iWunder | Wunderman New York Blog

Why It's Finally the Year of Mobile

One need only look at the explosive coverage of wave upon wave of feature- and smart-phone related news and product announcements to reach the conclusion that the year of mobile has finally arrived. But it's once recent editorial comment I've read in The Hindu, India's National Newspaper, that sealed it for me:

There is a plethora of smartphones from international companies like LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson flooding the Indian market. In addition, local companies like Videocon, Fly, Zen and many others are entering the growing segment. The resulting competition could bring down smartphone prices.

Pretty obvious closing statement no? We all know that competition validates a market.  But what I think what we're seeing that the growing smartphone market, and the rise of the affordable smartphone will hasten the rise of mobile computing globally. The US is leading in mind share, sure, with efforts from Apple and Google gaining the majority of attention. But you now have a global market of devices across the cost spectrum that at their core go well beyond communications to actually enabling the equivalent of a desktop computing experience to anyone, anywhere, within the range of cellular tower. Coupled with the rise of app marketplaces, the burgeoning micro economies Apple and Google are nurturing, and moves by players like Facebook to attempt to drive online usage of their platforms by subsidizing not handset or service but actual airtime for access, you have what can be called a truly global mobile marketplace evolving faster than previous technologies, with sales rates of mobile devices and platforms, including iPads, growing faster than anyone could imagine.

So, in my opinion, and in closing, the Year of Mobile isn't the point at which mobile computing reaches near global ubiquity - it's the year when we finally realized that it wasn't just possible for that to happen, but when it became clear that it was inevitable, on a global basis. In my opinion,  that clearly makes this that year. 

We're surely in for as much change as we are growth, but I know that from our perspective, as digital marketers and technologist, we will all certainly enjoy what should be a meteoric rise.

What do you "like"?

In late April, Facebook [FB] announced and launched a number of new and updated products for developers.  This set of products is centered on the Open Graph platform that allows the sites, brands and apps to share information about users in order to tailor offers, features and services.

What does that mean for your brand today?
Lets start with the social plug ins.  Imagine a person coming to your website and knowing what their friends thought about the content of your site. FB has developed a set of portable social plug-ins that will make it easy for users to see information from or about their FB friends, share things with their friends or even log in to FB all without leaving your site.

You may have recently noticed that the fan page you were a “fan” of has become more of a community, company or brand page that allows you to “like” it.   Whe you “like” a brand or product page, their content will appear in your personal news feed.  The FB feed is the femoral artery of the FB and social experience.  If you are a brand who wants prime real estate on the social web, the “like” button is the permission you need to deilver your content into people’s daily lives.  Under this new release the “like” button is much more powerful and now more portable. [just look @ the right rail of this blog.] You can implement the “like” button, with a line of code on to your website.

The Activity Feed exposes the actions your friends on any website. When you're logged into FB and visit CNN.com, you will instantly see articles & topics your friends’ sharing, recommending & commenting on via Activity Feed.

The Recommendations Social Plug In helps make sites more relevant to you by highlighting content based on top "Likes" across a site. Think of it as a people-powered "most popular" list. For e.g., if logged into FB, a user can visit your brand web page and instantly see articles, product summaries and features that people are liking & sharing with their friends most often, in real time.

The portable FB Log In now lets you increase sign up rates at your site.  This feature has the potential to catapult the power of the social CRM space. The Log in with Faces plugin displays your friend’s profile pictures that have already signed up for your site in addition to a login button.

Don't forget the FB Social Bar. This nifty toolbar can be added to the bottom of your site. The Social Bar includes a like button, friends who like the site, as well as Facebook chat.  I expect to see chat addition groups pop up across the web.

What does this mean for consumers on sites in the FB ecosystem?

Tonight when I visited Pandora, using FB’s new open graph protocol, I was able to see that it picked up my FB music interests and recommended Bebel Gilberto’s latest and recommended that I create a Pandora station because of it.   That's what I call personalization.

 

We think that the new FB platform will lead to a truly social semantic experience across the web.  

Will you be putting a "Like" button on your client site?

Sources 

• Facebook for Websites
• Hacking The Graph: Live From Facebook’s f8 Conference

Orientation as Navigation and Other iPad Oddities

The early flood of iPad applications has been an interesting experiment in seeing not only individuals take to the new form factor, but how developers / content publishers intend to deliver applications, experiences, and content optimize for this combination of form factor and interface metaphor. Neither the slate nor the iPhone interface are new; the combination in this size is, and the rapid realization when you start using it is that unlike some other Apple efforts on the interface engineering side, something about Apple’s own applications don’t feel quite right.

From touch and gestures to orientation and even rotation, Apple has sacrificed the elegant simplicity of the single button mouse days for flexibility. The result can be quite frustrating, and feels less like interaction and more like, well, experimentation, as more and more of the interface becomes gestural, with you manipulating the device itself vs. the interface on the screen as we’ve become accustomed to in our interactions with computing devices to date.

Case in point – Apple’s Pages for iPad; in addition to the frustration I encountered at discovering the compromises made, like the subset of features vs. actual desktop pages application, the decision to only make the top menu visible while in portrait mode, when the optimal orientation for typing is landscape mode, seems like an odd choice of compromise. At first I found it a novel approach – the interface gets out of my way while I’m typing. But then when I actually began to use it as I typically use a word processing application, I quickly realized that among the iPad’s many compromises is not only that of established convention – it really is an adjustment to the way you interact, since you’ll do things here you’d never do on the mobile devices that previously shared this same interface – and the need to learn all new behaviors. It’s more jarring than one realizes and begs the question of whether to prioritize familiarity or form factor for certain applications.

Another example is the iPad vs. the iPhone for casual gaming. While I was incredibly excited to see games developed to take advantage of the larger form factor, I still enjoy playing Scrabble more on my iPhone than I do on my iPad. The iPad seems to have the clear advantage – larger screen, no need to zoom in and out of the board when playing. Yet I enjoy the experience less. It could be that for a casual game of that nature, the form factor quickly becomes and inconvenience, especially in certain environments – like a crowded commuter train in the mornings.

The change in the experience of interactions with the iPad means a whole new way of working, and it’s yet to be seen if people adapt to the compromises iPad developers (and Apple itself) are making in order to accommodate the form factor. One thing we can be assured of if that we’ll soon begin to see that the applications that become truly successful on the iPad are the ones people find both useful and usable.

A New Kanye Meme

It started Sunday night when Kanye West had an outburst  during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards.  The pop culture event began a chain reaction of mash-ups and memes on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube across the globe.   From interrupting President Obama to Serena Williams' melt down this has become the new Rick Roll.

Today one of our Wunderman mates, Tom Gibby, created this one.  Funny how it works almost anywhere. 

Since Tom posted this version it seems to have inspired a few others.

The Latest Social Direct Response Ad Format

Which came first the chicken offer or the direct response ad format on Facebook? 

For the longest time Facebook spent all of its time using ads to drive people to a web or fan page where a user could get lost in the experience of it all.  The newest of Facebook ad format seems to adopt some of our direct response best practices.

This ad for Chick-fil-A's free chicken biscuit samples is the most integrated lead gen-style home page ad unit I’ve seen on Facebook.   What I love about this ad is that it does not take me to a page where I have to read about your beleaguered brand.

The new DR ad unit, gives me a quick fill response form presented as a modal window over my News Feed.

(image source InsideFacebook.com)

A user can easily redeem the offer by filling in the form, and with one click post it to their to their profile and share the offer with friends.  The user experience is fantastic.

According to InsideFacebook.com, Facebook has added new targeting features, including connection targeting, multi-country targeting, and birthday targeting.  This test seems to fall in line with many of the new direct response driven ad formats that big brand advertisers are demanding.

As CPG and foodservice marketers look for new ways of creating lift in sales, drive new offer redemption and connect social media to in store traffic this new DR ad unit could easily be used for all types of free offer based subscription services.

The Ripple Effect connects the dots from idea to service to product to creative, illustrating the collective nature of our work and the impact of the world around us.

Lester Wunderman - Accountable Creativity