by Shift6 Admin 8 May 2008
It’s pretty clear that engaging an audience via mobile advertising requires a different approach than through many other media. Simply sending an interruptive text straight to the device in somebody’s pocket isn’t likely to be received well; it’s likely to be seen as spam. Connecting with a mobile audience requires marketers to understand that they’re not sending users simple advertising, they’re sending them content.
Take, for instance, the SMS sent to Blyk members back in January from the UK government youth agency Connexions. The campaign didn’t just send users texts with a call to action, rather it sought to engage them by asking them to respond to a number of introductory questions as a lead-in to a conversation. Accordingly, the campaign got a 36% response rate — far higher than most standard, interruptive campaigns.
The campaign offered users something of value in exchange for their response, and that’s a Read more >>
Chris highlighted this PSFK article on how young people valued the sharing of an experience more than living the experience itself.
Like the tourist, they want to share. But today they share that memory instantly via email and MMS to their friends on Facebook or readers of their blog. They share so that other people can see the photo of a moment that they actually didn’t see. And the motivation? For social status: to bolster the image their friends and network have of them.
I wonder if equally, Blyk could become something to be shared and that the action of sharing becomes something of value in itself and not only the service. A service you could virally send to your friends as quickly as an MMS ? What would that look like?
by Alison Black 30 April 2008
Mobile web, the hard way
Image from Keith Waters (via Paul Walsh)
A talk by Bill Moggridge at last year’s Innovationsforum Interaktionsdesign conference included some telling video footage, of a researcher in Tokyo setting up and using an account on her phone to buy a soft drink from a vending machine. Thirty five minutes and many instructions later, the drink is in her hand. Bill used this example to illustrate the challenge of designing web-based services for small, multi-purpose devices, such as the mobile phone. He suggested that exemplary design solutions, such as the iPod, evolve over several years: iTunes software for downloading music to computers was proved before the iPod device itself was launched, and it was a couple of years more before iTunes store was added, first on the Mac and then later extended Read more >>
Doing a little research on social isolation (Hikikomori being one of the obvious ones) I stumbled into this perplexing and somewhat interesting term: Twixters.
Twixters are typically young adults (ages 18-29) who live with their parents or are otherwise not independent by other means, primarily financial. If they are employed, it is often unsteady and low-paying. They may have just recently exited college or high school, or recently entered their first career. This is a cultural shift in Western households. Historically, whenever a member of the nuclear family becomes an adult, they are expected to become independent.
I wondered whether current 16-24s would eventually get a generation tag of their own? If I was writing such a description, I would perhaps include the following terms:
- hyper-connected
- no social borders
- internet natives
- multi-taskers
- demand the best from services, products and media
- image conscious
- know when they are being targeted
Anything else that I’ve forgotten? Comment below!
by Inma Martinez 21 April 2008
There is something not quite groovy when two large corporations launch something that has to do more with emotions and art than with bars of soap at 3 cents, or a 15% discount on design jeans…. Madonna left Warner earlier this year to continue her money-making career - and dancefloor filler tunes, with an outdoors events company whose name says very little to the little people - me, who go to concerts and gigs. Reason? Money in Music at the Moment is Made on Merchandise …. mmmmmm . . . And less on the Music tracks…. I’m on Vodafone, so lucky me, I’m one of the punters that this week can download a new track from her album every day. Yeepee-Hey. “Candy Shop” is the first available jewel, and it’s not bad, so I set it as my ringtone of choice. Tomorrow, Read more >>
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