Richard Ting writes about the challenges of bringing advertising to mobile phones and what early Web marketing mistakes can teach agencies and clients about mobile efforts in his article “Taking creativity to the streets“.

It’s time to stop experimenting and get serious about mobile. Consumer behavior is shifting rapidly. Consumers now have access to better devices with more intuitive interfaces, faster speeds and more content on the mobile Web. ESPN recently reported that more visitors went to the football section of its mobile site than ESPN.com. Also, a recent Wall Street Journal article reported that in November, 50 percent more Web pages were viewed by consumers using the iPhone browser than the Windows mobile platform. At that time, there were 1.4 million iPhones and countless devices installed with Windows browsers. These examples signal that a fundamental shift is happening in consumer uptake of mobile data services. The time to get serious about mobile is now: Brands need to embrace mobile or get left behind.

Read the full article.

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trendwatching.com, the Amsterdam-based trendwatching agency, has published a new Trendreport titled “Free Love” which is all about the ongoing rise of ‘free stuff’, and the brands already making the most it.

 

FREE LOVE: the ongoing rise of free, valuable stuff that’s available to consumers online and offline. From AirAsia tickets to Wikipedia, and from diapers to music.

FREE LOVE thrives on an all-out war for consumers’ ever-scarcer attention and the resulting new business models and marketing techniques, but also benefits from the ever-decreasing costs of producing physical goods, the post-scarcity dynamics of the online world (and the related avalanche of free content created by attention-hungry members of GENERATION C), the many C2C marketplaces enabling consumers to swap instead of spend, and an emerging recycling culture.

Expect FREE LOVE to become an integral if not essential part of doing business.

Read the full report online or download the report here.

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Avenue A | Razorfish recently published the “2008 digital outlook report“. On 164 pages they present what happened in 2007 and what they think will happen in 2008 in the digital media landscape.

For many consumers, an engaging advertisement still powerfully influences their decisionmaking. But even more powerful, are the opinions they share with each other through trusted blogs and social networks. A mother in Topeka, Kansas, or a teen in a London flat can become trusted authorities, influencing more decisions than the best formulated professional branding campaign that an advertising agency can offer. Consumers are turning to a seemingly endless source of specialized media – so much so that commonly accepted best digital best practices have very short shelf lives. Yesterday’s solutions simply aren’t adequate to solve today’s problems. Is it any wonder that most businesses are coming to the hard realization that they aren’t organized effectively to respond to change?

Avenue A | Razorfish’s 2008 Digital Outlook Report examines where that digital spend is going. We provide direction on how marketers can align their organization to respond to the new digital environment, as well as a framework for effectively managing emerging channels and social media. And we give you some interesting new insights into consumer behavior.

The chapter “ten digital media issues to watch in 2008″ is especially interesting, so watch out for:

1. The move beyond media buying
2. The impact of a recession on online advertising
3. The redefinition of online media measurement
4. A limited increase in average CPMs
5. The fallacy of the “digital upfront”
6. The slowing of ad network acquisitions
7. A breakout year for mobile—but not for mobile advertising
8. Nokia’s emergence as a key player in the digital marketing industry
9. The continuing lack of video ad standards
10. The Internet’s impact on the 2008 presidential election

For me personally issue 8 “Nokia’s emergence as a key player in the digital marketing industry” provided new insights.

Nokia made two important moves in 2007 that will impact digital marketing in the coming year. It acquired both Enpocket, a leading mobile advertising and marketing services firm, and Navteq, a leader in navigation data and systems software. While there have been no formal announcements from Nokia about how its assets will fit together, it is clearly going to be a company to watch in the coming year. Nokia appears to be vying to expand its own business outside of consumer mobile devices and into the software and services that consumers are able to use on those devices.

Nokia now has assets that may accelerate the use of smart devices that use location-based services that know where we are. The potential benefit for marketers is the ability to deliver relevant, geographically contextual advertising opportunities to customers. Accomplishing this feat in the U.S. today, while not impossible, often involves orchestrating a small army of carriers, devices, marketing services providers, and agencies whose interests are not always aligned.

Download the full report.

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BusinessWeek recently published their updated list of companies that offer the best customer service (mainly with focus on U.S. companies).

The names on our second annual list of Customer Service Champs know how to keep front-line folks happy, make tech investments that help rather than hinder consumers and have leaders who make service a priority. See a full explanation of how we chose the winners, and to have your own say. This year, we’re letting readers help to reorder the top 10 names on our list.

They shortly write about the details of the winners: USAA, Fairmont Hotels and ACE Hardware. Here is the list of the Top 10 companies, the full list can be found here.

1. USAA
2. L.L.Bean
3. Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
4. Lexus
5. Trader Joe’s
6. Starbucks
7. Jetblue Airways
8. Edward Jones
9. Lands’ End
10. ACE Hardware

Read the complete special report.

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“Design Serving People“, an article written Elizabeth Sanders and published in the working paper series “Cumulus” by the University of Art and Design Helsinki, describes a major shift in the mindset of designers when designing new products or services. Consumers become creators when the designer’s mindset shifts from a perspective where people consume a service to a perspective when organizations support people in reaching their goals and creating value. The products and services offered by a company are merely resources that help the customer fulfil its needs and dreams.

Design is not serving the needs and dreams of people today. In comfortable American home, schools and workplaces, people are beginning to feel uneasy. It has become increasingly evident that they are no longer satisfied with simply being “consumers”. Everyday people want to be “creators” as well.

Stimulating peoples creativity and giving them tools will lead to a shift from consumption towards creation. This might sound vague but by observing the changing role of everyday people in design processes one realizes that many successful companies are already designing products and services that make their customers co-creator - YouTube is the most prominent example for user-generated content.

It is time to move away from the traditional design disciplines that are founded on the materiality of the artifact (graphic, product, space, software, architecture, etc.) and instead organize around human experience domains such as learning, creating, healing, living, working, playing, shopping, etc. People are people whether they are finding their way around a building, using a product, reading a package or using a software application. Design should be about making sure that our results advance people’s personal growth and support a harmonious relationship between people and their environments.

Nike is not “just” selling running shoes anymore. Nike is selling an experience that supports people in advancing their personal growth. The winners are companies that are able to identify the underlying desires of their customers and incorporate them into the design of their products and services.

Read the full article here.

Posted in customer experience, customer insight, design thinking | Permalink | No Comments »