Digital Insights

Forget about yada yada Social Media....from how do business get sexy to how do I monetized my social media ROI. Have you instead thought about building and interacting with your customers from a one to one personal propsective instead? In the following Gary Vaynerchuk shows his thought on building a one to one approach at the 2011 Inc 500 Conference.

Want to brighten up your friend's day? How about popping by a vending maching which allows you to send a personlized message or video to your friend along with a bottle of icy cold soda especially during hot noon? Earlier this year, Pepsi launch a Social Vending System that enables anyone to gift a friend by selecting a beverage and entering the recipient’s name, mobile number and a personalized text message.

Which also allows that individual to further personalize the gift with a short video recorded at the vending machine. The gift can be redeem it at any PepsiCo Social Vending system. That is not all,the recipient could also pay it forward and gift a beverage to someone else too.

“Social Vending extends our consumers’ social networks beyond the confines of their own devices and transforms a static, transaction-oriented experience into something fun and exciting they’ll want to return to, again and again.” Mikel Durham, Chief Innovation Officer, PepsiCo.

This could be the future of transforming something static to a multiple touch points for more brands in the near future.

Why bother spending the time to manually update your friends where you are having your holiday when you can just easily swipe and do that. Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel has made it possible for you to do that - simply by just swiping the wristband provided and you can start taking pictures, checking in and updating your status at various points in the hotel. Not getting enough yet ? How about posting this message on your Facebook wall "Hanging out at the Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel…Jealous?"

This is not something new we have came across and will see RFID technology getting more hardwired into real world setting as social API becomes more mainstream. Seems like a novel idea in driving the buzz but how could the hotel or other brands actually translate that into actual business outputs and not just riding onto RFID integration scene.

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swipe-and-check-in-on-facebook-at-ushuaia-ibiza-beach-hotel-GuHBnvDheglxyiifeDCE.zip (131 KB)

The ever innovative Japanese brand Uniqlo whom has brought us the Lucky Machine pinball game earlier to promote the launch of UNIQLO UK’s new online store and Sportweet - a scoreboard that ranks your twitter id amongst other individuals from around the globe and creation of a personalized video based on your twitter account.

What is actually going through in the mind of the consumer today ? How do they react and respond to brand communications online today ? And how will this actually impact the way you communicate to them today ?

TNS's recent digital lifestyle study on the consumer across 46 countries, which uncovers markets from where Digital is close to ubiquitous to those beginning their digital journey whether through PC at home, mobile or internet cafes.

The following consumer profiles offer a glimpse into the evolving world of digital and lifestyles that have emerged, and are emerging.

The internet is an integral part of my life. I’m young and a big mobile Internet user and generally access everywhere, all of the time. I’m a blogger, a passionate social networker with many social network friends. I’m also a big online shopper, even via my mobile. I want to make sure as many people as possible hear my online voice.

I just love talking and expressing myself, whether that’s face to face, on a fixed line, mobile or on social networking sites, instant messaging or just emailing people. I really want to express myself in the online world in the way that I can’t in the offline one. I tend to be a smart phone user and I’m connecting online from my mobile, at home, at work or at college.

I use the internet to gain knowledge, information and to educate myself about the world. I’m not very interested in social networking but I do want to hear from like-minded people especially to help me make purchase decisions. I’m very interested in the latest thing.

The internet is important for me to establish and maintain relationships. I have a busy life whether it’s my profession or managing the home. I use things like social networking to keep in touch with people I wouldn’t have time to otherwise. I’m a big home internet home user and I’m very open to talking to brands and looking for promotions. That said I’m not really the kind of person to voice my opinions online.

And how should you go about engaging them appropriately via their respective digital life style activities ?

Digital Landscape PDF
http://budurl.com/DigitalLandscape

Digital Lifestyles PDF
http://budurl.com/DigitalLifestyle

Drivers of Online Behaviour PDF
http://budurl.com/OnlineBehaviour

Activating Social Media PDF
http://budurl.com/TNSocialMedia

Would it be possible to even know the interest, the what's and why's of a new person you meet face to face instantly ? And get linked to their social networks ? The team from Viewdle is making this possible and could this potentially be the future of social connection via smart phones ? Is that creepying you out ? Or is it something you would consider to use it on a day to day basis ?

Here's Viewdle vision for the mobile face reconition product:

The first mobile application that enables you to automatically tag and share photos and videos to Facebook and other social networks, as you take them. You’ll be able to start creating faceprints! Viewdle sits between the camera and the consumer — our technology recognizes who's in the viewfinder of your camera phone as you take photos and videos. Viewdle makes your camera social - we automatically identify faces and tag them, so you can easily organize and share your media.

Foursquare. Pretty sure you have tried it, played along with it and how about we bring it to the next level, and I meant checking and unlocking real world doors ! Erin Sparling and Nicholas Hall from Apartm.net made that possible recently through a Foursquare hack that allows users to unlock doors by checking in. And to bring that idea to life, they will be hosting a New Year’s Eve and they are inviting anyone to join in the party bysimply check-in to their apartment and open their door themselves.

So check into Apartm.net on Foursquare on New Year Eve and let yourself into the party !

Points to ponder

• How will this shape the future of location based check-in services ?
• And how will this impact or is it applicable for your business ?

Are you a marathon runner ? Or are you a avid supporter for your love ones or friends whom are running the marathon ? Wouldn't it be great if you could show your support for them with a video shout out whenever they ran passed the checkpoints during the Marathon.

An integrated campaign which covers across from social media, outdoor ads to live video booths which allows individuals to record their personalized messages for their love ones whom are running the marathon. 

Points to ponder

• How do you make it easier for individuals to connect with your brand ?
• Or how do you enable the extension support from your consumers' family or friends ? Possible ? Yes ? No ?
• People first or Technology ? Or enable technology to faciliate communication ? You decide
  

You control the ball.
You dribble.
You score a goal.
You sign a new deal.
You make the decisions.

• Is it possible for your customers to build and experience with your brand through story telling ? Yes ? No ? Why ?
• If No - how do you enable that ? Why is it not possible ?
• If Yes - how do you build upon the on-going experience ?

Is email communication too formal or "too slow" according to the younger generation today ? Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, shares his thoughts on Facebook Messages and the next steps of Facebook at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Mark Zuckerberg: "Our view every product is going to get social, get on the bus.I think this is going to be a really exciting period. Some are going to make things around people. Some aren’t going to make it. But over the next five years, everyone’s going to have to think about this, just like they have to think about mobile. I think people will get there. They just need to take the steps to get comfortable. A slow approach isn’t necessarily bad."