Capitalizing on Context: Location Awareness for Marketers
In recent years, brands have used technology to make location-based marketing increasingly immersive and experiential. Brick-and-mortar retailers and the brands they carry are reaching consumers before, during, and after purchase by applying emerging technology such as smarter online targeting tools and physical objects (like Amazon’s Dash). The most successful experiences, however, are the ones that redefine location marketing by considering additional context.
These context-aware experiences are happening in three crucial locations: in homes, on the go, and at or near a store. On any given day, the context of a consumer’s journey changes several times, depending on factors beyond these locations, such as the customer’s immediate surroundings (at a desk, in a car, etc.), the device being used, and ambient circumstances (such as weather conditions outdoors or noise levels indoors). Because all of these influence purchasing decisions, marketers must create experiences that resonate with consumers in the context of these ever-shifting circumstances.
Creating a context-aware roadmap
Location-based contextual moments represent opportunities for businesses to create context-aware content so long as the brand’s message is relevant and not spammy. But how does a brand figure out which moments to create and where to create them? We suggest that businesses identify their own moments by applying these filters:
Your customer. Who are your customers? What are their wants and needs, and how do those wants and needs change throughout the day? How do your customers use technology to get what they want? What do they expect from your brand: utility, engagement, or both? What opportunities exist for you to deliver context-aware experiences throughout your customers’ journeys?
Your business strategy. What is the vision for achieving your brand and experience goals? What are your near-term objectives from a location-marketing standpoint? For instance, are you trying to increase foot traffic to stores? Increase same-store sales? Both?
Your capabilities. What capabilities (e.g., inventory management, merchandising, and branding) exist in order for you to create context-aware experiences for your customers? What gaps exist with your capabilities, and do you have the budget and resources to fill those gaps?
Your technology. Ranging from analytics to platforms and mobile wallet offers, what supporting technologies (if appropriate to your customers’ wants and needs) do you need in order to create context-aware experiences?
The next step when constructing context-aware journeys requires that data be applied properly—beginning with basic customer information, then adding historical and behavioral data, and ultimately physical location. This information allows businesses to gain a better understanding not only of their users’ current context, but also of how to improve the future-state experience by addressing customer wants and needs—through utility, engagement, or both. These insights must then be mapped against a company’s unique business strategy, capabilities, and technology in order to determine which moments to create and where to create them.
A marketing mindshift
Capitalizing on the new context of location asks senior marketers to think differently about how they interact with their customers and agencies. Wondering where to begin?
Re-examine your multichannel marketing strategies in the context of your business goals. Are you trying to win more mobile traffic for your online storefront? Improve foot traffic at your brick-and-mortar locations? Both?
Design a more robust view of your customer’s journey from the home to the store. Doing so requires applying tools such as journey maps, which illustrate multiple decision-making points along the path to purchase. Journey maps also identify opportunities for your brand to participate in the decision-making. These maps need to be dynamic to succeed – for example, they should accommodate emerging platforms such as Snapchat.
Once you have a clearer view of the customer’s journey, start thinking of the contextual circumstances that inform decisions along each touchpoint. In what kind of home does your target audience live? Are they likely to be using smart appliances themselves? If so, how? How are they consuming content at home, on the go, and at/near the store? Â
Surround yourself with the right blend of talent and technology to design experiences that will support your business needs. If you are a retailer, for example, you’ll likely need a multidisciplinary team that combines expertise in merchandising, customer experience design, and mobile.
Identify your best opportunity to reach your customer with a contextual marketing experience at home, on the go, or at/near the store. Pilot a contextual marketing experience that occurs in one or all of these circumstances, with branded content appropriate for the circumstance.
Ultimately, context will allow marketers to redefine location marketing and create more valuable, relevant experiences. It always begins where purchase decisions are being made, and with the role your brand can play.
For more details on the increasing importance of contextual location marketing, download our report on the same topic, entitled How Brands Are Changing the Context of Location Marketing.
By Sheldon Monteiro, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, SapientRazorfishÂ
Digital Business Transformation: 4 Recommendations For Success
Stemming from a recent SapientNitro survey of 250 marketing technology professionals, our CTO Sheldon Monteiro and ChiefMarTec's Scott Brinker aimed to better understand how organizations are driving change, what barriers to transformation exist, and how leadership can improve their game. In this piece, Sheldon shares key recommendations for businesses that seek to hone their Digital Business Transformation (DBT) strategy, the overarching strategy that guides the reimagining of the business in a customer-first, networked world. Learn more here.Â
Debunked! 3 Myths About Customer Experience In The Digital Era
Organizations continue to struggle with the fact that customers’ attention and loyalty are increasingly won by brand experience.Â
Our Sheldon Monteiro, Chief Technology Officer, walks through and debunks three of the most common misconceptions for what makes for an improved customer experience, how to measure it, and who should lead it in today’s CMO.com here.Â
Marketing technologist study reveals digital business transformation
Today on Chief Marketing Technologist Blog, Scott Brinker reveals the findings of a marketing technologist study conducted with our Sheldon Monteiro, Chief Technology Officer. The study reveals insights into the evolution of the marketing technologist profession and the role they play in digital transformation.Â
Key findings include:
• While 97% of organizations are addressing digital in some way, only 1 in 10 participants said that their organization is currently structured to deliver a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints.
• 77% of marTech professionals are involved with DBT within the organization, yet 38% of martech professionals say that conflicting priorities are the major obstacles in successful implementation of DBT initiatives.
• IoT (46%) and Machine Learning (42%) are the two DBT-related initiatives perceived to have the greatest impact on customer experience.
• The primary driver for DBT is “transforming customer experience holistically across all channels” (56.5%) — a front-office mission — followed closely by “transforming operational processes” (54.3%) in the back-office.
• Only 1 in 10 of the participants in the survey said that their organization is currently structured to deliver a seamless customer experience across all customer touchpoints.
• CMO is the executive most likely to be responsible for the oversight of DBT (26%), followed by the CEO (22%), and then the CIO/CTO (13%), clearly showing a plurality of leadership roles.
Sheldon concludes that “hybrid roles, in particular, such as the marketing technologist, are crucial in these times of disruption, to serve a bridging function within the organization and galvanize efforts to change and transform.” View and download the report from ChiefMarTec.com here.Â
CMTO Agenda: The C-Suite's Newest Member Takes On Customer Experience
Today’s digital age requires companies to rethink how marketing, customer experience and IT work together to create a competitive advantage. Our Sheldon Monteiro, Chief Technology Officer, shares insights on how the role of CMTO is taking on customer experience in Forbes here.Â
CES 2015: The Dust Has Settled, What Does It Mean?
MarTech implications of what our Chief Technology Officer Sheldon Monteiro witnessed at the world’s largest consumer electronics show.
First, let’s put CES in perspective. A lot of products are showcased at CES, roughly 20,000 this year alone. Despite that staggering number, if you’ve been following the news, many pundits lamented that nothing was launched that defines the next big category or thing. Some technology titans like Apple and Microsoft weren’t even there though their technology was embedded throughout the show in other vendors’ gadgets. Yet, in a few days, in one location, I got to see the latest from startups to household names. I witnessed a host of incremental innovations, both small and massive, across a range of product categories, including televisions, automobiles, appliances, virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D printers and scanners, wearables, sensors, drones and media. I even saw some game changers – self-driving cars and a scooter that may disrupt urban commuting. But in addition to finished products that can be nicely gift-wrapped under a holiday tree, CES is where I get to see a lot of foundational technology, the bits and doodads that inspire creativity to invent amazing new experiences and activate brands at the intersection of technology and story. Here are 10 takeaways I’ve filed in my idea box:
1. Televisions got bigger, smarter and connected; big screen targeting is around the corner.
Curved TVs sporting OLED and quantum display technology were everywhere. Big screens got even bigger (100+ inches). 4K televisions with resolutions of 3840-by-2160 are the new normal, with a few top-end models featuring 8K resolution and even bendable screens.
This technical upgrade to 4K resolution has a profoundly important implication for advertisers – cable providers will be reluctant to put many bandwidth-hogging 4K channels over their broadcast networks. So, it’s quite likely that the pre-dominant mode of content delivery to next generation TVs will be Internet streaming.
In fact, Dish Network made news at CES by announcing competition for traditional pay-TV services. For $20 a month, Dish’s Sling TV will offer Internet streaming of live sports (ESPN), lifestyle, family, news, and information channels. Yes, live Internet streaming of channels you actually might want. Before would-be cord-cutters raise the champagne, it’s worth noting that this announcement is from a player within the pay-TV industrial complex, unlikely to cannibalize existing revenues. Â
Smart TV platforms saw consolidation. Roku, which already has significant share of the Internet streaming appliance market, will now dominate entry-level sets, embedded into Insignia (BestBuy house brand), Haier, TCL and Hisense TVs. Sony changed course from their proprietary platform and will build on Android TV, along with Sharp. Samsung is on Tizen, LG on WebOS, and Panasonic on Firefox OS. Fewer platforms hold the promise of much needed simplification of interactive TV brand experience development.
For advertisers, two things are certain: we are closer than ever to understanding what individual households are watching, and we will increasingly be serving up relevant interactive experiences directly on the big screen. Watchwith and Brightline both demonstrated solutions for interactive TV ad formats at the C Space area of the show.
2. The Internet of Things (IoT) is here, and we’re just getting started.
If there was an overarching theme that dominated the whole show, it’s that everything – from lightbulbs to chairs, wearables to cars, toothbrushes to baby pacifiers – will be connected to the Internet. Samsung’s CEO proclaimed that each and every one of the products they sell will be connected by the end of this decade. Unsurprisingly, with this rush toward connectedness, there are different standards and platforms camps emerging. In the smart home category alone, I saw products aligned with Google’s Nest/Thread ecosystem, Apple’s HomeKit, and Samsung’s SmartThings over Z-Wave, ZigBee, and WiFi, to name just a few. It’s clear that we have a “Tower of Babel” syndrome. To realize the promise of IoT will require standards and interoperability that’s not here yet.
For now, the immediate potential of IoT is twofold for brands – (1) creating connected things and places, and (2) leveraging data from connected things to deliver more contextually relevant communications and experience. Brands must start with a strong use case – why would a consumer want to use this connected device or interact with an experience? A great use case for me was the Kolibree toothbrush, which uses 3D sensors and gamifies the drudgery for kids brushing teeth with something that looked a lot like Minion Run on a connected phone or tablet. Along the same lines, Sevenhugs showed me a sleep monitor for the entire family, complete with historical analytics for each family member. Both those devices addressed real pain points. A less compelling use case for me – the Belty – a motorized belt buckle that expands and contracts with your waistline. But consumer trends are hard to predict – Belty gathered a lot of attention at the show.
As a marketer, I’ll also be watching for how the “context broker” market unfolds. How will companies like Google, Apple and others who can see the data within their connected ecosystems share it with brands who want to deliver contextually relevant content and experience?
How can brands get in on this trend? Making wearables is getting easier. Intel announced Curie – a tiny, system-on-a-chip designed specifically for wearable technology with a bevy of sensors and Bluetooth connectivity. With modular and pre-integrated technology like Curie, brands with a use case for wearables can focus on bringing oodles of fashion and creativity and save a few bucks on engineering.
If you do not have a wearable use case, CES this year was proof positive that design matters. Even gadget makers like Mother, which makes a line of smart sensors for home automation, get that design is critically important. Their sensor hub and sensors, affectionately called cookies, are gorgeous – something I wouldn’t mind placing on my living room shelf. Heck, I was tempted to nibble on their cookies. For brands, the simple message is if you are going to make tech, make it beautifully desirable, not just useful.
4. Automobiles got smart, really smart, and yes – connected. They might even become living spaces.
CES 2015 conclusively proved that Google has credible competition in autonomous cars. Delphi, Valeo, Mercedes-Benz and Audi all had working demonstrations of their self-driving cars. They had major differences, but the race for the future is on. The Mercedes-Benz model had the driver’s seat facing away from the road – showing a future where a vehicle might even be just another living space with its attendant possibilities.
In the near term, all the auto manufacturers showed off connected in-car technology, demonstrating integration with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Ford discussed their Nest collaboration on an app that optimizes energy. The app will switch the Nest thermostat to “Away Mode” when the driver leaves home and will set the house temperature when the vehicle is approaching home again. LG and Audi partnered on a watch that can unlock the car. Â
Should brands care? First, connected cars will also be data sources. For certain verticals like auto insurers, that data will be hugely useful. I’ll be watching for data brokers in this space. An immediate opportunity stems from GM’s announcement of a concierge service which brands can tap into to market local offers and deals to OnStar drivers who use their new “AtYourService,” based on the current location of the vehicle. Pretty nifty.
5. In a connected everything world, CRM will include managing technological obsolescence.
Another insight for me stemmed from a question I asked at every auto exhibit. How will you manage technological obsolescence? If I purchase a new vehicle with connected technology, can I expect to have the latest upgrades and bug fixes for the life of the car? Sadly, none of the vendors, with the exception of Panasonic, which is the integrator for Ford Sync had a credible answer. The sad truth is, my top of the line, barely a year old 2014 truck does not get any software upgrades unless there is a critical recall. This is a glaring and obvious gap for product manufacturers at large. If your device is now connected, you have to make the shift from a sell it and forget it product lifecycle management (PLM) mindset to a service lifecycle management (SLM) mindset where you have an ongoing exchange of value with your existing customers for the useful life of the product.
But fret not, if you have a car with old technology, Parrot’s RNB6 and Pioneer’s AVIC-8000NEX offer impressive after-market options to upgrade to the latest connected tech. In fact, I observed several products designed solely to upgrade older technology – plain old lightbulbs, smoke detectors and refrigerators can now be connected.
For brands, your best retention strategy is being valuable to, valued by and connected with your existing customers. It was a pity that none of the auto company representatives I spoke with understood that simple concept.
6. Virtual reality is just around the corner; brands seeking immersive experiences should start taking notice.
Facebook-owned Oculus VR’s CEO observed at CES, “The first step is making a device that can make you believe you’re in a different place.” Based on what I experienced, they’re getting creepily close. Oculus Rift Crescent Bay features positional surround sound, 360 degree head tracking and amazing graphic clarity. Their content demos transported me to different locations. I actually felt I was in some scary situations even though I knew I was at a crowded conference.
Tucked away in an off-floor suite, I also experienced an impressive shoe-shopping demo from Sixense. Shopping in a virtual 3D store, I was able to pick a shoe off a shelf, examine it in 3 dimensions, put them on a mannequin and drop them in a shopping cart. Sixense believes that richer product demonstrations with VR will facilitate endless aisle and reduce product returns.
Samsung Gear VR partnered with Marvel to demonstrate a virtual Avenger’s world, and Razer spoke about their open source project and partner friendly development kit.
Augmented reality was also present in abundance. Sony demonstrated a clip on accessory for glasses that provides a Google Glass alternative. I tried out the ODG smart glasses which looked pretty decent and provided the functionality of an Android tablet, overlaid on my normal field of view. Control was via a separate Bluetooth dongle.
Creating content and applications for VR and AR will be a significant challenge and opportunity for brands. Intel demonstrated the integration of their RealSense technology with Oculus, which allowed for people in distributed locations to play a virtual game of volleyball. I can see all sorts of uses for this, including immersive, even live product demonstrations and consultative customer service.
7. Sensors for everything… even ones that can read your mind and change your mood
As I mentioned earlier, I saw dozens of wearables with sensors aplenty. But I also saw some real gems that deserve special mention.
Tucked away in the IEEE booth, surrounded by the hardcore geeks (as opposed to the posers like me), was a really nifty mind-control demo with Emotiv’s EEG headset hooked up to toy race cars. Literally, this is a sensor than can read your mind. Thync demonstrated a neurosignalling device and app that delivers small electrical pulses to the brain to induce calm or improve energy. The Muse headband, which is already retailing on Amazon, uses sensors to detect brain state and as a mind training tool. Imagine helping a customer through a complex sale by providing her a visualization of how she felt as she considered her purchase options.
The low priced Steelseries Sentry Eye Tracker could be incredibly useful in experience usability studies.
Intel’s RealSense technology allows for sophisticated depth sensing. With Intel’s focus, it has a very high chance of deployment at scale. Stereolabs showed me their Zed camera, which also addresses depth sensing. The applications of depth sensing are broad. Computers understanding 3D spatial concepts are able to recognize gestures, navigate in 3D space, scan a real object and better detect emotional state. I can only begin to imagine the brand engagement possibilities.
8. Faster, smaller and more clever
Moore’s law held at CES 2015. Intel announced their new Broadwell line of processors featuring higher performance, battery life and graphics. It’s going to take more power to manage 4K screens and process 3D in real time, and Intel appears to be looking at these technology waves in tandem, which is good news.
Not to be outdone, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 mobile processor will be able to wirelessly stream 4K video, play advanced games and even power VR and computing experiences, all behind the covers of a smartphone.
NVIDIA, famous for its graphics processing within the hardcore gamer community, devoted nearly its entire booth to showcase their in-car autonomous computing platform. The platform is powered by a processor as powerful as two supercomputers from a little over a decade ago. It takes some horsepower to process images from multiple cameras around the car and make sense of them.
And yes, the Internet of Things will be a fire hose of data.
What does this mean for brands? Simply, more raw compute headroom for immersive experience. While we will always have to be aware of the long tail of adoption, future experiences can be more immersive, able to process more sensor input in real-time, and drive higher resolution displays than ever before. In venue technology with larger screens and even more interactivity will get more affordable, and more brands will deploy them.
9. We’re still figuring out mobility and proving we were there.
I saw a bunch of Segway alternatives telepresence robots at the show, with the IO Hawk personal transporter and Double robot getting a lot of attention. High resolution 4K+ cameras and selfie sticks were also in abundance.
And there were more drones than I could count. The most featured use case remained aerial photo capture with some interesting enhancements – being the ability to follow you at a fixed distance, which sports enthusiasts will love, and the ability to stream HD video in real time over a 4G network connection.
Another really interesting announcement was Gogoro’s battery powered Smartscooter. Gogoro has an ambitious plan to deploy a network of charging stations in urban areas. You will never plug the scooter into a charger; simply swap batteries. And Gogoro intends for their battery network to be used for other devices besides the scooter, potentially even being daisy chained for larger workloads than a scooter.
As a marketer, it’s clear that we want to be mobile, to show that we were there and what we did. And inevitably, there will be opportunities to weave these technologies into activations.
10. Diversity is top of mind.
I saved this one for last, because it is so close to my heart. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich ended his keynote last Tuesday night with a commitment to increase the diversity of its U.S. workforce by 2020. He pledged $300 million to fund the hiring and retention of women and underrepresented minorities. I attended a panel discussion on diversity featuring Soledad O’Brien and Brian himself, moderated by Intel’s HR Chief HR and Diversity Officer. My sense coming out of that discussion is Brian is fully aware of the uphill battle Intel will face in achieving their diversity goal. Like the engineer he is, he will chip away at it with the zeal of making Moore’s law real in the diversity context. Certainly, it was an unusual announcement to hear at CES. Brian gets how important diversity is to re-imagining the human experience with great technology. For that, I applaud him. He is an inspiration for me and for all of us at SapientNitro in our own commitment to diversity.
CES 2015 is a wrap!
By Sheldon Monteiro (@sheldon_tm), Chief Technology Officer
Photo credit: Adapted from original by Joe Swallia
Marketing technology is hot right now. You've heard the job title. You've probably even read about our CMTO University. But, what is a marketing technologist? What do they really do?
Few studies have been done to understand this group’s education, skills, gaps, and areas of expertise. So, our Chief Technology Officer, Sheldon Monteiro, set out to help demystify the "Marketing Technologist."
The preliminary analysis and a preview of the results are published in this article by Scott Brinker on chiefmartec.com, "8 discoveries from our marketing technologist survey." Look out for the final report, coming at the end of October.
Advertising Week is in full swing, and I am very excited to be part of the conversation and learn from my industry peers at IAB MIXX. SapientNitro’s mission couldn’t be more connected with the theme of this year’s event: digital’s renaissance moment. As a new breed of agency, we are passionate about great work at the intersection of technology and story. We are redefining storytelling for an always-on world where brand experience becomes a story lived by people through digital, social, mobile and commerce, in addition to inspired emotion through communication.
As marketing and technology continues to converge, brands need a new breed of technologist who see around corners, paint the big picture, and “get” marketing. Harvard Business Review recently profiled the emergence of a brand new role: the Chief Marketing Technology Officer. Senior brand leaders are asking themselves: Do I need one? How do I define the role? Who should she report to? What is the profile of candidate needed?  What skills need to be developed? Can one person bridge the marketing/technology divide?
I will share new data from a study of over 250 marketing technologists on their current skills and the gaps they know they must fill in order to succeed in today’s “Digital’s Renaissance Moment.” It’s my hypothesis that brands are still struggling to find the talent needed to create the immersive worlds that engage consumers, and I look forward to an exchange of ideas about how to address the gap.Â
As we strive to break boundaries where technology and marketing meet—and inspire brands to do the same—I’m particularly excited about Kevin Spacey’s closing keynote, after which our own Chief Marketing Officer Bill Kanarick will join him on stage for a discussion about how we can apply Mr. Spacey's insights in our roles as marketers and brand stewards.  Spacey’s work with Netflix on “House of Cards” and with Activision on “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare” provides an unparalleled perspective on the intersection of story, technology, and humanity—and its impact on how stories are experienced. I look forward to hearing his view on storytelling, and how we’re breaking boundaries in the world today.
We look forward to exploring the art, beauty and human emotion in marketing with you at IAB MIXX today – see you there.
