There’s no doubt that technology helped the marketing world to a very large extent. Reaching more customers, cheaper prices and targeting a more specific audience group. However, how far can this go? Recently, a swedish online newspaper called Expressen encouraged their customers to talk to the advertisement. The advertisement then engaged in a full-conversation with the viewers. Making it the first example of an interactive voice advertisement. This is stated to be very effective as “An ad on a mobile device is a very inanimate thing – people don’t take much notice, If you look at adverts right now, be they mobile, print or broadcast on the web or TV, the individual stares at it, listens and possibly absorbs some of it.The experiments we’ve done so far show that if you interact with the ad through speech the recall is far stronger,” – stated by John West, the architect of Nuance Communications.

Could this be the future of all advertisements? To completely engage the audience and increase the level of interactivity. It may be able to answer many questions that the customer has about the product and inform them on a level to which a normal advertisement couldn’t.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24384335

Tim Hortons; Canada’s beloved coffee company looks to expand it’s brand into global markets. Tim Hortons looks to expand outside it’s home base and the United States starting with the Middle East. The chief executive stated “This is not about plastering the Tim Hortons brand everywhere, this is about taking the brand where it makes sense and where we can further build,” However, this will not be an easy transition as there are huge competitors in foreign markets that have most of the market share and strong customer loyalty bonds. Coffee is part of many people’s routines and many customers prefer it a certain way and find that there is no need to switch as they know exactly what to get from their own coffee shop.

Even at home Tim Horton’s is facing pressure from competitors such as Starbucks and McDonald’s Cafe. As Starbucks reported to have 11% of all sales in the U.S and Canada come through their new mobile application. Therefore, creating a chance where Tim Hortons could potentially look into to benefit from online purchases as a way to expand globally.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/tim-hortons-profit-climbs-8-as-us-
sales-edge-higher/article15308632/

Two Swedish students Anna Haupt and Terese Alsti have created the world’s first invisible bike helmet. Although the word invisible may be a bit misleading, the overall concept fits the criteria of being invisible. The new and innovative helmet took over 7 years of research and many designs to be created. It works on the basis of a simple car airbag. After wearing a neck brace, the technology built in will detect when the rider is falling or crashing hence deploying the helmet from within. This will help protect the rider from any crash and will make it so that they do not have to wear anything on top of their heads that could bother their view.

However, in my opinion this idea will not catch on as fast as expected due to many possible reasons. Firstly, being the accuracy of the technology and how well and fast it can predict the incident and deploy the helmet. Will it be able to accurately ensure every angle and every type of fall is covered? Also, will it deploy with minor bumps in the road? However, if these problems are addressed, this new innovation could be the future of many safety products.

http://www.hovding.com/en/how_it_works/

Video: http://vimeo.com/43038579

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24426744

Innovation. The process of introducing new ideas that may affect products or the way in which they are made. It can also be considered as the commercial exploitation of a new invention. Innovation in technological companies are especially important because they are all looking for that new product that no one has come up with yet but the customers are dying to have. Companies like Microsoft and Apple are the masters of innovation, coming up with hundreds of products that set them apart from all of their competition. That’s what LG is trying to achieve here, by introducing the first curved and flexible OLED panel for the smartphone. The South Korean firm has announced that it hopes to sell the curved screen phones next year.

To me innovation is all about starting a new trend and going outside the norm in the industry. Looking at the basic structure of how cell phones have changed can back up this argument. With the majority of the cell phones in 2012 and 2013 being smartphones without a keypad shows the change in consumer purchasing habits. Prior to this, most phones used to have keypads and most of them were not smart phones. All people needed was the ability to text and call. Now people play games on their phones, search the internet and watch movies. Therefore, this article and move from LG is interesting to see. Could it be that in a year or two from now the curved screen phone will take the same effect as a phone with no keypad and make it so that the majority of phones are curved for the convenience of the consumers?