Topic

Layar: Very cool mobile technology

14-Layar-082409Came across Layar today and it was love at first sight. Basically, it’s a bunch of code that a developer can overlay on to an existing application. Layar users look at their surroundings through their phone’s video camera and see links, photos or text projected over specific locations around them. The info may be culled from Flickr, Wikipedia, Twitter, Yelp or Trulia. For example, you can open the FlickAR layer to see photos taken in your location or open the Trulia layer to see which houses are for sale.

Right now it’s only available for Google Android, but Apple will probably get on board when they release their new iPhone OS in Septmeber. One thing to note though; the standard technology on most smartphones probably won’t allow for the sort experiences that Layar is touting and it’s definitely a workout for our standard 3G network. A complete list of available ‘layars’ is below:

  • Real estate (7 layers)
  • Health care (2)
  • Transportation (9)
  • Tourism: Places to stay (3)
  • Tourism / Tours / Guides (14)
  • Leisure and entertainment (16)
  • Games (1)
  • Weather (1)
  • Retail (8)
  • University / Schools (5)
  • Local search & Directory service (4)
  • Social networks & communities (12)

Real estate:

  • Who Built (NL, later more)
  • Woonnet Rijnmond (NL)
  • Public Works (Japan)
  • Daft.ie Property Search (Ireland)
  • Wohnmap (Germany)
  • Trulia (US)
  • MeilleursAgents (France)
  • Funda (Netherlands)

Health care:

  • Hospitals (Japan)
  • AED locations (Japan)
  • Zekur.nl / Univé zorgvinder (Netherlands)

Transportation:

  • Irish Rail stations (Ireland)
  • Nearby Bus Stops (Seattle, USA)
  • Transportation (Japan)
  • Roadways (Japan)
  • Railways (Japan)
  • Bus Stops (Japan)
  • Gasoline Stands (Japan)
  • Brussels Public Transport STIB / MIVB (Belgium)
  • Cathay (Worldwide)

Tourism: Places to stay:

  • ANWB (Netherlands)
  • Lodging (Japan)
  • Greenbookings Hotels (Worldwide)

Tourism / Tours / Guides:

  • Sapporo Hot Spots (Japan)
  • Poetry In Motion (Paris and New York)
  • Muzar.org, musea and cultural heritage (NL, potentially worldwide)
  • World War I Guide (France)
  • Tourism (Japan)
  • ARwalk Art (Dusseldorf, Cologne, Berlin, London)
  • Santiago de Compostela pelgrim route guide (Santiago, Spain)
  • Las Torunos Natural Reserve (Cadiz, Spain)
  • Purdue University Arboretum (West Lafayette, Indiana, US)
  • Greece Tourist Guide (Greece)
  • Schatten van Brabant, stories & pictures of the past (Netherlands)
  • UitInBrabant, cultural events & locations (Netherlands)
  • Alles in Tilburg (Netherlands)
  • EyeTour Old San Juan, video guide (Puerto Rico)

Leisure and entertainment:

  • Ticket Channel (US, Europe, some parts of Asia)
  • Mr Movie (Netherlands)
  • IENS restaurant guide (Netherlands, only Samsung Galaxy)
  • Amsterdam House Scene history (Netherlands)
  • Leisure (Japan)
  • Entertainment (Japan)
  • Food & Drink (Japan)
  • Outdoors (Japan)
  • SoundWalk, cinematic mix of fiction and reality (Paris, Europe, New York, China, India)
  • Blank, the Graphic Novel (Worldwide)
  • OMGICU, celebrity spotting (NYC)
  • VooDoo Festival (New Orleans)
  • Eurosonic Festival (Groningen, Netherlands)
  • Skatespots.net (Netherlands)
  • EAT (USA)
  • DRINK (USA)

Games:

  • Reality Quiz (Worldwide potential)

Weather:

  • Buienradar (rain radar) (Netherlands)

Retail:

  • TNT post, letterbox locator (Netherlands)
  • Banks (Japan)
  • Convenience stores (Japan)
  • Shopping (Japan)
  • Post offices (Japan)
  • Bouygues Telecom shops (France)
  • 01Pages Mobile Coupons (Paris, France)
  • Mazda dealers (Netherlands)
  • Tempo Team (Netherlands)
  • ING (Netherlands)

University / Schools:

  • Purdue University Campus Tour (West Lafayette, Indiana, US)
  • University of Wisconsin Campus Map (USA)
  • Syrabuse University iSchool (USA)
  • Schools (Japan)
  • Hokkaido University (Japan)

Local search & Directory service:

  • Stuttgart Region Cluster (Germany)
  • Businesses (Japan)
  • Layar Local Search, Google (Worldwide)
  • iLocal, Samsung Search (Netherlands)

Social networks & communities:

  • Layercake Mashup (custom made by GoWeb3D) (Worldwide)
  • Social ARgregator (your social networks by GoWeb3D) (Worldwide)
  • Argo (send AR notes by GoWeb3D) (Worldwide)
  • RateMyArea (UK)
  • Qype (Germany, UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland)
  • Ceener (Worldwide)
  • FlickAR photos (Worldwide)
  • Tweetmondo (Worldwide)
  • Wikipedia (Worldwide)
  • Yelp (US, Canada, UK, Ireland and more)
  • PagesJaunes restaurant guide (France)
  • Brightkite (Worldwide)
  • Hyves (Netherlands)

Best Buy shows that they get twitter with marketing campaign

tweetbannerBest Buy has developed a new campaign using the darling of the mobile space; twitter. The integrated campaign cleverly uses the analogy of a stadium filled with Best Buy employees as a way of illustrating the small army of technicians that are ready and willing to tweet out tech answers upon your tweeted questions.

While the screen presence (whether that be online or broadcast) does a decent job of setting up the problem, the way Best Buy makes good on it is what truly demonstrates they know how to use twitter. Instead of a traditional landing page filled with marketing jargon, the user is dropped right into the Twelp Force twitter page where they can instantly see the multitude of questions being answered by Best Buy technical staff. Not only do you see some of the questions that are answered, but obviously you are prompted to ask some yourself wince the empty white tweet bar beckons you to ask your own question.

tweetforceAll in all, a good idea and well executed. They obviously read the Comcast case study on how a company uses twitter to supplement customer service. Not a completely original idea, but a clear value prop to the customer with a way to instantly engage. The campaign should garner some favorable results and metrics.

Google living rooms?

Seems that google is thinking of expanding it’s OS to things other than mobile devices. Apparently android, it’s open source architecture has gone viral and has found it’s way into netbooks, a fancy name for small/lean laptops.

Furthermore, MIPS Technologies, a microprocessor design firm, is trying to push Google’s Android software into other he devices like TVs and DVRs.

Though Android was developed originally as an operating system for smartphones, computer makers quickly started toying with the idea of putting it onto the small laptops known as netbooks.

Google has also announced another operating system, called Chrome, due in 2010 and aimed specifically at netbooks.

Several manufacturers demonstrated such devices at the Computex conference in Taiwan in June, but again, it will be another year before we see anything real.

Great example of iPhone app for customer loyalty

Barnes & Noble iPhone ApplicationThis iPhone, just released from Barnes & Noble is a great example of using mobile for customer loyalty. Not only can you quickly look up, book prices and store locations, but the app also allows you to take a picture of any book or DVD and instantly get product details. All around an excellent example of how (and where) to use mobile marketing.

Extra tips on twitter101

twitter101I was glad to see that twitter finally got around to putting up some #twitter101 information on how businesses can use the service. Obviously, education is a crucial barrier for mass adoption and getting people familiar with the possibilities along with some interesting case studies is a no-brainer

Overall there are really three main things that businesses can use twitter for, all of which are valuable, but more valuable for small businesses with small to non-existent marketing budgets. Below is what I believe those three things to be, along with some extra tips on getting the most out of these services.

1. Listening to customer opinions in real time. This directly benefits small businesses that obviously don’t have the time or budget for qualitative research. One bit of advice though, make sure that you’re not making major business decisions based on one or two tweets. It’s not exactly what I’d call “conclusive results” and some of your happiest customers will not likely say anything at all.

2. Handle feedback in a timely manner. Comcast has done a masterful job of dealing with this, knocking out a ton of customer questions (and complaints) each day. Quick tip: make sure not to get stuck in the apology loop, only using twitter as an “I’m sorry” channel. Instead try to be helpful, which is much more powerful.

3. Send out announcements and promotions. This is where twitter really hits the mark for small business—as a free marketing and promotional channel. Companies can use twitter coupon codes or even just blast messages on what’s new that day. While large companies can use the service in the same capacity, it’s small businesses that truly benefit given the services ease of use and alleviation of campaign planning.

Download the full twitter101 for business here.

A mobile marketing classic

motorola_airportOne of my favorite mobile ideas to date. In case you haven’t seen this mobile-to-screen idea for Motorola you can see it now. http://vimeo.com/4273766

What is a QR code and why should I care?

QRcodeOne of the things that makes mobile technology a bit unwieldy is the fact that it is actually made of many smaller technologies. Everything from applications to SMS messaging to the video players all seem to require some sort of proprietary technology. One of those micro-technologies is QR codes, short for Quick Response Codes. Originally used for tracking parts for vehicle manufacturing, QR codes offer an easy way to connect directly to a customized URL, image, music, whatever. You can print these codes on advertising, shirts, hats, even get temporary tattoos made.

There are many different apps that you can download to create and use QR codes such as http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ and once downloaded and installed, the app integrates directly with your camera. Overall, it’s pretty cool, although it requires some tech savvy to get up and running.

This problem will eventually be alleviated once the software ships standard with smart phones. But the convenience of QR codes still beats the current process of tapping in an actual URL. Also, within the next year, we should see the current QR code, which looks a bit clunky, replaced with little icons and images. After all, if there’s a branding opportunity to be had, marketing professionals will sniff it out.

Below is link of some of things that people are doing with the codes, you may be surprised to see what’s possible.
http://mashable.com/2009/01/07/qr-codes/

What’s working in mobile marketing

Good article here in Adage with three people (one of which is a colleague of mine, Maria Mandel) talking about what is and isn’t working right now in mobile. Specifically, I think her point about there really being three key things that people are looking for is exactly right. If you don’t have time to read the article then here are those points.

1. People are looking for information. But it has to be updateable information, i.e. something they will return for.

2. People just want to be entertained. All sorts of examples here from custom mobile apps to video.

3. People looking for people. This is really about social networks and starting conversations.