Showing posts with label Mobile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mobile. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Check-in Fatigue approaching? Real incentives might get people excited again
Checking Into a Stieg Larsson Novel? Get Ready for Check-in Fatigue
Stickers and Badges Will Lose Perceived Value as They Become Less Tied to Meaningful Actions, Rewards
Posted by Ian Schafer on 07.29.10 @ 11:00 AM
The ever-brilliant Caroline McCarthy posted a story on companies rolling out badge programs to reward things that do not involve location. New entrants focus on what you happen to be doing over location. Whether you're attending a concert, for example, or as McCarthy notes, "reading one of those ubiquitous Steig Larsson novels."
Ian Schafer The problem with the rush to "reward" consumers with badges and stickers is that they eventually diminish in value as they become a) less scarce, and b) not attached to anything of value.
There's a classic movie term called the "MacGuffin" (popularized by Alfred Hitchcock), which, as wikipedia explains:
A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or maguffin) is "a
plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction." The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are (at least initially) willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is. In fact, the specific nature of the MacGuffin may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot. Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, or a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained.But here's my favorite part of the Wikipedia explanation:
MacGuffins are sometimes referred to as plot coupons (especially if multiple ones are required) as the protagonist only needs to "collect enough plot coupons and trade them in for a
denouement."And that's exactly the problem. We're not giving people a reason to redeem these plot coupons. There's no dénouement. No series of events that follow the climax of the story we're taking the participant through -- or are asking them to tell.
If we don't tie check-ins to real-world rewards, then we will miss out on a great opportunity to affect consumer behavior by avoiding "check-in fatigue" that will inevitably be brought about by a lack of value attributed to the action. Stickers and badges (even while scarce) will eventually become devalued as they become less scarce and hold less perceived value, and will not be a strong enough incentive to keep people engaged.
We must always be looking for ways to reward activity with things that have material value to our consumers. These are the beginnings of true digital loyalty programs that reward people not just for frequency, but advocacy. We must not delude ourselves into thinking that rewarding consumers' loyalty with a "virtual" item will be good enough in the long haul. Imagine if all you got from your airline-of-choice was not redeemable miles, but variations on the "Wings Badge." Which one would get you to fly that airline more often? Exactly. Whether it's more product or even virtual currency that can be used to buy more product (see Facebook Credits), the delivery of material value will be necessary to keep consumers engaged.
As marketers, if we want to play in the world of loyalty programs, we need to learn how to deliver not just one, but multiple climaxes that reward multiple interactions and keep our best customers not only coming back, but telling others how great we are. I hear that works.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
via adage.com
Very timely article in Adage as I've been getting somewhat bored with foursquare recently; not only does the blackberry app work very sporadically these days (I'm assuming they're getting pounded by traffic), it's also become less exciting to check-in and not get a lot of trophies or real rewards out of it (I don't eat at Tasty DLite...). I believe concepts like Shopkick are onto something better as they will be able to provide highly targeted couponing in a purchase environment. In the meantime, I'm checking out of checking in.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Apple rears the ugly monopoly head: no more google ads on the iphone and ipad?
By SCOTT MORRISON And IAN SHERR
Google Inc. protested Apple Inc.'s new rules for iPhone and iPad programmers, saying the changes would prohibit application developers from using Google's advertising technology on the devices.
Apple's new terms, released Monday, target companies with competitive mobile technologies, such as Google, as well as any company whose primary business is not serving mobile ads, said Omar Hamoui, founder of Google's recently acquired AdMob mobile-advertising unit.
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Access thousands of business sources not available on the free web. Learn More"Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress,'' Mr. Hamoui wrote in a blog post.
Apple's terms hurt large and small developers by limiting their choice of how best to make money, Mr. Hamoui said. And because advertising funds many free and low-cost apps, these terms hurt consumers as well, he said.
Apple wasn't available for comment. Earlier this year, Apple unveiled an upgrade to the iPhone operating system that included its new advertising network, dubbed iAd, which is set to launch July 1.
Billed as an alternative to current options, Apple said developers would benefit from the choice. U.S. regulators agreed, clearing Google to buy mobile-advertising firm AdMob in May and noting that Apple's entry into the market would provide sufficient competition.
However, Apple's new terms appear to exclude competing networks such as AdMob from collecting critical information about the devices to which their ads are served.
Apple has said it wasn't interested in banning rivals from its platform but rather simply wanted to prevent abuse.
At issue is a clause in Apple's new terms that states developers may not use third-party analytics software in their apps to collect and send device data to a third party for aggregation, processing or analysis.
The new agreement also says developers must request Apple's permission to collect specific types of information about their users and may only disclose user data to independent advertising-service providers whose primary business is serving mobile ads.
That would exclude advertising-service providers owned by or affiliated with a developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other than Apple. People familiar with the situation said Apple's terms of service could affect Microsoft Corp., AOL Inc. and Yahoo Inc. as well as Google.
The changes don't appear to affect smaller competitors such as Jumptap Inc., Greystripe Inc. and Millennial Media Inc., although they could make such companies less attractive to prospective acquirers.
Mr. Hamoui said in his post that he will tell Apple his concerns about the company's new terms.
Write to Scott Morrison at scott.morrison@dowjones.com
via online.wsj.com
This smells like the mobile space - Apple is blocking Google from serving ads into iphone apps going forward. This might be a dangerous path with regulators - not the smartest way to go IMHO.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Twitter buying summize - let's hope it was mostly equity
A year ago Twitter consisted of 5 guys in a tiny shared office. Now they're apparently big and bold enough to buy 5 guys in an office for $15MM according to Alley Insider. Seems pretty frothy to me - couldn't they have hired 5 guys for $500k a year and done this themselves? Well, congrats to the Summize folks and all the best to Twitter.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
1,000,000 little WiFis covering San Francisco
A few weeks back I attended Web 2.0 in San Francisco. It was great seeing some old friends and meeting new ones but overall I thought the show wasn't that useful to attend (the free exhibition floor pass is the best way to go). Thankfully, the folks at O'Reilly have released a lot of the presentations here and I recommend sifting through some of them. What really struck me is this image from Ryan Sarver's presentation on Skyhook Wireless. It shows the density and quantity of WiFi networks in San Francisco - riches are awaiting those who can figure out how to really weave them all together. Fon is an early contestant but i'm sure that someone will ultimately figure out a way to make money of this.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
My mobile slideshow
This is an example of the world's first mobile slideshows created by Cellfish and Fliptrack - I'm pretty proud of this because it's fun, easy and it works! Go to fliptrack.com and make your own now!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Testing blogger on the go
Finally got this to work! Now I should be able to broadcast straight from my Samsung Sync to my blog. Stay tuned for sharp shots from the big city
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Cellfish.com is great
Cellfish is really cool - it's a new mobile platform that has all these functionalities:
Why Cellfish rocks
All media
• Common media formats
• MP3’s, videos, pics
All carriers
• All major US carriers
• Even between carriers
All phones
• Compatible with most current handsets
Watch YouTube and other videos on your phone
• Enter a video URL – Cellfish converts it
• YouTube, MySpace, DailyMotion, etc.
Convert your favorite music to ringtones
• Turn your MP3’s into ringtones
• Get them on your phone
Free online locker
• Unlimited online storage
• Easy uploading
Download to your phone
• Log in to your locker from your phone
• Download your media
Easy sharing
• Enter a friend’s cell number or email
• Cellfish sends them the media
Free page
• Personalize, publish and share
Keep in touch
• Subscribe to friends’ pages
• Get all their videos and pics on your phone
Get podcasts and videocasts on your phone
• Subscribe to another user's media
• Listen or watch it on the go
Free and exclusive content for your phone
• Hot ringtones, wallpapers, videos, and games
• Premium or free – you decide
Check it out yourself here!
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