In This Shopping Center, You Can Just Unfriend Creepers and Loitering Pre-Teens

Social media has a powerful history of influencing the way people buy things. As the one of the world’s most potent word-of-mouth tools, social media platforms are an excellent way for consumers to share their purchase and product experiences with friends and family, even as those experiences are happening.

Last year, AdWeek’s SocialTimes Blog shared an interesting infographic called “How Social Media Influences Purchase Decisions.”

In it, they point out that “4 in 10 social media users have purchased an item online or in-store after sharing it or marking it as a favorite on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest; 50% of those purchases take place within a week [and] . . . 80% take place within 3 weeks; [and] 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals.”

A somewhat surprising look at the social platforms driving purchase decisions via SocialTimes at http://bit.ly/1GtWwMy

That winter, they shared another infographic (they love infographics) covering social’s influence on the holiday shopping season. They spell out the key findings below, which bode well for emerging media all around:

“People believe their peers on social media more than ever before. The biggest influencer for holiday shopping was recommendations from friends and family on social media, with 68 percent of survey participants ranking at the top. Sixty-three percent were influenced by Amazon reviews, and 24 percent were swayed by blogger endorsement. Traditional media and celebrity endorsements filled out the bottom three on the list.

In-store mobile use has also increased dramatically. Sixty-seven percent use social sites on mobile devices while shopping, up from 24 percent last year. Fifty percent of those mobile users are actively comparing prices with online stores, 14 percent are sharing deals via social media and 13 percent are texting friends to validate their purchasing decisions.”

Those are some incredible numbers backing up social’s importance in the shopping decision. Those numbers are so powerful, in fact, that social platforms and the brands using them have begun laying the foundation for turning social media outlets into direct shopping centers, where those peer recommendations have far less time to fade in the potential buyer’s memory before a purchase decision is made.

Facebook’s testing buy now buttons that let the consumer “complete the entire purchase flow within Facebook, which could boost conversion rates and endear retailers to the social network.” Twitter users can use a hashtag to make a purchase directly in the platform, and even Pinterest is getting into the direct shopping game with their Product Pins, which allow shoppers to ­­purchase products on their mobile devices right from a pin.

Newsy covered the trend last September:

Social media and direct shopping seems a natural fit, and I can’t see how this won’t take off over the next few years. I can even see where these purchase/payment experiments can lead to some interesting social purchasing. Think of crowdfunding donations directly in Twitter for a family that lost their home to a fire. Think of purchasing gifts for your friends and family right there in Facebook. It would be like those cheesy digital gifts from years ago but, you know, useful.

Social media as a shopping plaza is a great idea, particularly for social media sites who seek “data gleaned from the shopping experience to better target ads to users and perhaps better prove the return on investment to marketers.” It’s a smart move for retailers, too, who can skip all those traditional steps where a purchaser might fall from the funnel.

No matter how it pans out, it’s going to be interesting to watch how retailers get creative once everyone has a “buy now” button. It’ll be even more interesting to watch how socials are going to try to outdo one another as high-profile retailers begin working exclusively in a single platform.

Have you run across a social media purchase opportunity? If so, what did you see? The promise of a new way to shop? An annoying gimmick? A “Buy it Now” button for Unicorn Spam?

A Perfect Fit: Wearable Tech and Digital Marketing

As I write this, a device strapped to my wrist is using two green LEDs to measure the minute expansions and contractions of the capillaries in my arm that accompany each heartbeat. That same device uses something called a 3-axis accelerometer to measure the amount of steps I take, the flights of stairs I climb, and how often I toss and turn in my sleep. It vibrates to wake me up at a set time in the morning, gives me the time of day with the tap of a finger, and shows me who’s calling my smartphone when that phone is on a table in the other room.

If a decade ago someone had told me I’d be wearing this, I’d have pictured some freakish Rube Goldberg machine mounted to the arm.

It’s not, of course. It’s a just a thin little FitBit Charge HR, and I’ve been wearing it comfortably for almost six months as it transmits data about my day to my iPhone and a little dongle plugged into my laptop. My FitBit is specifically designed to track and transmit physical activity, but that’s just a sliver of what modern wearable tech is capable of doing.

The calculator watch of the 70s and 80s was a great start for wearables. Easy math and the time? Right there on your wrist? It was the wave of the future.

McFly was wearing wearables before wearables were cool (and technically way before that) – Via Gizmodo: http://bit.ly/1FGYd3V.

In the decades since, wearable tech has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry where developers are cranking out devices and apps that allow the consumer to do everything from monitor driving activity to access schematics for a complicated piece of machinery right there on their safety glasses.

Businesses worldwide are finding enterprise applications for wrist and glasses-based wearables in the workplace. Health insurance companies are tapping into fitness trackers to reward (and punish) clients for their activity decisions. Last month, UNICEF challenged developers to create wearables that can help address health and nutrition issues for women and children in the developing world. Google and Levi’s are working on a pair of smart jeans you can swipe to silence your phone.

There are even wearables designed to alter one’s mood:

Wearable tech is only going to get more involved. Smaller tech, smart fabrics, the rise of the smartwatch, and a growing obsession with tracking personal data are going to change what it means to be the connected consumer, and marketers are going to have a field day with it.

Marketers can immediately expect big changes in social media, advertising, and data collection, where the consumer clad in wearables is sharing increasing amounts of information.

I can still Instagram a photo of my mango tilapia tacos at lunchtime, but now I can tell you how many steps it took me to get to the restaurant from the office, how many calories and carbs those tacos are worth, and what my physiological and emotional response was to having half a dozen Coronas with those tacos – all from a wristwatch.

The marketing implications are staggering, and the trick to staying fashionable in the new age of wearables is to make the marketing experience seamless.

Digital marketers must integrate the experience and make information sharing as “glanceable” as possible to keep the consumer coming back to a brand’s app or messaging on a wearable platform. Wearable users don’t want to dig for their experience. They want to tap, swipe, or wave their hand to get at what they need.

Since wearables are such a personal experience, advertisers must also consider the consumer’s personal ecosystem. The connected consumer seeks a personalized brand experience, so the savvy marketer is one who understands the unique ways wearables are used in the everyday and can integrate their messaging in a way that respects that ecosystem while offering an experience tailored to the John or Jane wearing a particular device.

Digital marketing and wearables are a natural fit, and the wearables market is going to get out of control, particularly now that mainstream players like Apple are in the game. I can’t see how that won’t be the case, and it’s going to be a lot of fun watching marketers come up with new ways to keep that relationship fitting just right.

For Better or Worse, the Second Screen Experience is Changing the Way We Watch TV

I’m a big fan of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

We won’t get into the qualities of the show because this isn’t the place for that, but I can assure you that it tries very hard to make you feel all the feelings. It’s suspenseful and engaging, and on days when I miss an episode, I avoid social media (and sometimes casual conversation at work) so that nothing is spoiled for me.

That’s why I’ll never forget the night the show’s Story Sync companion app asked me to rate the carnage level of a scene where a character was killed – all while the murdered character was still alive and kicking for another thirty seconds on the TV in front of me.

You’ve ruined me, Story Sync. Image and the awesome article it came from via The Verge: http://bit.ly/1iVMUga

It was an annoying moment, and it was probably some kind of lag with my cable service provider, but it highlights the power and importance of the second screen so many viewers are using to enhance the television watching experience.

After all, 79% of second screen users “use a companion device while they watch TV,” and 36% of those viewers are doing so to find out more about the program they’re watching. Another 42% of those viewers are using these screens for synchronous content, like the Walking Dead’s Story app, which shares images and quotes, points out connections to previous episodes and shows exclusive sneak peeks of upcoming content.

That’s a small slice of what the second screen offers. The multi-screen experience is about more than just syncing branded content, and has become so prominent in social media that platforms are incorporating the second screen phenomenon into their engagement models. Twitter is the de facto king of social on the second screen, and there are some pretty fascinating stats to back it up.

Social media dominates the second screen. Via Business Insider: http://read.bi/19pwPy9

According to the Advertising Research Foundation, a staggering 90% of Twitter users who see a tweet about a show will immediately start watching the show, search for more information or share other tweets about the show. That’s ninety percent with a nine and a zero, and it speaks to the power of social media to drive dialogue around popular television programming.

Brands are using this fact to engage with viewers of popular shows. During the season 4 premiere of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” for instance, brands like Delta Airlines and Mentos tweeted their nods to the series. McDonald’s and Mountain Dew tried the same thing on SnapChat during the live broadcast of this year’s Super Bowl, extending the second screen experience to that platform.

In all, I find the second screen trend pretty fun, and I still use Story Sync even after that fateful night because it offers an enhanced experience that both connects you to the story on the screen and the greater story driven by what fans are saying online.

As the amount of screens we use increases with each passing year, I can’t wait to see how brands and consumers work together to cobble them into one spectacular Frankenstein’s monster of multi-sensory media consumption.

So, what are your favorite second screen experiences? Any second screen horror stories to share?

What is Real and What is Really Real: Marketing in Augmented Reality

As we saw in last week’s post on connected cars, digital technology can have a profound impact on how we interact with the devices and machines that carry us through the modern day.

One such tech – augmented reality (AR) – is proving itself a boon to marketers in the digital age, and it’s allowing the smartphone to serve as a window into the connected world.

From the days of Morton Heilig’s Sensorama, which allowed bell-bottom-clad users to virtually ride a motorcycle through Brooklyn (smells and all), blurring the line between reality and imagination has been the charge of virtual and augmented reality innovators.

In the modern marketing world, AR tech allows a brand to overlay digital items onto physical objects and spaces. This technology is being used in everything from trying on a virtual pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars to picking out the best low-sugar cereal for your kids. (See more examples of AR in use here.)

The ability to overlay digital onto the real world is leading to fascinating takes on the way people use smartphones and environmental technology to learn, shop, and consume entertainment.

Kansas City’s iconic Union Station put the tech to use last year with their “Living History” augmented reality app. The app allows visitors to watch historical moments unfold in an augmented experience that overlays historic action with what the visitor sees in their smartphone camera (I’m a huge fan of this one):

IKEA used AR tech in their 2014 catalog, allowing users to visualize and interact with furniture items in their own home:

And Pepsi Max took augmentation to the street in their “Unbelievable Bus Shelter” stunt during the brand’s “Live for Now” campaign:

This is cool, sure. But what can the average marketer do about it?

Widespread use of augmentation has some interesting potential, including a dramatic change in the way we shop. Retention Science says it best: “Customers may soon be able to enjoy the conveniences of both in-store and online experiences at the same time, thanks to Augmented Reality.”

That concept, along with the notion that location and people data from mobile phones and wearables can make for some very, very personalized targeting, means marketers should keep their eyes open to what augmented reality users are doing today.

Augmented reality, as with any new tech, needs to run through its gimmicky, awkward adolescent phase. We’re going to see a lot more big budget one-off campaigns before the tech is fully mainstream and the bugs are worked out in a way that makes augmentation accessible to every brand.

But that doesn’t mean marketers without the means to launch an AR campaign can’t get involved.

Start by watching what AR marketing pioneers are doing. Keep an eye out for upcoming projects and AR apps. Ask yourself how the technology could interact with your brand, or how your customers could get something more from using this kind of tech.

Do that often enough, and you’ll know exactly where AR fits in your business or industry when the time comes to do something about it.

Marketing in the Age of the (Auto)Mobile Device

Connected cars aren’t coming down the pike. They’re already here, and they’re much smarter and faster than the laptop I’m using to write this.

McKinsey & Company point out that today’s car is all but a computer on wheels, where the connected vehicle boasts a “computing power of 20 personal computers, features about 100 million lines of programming code, and processes up to 25 gigabytes of data an hour.”

That sort of connectivity opens a lot of doors – and not just to the garage.

CNN covered the concept in April, working with AT&T Drive Studio to discuss how the connected car benefits the connected driver.

The video demonstrates how new automobiles are becoming another component of the Internet of Things. Paired with mobile devices, wearables, and home automation hubs, connected cars offer everything from real-time mobile diagnostics and remote vehicle functions to on-demand, in-car entertainment and the ability to tell your home what to do just by pulling in the driveway.

The rise in connected cars is a reality that marketers need to prepare for today.

By 2020, 75% of all manufactured cars around the world will be equipped to connect to the internet, and BI Intelligence suggests that the falling price of connected cars will put more of these automobiles within reach of consumers outside of the luxury car market.

The Guardian listed connected cars among its ten digital media trends to watch for in 2015, and suggested that the impact on marketers will be an increase in the sophistication of in-car marketing, where “location, make and model, even distance driven could potentially be used to target the right audience.”

So how does the smart marketer call shotgun in the connected car?

In the world of emerging media, the consumer responds best to marketing that offers a customizable and highly tailored experience. The successful marketer will tackle every in-car effort with this in mind, and data from connected cars will offer them the chance to get very specific (maybe creepily so) in their messaging.

Knowing the consumer and their car is only half the battle. The trick here will be to offer this customizable experience in a way that empowers the consumer to opt in or out of individual marketing/tracking features and in a way that enhances the driving experience.

The smart marketer will connect to the consumer on common ground and offer some type of benefit specific to their driving situation. An enhanced entertainment experience. A feature that makes it easier to perform a media action while driving. Promotions and offers based on where the consumer is and what they need at the time. Something that might help the target become a better driver or avoid bad drivers.

The next half decade will certainly prove interesting as connected cars enter the mainstream and marketers fine-tune the way they communicate to the connected driver. Ethical questions will arise and safety considerations will redefine responsible marketing. Some marketing efforts will make drivers better. Other may make them worse.

Even so, connected cars offer immense potential for consumers and marketers alike. Personally, I can’t wait to see how connected cars are going to change the American driving experience in the coming years.

Emerging Media are Changing the Course of Marketing (and Mobile is Their Mighty Ship)

Last week’s blog post discussed what emerging media are and how they’re transforming the modern market into an environment of knowledge and convenience.

The new market is a place where the consumer has access to everything, all the time. It’s a place where instant digital communications – driven in no small part by widespread access to mobile technology – have created a new form of consumer with the power and confidence to manipulate brand relationships and the manner by which those relationships are cultivated.

You’re experiencing this phenomenon right now.

You can access the information shared here whenever you want, wherever you want. You can interact with me directly or start a discussion with another user to shape the conversation and, ultimately, your relationship with this particular brand. Your experience is customizable to you and is conducted in real-time – that’s the beauty of emerging media.

If you’re reading on your phone, you’re getting a double-dose of what these media bring to the table. It’s the smartphone that’s leading the takeover, after all.

Pew research shows that 90% of American adults own a mobile phone. Of those mobile users, 64% own a smartphone, 44% sleep with their phones right next to them, 29% insist that they couldn’t imagine a world in which they’d have to live without their cell phones, and a full 7% of smartphone-owning adults in the country are “smartphone-dependent,” where their smartphone serves as their primary or only means of accessing the internet.

Pew highlights the ways consumers use mobile devices in the day-to-day. Via Pew Research Center at http://pewrsr.ch/1RDbmnj

The mobile ship is so strong that social media and brand strategist Kim Garst wrote that 2015 will be the year “mobile-friendly” gets ousted by “mobile-first” as marketers take on every project and post with mobile in mind.

The ubiquity of smartphone technology has completely changed the definition of consumer connectivity and is serving as a powerful vessel for other types of emerging media. Social media, blogs, email, video, forums, and interactive digital are notable among mobile’s passenger list.

As mobile tech gets smaller, smarter, and even more wearable, look for more of these new media to take advantage of the consumer’s obsession with having a constant connection to the digital world.

Emerging Media & the New Consumer

Quarryman Marketing is a new blog dedicated to all things emerging media.

That means a lot of things to a lot of people, but for now, we’ll stick to “emerging” media in the context of digital, mobile, and social marketing communications.

In the coming months, this blog will look at examples of how marketers are using these new media to tell brand stories, enhance the consumer experience, and build relationships with the always-connected consumer.

So, what’s emerging media?

Simply put, emerging media are those new media channels that open up connected, many-way relationships between consumers, their peers, and marketers where content is crafted and discussed by everyone. These media include everything from email, blogs, and social media to interactive digital and mobile communications.

It wasn’t long ago that traditional one-way media channels dominated the consumer experience. The old guard giants television, print, and radio dictated how marketers crafted their messaging and how consumers built relationships with brands outside of the in-store experience.

If company A wanted to reach out, they put together a message, sent it off, and hoped for the best. That’s a gross oversimplification, of course, but the conversation between marketer and market was very much a one-sided affair.

That’s a far cry from today’s consumer landscape, where nearly 75% of adults use some form of social media and 87% of American adults are regular internet users. The rise of the internet and advances in mobile technology have torn the old way to shreds, opening up so many channels of instant two-way communication that brands are spreading themselves too thin in an effort to keep up.

Tom Fishburne illustrates bandwagon marketing in the age of emerging media.

The new media giants – digital, mobile, and social – are driving the way messaging must be crafted in the digital marketing world, and it’s the marriage of marketing creative with big data technologist that will define the successful marketer in the years ahead.

From the way we shop and consume entertainment to the way we navigate the world around us and gather personal data, these emerging media have become ubiquitous in the American marketing landscape. Through mobile technology, social media, interactive digital advertising, and robust online communities devoted to everything under the sun, it’s easier than ever for the consumer to be selective about how and when they interact.

It’s these media that are constantly evolving to shape consumer trends and meet consumer needs. It’s these media we consider “emerging,” and it’s these media we’ll be discussing in the weeks to come.