All My Cool Thoughts

Advertising. Mobile. Technology.

[allmycoolthoughts]

A Smartwatch You Might Actually Want to Buy

The Moto 360, the Motorola smartwatch set to be released this summer, is something that might actually provide consumer value. Although many consumers absolutely LOVE their current Sony or Samsung smartwatch, there is a reason as to why they aren't flying off the shelves. 

Consider this - you pay $300 for a new watch - you would hope that it is something that will look fashionable, help you to tell the time, and will be worth the cost. So far the smartwatches have been bulky, manly, and not as functional as you would hope it would be. The Moto 360 might actually be a step in the right direction. 

According to reports the Moto 360 will have a round face and be more customizable than its predecessors. This alone is already more attractive to me since I can use it as a fashion piece or as something that will add value to my smartphone experience.

I am definitely looking forward to seeing what the Moto 360 will provide consumers, especially if it will actually look good and be a value-added experience.  

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From keyboards to cupboards, computer science enters the culinary arts. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

Spritz, the App that is Changing the Reading Game

A new app known as Spritz is going to be changing the way we read, The app utilizes our natural reading tendencies to allow users to read nearly 5x's faster than they normally would. 

This is a great example of how technology is finding ways to enhance what we already do without requiring more effort on our part. Spritz provides real-time value, and if it catches on, we could all be reading essays as fast as we read tweets. Okay this might be a slight exaggeration; however, in a world where our minds continually drift being able to read at a fast pace may be the key to keeping our attention for more than 140 characters. 

Spritz is the embodiment of how an app can change the way we interact with many aspects of life from work to leisure. It provides immense value at little effort from the end user. This what future technology needs to focus on, and personally I can't wait until my NY Times app adds Spritz to its interface. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

The Convergence of Digital and Out of Home Advertising

Pepsi Max has done a great job in combining social and digital to create a unique outdoor billboard. In the UK Pepsi Max is using social promotion via vine and will showcasing the most exciting and "unbelievable" #livefornow vines. 

Although I am not sure if vine videos are the most conducive for safe traveling, this is definitely a step in the right direction for traditional advertising. Finding new ways to engage your audience via social channels while coming up with great digital outdoor campaigns is ideal in a world that is struggling with traditional advertising. 

In the future we can expect to see more campaigns that use a combination of media sources to help captivate customers and leverage owned, earned, and paid media. To see the full article check out the post on AdAge. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

Digital & TV Advertising is Key to Super Bowl Marketing Success

This is a great article from Adobe that show how social promotion is just as important to the multimillion dollar commercials during the big game. Although I was personally disappointed with the quality of TV advertisements this year, I saw a lot of potential in how brands could leverage the social channel. 

Almost every commercial last night had a hashtag to post on social sites and to help get the conversation flowing. Although sometimes the comments were not positive, they were an easy way to follow the conversation.  An honorable mention for the night was e*trade who bought the first commercial after the game, and through their social campaign gained  200,000 entries within the first minute. As second screening becomes more understood, brands will find better way to leverage social advertising when they are paying millions for a television spot. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

Wearable Tech Might be the Future for Health Care Monitoring

Kernel is a personal health care initiative created by fuseproject in partnership with Wired and the Gates Foundation.

This project could help users test bodily fluids and have the results monitored via smartphone no matter where the wearer is. Although the project is estimated to be about 5-10 years away from coming to fruition, this is a great concept that could indicate the future of healthcare powered by wearable tech. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

Apple Buys Topsy and Signifies the Convergence of Mobile and Social

Apple recently bought Topsy, a social media analytics program, for about $200 million. This purchase is the biggest signal that Apple is taking the idea of going social very seriously.

Mobile and social have gone hand in hand for a while, and it is clear that with 33% of people using their phones as their primary method of checking social sites, the overlap between mobile and social is only going to increase. Understanding the data twitter provides not only gives Apple the opportunity to better understand consumer sentiment and data, but can do a better job of leveraging it. 

Topsy is an extremely useful and easy to use service, and has provided analytics that has shown to help predict consumer behavior. This is valuable for a number of reasons, and although many believe the purchase was made to help improve Siri, in my opinion,  Apple bought Topsy to better improve their mobile advertising offering. Knowing what consumers are talking about when and where they are are taking about it provides Apple with tremendous leverage in being able to provide relevant advertising to users. 

If Apple can successfully use Topsy as a leverage for their iAd program and in return become a leader in providing relevant mobile advertisements, this purchase will be extremely valuable to Apple's future. 

To read more about the acquisition check out the Forbes article HERE. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

The Future of Retail Means Integrated Services

PSFK recently posted an article about how multichannel services is the direction retailers are going. Below are my thoughts on this idea, but you can read the full article HERE. 

The retail industry is one that provides a great case for an seamless integrated experience for customers. Shoppers today are going digital and they expect a similar experience both on and offline. Another indicator of retail trends is the fact that a customer's smartphone is becoming their shopping assistant. People are comparing prices, looking for coupons, and looking at other products while they are in a retail store, and in order to remain competitive retailers need to leverage the mobile channel to better reach customers. 

The PSFK article mentions that sears is utilizing text messaging as an extension of their customer service offerings. Amazon has made their mayday feature standard on their kindle devices, and is showing how customer service is no longer calling a 1-800 number and going through a hundred automated options. Delta has found that their @DeltaAssist twitter account helps them connect to customers and keep them loyal in an efficient way. 

These trends in retail, specifically dealing with customer service, are not going to go away. The sooner retailers realize that mobile and digital can help them leverage customer relationships, the faster they will be able to get ahead of the competition and provide more value to consumers. Bottom line for retailers is that if you are not finding ways to provide value and connect with customers via the mobile channel with an integrated mobile strategy, you are already behind. 

[adweek]

Test Your Online Endurance With Dodge Durango’s Punishing ‘Hands on Ron Burgundy’ Contest

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The Dodge Durango campaign featuring Ron Burgundy goes digital! Check out the details in the link! I am loving how integrated this campaign is becoming, and I am hoping they will come out with a great mobile strategy to help this campaign generate even more attention. 

I think they would benefit from an interactive mobile ad which would showcase the features of the new Durango. Finding a great way to have users interact with Ron Burgundy, the Dodge Durango, and their mobile device would give Dodge a truly integrated campaign with a variety of traditional and digital advertising methods. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

10 Social Media Statistics that Prove you Need a Social Media Strategy

Check out this article to find out why social media should be a key component of your marketing and advertising mix. When Twitter's largest growing segment is aged 55-64, or 189 million Facebook users are "mobile only", it is really time to invest in what you are doing in the social sphere. 

Check out the link from The Next Web to see more surprising social media statistics. Overall, these stats indicate that if you are not utilizing social media or optimizing for mobile, you are already behind, and risk losing current and potential customers. 

[adweek]

[allmycoolthoughts]

adweekmag: 35 Years That Changed Advertising

If you are an ad nerd like me, this is definitely worth checking out! It is truly amazing how advertising has evolved over the last three and a half decades! 

[allmycoolthoughts]

The Moto G: A Full Service Low Cost Smartphone

Motorola recently announced their $179 Moto G smartphone. According to The Verge, the smartphone has impressive specs, and will perform at a high level despite the fact that it is under $200. Oh by the way, that is the price without a contract. This is a bold move, and makes owning a smartphone extremely affordable, especially considering the features such as front and rear cameras, and Android operating systems.

The Moto G puts the "low cost" 5C to shame when looking at the price points. The Google backed Motorola phone will be an interesting player, specifically in emerging markets like China and India where telcos don't subsidize the cost of phones. If the Moto G is successful, the future prices of smartphones will likely lower on a global scale. Should the phone be a hit in emerging markets, we will also likely see a retaliation from Apple and possibly Samsung who will compete with low cost phones of their own. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

Flipboard Lets Users Purchase Items in App

For those of you not familiar with Flipboard, it is an application that lets users create their own magazines based upon their interest, and they then flip through articles related to those interests. It is a great way to view content that you are actually interested in, and the app currently has over 90 million active users. 

Today, Flipboard announced that its users will now be able to purchase items they see directly from the app. This is an interesting move, and on that I think more applications can use to provide value to customers. Currently, Banana Repulic, Fab, and eBay are partnering with Flipboard to provide their customers with a new and convenient way to shop for items. 

This move clearly capitalizes on impulse purchases, and is a great way to integrate the mobile experience with the retail one. When you see an ad in a magazine and wish to purchase it, you usually have to go online or to a store in order to make the purchase. Flipboard makes this process more convenience, and actually gives value to their users. I hope that this takes off, because I would love to see other apps take advantage of the mobile platform as a way to connect with and make life easier for consumers. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

Age of the smartwatch: Interview with Gadi Amit

This is a great article from Gadi Amit of NewDealDesign, a firm responsible for a variety of wearable tech items such as the Fitbit and Fitbit Force. He does a great job in addressing how important design is when dealing with wearable devices, and the importance of being able to rely on each device. 

Mashable recently posted an article asking why smartwatches are so ugly. It is clear that it is becoming necessary for wearable tech products to not only have value and function properly, but they also need to look good in order to have mass appeal. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

Wearable Tech Can Help You Control Your Body Temperature

A group of MIT students has developed a thermoelectric bracelet that monitors your internal body temperature, as well as, external air temperature to help you regulate your body temperature. 

To me this is so cool, and extremely futuristic. A lot of wearable tech companies are focusing on health benefits, while this one helps with energy conservation. Not only could this save a lot of energy and money, but it also individualizes something that typically affects a large group of people. In an office building we are all too often subject to too cold or too hot rooms, and at home, there is a constant battle between those who like to be warm and those who like to stay bundled up.

According to the team, 16.5% of energy is used for the heating and cooling of building and homes. Decreasing this number can have a significant effect on the amount of energy we use. 

This bracelet could definitely revolutionize the way we think of temperature, not to mention giving individuals more control over mother nature. The team is hoping to have the item available for sale in the near future. To find out more about the product, check out Mashable's article HERE. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

The LG G Flex - self-healing and the first "real" curved smartphone

It is Mobile Monday, and what better way to celebrate than by talking about the new LG G Flex. The two things I want to talk about are the curved screen design, and the "self-healing" aspect of the phone. 

Curved Screen: This is something that will hopefully be the first step in creating a flexible smartphone. LG claims that this will provide a more immersive gaming experiences, and will improve call quality as it curves around your face. If this does create a better user experience, we might be seeing more curved smart phones in the future. My initial reaction however, is that the curved screen might make me dizzy when looking at a screen. 

Self Healing Feature: The phone supposedly has a protective film on the back that will get rid of scratches within minutes. If the product really works like this, all I can think of is gimme gimme gimme! A protective film that gets rid of scratches on its own might be the right direction in fixing scratches and shattered touch screens. I know quite a few people that are tired of getting pieces of fiber glass in the fingers when their phone screen breaks. 

The G Flex will be available in Korea next month; however, LG has not announced a date for global release. The G Flex definitely has the possibility to be a game changes in the smart phone industry depending on how it affects the user experience. This is probably one of the biggest announcements to hardware changes in a smartphone this year, and I am very curious to see how this will change the market, specifically in Asia, over the next few months. 

[allmycoolthoughts]

 Wearable tech is the future for long distance relationships. I have read about a few devices that help make distance not feel as big. BOND is the latest project that would allow people to "touch" each other no matter how far apart they are.

The product, which comes as a bracelet or pendant, uses touch sensors, bluetooth, vibration, and LED lighting to help couples visualize and feel their partner from far away. The lighting helps depict how long the touch is, and the vibration acts as a "tickle". The project is currently looking for funding via indiegogo. You can check out the project HERE. 

This is a great example of how wearable tech has the opportunity to revolution the way we interact with each other and the world. This is a product that provides true value, and can make distance not feel so great.

The only question is whether or not consumers will find this "creepy". This is the fine line that growing technology is constantly facing. Although this can be perceived as a huge asset to long distance couples, it might also seem too invasive and less personal. Watching how companies like this will market the product and whether or not it will be successful is going to be a strong indicator on how consumers feel about truly integrating technology into their lives on an level that has yet to be explored.