Will 4G make Mobile Ads good? (Context means we'll be able to do new things with ads soon. Surely.)

So as a follow on to the basic questions about 4G in my last post, I have a hypothesis around 4G and the future of Mobile Adverts.  It’s a future vision of advertising and it's about the potential of 4G, and the need for 4G to help us (all) get a better experience from mobile ads.

Some ads work and some ads don't.  Ads work in print: for example in a glossy magazine. The glossy ads kinda match up to the experience of the rest of the magazine. And people still seem happy to pay to read the magazine and to flip through the ads too. Ads work on TV: they interrupt the experience of watching your favourite soap opera, but they don't require you to do anything new; you're still "sat back watching the box".  But ads don’t work on mobile.  Ads don’t work on mobile because they’re not native to it, they’re at odds with it.  I read a great article about 'nativeness' in ads - over here at The Awl which explains some of these concepts and others in more depth.  But for me the future is not about removing ads altogether rather finding new ways in which ads can be useful, informative, enjoyable, and profitable (for advertisers and for us customers). 

So mobile can provide us with so much more data about where someone is, what they're doing, who they're doing it with and so on, so I wonder why mobile ads are still so unintelligent. For mobile ads to work smarter it will take context, and that's about location, time, proximity (to something / someone / somewhere), what's just happened, what usually happens, the weather, the news, my preferences about where I shop, what I buy, what's on my wish list, what I searched for but not what I bought already, what I may be interested in, what my friends are interested in and so on. 

Mobile can provide us with that but not on 3G. It's just not reliable or fast enough. And at the moment we still don't rely on 3G all day long as we'd have no battery left and we'd likely run out of our ever dwindling data allocation. When we get good 4G, I can see huge potential to reach customers with ads and insights, and content - in real time, and with real relevancy.

In my talk at CW500 last week the crowd shared concerns about 'being bombarded'. But 4G is also about greater control, and not about being bombarded.  For mobile users if we can set up preferences to allow certain data to be captured, we can also set up preferences about what type of ads, content and communications we receive; and when and where we receive them. 4G becomes a bigger pipe then - of data outbound and relevance inbound.

If I'm in a certain location, say I've just left work and on my walk to the tube I'm waking through Covent Garden, it's 6.15 pm, the weather's good (I'm not in a rush), I've been paid recently, it's Thursday or Friday evening, my friend's birthday is this weekend, I've been trying to buy her a gift online for days now but haven't then maybe I'm open to certain types of ads. What if, knowing the value of the gifts I've been searching for, and the fact that this is now my spare time, around shops open for at least another hour, and I'm in no rush, and I have money this week, and I need to buy something soon, maybe I'm now really open to suggestions. And I'm in Covent Garden so anything that makes it easy for me will likely work and be very welcomed. What if these retailers are able to target me (a very personalised me, not a segmented me) and are able to offer me just a small discount or value add offer to entice me into their shop? 

For all of us on both sides of the customer / retailer fence this is the holy grail of advertising - an ad or an offer just for 'me'.  In terms of data we're not far off, but for this to work for people in their daily lives we need that faster better connection. We need systems to be real time. We need everything to be more relevant.  So do I think 4G will force better ads? No. But hopefully a few clever innovators will make this happen and then the rest will follow suit.

"Where's all the 4G fuss?" and other 4G questions

I was asked to talk at a Computer Weekly CW500 Club event about 4G recently. The event took place last week.  Ahead of the event I wondered "why is there so little fuss about 4G?" I don't see it baked into many Mobile Strategies, apart from the general assumption that things get faster and better over time. There seems to be a lack of anticipation and excitement, and I wonder if there should be a little more fuss about 4G.

So I agreed to give a short talk on 4G because I think it's a super exciting area even though it's not something the retail or loyalty industries have really worked out yet; or anyone else for that matter.  And if I'm honest I also lack personal experience of using 4G itself. In fact, this is the second time recently I've suffered from not actually using what I'm talking about (and as I consider myself a tech early adopter, this is particularly shocking).   I use an iPhone 5 so my talks about NFC are rather abstract and I'm on O2 so I haven't moved to a 4G connection yet either on EE.   But I have seen it in action and I must say it's pretty amazing. You could argue it's "just a faster connection" but when you see that "just a faster connection" you quickly realise that speed delivers far more than just being able to do things more quickly.   Perhaps it means something far more exciting for the mobile commerce, mobile retail and mobile loyalty space.

I often talk at conferences about the convergence of these technologies and commercial opportunities they bring; and I think most people in this space share an understanding of the potential that is created when new thinking in this space collides.  So how will 4G impact how we shop, how we interact with loyalty programmes, how we engage with brands, retail experiences and so on?  If loyalty is about connecting the dots surely the move of everything to mobile means that 4G means we can connect more dots, more quickly?  So my talk at the CW event really asks more questions than it answers but I want to also write about these questions here in order to set my thoughts out, and hopefully gather a response or two.

1. If our mobile phones (let's imagine 12-24 months in the future) have a 4G connection, will we do more with them? And what?
2. If our connections currently are 1. At Home 2. At Work and 3. In between and 'everywhere else' will that 'everywhere else' connection replace the At Home and the At Work network?
3. Will we need super fast broadband at home any more? 
4. Are we currently 'over served' with our home broadband connections (do we only use a small portion of what we pay for)?
5. And is 4G 'good enough' for at home use?
6. Will we stop using home broadband?
7. And if we stop using home broadband, will we also stop needing a fixed line phone?
8. And will we also stop getting our TV content from those 'triple play' companies such as Sky and Virgin Media?
9. If we rely more, or even totally on our 4G connections and less or not at all on home broadband, will the network operators increase their power and profits?
10. And their roles in our lives?
11. And our shopping and content consumption and entertainment?
12. And if we rely on our own 4G connection 'all of the time' will we need publicly accessible wifi hotspots anymore?
13. But what happens if our family members don't have 4G but still want access at home or on the move?
14. So what will we be doing in a new way / what changes in behaviour will take place?
15. Will we not only access services faster, but consume more?
16. Will this increased consumption of digital be limited to the things we do already (e.g. more Facebook, ore twitter) or will we consumer new things, more video, more time-shift TV for example?
17. And if we make these changes, what else changes, do we have new expectations from advertising and of how brands interact with us?

(See my next post for more thoughts on this).

It's that annoying WWDC ticket sales day again

Hmmm, today's the annoying day of the year in which I think a lot about how amazing it'd be to book a ticket to WWDC, think about it all day, but don't.  Then they sell out in 10 minutes flat, after which I get to feel better that the decision is all over and there's no hope until next year now.

Reasons to go

1. It's amazing! …and Apple will likely launch some stunning new ideas and concepts. Note I don't say 'product', there may be products, but I have a feeling there'll be really stunning new stuff this June that in future (and not instantly) will change how we do *something*. I don't even know what but it's still exciting. TV maybe? Wallet & Payments maybe? 
2. It's a week (at least) in sunny California.
3. I can hook up with my cool international friends I haven't seen for ages.
4. I'll learn new stuff and be inspired by new possibilities.

Reasons not to go

1. From the UK it's expensive (and I am crap at less-than-bsuiness-class flights and less-than-4*-hotels).  Although I do have a premium economy upgrade from Virgin Atlantic...
2. I was saving up holiday until July / August.
3. It's not in my work budget so that isn't an option.
4. I'm not a developer!  (Probably one of the biggest reasons as I'd be taking a place for someone who would benefit more.) Although I could just go and hang around for a week - that would still be amazing.

I just want 10am PDT to be over so it'll sell out, so then I can't go, and then the dilemma will be over. Hurry up!

I bought some art I've never seen. I love that.

The other day I was browsing through an art related email (of which I receive many) and enjoying the various prints and paintings promoted to me as someone who likes art, wants to look at it in their inbox, and may even buy some one day.  I do this a lot as I love art and on my daily commute it takes me away from my more business related day to day; to a place where anything's possible and where art rules. 

So Artfinder managed to convert me from someone who just treats their newsletter as art-o-tainment to being an online (mobile) buyer.  And whilst I have for many years believed we (us consumers, collectors, art lovers or whatever we'd like to call ourselves) will over time buy more "art we've never seen" I have always been aware the fact people can't 'see it first' makes online art sales THE difficult sell for the art world, for the gallery, for the museum.

Okay, so I am not taking about a hugely valuable piece here; I spent £150, so my risk is relatively low. And this led me to consider the role of risk in general in ecommerce and mcommerce environments. Maybe there's a threshold for art we've never seen, a level below which the risk is negligible. "If art costs less than a coat or handbag, I could take the hit if it turns out to not be amazing."

I am fully expecting that when the piece I've bought arrives I will be even more in love with it than I am right now, however. It is gorgeous.  It's called "Heat with Paint Part 2" and is by Kristin Gaudio-Endsley by the way.

But the implications about 'risk versus desire' cut across what I do in my day job as well as for the art world...

For art - if we can enable more regular purchases, through buying work from emerging artists, buying editions, books, smaller works, 'alternative works', gifts, promotions, posters and so on, we can get the art loving public to shop art, like they shop other things (clothes, accessories, homeware). This is in no way to devalue art and its uniqueness, rather to support artists and the arts.

For online / digital commerce we need to take a leaf from Artfiner's book  - push relevant products to customers, that they love, keep doing that and keep it entertaining and inspirational rather than purely factual and useful. Make the online shop really simple, and a pleasure to use, and make it work on my mobile, when I want to brighten my day with something gorgeous that'll keep me smiling all day long. Basically make the risk worth taking. More e-commerce and m-comerce environments need to see e-commerce in this light to make the customer experience better - make it an emotional no-brainer. 

Women In Wireless (a party)

Just to say I'm rather excited about this week's Women in Wireless event in London. Thursday's event is to celebrate the first anniversary of the London chapter of what is a pretty large organisation. I haven't actually been before but knowing several of these Wireless Women, I think it'll be a great party. I believe men are also allowed! And tickets are available here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/6338084381 

Please please me

My faith in humanity (well technology) has been restored by finding these amazing (smart) shoes.  Of all the places in the world, a conference about NFC is not where I had expected to find amazing shoes, but yesterday I was amazed to meet Anna Zaboeva of Please Machine and Tatjana Voronova of Connectmesmart who talked me through these Smart Shoe designs.

For sure, the shoes themselves look stunning and the quality is amazing; but even better these shoes have for the first time made me consider buying a NFC enabled phone. Why? Well I've not been convinced so far by any NFC service, until now... Anna's shoe designs incorporate NFC in a variety of light touch, and very lovely ways:

1. Put your phone in the pocket on the shoe and it's set to silent (do not disturb)
   
2. Tap your phone against the shoe to learn the story of how it was designed and made (video)
3. Tap the shoe you received as a gift from friends to hear their story about you

Suddenly NFC is not just payments and coupons but lovely interactions that mean real things to real people. Please Machine worked with ConnectMeSmart to design and integrate NFC interactions to the shoes.  (Connectmesmart also develops some other lovely innovative packaging ideas). I believe the shoes are unique and bespoke. For more of their shoes including non NFC, but utterly stunning ones, shop here.

The shoe in action:

NFC Myths

I am giving a talk tomorrow at the lovely WIMA conference in Monaco (yes, it is lovely) on NFC and the need for customer centric approaches to service design.  My talk is titled "For the Love of Shopping" and is a call to action to the NFC ecosystem to stop talking standards and ISO numbers and start taking the job of making services people want, seriously.  I'm in a bolshy mood so want to dispell a few myths first.  Here goes:

• NFC Myth #1: "NFC" is a customer friendly term.
• NFC Myth #2: People know what NFC means. (And if they know it stands for 'Near Field Communications' they know they don't need to be stood near a field to use it).
• NFC Myth #3: NFC is about payments.
• NFC Myth #4: NFC is a type of Bus Stop. (It's going to be written on more and more of them soon!)
• NFC Myth #5: "Contactless" is in fact “contactless”.  (Er.... don't you have to tap / hold / touch? Isn't this Emperor's New Clothes syndrome? Please stop saying it!)
• NFC Myth #6: "Tap" (your phone) makes sense to people, when tap is something they do in apps.
• NFC Myth #7: NFC influences people's purchase decisions when they're buying a new handset. (No it doesn't, the phones just happen to come with NFC but real people are not asking for this.)
• NFC Myth #8: Customers need educating. (Often heard from people who have launched services that no one's using).

It seems to me that what customers 'need' are great services if they are to start tapping / touching and using NFC to get on a bus, pay for their groceries, opt into an offer, and so on. Indeed these are all things that we can do already so unless NFC offers us something more, it's just not exciting enough.

Many people in this space know all of this already, and say all, or most, or some of this. But still with NFC we seem to be waiting for the killer app... and sadly wondering whether Apple will provide it for us rather than making great things ourselves.  If this comes across as negative it's not meant to be; I'm no NFC hater! This is more a rallying call to all the talent in the Digital space to make NFC useful, exciting, fun, and not just about paying, or coupons, or unlocking doors.  I'm hoping tomorrow at WIMA, some of my colleagues will provide some answers.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterpearson/538645093/

Cooler with Age: Vintage Apple Poster Collection

Some things get cooler with age; especially these amazing rare vintage Apple Computer posters. Recently rescued from a loft, they've been cleaned up and will be given a new home as they're just too cool to lock up.

The story goes that they were originally promotional posters in Liverpool's only authorised Apple Dealership "BIT 32" in 1984; some are later than that - up to 1987. Part of the Stringer family archive, they've been hidden away for years. Time to make art out of the computer poster now though! 

More pictures of the memorabilia on Flickr.