Chemistry2011 trends

2011

WHAT’S

NEXT?

Produced by Chemistry Communications Group, for more information please contact Omaid Hiwaizi, [email protected]

2011. A year of further experimentation with a variety of

platforms and experiences that enable brands to form

even closer bonds with consumers | Creative ideas will

be about delivering brand experiences that people want

to engage with and share, and media should be planned

around extending the narrative of those experiences |

Digital campaigns will begin on any one of a multitude of

screens and drive people away from their desk tops,

their lap tops, out their homes and into the real and

augmented world for rewards, prizes or enhanced status

| But as the web becomes even more social, niche

applications will help consumers retreat from the

overload and regain their privacy | Hacktevism has made

us question internet security, and more people will think

before clicking, submitting, subscribing and sharing. |

Brands will have to stop adding to the noise and seek

new ways to add value to consumers’ lives.

Three rich

themes

1. Rich experiences are

the best advertising

2. The internet gets a lot

more social

3. Mobile bridges the

digital and real world

divide

Not content with the 30 second ad

anymore, brands are venturing into

more interesting territory that

generates word of mouth,

spreadability or enhanced

experiences. We expect this is just

the beginning of far more

experimentation - and imitation - as

brands seek to cut through the clutter

and make their messaging stand out.

Rich

experiences

are the best

advertising

Fun

experiences

Volkswagen’s Fun Theory campaign

is based on the idea that behaviour

can be changed for the better by

engaging people in game-like

mechanics that make changing

behaviour fun. From turning stairs

into piano keys and bottle banks

into arcade games to rewarding

people for obeying the speed limit

through a lottery, Volkswagen has

shown that inducing people to

modify their behaviour with fun

mechanics is an effective and

engaging approach.

Cinematic

experiences

BMW delivered a cinematic

‘afterimage’ in its latest big screen

commercial. Using the concept of

the afterimage that occurs when

you stare into the sun and then

close your eyes, the BMW logo

flashed at the end of the ad as it

instructed the viewers to close their

eyes. The BMW logo was

emblazoned onto the audience’s

inner eyelids.

St John’s Ambulance relied

on theatrics to dramatise the

importance of knowing first

aid, with a ‘member’ of the

audience rushing down to

the front of the cinema and

the appearing in the film to

save the life of a young child

choking on popcorn.

Digital

projections

Ralph Lauren delivered the

‘World’s first 4-Dimensional

experience’ on its flagship store

building in Bond Street (72 000

views of the official video on

YouTube to date), while the

Toyota Auris Hybrid had a digital

3D make over in front of a live

audience in Shoreditch (130 000

views of the official video on

YouTube to date).

Social media

experiences The Old Spice guy’s video responses to a range

of high profile Twitter users was a pioneering,

real-time, social media campaign that

generated over 100M views in a week,

and was the only branded video

content to make it into

YouTube’s Top 10 Most

Watched Videos in 2010.

Hot on the heels of the Old Spice guy’s video responses

was Skittles Mob the Rainbow, who used Facebook as

a platform for their Super Mega Rainbow Update

experience that saw operators reading out Facebook

status updates that had been submitted. Orange

followed suit shortly afterwards with their singing

Tweetagrams. What next we wonder…

Video on the internet is not yet

delivering the interactive experiences

that other formats are. But with the

rise of clickable video, and a few

interesting (creative and commercial)

applications of the technology in the

past year, we expect to see more

commercial and creative executions

appearing. Clickable video offers new

opportunities for extended narratives,

deeper interaction and better insight

into those interactions.

One excellent example is Tipp-ex,

who gave viewers of their ‘Hunter

Shoots Bear’ video the chance to

change the outcome.

A richer

video

experience

Other good examples of brands

using clickable video: Hot Wheels

enabled viewers to customize a

car while the video progressed,

Google Chrome’s Fastball game

allowed participants to interact with

a video that incorporated Twitter

and Google Maps, and French

Connection’s YouTique lets you

click to buy from their style guide

videos.

Delivering a rich experience

• Have a clear view of what you’re trying to achieve

• Align with commercial objectives

• Emphasise the human aspects of the brand essence

(if these don’t exist, it won’t work)

• Deliver an experience that your customers will actually want

to engage with

• At least two of Entertaining, Interesting and Useful

• Make it easy to engage and share

• It doesn’t have to be big or expensive, but rich and

rewarding

The internet

gets a lot more

social

Everything is social now. From the

ubiquity of the Facebook Like

button and our reliance on

Youtube for bite-sized

entertainment and information to

the pricing pressure brought about

by social shopping and the

mobilising effect of platforms like

Twitter, the social web is part of

our lives and, like it or scared of it,

it isn’t going anywhere. On the

contrary, the party is just getting

started.

Google has had varying levels of success with its attempts to get social. Google

Wave has been shelved for the moment, but Google Real Time Search is proving

to be a useful tool. Earlier this year Mashable predicted the search giant would

launch its own social network, Google Me, although the caveat was that it might

just add a social layer to its existing products and services. At the same time, Apple

has incorporated its social Game Center on the iPhone and Ping (‘a social network

for music’) into iTunes 10. As the web gets even more social, the opportunities for

brands to connect one-on-one with consumers become even more exciting.

Social

browsing

What’s next in the evolution of the

social web? Rockmelt thinks it’s social

browsing. The new social browser is

designed to let users share everything

they do with the friends on Facebook

and Twitter. According to the company,

'Today, the browser connects you to

your world. Why not build your world

right into your browser?’ Use Facebook

Connect and Rockmelt together and

you can see all your friends online and

share with them in a single window.

Aside from being social, Rockmelt

wants to help you managed the

information you receive by serving you

up only a limited number of Google

search results (ten).

Bing & Facebook

hope to make search

social

It’s not just new players trying to influence the way we

navigate the web. In deals struck last year, Facebook and

Twitter data will be fed into Bing search results, where

appropriate, to deliver a more personalised search

experience based on what a searcher’s friends have liked.

The move is likely to boost ‘search underdog’ Microsoft’s

share of search and usher in a new way of searching the web

for users.

Pricing

Pandemonium

Thanks to group buying, member sales,

local discounts, flash sales and dynamic

pricing, everyone from the global

supermarket chain to the local

hairdresser can inject some fun and

sociability into their price promotions, and

everything from cars to cardigans can be

sold at a discount commensurate with the

interest generated. Consumers win,

businesses win and brands win.

Expect bigger and better things from

Groupon 2.0, including stores setting up

their own presence on the site and

DealFeed, allowing users to set up

personalized deal alerts based on what

they’re interested in.

Member sales from websites

like vente-privee bring

affordable luxury to

consumers. Walmart offers

flash sales on Facebook if

enough people click the like

button. And sites like

threadless.com are using

Twitter and Facebook to

promote limited time deals.

The internet

isn’t just social:

It’s coming

soon to a TV

near you.

A new generation of television sets, set top

boxes and Blu-Ray players are using apps to

put the web and social media on our TV

screens, further boosting the ubiquity of the

internet in our lives and establishing it as the

primary supplier of entertainment in the home.

Enabled by, among others, Samsung’s Blu-Ray

player, Panasonic’s VieraCast and Google TV,

soon we will all be surfing with our remotes and

making internet consumption as much a family

or group affair as TV always has been. With the

entire consumer journey, from seeing a TV spot

to visiting a website to completing the

transaction, now being done on a single screen

with multiple windows via a remote control,

marketers will have to pay even more attention

to their entire engagement architecture and a

the delivery of a seamless experience.

1. More brands offering ‘Facebook Exclusives’ – news, products, offers, competitions, limited editions, opportunities to

participate etc - to fans of brand and product pages. Facebook Exclusives offers brands an opportunity to engage in genuine

value exchange, so that consumers have a reason to follow them on Facebook.

2. More experimentation with Facebook Places. Now the world’s largest social network offers opportunities to engage in

location based marketing, we expect forward looking brands and local businesses to start taking more chances in this area.

3. Whether it’s to allow fans to engage in social shopping, or for the convenience of completing transactions without having to

leave Facebook, Facebook Commerce offers a multitude of businesses the opportunity to sell direct from their Facebook

page.

4. Competition for share of news feeds hots up as Tweet streams, foursquare, Farmville actions and Facebook check-ins

are all integrated into Facebook’s live feed. Competition is even stiffer as more brands offer incentives to fan their page. The

Hide Feed button to the left of statuses is subtle but more users are becoming familiar with blocking out the news they’re not

interested in.

5. Some businesses have been delivering real-time customer service via their Facebook page for a while now, but we

expect more of this as in-Facebook support and customer centre platforms like Get Satisfaction are adopted by more

companies.

With over 500 million active users, more than 700 billion

minutes spent on the site per month, and the second

most visited website globally after Google, Facebook is a

microcosm of sorts with its own emerging trends. With

the help of Mashable.com, we have five Facebook

predictions for the coming months and years.

BUT is it all

getting a bit

too social?

Retreating from

the social web?

As the internet and the social web continue

their seemingly unstoppable march towards

ubiquity, there are signs that we could be in for

a rebalancing shift too. From high profile Twitter

Suicides and every day Facebook departures to

renowned bloggers shutting down their

operations, some people at least are finding

that it’s time to retreat from the all-consuming

world of social media.

Paul Adams, who works in the UX team at

Google, highlighted the differences between

our online and offline social networks in his

much-shared presentation The Real Life Social

Network, pointing out that while the average

number of Facebook friends is around 180, the

average American only has between 6 and 10

people they see or speak to weekly.

Cue Path.com, a new social network that limits

every user to 50 friends. That number is

apparently scientifically informed rather than

randomly chosen. Could this be the beginning

of social media ‘cocooning’? Or an even bigger

trend in which we strive to better manage the

information overload of the internet as well our

own contributions towards it?

Less is more,

again

As social settings become more pervasive

across the internet, more questions will be

asked about social media’s role in our lives

and more emphasis will be placed on

privacy and being able to ‘switch off’. We

expect the concept of the Web of Intent to

gain more traction, especially among the

digitally savvy.

While Facebook is helping users to manage

their profiles and what is shared with whom

in their networks with Facebook Groups,

DeleteMe is offering a service to erase

personal information from the web. In a sign

that users are reducing the information they

receive Who Unfollowed Me is an

application that helps Twitter users to see

who has stopped receiving their tweets.

As consumers modify their online behaviour

and retreat from the information overload,

brands will need to think about modifying

their behaviour too. It won’t be enough to

post a daily Facebook status on a brand

page any longer. Only the most value-adding

voices will be allowed to be heard if the

future is indeed about the Web of Intent.

Getting social

• The explosion in social media is both exhilarating and frightening

• There’s no single process to decide which of the multitude of

things that you could do, you should do.

• Start with what you know you know

• Decide what you want to achieve from your social media

activities –awareness, engagement, customer insight, sales

etc – and have realistic expectations

• Understand how your customers want to interact with you in

this space - listen to and engage with them

• Recognise that there aren’t hard and fast rules, so be prepared for

some platforms and approaches to fail.

• Measure qualitatively as well as quantitatively

• Be mindful of the difference between scale and quality of

interaction

2010 was the year that mobile

went main stream. Hardware and

software advances, application

developments, enhanced user

experiences, brand or business

initiatives and rapid consumer

adoption finally came together en

mass, providing numerous ways to

communicate and interact while on

the move. From rewards and

incentives to games and educational

or informative applications, marketers

now have a variety of ways to

connect with consumers wherever

they are, enhancing experiences by

bridging the real and the digital world.

Mobile bridges

the digital and

real world divide

Tablet PCs

drive on-the-

go browsing

Spurred on by an enhanced user

experience, more brands are seeking

to connect with high net audiences

through the iPad. From Burberry

handing them to shoppers in-store to

view the new collection online to

Cadillac’s partnership with Cool

Hunting to produce their iPad app in

exchange for exclusive branded

presence to Richard Branson’s iPad-

only publication, Project Magazine,

available from the app store for £1.79

an issue. We even saw the Xtra

Factor presenters using iPads to

connect to the at-home audience in

real time on the live television show.

Tablet PCs are the bridge between

the better experience of browsing on

a PC and the convenience of the

mobile internet, and growth

predictions of tablet computing are

exciting.

The games

brands play

Globally, 350 million people spend a

combined 3 billion hours per week

playing (video) games, according to

FastCompany. So it’s no wonder that

marketers are using game mechanics

to drive and reward loyalty, and

consumers are taking up the

challenge. The rise in smart phone

usage and usability and on-the-go

connectivity means that game

mechanics can be the bridge between

the online and the virtual world.

Foursquare was one of the first

movers in this arena with their badges

and mayorships rewarding check ins,

but incorporating gaming mechanics

via mobile phone technology is

something we expect to see a lot

more in the future. One notable stunt

from the past year was Jimmy Choo’s

Catch a Choo which saw dozens of

people scrambling to win a pair of

Jimmy Choo trainers every time the

shoes checked into a new location on

Foursquare.

Where is

everyone?

As brands and advertisers find

smart new ways to reward people

for their data, we expect location-

based social networking to go

mainstream. Facebook Places

and Foursquare have got the

lion’s share of the press about

location-based services, but new

platforms like the GoldRun app,

which ‘enables users to see,

interact with and take pictures of

GPS-linked virtual objects

positioned in the real world’ (while

guided by brands, products and

celebrities and rewarded with

virtual gifts and status symbols)

are also looking for new ways to

engage and reward users.

Radio-frequency identification

(RFID) technology is also set to

boost the use of mobile phones

for payment and loyalty rewards

including promotional offers and

coupons at the point of purchase.

Keeping

customers

coming back

for more

Less of a game and more a way to build

loyalty - through promotions and incentives

delivered to customers’ mobile phones at the

point of purchase - is the incorporation of

Radio-frequency identification (RFID)

technology. Dairy Queen in the US has been

one of the early adopters of this technology,

giving free RFID tags to customers to attach

to their mobile phones in exchange for point

of purchase rewards.

Another development in point of sale

rewards is Taggo. Still in its test phase,

Taggo brings fan recognition to the point of

sale with a tap and go feature that lets

customers enjoy Facebook fan benefits at

real-world shops and businesses.

Consumers become a fan of a favorite brand

on Facebook, then turn on tap and go on the

brand's Facebook page. By registering their

transit card or other contactless card, they

can simply tap at the point of sale for fan

discounts and other special privileges.

Scantastic

applications

on mobile

phones

Mobile scanning is growing in

popularity, and applications vary

from winning competitions

(stickybits.com) to comparing

prices (Shop Savvy) to updating

your shopping list (Tesco phone

app) to visual search via Google

Goggles.

And while QR codes have been big

in Japan for years, we are

suddenly seeing more use of them

in advertising in the UK, with

Waitrose going so far as to feature

a QR code at the end of their

festive season TV ad. With mobile

surfing on the rise, QR codes offer

great opportunities to extend

marketing messages to the web

via a seamless user journey and

provide exclusive competitions

and offers.

Integrating mobile

• This is the first year that mobile internet and geolocation

technologies are sufficiently widespread for interesting

mobile ideas to be executed at scale

• Consider how your existing activities can be extended to

mobile and allocate budget for this

• Ideas needs to be rich – a mix of useful, interesting,

entertaining, and simple.

• Incorporate mobile as part of the whole user journey,

understanding where, when and why consumers might

connect with your brand on the move

• Remember that consumers usually only share their data

when there’s a clear value exchange in their favour

• Rewards can be both tangible and intangible