of Social in search results.

Full on!

I am already impressed by what Google can do with social features integrated with results on search.

Dig the Realtime function on Google- If you haven’t tried yet- go to Google click on the left hand sidebar- Realtime link- and there you go.

It gives you neat little LIVE updates (mostly twitter)-against pre-defined keywords- and a nice little buzz chart at top right. Right sidebar also mentions key/most shared/important social feeds.

What’s more- they just rolled out their Social Search globally. It leverages publicly available data from sites like Flickr, Twitter (something’s brewing with Twitter and Google it seems?) and other Google sites like blogger, gmail contacts etc- and present it you mapping with your social graph.

Neat. More here in this video:

Along similar lines, Bing from Microsoft – leveraged its alignment with Facebook- and did some stupendous work. And they seem to moving in the right direction in nibbling away some of Google’s search share.

So if you haven’t recently- go to Bing. If you are logged in to Facebook- Bing reads it via cookie identification- and you will see your Facebook pic on top right. This means you can now see your friends recommendations (likes etc) on search results- and they can see yours. If you want to. If not- you could disable the function too.

More from this recent video from Bing:

If you are interested- check out the Twitter maps integration with Bing- real time visualization of tweets on a keyword layered on top of a map. Yoiu could grab a code and embed on your website. All good- except it is a bit buggy.

I had suggested earlier that 2010 would be the year of Systematic Web

I sense that 2011 is the year of the Instant Web

And I predict that 2012 will be the year of the Intent web

By God’s grace, in this field, I haven’t trumpeted empty predictions-give or take a year.

So the next most powerful thing after this wave of instant is easy to guess-It is already happening in many ways- and with unification of data across channels – will become a reality soon- is “The Intent Web”. Services guess your intent based on your past behavior and meta data- coupled with those like you. And serve you content and ads based on guessing what will you do or want next.

The Intent Web.

Or call it what you want- but think about it

Shalabh

@shalabhpandey
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rizzato/3488201179/sizes/s/in/photostream

William is a working executive from Singapore. 34 years of age, he is a first generation Singaporean and works in advertising. Like many his age, he is internet proficient and a voracious technology user . Married with a lovely wife Raji and their two little children- like many from his and Raji’s generation, he and his family splurge on anything that aids convenience, status, productivity and entertainment.  

Surrounded with multiple screens, breezing through the onslaught of new gadgets & technologies and constantly connected, they are a part of a generation that lives with an excess of choices.

The ubiquitous presence and frantic pace of technology today is overpowerful and sometimes overwhelming. This somehow defines an era of change, yet what it does not appropriately depict is- a society’s and its denizens’ perspective, predispositions, character and behavior.

And it is precisely this change of perspective that delivers an overarching impact on present and future generations- their way of working, and the society’s rules, laws and values. 

We hold that thought and come back to the generation of William and Raji.

(And I define a generation not limited by an age group bracket- I define a generation as a set of people living in the same period of time, with access to similar resources and ability to use them. This puts 32 year old William alongside  a 16 year old kid from a well earning metropolis breeding family, even though they are a generation apart in terms of age)

There is something unique about today’s generation of globally exposed, nuclear family bred, high income, well educated lot. They want access to everything. The fact that something is not within reach is just not acceptable to this group.

These are the strong headed opinionated people that do not accept the boundaries of technology, geography, processes, systems, or even intellectual properties  and even legal boundaries.

But wait a minute- I am not talking about evil hackers or rebellious mindless zealots.

They are a different type of people and account for an increasingly increasing economically significant group.

And this is what makes them stand apart:

• They do not believe in hacking, they believe in hacks.
• They do not want stuff for free- if they value something, they pay for it
• They don’t just break in to the system- they find a way around it.

And this is the lot that is giving rise to a new economy. The circumvention economy.

Picture this:

William has a penchant for US TV dramas. There is something about watching them at the same day they are aired on US Telly. He tried using Hulu- but there are restrictions. As a user not in the US, Hulu is not allowed to show those shows to people outside the US. William has a few choices- 

• Use  a web based proxy serivce in the US (this has its limitations added to the fact that proxies don’t like the weight of streaming heavy video files)
• Try out online sites that have links to various TV shows (no guarantees there)
• Search the parallel market (torrents) or buy a pirated version from the parallel market.

Not surprisingly, these are not what William wants. He does not want bad quality versions and he can’t wait. More importantly, he is not willing to accept that a choice (getting good quality content at his time and terms) is denied to him. He takes another route.

He circumvents Hulu (and the system). He installs a VPN  (pays $70 odd a year for this service) and tricks Hulu into thinking he is logged in from the US. The programme acts as a virtual ISP- masks his IP- circumvents the system by using a US IP. It could also encrypt data coming to and fro from your client machine.

In a contrast to another system where web users are branded as free loaders- here he pays extra to consume content he wants. He pays Hulu for an account + pay for the VPN service just to get access to watch all the series whenever he wants to!

He abets the Circumvention economy. Illegal? Not sure. Acceptable? Surely.

After all, his friends do it for getting music all the time. And they even pay extra to get a newly released device not available in their markets.

His wife Raji gets to play too. She likes Korean dramas (even if she does not speak the language) and sure enough, gets access to content that she wants.

In another scenario, Raji likes a dress from Japan. She had visited a Japanese website and must have that dress. (Ah! Japanese fashion!). She whips out her credit card on an impulse. And then gets what felt like a ‘karate chop’ shocker. The store does not ship the dress in Singapore.

 She gives an indignant expression. And proceeds to vpost.com.sg- a (postal/delivery) service that has logistical arms in Japan. She creates an account, gets an ID (VP number) – checks out on the shopping cart at the japanese site with her VP number and a japanese physical address. She then sends off a soft copy of the invoice she receives from the Japanese shopping site to VPost. VPost then processes her order, and ships the item at her doorstep. Of course with costs attached- but no worries- at least she gets the access.

There are a few more examples demonstrating this trend- will write about them later.

The key is that is a trend (not un-noticed but certainly un-categorized- and I thought I’d classify this trend first) and it has value for Brands and companies marketing their products. It has psychological significance, anthropological and sociological significance, technological significance and sure enough- economical significance.

Do you know any more?

Think About it

Shalabh

I just read news on the removal of all Hitler related parodies from YouTube.

There have been tonnes of those Hitler parodies online, especially those built on a scene of “Downfall”- the movie.

One of the initial Hitler parodies that caught my eyes was around Social Media (removed from YouTube it seems- though am sure someone can still find it if they look hard)

But the key is not Hitler, or the movie. The key is that that video/parody was produced by a Digital Marketing person/team- just like yourself. And that tells a lot about the way people are expressing themselves- even busy individuals are spending time to create content- and something with a limited appeal to their industry only.

Lately I have seen quite a few of these.

Though only those from industry would find them funny.

One of them is here- scene from “A Few Good Men”- only in this case, the characters take a different stance on the proceedings. The “You can’t handle the truth” dialogue/speech is probably one the most remembered and known dialogues of its time.

And this parody does a good job- production wise.

Tom Cruise plays the (Premium) Publisher; Jack Nicholson- the DSP (Demand Side Platform). Randall Rothenberg – the IAB President & CEO is playing…well..himself.

To put some ‘context’ to it- those who know me- know that I love to use that word while explaining something- here is the original scene:

That also makes me think- what are the DSPs doing in Asia? Are there any worth their salt?

And the second thing that I want to highlight is- when will my Asian friends start doing this stuff? In their own languages? There’s just so much that could be leveraged- Chinese? Malay? Tagalog? There are innumerable classic scenes and power packed performances from every country.

We need to use Video. Use it in a way that opens eyes wide.

Maybe I’ll do it now- sometime soon- whenever I get a spark.

Since I understand Hindi, I’ll use some examples here. Share some scene stealers from movies/episodes from your language.

One of the hot contenders would be- this scene from a bollywood movie- Shakti:

Or this epic one from Deevar:

Not just parodies. Meaningful, humorous and topical sizzles.

Think About It.

Just caught up with Sean Rach, Prudential Corporation Asia’s Director of Media & Corporate Events over email (with help and prompted by their PR agency Burson Marsteller)

Discussions started with the fact that Prudential had launched an iPhone application on retirement planning- the first insurance company in Asia to launch a mobile phone application as a marketing platform.

I found the concept interesting- specially with the perspective that it is a first in the industry, though I’d say the real deal will be how the concept is extended and moves forward.  Media is where people attention shifts to- and marketers need to quickly adopt their marketing to fit the new tools.

Alongside, think I need to migrate quickly to the voice/video based Brainstorms as they allow for taking a more conversational approach and a more dialogue based interaction- but here it is- perspectives from Sean on his (and Prudential’s) viewpoint towards Digital Media:

What are the key challenges to the insurance industry today and how can the digital medium help mitigate those challenges?

In keeping with our brand credo – - “Always Listening, Always Understanding” – - we understand that consumers and our customers are using digital media everyday in many ways. We are exploring ways that we can appropriately reach out to prospects, as well as, serve our customers through our digital platforms. As we have a very large agent network, digital media is becoming key in providing our agents with the latest customer information, product details, and training.

Could you elaborate on why and how the idea of the ‘Retirement calculator’ iPhone app was conceived? What exactly are the main points it is trying to address and how has the audience reaction been till now? There are many insurance calculators/retirement planning tools on the internet- could you elaborate what is special about migrating an app like this to the mobile web? (going beyond the fantastic point that it is a first in Asia)

Background and key points

The “What’s Your Number?” Retirement Calculator is an evolution of PCA’s existing – and very successful – “What’s Your Number?” retirement campaign, which was established to address growing retirement protection needs across Asia.  Prudential is committed to helping people understand that careful planning is critical for a carefree retirement – people need to understand what their retirement goal should be and how to get there.

Migration to mobile

Seeking to reach people via mobile is natural given the penetration and usage of mobile phones in Asia – in most markets much more than the penetration of the internet. Mobile marketing via SMS is a very common and effective way of reaching out to prospects, customers and even our agents.

We developed this application as a “branded utility”, which aims to drive greater awareness and understanding about the importance of retirement planning. Taking learnings from our web-based calculators, we have sought to create an intuitive way to determine your “retirement number” – the first step to effective retirement planning.

In testing, we found that by placing this calculator in their hands, we allow users to determine a range of scenarios that they might consider. This is the power of mobile – the most personal form of media.

Audience reaction

As we have recently launched the application, we are receiving comments on a daily basis. Most users find it very user friendly and surprisingly comprehensive. It has been noted that it has started conversations among family members and increased the realization that a retirement plan is needed.

What are some of the other ways in which you are using the digital medium for marketing purposes? (It could be anything related to branding awareness, customer engagement, agent empowerment or closing sales) How do you measure success for these activities?

Prudential has for some time sought to leverage digital media. Whether with consumer websites, extranets, intranet, email newsletter, or sms, we recognize the opportunity to reach out and appropriately communicate using these media.

Measurement is key to any form of marketing, especially digital marketing in the financial services industry. We use a range of web and mobile analytics tools to monitor and optimize the success of our campaigns. Digital media, as the most measurable media platform, provides a valuable listening opportunity for Prudential.

What roles did your various agencies play in developing this app?

To develop this application, we worked with a team from both OgilvyOne and Cherrypicks.- – with OgilvyOne taking the creative lead and Cherrypicks leading the technical implementation.

What role do you think the various ‘types’ of agencies could play in the near future when it comes to digital marketing? Especially with respect to mobile marketing? Which of the existing agency ‘types’ is best suited for leadership in the digital space? (PR/creative/media/digital). Do you think there is a future for digital ‘specialist’ agencies?

This is a rather broad question.

Having led a leading digital and direct marketing agency for several years, I view your question in a slightly different way. Given consumer’s media consumption habits, I feel that the best marketing solutions come from understanding all the possible ways to reach and influence your desired audience. This may be through earned media (PR), paid media (advertising), word of mouth, direct marketing and the list goes on.

A truly integrated solution can be accomplished with one lead agency coordinating partners as there is no “one-stop shop” or with a selection of agency partners coordinated by the client.

Digital specialist agencies do offer a great deal of value in understanding the intricacies of how the various media options work, especially regarding mobile media. As digital is often technical, this understanding of capabilities can mute some of the ability to manage the interplay between media options. Thus, digital specialist agencies run the risk of pursuing ideas that fit their particular media versus ideas that can be integrated and brought to life across various media platforms.

From my point of view- this stands for all types of agencies- digital or non-digital. The non-digital ones have difficulty porting the concept to digital, and in many ways, vice-versa. Though in the not-so-distant future, both will do each other and everyone else’s jobs.

Think About It

Following up on my much earlier post on some practical uses of Augmented Reality for marketing, here is one on what it could look like in the future- have seen many around the same topic, but this one struck- and thought should share. If for nothing else, then for the pure eye candy and the ‘cool’ factor that marketers are mostly after.

The setting could be in your kitchen.

Enjoy.

One of the most misunderstood and favorite punching bag of all. Online Display advertising. Also mistakenly called “Banner advertising”.

Mistakenly because there’s more to display advertising than banner advertising. Why, there is more to Banner advertising than just “banner” advertising-but more on that later.

Display media, as it matures, is undergoing multiple transitions. It still commands majority of media ad dollars though sources claim- at declining growth rates. But this will soon change, as metrics related to brand awareness/positive predisposition attribution, and advertising’s role in defining a holistic web strategy evolves.

Till then, digital display advertising is ridden with demand generation implications. Banners are a commodity- and there is a reason why ad networks are making the hay while the sun shines.

There are undue pressures on Banner advertising, and because it is treated like a commodity, there is always a price ‘push back’ phenomenon- buy cheaper for better conversion attribution and RoI.

And largely because of this, a whole ‘big scale’ cottage industry now thrives to  make Display advertising more accountable for conversions.

The landscape below:

Look at tools that provide ‘Data Optimization’, ‘yield optimization’ and ‘Creative optimization’.
Ad exchanges, networks and performance networks (another variety of ad networks) are thriving and mushrooming- and that is a good thing as well as a not so good thing.

While I discuss that at another time, what is important to note is how the Digital media planner’s skill set changes due to the introduction of these new variables and tools in media planning.

Think about it
Shalabh

So you are an advertiser on the digital medium and want to explore mobile advertising opportunities? Lets see what options you have.

Banner advertising.Text links. SMS. Give or take some others. (Call hold messages, ringtones- you know them)

Banner advertising. Either on web pages consumed over the mobile internet or within apps (largely iPhone). While that is not a bad thing necessarily- Banners allow for targeted messaging, interactive environments and connect straight off to something bigger, more interactive or useful for the customer; but on the mobile medium, it does seem a bit limited.

In the videos below- Steve jobs (somewhat rightly) mentions- that advertising on the mobile devices need to be different. People consume content on these devices differently, have different expectations from them and have a different mindset/purpose while using these devices.

So Apple sensed a gap and came up with iAds. I thought the name was a poor joke by someone- but no it IS called iAds. Now hope that Google does not call theirs ‘AdNexus’. But then some people would contest that title is already taken- by the IAB.

Anyways- Apple claims that search as an activity is not happening over the mobile phone and that search is largely a ‘computer’ driven activity. Mobile devices- they are different. Apparently people don’t search on their phones. Interesting.

Apart from this behavior gap, there is scale- even when this is limited to Apple devices. An iPhone user spends about 30 minutes everyday- using apps on the phone. And that merits an opportunity of showing upto a billion ad impressions, hopefully monetizable.

iAds also claim to be having the potential of combining the power of Emotions (TV) and the Interaction (Web) and hence promise to be even more interactive than ads on the web and more emotive than  TV.

Really?

Well the demos are interesting- but to spoil the fun- we’ve seen this before. The only things are – you could use these within an app environment without interrupting the app usage experience. Ability to integrate buying from iTunes is a nice touch.

For developers- it works on HTML 5- and this new ad platform is to be built into the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0 release. And like all good ad networks, developers get 60% of revenue. So now everyone could be an adman- and left brain weds right brain in advertising. (Ah! dreams)

Enough said- watch the videos for more details:

PS: Me thinks this is built for the iPAD environment- where it will be awesome from creative execution and user experience standpoint

The second video with more details:
The real cool ways in which this would diferentiate (more than the usability experience of non destructive use experience) is that using iPhone native features this could allow a whole lot of interactivity within apps- geo location identification integration (retail stores), buy now (via iTunes or custom coupons etc), interactive (customize your own stuff) etc

What is not very clear is how will this be sold – considering to make the maximum out of this, advertisers might have to make almost App like ‘ads’

Think about it

Shalabh

One thing I feel disenchanted about in Asia, is the fact that there is more “talking the talk” than “walking the talk” – when it comes to encouraging the start-up ecosystem.

Like many other things in life, people look at the West, marvel about how good the start up environment is (can the real slim shady please step up and explain- Silicon Valley is not ‘the West’). But when  it comes to supporting the start up ecosystem, hardly any one seems to put the money where their mouth is.

This seems to be true even in countries like Singapore, with a focus to foster entrepreneurship. There are loads of institutions for start up mentoring and support, but when it comes to seed stage or idea stage funding, there is more talk, than play. Many of these incubation institutions seem to be self serving tools for their founders (“I am a ‘mentor’/father figure for start ups”) than making any tangible real difference to start ups. 

Businesses need more than a garage and some computers to start with- though that makes for a nice story.  For a 50k grant, the expectation is that entrepreneurs will not have any earning and work full time to bring a product out in the market. Which is the reason why you see school/college kids starting up operations rather than serious, mature individuals. (and by that, I don’t mean grandpa). The ones who eventually do get something out of this, will probably be experienced individuals in the game of funding and ‘well connected’.

Most funding institutions have limited sight, angel investment is a rare thing, venture capital looks for (perceived) risk free/me-too projects (Online travel operator? tick. Online book selling company? tick. Online ad network? tick. Mobile ad network? double tick- because “you know AdMob got acquired by Google”) -you got the idea.

Yes there are incubation/funding institutions, but the truth is, it is too little with too much effort (to get at it- not the effort to make a successful company). Add the red tape (wait for 5 months for a 50k grant and still not be sure where you are)- and you are set for disappointment. (happened to some people I know).

This space has more action in words than deed.

Prove me wrong and I’ll dance with you.

In my about to be launched book- “Think About It”- Ideas shaping digital media and marketing in the new decade, I discuss something that is just one step behind Augmented Reality, and if used correctly, could really boost interactive marketing processes and adoption.

I have also mentioned in the past, that Augmented Reality is cool- though a technoolgy whose time was not there yet. I saw its adoption increasing from mid 2010 onwards- specifically in Asia.

AR is used across touchpoints now- like with printed codes, webcams and computers but to me the real coming of age would be interactive usability via camera enables mobile devices.

However, I see signs of Augmented Reality coming up faster than expected- with usage that is more practical than just ‘cool’.

Though when you see advertisers like Nike and Adidas using this technology, the ‘cool’ automatically associates.

I discuss some good campaigns around AR here:

Nike (via marketing interactive): This one is from Asia- Hong Kong.

Nike launched this programme (mcCann+hyperfactory) to target teenagers- for strengthening its soccer products.

For four weeks, Nike plastered a series of secret codes around Hong Kong, in Nike stores and at the Causeway Bay MTR station.

The codes invite users to download a mobile application that allows them to view its T90 soccer boots and ball in 3D through their mobile screens.

So this is simple- but an early entry into this market- makes it newsworthy and upholds the innovative/cool factor of Nike.

There are some other campaigns as listed bby Devora Rogers on iMediaconnection

Samsung:

This is a simple, yet great use of Augmented reality and we could see more such stuff in the near future.

Samsung’s AR execution, which helps consumers figure out what a TV will look like on the wall, before they hang it. Users print out an image that they then show to their webcam, which faces the wall on which they want to hang the TV. The screen recognizes the AR trigger, and instead of seeing the printout, users see a TV laid over their wall through their screen.

With these examples, this technology seems perfectly well suited for home improvement and decoration industries- but the potential goes much further than that.

Home Depot:

This US retail giant has reinvented the humble gift cards.

Simply put, when you receive a gift card, displaying it in front of a webcam enables users to browse and buy products online or plan for their next project.

Here’s more- in video:

Ray Ban:

Another really cool yet practical usage by Ray Ban.

Rayban Virtual Mirror application demonstration. Using key points on your face the app maps pairs of augmented reality shades onto your face. Then you can click straight through to the store.

Ordinary people:

Well you could use this on your resume or on your business cards. Imagination is the only limitation here. Of course being a bit flamboyant helps

The real coming of age of this technology will be when it is more end user focused rather than being inward focused.

Think About It

Shalabh

“Think About It”- Ideas shaping digital media and marketing in the new decade

The new book will be launched by mid February in both Kindle format and paperback format.

We had seeked your inputs and opinions on which cover design layout did you like the best.

Thanks everyone for not only helping us choose the right cover but also with your critique and suggestions for improvements.

We went through all the suggestions in detail and tried to achieve a balance. And that brought us to the final choice.

And the Winner is- Cover design no. 8

Of course this design will not be used as it is here- but with further changes and more cleaning up. Will keep you posted.

A whole lot of friends commented and decided us to choose the right cover- across platforms- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and emails.

Truely, a cover design chosen by you. Some of the responses here:

Excerpt from Twitter:

Excerpt from Facebook:

Some, like Maria, CEO and co-founder of Linqia from Barcelona- had some gems for all the designs

(We loved it!)- her comment:

=============================================

Dear Shalabh,

Hope my comments help in some way:

• Cover 8: Very clean, illustration offers insight into the theme of the book, great font
• Cover 7: Icons are effective showing humans however overused throughout the industry. Also the font doesn’t work at all.
• Cover 6: Warm design which weakens the overall affect you’re trying to achieve by making the statement ‘Think about it’. It’s also quite busy.
• Cover 5: The lines at the top make the cover too busy and conflict with the colorful people icons. Again – these icons are used heavily throughout the industry which could connote ‘another web 2.0 book’
• Cover 4: Very beautiful design however on first impression the book looks to be about financial matters
• Cover 3: Extremely busy! Too many design elements.
• Cover 2: The wireframe of the man is effective and would work well with typography from cover 8 with no additional graphics.
• Cover 1: Great colours. Strong typography. Lines are also strong in ‘thought’ and ‘landscape’

The 2 that really stand out and project a positive first impression are covers 1 and 8.

Maria

===============================

I can’t put all the comments here- but some friends went to the extent of finding the right font and asking us to use those in the text instead.

It was great. We tried to follow as much as we could (and as much as our Art Director would allow us to)

Now just if the economics could allow us to collectively arrive at the cost of the book too.

Think about it

Shalabh

Twitter- @shalabhpandey

Keep in touch for further updates.

“Think About It”- Ideas shaping digital media and marketing in the new decade

Its love’s labour. Really.

After more than a year of running ChasingTheStorm – with loads of loving time spent- and acquiring loads of loving friend circle, this is it. I put together a book.

“Think About It” is a book inspired by Ideas from this website. With more meat, more thoughts and well, in a different format. The title of the book is actually the signature I use in most articles.

The book covers Digital Media and Marketing trends in the new decade, Mobile Media, new marketing paradigms and Marketing Case studies.

It is written not as a tutorial to digital media platforms or Digital marketing 101. Rather- it attempts to raise a storm on specific Digital media issues. Offering an easy read for the evolved, thinking marketer, it is a book to raise debate- and expects a degree of interest in Digital Media.

I’ll talk more about it later- but since I am quite excited about it, I decided to put up the news anyways.

It’ll go in print soon (and available online and on the Kindle)- but as usual, not without your support in its making. I need you to help pick up the right cover design.

My good friend Ankur Khurana volunteered to get the cover design done- and boy- he did get them designed in two days flat. Many thanks buddy. And many thanks to MG Harti- the Art Director who helped the idea come into reality by doing many iterations.

So here are the designs- (the copy/text and some elements are dummy).

Just from a design layout perspective- let me know which ones do you like the best?

You could comment here, or

Email me: shalabhpandey at gmail dotcom

DM or @ at Twitter : @shalabhpandey

The cover Designs for “Think About It”

GROUP 1:

Cover One

Cover 2

Cover 3

Cover 4

GROUP 2:

Cover 5

Cover 6

Cover 7

Cover 8

Comment here, or

Email me: shalabhpandey at gmail dotcom

DM or @ at Twitter : @shalabhpandey

Think About It

Shalabh

Welcome to 2010. The year when Social Networks get into early adulthood- and get married. To whom? The real world. FTW for sure. And sure enough- the best man will be the mobile device.

I don’t say this to promote Augmented reality. That I’ve already discounted. No- not given up (I think it is pretty cool) just time shifted- not for the next 6 months in 2010.

Why do I say so? Listen up:

• Facebook has more than 65 million members accessing it using mobile.
• 20 percent of Twitter streams originate from mobile devices
• In 2009, YouTube video watching through mobiles was up 52 percent-  according to a study published in May by Nielsen.

These three social networks- pretty much rule the web world- and they are slowly but surely being mobility driven. Mobile is the BFF of Social Networking. But there’s one marriage that is long being awaited. That between the real and the virtual world. Tying the knot between real life interaction and virtual (mobile +web) presence.

In late 2007, while being on a panel at GSMA in Macau, one of the things I had felt and brought up was that location awareness could give a great boost to mobile marketing. Though many marketers did not have a great degree of success at the time (with limited bluetooth and SMS campaigns), I always had this hunch that the one obvious advantage of mobile over others is – ahem-mobility. And we finally see it happening now- with the convergence of Social and real life (location) and Mobile.

While Twitter plans to incorporate location based features soon; applications like Google Latitude and Loopt are already in this direction. The ability to connect with ‘friends’ based on location hyper targeting coupled with other triggers is a ‘no- brainer’ path that will be taken soon by many others.

Marketing dollars will aid the growth of such services- we the marketers are hungry for these things. Forever. Ah! The pain of dealing with yet another technology and yet another platform.

See again- I said ‘marketing’ and not just ‘advertising’. Though advertising is the obvious beneficiary as well.

Ad Networks like AdMob are already cashing in to the opportunity (and I don’t mean the Google way) by offering location based ads.

But speaking of marketing, services like Foursquare have been making waves (and I promise you the buzz around this service will almost be as much as Twitter had from 2007-2009 the next year onwards).

Of course you know Foursquare- don’t you? a location-aware app that lets users “check in” at venues in a number of cities. The opportunities for footfalls are immense. You could do coupons (opt-ins of course) to subscribers within a certain radius of a location (say restaurant or boutique); or you could run loyalty rewards for frequent patrons (called Mayors for some funny reason)

Foursquare is not alone. I struggle to find Asian examples (trust me they will pop up within a month or two of this post) but there are other popular ones like Rummble (an interesting story of already brewing competition here) and Gowalla.

Rummble

Gowalla

Update on 7th feb 2010:

Just received a mail from Placepop about their offering too. In case you want to take them for a spin- you could try them free at the iTunes store

This is of course, not all. And there are at least a few solid Asian examples after all.

We saw Friendster acquisition by MoL, a company that will probably use the social network’s remaining audience base to promote m-commerce, micropayment led social gaming and what not.

Alongside, in October 2009, mobile manufacturer Ericsson tied up with Kaixin001. The deal was to incorporate more social activities to the handset and ease of access.

All said and done- Mr Real World- it is time to say “I do” to Lady Social Network. The best man “Mr Mobile” will keep a close watch.

OK. I give in. I succumbed to writing my Digital Marketing predictions for year 2010. The past few years have been spot on and I thought it might be good to pen down some thoughts- and revisit them later next year to get a pervert pleasure of how much and how many of them have been right.

iMediaConnection published the article, but a quick post explaining really what is the next wave for the digital media.

Essentially, my 2010 Digital media predictions are from a grounded and rational perspective. Of course, all of us are like Truffle hunting dogs at this time of the year- hunting for trends instead of truffles- and trusting our noses to get us there. But key is to keep expectations in place and have a more grounded perspective on what is practically achievable in the next 12 months timespan.

I have mentioned a few things- that you can find in another article , but I wanted to highlight one special point.

Of all the prognostications surrounding what the next wave around Digital / Social Media going to be, here is mine.

Translated, it means- The Systematic Web.

This is the next real wave on the internet. Actually, it is already happening in a way.

After Web 2.0, surely there will be no Web 3.0 (as in the term). Web 2.-0 as a term has also been less structured and open to interpretation in a lot of ways.

With Web 2.0 and the conversational wave on the internet, came the unorganized, free-for-all culture. Your digital conversations and footprints became haphazard, cumbersome and clunky.

The new paradigm and the next phase of the internet will focus on organization of this content.

The web 2.0 or conversational space will see a new level of sophistication. There will be better organization of content and more structured creation of content. Simply put, we will see the chaotic and unorganized nature of today’s conversational web become more Systematic.

We will see the emergence of the ‘Systematic Web’ or Web raised to the power of system . The name itself will lead to the meaning unlike ‘Web 1.0’, ‘Web 2.0’ or ‘Web 3.0’- which have been open to interpretation.

We have seen Twitter organization via lists- and Facebook organization with Live Vs News feeds. We have seen more privacy controls and better content organization by platforms themselves.

Not to mention the huge third party ‘organizers’ that have cropped up in the system. We have seen Friendfeed, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck- and so many others. Essentially what do they attempt to do? They organize content in a more meaningful way than the original platform owners. The Systematic Web.

Multiple platform fatigue syndrome? We have Posterous. Problems with finding the right conversations? We have many conversation monitoring services- that could systematize random conversations by various attributes- sentiments/influence/volume/topics- you name it. On the move?  Web 2.0 ratings not enough? Welcome Foursquare, Rummble,  Gowalla and what not.

Need to port your persona? Need one key to many sites? Easier than Feeds and Open ID? No worries. Facebook has Facebook connect, Google has Google Friend connect.

And now Google also has another one- Google Social Search.

Talking about search, It is not just Google- Twitter launched better search options a while ago- and included the ability to add an additional search modifier- location (and even sentiments) to the search (You could search ‘fit’ with a smiley to see positive or happy sentiments about fit and ‘fit’ with a for negative sentiments). Facebook too now allows for searching only your network or across Facebook.

This is not just Web 2.0. Think about it, it is all about Systematizing the present web. It is Web^sys

Systematization implies:

The next wave is already upon us- and it is not Augmented Reality (yet). Not sending ad messages by brain scanning. Not even the semantic web. It is the Systematic Web.

Web^sys

Think about it

Shalabh

In part 4 of this 4 part video brainstorm, we discuss how to market a start up.

Start ups usually do not have the luxury of huge advertising spends- and this pushed the boundaries being creative and using only the most efficient mediums for maximum bang for their buck.

Thorben highlights how he uses the Influencers (what I call the MicroInfluencers) to gain traction.

I had lots to discuss- but this was about them- and some good points were made .

Enjoy

Shalabh

In part 1 and part 2 of this 4 series video brainstorm, we discussed Orsiso and Advertising on social networks previously.

In Part3, we discuss whether downloadable appplications have a significant advantage over browser based or web based applications. Also another point- the funding story- the issues- what do investors look for, and the like.

We featured Orsiso in Part 1.

In part 2 of the discussion between myself (Shalabh Pandey) and Thorben, amongst other things, we discuss advertising on social networks, its significance and nuances.

Enjoy!