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Will you help Project Hope Alliance earn a $5,000 grant? All you need to do is sign up for The Rite Aid Foundation’s KidCents (free!) and designate Project Hope Alliance as your charity. That’s it.
This amount of funding will end homelessness for 3 kids, and only requires 10 designations. Of course, if you share this with your friends and family, we could win a $20,000 grant and bring home 6 families in the new year! All designations must be completed by January 31, 2016. Visit kidcents.com to get started. Below are step-by-step instructions. STEP 1: Enroll in wellness+ with Plenti (Skip to STEP 2 if you’re already a wellness+ with Plenti member)
STEP 2: Enroll in KidCents Round-Up Program
STEP 3: Designate Your Charity
THAT’S IT! THANK YOU!
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Author: mybuddypeted
Amazon: the brain inside the IoT?
Amazon this week announced it will push deeper into the smart home market by selling semiconductors from a chip design company it purchased last year for $350 million. The chips from Annapurna Labs will sell to home equipment designers that build products for the Internet of Things.
Advertising and media executives may not realize that these ARM-based silicon chips act as the brain for IoT devices. The brain automates functions, similar to the way advertising platforms buy and bid on ad placements. The chips are used by original equipment manufacturers that build network-attached storage, WiFi routers, and streaming media, among other devices. These programmable chips have the ability to search and pull in data, serve or save information, and connect with other devices.
Amazon’s decision will see companies integrate search into a variety of hardware devices.
This week we learned of Amazon’s new product line, Alpine, that will serve as a foundation for next-generation digital services for the connected home, according to a press release.
The chips can enable functions such as voice search in a device. Voice search will drive new behavior and understanding for marketers in 2016, according to David Pann, GM of Microsoft Search Advertising, who made seven search predictions for 2016. Pann’s predictions range from using search data to predict the outcome to using paid-search advertising to go beyond keywords to audience and action buying, and mobile to personalize the experience.
Search marketing will harness the majority of digital marketing spend, predicts Pann, but the industry will need to find a way to automate more functions into chips and devices.
Search marketing will represent 45.4% of digital marketing spend in 2016, per Forrester Research Digital Marketing Forecasts, 2014 to 2019 (US). That likely doesn’t include future search investments that will become automated in devices.
How marketing technology could transform healthcare
I don’t know who
How marketing technology could transform healthcare
The following is a guest post by Mayur Gupta, a pioneering chief marketing technologist and author of the Inspire Martech blog, who is now a senior vice president and head of digital atHealthGrades. Mayur is also on the board of advisors for the MarTech conference, and he will be one of our featured speakers at the San Francisco event, March 21-22. Check out the MarTech agenda and save $500 on registration before January 9.
We live in a digital world where, as a consumer, you now shop for fresh groceries on your phone and expect them to be delivered at your doorstep in less than four hours. You call for a luxury SUV or a taxi while you eat your last bite and expect your ride as you step out, without worrying if you have enough cash or a credit card in your pocket.
All this and more are part of our daily lives, thanks to the evolution and convergence of data, technology and consumer experiences. The last few years have witnessed exponential investment and growth at the intersection of marketing and technology, enabling experiences that successfully change consumer behavior and drive participation and engagement.
The world of marketing and storytelling is in a constant state of evolution as well: from multi-channel to channel agnostic and omni-channel thinking; from push and time-based campaigns to more always-on push & pull engagement; from pre-planned content to more automated and data-driven conversations. It is all happening in verticals like finance, retail, CPG, travel and hospitality.
But a key part of our lives that is still behind is the world of healthcare and healthcare services. A traditionally fragmented, slow, regulated and highly monopolized system that has been anything but consumer-focused. Most technology investments have been made to optimize the “health IT” systems to maximize the billing opportunities.
Even the most chronically ill patient spends only 1% of their lives in a hospital, but 80% of healthcare investment goes into the hospital infrastructure and not addressing the remaining 99% of the individual’s life. The focus has navigated around a “volume-driven” system: more interventions for more beds for more procedures for more people more often for more money.
But the future will not be the same
With the cost of care pushing towards the consumer, ever-narrowing networks and limited choices, and lack of transparency and communication, the consumer is finally pushing back. She now “owns her health” and is proactively looking for alternate solutions.
On top of that, the re-imbursement model has flipped on its head. The entire healthcare machinery will gradually be measured against outcome, the quality and success of a treatment leading to the positive health of an individual, instead of the sheer volume of treatment and utilization.
It’s a shift from volume to value, from sickness and treatment to health and wellness. The notion of “population health” has put the consumer at the center of a traditionally fragmented ecosystem, and consumer behavior is becoming the binding force. The health systems are now incentivized and rewarded based on how consumers behave in their daily lives, outside of hospital boundaries. And an urgent care hospitalization will represent an abject failure of the health management process, where the condition should have been predicted, prevented and managed higher up in the funnel.
As a consumer, this is ripe for positive disruption — a transformation she has gotten used to in other parts of her life. But as a health system, provider, pharma or payer, I now have to fundamentally evolve my thinking, operations, and execution.
- Always-on patient engagement
- Behavior-based inter-visit conversations
- Data-driven predictive models
- Universal understanding of the consumer
- Consumer insights and analytics
- Omni-channel content strategies
…and a lot more.
“CMO” has another meaning in healthcare beyond Chief Medical Officer now: Chief Marketing Officer
For the first time, this industry is now looking at marketing as a strategic capability to drive top-line growth, brand loyalty, and better health outcomes.
Most health systems are now hiring chief marketing officers, especially from other verticals like CPG, finance and retail, where Marketing transformation is already driving consumer acquisition, maximizing lifetime value and top-line growth. This is taking the scope of marketing from the big hoardings, direct mail and television spots, to data-driven always-on digital engagement that influences behavioral change.
Convergence of Marketing and Technology
To accomplish this vision of “healthcare in a digital world”, marketing and information technology cannot continue to operate in isolation. The healthcare technology evolution cannot be limited to the EMRs and EHRs of the world or the advancement of technology equipment within the hospitals, OTs, or clinical data management. It has to include 99% of the consumer’s life when she is not being treated inside a hospital.
80% of a consumer’s health is determined by non-medical factors — what she eats, where she lives, does she own or rent, does she drive or ride, how much she runs, is she married or single, her educational background, how much TV does she watch, what time does she sleep — even what she reads for that matter.
This is forcing health systems brands and marketers to be in an “always listening” and “always communicating” mode. This would not be possible without marketing technology — the convergence of marketing and technology, as we know it from the other verticals.
The consumer journey in healthcare is a never-ending cycle with infinite ZMOT-like moments. There is indeed no funnel. The consumer could jump from being a completely passive and healthy individual to a patient looking for the best doctor, and the best hospital, in a flash. And on the flip side, she could be in a state of awareness and proactive health management for a very long time before an encounter.
Communication will be the next big intervention in healthcare
The “Right Content to the Right Person at the Right Time” cliché could not be applied in a more appropriate place than in healthcare. It will require a holistic communication strategy that may include personalized content around lifestyle, administrative, and healthcare needs. But none of this is possible without the adoption of a connected marketing technology and data ecosystem, the underlying machinery to deliver seamless omni-channel care experiences.
Capabilities such as:
- Marketing Automation for Always-On Data-Driven Communication — Driving behavioral change and participation through rule-based, data-driven communication that could be anything from a reminder to book the next appointment or take a medicine or lifestyle content about the right food for that individual.
- Web Experience Management Platforms for Personalized Relevant Healthcare Experiences— From generic pieces of content and mass communication to more personalized, relevant, and contextual experiences on a hospital.com site or any other third party platform.
- CRM and Lifetime Value Management with Always-On Care — Establishing an always-on system of engagement that focuses on understanding consumer behavior and insights and leverages content across all channels to inspire behavioral change through participation. It also includes continuous listening to the consumer, both passive and active listening, to get her the care and information she needs even before she knows she needs it.
- Predictive Models for Various Health Conditions — Leveraging big data across clinical, claims, financial, socio-economic, household, behavioral, personal and other areas to build predictive models that may signify an individual’s propensity against specific health conditions and using that insight to influence communication with that individual.
- Data Management Platforms (DMPs) for Managing an Individual’s Universal Health Profile— None of this would be possible without a universal 360-degree view of the consumer across the offline and online world, across her clinical and non-clinical life. While the data has always existed, it has never been harmonized and connected. The DMPs not only provide this universal view along with consumer insights but can also feed that insight into various communication channels (pull & push) based on business rules, enabling the most seamless and connected healthcare experience.
- Other Capabilities – Programmatic Buying, Social Monitoring and Consumer Engagement, Agile Mindset and Methodology — Everything that has been built to deliver immersive consumer experiences will now be applied in the world of healthcare, because the same consumer expects the same level of relevance, value, and storytelling in how they consumer healthcare services.
The human-centered technology ecosystem
Like any other vertical, the biggest opportunity lies in connecting these isolated pieces of “marketing and advertising technology” with the traditional healthcare IT systems to form the most connected technology ecosystem that puts the human at the center. This is where I believe the traditional definition and focus on healthcare IT is no longer enough.
That world has to converge with the world of marketing, advertising, and storytelling to deliver healthcare experiences that matter and to drive participation and behavioral change.
The “no baggage” healthcare industry will move fast
There is no doubt that healthcare is far behind in terms of digital adoption as compared to the other verticals. But healthcare has no historical marketing baggage. This offers healthcare brands and marketers an opportunity to adopt new capabilities and technologies with greater speed and agility, to deliver care experiences that are more connected, seamless, and immersive.
It’s no surprise that most leading health systems are already talking about “omni-channel experiences” and not just a “multi-channel” existence — a notion that took many years for all other verticals to understand and comprehend, let alone execute.
I am sure many will question the gap between today’s reality and tomorrow’s dream in healthcare. There are obvious questions around the broken ecosystem, conflicting business model with, let’s say, tele-health, lack of digital adoption, regulations, HIPAA compliance, and much more.
But the consumer is now at the helm. She is calling the shots, asking questions, and exercising choice. Healthcare brand builders have no option but to focus on consumer experiences as much as clinical output. And if they want to maximize the lifetime value of this consumer, brands will need to become data-driven and operate at the intersection of marketing, communication, technology, and healthcare.
Come meet Mayur in person at MarTech this March in San Francisco and hear him speak onThe Omni-Channel Reality with Marketing Technology & Integrated Experience Planning.
Apple TV is getting 360-degree videos
Apple TV is getting 360-degree videos courtesy of Littlstar http://nzzl.us/XM51TCU
The company, which launched in 2014, serves up VR and 360-degree videos from major brands like Showtime, Disney, Discovery, PBS, National Geographic and Red Bull. It participated in Disney’s second accelerator program in July, alongside startups engaged in AI technologies and 3D printing.
If you’ve been looking for new content to enjoy on your Apple TV, Littlestar might be worth a try.
Mission Viejo aims to save water, stay green by using smart irrigation controllers
It is awesome to see the community recognize the awesome tech and customer experience we have been working on with our Signature client. To many more communities finding the courage to make change and do their part.
MISSION VIEJO – Facing mounting pressure from the state and the public, the city is turning to one of the few remaining options to save additional water: Technology.
http://m.ocregister.com/articles/water-696297-city-signature.html
How Content Marketers Can Tell Better Stories with Data
Post by HBR https://hbr.org/2015/12/how-content-marketers-can-tell-better-stories-
Content marketers have started to tell stories with data, and best practices are quickly emerging. The first step is to find the story you want to tell: how you approach data collection and analysis will determine what kind of content you’ll be able to develop. Once the story becomes clear, craft your message without letting the data overwhelm it.
Finding your story
Start with your dream headline. When I work on a data-driven content marketing project, I like to start by imagining my dream headlines or tweets: the discoveries that I would love my data to yield. When I was looking at child-related security risks, for example, I hoped to discover the security practices that led to the biggest reduction in online misdeeds—something like “good passwords cut hacks perpetrated by kids by 50%.” While the data rarely turns out to support that dream headline, starting there lets me figure out how to tackle my research. What data would I need if I wanted to produce that dream story? How would I go about getting it? Looking for the data that would yield my best-case outcome helps me figure out what kind of data is going to be relevant to my audience, and gives me a clear focus when I’m plowing through a mountain of survey results or social media analytics.
Recognize your bias. Part of the appeal of data-driven content is that we think of data as unbiased and objective. But when you’re using data for marketing purposes, you often do have a bias, because you want data that helps deliver your key message or that shores up your particular brand story. As a marketer, you can and should let that bias shape the questions you ask, the topics you pursue, and the parts of your data you highlight. To make sure that bias isn’t leading you astray, however, ask yourself whether your ultimate story and insights accurately reflect the data you’re working from: a good test is to think about what someone would conclude if they had access to your full data set. If they’d likely come to a different conclusion, you’ve done too much cherry picking, and need to rethink the basic story you’re telling.
Look for patterns. There are times when we just want to tell an interesting story—we’re not interested in it proving something specific. I doubt that Jawbone cares whether New Yorkers go to bed at 10 or at midnight, or that Facebook cares about whether we “LOL” or merely “haha,” but sharing data on those patterns lets brands catch the attention of the media and potential customers. Sometimes it’s the absence of a pattern that’s interesting, like OKCupid’s data showing that gay and straight people have the same number of sexual partners. The easiest way to get started with data storytelling is through stories like these: stories that are quirky and interesting, but where your brand has no particular stake in what the data shows.
Look for surprises. The most compelling data-driven content tells the reader something they don’t already know. Sometimes that surprise lies in finding an unexpected correlation: you might expect younger workers to be more likely to communicate online and less likely to meet in person, but actually, the reverse is true. If it’s not surprising, it’s going to be a boring story.
Telling your story
Once you know the story your data will tell, you need to structure that story in a way that makes it as clear and compelling as possible. To do that:
Choose the right format. Despite the impression you might get from looking at data on Pinterest, one long infographic isn’t always the best way to tell your data-driven story. A white paper, a blog post, or even a simple tweeted-out graphic can all be effective ways of telling a story with data, depending on your goal and audience. If you have a lot of data or a complex story to tell, a long piece that fully explains your results is more effective than trying to fit all that complexity into the margins of a single graphic; if your heart is set on a short visual post, release it as a highlight or teaser for your full-length piece.
Articulate your key message. Whether you succeed in finding the dream story you started with, or find something totally different when you dive into your data, your final story should clearly communicate one key message. How would you summarize your story in a single sentence or tweet? Articulate that story very clearly at the top of your post or document, and use each section or chart to build on that story—just as you would in any other piece of persuasive writing.
Lead with one or two numbers. One of the biggest pay-offs from data-driven content is the kind of media and social media attention it can earn. The surest way of attracting that attention is to highlight one or two surprising, memorable numbers. When Grant Thornton published its latest study on women in corporate leadership, it prominently noted the fact that close to a third of companies have no women in senior management. When Vision Critical released What Social Media Analytics Can’t Tell You About Your Customers, we emphasized the point that 85% of what you hear online comes from less than 30% of your social media audience. These are the kinds of facts that get tweeted out and picked up in news stories.
Balance text and visuals. A lot of data-driven content goes astray by sprinkling a few numbers into a big block of text, or conversely, by burying the reader in charts and graphics. The best content uses text and visuals synergistically: charts provide full context on the data you’re sharing, while text lets people understand how to interpret those charts, and why the numbers are relevant to their work. Make sure that text and visuals are balanced not only in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality: I often see beautifully designed infographics that are full of spelling errors, or that fail to explain what the colorfully presented numbers actually represent.
Illustrate your data with human examples. Whenever you’re telling a story with data, use real or hypothetical stories of specific people to translate the numbers into a human story. Our HBR article ”How Pinterest Puts People In Stores” showed that a third of people said that pinning their most recently purchased Pinterest item had “a lot” of influence on their decision to buy it—and that number was made a lot more tangible through the specific story of Claire, who got a sale alert based on an item she’d pinned. While “Claire” was an invented name, her story was based on the specific responses of a single survey respondent. That kind of example makes it easier for people to understand the story you are telling with your data, and also makes it more relatable.
Make recommendations. If you’re delving deep into a data set, you may see the relevance of your data to a range of business or consumer decisions—but that doesn’t mean the relevance will be obvious to your readers. Once you’ve done your data analysis, step back and think about how you would make difference business or purchasing decisions based on the data you’ve uncovered. Then spell out those insights in a separate “recommendations” or “key insights” section.
The more you follow these best practices, the more they’ll feel like a natural extension of the communications skills you’ve honed in other aspects of your work. And that’s exactly the point: if you’re doing a good job of telling stories with data, it’s the story—not the numbers—that will shine through.
Infographic: Engaging Content Has Everything to Do With Emotion
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/infographic-engaging-content-has-everything-do-emotion-168561
As content accounts for more of marketers’ budgets, finding direct paths to target audiences becomes increasingly important. AOL Insights analyzed over 7,300 moments when a person engaged with specific content and uncovered new findings that can help marketers better develop content.
“Marketers are good at knowing when and where consumers access content,” said AOL consumer analytics and research vp Christian Kugel. “This research illuminates some of the missing pieces and gives insight into how and why consumers interact with content. Smart marketers can add this knowledge to their toolset to develop content that matches the motivation of viewers, ultimately resulting in a deeper, better and more impactful connections with consumers on any device.”
IoT beyond mobile; it’s coming fast
MOVING THE IoT PAST THE MOBILE APP EXPERIENCE: Both the development and adoption of some consumer IoT devices have been slow so far. This is partly because IoT providers haven’t created many unique experiences optimized for these new devices. Instead, they are merely trying to force the traditional mobile app experience into devices that don’t always support the same kinds of interactions as a smartphone, Roman Kalantari, creative technologist at Fjord, a design studio owned by Accenture Interactive, said in a recent conversation with BI Intelligence.
This problem is particularly apparent in wearables apps like smartwatches, and in the connected car platforms from Apple and Google that simply move a bunch of mobile apps onto the car’s dashboard, Kalantari remarked. Surveys have shown that consumers are not using their connected features after purchasing new models because they’d rather access those services through their smartphone apps.
App developers and device manufacturers need to be more disciplined about what functions they put in IoT devices, John Jones, Fjord’s global SVP of design strategy, recommended. For example, trying to cram all of the functions of a smartphone app into a wearable doesn’t make sense because wearables have much smaller screens. The same is true for connected car apps, since putting too many functions in a crowded app can make it useless for someone who is preoccupied with driving.
Apps for IoT devices should instead focus on providing contextualized information for users, Jones suggested. For instance, Fjord helped design an Apple Watch app for financial advisors that synced with their calendar to send them relevant notifications for the next meeting on their calendar. Apps for IoT devices should also leave some functions up to the smartphone. Putting too much information up on a car’s dashboard is obviously distracting. It would be better to send information that isn’t immediately relevant to the driver’s phone so they could read it after they get out of the car. Once app developers and device manufacturers find more ways to create experiences tailored for IoT devices, consumers will likely find the devices themselves more useful and appealing.
Pete Deutschman 