Smart phones, dumb batteries?

Angry birds - taking more than just your time.....

marketing

Battery life on smart phones is notoriously short, but when you consider there is more processing power in these devices than the computers that planted Neil Armstrong on the moon, or early Cray supercomputers which weighed in at over 5 tons, then it’s a small price to pay for such processing speed.

technology

However it does not detract from the fact as we depend more and more on these devices to stay connected and entertained, running out of battery within a day is extremely frustrating - but is it all this computing power that is to blame, or are there other feathered forces at work……

marketing
Birds

technology

The phenomenon that is Angry birds, over 700 million downloads and counting.
Free and paid versions, the difference – adverts

marketing

And there is the clue.

technology

Within the application is a third party mobile data aggregator and ad generator.

marketing

During gameplay this collects various information such as the phones location, operating system and version, all of which are then uploaded to a main server to then serve targeted ads during the gameplay.

technology

This process involves processing from the phone to perform these tasks, the activation of the GPS system to determine the location of the phone, data services to transmit and receive data and then the additional processing to render the adverts.

marketing

In fact over 70% of the applications power use is devoted the delivery of targeted advertising.

marketing

But before you reach for the delete button, Angry birds is not unique in this – using sites such as CNN, Facebook and in fact any other ad supported free games all activate similar processes to serve geographically tailored articles, transfer data to and from the phone - all of which significantly drain battery power and eat into your data allowance.

marketing

So, paying for these applications to remove the ads may actually end up costing you less in the long run.

technology

Monitoring mobile phone application power usage : http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/mzh/eurosys-2012.pdf

Angry birds : http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/mar/01/angry-birds-peter-vesterbacka-rovio

Google Map's - How does it work? It's magic......

Recent news article caught my eye surrounding the German data commissioner's comments and subsequent 'surprise' from the UK's governing body on data privacy regarding how Google manages to provide location based services such as your nearest cash machine or railway station.

Location, location, location

The most common method of actually pinpointing where you are is to use the GPS system which powers our in car navigation systems. This method alone only offers a level of accuracy to within 15 metres (on a good day) and is affected by the surrounding landscape, built up areas having an impact of the overall accuracy - something which is key when trying to provide location based services and information to users via their hand-held devices.

Clues

So while GPS offers a good starting point, additional information is required to allow for applications such as augmented reality and location based services which depend on their accuracy.

Google's* approach has been to use information it additionally gathered while trawling the streets with it's camera enabled cars, information we all publish from our wireless networks in the form of the SSID's these networks generally "publish".

Each of the cars was enabled with a scanner, this picked up yours and mine home wireless name and other technical information and logged it's location in Google's database, this information is then used to assist with increasing the accuracy of it's location based services.

Twisted

It seems the German commissioner and now the UK's are upset because they were not asked if Google "could" perform this data collection, I assume for them to evaluate the potential risks associated to this information being leaked.

Google's response is this is publicly broadcast information which is available to anyone, therefore they do not need to ask for permission.

Deadend

I think the lack of understanding as to how these technologies actually work from the government agencies is worrying, many a published document from Google and other providers goes into detail of it's use of such Wi-fi information.

Is it Google's job to help these organisations understand how this information is collected and used, therefore allowing these agencies to make fair evaluations of the risks?

In this case what actually are the risks and is Google actually sensitive to these concerns?

* other location based companies have been using a similar approach for years : Skyhook in Boston as one example.

"Context", not content is king ( sorry Bill )

While marketing still debates the best method for delivering online advertising, Visible World is using technology to concentrate on the all important ‘ context question ‘.

Regardless of the method of delivery, making the content more personalised and relevant is key to maximising it’s effects.

Too often we still see video content being pushed in a manner which is reminiscent of TV broadcast – using assumption rather than data to help define and tailor the message.

Visible creates ‘ unique ‘ adverts using elements such as geography, information supplied by the user and time to ‘ pull ‘ various part of commercials together to create a targeted relevant video message.

Motorola adopts Google approach.....

Motorola is developing software which scans SMS messages on the users handset to then deliver ' relevant ' advertising, using a combination of key words from the text and also your GPS location.

The article in the Times goes on to give examples of a user texting the word ' hungry ' to then be sent adverts for restaurants in the local area.

Recent studies from Dynamic Logic for the Hilton’s Hampton hotel chain showed a positive increase in the Hotels brand awareness by advertising on weather.com’s WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) site, demonstrating there is indeed a market for relevant mobile advertising content.

All sounds interesting working in a similar fashion to Google Mail, therefore the same concerns have to be raised over privacy and relevance.

Speaking of relevance, I can't help thinking with the circle of friends and the ' colourful ' language they use, I could have a quite a few offers from the local sex shop if the technology goes live...... marketing technology

Why virtual TV will be a success , but for different reasons

Eletronic Arts and Endemol announced a interesting partnership which will expand traditional TV programming to the virtual world, with the release next month of their Virtual Me platform

EA the company behind such classic hits such as the SIMS, Endemol is the company responsible for bring the ‘ reality ‘ TV show Big Brother which now has local variations in over 70 countries.

Taking the concept from MySpace participants are able to create virtual selves ( or aviatars as they are commonly known on the internet ) to compete and take part in variations of these hit TV shows – not in person, but with virtual representations of themselves.

I have to say it is interesting Endemols decision to partner with EA rather than leverage and already established community that is second life, however it shows an interesting transition of thought by expanding the tradional position of TV programming onto the Web.

Money

Big Brother’s revenue comes from advertising ( not product placement ) and also mainly from the SMS voting that takes place to evict or keep the contestants ( know as housemates – ironically by the are at the end , they are anything but ).

But how would this work in the online space when this will not be an audience lead activity.

As yet there are no successful examples of pre-role ( the short advert placed before content of value / interaction ) on the web. Most is ignored through the ability to close or skip, the remainder is mostly irrelevant in either context or content, this therefore leaves :

Sponsorship

Pure and simple association to raise awareness, but without engaging in dialogue with these participants is there any real value in what will be in the short term at least, a niche market ( in both volume and type of player )

In game – virtual brands, signage and clothing.

Levi’s is apparently doing a roaring trade in 501’s online, how long will this last ?

In this lean forward world where people are participating rather than sitting back and observing using traditional signage such as posters cannot prove to be effective, the ability to clutter this restricted space is also a threat and could all but trash this opportunity.

Also, while engrossed how much awareness does this bring ? Ask a professional footballer what adverts were around the side of the pitch while he was playing.

Payment upfront

This seems the more likely , in order to win / participate you pay. Pure and simple gambling , all be it wrapped up in a different wrapper.

Exclusive

On the internet there could be 1,000 big brother virtual shows happening at any one time - nothing is exclusive on the internet , it needs to work the numbers.
Combine this and the fact no matter how advanced the technology, people have a wonderful ability to express and behave in subtle ways which at the moment cannot be replicated online – I challenge anyone to be entertained for any length of time sitting watching Second Life.

The one thing the TV has over the internet is exclusivity and to a degree, authenticity.


Know your enemy

Generally game shows are run with a degree of ethics, although not perfect as Who wants to be a millionaire cheat Major Charles Ingram will contest, they do through the ability of “ seeing is believing “ remove some of the trust barriers the internet cannot break down .

Virtual icons

Above is a virtual concert with star performers U2, although the virtual Bono has some fancy dance moves I would not pay to watch these unanimated objects for any length of time.

Would you pay to watch a virtual game of soccer, would these virtual avitars be the next location for marketing and promotion deals, will we ever have a ( god forbid ) virtual David Beckham?

By making the barriers to entry too easy, by leveling the playing field, it removes the draw and passion along with the appreciation of the attributes that make these people great and thus the desire for us to watch and appreciate – this will therefore never be an audience led medium no matter how much the technology fools us visually, therefore the revenue generation models should reflect this.

As Buddy ( aka Syndrome ) said in the incredibles ‘ I'll sell my inventions so that *everyone* can have powers. *Everyone* can be Super!

And when everyone's Super... No one will be.

GPS for mobile phones - Finding your way

In a previous post I touched on location based marketing, tagging and the side benefits that GPS navigation has revolutionized not only the journey on which you punch in, but also allows you a freedom of showing you what you do not know in the vicinity.

The future use of this technology is set to increase into the mainstream with the recent news of acquisitions made which are set to reduce the cost of the technology.

The price point being quoted of $1 for a GPS chip now means most handset manufactures could include the technology as standard within their mobile phones.

Presently the cost of software which is used to drive these maps is preventing this from becoming mainstream - however with Googles entry into both the mobile phone and the map market on both a local and global scale, these costs can only plummet.

With these new ultra addressable phones marketeers must ensure their messages follow the three R's - Relevant ( time place and in context ) Relationship ( the phone is tool on which these are built ) and Respect - spam

This week I was forwarded a note on how GPS is helping the visually impaired – a great demonstration on how technology is making a difference to the day to day lives of people.

Mobile marketing

In a recent report published by Informa Telecoms and Media, it predicts that there will be 2.1bn mobile subscribers globally by the end of the year, rising to nearly 4bn in 2011 this offers one of the largest opportunities to leverage technology for marketing.

While not all these devices will be able to accept new media advertising ( such as MMS, video streaming ) it does offer a opportunity for marketeers to engage in a more personal and immediate dialogue than most other channels.

With opportunity there are always risks, for example the screen. Due to the format of the , we are less likely to accept the traditional formats of advertising, simply cutting adverts to a shorter length does not work, they should be formatted and built specifically for mobile.

Ad’s need to include an element of interactive within ( if for example a video ) with the red button playing an important role for time sensitive people, I may not want the entire brand message and am happy to purchase - I need to be given that option.

Topping and tailing , sandwiching , adding bumpers – or whatever terms you with to use by placing short messages before the content seems to be a little on the ‘ basic ‘ side considering the possibilities the technology holds.


Consider - you have the following information

• Who the person actually is
• Their location
• The history of there browsing and any electronic trading they may have done ( once e-money becomes prevalent )
  

Add to this the willingness of people to build online profiles to again narrow their interests it should mean that search should lead to contextual and relevant messages to the individual.

Simply enhancing the engines behind Google and Yahoo will help, but not eradicate irrelevant content being delivered to an already crowded screen.

I do not believe the model of ‘ paying ‘ people with free minutes before they hit the content is also of value - you are simply paying people for something they do not wish to see, therefore they will ignore.

Marketing Technology should make the content relevant in the first place, the fact they are mobile indicates they will have a higher propensity to purchase.

Summary

• It should be relevant both in context and geography
• Offer benefit , some form of redemption or ease of transaction ( the items could be put on hold, paid for through e-money remotely or a simple map to the nearest stockists
• Timing should be correct
• Be of a format that compliments the delivery medium, after all it is the medium that is putting adding additional context of the original message.