Author Archives: ScarletGeek

Oct 10 2015
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Connected Technology, Mobile

one forwards, two back

For every degree of separation that technology has connected in the digital world, I’m starting to think that many of us are stepping one further away from those we know in the real one.

The six degrees of separation theory was originally set out by Frigyes Karinthy in 1929, then some decades later (hard to find an actual date from the reports freely available) sociologists proved a theory that if you spoke to enough people you were really only three degrees separated. The first degree is physical, the second emotional and the third spiritual.

So if the only thing that depicts the first degree is physicality, then arguably in our digitally connected, socially ‘always on’ world we could all be within two degrees of each other. That sounds quite nice in theory, the prospect of seeking, finding and establishing a new connection with people all over the world.

As someone who spends a lot of time in front of a screen because of my work, I make an effort to not look at my phone when I’m out and about and look up at what’s going on around me. From what I observe, as a society we have become latent in our socialising skills, too many of us are better at being who we are online that who we are in the real world.

Yesterday I overheard a conversation on the train; two girls, one had just dumped her boyfriend, the other was asking her how he’d taken it, she replied ‘I don’t think he knows, I just posted it on Facebook.’ I felt more sorry for her then I did for him, he dodged a bullet there whoever he is…

I’d love to be able to work out the ratio of degrees closer in the digital world v degrees further apart in the real one. Facebook published an article back in 2011 that outlined 4.74 degrees just on their platform and that’s old news now.

For all the time we spend looking down rather than up, what opportunities do we miss to connect to someone properly, physically? Not just your eyes across a crowded room malarkey, but getting to know the guy at the paper stand you pass every day and pick up your copy of Wired from, the couple who take their dog to the park when you do, the lady wearing that really nice dress you’d like to know where to buy.

Forget the rise of the robots, in this smartphone zombie era we’re turning into autobots ourselves.

smartphone_zombies_by_dodo91-d81pgac

Image by dodo91 found on deviantart.com – thank you!

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Sep 28 2015
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3D Printing, new technology

in a heartbeat

I’ve always been excited about the possibilities with 3D printing, since the first time I worked with a team to print a fairy (yes you read that right), the wings were like lace, the clothing detail challenged the needlework of the mice in The Tailor of Gloucester and it took minutes to be born from the model we sent to print.

But that feels like nothing compared to the evolutions in the last few months so I just had to share my recent favourites:

In at 3, the first missile by researchers at Raytheon Missile Systems, who are celebrating the fact 3D printing gives them the freedom to make design alterations with much less hassle and cost. 

3D-printed-missile-by-Raytheon-Missile-Systems

At 2, the cancer patient who had his sternum replaced with a titanium implant printed by Anatomics. They partnered with a surgical team to custom design the area that needed replacing so the surgeon could be targeted and precise in removing only what was necessary, safe in the knowledge the replacement part would be an exact fit.

Image found on digitaltrends.com - thank you

And my top spot goes to the guys at MIT who worked with doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital to turn an MRI scan of a heart into a 3D model which was then printed and implanted.

3D printed heart

My heart just skipped a beat. 

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Sep 14 2015
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Brand, Business, Commerce, Consumer First, CRM, Loyalty, Membership

FFS

For many businesses I’m working with at the moment memberships are becoming the new subscriptions. The bar for a credible value exchange is set higher than ever before with freemium models saturating the market, so our hungry audience are no longer satisfied by exclusive content and a glossy cover, pixel enabled or not. 

Today wants tailored and timely, relevant and resonating. Brands are expected to know what their audience want, on a 121 basis, which is fine if you run the coffee shop round the corner and you’ve been there for 20 years watching the town around you grow up and evolve. It’s not so straight forward when you’re scaling beyond your inner circle into a model that not only makes money, but enables you to create a viable business that pays other people money too. 

This shift from having customers to members is a step change for how businesses build everything from their CRM programs to their technology stacks, because in today’s world every piece of data matters, because those pieces of data allow you to be relevant, to everyone. 

It’s easy to get dragged down into the detail, so I’ve put together a little checklist to help:  

Be Focussed

Decide wich parts of your paid membership are going to add the most value and invest on making those amazing first. If you do too many things at once it will not only cost a lot in production, but also in technical development and promotion. 

Be Frictionless

Make it really easy for your audience to receive, digest and share. There is nothing more disappointing to users, or more costly to you, if this doesn’t meet expectations. 

Be Selfless

Listen, analyse and adapt your model as you go. The most successful businesses are those that put their audience first and their business second. Think of them as your insight tool, fusing the next phase, they are not the end game. 

I appreciate the last one is the hardest, especially with financial goals and deadlines, but it’s the most important in the long run. 

We should all be thinking FFS for the right reasons. 

Image found on Pinterest via wework.com - thank you

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Aug 14 2015
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A.I., Advertising, Analytics, Big Data, Commerce, Connected Technology, Programmatic

A view on the programmatic semantics of binary trading predication

What the..? You may ask.

Well, I’ll tell you… you see most of my meetings this week have been about the uptake of programmatic, commonly I’m being asked; Is it robust? Is it robots? Are the robots robust? How do I plug it in? Do the robots plug it in? Are the robust robots plugged in?

Breath in.

So, having explained this a lot, I find it’s easier to start with what it is not:

It is not: Real Time Bidding (RTB)

It is not: A new type of media

It is not: A new format, a new device, a new tactic, a new insight or a new inventory. 

It is, quite simply put; AN AUTOMATED PROCESS.

Programmatic Trading simplifies the buying and selling process by digitally connecting the buyer and the seller of the ad space. This brings automation to the process adding operational and pricing efficiencies which take the mundane and repetitive tasks away from humans.

It is important to note that this doesn’t mean that creative is any less important, studies show that creative is still responsible for 70% of the effectiveness, the placement and timing making up the other 30%.

Marketing is, and will always be, about getting the right piece of content to the right person at the right time. Programmatic quite simply means we can be quicker, more effective and therefore scale in a more structured and relevant way. 

I love this example from Nike and Google, it’s a great demonstration of what can be achieved with clever design and RTB, and just recently Unilever have explored the use of video in their Romeo Reboot campaign.

So in summary, you still need a wicked idea, a clever plan and some digital genius behind it, but if you embrace the fact that you can’t be in total control of the real time exchange and you’re prepared to sit back and enjoy the ride, then some really cool stuff can happen. 

And contrary to the title of this post, it’s not that tricky…

image found on adweek.com - thank you

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Jul 30 2015
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Connected Technology, Internet of Things

The Future is White

Well for the Internet of Things anyway…

Ever since attending a talk hypothesising the use of white space a year or so ago, I’ve been wondering who was going to nail it first, now it seems that a collaboration between Ofcom, Microsoft, Google and BT may see a platform launched that will allow mobile phones and tablets to use the space between frequencies without interfering.

For those wondering, white space is the stuff leftover between broadcasting frequencies, they’re generally left open as buffering gaps between transmissions. The complication around using it to date has been that the frequencies vary by region, in size and exist at varying parts of the spectrum, meaning there is no one white space frequency that can be used around the country.

However, Ofcom have created a database that informs devices on the ground which segments of spectrum are available for use in which vicinity, at what point in time, therefore allowing interconnectivity without interfering with the transmission of digital TV.

If this collaboration works, the use of white space will provide another resource of bandwidth that doesn’t rely on mobile networks, providing the potential to connect both mobile and fixed devices to the internet where Wi-Fi cannot reach, bringing the world of iEverything one step closer together…

…creating little bubbles of iMe and iYou.

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Jul 16 2015
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Financial Services, new technology, The Future

Time is our currency

This week has been all about the disruption of the Financial Service sector, well for me anyway; I’ve been exploring the future of traditional banks through the eyes of millennials, pretty interesting stuff when you really get under the skin of it. 

Once upon a time (which for me is before the Internet became adopted mainstream) banking was based on the banking giants being in control; they had the money, they got to dictate their terms, from opening hours to transfer charges, meaning we mere mortals had to play by their rules. 

The Internet has changed this, and with disruptive start ups like; Transferwise, Credit Karma, Lending club, Privlo, Avantcredit (the list goes on) all delivering better placed insightful thinking with more convenient and contextual user friendly solutions, the consumer now has choice, ease of use and more importantly ease of moving around. 

So what does this mean for the Giants? It means they are no longer in control. 

I was part of a workshop last week with a bunch of industry leads, where we were fueled with coffee and left in a room to decipher how technology has lowered the barriers for these disrupters, and how we should be navigating the landscape moving forwards…

Essentially, startups get to copy the infrastructure set by traditional Giants and simply create a frictionless, seamless interface making it easier to bundle these services together in a friction-free way. This means the old school need to stop trying to use the existing tech to just push services they already have and realize a top down centralised approach won’t work anymore, in our ever increasing Internet of Things, there are thousands of data points now so the model must flip to a bottom up collective. 

Giants will need to truncate their legacy systems to give more choice and more personalization, if they don’t they will lose further pace, they’ve already lost the edge on driving innovation and millennials are losing their patience in equal measures.

In short, we must address the minutiae to reach the mass, empowering rather than enforcing. 

gold egg timer

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Jul 02 2015
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Brand, Consumer Experience, Consumer First, Customer Experience, Digital, Omnichannel

OMMMMMM G

We’re living in an omnichannel world, but what does that actually mean?

I’m getting a lot of questions around this at the moment, whilst the concept is fairly easy to understand, the minutiae of what it means to a brand is not quite so simple to grasp, so here’s a quick digest…

The word itself is derived from the word Omnis which can mean all or universal. And rather than linear use of channels, most of us are used to cross channel planning so really, omnichannel is the evolution of cross channel planning, done really well. 

To take that one step further, I would summarise it as; the true continuity of a brand or content experience that extends beyond a single place and crosses through multiple channels.  

Consumers are exposed to brands at multiple touchpoints, often at once, they could be looking at something on a mobile whilst in a physical store for example. As a brand therefore, planning for both the mobile experience and the physical store experience to be consistent would be part of omnichannel planning, it should be woven together with an invisible thread.

Essentially those brands that connect the components of an experience and the data around them; research of product, purchase, price, customer service and so on, will be the ones that shape a new dimension of customer decision.

It is indeed an intricate web we must weave.

Spider_Web_by_Autar

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Jun 18 2015
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Brand, Business, Connected Technology, Consumer Experience, Internet of Things

The future belongs to connectivity

I spend a lot of my working life developing strategies for brands that need to move from broadcast, through audience engagement, to immersive connectivity, thinking three years into the future as a minimum, then I leave work and step into a broadcast heavy advertising bombardment and it saddens me.

That’s not to take anything away from the clever ads out there, but just imagine a future where advertising is intelligently informed, rewarding at just the right moment rather than randomly broadcast in a vain attempt to get your attention. 

Imagine that subtle product placement is integrated into how you live your life; your fridge is able to provide branded recipes based on it’s contents, your car can recommend a restaurant based on the time of day and your preferred driving routes, that restaurant then has your cocktail waiting on arrival with your preferred gin of choice.

It might sound mildly creepy to some but to me this everyday surprise and delight is an ease of living I am waiting to embrace.

I want brands to enable me to accomplish more, more seamlessly. We’re a few steps away from living in a truly connected world so every exchange between me and any brand should be streamlined at the very least. 

All we’re missing is the common language that connects all our smart devices but this will arrive soon and brands that adopt this thinking now, will be the ones that write the first chapter. 

Brands need to understand that they should be replacing my behaviours, not reinventing them; my ask is simple really, get to know me, then make my life better. 

gin cocktail

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Jun 10 2015
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Brand, Business Transformation, Commerce, Consumer Experience, Consumer First, Content, Digital

It’s Hard to be a Diamond in a Rhinestone World

Meet ‘The Millennial’; a sophisticated and digitally savvy shopper, looking to be excited as much by the product as by the experience of researching it and flaunting it.

For today’s time poor, money flirtatious audience this is no longer just about Tiffany earrings Dahling; it’s also about the ‘to die for’ set of champagne flutes, the ‘totes in’ beach bag and even the simply ‘must have’ centre piece for the dining table.

The make up of luxury is getting a make over, and if it’s not pixel perfect then brands will need to prepare to be considered mainstream. 

Not only do consumers want to be enveloped in a beautiful, seamlessly immersive experience, they expect it, so when working with premium brands, I have these three key points as my guide:

  1. Are we sparkling: To be a cut above the rest, we must have the edge when it comes to going from design diamond in the rough, to top quality grade. If we can’t cut through and achieve stand out, we’ll quickly become mediocre. 
  2. Size matters, but not in the traditional way where whoever shouts loudest wins. Today consumers can access content wherever they are and will do so with whatever they have to hand, so our diamond needs to make the most of every screen size out there. I aim to be creating for 5 screen optimization at least, and an extra little tip; think mobile first, and mobile last. 
  3. Less is more. If we haven’t got something interesting to say, then I encourage not to say anything. With the rise of social continuing to grow it doesn’t mean copy and paste everywhere, we don’t have to be ‘always on’. We should be authentic, inspiring, but most of all we must be relevant, be always there, when our consumers want us to be. 

Getting it right takes research, time, dedication and constant evaluation. We must know and understand our audience in order to take our brand to their space in a meaningful way. 

No pressure, no diamonds.

pixie dust

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May 21 2015
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Beyond Broadcast, Brand, Consumer Experience, Consumer First, Content, Digital

Technology enables, trust endures

I’ve been handed an influx of briefs recently from brands wanting to adopt copycat approaches, spending their budgets on stepping into their competitive space with ambitions to shout louder and ‘become the authoritative voice’, it’s sadly reminiscent of the work I was doing ten years ago.

Every brief looks the same; ‘we want to drive traffic to our website’, ‘we want to increase our share of voice’, we want consumers to buy our products and love us for it.

Technology has given us access to anything we want, whenever and wherever we want it, which should be exciting. Yet in this increasingly cluttered space, brands have reverted to vanity exercises based on the assumption that their consumers have the time to seek out their content and care enough to do so.

Technology needs to be respected as a powerful enabler, it means so much more to consumers to have a personalised and useful experience in our immersive Internet of Things, so the focus for brands has to go beyond content.

Leading brands to understand that content and functionality must work together to reflect what consumers are trying to achieve is a key part of my everyday, yet convincing key stakeholders to put the needs of their audiences first in order to serve them is hard.

I truly believe that the brands who don’t make consumers the focus of their decisions will continue to drown amongst those who do. Those that succeed will command attention through engaging and value adding experiences.

In today’s omni-channel world great consumer experience is both necessary and advantageous, the bar is set high, it’s no longer about developing loyalty schemes, today an engaged consumer is worth more than a loyal one.

An engaged customer is one that has had an expectation met, which for a brand means, being relevant and adding value.

Less noise and more cut through is called for.

image courtesy of http://zeteo.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/silence-conserve.jpg

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