1. Top 10 Trends from
2012 SXSW Interactive
Presented by Pulsar Advertising
2. 1. Location, Location, Location
Location-based services to connect with friends or people
with similar interests virtually in any space
Enable people to contribute to their neighborhood or
community
Banjo Street Bump Project
3. 2. Organizing & Documenting Your
World
Digital organization of your personal and professional life
Geospike SavvyCard Clipix
4. 3. Digital Wallets
Eliminate the need for credit cards
Facilitate payment, allow for customized deals based
on purchase history and habits
Starbucks App Google Wallet Isis
5. 4. Digital Deals
Built-in rewards programs and coupon-sharing across
social platforms
Experiential deals
Hyper-local applications
Gilt Group LivingSocial
6. 5. Digital Review Sites
Share reviews across social networks
Womzit Local Fave
7. 6. Monetizing Social
Services that allow credit card holders to link their
credit cards to social media sites to earn discounts by
sending messages with customized hashtags
American Express
Sync
8. 7. Content Marketing
New apps and platforms that enable people to curate
their own stories, post, spread and monitor them in
all digital networks
GetCurata Crowdsourced Content
9. 8. Virtual Stores
Shop virtually by scanning in QR codes with
smart phone, allowing for purchase and delivery
Tesco Virtual Subway Station Kmart Bus Shelter
Grocery Store in Korea Virtual Store
10. 9. Gamification
Games that focus on doing simple fun things and
rewarding people for doing so can build loyalty, and aid
in behavior change
Dallas Area Rapid Transit Chromaroma
(DART)
11. 10. New Channels for Advertising
Hyper-local marketing
Advertising to micro-communities
Fancorps Linquia
Editor's Notes
SXSW ’ started in 1987 original goal was to create an event that would act as a tool for creative people and the companies they work with to develop their careers, to bring together people from a wide area to meet and share ideas. It started as a music festival and in 1994 they added a film and interactive component to reflect these growing industries. SXSW is a 5 day conference in Austin TX focused showcasing what ’s new in interactive. It’s an overwhelming conference with over 1,000 interactive sessions and 20 different ones at any given time all day long. This year it made national news because an ad agency decided to turn the local homeless population into wifi hotspots. In the past its been a launching pad for new companies, start ups like Foursquare and Twitter to launch their services. Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user ’s actions by presenting content such as text, graphics, animation, video, audio, etc. I created a top 10 list of trends based on the sessions I attended and the conference room space and the exhibitors and vendors that were there.
All promise to leave Foursquare in the dust Highlight notifies you if your friends are near by or someone you might be interested in it shows you what you have in common with them – syncs with FB Banjo notifies you when your friends are near on any social network – so if you tweet and someone else checks in via Foursquare you can still find your friend as it consolidates the info Other location based services featured at SXSW include Sonar (shows you how you are connected to people around you by analyzing Foursquare, FB, LinkedIn, Twitter networks), EchoEcho (share location with anyone in your address book) and Vibe (say whatever is on your mind about where you are and what ’s going on), and LocalMind (crowdsourced information – ask people around you what parties to go to, restaurant recos, etc.) The future of mobile technology is to enable people to contribute to their neighborhood, their community and their streets. An example is the Street Bump project . This location-enabled application enables drivers to make their daily commutes and will measure bumps in the road and pin point them geographically for the city to fix. Street Bump helps residents improve their neighborhood streets. As they drive, the mobile app collects data about the smoothness of the ride; that data provides the City with real-time information it uses to fix problems and plan long term investments. Residents use Street Bump to record “bumps” which are identified using the device’s accelerometer and located using its GPS . Bumps are uploaded to the server for analysis. Likely road problems are submitted to the City via Open311, so they get fixed (e.g. potholes) or classified as known obstacles (e.g. speed bumps). Cabi could do something similar for bike trail/city road maintenance.
Instagram- Acquired by FB this year for $1 billion allows you to take photos, apply digital filters and share on a variety of social media apps (photos uploaded look like a Kodak Instamatic – retro feel) Geospike – record and share your travels while building a travel history – you can explore their global timeline and see photos taken all around the world, this could be a cool app for cabi or bike or walk arlington. SavvyCard – is an online business card that is instantly sharable via social networks (use it instead of building a personal website) Clipix – Organize your life online – list of shoes you want to buy, interesting articles, books to read, etc.
Mobile payments/digital wallets Huge megatrend shift for 2013 – This started to get traction with the Starbucks mobile app which has really taken off for them with 42 million payments since launch – you load a certain dollar amount and pay for tractions using a barcode (scans barcode) and it tracks your starbucks rewards (not nfc) Other applications are are called NFC – near field communication which is basically standards for smartphones and allows them to communicate with one another and process transactions . Germany , [8] Austria [9] and Latvia have trialled NFC ticketing systems for public transport by using an NFC-enabled device at terminals that also accept MasterCard PayPass transactions.. And China is using it all over the country in public bus transport. In India NFC based transaction is being implemented in box offices for ticketing purposes. . Google wallet –works like a pre-paid credit card and you pay in store by tapping your phone and offers coupons and loyalty programs at some retailers Isis – Tap your phone to pay at any Isis merchant A technology called NFC enables your phone to communicate with the checkout terminal at an Isis Ready™ merchant. Golden ticket is synching the wallets with credit cards to get customized deals based on past purchases and with social applications and even enabling retailers to offer differential pricing based on the price elasticity for each customer.
The next generation of digital deal sites and mobile apps are focused on hyper localized applications with built in rewards programs that aid in loyalty efforts and will be socialized enabling coupon sharing across social platforms. Groupon expanded to Groupon goods which offers good deals on products – the catch is that it could take you 30 days to get your goods. Living Social is also adding in takeout and delivery options and turning local deals into local platforms. They just launched 918 F street in DC which supports local DC businesses by enabling them to sell experiential deals and unique experiences like a cooking class, pop up restaurants, bartending or photography classes, and they will host the class at their space. They are regularly selling out events in DC since launch. A ccording to a recent Washington Post article, some D.C.-based arts and entertainment businesses claim that the platform is trying to wipe them out. LivingSocial refutes the charge. In one of the mobile wallet sessions Guilt Group talked about how they sold out an entire plane (all the seats on one plane for a domestic trip for 145 people) for $60K (to take all your friends or co-workers somewhere) in 4 hours and added 1,000 people on their waiting list. It was just a way to get publicity and attention. Could be worth exploring for Cabi – enabling local businesses, colleges, tourist groups to make a group booking of Cabi for example. Create specialized packages to gain publicity and attention, like Guilt City did by selling an entire plane for $60,000. It sold out in less than 4 hours and added 1,000 people to the waiting list. Why not sell out the entire bus/route or bike sharing station? Target local businesses, colleges, and tourist groups and enable group booking. Or a historical tour of Arlingon on an art bus. The future of digital deals is linked with the mobile wallet concept in which credit card companies already know your past purchase history and with GPS and location based services have access to your location and can serve you up personalized deals. Ex. As walking by Starbucks your phone sends you a message – Hey Kelly your fav starbucks is one block away come on in for a tall no whip mocha and get 10% off now..
Think Yelp on Steroids Womzit is a word of mouth app that not only allows you to review local restaurants, retailers, etc. but also places, people, music and more. You can also add photos , specific locations, share on fav social networks. It even delivers the impressions that your recommendation has delivered and compete with friends on who has the greatest WOM influence on your leaderboard. LocalFave – review venues around you and share with your friends – ex you went on a trip to Italy and submitted your fav places to go, eat and recommend them to your friends to to others – the idea is that you can experience a city like a local.
American Express is testing a new Sync service -- Allows cardholders to link their cards to their Twitter accounts and earn discounts for sending tweets with particular hashtags Sync concept is how SXSW attendees were able to get JayZ tickets Another ex is to tweet a amexwholefoods hashtag to get $25 off $75 in groceries
A recent study said that Branded content accounts for 26% of overall marketing budgets so content marketing was HUGe at SXSW with many sessions focused on “how to” do it well. Several of these focus on the news and specifically enabling crowdsourcing of the news like CNNIreport and NewsiT and others are social marketing platforms that enable you to create stories using social media - turning what people post on social media networks into a story, blog, posting, etc. add photos, video, etc. Get Curata is another one that enables you to source not just social media networks, but blogs, the news outlets and to pull that information in to a customized platform that enables you to organize it, edit it add to it and send it back out to your website, email newsletter, social media and more. Motivate Change with Content – Videos are a great vehicle to enable you to tell your story and enable people to share, discuss, and refer. Don ’t have a big enough budget? Align with brands or services that share your vision and co-create content. Launch a user-generated promotion and offer relevant prizes to aid in increasing trial and generate new content. Create a video-powered social campaign that includes an action to spark a movement, educate, and spread the word. Use a local transit blog to curate and collect stories like MuniDiaries that provides a platform for people to communicate and their Pinterest feed that feature boards on topics such as street fashion, map it, weddings, and more. MuniDiaries takes this one step further with live storytelling events each month (ex. a BART driver talks about what it’s like to drive the train). Muni Diaries is a community forum for San Franciscans to share news and experiences riding our public transit system. You can even submit tweets. It enables bus riders in San Francisco to share stories, transit updates, and news tips. This vibrant, interactive community has evolved into a primary source for accidents, delays, and area news. Chien ’s crowdsourced site is providing an incredible tool driven by riders, for riders. Caltrain tweets are community supported tweets -- Users submit service delays as they experience them to Caltrain Tweets and the content is then broadcast for all to see on Twitter from a single account. DC Rider – the app built for DC metro riders from the Wash Post that includes news and updates from DR Gridlock also allows for rider updates and tweets.
Kmart recently replicated this concept for holiday shopping with a virtual toy store Delivered less than expected, but showed some key takeaways such as ensuring QR codes are customized by location and geo-tracked Sell Your Services Virtually – Create a virtual billboard at transit centers, bus shelters, and on-board to enable people to purchase tickets and passes with their smart phones using QR codes.
eMission is the only Facebook game where players advance by taking offline action to save energy and help the environment. Simulate an action online in the hopes that they will do it offline (ex. Recycling) Chromarmoa – use your oyster card in the london tubes and it takes your travel data And makes it into a game where every journey counts in a competition. The gamification of social change starts with fun, simple actions that offer rewards. Points are a strong motivator, but an even stronger motivator is the ability to compare yourself to your peers and show the financial value of an action or display the savings or benefit from an action and then showcase this among peer groups with an affirmation. As marketers, we need to give them an incentive to start the game, simulate an action online (try using the bus but also educating them on how to do it), so they will do it offline. Adding a team component can also work well if you make the team members dependent on one another – making it clear, if you don ’t contribute, the entire team will fail. This has huge implications in the alternative transportation realm for motivating behavior change. Baking in the ability to track the behavior you have incentivized over time is also essential so you can continue to give friendly reminders down the road. DART has some great games and how to tools for teachers to use to teach kids how to use transit for school trips through games and videos.
Fancorps is word of mouth marketing for brands – paid social recommendations Linquia – is paying to have promoted FB postings, listserv postings, and more to specific target groups all CPC to reach specific communities like moms groups. That is it. It ’s a lot of information in 20 minutes but I wanted you to see the trends that are out there now and highlight the ones that may be most relevant to you. I met some interesting people: Goingmyway – new mobile app that helps people consider alternatives – pushes routes to rideshare or brings people into your car and can provider real time data back to the system Zimride – a carpool solution for colleges and corporate networks that enables you to grab a seat and save money – ATP may want to look into this Carsurfing – partnered with Avego to use their same payment system to reward people for taking seats in their cars.