Passbook has the potential to become an organized, centralized digital wallet for consumers. Aside from providing unparalleled convenience to users, this application provides excellent opportunities for marketers. Furthermore, since passbook is installed as part of iOS6, there are few barriers to get iPhone users to adopt this technology and system.
So it seems like Passbook is a great service for corporations like Target and American Airlines, but what about smaller businesses without substantial advertising and software development budgets. can they benefit from Passbook?
Yes, they can. According to Trendline Interactive, passes (coupons, giftcards, tickets etc) can be created for free from websites such as PassSource. Combined with existing distribution networks (such as e-mail lists and SMS subscriptions), passes can be distributed as links. At this point, some people may ask why use a pass instead of a traditional print at home coupon?
Aside from being more environmentally friendly and more difficult to misplace, passes can be utilized to provide interactivity and unparalleled metrics. Moreover, it is easy to deliver different passes or offers to already categorized consumer segments. Finally, passes can be programmed to issue reminders based on date, time and location! Once the pass is used, companies can even instantaneously follow up with customers about their experience!
Unlike his brother Brad, yes THE Brad Pitt, Doug Pitt is just a regular guy. He doesn’t roll over next to a famous actress every morning, but with Virgin Mobile, he can rollover his unused mobile credit.
Recently virgin launched this clever campaign to make Doug a star like his bigger brother Brad. And now you too can enter to receive the star treatment like Brad and Doug courtesy of Virgin Mobile.
Check out fairgobro for more information about the campaign and contest details.
This campaign has cleverly harnessed the celebrity power and image of Brad Pitt without incurring excessive costs. Although Brad is not physically present, viewers think of him and may even associate his likeness with the product. Also, in addition to being humerus product commercials, these advertisements have gone viral. Consumers are motivated to share advertisements like this on their social networking platforms such as they are entertaining. Through traditional television advertisements, advertisers push their messages to audiences that would rather be watching something else. A campaign like this functions in more of a pulling fashion as consumers are drawn into enjoying this digital content. In my opinion, whoever thought of this advertising concept is a creative genius! Finally, I think the average person who fantasizes about obtaining celebrity status is amused to see Doug, a spitting image of Brad, live such an ordinary uneventful life. How can the brother of superhuman Brad Pitt live such a boring life?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAyTES9gDAU
After Checking out Doug Pitt’s official website, it seems that Doug Pitt is more like his brother than Virgin leads us to believe. Doug is an active philanthropist and successful businessman.
Ask any person with the vaguest familiarity of a computer or “the internet” to Google something and they will know exactly what you are requesting. In case you have been living in a cave or just not paying attention to the relatively recent technological revolution, the act of Googling is synonymous with performing an online search.
So how exactly did Google become the market leading search engine we all know, love and use today?
Google keeps a timeline of their accomplishments and evolution here.
Some events that stand out to me are: Google becoming the world’s largest search engine in June 2000 and the Oxford English Dictionary adding Google as a verb in June 2006.
Although Google is one of many online search engines, does anyone actually routinely use one of Google’s competitors for routine searches?
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is conducting an antitrust investigation into Google’s seemingly monopolistic market power. The results of this investigation are expected to be released in a few weeks.
Although Yahoo and Bing provide search alternatives, they fail to threaten Google’s supremacy and market dominance. In July 2012, the almighty Google captured approximately 66.8% of the search engine market. Bing controlled 15.7% and Yahoo just 13% (Search Engine Watch).
In a recent Forbes magazine article, Hal Singer posits that Google’s largest competition comes from companies such as Apple, Amazon and Facebook rather than traditional search engines.
Even though Google generally dominates the online search market, Amazon and Google are “waging a war to become the pre-eminent online mall“ (New York Times). Currently, it seems that Amazon is winning this war.
“Forrester Research found that a third of online users started their product searches on Amazon compared to 13 percent who started their search from a traditional search site; and
comScore found that product searches on Amazon have grown 73 percent over the last year while shopping searches on Google have been flat. (Forbes) “
Google realizes they must take action to retain searches related to the lucrative eCommerce and shopping categories. Look for Google Product Search to become a more prominent part of the Google experience in the near future.
For the past decade, Google has been the premier online search destination for pretty much anything related to the World Wide Web. I expect innovations like Apple’s voice activated Siri to become more commonly used further threatening Google’s dominance.
Also, with Facebook poised to enter the search engine market, expect to see more intense competition in the next few years. Ultimately, as consumers, regardless of what corporations fail and succeed, a more competitive landscape will lead to enhanced innovation pushing boundaries of what was previously conceived as possible. Perhaps a delayed FTC investigation of Google would yield dramatically different results.
Passbook has the potential to become an organized, centralized digital wallet for consumers. Aside from providing unparalleled convenience to users, this application provides excellent opportunities for marketers. Furthermore, since passbook is installed as part of iOS6, there are few barriers to get iPhone users to adopt this technology and system.