Technology: Future-Present Tense

SOUTHWEST SPIRIT 2011

Future-Present Tense 

Mobile Lifestyles Are Ready to Accelerate

In his 2002 thriller “Minority Report,” Steven Spielberg envisioned a future powered by fantastically advanced technologies. In one memorable scene, Tom Cruise’s character is bombarded with highly individualized “biometric” advertising as he walks through a mall. 

That’s still science fiction, right? Can’t hurt to ask. 

We are rapidly moving into the next stage of the digital revolution—with mobile technologies leading the way. What’s around the corner? Smartphones and cool apps are only the beginning. Soon, companies will tap into our increasing appetite for mobile computing and location-based services and they will begin to guess where we’re going to buy, eat, or watch next. And they’re going to get it right.

Just as Amazon today anticipates what we might like based on what we’re already browsing, smartphones are about to become more concierge-like as well. In effect, our mobile devices will ‘anticipate’ what’s going to happen next—and manage our schedules, suggest actions, and generally assist in activities derived from the real data we’re already providing.

“Consumers are leading what is truly a behavioral revolution,” says Chuck Martin, author of The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile. They are doing this by using location-aware apps, such as Google Maps, Yelp, Gowalla, OpenTable, SCVNGR, Foursquare, and most recently, Siri.  

Today, my iPhone 4S Siri personal assistant can set a reminder that I’m having coffee with you in 45 minutes; but soon, it’ll go further, based on what it’s able to discern from our past interaction. The popular new app with the friendly female voice will suggest restaurants we haven’t yet tried, pull up Yelp reviews and Open Table for reservations, map my route, and use augmented reality to direct me to nearby shops (in case I need to buy you some flowers or a birthday card before we meet). Cool apps I obtain will look for, and pull, documents, photos and emails you and I have shared since our last calendared get-together; and it will call me a cab – without my asking — because it knows that it’s raining and I won’t walk to the subway.

“Siri can find relations,” says Martin. “It looks at how many people, over time, do the suggested activity versus something else.”

In predictive marketing, a brand will overlay data it knows about you with smart predictions about what you might like or need. Say it’s 6:30 p.m. and you’ve begun to prepare the family dinner. Not only will companies know that you are wearing your “Mom” hat at that hour, they’ll also know that your eldest child is about to hit college age, and voila —you’ll receive a financial-aid advertisement; or, perhaps even stranger, if you happen to have the television or radio on during dinner, just the right ad will cue up especially for you. Cool but creepy, right? If a retailer can hit you with the perfectly timed pitch—and let’s be clear, this rarely if ever happens—you’ll jump all over it.

“At the moment when any given marketing message arrives, am I in work mode, am I shuttling the kids to practice, am I on the road, or paying bills?” asks Con O’Connell, VP, Engagement Solutions of enterprise communication management firm OpenText.

With “persona shifting” — marketing that considers your present context —businesses look to gain greater contextual understanding and target consumer messages more effectively. Knowing who your audience is at any given moment is critical, he believes. “We’re nearing a day soon where you, your spouse and your kids may be simultaneously viewing the same program on different TVs throughout the house, yet each of you will see different commercials.” 

Yesterday, it was the big broadcast networks that pushed information at us. Today, we pull in messages as we like. Location-based services enable consumers to interact with each other and earn rewards by spreading awareness. By now most people are familiar with Foursquare, whose 10 million users “check in” when they enter a participating retail outlet or restaurant, often receiving rewards in return for their location activity (e.g. auto-Tweeting the location, or earning “mayor” loyalty or heavy-usage status). By “checking in” via a smartphone app or SMS, you are saying, “Hey, I’m at Starbucks!” and your friends reply, “Great, I’ll see you inside.” But Starbucks doesn’t know you’re at Starbucks; the conversation takes place outside the company.

On the other hand, location-based marketing occurs when the company and the customer interact directly, based on where you are at that moment. More and more companies are starting to innovate with location, says “Location Based Marketing for Dummies” author Aaron Strout, who is developing this capability for San Francisco-based global marketing firm WCG. “Amex and Starwood Hotels are doing something forward-thinking in loyalty marketing by allowing you to attach your Foursquare account, gaining loyalty program points when you check in at Starwood property using Amex.”

 “We’re only just starting to hit critical mass with smartphones,” says Strout, whose research shows around 25 percent of mobile users have tried a location-based service. “A lot of people out there are ‘geo curious.’ They realize the power of things like Google Maps and Yelp — and even Facebook has location-aware aspects to show where we’re checked in. Companies are figuring out logical ways to use these cool technologies to interact with us.”

As location-based data proliferates, companies will gain a very clear understanding how behaviors may be linked. For example, they will be able to see that when X number of consumers buy premium gasoline at a specific time and location, there’s a large probability that another behavior will now occur as well, such as purchasing a “combination” meal at an adjacent sandwich chain. 

“Say I’m on my way to meet my wife for dinner at an outdoor mall,” says Dan Shust, head of innovation at digital marketing agency Resource Interactive. “As I enter the grounds, my favorite clothier notices I’m near and sends a text informing me of a special sale. I enter the store, ‘checking in’ using my smartphone and the store’s app. Now the app knows I am there – and it informs the sales staff. I receive a warm greeting from them while, behind the scenes, the app gathers my buying history, purchase motivators (am I here for myself, or more likely to buy a gift?) and makes some recommendations that are amazingly on target for my needs. More importantly, it knows what motivates me, and bundles for me an individualized [removed hard to refuse] offer. The staff collects these items for me to look at, and by the time I get to the reception area I am ready to check out using my smartphone and the store’s ‘m-commerce’ app to pay electronically. I walk out with plenty of time to make the dinner date.” 

With 5.6 billion mobile phones already on the planet (and smartphone penetration at 1 billion and rising rapidly), innovation based on consumers’ location and behavior will continue to soar — as will mobile marketers’ efforts.  

“It sounds convoluted but is really simple — brands will be able to predict and strategize more accurately about the behavior of crowds,” says Martin. “Serious data is being churned by all this activity. While a lot of people worry about privacy, the data doesn’t look at individuals; it’s looking at aggregate behavior and calculating probabilities.”

Day by day, the futuristic vision of “Minority Report” is becoming more science than science fiction. Very soon, at some retail outlets, we’ll be able to pay by phone, with a simple wave of the mobile device (at in-store terminals) that lets it act like a credit card. And “augmented reality,” here now but not widely used, lets us see helpful, real-time information superimposed on the live imagery where we’re standing. 

You can bet businesses are monitoring the situation. All this wizardry, so you can finally find that elusive pair of green socks? Yes, and no. Sellers and buyers are finally really able to match demand and create offers having real value between them. As Shust says, we are about to see great utility emerge from the combination of consumer technologies, allowing consumers to finally be able to find what they’re looking for—even if they don’t know what that is just yet.