Reality

Brands are constantly changing the ways that they approach customers, they need to engage in new and different ways, this can be proven to be a challenge however, linking back to my blog on original thinking, innovation is becoming more and more common. An example of this can be seen with Papa John’s pizza partnering with TrackMyPizza.com, this way customers can track where their delivery is while its one the way, with an additional updates every 15 seconds. The drivers are equip with GSP enabled handsets, which is then coupled with the customers mobile phone number, allowing the data to be accessed. However other Pizza stores are catching up, with Dominos showing each step the pizza is in, from making, to in the oven to left the store, I admit it is not as advanced but it’s getting there.

Quick Response codes (QR codes) have been around for a while now, which is no surprise seeing as mobile marketing is at its highest, Jennifer Graham in 2011 wrote a blog names QR Codes De-coded (available at http://www.blogher.com/qr-codes-decoded?wrap=blogher-topics/internet&crumb=32408) she stated that QR codes were fist developed in Japan, 1994 and have been used in Asia for many years, they have only recently been used in the US and the UK.

These codes are similar to barcodes and are used alongside Smartphones, the consumers are then redirected to the content they desire. This method has been so successful because the majority of phones that are used are Smartphones such as the iPhones, Blackberry, Samsung Android and many more, most of which all include the application for scanning QR codes. 

QR codes create a mystery that can lure people into taking further action, when people have an interest in something they will take these few simple steps to see what’s behind the code, it has even gotten to the extent where Japan are using QR codes on gravestones for people to access information about the deceased (Michael Keferl 2008). Graham identified three important factors when developing a QR code; firstly, creating value, meaning customers should be rewarded with something like a voucher, a recipe, or some kind of story or picture. Secondly, knowing your audience, does QR codes suit your audience and thirdly, measure your results. However, like most things technology always changes and it can be expected that QR codes won’t last forever and will be improved further or soon be replaced by something else; we can already see these QR codes being developed to create ‘An Augmented Reality’.

An augmented reality has been defined as ‘The technology of combining real word images, video, etc. with computer-generated information and/or imagery’ (MacMillian Dictionary) this has created a new way in which customers can interact with a brand; Disney and Warner Bros have both signed up with Carlton Books, to accompany the release this year of Happy Feet 2 and Cars 2 with books and software that helps the pages come to life. Carlton Books have created Dinosaur Alive and Fairy Land Magic which can be seen on the link below:

There is no doubt in my mind that augmented reality is going to play a big role in our digital future, not only has it been applied to books but libraries, business cards and even pets. Bo Brinkman, a computer scientist at Miami University has developed an augmented reality application (ShelvAR) that can be used in libraries to find and return misplaced books. It shows great potential for the advertising and marketing industry, we can already see this as there is a Facebook page dedicated to Augmented Advertising: 

Augmented reality is already active in Japan, The Sekai Camera is a system for using online data to navigate around the real world in everyday life:

This application allows your phone to do a number of things; show new products, offers and sales, give directions and locations, give restaurant menus, leave messages for friends and families online and much, much more. This new technology has already been used through advertising by Mini and Doritos in order to enhance the customer experience. For instance, on Doritos Sweet Chilli packets it Brazil there is a symbol which can be activated online bringing to life a little Doritos monster named ‘Doritos lover’ then there are several different options for interaction with the little monster (Doritos.com).

 Despicable Me have used Augmented reality on one of their poster so that their audiences can view a poster over their Smartphone and the poster comes to life before the trailer plays then gives the viewer the opportunity to buy cinema tickets or order a copy of the DVD.

In the book Augmented reality: Placing artificial objects in real scenes (1998) R. Behringer mentioned that never before has any individual has as much information at their fingertips and due to the developments in data mining more efficient ways of accessing information has been found and developed. Augmented reality provides a better form of accessing information. In 2011 Marketing Week revealed that Nestle had created 26 million cereal boxes into 3D augmented reality video games, the boxes will be released in 53 countries and will be used to promote the new film Rio. 

Through the use of QR codes and Augmented reality have allowed consumers to interact with brands in ways that were never thought possible, by using different methods of communication brands have found a way to tackle members of their audience who before may have chosen to ignore adverts or other forms of interaction with brands, they are now being given an incentive to go out of their way to look for offers and become involved with brands, if done successfully will only have a positive effect on brands.

Ethics

Ethics and moral standards can be constantly questioned, we have all come across a situation where our morals have been tested and we have wondered what would be the ethical thing to do, the right thing to do. Whether this was when you found out your best friends boyfriend was sleeping with your other best friend, when you were accidentally given too much change, when ate your house mates eggs and decided it was better to pretend it wasn’t you or even when you chose to use get new plastic bags because you couldn’t be bothered to carry a bag for life. All in all, we are faced with situations every day which can be effected by ethics, so it is no surprise with the internet being such a big part of our lives that the concept of ethics online are a rising issue.

A Danish pharma company Novo Nordisk developed a tool in order to help people make ethical decisions, it’s to save people from being stuck in ‘a grey area’ and not being able to make a decision using games and questions to enhance both knowledge and to put to use personal experience.

There have been many ethical issues associated with online communications; we are constantly obsessing with privacy issues and the actions of other online, as well as the actions of brands around us. Brands that act ethically are more likely to be revisited and hold a better status from their customers; an example can be seen from Vodafone who has a high ethical code and corporate responsibility. They introduced moderators into popular chat rooms and increased the trust adults had in Vodafone and kept customers loyal.

Dataveillance: ‘the systematic monitoring of people's actions or communications through the application of information technology’ (Clarke, 2003).

Dataveillance can be used to achieve ‘Behavioural Targeting’ within the UK has been seen as potential for creating a closer relationship with consumers and improving campaign performance. It also leads to more in dept consumer profiling. Addvantage Media conducted a report (2010), they found that the majority of UK consumers though behavioural targeting to be irrelevant, can you blame them? Who would want their behaviour online to be tracked right? I know I’m not a fan of it, even if it does mean that when I’m browsing the web the dress that I was looking at a week ago pops up and reminds me that I wanted to buy it, which having limited funds, acted as more of a hindrance than a benefit. Although we can see the use of Dataveillance is becoming inevitable within consumer communication as we are seeing a decline in traditional forms of advertising, however, brands need to be aware of some of the downfalls associated with advertising so specific and creating more niche advertising.

However it can be argues that dataveillance can give brands the ability to abuse data, picking two things of no relation and find a connection that can be used to their advantage, data such as religion, spending habits, interests and hobbies as well as locations and postcodes, when connections are made such as more religious people live in a specific area they can be more specific in their advertising. Data is everywhere and can be easily accessed. This method also carries certain implications such as privacy issues, and questions like who holds the right to weigh up what is wrong and what is right? So while it can make for effective advertising it can be intrusive to the individuals being observed.

The Virtual Public Sphere

In Habermas study ‘The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere’(1989) originally described the public sphere as a new opening in the social and political fabric of Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. The idea of the public sphere was formed when coffee shops, societies and salons became the centre for discussions; this allowed the voices of those whose voices were not heard regarding important issues. The public sphere basically refers to any space or area where people can discuss as a group any problems they might encounter and how they would like to influence these issues.

The question is often asked ‘Does the Internet create democracy?’  Dahlgren (1995) divided the communication in modern democracies into two sections:  

·        A democratised media, or participatory and alternative media including computer-mediated communication; and

·        Social movements and groups using these media actively for social change.

Not only has the potential of the public sphere been recognised but advertisers but also by the consumers, relating back to Seth Godin’s talk on Tribes which can be accessed on TED, he identifies groups that are made online over similarities or debates that occur online. The revival of the public sphere has been achieved through activities such as blogging and debate forums. An example of a public sphere can be seen on the website Slashdot (The original public sphere) which runs under the heading ‘News for Nerds’, although it has been recognised as many different things including a online community and a massive blog it has also been recognised as a online public sphere due to it’s norms, codes and manners.
The word public in public sphere refers to the idea that people are not speaking privately but are speaking openly in order for people to contradict or agree with them, they have the potential to change situations or public policies. Dahlgren 2001 identified that publics are identified around similar issues, using the theory that there may be public spheres within the overall public sphere where they create their own opinions and social norms. Zizi Papacharissi (2002) identified three issues associated with the public sphere and the Internet, for example the Internet allows for a great deal of storage however it holds limitations as to literacy levels and who has access. The issues of audience fragmenting are also raised and thirdly the online sphere has the potential of becoming corrupt. 

Privacy

More than 40 million people in the UK regularly use the internet, with 13 million able to access the internet any time they like. 3o million of us are on Facebook alone, imagine all the information released on social networking sites, on online dating sites and online shops. The internet now holds more than 5 billion gigabytes of data.

In 2010 2,100 hours of footage was uploaded on to YouTube (Hypebot.com 2010). The amount of information we release about ourselves via the internet is unimaginable. So while the internet is changing out social norms it is also allowing us to live through our real live but also through our online selves. In a world so advanced in technology privacy issues are to be expected, in a world where information can be hacked or shared with unwanted parties. Google came across a problem when they uploaded Streetview which had captured images of people urinating in public places, being arrested and even visiting adult entertainment shops, which understandably cause a few complaints, it even lead to residents of a village near Milton Keynes forcing a driver to turn around and leave because they were uncomfortable with the camera peering over their hedges (BBC, 2011). Google street view also encountered issues when it was discovered that the cars used for Google Streetview had wrongly collected information had sent over encrypted Wi-Fi networks such as passwords, addresses and other data. John Simpson, from the Consumer Watchdog, told the BBC “This information was leaking out and they picked it up. If you are going to broadcast your e-mail on an open Wi-Fi, don’t be surprised of someone picks it up.”


Christopher Poole, spoke of anonymity online during a TED talk (February 2010), he spoke of Dusty the Cat, when a young man posted a video of him abusing a cat, which did not go down well with people who viewed it, in an attempt to do something about it people on the internet were able to match parts from the video and find his MySpace profile, within 48 hours he was identified and arrested. This just shows that being active on so many sites and pages we are entering into a world where there is a lack of privacy that go unnoticed.
http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for_anonymity_online.html


There are two legislations that cover privacy on the internet. The Data Protection Act which governs how parties use data both on and off-line and the e-Privacy Directive which governs how data is handled as well as how information is gathered, for example consumers now have to give consent for cookies to be imported on to computers. As bad as it feels for our personal details to be know by unwanted parties we seem to be laid back with the information we give out, even on social networking sites we don’t realise the extent our photo’s, plans and where about are all available for people to see. My Friend informed me that she walked past a girl browsing through my Facebook pictures in the library and it was not anybody she recognised, this made me feel as if my privacy had been invaded even though I have chosen to put the pictures up and I am fully aware that people can see them, I just don’t register that people actually look through them and how easily they are accessed.  
As our technology increases so will the issues that develop regarding privacy, in order for people stay active online they have to feel certain that their information will be kept private and that they are safe, to keep up with these changes the government will need to enforce stricter legislations involving data and privacy.  

Product placement

As of 28^th February 2010 Ofcom will now be enforcing new rules, making product placement legal within the UK, on television and other forms of media. This Morning was the first Uk television show to feature product placement after signing a £100, 00 deal with Nescafe for a three month deal promoting their Gusto coffee machine. The coffee machine will be part of the This Morning set.

Product placement in America has been legal for a long period of time, we can see blatant example of product placement within music videos such as Lady Gaga’s telephone:

Lady gaga used numerous products such a Virgin Mobile, Diet Coke, Polaroid, Miracle Whip and many more. In the song Beautiful Dangerous by Fergie ft Slash released this year, we can clearly see the presence of the energy drink Monster.

And in American made films for example in I-Robot there is a large focus on the converse that Will Smith is wearing even though there is no relationship between them and the film:

Jay Chiat, an advertising designer stated ‘If you really think about it, when watching television you have product all the time’ So we can question whether the new laws on product placement will make a great deal of difference to entertainment, even though there will be certain restrictions with these new laws for example alcohol, tobacco, gambling medicines, baby milk and unhealthy foods can’t be advertised using product placement. Product placement is an opening for shows and advertising to spend and make a lot of money and with product positioning. However, there is risk of these shows just becoming one long advertisement for various products, and alongside the newly allowed 6 minute advertisement breaks, will our entertainment be dominated by adverts? And will the quality of our experience be reduced?

Do you think product placement will affect your enjoyment of TV programmes?
64%	Yes, I think it will be a distraction
36%	No, it's a necessary way for broadcasters to make money

The Guardian revealed that a poll done in 2011 concluded that 64% of people that answered though product placement would be a distraction and 36% though it was a necessary way for broadcasters to make money. Well known singer Rihanna, told NME   "I don’t like things to be so commercial. I hate product placement in my videos. Videos should just tell the story of the song. With product placement it becomes this big ad campaign. I just don't like that. Sometimes we have to, for whatever political reason, but it's never my first choice.”  Just from this statement we can see that even the people making money from product placement can see the negative effects it has on the content of the media. I personally don’t think that product placement is that much of a bad thing because we are always belong presented with some form of advertising, as long as it doesn’t become the main focus for programmes.

original thinking

So what is innovation? Innovation can be defined as a creation, a product of the mind or a new way of doing something that has been done before, within advertising innovative ideas are always valued. Over time brands can often blend in and become part of ‘the clutter’, we see countless advertisements that use the same type of music, images and overall campaign strategy that it can be hard to differentiate between brands.

 With the development of new technology and more freedom for brands to be braver and outrageous it is easier for brands to stand out, but when all these different brands are trying to come out of the clutter and get noticed. Virgin are a brand that have really separated themselves from any other bland like them, they have approached audiences in such a unique way that everybody, whether they are customers or not will be able to describe Virgin in a similar way, looking at their newest advertisement for Virgin Atlantic we can see how they have managed to portray themselves so differently:

The newest virgin ad shows Virgin Atlantic to be not just the average air lines but a sexy, sophisticated and unique air line. However the Australian comedian Pam-Ann has used this basis of the Virgin Atlantic to promote her new series in Australia, this was because of the relationship she has with British Airways, participating a online mini series.

However, Virgin is not the only brand to use creativity in order to promote their brand, T-mobile, with their dancing/singing and Sony with the bouncing balls, just recently Google Chrome popped up on my friends laptop asking her to download it and instead of having the option no it said stop bugging me, although only a small change showed innovation and shows a way of doing things differently.

Another example is The People’s Super Market on Channel Four where Arthur Potts Dawson documents his attempt to start up a super market and during episode two attempts to advertise on a small budget so they decided to paint arrows from their nearest Tesco store to their own store, this saved them a lot of money and worked as that day the number of people registered as customers had doubled showing that being innovative really pays off. However the government did almost charge him £2,500 fine for every arrow as a result he had to remove them himself  so, although they didn’t stay around for long, the arrows did the job and attracted people in an unusual way. The video is avaliable on 4OD.

Mobile transactions

The 6^th March 1983, Motorola launched the first mobile telephone, the DynaTAC 8000X, and was predominately a rich kids toy costing $3995 and weighting a unbelievable 28 ounces.

Who would have thought that less that 30 years later that would have turned into this:

Since then a large amount of research have been put into developing mobile technology and to date there are now 48 million mobile phone users in Britain, and over 5 billion mobile users globally. There are now a large range of mobiles available however; mobiles are no longer just a portable telephone, since the development of SMS the technology behind mobiles have developed and now have replaced computers, cameras, mp3’s, note pads, maps and many more, in addition to this manufacturers have now started to replace our wallets, by partnering with banks they plan to link our phones directly to our debit accounts and use a simple swipe method of payment so cash is not required. The time online stated that industry insiders predict that this advancement could arrive in the UK in around a year’s time. Although research shows that people would be more likely to leave their wallet at home rather than their mobile phones, however when bring out both its bad enough losing your mobile and still having your cash or bank cards but how many people would like to risk losing both, I can recall many times Ive been out and lost my mobile but been so happy cause i still had my money to hand, and the security issues we as customers would have would need to be fully addressed.  

 We are moving far into the 4^th generation of mobile technology where phones are now ‘SmartPhone’s’ and are cheaper to own and use. This enables poorer countries to access the internet and includes them in the development of technology so communicating is as accessible to poorer people as it is in richer countries. While this has developed the communication channels available to people it has also opened up new doors for the advertising community, mobile advertising is now the future, like TV years ago we still haven’t discovered its full potential but it is being developed. We can now look up places online for places to eat or to visit, Marco Veremis, President of UpStream, a mobile marketing consultancy stated "We are at the start, there's lots of enthusiasm, and the industry is set to hit $20billion this year," 

However, there are also some limitations that need to be considered when advertising over mobile phones, mobiles are personal belongings and some people may not be keen on being advertised to over the vehicle they use to communicate with family and friends. The challenge is to advertise over mobile phones in a way that it doesn’t look like advertising.