Harnessing the Power of the Collaborative Economy

This article is a repost of an article I wrote for Tribal Worldwide's Smoke Signals
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While technology is often thought of in terms of benefitting the individual, a recent rise of the collaborative economy landscape is changing things. Now, the greater issue is not just about the individual, but the benefit to the greater community.

One particularly interesting aspect of the collaborative economy is the emergence of mobilizing technology for shared problem solving. Cameron Sinclair’s Architecture for Humanity and Open Architecture app, both focus on proactive social innovation and ideation to improve the lives of people, globally. No longer is the goal restricted to how we can benefit ourselves but rather, what we can do to benefit the entire community.

But, it does not stop with ideation.

Products too have the ability to take the power of technology beyond the individual. For example, adidas’ Nitrocharge, “Power Pitch” harnessed game playing energy for the pitch-side lighting. Similarly, Soccket by Uncharted Play is a regulation-size soccer ball that converts kicks and headers into off-the-grid power. Two hours of play can produce enough wattage to light an LED for at least one night. By harnessing passion, people have the ability to extend their energy into the greater community.

Implication: As our ideas around consumption change, so do our ideas around the importance of goods. However, a bigger question still exists: In an economy of sharing, how do the needs of purchase and consumption change? How do businesses themselves adapt to meet this model? Only time will tell.

Learn more about this changing business paradigm in Wired.

A Life Connected

This article is a repost of an article I wrote for Tribal Worldwide's Smoke Signals
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The proliferation of smart consumer electronics intended to improve certain areas of life is not new. Nike+ allows us to quantify our personal fitness goals. Netflix gives us the opportunity to tap into on-demand entertainment. And Nest thermostat automatically adjusts room temperatures based on circumstantial factors.

However, only now are frameworks being developed to allow the devices to communicate with one another.

In the near future, we can expect that our devices will communicate across all facets of our lives: what you wear, where you live and/or work, how you receive goods, how you travel, how you purchase and how you connect with others. Ultimately everything will be connected to the point that all technology will be seamless and innate.

Implication: By combining the unique value from each product there is an opportunity to create a much more powerful benefit for the consumer. To learn more about this trend, check out PSFK’s Future of Home Living.

Wearable Technology: A Behavioral Revolution

Wearable technology is fast creating a world in which technology is no longer an add-on. Instead it is literally attached to us. It is embedded in our lives, generating and mining data in a way that is useful and functional, both for us and for marketers.

It is no longer uncommon to see people wearing smart watches like Pebble or tracking their fitness with armbands such as UP and Nike+. And, Google Glasses are a regular topic of conversation whether it’s a skydiving tech demo or Jon Bon Jovi’s keyboardist wearing them live in concert.

The data we actively generate define who we are in the digital age and how to best reach us for marketers. This data includes stats on how far we run, what we eat and our sleep patterns. It also includes geotagging and the trove of information we upload to social media.

All of this data is going to play a much bigger role in our lives, both in terms of the benefit from the technology we wear and the ability of companies to meet our needs when, where and how we need them met.

Wearable technology is already evolving beyond just the “cool” to the beneficial:

• Smart Diapers by Pixie Science, out of New York, detects possible urinary tract infections, kidney dysfunction and dehydration via infants’ diapers. It transmits the information directly to a physician via a smartphone app. The diaper has a small patch on the front, containing chemical agents that have different reactions depending on which proteins are present in urine. If the levels are abnormal, the color on the patches changes. At the end of each diaper use, a parent uses his or her smartphone to take a picture of the QR code-like patch which is analyzed by the accompanying app to determine whether the baby has a UTI, if the kidneys are healthy, if the baby is hydrated, and, even detect Type 1 Diabetes; thereby providing valuable information about a baby’s health. 
• The FIDO project through Georgia Institute of Technology is developing wearable technology that aims to improve communication between working or assistance dogs and their handlers. The dogs communicate with their handler or owner by biting or tugging on sensors fitted into their collar or vests. The sensors activate either audio commands that handlers can hear in their earpiece or visual commands that appear on a head-mounted display. 
• Finnish start-up, Uniqil, announced a new technology last week that allows customers to buy products with their face. All customers do is present their face to a camera in a store that uses their device and the transaction is processed. 

The idea of objects we use benefitting us has the ability to take the power of technology beyond the individual to the larger community. For example, adidas’ Nitrocharge “"Power Pitch" harnessed the in-game energy to generate the energy for the pitch-side lighting. And, Soccket by Uncharted Play is a regulation-size soccer ball that converts kicks and headers into off-the-grid power. With it, two hours of play produces enough wattage to light an LED for at least a night.

It’s clear this is only the beginning. In the future, it seems likely we will have devices that second-guess us or make intelligent connections for us. It is not farfetched to imagine that this will help marketers to microtarget even more. The next logical extension is to leverage things we already take for granted, such as Amazon recommendations, and send them to our devices to help make purchase decisions based on our preferences.

Wearable technology’s evolution is not only changing our behaviors, it’s changing our relationship to the world.

Manufacturing Moments and Marketing Serendipity: Welcome to the New Frontier

This is a repost of an article I wrote for Forbes in May on the idea of manufactured serendipity and marketing. ________________________________________________________
The idea of manufactured serendipity is not new within the digital world. Whether it’s finding out when friends and other interesting people are nearby or what they recommended in your current location, our apps have given us plenty of moments of discovery. You know when you “discover" that really cool coffee shop thanks to Foursquare or meet up with a friend you didn’t expect to see thanks to Glancee, Highlight, Sonar and Banjo or newer entries like quadstreaker and the updated Google Maps.

While these apps are useful, they are lacking in the most powerful element: a specific action that benefits you, the user. This gap has led to an interesting and emerging trend from marketers – combining manufactured serendipity with timeliness. And, what’s emerging is a new idea: The marketplace of moments.

The marketplace of moments is the creation of time-limited offers and deals via mobile that depend on your being in the right place, at the right time and taking the necessary action. A step beyond Foursquare deals, these marketplace moments place a premium of time and combine that with the discovery element of manufactured serendipity. Here are some examples:

• Guatemalan sneaker store, Meat Packer’s Hijack added a time-sensitive discount feature to its existing app to steal customers from rival stores. Using GPS technology to track when a customer entered the rival store, the app pushed a notification to the customer offering a time-sensitive discount at Meat Peak. The discount started at 99% and decreased to 1% with each second that passed causing customers to rush to Meat Pack to get the best deal. In one week alone, Meat Pack took 600 customers from its competitors. 
• Emart’s “Sunny Sale” in South Korea used a three-dimensional QR code that was placed across Seoul and could only be scanned during 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. daily, due to the sunlight casting a shadow to complete the QR code. Anybody who scanned the code was given a special discount code of 25% off that could be redeemed in store or through their mobile e-commerce site. Emart saw an enormous increase in sales during the promotion. 
• BiteHunter in the United States is a niche daily deal aggregator site that uses a real-time location based on an iPhone mobile app. The app sets your location automatically and presents you with offers. Search results are displayed in a convenient map format. Additionally, the site offers a one-click payment option, restaurant contact information and reviews. 

Each of these apps creates a sense of urgency at a point of relevancy. But it’s clearly only the beginning. There is a great opportunity to expand the marketplace of moments.

For example, what happens if you take this marketplace of moments a step further and pair with it predictive apps that are based on emotion? Let’s say you use Happstr (a mobile app that lets users mark geographical locations where they’re feeling happy.) When you walk past one of these happy places, a restaurant where you had a great first date for example, and you are served a discount that you have to use within the next hour.

Suddenly, you’ve combined an emotional memory with a marketplace moment. The relevance of such an action is sure to increase positive feelings and potentially boost loyalty for your product or service. There are many powerful opportunities that have yet to be explored combining emotion, timeliness and technology. It’s just up to marketers to act.

B2People: Humanly Relevant Marketing

This is a repost of the latest article I wrote for Forbes on the idea of B2People.
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The lines have blurred throughout the historically “distinct” macro-target markets. Traditionally, marketing is broken down into three key areas, B2C, B2B and B2G. Each one has essentially marketed to different groups: the first, clearly, to another business, wholesaler or retailer; the second to consumers directly; and the last to government entities.

However, this approach is problematic, especially when targeting the B2B and B2G audiences. Yes, there is certain language that resonates within each group. For example, a manufacturer needs to use language that is directly applicable to a wholesaler. And a defense contractor ought to know the correct language to approach the Pentagon. But, as marketing professionals, we must go beyond the basics. It appears that a fundamental component is lost.

We have forgotten that regardless of the target market, the key decision-maker, whether he or she is a financial adviser, a hospital administrator, a CEO, a mom buying a toy for her child, or the head of a large contractor for the military, is first and foremost a human. Such decision-makers have fears and joys; trials and tribulations; and moments that bring them happiness. This is true both professionally and personally. Ultimately, that means our approach to communications needs to evolve.

We should no longer look at communications purely from a B2B, B2C or B2G angle. It is now B2People.

So, what is B2People? B2People ensures that messaging, regardless of the audience, is humanly relevant. Therefore, as we approach each key challenge, we need to ask ourselves key questions and try to stand in our target audience’s shoes: What is important to our key target audience? What is keeping them up at night? What is important for them to feel successful? What are they feeling about their industry, about our product, about the cultural climate? How can we shift these perceptions in a meaningful way? Once we determine the answers to these questions, it’s our job to connect the dots.

B2People is about recognizing we are speaking to real people who do real things and then communicating with them in a language that is relevant to their real lives. Marketing that achieves this goal is the most impactful, most engaging and by far the most effective.

For the New Year remember who your true target is: human beings.