Tag Archives: CES 2013

If cats have nine lives, why can’t our content?

Posted on January 9, 2013 by | 1 Comment
PR Newswire staffers Malcolm Atherton & Natalie Bering are on site at CES 2013.

PR Newswire staffers Malcolm Atherton & Natalie Bering are on site at CES 2013.

The day before the show floor opened CES 2013 booths received their finishing touches and exhibitors descended on Las Vegas. The lesser known fact is that CES is not just more than 1.8 million net square feet of exhibits, but it is also a learning conference with industry and role specific tracks.

Yesterday I was able to attend Women in Advertising: Innovation in Digital Technologies where eight accomplished and powerful women were poised to share their experiences with us. The landscape of the panel spanned from large agencies to small start-ups.

In the course of the discussion, the panelists encouraged us to think about our own messaging. Is our content relevant? How do we get the content to those that matter? What is our story? How do we tell it? I sat in the audience thinking that this is the same conversation that all communication practitioners are having – no matter if you’re in marketing, PR, or at an agency.

What was interesting was the digital perspective. The revolution is not necessarily the technology but how the content is being consumed and how to get where your audience needs you to be. Beth McCabe, VP/Group Director, Social Marketing & Technology, Digitas mentioned that it isn’t always about marketing using the latest and greatest technology but being inspired by it. For example, they have a MakerBot in their office, they are not exactly sure what is going to come of it but they are playing with it to see what it sparks. A Death Star, maybe?

The point that resonated the most for me was how are you making what you’re doing function across platforms? Does it relate and is it seamless? One example was if you are creating a innovative interactive digital board how are you then taking that content to create long tail success for the parts that make the whole? The videos to be used via social channels, and iPad apps for your sales team to leverage, in addition to weaving the assets to tell your story from different vantage points.

Again how are we as communicators supposed to repurpose our content to tell our story to that specific segment of our audience?

An audience question about if gender played a role in how these women create their strategy was answered in an array of strange recounts of being in male dominated fields, but I found the most satisfying answer to be from Kristin Ganong, VP, Digital Strategy and Engagement at Diageo. She acknowledged that gender shapes us, but that her strategy comes from being relevant to her customer needs and their audience.

Audiences in today’s landscape is looking for a personal and targeted experience, which necessitates communicators to meet them where they are on the devices they use with content that matters to them.

We are creating great content, why should it only have one life?

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Call Me Maybe | Mobile-to-Mobile (M2M) Means More for Marketers

Posted on January 9, 2013 by | Leave a comment
Via NMSUA.edu

Via NMSUA.edu

Jim Kohlenberger, President of JK Strategies, and most recently served as Chief of Staff for the White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP), was my favorite panelist during an International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) session on The Future of Mobile-to-Mobile (M2M).

During the course of the discussion, Jim and the panel discussed how M2M can easily be defined as “connecting or communicating with anything that is wirelessly enabled in a variety of ways ” – in other words, we aren’t just talking phone calls – or even phones – here. Wireless traffic lights, proximity sensors, vehicle tracking services, infotainment systems, thermostats, in-store payment systems, etc. qualify in the M2M world. Mobile devices connected to mobile devices.

To help illustrate this, and to help show how marketers and communicators I turn to Carly Rae Jepsen for an assist.

I threw a wish in the well. Don’t ask me, I’ll never tell. I looked to you as it fell. And now you’re in my way.

One of Jim’s projects for the White House OSTP was working on advanced policies to spur a broadband revolution through spectrum reform. The biggest obstacle in path of continued advancement of M2M communications, benefits, marketing, and advertising is spectrum bandwidth.

According to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, “Moving forward, we won’t just be talking into our devices, they will increasingly be talking to each other. This isn’t science fiction. This is here and now.”

A lack of bandwidth could be in the way of appropriate application of M2M. This is being addressed.

Your stare was holdin’. Ripped jeans, skin was showin’. Hot night, wind was blowin’. Where you think you’re going, baby?

Two applications of M2M technology that were most interesting to me were in the retail and transportation sectors.

Imagine walking into a mall. A savvy marketing department for Jeans-R-Us (2nd Floor near the food court…) knows that you complained on Facebook about a hole in your jeans and you’re in the market for a new pair.Because of your location near Jeans-R-Us, an email, an ad on your Facebook page, a FourSquare alert, a text message, an ad played via your in-car entertainment system, and/or a Tweet can be crafted which promotes 25% off of a new pair of jeans. Right when you approach or enter the mall.

I’m glorifying this a bit of course but based on proximity sensors, social networks, always-on Smart Devices, and sophisticated options for markcomm and advertising professionals this could very well be one application of M2M.

Also, consider today’s roadways, particularly with rapidly growing urban environments. Intersection sensors, scattered wireless sensors & transmitters, and cameras can be used to communicate alternate routes to driver infotainment systems or mobile devices or emergency response professionals in case of congestion, accidents, or events. Such systems may decrease transportation times (saving companies time and money), improve emergency response, provide advertisers and marketers target people based on where they are and what their myriad of social networks say they like, and help our example from before sort out how to find that Jeans-R-Us.

Before you came into my life I missed you so bad. I missed you so bad. I missed you so, so bad.

Marcomm and advertising has never been a pinpoint practice. Sure, media can be bought around potential audiences, online consumers can be retargeted, e-mails can be sent, and so forth but all of these things are peanuts compared to the ability to engage with targeted audiences based on where they are, their current activities, intent based on online discussions and statements, and other creepy 1/2 stalking|1/2 targeting opportunities that haven’t been dreamed up yet.

5, 10, 15 years down the road marcomm/advertising pros will wonder how they managed to deliver their respective results before M2M technologies came into their lives and unlocked the mysteries of customer behavior and intent and location.

M2M technologies will be a constant for the rest of our lives. How we manage the technology, support it through bandwidth availability and investment, and understand how to apply it towards all facets of life is yet to be seen. I am excited to see what’s next.

Want to provide your input? Call me.

Maybe.

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