Category: Marketing

Where in the world is #IoT ?

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In a recent report on Digital Life in 2025, the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project predicted that the internet would soon become a “global, immersive, invisible, ambient networked computing environment built through the continued proliferation of smart sensors, cameras, software, databases, and massive data centers in a world-spanning information fabric known as the Internet of Things.”

Like big data and the smart grid, the Internet of Things (IoT) concept has become a buzz word in the technology trade press. The IoT is predicted by many technology experts to be as – if not more – transformational than the internet itself on the way we live.

Apparently, nobody bothered to mention this to the folks out in Silicon Valley.

According to an analysis by the United Kingdom’s Intellectual Property Office, Apple ranks 27th on the list of global companies with the most IoT inventions between 2004 and 2013. Indeed, Google, the search engine giant based in Mountain View, CA, ranked 84th on the list. This may explain why Google recently acquired the pioneering home automation company Nest Labs for $3.2 billion.

The Intellectual Property Office sliced and diced tens of thousands of international IoT patents between 2004 and 2013. As you likely expected, the analysis showed that IoT patenting activity is exploding. The average number of IoT patents published annually rose by more than 40% between 2004 and 2013 compared to an average 6% annual increase in patents for all other technologies.

A second and more intriguing finding of the analysis is that companies as opposed to countries are driving the IoT revolution. For instance, Finland and Sweden are leading inventors in the IoT space despite comparatively low absolute levels of inventing activity. The reason is simple. Ericsson is based in Sweden and Nokia is based in Finland.

Nevertheless, the hands downs dominant innovative force in the IoT space is ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications company. ZTE had the most inventions of any company in the IoT patent landscape between 2004 and 2013, according to the UK Intellectual Property Office.

Here is a list of the top 20 companies with the most IoT inventions between 2004 and 2013:

ZTE (China)
LG (Korea)
Samsung (Korea)
Ericsson (Sweden)
IBM (USA)
Sony (Japan)
Intel (USA)
Somfy (France)
Qualcomm (USA)
Huawei (China)
ETRI (Korea)
KT Corporation (Korea)
Nokia (Finland)
Alcatel Lucent (France)
General Electric (USA)
Microsoft (USA)
CATR (China)
Interdigital (USA)
Toshiba (Japan)
Renesas Electronics (Japan)
Based on this list, the United States seems like a relatively small player in the IoT space.

This article was written by William Pentland from Forbes

Epson’s smart glasses are for tech-loving mechanics

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For the mall-pounding public, smart glasses are a hard sell. The combo of dorky looks and, well, lack of actual need has strangled the few attempts to commercialize them. Epson (of printer fame) thinks trade and industry is where the market/money is, and is adding another smart headset to its professional-friendly range. The Moverio Pro BT-2000 (yah, really) is based on Epson’s existing BT-200 model, with a more rugged design and a juicier specification. This time around, Epson is tempting engineers with a 5-megapixel stereo/3D camera with depth sensing, head tracking and support for augmented reality, like if Dickies made HoloLens.
Factories and workplaces of the near future, at least those with the BT-2000, would have engineers sharing what they are doing, beaming images directly to other headsets for remote viewing — be it for training or remote support (thanks to WiFi and Bluetooth conenctivity). Or, working on a tricky motor, with the schematics or next step right there in your peripheral vision. The Android-based software also adds scope for custom applications, plus there’s support for voice control. There’s no word on price, so we can’t say if there’s scope for consumers to consider them as an industrial-strength alternative to Google Glass (stranger things have happened). We’ll also have to wait until the autumn release to see if the big world of business bites too.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/23/epson-bt2000-smart-glasses/?ncid=rss_truncated

I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on the + or – impact this will have on storytelling and publishing.

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I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on the + or – impact this will have on storytelling and publishing.

One of the hottest new categories of software development revolves around virality prediction. That is, determining what stories and social media trends are about to go viral.

On Wednesday, Google tossed its hat into the ring by expanding Google Trends and introducing real-time trend information — a tool that could change the way researchers and media channels deliver reports and stories.

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley: There’s a case for Google buying Twitter

The real-time data tool gives users access to the roughly 100 billion monthly searches performed on Google. Available in 28 countries, the tool also merges information culled from Google News and YouTube to form trend reports.

To help explain some of the reasoning behind devoting so much attention to the area of data-driven storytelling, the Google News Lab team posted a video featuring journalists from The New York Times, Vox, ESPN’s FiveThirtyEight and ProPublica, all explaining why data-driven journalism is important.

http://mashable.com/2015/06/17/google-real-time-trends/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link

ROI on Customer Service as part of the Customer Experience

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ONLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE LAGS TRADITIONAL CHANNELS:

Shoppers in need of customer service say they’ll go online to reach out to a company as a last resort, according to a study from The Northridge Group. It is only when they have exhausted all other options that they then turn to live chat, email, or social media to submit an inquiry or complaint. Many customers still prefer speaking to someone on the phone for these types of inquiries. For the consumers surveyed who have contacted brands on social media, one-third of them never received a response. Due to the inherent speed of communication via the web, many consumers feel that slow customer service online is unacceptable:

38% of consumers expect a company’s first response on social media within the same day.

30% said it usually takes a week or longer to receive a first response on social media.

31% of consumers expect a company to resolve an issue on social media within the same day.

39% said that it usually takes a week or longer to have the issue resolved on social media.

As consumers begin to expect faster digital communications, retailers need to keep up with customer service requests. Online channels provide an important opportunity for meeting customer needs as soon as retailers find out about them. Companies that respond quickly to social media inquiries can help drive up customer loyalty, helping to increase revenue over time.

Internet of Things Data Could Fuel Ad Targeting | Data-Driven Marketing – Advertising Age

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The Internet of Things has promised to turn our everyday interactions with stuff into data for logistical and marketing applications.
But now that more and more corporations, including Diageo and Mondelez, have tested actual web-connected products in the market, the industry is approaching the next stage of connected appliances and food packaging. That means figuring out where all that information will go and how it will be used. IoT platform company Evrythng sees a home for data generated by connected thermostats, bottles of booze, designer handbags and washing machines in first-party marketing databases.

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The firm is partnering with Trueffect, a digital ad firm specializing in first-party data targeting, to work towards devising ways marketers can use data gathered when consumers use their products. The firms hope to directly communicate with those consumers and, yes, perhaps target ad messages to them. Evrythng and Trueffect exchange product interaction and consumer data through an API integration between their two platforms.
“We’re connecting our systems together and going to market together to do this,” said Andy Hobsbawm, founder and CMO of Evrythng. The company works with liquor maker Diageo and CPG manufacturer Mondelez to embed digital tracking technology into their products, but he would not reveal whether either of the two firms are employing the Trueffect system.
Evrythng assigns a unique ID to the products it enhances, which can be connected through embedded technology — say, in the case of a home appliance — or through a digital tag such as a QR code which connects to a mobile app.
“As soon as the consumer connects the device to the readable element in the packaging, that creates a signal,” said Martin Smith, senior VP of solutions and development at Trueffect.
Diageo used the Evrythng platform to turn bottles of Johnnie Walker scotch into personalized gifts, allowing purchasers to customize a video for recipients. By suggesting purchasers and end users of the product opt-in to receive personalized options from Diageo, the effort helped the spirits purveyor do what most product manufacturers struggle to: find out who is buying — and in this case, drinking — their products.

http://adage.com/article/datadriven-marketing/iot-meets-ad-targeting-evrythng-pair-trueffect/298875/

NOwnership, No Problem: Why Millennials Value Experiences Over Owning Things – Forbes

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2015/06/01/nownershipnoproblem-nowners-millennials-value-experiences-over-ownership/

Blake does a great job in this post. Must read. Iove a generation that loves experience!

…this generation not only highly values experiences, but they are increasingly spending time and money on them: from concerts and social events to athletic pursuits, to cultural experiences and events of all kinds. For this group, happiness isn’t as focused on possessions or career status. Living a meaningful, happy life is about creating, sharing and capturing memories earned through experiences that span the spectrum of life’s opportunities

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Google’s Immersive 360 Action Flick

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Google released a new 360-degree immersive video on its Spotlight Stories app yesterday—the first that features real human actors instead of animation. It’s an action-packed short directed by Fast & Furious director Justin Lin. I downloaded the 1GB 360 video and took it for a literal spin (I was sitting in a swivel chair). It’s so realistic it’s almost problematic.

The short is extremely impressive, and a good taste of what movies could become once VR becomes more ubiquitous. But it also shined new light on the rivers yet to be crossed. By inserting you into the movie, into the action, it actually breaks the fourth wall and makes it harder to suspend disbelief.

http://gizmodo.com/googles-immersive-360-action-flick-is-so-realistic-its-1707378427?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_twitter&utm_source=gizmodo_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

Video as part of the customer experience

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ONLINE SHOPPERS RELY ON VIDEO TO INFORM PURCHASE DECISIONS: Online videos are proving to be a major motivating factor in consumers’ online shopping decisions, according to a report by Liveclicker. In fact, the popularity of product-related content on YouTube is what drove the platform to recently make videos “shoppable,” as we highlighted recently. There are unique benefits to using video for shopping-related content:

Video is helpful to shoppers who are researching a product. 58% of consumers find companies that provide product videos to be more trustworthy than those that don’t, according to Liveclicker. Seeing the seller or another customer talking about the product builds a sense of trust in the quality of the company’s work.
Video content also helps with branding. Online videos are one of the most-shared forms of digital content today. Posting to YouTube or hosting videos on their websites increases merchants’ traffic and generates more customers.
This is a clear example of the convergence between video content and online shopping. As more online users utilize video to make shopping decisions, it will become more important for video producers to become aware of what will influence their shoppers to hit the “buy” button.