Remember those boots that I talked about my wife finding at JC Penney, the last time I wrote an Out & About (their “Find More” kiosk)? Well, they really didn’t work out – they weren’t the right boots. So, the past couple of weeks have been “mission-on” again to find the right boots. She/we’ve searched offline and online at virtually every store to find these boots, and finally, at our local Kohl’s, we found what seemed to be a solid substitute – the perfect combination of style, color, versatility, and something that can’t be overlooked insofar as women’s shoes go – price. As was the case at JC Penney, while my wife found boots, I found another example of Interactive Out-of-Home (IOOH) – the Kohl’s Kiosk.
This was some kiosk, if you ask me. They seem to be getting better and better, the more I see. My first impression was positive, but I had to put it up against the scorecard to get the full picture. So, let’s take a look.
Purpose – the common purpose for all of these in-store kiosks is to obviously drive the consumer to purchase. Those are the table stakes – you want to put a kiosk like this in a store – how is going to help the store drive sales? Once that question is answered, I think it’s important to also understand if & how the kiosks are making the shopping experience easier for the consumer and in any way, making the life of the store employee better. It stands to reason that if the kiosk accomplishes those goals, they’re going to drive a fair amount of sales. So, it is here – both in making the consumer’s experience easier and the employee’s life better. These kiosks are a price-checker, in-store catalog, and check-out machine all in one. What else do you need, other than human-to-human contact? This is an element that shouldn’t be overlooked, but I think now more than ever, consumers are more purposeful shoppers vs. casual shoppers. They know what they want and don’t need a lot of help & interaction when they’re in this mindset. All they really need is the Kohl’s Kiosk.
Drama – I think these are fabricated and located just right. They’re not obnoxious in their form, but they’re prominent and noticeable. They don’t block any major traffic areas, but they’re convenient to access via those major traffic areas. In our local Kohl’s, I saw 2 of these kiosks (1 in the shoe department, 1 near the frames), and they were both next to/facing the isle, and whether or not you were looking, you were bound to notice them. The smart thing in their form – they occupy space from floor to ceiling, all of the interaction points are well-placed (touchscreen at eye/torso level and price-scanning/check-out at waist level), and include multiple awareness points (high above the clothes and fixtures, there is a 4-sided “Kohl’s Kiosk” sign and again, at eye level, there is a looping animation with a clear “Touch Screen” indicator/call-to-action). Everything about the form and placement seems to be well thought-out and purposeful.
Usability – blah. I understand that these kiosks need to access the real-time database and as a result, are going to run a little bit slower than I’d like. This is probably not an issue to the average consumer. All in all, considering the vast inventory, it wasn’t bad at all. I just hate seeing the arrow & hourglass. They modified this experience from their website experience, namely to adjust to the touchscreen form. The buttons were big enough and spaced out nicely. The information was presented in a clear, easy-to-use way, and the navigation was intuitive (no different than a good web experience). I also liked the fact that they had a global navigation menu docked to the bottom of the screen that allows the user to access any of the main categories in a click.
Interactivity – this was a single user, single touch experience and for the most part, the touchscreen was responsive. The true value in this kiosk, for me, comes in the form of the other interactive elements, aside from its touchscreen. Consumers have the ability to take any piece of merchandise with a UPC tag and scan it. In return, they’ll see the price, the quantity, and where in-store it’s located. In addition, to take it one step further, if the consumer wants to pay out via credit/debit card straight from the kiosk, they have that ability to do that, too. Important to note – this means that these systems must tie to the store’s POS system, which means there is a level of complexity and integration to the solution, which means this was not an afterthought. Impressive.
Information – A+ on all of the product information and access to the in-store and online merchandise. If you want it at Kohl’s, you can get it through this kiosk. But I’m still not seeing a consistent social integration through these. There are many ways to approach this, from being able to access the brand’s social presences, to allowing the consumer to “like” a particular product, to letting them “share this” to their own social communities after purchasing a product, to consumer/social reviews. I hope to see more of this type of content in future iterations of these in-store experiences.
Personalization – no real personalization to speak of through the kiosks, but they have an incredible opportunity to do something special via a loyalty program or simply through their credit cards. The card-scanning mechanism is already in place. With a couple of back-end hooks, they could make this a unique experience for their most loyal customers.
Hands-down, this is the most versatile in-store kiosk I’ve seen this year. I think it should be a model for retailers who are considering one of these in their store. I anticipate seeing more social integration in the coming year. An interesting thought that hit me this morning – I’ve seen and reviewed experiences like this in stores like Walmart, Target, JC Penney, and Kohl’s – staples in middle-class America shopping. Exposing these consumers to technology like this and getting them comfortable with it not only shows confidence in what they consumer will do/interact with, it is also gives us hope that this could be something that is adopted by the masses sooner rather than later.
Have you seen any of these kiosks? What were your impressions? Would love to hear them!
Recently, I’ve talked a lot about the ability (and power) of mobile + code and/or image recognition technology to bridge the offline with the online and drive consumers deeper into brand experiences. I’ve noticed that brands are increasingly becoming better at telling their story through these technologies, which is critical because, now more than ever, consumers can access those brands through a myriad of channels. There’s a long way to go, for sure – brands need to consider their marketing and communications mix, what channels they’re going to advertise and be present in, what story they’re going to tell & how they’re going to tell it in each of those channels, and more importantly, how/if they’re going to support their story in the “unconventional” channels with what they do in the more “conventional” channels. There’s a brand-story component and an advertising component and the crux is always, how well do they work with each other? Organizations, particularly large ones, are often times fragmented to the point of not knowing what each department (marketing, advertising, PR, customer service, etc…) is doing, much less integrating with each other to make their story and individual campaigns stronger. So, it was a nice surprise when I saw a Bud Light commercial (er, Apollo Creed) call out the ability to “snap” a photo of the box and get immediate access to a clever piece of content – the Bud Light Playbook – all football-season long.
It’s great to see the brand a) incorporating technology like this as a way to touch the consumer while they’re out and about and b) raising consumers’ awareness of this new type of experience via their TV (largest “conventional” media channel) spot. This is obviously a much better way to drive this type of action vs. sticking a code on printed material. I think it’s a great case to learn from, particularly when brands want to place these codes/use this type of technology on their packaging. Consumers are smart, but they need as much awareness of these new entry points as brands can give them.
I was at the store this weekend and although I wasn’t in the market for Bud Light, I had to stop and take a picture of the box so I could get into this experience.
When I found a box that could be “activated” (only found on 12-pack cans), I didn’t have to mess around with it to know what to do. Everything was prominent, clear and actionable. They included imagery of the enticement (the Playbook) front and center, the call-to-action was large enough to notice and read, the “code” was prominent, and the directions were clear.
I don’t know that you could do a better job in executing the basics.
As soon as I texted the picture in, I was led on this adventure which I still can’t determine whether it was annoying or smart. The 1st text I received was to verify my age (smart).
The 2nd text was when the true brand experience, in terms of content, started. The options were plentiful – watch this week’s “play”, see more plays, see recipes, tailgating tips, or “Behind Enemy Lines” trailers. And, if I wanted, link directly to the Facebook page. (First impression – smart).
I thought this was excellent in terms of the brand’s story – they clearly have a lot of content to offer in this experience. However, I felt like there were so many options that I might lose out on some of the content. I watched the video first and was completely underwhelmed. It rendered horribly on my phone and seemed to start & stop abruptly. There was no “wrapper” at the beginning and end of the video – when it stopped, it just stopped, and popped me back out to my text message. I watched it again, just to see if I missed anything. I didn’t. I commend them on making these videos unique – in style (graphical), in tone, and in content – but I found the combination to verge on silly and void of value. Nonetheless, I couldn’t stop my brand experience here, so I texted in “A” for more plays.
And what do you think I got? Even MORE options – 3 individual plays and then an option for even more plays. (Annoying, now.) So, I closed my eyes and picked one. And I got back another underwhelming video and just two, simple options – go to Facebook or back to the dreaded multi-option menu. (Less annoying.)
It was at this point that I shut my phone down because I had enough of the mobile experience. It didn’t prove to be valuable to me (in fairness, I wasn’t anywhere near a grill or a football game or any environment this seems intended for) and I was down the path so far that I didn’t know what would be required of me to go back and experience other, non-play-video content. So, I just stopped. I figured I could get a better experience in front of my computer. Sure enough, that was the case.
When I got home, I opened up my trusty computer and went straight to the Bud Light Facebook page. Since I wasn’t a fan, the default for me was the Playbook tab. (In executing initiatives for clients, this is something standard that we do, too – default to the campaign-specific tab until someone “Likes” the brand. At that point, the default page is the Wall.) Right there, front and center, was another image of the code and more call-to-action/instructions. Now, I felt like the experience was back to being smart – seeing this front and center creates another level of awareness that the boxes are interactive and reinforces the ability to get the brand on-the-go. It’s also another opportunity to show how easy it really is.
Quite possibly my favorite element of this page is the ability to see all of the videos that I felt like I missed whenever I took a certain path through the mobile experience. Seeing more videos didn’t change my opinion of them, but it gave me satisfaction in the fact that I now knew the entire “playlist” and wasn’t missing out on any content.
The rest of the page and the different types of content is good. There’s coaches “tips” (for tailgating and grilling) and tailgating/game-watching recipes and an interactive poll – all different types with different levels of interactivity. There really seems to be something for everyone, regardless of the amount of time someone has to spend with the brand at any given time.
In my opinion, the best part about this whole experience, from an outsider’s point of view, and it’s really smart – it’s all centered around a content strategy that releases new content every week. The content well is continuously being filled, if you will. This is an element of the campaign that truly enables a deeper experience with the brand because a) it keeps content fresh and b) the consumer can receive the “fresh” content through multiple channels. They don’t need to be in front of their computer to keep up with the brand. They just need to be part of the experience and it doesn’t matter if they’re in their home or not. In fact, this particular campaign seems to be primarily targeted to those hard-core football fans who would take many Bud Lights out to the game and tailgate, and it’s there, at the game, outside of their home, that they engage with the brand and this content.
Content is key. Simple as that.
This is just another example of how technology enables an otherwise static, 1-way push-message THING (a box) to become an interactive, 2-way communication VEHICLE. It’s an illustration of the “new” OOH that I talk about – more and more, we’re seeing the places and things around us having the ability to be “turned on.” And what this does, not only in reaching consumers where they are, when they want it, how they want it, it changes the game in a profound way because it moves something that has always been used to create awareness to something that can now be used to create engagement. And that, my friends, is what it’s all about.
I’m riding the train right now, typing and watching all of the different-colored, half-leaved trees speed by me, and I’m reminded of how awesome this time of year is. It’s always been a time that we fall into our routines as a family (which is important for us), settle in for the upcoming season and year, reconnect with our families and friends, and get to see – visually, really see – how beautiful our surroundings truly are. This time of year always provides a nice centering for me because of all of these factors. This centering gives me the right perspective on what’s really important and meaningful. It allows me to reflect on those things that have blessed my life and to vocally be thankful for them.
No doubt, I have lots be thankful for. My family and friends and our health top the list. I lost a teacher and mentor yesterday, and I’m thankful for all of those who have taught and purposefully (or non-purposefully) mentored me. Over the years, I have learned from many people and they have collectively given me the knowledge, confidence, guidance, and experience that have enabled me to get where I am today. I can only hope to have a fraction of the impact on others as those have had on me.
This blog is another thing I’m thankful for. It’s a labor of love for me and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It would not be what it is, though, without you guys, my readers. So, the biggest THANK YOU goes to YOU. You have shown interest by reading and providing comments and some of you even come back a second time. :) It’s really humbling. Your readership gives me reassurance that I am providing some sort of value to you. I only hope to continue, and ideally, get better. I’m always open to thoughts and suggestions on how to make this better for you, so please feel free to share. I feel like I’m just getting started.
I have to also thank my boss and friend, Matt Dickman, for encouraging me to start this blog. Without his support, I would have never started it and without his advice, I wouldn’t know the real “right” way to approach and do something like this. He encourages me unconditionally. He’s a great mind and I’m grateful to be working right along side him.
To that end, I’m privileged to work along AMAZING people who are committed to doing GREAT work. Brad – your help and insights have given me inspiration for pushing. Spike – your perspective is fresh and gives me courage. Herb – you’re wicked smart and you push me in ways I don’t like to admit (especially to you). Miker – you’re a rock, dude, and have been for a LONG time for me. Oh yeah, you’re super-talented at that video thing. Cindy – you keep us in line and strive to do what’s right. Sarah B. – you jump right in and aren’t afraid to mix it up. Most importantly, you want to get better. Chrissie – you’re a sponge. Keep sponging. Sarah F. – your drive is amazing. Aly – you just get stuff done and are a pleasure to work with. Clare – I can tell we’re going to get along just fine. Welcome to our team. Warren – you’re calm under pressure, brother, and your level-head sets a great tone. Rob – you think things through like a mad man and your edge levels that tone out. Ryan – your flexing is powerful. And I’m not talking muscles. Christian – does that smile ever leave your face? Matt W. – it’s been great to see you open up and you add a pleasant, chill dimension to the team. Abby & Lane – you’re machines with that research. And Chris – you do your thing, you bring quality thinking in everything. Inez – you’re the backbone of our group. Most of all, everyone’s just nice. And that’s nice. Thank you all for being who you are and doing what you do.
Outside of work, specifically inside the “industry,” I also have many people to thank, starting with the leaders of the two large industry (DOOH) conferences. They have both been incredibly generous and kind to me. Geri at the Digital Signage Expo (DSE) really gave me my first “break” in this blogging world. She gave me behind-the-scenes access that exposed me to things and people that I wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to. Early on, in the life of this blog, she provided a source of great momentum by taking a chance on “the new guy.” And Lawrence at Customer Engagement Technology World (CETW) has been extremely gracious, too. In his time, his open ears, and his access. He’s also given me the opportunity to speak at both of his shows this year. For all of that, thank you both. You’re unsung heroes of this industry and I am honored to have gotten to know you, work beside you, and help you get the word out this year.
I’ve also had the good fortune to meet and become pretty close to other industry leaders. Dave Haynes and Paul Flanigan – two rock stars in this industry with LOADS of experience – have treated me so well since I met them. They reached out to me like a friend, as if we’d known each other for years, and have made it comfortable, and even more, insightful, every time we interact with each other. We’ve had many great conversations, and I hope to have many more. They’ve been instrumental in sharing my thoughts with their personal communities and have both opened up opportunities for me that are invaluable.
Another one is David Weinfeld, a kindred spirit. David runs in the same group as Dave and Paul, so it was a package deal – (along with Pat Hellberg) I got to know them all in one fail swoop. David is passionate about this space and the potential it provides and works tirelessly to advance the knowledge, capabilities, and power that technology enables when people are on the move. He’s become my Twitter BFF.
The last guy in that group is Pat Hellberg. Although I’ve spent limited time with him, the time that I have spent has been rich. He’s a video guy and a Nike guy. Both awesome in my book. I was in Portland earlier in the year and he spent a few hours with me and showed me around his old stomping ground – the Nike campus. It was one of my “industry” highlights of the year.
Adrian and Gail at DailyDOOH have also been kind to me, welcoming into the small world of industry bloggers. They are the premier news source in the industry so it’s been cool to get a glimpse of their world and how they operate.
And there are, no doubt, many that I’ve probably missed. It’s been a rich year to be sure. Not only for me, but for this industry. Regardless of our view of Out-of-Home or Digital Out-of-Home or Digital Signage, we’re all working together for the same thing – to advance the knowledge and the potential of this powerful medium. I see great things in the future for this industry and I’m glad to be part of it.
Thank you all, again, for your part in this. Thank you for reading and sharing. I hope you have had just as rich and rewarding of a year as I have and I wish each one of you a Happy Thanksgiving and holiday season and a prosperous year to come.
Thumbing through the latest Sports Illustrated (print edition), I came across 4 different ads that included some sort of enabling technology – technology that enables a static experience to become interactive. 2 of the ads used QR Codes, 1 of the ads used a Microsoft Tag, and the other used Google Goggles. They’re all based on the same premise – bridging the offline (real-world) with the online (virtual world) – but technically, the technology is a little different – QR Codes and MS Tags are 2D Barcodes and Google Goggles is an image-recognition technology. It’s the difference between the information/content being stored in the code vs. in images in the ad. For all intents and purposes, I consider them both effective technologies in merging offline (non-digital) with online (digital). Interestingly, though, I think image recognition technology like Google Goggles would enable a better digital to digital experience. I’ve never understood putting a 2D code on a digital medium to drive to another digital medium. But if I could take a picture of the image on the originating digital medium to drive into another, ideally deeper digital medium/experience, I could see the value. Anyway, it was interesting to see so many different interactive ads in the same place and it allowed me to compare and contrast them in a way that didn’t seem so disparate (like others that I’ve done here).
First, I should point out that I’ve never seen this many interactive print ads in the same publication to date. At the beginning of the year, you would’ve been hard-pressed to have found 1 interactive ad like this in 10 publications. As the year has gone on, it’s not unusual to find 10 publications with 1 interactive ad each (some brands are using these consistently in their print pieces – Ford and Asus, to name two). Over the past couple of months, I’ve noticed a couple in each publication, but never FOUR. I really think this trend is going to continue growing into next year and we’ll see the majority of these ads including some sort of technology like this that enables a deeper, interactive experience with the brand. It’s a no-brainer, in my opinion. However, I do think it’s going to force brands to think about the entire experience rather than just plopping a code onto their print pieces, as it seems is the case more often than not now. The brands who will be successful in using technologies like this are those who put the experience first and let it lead the technology vs. putting the technology first and letting it lead the experience. Overall, when looking at each of these 4 executions, it seems as if the latter is more of the case.
Before I get into dissecting the experiences, I do think it’s important to acknowledge these brands for using these technologies. There are at least 20 other advertisers in this same publication who aren’t using anything other than a URL (if that) to drive consumers deeper into the experience. The catch here, though, is that consumers are smart – when they start using these technologies and scanning codes/images, if they don’t see value on the other end (it can come in many different forms – content, offers, coupons, connections, etc…), they’re going to equate them with being invaluable, and once that happens, it will be hard to change their behavior and get them scanning again.
So, let’s get into it – the biggest consistency was the inconsistency. From the directions that they do/don’t give on the actual print piece to the site they send you to to the content on the site to the extensions beyond the site – none are the same. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – no two brand experiences should be the same – but I do expect some level of standardization on what I believe to be elementary components of this type of experience.
Let’s start with the ads themselves and two things right off the bat – 1) how prominent is the code/ability to know that the ad is interactive and 2) how clear and useful is the call-to-action/instructions?
The 3 ads that include codes, you can clearly tell that they include something unusual-looking that you can probably do something with. (Unlike Stickybits, I think the form factor of both QR Codes and MS Tags are different enough that consumers stop and actually look to see what they’re all about. They might know that they have to do something with them, but they’re not exactly sure what they are and/or how to use them – this is a start. They know that they can take an action.) The ad that included Google Goggles, however, made it difficult to see that there was something interactive about it. Google’s Goggles logo is small and within the context of the ad, it gets lost. So, here, advantage to the 2D codes.
But it doesn’t stop there. Perhaps the most important component of using this technology is the instructions. It’s simple people – don’t get cute with instructions. Say what to do and how to do it in the simplest, most clear terms. Don’t make consumers guess at what they’re supposed to do. Tell them exactly. There’s nothing useful about enabling interactivity if the user can’t figure out how to actually interact with it (same can be said for not knowing what to do with touchscreen experiences). I found all 4 of these to miss the mark on instructions, some a little less drastic than the others. Google Goggles was the clear winner here – their instructions were the closest to being simple and clear.
The only thing they’re missing here is being clear that Goggles is an application. They make the assumption that users will know what “Google Goggles on Android” is, and besides that, they completely ignore iPhone users. I think it’s best to approach these directions with an ultra-conservative mindset in these early stages – be explicitly clear with them. Approach them like no one knows anything about anything. (Then, don’t make them into a book.)
Coming in a close 2nd is Lane Furniture and their MS Tag. One of the clear differentiators, to me, between MS Tags and QR Codes is Microsoft’s proprietary technology to scan and read their codes. There’s only 1 type of reader, only 1 place to get it and anyone can use it. This combination makes instructions easy. I don’t think anyone using MS Tags should stray from the, “Get the free app for your phone at http://gettag.mobi.” Simple, clear, and short. Where these guys go a little astray is in their other instructions – “Snap this icon to snag a coupon…”
“Snap?” “Snag?” “Icon?” Talk about colloquialisms. Why use fancy words when normal words will do? “Take a picture of the code for a coupon…” sounds much more clear and to the point, don’t you think?
The other two – OnStar and Axe – failed miserably on the instructions. OnStar takes the casual language to the next level, to the point of being utterly confusing.
“Just snap this QR code with your phone. If it doesn’t have a QR reader, there are lots of free apps to download.” I think the basic concept in anything, particularly instructions, is making it seem simple and not complicated. “Lots of” anything automatically implies that there are more than a couple. If there are more than a couple, I might very well get overwhelmed, and if I don’t even know what exactly a QR code and/or reader is, I might not even know where to start. I think this is a case of wanting to be cute and not having a word editor that says, “we need to cut everything in half.”
Axe, on the other hand, needs a few more words. “Scan this code to watch the video.”
For the experienced and savvy, this is beautiful. Only problem is that there is an ultra-minute fraction of consumers who are both experienced and savvy with QR Codes. I would bet that here, they’re likely just to use the URL to get to the video instead of scanning the code – that would be a great piece of data to see – when presented with 2 options like this, what do consumers tend to do? What do you want them to do? Yes, go to the website, but why put the QR Code on the ad in the first place unless you want them to scan it?
I’m also of the mindset that this sort of technology can become extremely beneficial if it’s the gateway to something (content or offer) exclusive, only to be seen/accessed through this channel. If anyone can see the same content just by going to the website, I think it devalues the experience.
So, now that we’re on content, let’s turn our attention to that which makes or breaks these experiences – the actual content behind the code/image. All of these 4 brands utilized video in their experience. Makes a lot of sense since video viewing on mobile is a) good and b) expected. I think it’s about the type of video that separates these experiences more than anything. And here, Axe is the winner. The first video you see is an edgy, just-what-you’d-expect-from-Axe video.
I don’t think we’re here yet, but before too long, we’ll be talking about how “on brand” these experiences are. It’s not enough to have this type of technology or video content, it’s going to become about how in line with the brand these experiences are. This sort of content from Axe is definitely “on brand.”
While the others – G2, OnStar, and Lane – included relevant video, there was nothing special about their content. In OnStar’s & Lane’s case, I found the videos to be long, boring, and overall, not compelling.
The actual site from which these videos originated from, and the experience through the code to get to the videos was another point of differentiation. On the positive side, they all sent me to a mobile version of a particular website, be it the product website or a YouTube channel. So, I didn’t have to futz around with navigating through a normal website experience on my mobile phone. That said, the only experience I found to be substantial and complete was the G2 experience. It’s the same experience that I highlighted through another ad last week.
In addition to the video, there are:
Product features
Consumer reviews & forums (social component)
Sharability
Email signup
Store locator
Purchase options
It’s really as complete of an experience you can expect.
The OnStar and Axe experiences, on the other hand, were not complete and honestly, pretty underwhelming. They both took me to a YouTube page where the experiences were similar.
The only difference was that through Axe, they asked me to “Subscribe” to the channel first. It was kind of annoying, but from a brand’s standpoint, I think it’s a smart thing to do. It’s a different form of data collection and through the subscription, the consumer experience with the brand doesn’t stop after this particular experience. Every time a video gets uploaded to the channel, all of the subscribers receive a notification and in turn, go watch the video, and you’re they’re that much deeper in the brand’s experience. I think they could have done so much more, though (at the very least, included more of a clear social – other channels – extension).
Lane’s experience included the ability to sign-up for a coupon (which is always a great enticement) via email and aside from the vague (in this case, absent) opt-in language, enables consumers to receive updates and information from Lane beyond this experience.
There are 2 other things about this particular experience that I appreciated:
The ability to find a store close to me. This is a simple utility that offers another channel (the right one, mind you) to drive consumers into the store.
A mobile experience that is only a sub-set of their normal .com website. Consumers don’t need everything a brand offers on their website through their mobile device. Just the right things. Lane has done a good job here.
I think it’s appropriate to say at this point, if you’ve made it this far in the post, THANKS. It’s the longest post ever. I didn’t want to break it up into 2 different posts because the opportunity to view (and review) this many experiences in the same setting hasn’t come along before and I didn’t want to separate any part of my thoughts.
All that said…drumroll please….I think the winner here is G2 and Google Goggles. But this is what I’d expect out of them. It’s their phone and their enabling technology. I’d be surprised and disappointed if it were anything less than this type of experience. The others ranked this way for me:
2. Lane – their offline (on-page) call-to-action was clearer than the other 2 and their online (on-phone) experience was more valuable and simpler.
3. Axe – their experience was the most “on brand” but I expect more out of Axe, all the way around.
4. OnStar – just think they need to spend a little bit more time thinking through the entire experience and paying off their awesome service in a unique way – they can do some interesting things through these enabling technologies, given the capabilities of their own technology.
Again, it made me happy to see so many in one place. I think there is much potential in this sort of technology. Most importantly, it allows for something that would have otherwise NOT been interactive or a 2-way engagement to be so. It’s opens up an entirely new communication channel. But as we can see here, most everyone has a long way to go to make a complete, compelling, valuable experience through this type of engagement.
So, now that I have belabored this in more ways than one, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think???
Happy Friday, everyone! Man, am I glad it’s here and tomorrow, I can relax with my family. It’s been one of those weeks. (Don’t I say that every week?)
I’m currently reading a couple of different books at the same time. I’ve never operated this way. I’m a one-book-at-a-time type of person – really I’m a one-thing-at-a-time type person as much as I can help it. So, I don’t know how I fell into this pattern of multi-reading. But it’s not bad. I’m keeping things straight in my mind and enjoying the pieces of the books that I read when I read them. The two that I’m deep in are Talent is Overrated and Prince of Thieves (the novel that The Town is based on). One business, one novel. It’s a nice combo.
Before last week, I had another book in the mix – Rework by the guys at 37 Signals (you might be familiar with their PM software, Basecamp.) Aside from it being a quick read on my plane rides, with the pictures and big text, I really enjoyed the anecdotes that it presented. So, I thought it would be a fun Friday 4-1-1 to take my favorite and share here.
1. Tone is in your fingers – It’s not about what tools you use, it’s about what you do with them. Fancy gear can help, but the truth is your tone comes from you….The content is what matters. You can spend tons on fancy equipment, but if you’ve got nothing to say..well, you’ve got nothing to say….It’s playing what you’ve got as well as you can. Your tone is in your fingers. I’m not going to tie everything back to this particular channel (OOH) through these anecdotes, but this one resonated with me on various levels. First, I firmly believe that everyone has unique gifts to offer. It’s about putting people in positions where those gifts can shine, and in all cases, doing what you can to pull those out of people. The tools that we use are just that – tools. The substance comes from the individual. In the case of OOH, as I’ve said here many times, it’s not about the “screen,” it’s about the content that consumers engage with outside of their homes that drives them deeper into a brand experience. The experience is the thing. Not the screen.
2. Start making something – I’m not much of a talker (contrary to how this blog represents me, if it represents me otherwise!) I’m much more of a doer. At work and not at work, I don’t like to talk about things. I like to do things. So, I appreciate execution and results more than I do talk and ideas. Until you actually start making something, your brilliant idea is just that, an idea. And everyone’s got one of those…Ideas are cheap and plentiful…The real question is how you execute. I believe that we can make a lot out of a little in most cases. Resourcefulness is something that I appreciate out of anyone. Perhaps this is why I have the view on OOH that I have?
3. Good enough is fine – I think this idea is counterintuitive to those who expect to produce GREAT work day in and day out. I once heard, “Good is the worst enemy of Great.” And I like that. I think, overall, if people set their expectations to deliver “good” work, they are short-changing everyone involved. The expectation should always be to produce and deliver greatness. But I digress. This is more about complicated vs. simple, not necessarily great vs. good. There is, however, a perception that complicated solutions are “great” and simple solutions are only “good.” A lot of people get off on solving problems with complicated solutions. Flexing your intellectual muscles can be intoxicating…A better idea: Find a judo solution, one that delivers maximum efficiency with minimum effort. Judo solutions are all about getting the most out of doing the least…When good enough gets the job done, go for it…And remember, you can usually turn good enough into great later. I talk to my team a lot about “navigating the grey space” – this is part of that. We are usually put in the position to make quick decisions. It’s important to know the effect of those decisions, now and in the future, and not everything should be (or needs) a quick decision – but I love the concept of not over-thinking things that don’t need it. I also heard once, “it’s easy to make something hard. It’s hard to make something easy.” Perfect.
4. Nobody likes plastic flowers – The business world is full of “professionals” who wear the uniform and try to seem perfect…Don’t be afraid to show your flaws…Don’t worry about how you’re supposed to sound and how you’re supposed to act. Show the world what you’re really like…There’s a beauty to imperfection. If you bring your mind and yourself, you should be good in everything you do. You have a unique perspective that no one else brings to the table. You shouldn’t ever lose that “trying” to be something that the man “expects”.
“Uh-huh” – Inspiration is perishable – I try to find inspiration all around me, but inevitably, in the grind of life, it’s often hard to find. It takes work to be open and aware of things that we find to inspire us. To me, inspiration is key to fulfillment. Without it, we would just be an empty mess. We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn’t last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date…When you’re high on inspiration, you can get two weeks of work done in twenty-four hours…Inspiration is a magical thing, a productivity multiplier, a motivator. But it won’t wait for you…If it grabs you, grab it right back and put it to work.
“Duh” – Years of irrelevance – We live and operate in a world, particularly in business, where everything changes daily – literally. It’s virtually impossible to keep up with, much less master, anything related to technology and how it connects us to each other and the world around us. To log the infamous 10,000 hours to any one skill seems more and more difficult to do in today’s environment. That’s why I think it’s important to look for an understand the intangibles that people around you offer. There’s surprisingly little difference between a candidate with six months of experience and one with six years. The real difference comes from the individual’s dedication, personality, and intelligence…How long someone’s been doing it is overrated. What matters is how well they’ve been doing it.
I really found a lot great insights and anecdotes in this book and these are only 6 of them. So, if you like some of the things I highlighted here, I think you’d really enjoy the entire book. I’m not on board with everything in it, but definitely more things that not. It’s a recommend from me, for what it’s worth. If any of you have read it, I’d love to hear what you thought – your favorite or not-so-favorite anecdotes. Hit me here or on Twitter!
OK Go continue their adventures in musical innovation, collaborating with Range Rover in the Evoque Pulse of the City project to create an amazing, geo-mapping, street parade in celebration of their home city, Los Angeles.
The band are going to take to the streets with their instruments and, with the help of GPS technology and the Pulse of the City app, will make a giant geo-art OK Go sign, literally branding themselves into the fabric of the city streets.
But that’s just the beginning. Because once it’s done you’re going to get involved too, with your own streets in your own city and your own designs, using the same technology to write, draw, dance and scream out loud the things you want to tell the world about the place you live and love. When that’s done the band will pick the best ones to accompany an exclusive video launching in January 2011.
Keep track of OK Go on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace to find out more details about the event.
As they say themselves, “The idea is that we are using the world as our palette and our GPS devices (mobile) as our brush.”
See, this is another perfect example of the “new” OOH. ”Screens” are all around us and technology enables the real world to switch “on.” Brands are slowly but surely seeing this opportunity, coupled with ideas of super creative people, and starting to experiment with this always-on trend outside of the 4 walls of someone’s home.
I couldn’t help but share my favorite OK Go video, although after today, I’m sure I’ll have a new favorite. For now, this one is awesome:
As I’ve said before here, I think technology has enabled what was once static to become interactive, particularly as it relates to the “OOH” channel, which up until recently has been a static, “offline” advertising and communications channel. On one hand, you have the digital display technology that enables those static ads to become digitized and as a result, more dynamic, relevant, and meaningful (digital signage). Those digital “screens” have become more efficient advertising channels for brands, and can even help push consumers along the purchase journey, depending on their placement in a particular environment. I don’t talk much about that kind of OOH here. In the coming year, I want to put more of a focus on it here, but that aspect of OOH has never excited me to the point that the other aspect has. Which is the other hand – on the other hand, you have various enabling technologies that enable those static ads to become interactive, and as a result, actually engaging. It’s the difference between a 1-way push message (the former) and a 2-way push/pull communication (the latter). One is passive. The other is active. It’s the active that really excites me. So, I’m always looking for examples that do just that – take what was once passive and make active through these enabling technologies.
I’ve noticed many of these examples this year through print ads. Whether it be QR codes or MS Tags, brands have really started experimenting with this type of engagement. By no means has it taken off, but it’s an easy technology to include from a production standpoint, so I suspect to see the trend continue to grow slowly in the coming year. I think we still have a ways to go to reach critical mass, but the consumers who actually recognize these codes and take a picture of them have the opportunity to engage with the brand in a way that they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
I came across another such technology in this month’s Wired – Google Goggles. I learned about Google Goggles earlier in the year, and as an Android smartphone owner, it was one of the first apps I downloaded. But I haven’t ever had success with it until now. HTC “enabled” their most recent ad with Google Goggles.
If you’re not familiar with Google Goggles, it’s an image recognition technology that enables you, as a user, to snap a photo of a variety of things – landmarks, logos, print ads to name a few – and then learn more about them through mobile web without “searching.” As with other image reading technologies (like the aforementioned codes), it’s designed to be a convenient way to get information you want about anything in the real world. They’re an ideal technology to bridge the offline (real world) with the online (virtual world).
This particular experience was a good one. HTC, supported by their friends at Google (it runs the Android platform), really thought through this and actually maximized the full potential of creating a deeper experience. Once the picture is scanned, you’re taken to the G2 mobile site (yes, it is a mobile site) where you can:
view multiple angles of the phone (awareness)
learn about all of its features, mostly through copy – there’s 1 video that takes you to YouTube – not a great experience (awareness)
see news releases (awareness)
see reviews – as of tonight, there are no reviews on the site (awareness)
see Twitter feed (awareness)
see G2 Forums (awareness/consideration)
share with your social communities (awareness/consideration)
BUY – via your phone, in the most convenient store, and/or later (consideration/conversion)
They have designed this experience to mirror an effective e-commerce site and aside from the Microsoft mobile site I recently experienced, this is the best I’ve seen through any technology like this.
Agree with everything everyone said here, but I don’t think the only answer is Google Goggles. Like I said, up until now, I haven’t had a good experience with the application. It’s had a hard time reading the “real world item” and I’ve found QR codes/MS Tags to be more responsive, and ultimately convenient. The one thing about Google Goggles is that it is designed to enable to “wordless search” via image recognition – what happens if you’re a brand and someone takes a photo of your product and through Goggles is taken to a Google search where right there in the first listing is a bad review? It seems like there are elements of the openness of this that could work against the brand instead of for them. What do you guys think? Have you used Google Goggles? I would love to hear about your experience, if so.
Shoe shopping on Saturday at the mall with 3 kids – PAINFUL. I should clarify that – boot shopping for my wife on a Saturday afternoon and taking care of the 3 kids in a crowded section of a crowded store – HEADACHE PAINFUL. My wife found her boots, and in the end, that’s really all that matters. What I found, while trying to keep the clan busy in the shoe section, was JC Penney’s “Find More” touch screen kiosk. Even though it was pretty much hidden from major traffic, it wasn’t hidden from us. It provided a great source of entertainment, and I even had a chance to try to teach my daughter some of the finer points of usability and interface design. It was an awesome conversation.
I haven’t used my scorecard in a while, so let’s dust it off and put this bad boy to the test.
Purpose – Just as almost every one of these kiosks I’ve reviewed here, this is designed to sell products. The kiosk itself does not serve as a self-checkout unit, so if we want to get technical about it, it’s designed to help customers find anything that JC Penney offers and make the shopping experience more convenient. Appropriately named, “Find More,” I suspect anyone who walks up to this kiosk and sees what it is (title is big and bold at the top) and hears the opening V.O. to “choose from thousands of online only products,” will know that if JC Penney has it, they can find it here.
Drama – It’s big and bold so from that standpoint, it’s quite dramatic. But it stands out like a big, ugly piece of technology in an inconvenient location in the store. This is clearly a fine piece of equipment – it looks like it would withstand a tornado, but it is not easy on the eyes. I also think the placement makes it seem like an afterthought more than a purposeful tool for customers. Not only is it away from any aisle, it’s tucked in the shoe department, which is crammed in the first place. The only reason I saw it is because I’m always looking for this sort of thing. Even if I wasn’t, the only reason I would have seen it is because I was sequestered in this particular section of the store. Since they only have one unit, I would really suggest putting it next to one of the escalators or store entrances. At the very least, move it up close to a busy aisle. It’s too good of a tool to be hidden. Insofar as the call-to-action goes, once you do see the kiosk, they’ve done a good job with big moving images and type and they support it with audio. From that standpoint, they did a great job.
Usability – I would say the experience is a mix between an interactive magazine and a website. They have the real estate to utilize more images than words and they capitalize on it. But they structure it very much like a website, with the primary, secondary, and tertiary navigation in clear buckets. I like the way they duplicated the idea of breadcrumbs on the left-hand side of the interface. It makes navigating deep into this experience easy. All of the buttons/hot spots are large enough to press with any size finger and I love all of their instructional copy throughout (ie. – “Touch a Category to Continue.”) They’ve made this as close to browsing a website without duplicating the website experience as you can get, and I suspect that will help them with customer involvement.
Interactivity – This is a single touch experience and the touch screen was responsive. All of their buttons/hotspots were large enough to get me where I wanted to go and I never had to press anything more than twice. They’ve even got the nice swipe capability that one expects from anything touch-related thanks to smartphones. They’ve also worked in a couple of extensions to this experience with the ability to email yourself and print out any of this information right from the kiosk. I would think these features are table stakes by now, but I’ve seen some experiences that don’t include them. So, as I would expect from JCP, they’ve clearly thought this through.
Information – As you would expect, they’ve got any and all product information you can imagine. It’s all hooked to JC Penney’s system, so if this particular store doesn’t have the item you’re looking for, you can see which one does, where it is, and even a way to contact them. They use large images and audio to attract customers to the kiosk, and throughout the experience, they have nice videos that support particular products (a favorite feature of my daughters). I was impressed that the experience was ADA accessible. The one downfall was the absence of social extensions, even a way to get to JC Penney’s FB page and/or Twitter page. Customer reviews should become table stakes before too long.
Personalization – Other than the email and print options, this experience is the same for everyone. They could really make this a special experience for a loyalty program. Everything I said about the opportunities Target has to personalize their kiosks apply here, too.
This is a great example of an IOOH solution, particularly a retail-based kiosk. I think JC Penney is one of those retailers who get it. They understand multi-channel and how important it is to engage consumers throughout their shopping and brand journey. I wasn’t surprised to see this in the store. I’m looking forward to seeing how this experience evolves because although I think they’re doing a great job with what they have right now, I think there are many easy opportunities that they are missing.
Have any of you seen this kiosk? Would love to hear your thoughts, too!
I’m now on my way back home after an intense couple of days at CETW. Conferences are hard, especially if you have day jobs, which almost everyone does. Unfortunately, time doesn’t stand still when you’re in the four walls of that convention center. The machine keeps going.
The conference was good. These guys put on a quality show and they’ve been good to me (as has the DSE!). I met more real smart people this time who have been in the industry for a long time – Lyle Bunn, Bradley Walker, David Drain, Ken Goldberg (finally), Dusty Lutz and Bob Martin (the latter were both on my session panel) to name a few. These guys are true industry leaders and they have a wealth of experience and knowledge from which to learn. Saw my pal, Dave H. from Preset, couldn’t ever hook up with my pal, David W. from Preset, and missed my pal, Paul from Preset. Pat – where are you, man? From a relationship standpoint, it was another fantastic experience. There’s nothing like face-to-face interaction, despite the power of Twitter.
I felt like I struck a nice balance between attending sessions and spending time with the exhibitors on the showroom floor. For the first time, I feel like I was able to be productive with the exhibitors, thanks to my OOH model. For someone like me, who gets overwhelmed with so many players and so many different components (to bring a network to life), simple models like this help me break information down to the point I can actually do something with it. Getting back to what I said last week about providing value, it was important for me to do more with my posts from this conference than I’ve previously done. So, the model enabled me to get down to the real nut of what those exhibitors offer and start highlighting some of them in a new series called “Supplier Spotlight.” Also, the way I’ve recapped the sessions has always felt a little off for me. More than anything, it’s been an exercise in recording and posting. But now I’ve added a short section at the end of each recap that synthesizes a couple of key points that I took away from the session. I’ve already started receiving some good feedback on that addition, which means we’re on the right track.
But then, there was my panel, “Strategy First: Incorporating Digital/Interactive OOH into Your Campaign Strategy.” In my opinion, it was an #epicfail. So, today’s 4-1-1 is all about reflecting on the session, and recognizing what I believe to be the downfalls, and on the flipside, the opportunities that we can take away from it.
1. What I wanted to talk about and what this audience wanted to hear were 2 totally different things – there are many digital signage network operators (meaning, those who run an entire network of screens) at this show who are looking for tips, advice, guidance, and a sound “strategy” (I feel like this is becoming a lame word now) on how to fill their screens with good content and advertisements (the two are married.) They don’t want to hear my talking about how everything’s a screen. They want to hear about their screen and how to make it better so they can make money. Thank goodness I had Bob Martin on the panel from RMG because he provided great information to this audience. Everyone else on the panel, and our thoughts, muddied the water more than anything.
2. The panel’s diversity was a barrier and did not work well for this discussion – as I said, Bob provided the most relevant POV for this particular audience. I don’t know that I would recommend having so many panelists (total of 4) for any session because time flies and we all have a lot to say. So, cutting the actual size of the panel down would have helped, but more than anything, if we were to bring different POVs from different agencies again, I think the session needs to be framed as something that is “new” and “experiential” and not geared to digital signage networks. It’s more about the “cool” things you can do outside of the home. If that were that were the expectation of our session, I feel like we would have delivered much more value.
3. I have a clearly different view of OOH/DOOH/IOOH than the majority of the “industry” – I am not a digital signage guy. Networks and operators and IT make my head want to explode. I’m an experience guy. I’m focused on engaging consumers, literally outside of the home, through technology in a way that drives connections and meaningful experiences with the brand. I don’t believe you need actual “screens” to do this because technology has enabled everything around us to become a screen. I can do a better job of separating the two – DOOH, as in “digital signage” and “networks” and IOOH, as in “experiences away from those specific ‘screens.’” I tend to mix the two here and it’s an important distinction to make.
4. DOOH as in “digital signage” and “networks” is a powerful advertising and communications channel – these physical screens can be installed at critical locations along the consumer’s purchase journey. Coupled with the right content, these networks truly do touch people where they are, when they need it. On location alone, they can most efficiently target consumers like no other channel, even mobile. Right now, mobile requires a level of “active” participation to truly target in the right place and the right time. Just by being there, DOOH/digital signage can passively target efficiently and effectively (that’s a fun sentence!)
“Uh-huh” – I believe in the power of these channels, both “DOOH/digital signage” and the new “OOH.” I believe both will succeed. Digital signage networks can make a brand’s advertisements work less for a larger return. But everything around us will be interactive sooner or later, so we have to prepare for that, too. It’s important to recognize that the OOH canvas is vast, virtually untapped, and before we know it, will be completely interactive. We won’t need actual screens to form an OOH network. Buildings and sidewalks and tables will be a network. More importantly, as is the case now, consumers will be a network. These two elements will have a profound impact on the DOOH industry. I think physical screens can still be an important part of the ecosystem, they just have to become smarter. They need to work together with all of the other touch points, including consumers with each other, to be that much more meaningful. This is daunting. The people who figure this out first will win, and I think we’re still a few years away from crowning the winner.
“Duh” – the right type of agencies and people within those agencies, namely account and media planners, need to be at this conference, talking to these smart, super-experienced people. If they can’t come to the physical conference right now, they should have access to the content. This is an easy challenge to solve with today’s technology. In my opinion, it will be a more difficult proposition to actually get the word out to these particular agency members than it will be to work through the logistics of distributing the content. Perhaps an invite-only session/roundtable geared specifically for them? If we crack that nut, I believe opportunities will flow.
Anyway, I have to thank Lawrence and team, again, for their hospitality and kindness. It’s always great to be around all of these people. For those of you who weren’t able to be here, I hope these posts helped. Love to hear your thoughts on any of these, as you have them. Have a great weekend!
I’m partial to touch screen kiosks, having spent a good portion of my previous life developing solutions for them. I’m also partial to clean hands. I’ve got this thing where I try to notice what I’m touching and if/how other people touch it, too. Bathroom doors are a perfect example. I don’t touch bathroom doors – I use a paper towel to protect me from the germs. This is one thing I don’t like about touch screen kiosks. I’ve ridden in 4-5 cabs a day while I’ve been here and I can see the filth on all of the touch screen monitors. I use my knuckles, not my fingers, then I promptly wash my hands (and knuckles.)
So, what do I see today? A touch LESS kiosk, of course. Brought to you by Simbioz, another EQUIPMENT provider (both hardware and software).
Awesome, right? The content (which they do not produce – they take existing content from the brand) looks great in their interface, and it’s a flashy one at that. In the end, it’s just a template that they can place content in, but it’s a well thought-out and a very nice-looking template.
The actual kiosk itself has two cameras mounted in the top corners that detect the user’s movement and controls the screen accordingly. My inclination was to touch the glass every time, but once I got the feel of how close I needed to be, I controlled it by simply touching the air in front of it. No nasty film. No necessary washing hands. None of that. Swipe away and be engaged. I really like this one.
Emerging Technology, Out & About 
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