Tag Archives: trends

The Age of Privacy is Over

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This topic repeatedly finds its way to the top of any conversion when it comes to talking social media and online marketing. People are being tracked every time they’re online and, anything they decide to post on Facebook is sold to marketers for research and consumer behaviour purposes. And then the complaints begin.

“I don’t want Facebook selling my info, or where I’ve been on the web, or where I’m checking into” and personal pet peeve “I hate the New Facebook”. You only hate the new Facebook cause you hate learning a new system, but once you understand why its infinitely better, you’re perfectly cool with it. We’re hypocritical in that sense. We want companies to continually innovate, provide us with the most amazing tools to stay connected, and a user interface thats intuitive and easy to understand. Yet when change comes our way, via a simple new design, we throw our  hands up in the air in outrage.

But maybe that’s straying away from the issue of privacy. So here’s my take on it. Yes privacy is undoubtedly an important issue to keep in mind, but its soon going to be over. I think in the following generation, we’ll no longer hear complaints about where I’m checking into or what websites I’ve been on…because I think outside of jumping on the privacy bandwagon for the sake of it, we all want customization. And we can’t expect customization unless some of our data is shared.

Here’s my question, that no ones really be able to give me a clear answer on – “Whats wrong with having hyper targeted Facebook ad’s that I potentially may be interested in?” I’d be bombarded with ad’s anyways, so why not give me something I may be potentially purchase that’s based on my liked pages/websites.

Yes customization is scary and a tricky concept to grasp…its why MySpace failed (over customization). But the very fact that we’re able to so easily connect with others through social networks, for FREE by the way, we’ve got to understand that they need to have some revenue model to keep them in business and allow us to use their service…for free. Maybe if Facebook explicitly asked us to opt into sharing our data it wouldn’t be such a big deal? Thoughts?

Obviously this issue continues to dive deeper and spark more controversy every time its brought up but I think we’ll soon be at time where we understand that our data being shared isn’t the end of the world and that it in fact is beneficial to our ever hectic lifestyles.

The Problem with Location Based Services

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Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of location based services, and we know consumers are out there and many want you to find them. With the popularity of Foursquare, and recently Path, they’ve become potential goldmines for important consumer data – what they’re day to day activities look like, who they’re with, and where they visit on a regular basis. And yes, there’s still concern around privacy issues, but consumers are still demanding that marketers understand all of their daily contexts to make their lives easier.

However, my main problem with location based services is the very fact they aren’t contextualized and that they’re separate apps rather than a built in feature of a phone. What I mean by contextualized is that the phone should automatically notify me right as things happen, without me taking any actions. Instead of the phone simply being a caddy, it should really do the actions for me…scary but awesome! Here’s just two user scenario I’m thinking of:

“If I’ve got a scheduled meeting at a different location, instead of generic 10 min meeting reminder, it should notify me to leave for 25 minutes ahead due to a traffic accident along my route.”

“If Im at bar or restaurant, again that I’ve decided to let check-me in, it should automatically notify me of others within my social network, who i’ve subscribed too, that are also at that location.”

Secondly, once the privacy issues are dealt with you, you shouldn’t have to manually check-in to anywhere. With the new technology of geo-fencing, I should be able to walk into a location that I’ve opted into, and it should automatically check me in. Yes this requires GPS in your phone to constantly be running in the background, draining the phones battery, but as we continue to make improvements in that area I have no doubt that geo-fencing will be vital to the success of location based services.

Is the Daily Deal Phenomenon over?

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How many of you are still receiving emails from daily deal sites like Groupon or Social Shopper? For those that still do, are you getting tired of receiving deals for laser hair removal? I don’t need one each week thanks!

When Groupon first game it out, it revolutionized the way users began shopping and it graced the cover of Forbes magazine to become the “fastest growing company…ever!”. But in this new digital age, Groupon and its copy-cats have failed to keep up with  consumer and tech-marketing trends. The biggest one being no customization.

Firstly its emails are not customized to my specific interests and the only setting I can choose to get deals in, is to select which city I’m in, which is by no means targeted marketing. For the most part, a Groupon subscriber in any given city gets the same damn offer as every other Groupon subscriber in that city.

Secondly, its emails have become like direct mail that I will barely open. Groupon blasts its subscribers with irrelevant mail. ie. The time I got an email for Britney Spears Tickets for $25. Great price…but not for me.

Thirdly, companies are realizing that the ROI of running a Groupon is very limited. Its business model was supposed to get customers in the door and then once they’ve tried your product/service, become loyal fans of what you’re offering. Too bad, that only works if you product is amazing in the first place…which in that case, you wouldn’t need to run a promo. Ironic.

So here’s my quick recommendation. Let me choose specific categories I’m interested in (i.e. Sports, health) and then notify me when the stores I most often shop at are running a promo. Let me create a customized newsletter that comes only once a week – it would be awesome if I had a Pinterest like email newsletter that I could quickly scroll through with all the category deals i’ve subscribed too. I guarantee you one thing, I’ve got enough laser hair removal to last a lifetime so you won’t find that on my board :p


 

It’s About Time…or is it?

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For the first time in 2012, Online Ad spending will surpass Print Ad’s. Check out the original post on Mashable:

“According to a study released Thursday by eMarketer, online advertising is expected to generate $39.5 billion in sales this year — a 23.3% increase from 2011 — compared to a sum of $33.8 billion on print.”

But it’s somewhat surprising that it took this long for this trend to actually take place. I recently attended a marketing conference, and one of the speakers was giving examples of their magazine advertisements. While I still think Print can be somewhat effective, I prompted the question, “Will there always be a place for newspapers or magazines or will do you think everything will become digital?”

He’s response: “I think even though we’re seeing print advertising on the decline, the habit of picking up and reading a newspaper will never grow old”. I somewhat agree, however,  as our younger generation continues to be infiltrated with digital devices and starts to get their news from social media instead, print will eventually be completely filtered out. I know that for myself and friends, that twitter has now become my primary news for global events and trends.

It will be interesting if advertisers can still find a niche for print advertising that’s untapped. Who know’s, maybe we’ll get tired of staring at screens and TV, tired of watching flashy (sometimes obnoxious) digital ads, and revert back to the quiet simplicity of reading a newspaper.

Thoughts?