Are you ready for the Mobile Web?
January 31, 2012 § Leave a Comment
According to the International Telecommunication Union, there are 5.3 billion mobile phone users worldwide. Of those, nearly half a billion are accessing the mobile web – with this figure expected to double by 2015. Even more compelling, 25% of the mobile web users in the US don’t use their desktop PCs to access the Internet anymore. It’s no wonder that many experts agree that the mobile web will one day overtake the desktop web, especially when you consider mobile phones currently outnumber PCs 5:2.
Mobilizing your web efforts opens up a myriad of issues and challenges that are unique to this relatively new medium. In10sity can help your team navigate this uncharted territory as we have for many of our other mobile clients. From mobile apps to text messaging, we can help.
Beginning of the End of the Personal Computer?
August 30, 2011 § Leave a Comment
WOW! Only 30 seconds!!
It’s hard to believe I’m writing this article as I never thought I would see the day when the PC would become the senior citizen of our hardware community. Some PCs are enjoying their golden years such as the hip granddad known as the Apple Macintosh (he prefers being called “Mac”). He has such cute grandkids, too: iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Other PCs aren’t enjoying their twilight years as much. Old Hewlett-Packard (“HP” thank you very much) isn’t doing so well considering two of his grandkids, the rambunctious TouchPad and his little sister, the Pre smartphone, just got killed. Things are so sad with HP that he is considering suicide.
Well, suicide might be a little dramatic, but HP has been considering spinning off its PC division in light of declining profits.
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Format War! Who will win? QR Code versus Microsoft Tag
July 26, 2011 § 2 Comments
Ah! Another format war. I love it!!! That is, when I pick the right format early on. In the late 70′s when I was a kid, I remember my Dad coming home with an amazing contraption known as the Video Tape Recorder. It was a Sony Betamax and I felt so superior to all my friends whose parents purchased a lower quality VHS. Well, that was short lived. Then came the Mac in 1984. Short of Apple’s recent amazing comeback, it would seem I was stuck with the wrong format again. Thank goodness I picked Blu-ray over… er, I can’t even remember what the other HD format was called.
Picking the right format is a big deal in business because you can invest a ton of time and money into something that, if your pick flops, leaves you holding the bag as they say. Clients have been posing a new question to us recently: which of the new bar code technologies should we pick? On one hand you have the QR Code. QR is short for “quick response.” On the other hand you have Microsoft’s Tag technology. Both enable people with smart phones to read these codes, which will then load additional information regarding a piece of real estate, golf swing, product, or whatever else is being advertised.
Progressive Insurance, Shazam, and the Audio QR Code. What was the point?
June 8, 2011 § 4 Comments
I was watching TV last night and during a Progressive Insurance commercial (you know, the one that has Flo in it) and a Shazam logo came up on the screen. For those of you who don’t know what Shazam is, it is a really neat technology that can automatically identify audio and tell you what is playing. This can be quite useful if you are listening to a song and you don’t know who the artist is or what album the song is on. Just pull up the app and, SHAZAM!, it will pull up the song title, artist, and album cover. From there you can explore similar artists and more.
So, what does Progressive Insurance have to do with this? Part of me is still trying to figure this out. As the commercial rolled on, I pulled out my trusty iPad, opened the Shazam app, and had it listen to the commercial. All this has to be done in 30 seconds, which is a challenge all by itself. Anyway, like a technology miracle, Shazam identified the commercial and up pops a picture of Flo on my iPad. The problem is, that’s all I got. I was left with a feeling of, so what? Unless there is something I missed, there was absolutely no value delivered to me at that point in the engagement. They had me. Then they lost me.
QR Codes: Let’s think outside the black box
June 8, 2011 § 4 Comments
Please welcome guest blogger Jackie Croley as she delivers this post on how creative brands are using QR codes. — editor.
Lately I have been seeing QR Codes everywhere! The only thing is, in most cases, they are ugly black boxes slapped in the corner of print advertisements. QR Codes don’t have to stick out like a sore thumb to attract attention. The uses for QR Codes are still being discovered and we have only begun to see how they can be utilized in media and advertising. Marketers can creatively incorporate them into designs to inspire users to scan and enjoy content.
Now that they are catching on, I think it’s time to improve their design and placement. QR Codes can be so much more than just a black box! Here are some examples of creative designs and uses of QR codes.
Which one do you like? Are you inspired now?
Macy’s creatively incorporated a QR code in their trademark red star.
