One app to rule them all for IKEA

You may have come across the comic showing the interviewer saying “Take a seat” to a the man entering. In the place of the chair is a collection of chair parts. That’s because it’s identified as an interview for IKEA, the brand associated with furniture that comes in pieces to be put together by the customer.

Until now that’s rather the way it’s been for the online IKEA shopper, as well. They had to put the pieces together themselves. The problem was not that IKEA didn’t have an app; it’s that it had three separate ones that do not integrate and allow the customer to do everything on a mobile device. 

The catalog app allows you to view hundreds of pages of merchandise on your phone, but not to place an order, which can only be done on the IKEA site. The virtual reality app called “Place” allows you to visualize its products in your home. While the tech, which was introduced in 2017, is both useful and cool, it doesn’t deliver with a buy option.

Read more in 

IKEA Rolls Out a Shoppable App

2018: the year RCS overtakes SMS for marketing

As carriers shift to the new Rich Communications Services (RCS) standard, new functionalities and ways to engage consumers will emerge, opening up a whole world of marketing opportunities.  

Even last year, RCS began to emerge as a significant advance for mobile marketing.  At that point, there were about 137 million RCS users, according to David O'Byrne, RCS lead at the GSMA. He was quoted in an MSN reportreferring to that baseline, saying he anticipates users to reach 350 million this year, topping a billion next year.

On the basis of those predictions, combined with the number of people already using SMS, RCS is poised to become a key component of communication in the very near future.  That's the view of Andy Shirey, Senior Product Marketing Manager at OpenMarket. 

Read more in 

RCS Set to Take Over SMS as Primary Marketing Tool in 2018

Mixed Reality Marketing

Picture to illustrate app courtesy of Trigger

Mixed reality experiences began playing an important role in marketing a few years ago. Jason Yim, the CEO of Trigger, “The Mixed Reality Agency™,” explained what makes it so effective.  

“On the marketing side, there are two big things that mixed reality can do that others can't,” says Yim. “One is product visualization and the second is the sharing of user-generated social content.”

Read more in 

Why Marketing Through Mixed Reality Works

Enhancing engagement with RCS

Rich Communications Services (RCS) effectively “drives engagement,” Brian Heikes, Vice President Product, Solutions and Analytics at 3Cinteractive says, because it makes it possible for people to experience “the same richness” provided by OTT “with the ubiquity that SMS has.” That opens up possibility of custom branding and other rich media used with native messenger.

In effect, it can offer “the depths of capabilities that have been locked behind an application” within “the messaging experience.” That's a significant benefit in light of the fact that “more than 95%” of people who download apps quit using them after just 30 days. As a result, brands can't capitalize on the promise of app engagement with the “ubiquitous capability” enjoyed by SMS.

At the 2017 Mobile World Congress, 3C showcased some of the possible applications RCS, with an illustration from its client, Walgreens, and Early Access Program partner, Google. This video, shows how Walgreens gives consumers personalized beauty recommendations seamlessly by uploading a selfie.

Read more in

RCS To Set a New Standard for Mobile Marketing

The eyes have it with AI

The camera is already starting to replace the keyboard,” asserts Netra CEO, Richard Lee. The content that will dominate digital information flow will be visual, and for that reason image recognition is becoming a key component of marketing.

His company derives insight from visual data, fostering understanding of how consumers engage with brands through engagement with images. Netra  is a leader in visual intelligence and search that uses machine learning to help marketers make sense of imagery on social media.

Some brands are already using image recognition to connect with and effectively market to their customers. They include Neiman Marcus. The upscale retailer offers its customers the Snap. Find. Shop  app that enables them to use their phones to snap pictures of styles they like and find similar styles carried by the store.  The app is demonstrated here:

The app allows customers to bypass typing in description of the clothing and rely on the image alone to convey what they seek. That kind of search is what we will be seeing more of in future, according to Lee. 

Read more in AI Makes Visual Intelligence Possible

Making attractions more attractive: digitizing the CN Tower

photo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/CN-Tower_Skypod.jpg

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Canada's CN Tower deployed new wireless infrastructure, a mobile app and 150 beacons with location services capabilities.

One of the top tourist attractions in Canada is the CN Tower, which is 553.33 meters (1, 815 ft., 5 in.) tall. It opened in 1976 as a communications towers, and to reflect that role in today's digital age, it planned on celebrating its 40th anniversary with a new wireless infrastructure and the CN Tower app.

Read more in Digital Tech Enhances the CN Tower Experience

A game-changer for football

Many brands boast of being “The official… of the NFL.” This season, a technology company called Zebra claims a more unique position. It’s the Official On-Field Player-Tracking Provider of the National Football League.

With this partnership between the technology company and the NFL, the game played between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers last night represents more than just a season opener; it was a game-changer.

Credit: Pixabay

The September 10 game represented a first for fan access to Next Gen Stats” in real time. While the NFL has used Zebra information from thousands of plays over the past couple of years, the information was retained internally or shared for broadcast. This was the first game to make it directly accessible to fans through the NFL app for Microsoft's Xbox One. 

Read more in 

A Data-Driven Game-Changer for Football

The trust factor for IoT

pic from https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7296/15768208714_9f9376cc7d_o_d.jpg

We talk a lot about IoT, referring of course, to the Internet of Things. But perhaps we should be thinking of making the T stand for trust. That’s what some are working on now in establishing industry standards to be worth of trust by committing to adopt best practices.

Essentially the OTA's best practices and standards boil down to two overarching considerations. One: Device manufacturers have to consider how they will secure the data collected on their devices. Two: The consumer has to be clearly informed about the nature and extent of the data collected. Having that information allows the potential purchaser to know exactly what they would be getting into with the Internet of Things (IoT) device, and whether or not they consider the gains are worth the risk. Having a universal standard also makes it clear how one company compares to another with respect to data privacy and security.

Read more in

Setting the IoT Standards

The app that's a breath of fresh air

“We live in a personal, real time, location based world,” declares BreezoMeter. That reality of today’s mobile world is the heart of the app’s design. Combining big data, algorithms and mobile technology, it delivers specific air quality information and recommendations in real time. Today’s mobile consumers demand no less.

“The highest growth in coming years is likely in segment-level and real-time personalization,” according to a recent report, entitled “Enterprise Priorities in Digital Marketing” (PDF). People who carry mobile devices expect access to “services and content for the moment and in the moment.” That’s what BreezoMeter’s air quality app aims to deliver.

Like many other innovations, BreezoMeter was born out of frustration. Its CEO, Ran Korber, was frustrated by the lack of centralized air quality information available when he was seeking a place clear of air pollution for his new home in Israel. As an environmental engineer with a pregnant wife, he was particularly concerned about the air quality. Finding nothing on the market provided all the answer he sought, he created his own solution.

The app proved successful in Israel where 300 sensors sufficed to cover the most populated areas of an area roughly the size of New Jersey. Scaling up to cover an area hundreds of time bigger was a challenge for the startup. 

Read more in http://insideanalysis.com/2015/04/the-app-thats-a-breath-of-fresh-air/

Device to diminish driving while drowsy or distracted

Like the directive to buy low and sell high to make money in the stock market, the principle of keeping your eyes on the road to be safe when driving sounds simple but remains elusive. With countless distractions and our own tendency to drive while sleep deprived, many of us fail to give driving the full attention it deserves.

Fortunately, analytics technology offers a solution to alert drivers when their attention wanders. Read more in 

Realtime Data Targets Drowsy & Distracted Driving

Analytics that improve your game

Got game? Analytics can help you get it, whether your sport is tennis, golf, or baseball. The trick is tracking your swing. Read more here. 

Thoughts on the Human Face of Big Data

See my blog post on the brand new board, Big Data Republic, Predicting People's Participation in a Big-Data Project