11th Screen

Are connections today’s currency? Technology has enabled connections to be made quicker and farther and easier. When sitting in front of your TV, you can instantly connect with those watching the same exact thing. When shopping in a store, you can connect with the brands or products you love. You can even connect with strangers to get real-time opinions. Driving in your car, it’s now simple to safe(r)ly connect with your family or share your thoughts with your friends or get pointed in the right direction.

I’m just wondering how much value there is to something (be it a standard billboard or poster or even a digital version of either) that doesn’t enable quick, vast, or easy connections.

Seems like those are becoming stable stakes.

It is simple – if you want to make a touch screen anything, for it to be successful, the experience must be intuitive. And if you want to make it intuitive, here’s a few suggestions:

1. Look at what Apple has done

2. Look at your mobile device(s)

3. Look at your favorite websites

4. Watch children interact with them

That’s right. Children. The key to making successful touch screen experiences might just lie in the children.

Watch how my daughter (6) works through this experience that we came across at the Dallas Zoo:

And, now, watch how my son (3) works through the same experience:

Both, intuitively know what to do – press a picture or a button. In my daughter’s case (who has had computer training), her first instinct is to look for the pointer and drag it to the button or picture. Im my son’s case (who has only had phone/iPad training), his first instinct is to press the colorful thing(s) on the screen. This particular experience was laid out in a very simple format and flow. Simplicity certainly helps.

I found it interesting that they both instantly wanted to interact with these screens. I did see a few adults interacting with the screens, but the children that I saw just wanted to touch it and play with it. I think they might liken anything touch screen to games, but their curiosity drives their wish to interact.

Isn’t it funny that our curiosity becomes much more selective as we grow older, specifically around new technology? How can we capture the curiosity of a child for an everyday, grown-up experience? We have to continue getting creative, continue pushing. But we also need to get back to basics and create things that are simple and intuitive.

Always on.

Interconnected.

Multi-screens.

Mobile.

This is what we are.

This is the world we operate in.

The potential upside for valuable, engaging digital signs couldn’t be bigger.

The potential downside for static digital signs that add to the noise couldn’t be bigger, either.

I just got an iPhone and it’s awesome. Before this, I had a Droid 2. Before that, I had an HTC something or other and before that, I had a 1^st generation Blackberry Storm. All this over the past 5 years.

In a matter of a couple of days, since I’ve had the iPhone, my mobile usage behavior has undergone what I would call a profound change. I’ve always been able to access more with each of my phones, and with each evolution, a little bit more and a little bit easier. It’s been a fairly steady progression since I’ve operated on all-things-other-than-iPhone. But a very rapid progression in the last couple of days. And it’s not necessarily that I’ve done SO much more than I used to; rather, if my behavior thus far (which is different, for sure) is an indication of how I will now operate in the real and virtual world, I know it’s going to be drastically different.

I can sense that the most profound change will be how I connect. With people. With products. With things. I’m not talking about connecting through features like texting (although as a caveat, my mom, a normal Baby Boomer mom – her behavior completely changed when she got her iPhone. She texts now more than ever and even that change, is a profound one when you’re talking about communications.), I’m talking about connecting through features like seamless integration into social networks and all the apps you could ever want and rich content like photo and video. Everything is just so easy.

And here’s the thing about easy – easy is an encourager. Easy makes you want to engage and explore and do things differently. It’s all about ease of use when you’re talking about adopting any sort of emerging technology.

Like any forms of interactive out-of-home.

If those who are creating ads or materials or experiences for out-of-home recognize the profound power of mobile devices – particularly the best mobile devices of today (because they will be the standard for everyone in the not-so-distant-future) – and how easy they make things, and what that could do for deeper engagement, what out-of-home is today will look drastically different in that not-so-distant-future.

One of my favorite written pieces is Desiderata. It is a manifesto, of sorts, of how to live, and I’ve always found it to be aligned with my personal beliefs and thoughts. It’s just a really good, inspirational guide for me.

Last year, I wrote my own Desiderata, my own manifesto, for the year. My intention was for it to be the guide for me every day throughout the year. Looking back, I think I followed it pretty well. But I’ve got another year of life experiences and learnings in me, so I’ve written another one. This one building on top of the last one, which really builds on top of the original one. I’m going to try to let all of these words and principles be a foundation for me and my team as we embark on another year of great possibilities.

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Be prepared for change. It will, no doubt, fill a period of time this year. While sometimes painful, it always marks opportunity. With opportunity comes decision. Your decision. Even if it is merely how you respond. These are the moments that strengthen your character.

Be led by what’s right. Right is not always easy. But if you know, in your heart, that you are making choices based on what is right, you can get through the hardest situations.

Know, too, that there are no small choices. Each choice matters and more often than not, all of the choices you make are connected in one way or another. This is hard. It requires awareness and discipline, two things that you must embrace. Few things are forever, but the choices we make are one of those things.

Play no games, be straight, and be at peace with the way people respond. You can’t control what they feel or think. You can only play your part and if you lay it out there the right way, you have done your job.

Keep plugging along. In good times and bad, do what you do. Keep your head down and Keep. Plugging. Along.

Do not be ignorant to life moments. You must recognize these moments, especially those that will happen only once. And do whatever you can to play a vital part in them. Don’t let them leave you behind.

You have a commitment to yourself to be great in all circumstances. If greatness is your expectation and driving force, you will be just fine.

Trust your gut. Regardless of how desperate or hopeless the situation might seem to be, your gut speaks more truth than you might give it credit for. Listen to this. Listen hard.

Stand in your power and do not give that power up. But always be kind. It’s simple, really. A kind heart is infectious and it makes things so much more pleasant.

More than anything, don’t lose your flame. There is a flame that burns inside you from your passion. Do whatever you can to fuel it every single day because once it goes out, it might not ever light again. Life without passion is hardly life.

And finally, try to find joy at all times. When there is no joy, stop and ask yourself what you’re doing. It might very well be the wrong thing. And if it is, the best thing you can do is to stop. And move on.

New means limitless opportunity.

New means the possibility of magic in everything you do.

New means starting something you’ve never done before.

New does not mean starting over from scratch.

New does not mean ignoring learnings you’ve picked up from a lifetime of experience.

We embark on something new every day and that’s an awesome gift.

May your new year be made up of unbounding opportunity and magical work.

Our lives seemed to be marked by year increments. Birthdays, anniversaries, new years. We look back over time, year after year, to gauge success, failures, trials, tribulations, and joys. And then, we make plans in those same increments. This year is and will be like all of the rest in this way.

But the funny thing about it is – it’s the choices that we make on a daily basis that shape the outcome of those years. No matter how big or small, how inconsequential or mundane, how high pressure or not, those daily choices matter. And they matter in a profound way. They just happen so frequently and at such a pace and are sometimes bad choices, it’s easier to look at a macro level. But the reality is, these daily choices build up one by one, micro by micro, and when it’s this time of the year, together they form good or bad, disappointing or triumphant, hope or hopeless.

There are many things outside of our control, but what is in our control are those choices. What we choose and how we choose it. And every single day, every single choice matters.

Last year around this time, I wrote a post about the Holidays saving QR Codes. At the time, I noticed them in about every print piece/holiday circular we received in the mail, and from that standpoint, I was interested in how it would affect these codes – being introduced into homes via these circulars that everyone, especially the “average” consumer is likely to look at. Would it make them (us) familiar with them to know what they were and what they did? Including them and distributing them in holiday circulars seemed like a pretty good idea to accomplish this. So, while I don’t believe that the holidays “saved” QR codes by any stretch of the imagination (more on that below), I do think they were appropriate to include in those pieces and I do think they were on the forefront of QR code mania that has ensued this past year, and from that standpoint, I think they created a level of awareness. Even if it was, “what in the world is that?”

Since then, it’s been interesting to see how QR codes have played out. All throughout the year, I think everyone can agree that QR codes have popped up everywhere. Not only in the mail, but on posters and signs and sides of buildings and everything else. It is certainly not uncommon to see QR codes plastered on many things – big and small – out in the real world.

And now, a year after circulars, as I unpack our Christmas gifts and groceries, I see them making their way into our homes via the products we buy. My son got a guitar for Christmas and look what’s right on front:

And then, switching to groceries, before I put the Granola Bars box up in the pantry, what do I see:

All this to say, I don’t think QR codes have an awareness problem anymore.

I think QR codes have a usage problem.

That’s the long and short of it.

A good solid year after being introduced into our everyday lives, in many ways, QR codes are more value-less now than they were a year ago when hardly anyone knew what they were (or that they even existed).

Comscore did a study around QR code usage that they published in August 2011. In it, they found that “6.2% of the total mobile audience scanned a QR code on their mobile device” in a 1-month period. To put this into perspective, a recent Pew study found that 28% use mobile/social location based services (including, but not limited to Foursquare and the like). The net – not a lot of people are scanning/using QR codes.

We could probably talk for days and days about why this is so, but in the end, it boils down to value. No matter what the technology-of-the-day is, if it doesn’t provide value – and now more than ever, immense value – it’s going to be hard to garner mass adoption. Sure, there’s value in learning more about a product with the scan of a code (equivalent to a click of a button), or being able to easily LIKE a brand, or even getting a coupon on the spot, but there’s hardly consistency. And, in the case of QR codes, so much inconsistency and non-value, I believe the perception is that, by and large, they are just “weird looking codes that send you to a website.” So, the intrigue and potential has already lost its intrigue due to a year of poor executions.

Maybe this year, we’ll see that change. And this year, we’ll actually see an evolution of QR code usage. Maybe people will come around. Maybe brands will come around and figure out great ways to use this technology. I still believe it’s one with lots of potential, but if we go through another year of circulars and posters and sides of buildings and product boxes delivering a normal website upon a scan, that will be the time that we can perhaps call them dead.

They’re barely alive as it is.

I hope that you all have had a great Christmas holiday. I know we have. For us, it’s really been one where we have witnessed the magic and awe of what Christmas is through our children (6 and 3), who are old enough to understand it on a few different levels. That perspective – the one of complete magical-ness – is refreshing, rejuvenating, and for me, one that is needed. It’s easy to get caught up in the grind, trying to balance work, family, personal and free time, and especially at this time of the year – where things are insanely busy – it’s important to be grounded in this (and all different sorts of) perspective. The magic behind this time of the year is definitely a reminder of what is truly important, something incredibly personal that transcends any “work” that we have to do, but insofar as work goes, it is also a reminder of the magic of what we get to do on a daily basis, making cool, business-moving stuff for brands and organizations. Doing it with great, new, emerging technology is icing on the cake.

When dealing with clients and relationships, there is hardly black and white. Either or. This or that.

There is all mostly grey space. And those who are able to navigate the grey space best are able to operate within the (loose) confines of day-to-day goings ons.

This is the way to make things happen.

Recognize it’s almost all grey. Then, navigate.