Enhance the customer’s experience using augmented reality.

In today’s world of smartphones, tablets and social sharing, there always seems to be another tech trend of the week, month or year that everyone is talking about. Our phones are increasingly equipped with more cameras and sensors that allow us to capture and interact with the world wherever we are – and augmented reality (AR) is providing so many more possibilities.

AR allows any real world object (like a logo or a building) to be transformed into an interactive experience when a phone’s camera is pointed at it. For example, scanning the Coca-Cola logo could turn your simple can of pop into an onscreen experience with video, additional information and even games. Pointing your camera at Grand Central could overlay a schedule of train departure and arrival times and even present the Wikipedia article on the location.

The Wikitude app is a great example of AR. Out in a new town and wondering what is nearby? Just hold your phone up to your surrounding and see the information for nearby restaurants, hotels and bars, seamlessly laid out on your screen and complete with reviews and maybe even the opportunity to book a room.

Retailers have also been experimenting with AR in an attempt to enhance the shopping experience. Ray-Ban—a popular sunglasses company—offers a “virtual mirror” that allows you to “try on” sunglasses at your computer. Using your webcam, you can see what you look like wearing any of their products, complete with the freedom to move and turn your head. Esquire recently published an AR issue that allowed readers of the magazine to shop the brands featured in the issue’s ads.

Smartphones are not the only devices that allow people to experience AR. Three major manufactures (Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony) have devices either integrated or available as add-ons that allow you to experience and control your console with your voice and body.

Microsoft has been positioning the Xbox 360 and its online service Xbox LIVE as the center of your home entertainment needs, integrating with video services like Netflix and Hulu. Recently, Pizza Hut joined the Xbox family – not with a game or some other type of rich media, but rather an app that allows you to order pizza directly from your television. Using Xbox’s Kinect sensor, customers can build their pizza with both voice control and using their hands to gesture at the screen. They can add and remove ingredients to their heart’s content. Purchasing is integrated directly into your Xbox LIVE account, so there is no need for a credit card or any other “real world” annoyances. Build your pizza with your hands and voice and then switch right back to your game.

AR is an exciting new technology and its creative possibilities span every medium that exists, but it is not without its hurdles. To engage in AR, users need to download special apps to their smartphone, or have purchased additional hardware (like a webcam or Kinect sensor for the Xbox). Because of this hardware barrier, the growth of AR will mostly be seen in the mobile space where a user already has all the hardware they need to interact. But, despite these technological hurdles, AR provides brands the incredible potential to offer people a very unique way of becoming more engaged with their products and services.

Which Media Outlets Are Better For Reaching On-the-go Moms?

Most of us have heard that moms make the majority of the purchasing decisions of the household (a projected $2.4 trillion worth of decisions to be exact). This makes moms a very lucrative audience for marketers. But how does a brand or business help influence these moms’ purchasing decisions? One way is to ensure your brand’s visibility is in the right place at the right time. But where should a marketer be seen and heard? Where do moms spend their media time and what media forms are the most influential? Of course the answers vary from brand to brand, as well as each marketer’s main objective, but there are some key takeaways that businesses should remember when trying to reach moms in today’s digital world.

First, a marketer must understand that becoming a mom changes the way women consume media. Becoming a mom shifts a woman’s time spent with each media outlet, as well as which outlets she considers the most informational and influential. But there are four places you are sure to find her when she does have the time for media.

Online
Moms spend 63 percent more time online than the general population, according to Nielsen. This is via laptop, tablet or smartphone. Moms spend the majority of their time on search engines and general websites, researching information on everything from  parenting and travel to fashion, health and fitness. Because moms are so time starved, be sure to be digitally prominent and easy to find online. Do so by leveraging search engine marketing and search engine optimization.

Smart Phones
Nielsen reported that a whopping 61 percent of moms use their mobile devices to access the internet, so be sure your company’s website and brand interaction are optimized for mobile.

Social Media
According to Nielsen, nearly 80 percent of moms actively use social media – the main reason being that it allows them to easily stay in touch with their friends and family. Another reason is the ability to share and discover. Compared to the general population, moms are 40 percent more likely to become a fan or follow a brand online, and 59 percent of moms said they have purchased something because a brand posted a coupon or other offer on a social networking site. Social media helps her get information quickly and offers an easy outlet to share and recommend brands they follow or have discovered.

Blogs
Another digital space a mom spends a chunk of her time is reading blogs. According to BlogHer, in 2014, 63 percent (nearly 21 million) of all online moms will read blogs. Moms tend to look for life’s unanswered questions and advice online. According to eMarkerter, 72 percent of mothers ages 28 to 45 said they trusted the information and advice they read from blogs. So, if your brand wants to make an impact with moms, make sure blogs are in your media plans.

So What Does This All Mean?
Moms are media consumers who are time-starved digital multitaskers and who are ready to discover, listen to recommendations and make purchases. So make sure your brand has a visible voice online, on mobile, in social networks and in blogs so you can be part of  the $2.4 tillion pie.

How the new First National Bank campaign produced big results.

When America began its determined crawl out of the recession that began in 2008, the banking industry had been dealt a black eye. Many consumers blamed large financial institutions for the economic upheaval that cost many Americans their homes and livelihoods. During this time, Bozell helped First National Bank tell its 150-year story of financial stability and community involvement.

The most recent First National Bank campaign struck a chord in Omaha and inspired an operational-philosophy initiative within the bank, reiterating     its commitment to honest communication and long-lasting relationships. As part of this commitment, First National Bank developed a brand new free checking product that would reflect the dedication to “doing what’s right.”

Bozell was tasked with bringing awareness of this free checking account to consumers in all of First National Bank’s markets. The first step, of course, was to learn as much as we could about the product. We sat down with the people from First National Bank who developed the free checking account, and, over the course of the meeting, we were blown away.

It turns out that regulators allow banks to call a checking account “free” even if it charges fees. That’s not cool, and that’s not how First National Bank rolls. The new First National Checking account was without almost any of the fees and requirements most banks saddle their “free checking” with. In fact, the only charge First National Bank would keep was an overdraft fee, and they’d even extend one free “forgiveness” every year. This account was truly unlike any other checking product available.

Now we just had to tell consumers that story.

The First National Checking campaign started like so many of our ideas do – in a room full of as many smart people as we could find. These brainstorming sessions yield a tremendous number of ideas, from simple to crazy to just crazy enough to work. At the end of the process, however, one idea seemed to stand out.Putting the “R” back in “free.”

When you sign up for free checking at other banks, what you’re really getting is “fee checking”. They’d decided that “fee” was better than “free,” especially when it came to their bottom lines. Not First National Bank.

Our creative team worked with First National Bank and MAKE Visual to develop an “R” character that would remind everyone “fee” and “free” aren’t the same. We wanted to show the audience what a difference an “R” makes.

We implemented the “R” checking campaign across an integrated media campaign, including outdoor, television and digital executions, including pre-roll videos. The minimal design allowed the character to pop and draw attention not only to the First National Checking account, but also highlight the difference between competing accounts. The campaign itself left consumers with one question: “Am I truly free of fees at my bank?” The answer: if you have First National Checking, you certainly “R.”

How to effectively promote your business using social outlets.

In today’s economy, it is important for every business to be more cost effective. It is especially important for smaller businesses that have limited budgets. When marketing any company, goals need to be set. Along with the target audience, these goals should be the driving force for defining the marketing plan.

One of the most cost effective marketing tools is the Internet. There are many social sites and networks that are perfect for promoting a company. However, many businesses make the mistake of trying to utilize all of them, without a purpose, just to get their names “out there.” While it may seem like a good idea to jump into every network, it can backfire. In order for a company’s presence on any social network to be successful, it has to have a purpose and it must be active.

To avoid having inactive “ghost” accounts on social networks, companies need to have a grasp on their goals and their missions. Part of that includes knowing your target audience and what will be effective. When opening Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Foursquare accounts, there are different factors to consider.

With 1.06 billion users, Facebook has the greatest reach of all social networks. Currently, there are two billion connections between local businesses and users. The average number of weekly local business page views is 645 million, with approximately 13 million weekly comments. Having an active Facebook presence is very important, as it is often the first place potential or existing customers go to search for your company. Having a Facebook page requires a consistent dedication to making weekly posts (at least) and interacting with users. Businesses that offer a service and/or product are ideal candidates for Facebook.

Twitter is a great way to keep your followers updated on your brand, but it requires a great deal of upkeep, including sending at least one tweet a day. With 400 million tweets sent daily, Twitter followers are exposed to many messages. It can be difficult to keep your brand relevant on Twitter. Businesses that have a desire to stay connected to their customers and are willing to monitor activity daily should have a Twitter account.

Pinterest currently has 48.7 million users and has become one of the fastest growing social networking sites. The growth rate may make it seem like every company should jump in, but not every company is right for the site. Pinterest involves users bookmarking (or “pinning”) images to their personal boards. Because the average user is female, companies that have a lot of visual content and are aiming to target women should look into Pinterest.

Foursquare is a mobile app that allows users to “check in” at locations. It is a great way for people to see what their friends are up to, but it is also an opportunity for businesses to reward users for checking in to their establishments. A great way to do this is to offer a deal on an item or service with the first check-in, and then a different deal can be offered upon checking in a certain amount of times. This provides the user with a reason to continue checking in. Foursquare only makes sense if you have a physical establishment.

Out of all of these options, as well as the other options out there, the key is to finding out what best fits your company. The main thing businesses need to remember is to be active on the social networks they utilize and communicate with the users using it.

How small business can leverage data to improve their business.

For years, large companies have had dedicated business intelligence departments to crunch data and glean insights that can help them maximize sales and optimize operations. But, for small businesses, working with big data has been out of reach, because it was simply too complex and too costly. However, the growth of cloud-based technology, better and faster data processing, and easier access to online information means there are now a variety of affordable tools available for small businesses.

The problem is figuring out where to start. We suggest starting with collecting and analyzing your own customer data.

Each and every time a customer interacts with your business, he or she leaves behind a vast amount of data. By capturing this information, you can use it to better understand your customers, put those insights to work and improve your business.

Here are three basic sets of data you can capture and use to analyze your customers.

Who are your customers

You can use data tools to capture and understand your best or ideal customers, including gender, age, income, purchase patterns, lifestyle and more. Create a list of your frequent customers and try to identify shared commonalities, such as geography, business size, or perhaps day of purchase. This can help you identify traits and help you target your marketing more effectively.

Tip: Once you have identified your key customers, use Experian’s Clone My Customer tool to build a list of top prospects based on the traits of your best customers. You simply upload a spreadsheet with information about your top 100 customers (address, gender, business, etc.) and the geo-location you wish to target. Experian will return a list of names and addresses of prospects that look like these top 100 customers.

What your customers say

Sentiment tracking is a popular tool used to examine the online, social activity involving your company. It allows you to analyze public conversations about your business by harvesting data from social sources, such as Twitter and Facebook. This is important because it helps you uncover the aspects of services, products or operations that can be improved.

Tip: Sprout Social is a paid subscription with an online tool that lets you listen and analyze social sentiment. It also allows you to monitor your competitors and target new customers through the discovery tools. If you require less analysis, Social Mention is a free tool that tracks mentions of your business, and emails you the results. Also make use of platform-specific tools, such as Facebook’s Insights platform and Twitalyzer for Twitter. Both provide details on engagement, comments and interactions between you and your customers.

What your customers do

By tracking how customers interact with your website, you can determine most frequently accessed pages, least visited pages, and what drives the most traffic to your site, as well as determine if you have any bottlenecks—components or resources that are limiting the capabilities and success of your company.

Tip: Sprout Social is a paid subscription with an online tool that lets you listen and analyze social sentiment. It also allows you to monitor your competitors and target new customers through the discovery tools. If you require less analysis, Social Mention is a free tool that tracks mentions of your business, and emails you the results. Also make use of platform-specific tools, such as Facebook’s Insights platform and Twitalyzer for Twitter. Both provide details on engagement, comments and interactions between you and your customers.

Why is social media and digital marketing still considered a “thing”?

Let me know if this sounds familiar: you are either working for a client or working on your own marketing strategy, coming up with all the goals and objectives, creating the plan … and then adding on your social media strategy and/or digital strategy to fit. If this is your process and thinking, you’re not alone. Well, you’re not alone in the advertising world, either. But, unfortunately, this kind of thinking just isn’t relevant anymore and it’s time we, as marketers, evolve.

The idea that the internet and mobile is one discipline that sits in one silo is short-sighted and small thinking.

Moving On
It’s time we stop treating digital marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, mobile marketing, email marketing, and every other digital tactic you’re using to drive business, as its own silo. By now, you’re most likely aware of the facts regarding smartphone adoption, social media users, or digitally savvy user segments. Just know that digital and social media marketing are done being the flavor of the month, as well as being looked at as just something cool. The internet, digital marketing and social media are no longer a thing – they’re everything. Or, in other words, they’re a permanent part of our brand experience, so you should consider and incorporate them in your overall marketing efforts.

Change Your Mindset
The first step to embracing this mentality is getting away from describing digital or social media as one platform, because this is stifling your thinking and hurting your strategy. Digital is not a platform – again, it’s everything. The idea that the internet and mobile is one discipline that sits in one silo is short-sighted and small thinking. TV now integrates with digital, print entities have digital offerings, radio has digital properties. And that’s what the consumer expects now. In fact, consumers no longer even really think about the technology they’re using. It’s now just a part of what they do. And to continue to segment social media and digital strategies is like having a silo dedicated in your team to “electricity” or “paper” and “ink” – it just doesn’t make sense.

Customer Comes First
Integration of digital or social media is an absolute must if you want to meet your customers where they are actually experiencing your brand. Segmenting up several different strategies and hoping they all roll up into one nice puzzle
no longer works. Start thinking in terms of your customers experience, rather than how you’re going to deliver it.

It’s important to remember that consumers switch from in-store, to online, to mobile – sometimes all at once during the same shopping experience. Having separate budgets and strategies for each is counter intuitive to what customers are actually experiencing. Smart brands and marketers will join all of these together in a functional way in order to deliver the experiences customers expect from them. The budget should focus on the experience and outcomes, not on the tactical approach. This integrated thinking and approach will create one voice for the brand, regardless of the media on which it is delivered.

Start thinking in terms of your customers experience, rather than how you’re going to deliver it.

Digital marketing is no longer about merely adding online channels to the media mix, so it’s best to drop that kind of thinking. Start considering how to work with your customers in order to integrate the flow of their experience – open up new lead sources, support sales and create new models for service. That is a shift in how we’ve typically done things in the advertising industry, but our customers are already there, and it’s about time we caught up.

How to determine whether or not you need a “responsive” website.

In the era of new media, it is more important than ever that your digital strategy be up to par. You have to worry about search engine optimization, social media and the ever present (and growing) mobile experience. According to statistics provided by Google, more than 50 percent of U.S. users have smartphones, and nearly 90 percent of these users access the internet from their phones one or more times per day (not including app usage). So these people are actively searching the Web on their phones and could discover your site or brand. The question at hand is how do we direct these mobile users toward meeting your conversion goals?

A trendy solution to concerns regarding mobile Web experience is a “responsive” design for your website. A responsive website, in simpler terms, is one that automatically adjusts between a desktop and mobile. Unlike the traditional solution of building a separate mobile website, a responsive design allows you to have a single website. This means no longer maintaining separate sites, and providing the best experience possible for the users, regardless
of their browsing devices.

Although responsive design sounds like a fix-all answer to the mobile experience, it is not without its caveats. The development and maintenance complexity of a responsive website is far greater than a traditional website. As a client, you can expect to be quoted 75 to 100 percent the cost of a desktop website. But there are three other options to responsive design that can be considered:

1. Create a Dedicated Mobile Website – While this will often incur a similar or equal cost to a responsive website, the primary benefit to this approach is the 100-percent-tailored-to-mobile experience.
2. Make a Mobile App – This is a complicated discussion in its own right, but it’s important to evaluate the need before venturing into the mobile app creation process. For more insight on how to determine if a mobile app is right for you, refer to my article dedicated to the subject: “So you think you want an app?”
3. Do Nothing – There is no point in staying with the trends if it doesn’t make sense for the business. Gut inclinations can be motivating, but bottom lines are defining. If your audience engagement isn’t suffering on mobile devices, then you may not need to consider a responsive update at this time.

In digital advertising, we benefit from having very accurate and immediate analytics at our fingertips. No one can tell with certainty whether or not you need a responsive website, or even a mobile website, but your analytics
can show you if you need it or not.

Mobile advertising and the mobile Web is an ever-growing, ever-evolving target. It is important we make sure our businesses and brands stay relevant in this exploding content consumption medium. However, at the same time, it is important we understand how to apply these trends in a way that produces a return on investment. Responsive design is hot, but it may not necessarily be for you. There are other ways to make an impact in the mobile space. Evaluate internally or consult with an experienced partner on how best to position your brand in the mobile space, because one thing is for certain: people will be searching for you on their phones.

The integrated shopping experience is taking over.

Today’s shoppers expect more than just an in-store browsing and buying opportunity. Shoppers want to see the integration of digital, mobile, location, social and physical stores. They want help finding and purchasing what they need through their computers, mobile phones and in-store customer service. This means showcasing what’s possible in social media, on your website, in the mobile environment, and in your store. An integrated experience also means watching and predicting behaviors in order to deliver products that delight and surprise, while also winning loyalty and inspiring buzz. In fact, creating personal and engaging experiences through all these mediums are currently the best way
to differentiate.

More than half of the U.S. population is on Facebook.

Technology is ready to help brands differentiate and it’s evolving quickly, thus offering lots of opportunity for innovation. But many businesses are not implementing an integrated approach. For example, more than half of the U.S. population is on Facebook and just less than half of Facebook users engage with brands in the space. These numbers are high and yet many brands are still not taking advantage of the opportunity. Others are simply failing to provide a consistent experience across platforms (Web, mobile, social), and, thus, are not living up to the expectations of their customers.

A consistent message needs to be shared in all spaces or else shoppers can get confused.

At the same time, an integrated experience is more than just being present in various physical, digital and mobile spaces. A consistent message needs to be shared in all spaces or else shoppers can get confused. According to recent research by mBuys, 85 percent of people want an integrated shopping experience and only 50 percent feel they get one. In addition, both the approach and message need to be consumer-centric. Many brands, particularly retail brands, are still product-centric. The essential question becomes, how can the brand make the shopping experience easier for its customers? Digital and mobile opportunities that are integrated and consistent can help people find what they are looking for, understand how it will meet their needs, and pay a price they feel is fair.

Some businesses are already known for their integrated experiences. For example, Apple is consistently identified as being successful with its integrated experience. In fact, Apple stores promote online purchases rather than discourage it and are seen by many as an important model for others to emulate. Also, the Apple mobile application is consistently ranked high for ease-of-use by comScore. Another brand striving for an integrated experience is Sears with “Shop Your Way”—an online and mobile experience that offers exclusive coupons, hidden values, mobile shopping, loyalty rewards, and social experiences with friends, such as chatting.

Any brand not planning for an integrated customer experience will have difficulty attracting new customers and enticing revisits in the near future. Thoughtful implementation is necessary, and all experiences need to relate back to the brand identity. Success metrics must be established and followed. When pre-established metrics recognize a portion of an integrated experience as less successful, it should be reevaluated and fixed.

Integrated shopping experiences are enjoyable for many shoppers. Offering clear and consistent messaging throughout those platforms will help them find your products and build affinity for your brand. Ignoring the integration opportunity, or executing without consistency, could detract some shoppers from your brand. As more and more people become active in social, mobile and digital realms, they will be looking for you and how you can improve their experience shopping. Consequently, make sure everyone can find you and enjoys your integrated experience.