There’s no escaping Ubiquitous Marketing
by Julian Gratton
Marketing is not a nostalgic business. With the constant emergence of new technologies, advertisers need to keep bang up to date to avoid being left behind. Just think back a year. At the beginning of 2009, Twitter was still a relatively niche social network, Spotify wasn’t yet available to the general public and search engine Bing didn’t even exist. One year on and all these technologies may be fundamental to creating a successful advertising campaign.
So what’s next? What will the ‘big thing’ of 2010 be? Well, I’m not going to try and predict that, but I will tell you what will make the next ‘big thing’ happen – and that’s the Ubiquitous Network. In fact, I’m confident it’ll change the future of advertising and marketing forever…
Ubiquitous Network?
Imagine a world where you can be provided with the services of a virtual space wherever you go. A world where anyone can access information any time, anywhere. A world where consumers can be communicated with in a direct and ultra-personalised way that can provide marketers with immediate response results. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?
In this world, the Internet is not something we access as and when we need it. There’s no searching for Internet connectivity for the mobile devices in our pockets. Connectivity will be everywhere and not only will we be able to access it – it will be able to access us.
In the Ubiquitous Networked world, the information you carry around on your mobile device will change how the world interacts with you. You’ll be able to walk up to any computer in the world and it will automatically update to contain all your personal files, with the email client containing all your emails. You’ll be able to go to a friend’s house or a hotel room and turn on the TV to watch programmes you’ve recorded and saved on your TiVo box at home. You’ll be able to take photos of your safari in Kenya, knowing that the picture frames in your hallway at home are automatically updating.
Most importantly (as far as our industry is concerned) personalisation will be immediate and highly effective. For example, POS displays outside shops will change as customers approach, showing products that are most likely to interest that specific customer based on previous purchases. Not unlike online shopping – only with the ‘try before you buy’ benefits of the high street. It’s all possible with the Ubiquitous Network.
So it’s not science fiction then?
Ubiquitous Networks explained to people in the Ginza district
It’s inevitable that the Ubiquitous Network will be a big part of future consumer life, and 2010 is when the revolution really begins. Following a successful trial of a Ubiquitous Network project in Japan in 2006 – where reporters and tourists in the trendy Ginza district of Tokyo were given PDA-style communicators to walk around the area and pick up information as they went – it’s enjoying another trial (on a much larger scale) from this month. And now there’s no need for purpose-built communicators – this will work on the average, albeit Japanese, mobile phone.
So what does that mean? Well, it means that commuters emerging from the Ginza metro station will have a 3D real-time image of the landscape above them, helping them choose the right exit for the Mitsukoshi department store. It means that when they arrive at the store a woman’s image will appear on their phone screen to welcome them. It means that when they’re browsing a particular section of the store, offers and discounts are being communicated directly to their mobile. It’s all done using the RFID network, which identifies a person’s location from their mobile and then matches it to information provided by shops within a particular proximity. It’s pretty clever stuff… and it’s pretty expensive too.
Ken Sakamura, the Tokyo University professor who created this technology, knows that the cost of the initial infrastructure will be immense, but believes the many benefits of this “essential infrastructure for the 21st century” will ensure the necessary backing from the commercial sectors. He’s probably right too. Just think what companies will be willing to pay for the ability to have a billboard that acknowledges the customer by name and then tries to flog him its wares. In fact, if the interest from shops in Ginza is anything to go by, commercial sectors around the world will be scrambling to put up the money to ensure this seemingly sci-fi world becomes a money-making reality.
So far so very Minority Report.
From a consumer’s point of view, the rise in Ubiquitous Networks and their offshoots like WiMax will mean there is no hunting around for a wireless connection in the city… and there’s no need to turn to expensive mobile dongles to get a connection. But it’s the carrying around of personal information that could create something quite special in this Ubiquitous Networked world.
Already in Japan you can walk into a bar and your mobile will tell you how many people in that bar share your interests and which of these are single and would be compatible with you… this could give rise to new ‘dating bars’ where you can walk in and be invited to chat to someone based on you having a high compatibility score…. Who needs internet dating sites then when you can do something similar in real life!
But it’s probably the advertising community that will benefit the most with highly personalised communications… as shown the scene from Minority Report below.
Ubiquitous Networks will undoubtedly mean that virtually all mediums of communication for marketing messages will essentially be direct response. We’ll be able to track immediately how many individuals have seen and responded to messages placed on Billboards or in shop windows. And if they have not responded we’ll be able to tell how log they have dwelled in front of our messages to get a good idea as to whether the messages has been seen by a person.
One thing’s for sure… a Ubiquitous Networked world will open up a whole raft of opportunities for marketers to be more targeted towards the consumer… providing of course the man in the street embraces a world where the technology they carry around with them tells us all we need to know about them in order to sell to them more effectively.
Tags: Advertising, Advertising Agency, Advertising Innovations, Bing, Connectivity, Digital Marketing Agency, Internet, Marketing, Marketing Innovations, Minority Report, Mobile Marketing, Online Marketing Agency, Twitter, Ubiquitous Marketing
