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The world is gravitating towards tablets and smart devices. The epicenter of communication and business is gradually shifting from the the PCs & Notebooks to wireless devices – Smartphones, Tablets, Netbooks and Cell phones. This migration is reflected in the increased adoption rate of Smartphones and mobile operating systems across continents and communities. The infographic below is a simplistic depiction of Smartphone market share between 2010 – 11.
Information consumption has moved far beyond the wired walls of our offices and homes. Mobile phones, Smartphones, Tablets and Ereaders are the new kiosks for information management – consumption, sharing and refinement. Wireless data usage and user graph have seen a high velocity upward growth in the last couple of years and the momentum has surely shifted towards this new benchmark of information transmission.
The infographic below gives a simplistic view of the rapid growth of mobile data computing and usage- across all the major devices. The shift towards Tablet, M2M and Smartphones can be clearly seen …
Since time immemorial, human species has a propensity to showcase its natural or acquired
skills, services or products to the rest of the world – an urge to broadcast and capture the imagination of others. Advertising, though genetically tied to the commerce, has also been utilized for myriad non-commercial needs. This Infographic depicts the progression of advertising methodology & medium from its early stages…
….A Brief history of Advertising (4000 BC -2012)
Adversity breeds creativity and creativity inculcates innovation. This is nowhere more visible than in the remotest areas of Africa. Very true to the predictions of Charles Darwin, survival needs more than just the best instincts of human intelligence and adaptability. Years of strife and mismanagement have shredded the very structure of humanity – the clock starts ticking rapidly as soon as a child is born. But, this is also the playground of human resilience and ingenuity. ‘Talking Book’ is the brainchild of Literacy Bridge and for this life-transforming technology, Cliff Schmidt, the founder of Literacy Bridge has been awarded a membership by President Bill Clinton to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).
Talking Book – At a glance!
This is in reality a very simple record-and-play audio device – manufactured for durability, Talking Book is designed for people with zero literacy and who still have not experienced the fruits of electricity. This portable device is utilized in the rural Africa to disseminate knowledge and current information in a very reliable and simplistic way. In Africa, where good transportation has still a long way to go, Talking Book is a splendid tool for teachers who complement their lessons with student-friendly interactive applications and audio books.
The philanthropists and field representatives procure Talking Books and record information about agriculture, health and education in their local languages and dialect. This stored information is then systematically permeated to every possible region which is willing to participate in the program – This program is always associated with an accompanying demonstration so that even a housewife / mother / grandmother can use it with ease.
Transforming life at birth!
Literacy Bridge is deeply involved in the maternity and maternal health programs in Africa – Talking Books are distributed freely to pregnant and young mothers as part of this program.
According to the Literacy Book founder -
“The devices will be loaded with health behavior messages created in collaboration with Ghana Health Service and UNICEF; and will include agriculture messages to help mothers identify and improve their production of crops that are most nutritious for children under five years of age. Simple messages, like hand-washing with soap and proper sowing of seeds, will result in behavior changes that are life-saving and life-changing. The project will show an extreme degree of transparency around the program costs to demonstrate to the world just how cost-effective the Talking Book is at improving health outcomes in a way that no organization has done before.“
Take a look at how Talking Book is helping the most impoverished rural families in creating a safer, healthier and a more educated society and next generation of African citizens…
Afri-Tech Johannesburg Summit (22th – 24th March, 2011) is a sincere attempt to create a mass scale awareness about the ‘synergy between the scientific community and the people of Africa’. This summit will witness the congregation of some of the most pioneering minds in the areas of Healthcare, Science & Technology, Education, Finance and Digital solutions – under one platform. We will need to churn out more innovations like Talking Book – which will work in favor of the African upliftment.
The communication landscape has turned 360 degrees since 2002 and the relentless growth of cell phone subscribers around the globe is testimony to this new phenomenon – the last decade has witnessed an annual growth of more than 25% in the number of mobile phone subscribers. It is hardly surprising that more than 3 billion additional cell (mobile) phone users jumped on the mobile bandwagon between 2002 and 2008.
The easy availability and affordability of cell phones and tariff charges has made this the most practical means of communication and business transaction for the developing world.
Mobile revolution took center-stage in US and Europe, and most of the first-round innovations were because of the customer demands in these technologically advanced parts of the world. But, the markets which are making heads turn are the emerging economies – China, India, pockets of South-East Asia and Asia Pacific.
China & India factor
In addition to being one of the most populous regions on the planet, China and India are also witnessing an unheralded economic economic growth, which is translating into a mammoth expenditure in the areas of telecommunication and connectivity. To account for the region as a whole, Asia pacific had a telecommunication budget of $405 billion in 2009 – And analysts are predicting an expenditure of $815 billion in 2015. China and India will jointly account for $369 billion spend on communications. In terms of mobile phone subscriptions, Asia Pacific will have 3.1 billion mobile phone subscriptions in 2015 – up from 2.1 billion in 2009.
In terms of sheer numbers…
credit: www.copperbridgemedia.com
The concept of traveling has changed and so have the travelers. Travel and technology go hand-in-hand, with majority of the travelers relying more on the intelligence of the gadgets more than ever before. The ‘I’ in Internet no longer stands for ‘information’, but it symbolizes ‘Intelligent’. Internet as the intelligent information network, serves as the center of all planning and procurement for travel shoppers. In the middle of this increasing appetite for travel, one thing that is diminishing is the ‘attention span’ of travel shoppers. This does not only imply that travelers have very little time, but also that they are wary of being hooked on to a particular message – because of the relentless bombardment of promotional materials from all angles.
Catching the customer at the right moment and right location increases the probability of conversion in this age of non-stop marketing. As the travel shoppers move away from the static media avenues like TV, PC, LapTop etc…, the only channel of connecting to them is through their mobile devices – Mobile phone, Smart phones, iPhone, Blackberry…
Image Credit: www.burningthebacon.com
Let’s envisage a simple scenario – You are traveling towards Disneyland with your wife and four kids and you know that everyone in your battalion will be competing with each other to get the best and most number of rides - your wallet is going to get a serious dent (sure, you are putting up a brave face!). As you get nearer to the dream destination, you receive a message on your GPS / iPhone – The message is a summary of all the discounts that you can avail of inside the DisneyLand by using a promotional code which you just received inside the message. You make a quick mental calculation and suddenly the finances look upbeat – You might be able to take $500 – $700 off your final budget. That’s not bad…Mobile marketing does get a customers’ eye – with extreme targeting
Caesar’s Palace is one first big names in the hospitality segment to utilize the mobile marketing menu – by utilizing the GPS mobile app targeted at visitors. Guests at Caesar’s can get all the on-spot information on their mobile phones – restaurant hours and rates, booking facility, list of performers in The Colosseum. Visitors to Caesars Palace can opt-in for this GPS app which will provide customized discount and offers to venues in proximity to the user. So, as long as you are staying in Caesar’s, your every movement will be tracked just to give you the best offers in your current location. That’s a win-win situation for both Caesar’s and its guests.
And Caesars i s not alone in this race to tap the sentiments of customers when they are most likely to take a decision. This trend is reflected in the exponential growth of mobile marketing and advertising – it is projected to reach $50 billion by 2014 from it’s current figure of $29 billion. According to a Forrester study-
In addition to the point-of-sale persuasion ..aka Location-based marketing, Mobile devices are also being utilized to create opt-in list for future Email Marketing campaigns – Which we will be discussing in our next post.
As social networks brace for increased bandwidth to accommodate the increasing appetite of consumers for videos and graphics. Pre-purchase experience is sought after by most consumers before making a decision regarding any product or service. Industries like Retail, Hospitality and Media are in particular the most video-friendly segments. The visitor-to-customer conversion is to great deal influenced by the strategic placement of product / service video on your site or landing page. According to a recent survey by eMarketer “77% of US Internet users will be watching online video content at least monthly by 2014 “.
Keeping aside the undisputed benefits of video proliferation over the targeted networks, the major obstacle for online marketers is consistent creation of quality videos and further engaging the potential customers with the video. As many marketing division would secretly reveal that it is indeed a demanding task to consistently churn out high-engagement videos. Sears Holding (K-Mart), while understanding the twin importance of quality video marketing as well as the engagement of the customer community, adopted a unique and unorthodox approach towards video based persuasion – By launching BillionPoints.
What is BillionPoints.com?
This is a KMart-Customer managed site which accepts 45 seconds videos describing the best way to spend the 1 billion cuctomer points. This site came into existence after Sears decided to publish consumer generated videos and aimed at promoting its ‘Shop your way rewards program’. “The contest is a fun way to engage our more than 17 million members while also giving them the opportunity to help others,” says Scott Freidheim, executive vice president, operating and support businesses. That’s one of the most effective examples of customer engagement in the online video arena. The online video that receives the highest number of votes will be adjudged the official winner in Fall 2010. While the winner keeps the 50%, the rest of it goes to various charities selected by the winner.
“Rebuilding Together is thrilled to be one of Sears’ chosen charities for this exciting, national campaign,” said Gary A. Officer, President and CEO of Rebuilding Together. “This campaign highlights the great philanthropic philosophy Sears Holdings embraces through countless employee-volunteer hours and millions of dollars it donates each year to important causes, such as Rebuilding Together. This is a great way for Americans to get involved, win a great prize, and support their favorite cause simultaneously.”
The graph of travel industry trends for the last five years show the key travel-segment changes that are reshaping the travel industry landscape. The mid-level and economy segments have seen the most growth. On the other hand, leisure oriented groups that form the core of travelling and tourism business has shown slower growth in some phases.
Business trips and related tourism, which is an important segment of travel industry has shown a certain decline since the last year. Following data supports this fact.
However, the blame of decline in business trips is generally fixed on the advent of electronic media in business arena. Video conferences, teleconferences, video calls and online chats have vanished the distance between the people and merged the globe more smoothly as a single marketing platform that is approachable anytime from anywhere. Also, electronic media has proved effectiveness in instant communication that is turning to be the key differentiator in business success. This has curtailed the business travelling need to the bare minimum.
How can internet marketing help?
This is the most proper time to give the electronic media the dose of its own medicine. Internet technology that has applied brakes on business related travel can be successfully utilized to put life back into it and compel more businessmen to go touring.
Reach out to maximum business clients: Internet marketing can reach a large number of prospects without causing a much dent in your marketing and advertising budget. Once your target client is reached, it becomes easy to undertake various tools that will help you to understand the business travelers’ pulse and preferences.
Explain advantages: You can explain the advantages of holding a conference at a venue. Emphasis may be laid upon the facilities and business related infrastructure available at the venue, personal interaction, network buildup, mass approach, etc.
Offer discounts: To pull businessmen out of their cubicles and make them travel across, emails can be sent to offer discounts in travel, accommodation, dining and other hospitality gestures. Banner ads are effective in attracting attention to the offers.
Offer memberships: Extend memberships of your agency and hotels to the business traveler. This may entice them to undertake travelling to avail membership benefits. Special benefits may be offered to business travelers if they travel with family and without business motive. Co-relating business trip with other tourism and travel types will benefit the industry and boost the number of business trips. Internet marketing can certainly accelerate the process.
