What’s Next for Connected Devices?

The idea of connected living is frequently associated with simplifying our lives through streamlining our devices. However, as people look for ways for connected devices to truly have a meaningful impact, there is a drive to move beyond simplification, towards meeting deeper human needs – the need for protection and assistance within our daily lives. In other words, the next wave of connected devices should help us address issues around our physical health, our mental wellbeing, our safety and security and allow us to better connect with our loved ones.

So, what are some of the latest devices that address these needs?

Cuptime, out of China, is a smart cup that allows consumers to track their hydration levels. The plastic cup connects wirelessly to a cellphone, allowing consumers to monitor their water intake based on their height and weight.

Vigo is wearable device that tracks alertness through blinking and body movement, which syncs the data to a mobile app. When Vigo detects tiredness, it ‘nudges’ the wearer via customizable smartphone settings, including gentle vibrations and energizing audio tracks.

Toymail a device I recently checked out at NY Tech Day, is a range of talking toys that allow parents to stay in touch with their kids when traveling. The wifi enabled ‘Mailmen’ sync with an iOS app that allows parents to record and save voicemail messages, which are played through the toy in each character’s voice.

Implication: Each of these products as well as a number of others, such as Nest, make it clear that the next phase of connected living revolves around helping consumers enhance their lives.

Reposted in Tribal Worldwide's Smoke Signals.

Contextual Integration Digs Deeper at the Contagious Now/Next/Why Conference

Last week I attended the Contagious Now/Next/Why conference. During the conference, it became clear that a key trend is influencing the effectiveness of campaigns across all mediums – the need for true contextual integration. Contextual integration, sometimes referred to as contextual relevance, is not new. And, as a result, consumers now expect complete, connected and consistent experiences from a brand, no matter where they are engaging. But, we, as marketers, have not yet been able to create this experience and therefore, we have not allowed contextual relevance to reach its full potential.

One of the key areas that must evolve in order to create real contextual integration is in the creation of personas. Current personas tend to be based around demographic data and a picture of who a person is holistically. However, this demonstrates a lack of understanding of human nature. People’s roles and needs shift depending on who is around, such as a mother of two who is a brand manager at a corporation will have very different needs when she is at home with her children getting them ready for school versus presenting key findings about her product line to her colleagues. Therefore, personas need to be viewed by context and with the change in context comes a change in the information that is relevant.

In other words, it’s time to plan around people. As marketers, data allows us to dig deeper to do just that.

Implication: Design brand planning around contextually relevant pieces of data: time, platform, habits, intent, persona, and events.

Reposted in Tribal Worldwide's Smoke Signals.

NY Tech Day 2014

Yesterday, I attended NY Tech Day. NY Tech Day is an exhibition where entrepreneurs showcase their start-ups in walk-up booth style. It offers a unique opportunity for the more than 400 exhibitors, including startups from around the world, to show off their companies to thousands of consumers and investors. This was the 3rd annual time this free event has taken place.

While there were tons of cool ideas across numerous verticals, a few key trends stood out:

1. Data alone is no longer enough. Data matters and everyone is collecting it, but at the end of the day, the key differentiator is not the data, but the insights and forecasts that can be drawn from it. It's about how you use it.

• Canvs (powered by mashwork) is taking the idea of social TV analytics to the next level. It provides insight and context around entertainment content instead of raw, complicated data. It does this by delivering a glimpse of the nuanced range of emotion a TV show's audience expresses, rather than the general sentiment found in most social media monitoring tools.
• Picpulse focuses trend forecasting for the fashion industry. It's purpose is to help fashion brands and retailers understand what's next, what to do with their inventory and how to best connect with customers using data and analytics. They are launching in the next few months.
• Enertiv is a tool to help people save energy with actionable insights and recommendations that save energy and money. It provides a combination of hardware and software that allows buildings to monitor their energy consumption in real-time through circuit level, detailed information on energy use. The Enertiv Platform continuously analyzes this information in real-time, alerting users of anomalies while providing personalized recommendations for savings.
• Additionally, PsychSignal uses NASA algorithms to predict financial trends with social chatter. Betterment helps individuals better manage their own investments through data.
  

Everyone's trying to find a way to unlock the mobile payments space and own the market.

• Dash and Split both allow users to pay their restaurant or bar tab with their phone. 
• PAAY uses what your phone paired with a personal pin to provide an easy and secure way to make payments.
• Stripe is a set of unified APIs and tools that allows companies to instantly accept and manage payments online and seamlessly integrates mobile payments. Currently, Lyft, Postmates, OrderAhead, Instacart and numerous other mobile apps use Stripe's native iOS and Android libraries to charge on the go.
  

It's time to disrupt the status quo across well-established markets

• Real estate killer apps and tools, such as Clikhome, Roomi and Lystfreely, allow renters to take the power of their apartment search truly into their own hands; thereby, negating the need for brokers and agents in the near future.
• Sols, custom 3D printed orthotics, is challenging the orthotics industry. Their 100% digital process captures and stores a detailed foot scan before visualizing the product, and prescription, in real time. With SOLS, people experience increased accuracy, improved comfort, and consistent quality, something no other orthotics vendor (we're looking at you, Doctor Scholl's) is providing as well.

All in all, it was a pretty inspiring event. I can't wait to see what comes next.

Power Up On Good

This article is a repost of an article I wrote for Tribal Worldwide's Smoke Signals
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A new joint effort between the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) and HTC aims to combine the network power of mobile devices with scientific research. BOINC claims that the combined power of spare mobile computing cycles would be enough to solve complex problems related to AIDS and Alzheimer’s disease.

The idea is that people will donate their phone’s resources to a worthwhile cause with minimal effort applied.

HTC plans to tap into this through an app, HTC Power To Give, in the Google Play store. Through this app, users will also be able to select a specific research program that matters most to them. Additionally, the HTC Power To Give app only runs while the phone is charging and connected to a WiFi network, preventing any battery issues. Down the road, HTC plans to expand the app to work across all Android devices. The app will initially be available to download on HTC One and HTC Butterfly phones.

Learn more about the HTC Power To Give project here.

Implication: It is no longer about what technology can do just for you, but how you can use it to easily benefit the greater good.

Connected Living Takes Center Stage at MWC14

This article is a repost of an article I wrote for Tribal Worldwide's Smoke Signals.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yet again, Samsung comes out on top in this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, with the launch of Galaxy S5 and Gear Fit – the world’s first curved AMOLED touch-screen display on a wearable device that allows you to track your fitness.

Samsung’s new Galaxy S5 has a number of advanced features. In addition to being water resistant and dust proof, it contains a fingerprint scanner that allows you to pay for shopping online and a camera that allows you focus after you’ve taken a picture. The smartphone will also provide extraordinarily fast network speeds by combining WiFi and 4G into a single stream. For an added human effect, the phone lets you track your own heartbeat – a world first, designed to work in conjunction with Samsung’s smart watches enabling wearers to better manage their fitness.

What truly makes the Galaxy S5 unique is how it implements the idea of connected living across all facets of your life: what you wear, where you live and/or work, how you receive goods, how you connect with others, how you travel, and how you purchase. For the first time, a phone is not just part of a family of devices but it is genuinely integrated managing a series of other screens, including your watch, fitness tracker, TV, fridge and washing machine. In other words, the Galaxy S5 operates as a remote control.

Implication: The trend of connected living will soon become part of our everyday reality.

Harnessing the Power of the Collaborative Economy

This article is a repost of an article I wrote for Tribal Worldwide's Smoke Signals
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.
________________________________________________________

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.

Why Brand Experiences Matter

This is a repost of the latest article I wrote for Forbes on the trend of experiential branding.
________________________________________________________

This year I made a promise to myself. Each week I would try something new that expanded my view and forced me to step out of my comfort zone in some way. In other words, I would become a collector of experiences. At first I started small, trying out new restaurants and then I moved into bigger things. I learned to surf one week. The next week I had dinner with a Buddhist monk in a Buddhist monastery. I tried out capoeira. I had my astrological chart read. I went to a saloon jazz club on my own. Each experience expanded my view and helped me grow as a strategist and a marketer.

As marketers, it is important for us to be able to empathize with multiple, diverse audiences. We need to understand their mind-set, their goals, their challenges and their lifestyle in order to shift perceptions and to help our clients’ brands resonate. In other words, we need to connect to our target audience’s lifestyle in a way that fits into their natural behaviors. Here are some recent strong examples of connecting target audience interests to brand experience in unexpected industries:

• Sephora Sensorium recognized the need to connect the importance of scent with the value of tactile experiences. The “pop-up” museum set in the fashion-oriented meat-packing district of Manhattan mixed education and entertainment in an appealing manner for their fashion-conscious key target audience.
• To promote itself in reality life, online glasses retailer Warby Parker launched the Warby Parker Class Trip, an old yellow school bus retrofitted as a Warby Parker show room and taking a six-month cross-country road trip to nine cities. The pop-up shop is decked out to bring the brand and its vintage-inspired mode of transportation with a contemporary twist aesthetic to life for their hipster target.
• Aloft’s Play and Stay campaign connected their guests’ love of music, their passion for discovering new talent, and their excitement for live performances with emerging music talent. The campaign enabled Aloft to further solidify the brand’s image as a brand that “gets” and celebrates the lifestyle of their guests through helping them explore music and find cool new artists.

Connecting these dots is necessary for marketers to generate brand engagement and ultimately, loyalty. This approach remains especially important among harder-to-reach targets. For example, adidas needed to address the fact that sales of running shoes in France among its hard-to-reach target demographic of 14-to-19-year-olds were down. Through research they learned that not only did this target not like to run, but they were also so uninterested that they weren’t even trying on the shoe and were definitely not purchasing them. However, they also learned that this was an audience that loved action movies. Traditional ad campaigns weren’t resonating, but an out-of-the-box experience might. Partnering with Sid Lee, adidas realized the need to connect this love of action movies to the young audience’s Climacool shoes and created an experience that gave teenagers in France a reason to run — by making them the hero of their very own Mission Impossible-esque adventure. And the results show the success of focusing on the experience: adidas saw a 500 percent jump in Climacools tried during the campaign. Here's the case study video:

So whether it’s adventure or astrology, it’s important for marketers to expand the brand experience. The only way to do this is to develop a real understanding of the target audience. So what are you planning on doing first? Maybe it’s time for that skydiving lesson, ceramics class or trip to the Cézanne exhibit.

Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion?

This is a repost of the latest article I wrote for Forbes on the trend of tracking your emotions.
________________________________________________________

The ability to quantify many areas of our lives has led to the emergence of a new trend – the trend of tracking your emotions, specifically happiness. These apps allow people to track their emotions much like they would track fitness, calories or spending. But, can this focus on tracking happiness actually undermine us, especially in our career or business successes?

The idea of quantifying our activities using technological tools is not new. Many of us use apps like Nike+ or RunKeeper to track our runs, calorie counters such as Meal Snap to track our caloric intake, and financial tools like Mint to track our spending.

Launched in 2009, Track Your Happiness is a mobile research project that allows users to track their happiness and find out what factors – for them personally – are associated with greater happiness. According to data from the app: “46.9% of people's time is spent thinking on something other than what they're doing. In fact, what activity a person was engaged in only accounted for about 5% of a person's happiness, whereas whether that person's mind was on- or off-task accounted for over 10%.” So, in other words, a wandering mind is an “unhappy one.” Some apps are taking this idea even further and are looking at the idea of happiness through a person’s social network. Happstr is a mobile app that allows users to mark geographical locations where they’re feeling happy, and to see others' "happiness spots" on the map. It’s purpose is to get users to focus on and record the best moments of their lives. It enables them to benefit from the well-being of others by sharing that happiness with their social network. The app is based on research that shows a person’s happiness can be easily elevated by the network effect of happy people near you.

While the idea of sharing and recording personal happiness is interesting, these apps are problematic since they lead to counterfactual thinking. Happiness, like all emotions ebbs and flows. It can depend on any number of factors such as whom you were with, when you were there, and even the weather. Additionally, by tracking your happiness, it causes you to always be looking backward through rose-colored glasses rather than staying in the present.

As noted in a 1995 study, “When less is more: Counterfactual thinking and satisfaction among Olympic medalists,” published by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: "People's emotional responses to events are influenced by their thoughts about 'what might have been.' The authors extend these findings by documenting a familiar occasion in which those who are objectively better off nonetheless feel worse."

Apps like these drive us to compare ourselves and our emotional state with others, causing us to focus on what we don’t have rather than what we do have. It undermines our successes.

Interestingly, this applies across the board. Successful business leaders as well as Olympic winners even fall prey to this. For example, the same study found third place Olympic winners are sometimes even happier than second place because the "silver medals winners did upward comparisons to the gold medal winner, while the bronze medalists did downward comparisons to people who didn't win medals." And, this is evidence among business leaders in competitive fields as well. According to Jena McGregor’s Washington Post article, “The psychology of how Olympic gold, silver and bronze can go to your head,” “Leaders in competitive fields are always comparing themselves to those who came in first, when they might enjoy their success a little more if they learned to compare themselves to those who didn’t come close to winning at all."

This trend of tracking our emotional states leads us to focus backward rather than forward. To quote Daniel Gilbert, one of the creators of the Track Your Happiness Project, in his book, Stumbling on Happiness: “The fact that we often judge the pleasure of an experience by its ending can cause us to make some curious choices.” Happiness is a raw, human emotion—not something that can be tracked like calories and purchases.  Much like a mood ring one might find at a toy store, such apps shouldn’t be taken seriously. The very thought of it makes me sad.

How Busy is Too Busy?

Ok... I'm ironically delayed posting this (work, vacation and life in general may have interfered), but here is my Forbes article from July. It is focused on the trend of "being busy."
________________________________________________________

It feels good to be busy. After all, it means that you are tackling tasks, making progress, moving forward. There is a sense of accomplishment that comes with being busy.

But the question arises how busy is too busy?

Theoretically you could work every waking second in the day and age of the mobile device. gyro’s @Work State of Mind report, conducted in conjunction with Forbes Insights, thoroughly examined the fact that work comes home and home comes to work. It’s just the way things are in today’s connected world.

Contrary to what we expected, many executives said this made them feel more empowered and agile. The minority of the 543 executives surveyed said they felt overwhelmingly negative about this “always on” life. In many ways, we’ve gotten used to the pace work and communication that didn’t exist less than a decade ago.

According to Tim Kruger’s recent New York Times post, “The Busy Trap,” excessive busyness is an emerging, yet central, value of American culture.” Kruger asserts that the very idea of busyness makes us feel important.  It gives us a sense of worth – defined through endless activity.”

As Kruger states: “Almost everyone I know is busy.  They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t either working or doing something to promote their work. They schedule in time with friends the way students with 4.0 G.P.A.’s make sure to sign up for community service because it looks good on their college applications.”

gyro and Forbes Insights found that 98% of executives work nights and weekends, 97% work on vacation and 53% will leave the dinner table to handle work if need be.

Some executives said they make better decisions at home because they had time to think. Others, just wanted to be kept in the loop in case a problem arose.

Either, there needs to time to relax, recharge and rebalance.  Without that necessary “down time,” our ability to innovate lessens. Playing as well as working is necessary. Through playing, we discover new ideas. Through resting, we take the time needed to approach problems from new angles.  The key to longer term success and ultimately, being content, appear to be finding the balance for yourself between being busy and taking the time to rejuvenate.

As noted in my earlier article, The Rise of Digital Detox, the constant flood of information can become overwhelming.  So much so, that unplugged vacation packages are surging in popularity and free apps are on the rise that actually block us from working,

As technology evolves so will we and the how much is too much debate will continue. As will the discussions about the new work life balance. All of these conversations will, well, continue to keep us busy as well.

The Rise of Digital Detox

This is a repost of the latest article I wrote on the trend of digital detox.
________________________________________________________

Sometimes the constant flood of information and the “always on” mentality can become overwhelming. With the rapid new developments in smartphone, notebook and tablet technologies, people have the ability to continuously send and receive information at the touch of a button or swipe of a finger. As a result, the trend of vacations from digital technology has emerged.

Digital technologies are central to every facet of modern Western life. According to research from Pew, currently 88 percent of American adults have a cell phone, 57 percent have a laptop, 19 percent own an e-book reader, and 19 percent have a tablet computer; about six in 10 adults (63 percent) go online wirelessly with one of those devices.

We aren’t simply using these devices, but they have become integral to our lives. As noted, in gyro’s “@Work State of Mind” report: “[business] executives resemble 24/7 news networks—constantly receiving, processing and sending information.” In addition, 2 percent of business decision-makers never work on weekends or nights, and 52 percent receive business information around the clock, including weekends. This mentality has permeated our broader culture:

• 50 percent of Americans prefer to communicate digitally rather than in person (Pew)
• 81 person browse the Internet, 77 percent use search, 68 percent use an app, and 48 percent watch videos on their smartphone (Google)
• 72 percent use their smartphones while consuming other media, and one-third are on their smartphones while watching TV (Google)
• 93 percent of smartphone owners use their smartphones while at home (Google)

Interestingly, people are now even using technology to take breaks from technology itself. One app called Freedom can be downloaded and set to block Internet access on a Mac or PC for up to eight hours to allow users time for offline productivity. Digital Detox is a free app for Android smartphones that was inspired by Adbuster’s Digital Detox week and irrevocably disables a user’s phone for a user-specified period of time.

Disconnecting from technology has not stopped there. The trend has manifested itself as a sales tool in the travel industry with the creation of digital-detox vacation packages:

• St. Vincent and the Grenadines is asking travelers to leave their technology at home as part of their digital-detox vacation package. Included in the package is a pre-mailed guidebook explaining how to function on a trip without technology and features an onsite life coach who provides advice on how not to let technology control one’s life. 
• The “Be Unplugged” option at the Quincy Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., provides guests the ability to surrender their laptops, tablets and smartphones at check-in. The staff then locks away these items during the guest’s stay. At the end of the stay, the gadgets are retrieved with a special code. 

Other resorts with similar packages include the Teton Mountain Lodge and Spa in Teton Village, Wyo., the Lake Placid Lodge in Lake Placid, and Via Yoga, Seattle company that specializes in luxury yoga and surfing retreats in Mexico and Costa Rica. The digital vacation trend is positive, even for the most digitally connected and savvy people.

A break from digital communications (whether for hours or days) can refresh us, enabling us to become more productive in human relations and work. This break clears our life from noise and allows us the space to reconnect with ourselves, relax and return to the digital world recharged.

Lifelogging: The Ability to Quantify Yourself

With more and more data available and at our fingertips, it has become possible to track every area of our lives. We can track our finances, our location, our friends, our movement, our jogs, our calorie intake, and even, our sleep patterns via digital channels.

Below is a video of Hasan Elahi's Ted Talk on tracking his entire life in response to ending up on the FBI watch list by accident:

This trend towards tracking everything is impacting the health and wellness sector in a unique way. In the last few years, a new trend has emerged, Lifelogging. According to the Lifestream blog, Lifelogging is the process of tracking personal data generated by our own behavioral activities. While Lifestreaming primarily tracks the activity of content we create and discover, Lifelogging tracks personal behavior data like exercising, sleeping, and eating. Lifelogging revolves around analyzing and learning from data to help optimize personal behaviors.

Some interesting apps and devices are capitalizing on this trend:

• UP by Jawbone is a wristband + iPhone app that tracks your activity and sleep. The idea is that the wristband inspiring you to move more, sleep better and eat smarter. 
• Nike+ is one of the best-known examples for tracking exercise. You can track your workouts via Sportband, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPod Nano as well as online. 
• BodyMedia FIT is an armband to track physical activity and sleep patterns. Tracking is done by iPhone or Android apps as well as online. 
• iHealth Blood Pressure Dock is the first blood pressure monitoring system for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. 
• Meal Snap asks you to take a photo of your meal and then estimates how many calories your meal was. It tracks your meals and progress towards your diet goals over time. 
• Sleep Cycle is an iPhone app that acts as an alarm clock. It analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you in the lightest sleep phase so you wake up relaxed and refreshed. 

And, this Lifelogging trend even extends into tracking changes in personal appearance. People are tracking how their face changes over time with the Everyday app, an app that allows you to take a picture of your face every single day. As noted by Techcrunch, the app functions in the following way: “When you first load up Everyday, you’re asked to take a picture of your face. Once you do this, you’re asked to align a grid to where you nose, mouth, and eyes are. This means that for each picture you take, your face can be in the same position…. And there’s also an overlay photo mask of your original face picture (which can be switched on and off) to help you align your face. And the real key may be the alert system, which allows you to set a time each day to get a Push Notification to take the picture of yourself, so you don’t forget.”

Moreover, communities are developing around Lifelogging. For example, the Quantified Self community is an online community around the users and toolmakers who share an interest in self-knowledge through self-tracking. The community includes a forum, a guide to available self-tracking tools and projects, and videos around the subject. Additionally, it has even expanded offline into Quantified Self Show and Tell meet-ups and an annual conference.

As the ability to quantify yourself through real-time data becomes more and more engrained in society, it will be interesting to see the results. Will people gravitate to the idea that they more they know, the more they will be able to better themselves? Or, will it result in a backlash?

For more information on this topic, here's a link to a collaborative post I wrote for work with Alina Koyfman, "Mobile Devices: My Tool for a Better Me."

News: For the Masses, By the Masses?

This is a repost of the latest article I wrote for my work blog on how digital tools are changing journalism. ___________________________________________________________ As social media gets more integrated into people’s lives, they’re demanding more control over the content they interact with. This behavior is happening organically in the digital space. In response, newspapers are changing the way they create content to include consumer participation – and consumers are changing how they interact with the news.

According to an eyetracking study by the Poyner Institute, the shift within newspapers towards focusing on more digital consumer participation makes a lot of sense:

• Online participants read an average 77% of an article versus the 62% within broadsheet and 57% within tabloids. 
• People consuming news digitally also read more regardless of the length of the article. 

This could directly relate to the fact that people have the option digitally to aggregate news in a way they rarely can offline.

And, people are taking advantage of this by personalizing the news for themselves:

• Digg Newswire and Redditt both allow consumers to act as an editor by voting news stories up and down depending on the topic and its relevancy to the individual.
• Trove creates personalized content based on individual user’s interests. It instantly builds a user’s personal home page by matching its channels to the user’s Facebook likes and interests. It then searches and analyzes articles and blog posts to find entities – people, places, things, or concepts – in text. Based on what it finds, Trove classifies the article into one or more of hundreds of topics.
• XYDO is a news-based social network. It focuses on the social endorsement, prioritization and engagement of news. XYDO provides users with a prioritized view of articles/features, editorials, blogs and other news being shared within their social graphs, together with the ability to observe and track broad global news trends and specialized domain-specific trends. Personalized news emails, the XYDO brief, are sent to the users regularly.

Newspapers are also adapting to find real time, socially curated content. For example, New York Daily News is now requiring that every editorial computer has tweetdeck installed on it. This was mandated by Scott Cohen, the New York Daily News’ digital executive editor. Even more interestingly, the Guardian just began an experiment in which consumers helped curate the news. Beginning Oct 11th, the newspaper began publishing a live account of its news diary online, allowing consumers to see the scheduled news of the day as well as any upcoming breaking news. Consumers were encouraged to tell editors what they thought about individual stories and suggested stories using Twitter by tweeting with the hashtag #opennews. They could also follow the editor’s opinions about stories in a Twitter feed and add their own opinions to the conversation by tweeting to the hashtag #opennews. Editors dropped stories in the queue that received a lukewarm response. The purpose of the experiment was to increase readership, online conversation and positive sentiment around the Guardian’s news.

And, tools are coming out that change the definition of what it means to be a journalist. For example, Public Laboratory is creating a number of tools that are available to allow anyone to cover the news. These tools can take aerial photos or video of an event or story. These tools are facilitating the means for anyone to tell their story from a different standpoint.

However, this evolution in the news begs a question. Does news that is created or influenced by the informed public elevate certain stories like celebrity gossip over others such as the protests in Syria? Or, does it allow for truly unbiased reporting or information gathering? There are examples that point to both options as possible and indicate that the answer will probably lie somewhere in between. It feels like time will tell.

Tapping our Digital Behaviors to Ignite Social Change

This is a repost of an article I wrote for my work blog in October on how digital technologies are being used to impact positive social change.
___________________________________________________________

The rise in digital technologies is empowering social change on an unprecedented global scale. While it is true that digital technologies fueling social change have allowed for some negative consequences such as increased surveillance and the ability to mobilize riots, this article is specifically focused around positive examples. This is evident in the use of social media to change regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, to monitor elections in Kenya, and to aid earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. One particularly interesting example is the Cairo Harass Map, which empowers women to report sexual harassment via email or SMS. The purpose of this project is to end the social acceptability of sexual harassment in Egypt.

Many social change projects focus around fundraising platforms that tap into existing digital behaviors:

• 50/50 is a 50-day creative collaboration fundraising campaign encouraging creative projects that generate awareness and raise money for the famine in East Africa. 100% of the donation goes directly to UNICEF. 
• Thanksforteaching.us is a 30 day campaign, hosted by tbd, dedicated to thanking teachers all over the world by sharing the actions, dreams and passions they inspired. This campaign aims to bring the spotlight back on the teachers that make our classrooms thrive in a time when funding for schools is being cut. 
• Africa Needs You is trying to raise money to combat the famine in East Africa through leveraging the cultural phenomenon of paid celebrity tweets and turning it upside down. It is asking people to challenge celebrities via twitter to donating a tweet – the equivalent of $10,000.
• Charity Swear Box looks for swear words on twitter. When a person enters his or her twitter name in the search box on the Charity Swear Box homepage, it checks all his or her past tweets for any sign of a swear word. These are added up to a suggested amount to donate to a favorite charity such as Unicef, WWF (World Wildlife Fund), and Feed the Children. 

Digital technologies are simplifying and enhancing the communication required to get social change moving. For example, in the past year, the Social Change Impact report stated:

• 110 million Americans expressed an opinion on an issue by posting a comment on a blog or Web site.
• 93.8 million Americans joined or created a group on a social networking site devoted to a cause.
• 82.1 million Americans texted to make donations, voted, organized a demonstration, etc. related to a specific cause or issue.

Digital technology is allowing people to get involved in social change issues faster and more frequently than ever before. And, digital technology as a conduit for social change is cross-generational. As noted in the Walden study: eight in 10 American adults, from Gen Y to through the Silent Generation agree that thanks to digital technology, people are getting involved in positive social change issues faster and more frequently than ever before. This belief is strongest among the Baby Boomers.

A number of brands are leveraging this momentum to align with specific social change campaigns:

• Levi’s WaterTank game was a Facebook game that inspired consumers to participate in online water-saving challenges. Each challenge completed “unlocked” water from the Levi’s WaterTank and ultimately supported Water.org’s life-saving clean water projects worldwide. This game has evolved into Levi’s Go Forth Platform.
• Aviva USA’s Status for Youth made the brand's new Facebook page a catalyst for good. "Status For Youth" asked people to donate a status update to a youth-related charity. In lending their voice, people also influenced the amount of grant money given to each charity.
• Pepsi Refresh is funding programs across a number of disciplines that “refresh” the world through local communities. Projects are focused around education, communities, art and music.
• Chase Community Giving’s American Giving Awards is Chase’s first-ever celebrity tribute to community heroes, offering 5 charities a chance to share $2MM in grants so they can continue their work helping others.
• Starbucks’s Create Jobs for USA is a partnership with Opportunity Finance Network to create and sustain jobs through providing capital grants to select Community Development Financial Institutions. Additionally, this platform wants to build a community of interested people via Facebook and Twitter to express opinions and ideas about to improve and take action in local communities.

As the world becomes increasingly more interconnected, it will become more important for brands to think about ways to incorporate social change platforms into their brand promise.

The Emergence of Digital Secret Social Clubs

This is a repost of an article I wrote for my work blog in September on the rise of the secret social club in the digital space.
__________________________________________________________

The idea of the secret social club has been prevalent in the real world throughout much of history. However, until recently, this was not replicated in the digital space. In the last few years, status stories shared via social platforms and in real life have become increasingly more attractive and prevalent. Digital secret social clubs have begun to actively tap into these status stories. These clubs unify members not only through their exclusivity but also through shared passion points. They provide members a way to be on the inside, “in the know” about specific passions from food to art to travel. These clubs also give their members the outlet to be able to lead the way to the “unique,” the “cool,” and the avant-garde in their community.

The idea of the secret social club taps into some key emotional needs of consumers:

• The desire for unique stories to tell 
• The promise of “shared” experiences
• And, the feeling of increased social status.

As noted, in Trendwatching’s report, Statusphere: "When individuality is the new religion, owning or experiencing something no one else has is the ultimate status fix.” Secret social clubs are directly answering that need by providing participants stories that aren't common knowledge for the masses and helping consumers tell their own status-yielding stories to other consumers.

• Excursionist is a members-only travel site where travel is tailored to a consumer’s passions and around unique experiences. The trips are curated by world-renowned experts and guided by people in the local community.
• The Global Party is a worldwide extravaganza featuring luxury lifestyle brands and 80,000 of the world's elite inspired by the adventures of fictional character, Phileas Fogg. 80 exclusive parties will take place in venues across the globe all launching within 24 hours. This is based around an effort to raise funds and awareness for a collection of charities around the world.
• Diner en Blanc is an exclusive pop-up secret dining society. Members must dress in white to recognize each other and everyone brings his or her own food, tables, chairs and glassware to a secret but public location, which is revealed shortly before the start of event.

Secret social clubs allow brands to reward loyalty in a smart way. Brands can provide well thought out and unique incentives. For example, the Patron Social Club encourages consumer participation by promising the more a person participates the more likely he or she is to get an invite to one of the secret dining society events. This intrigues and engages consumers well beyond a simple offer or coupon.

The one of the strengths of these branded social clubs is that they share credible and original content that’s engaging and relevant to their target audience. They create compelling content their consumers actually want to consume. Moreover, these secret social clubs provide a holistic experience for their members by taking digital experience off-line into real life social engagements and then bringing the real life engagements back into the online experience. The branded secret social clubs have found clever ways to engage the social media audience to amplify an experience that already works well in the physical world.

The Convergence of Fitness and Digital

Wow! It's been a while since I've had a chance to write anything. It's been a busy summer between moving from Minneapolis to Manhattan and starting a new job. Anyway, fall is finally here in New York and with it, I want to repurpose some blog posts I've been writing for my current employer. I hope you enjoy them! Here's the first one from August:
___________________________________________________________

Keeping fit while traveling has always been a bit of a challenge. While a lot of hotels have gyms and a person can always throw on sneakers and go for a run, it’s easy to lose focus on the road. Workouts get off track. And, it’s easy to get out of shape.

As noted in trendwatching’s 11 Crucial Trends to Watch for 2011 report, the convergence of wellness and health is an emerging consumer trend. Health has become as important as traditional status symbols and consumers expect health-related tools to “improve their quality of life, rather than merely treating illnesses and ailments.”

The convergence of fitness and digital platforms not only addresses consumers’ interest in improving their quality of life through wellness but taps into two seemingly opposed consumer trends: the increased interest in ultra-personalization and the emergence of inclusive, global communities of shared interests. Despite the obvious tensions between these two trends, fitness platforms appear to be capitalizing on the intersection of needs between the two.

Mobile apps are allowing for even more personalization and customization, giving customers added control of the information they receive, when, where and how they receive it. The ultra personalization trend has been instrumental in the creation of a number of fitness platforms:

• Nike+ is one of the most well-known running platforms. Using a tracking device within your shoe or another GPS-enabled device, it tracks each of your runs and provides an endless about of information about each run including maps, calories burnt, stride, etc.
• YogaTailor creates custom personalized yoga video workouts for you, maximizing the benefits within your available time and level of experience.
• Jog.fm helps you create a playlist to match whatever pace you want to run, walk or cycle at based on beats per minute (BPM). It takes the existing music in your library and mixes it according to your requested pace. While options exist for listening to others’ playlists, it still revolves mainly around your music, your playlist, and mostly your desired pace.

While people want to personalize their options for working out, they also want to share their experiences and get support from a community with shared interests. Brands are tapping into people’s need to have a community of support around them as they reach for their goals. This need is especially strong in the fitness category and can be the missing link in terms of exercise for a person who has to travel regularly. Fitness platforms are focusing on creating inclusive communities that can be accessed anytime, everywhere and are based on similar fitness interests and goals:

• Two weeks ago, Speedo rolled out their new platform, “Pace Club. Speedo’s Pace Club includes a mobile app that allows swimmers to sign up for training programs, log workouts, view professional athletes demonstrating proper technique and share their progress with friends through Pace Club’s virtual “Swim Team,” as well as on Facebook or Twitter.  Additionally, “Splash Tags” allow consumers to search for and review pools – as of launch, 3,500 pools had already been entered into the system, the most comprehensive directory in the country. There’s also a blog featuring content by Speedo athletes and a product widget showcasing relevant Speedo products.
• Endomondo is a social network for runners. At its core, it is a cross-platform running app with a huge network of fellow runners built in. It has apps across most mobile platforms and GPS-enabled devices including Garmin. With Endomondo installed on your mobile device, you can track where you run, how long you run, check your personal best times, and share them with friends. From the Endomondo site, you can view exercise summaries, issue invites and challenges to get your friends involved in your fitness push, and participate in site-wide challenges.
• Track-a-thon is an app developed by mcgarrybowen labs to support a runner’s fans. The runner downloads the app onto his or her iphone and then carries it with him or her throughout the race. The spectator can then visually track a person’s race progress along the course including runners’ distance, speed elevation and the music they are listening to (assuming the race allows music).

According to trendwatching, “the ‘consumerization’ of health means that more consumers will choose products with embedded health benefits that are actually well designed, desirable, accessible, fun, tasty, interesting or storied.” So, the next time you are going on a trip, consider checking out a few of these tools and see if you find it easier to stay in shape while on the road.

Heineken Star Player Taps into Fan's Love of Prediction

Soccer is my favorite sport. I've spent many Saturdays and Sundays at the pub watching soccer with my friends and strangers. And, I've definitely overheard and joined in many conversations attempting to predict the action on the field: "Oh, Gerrard is definitely going to score. There's no way he'll miss. I bet he goes for the top left corner." "How in the world did Rooney get a penalty there? I mean he didn't step on anyone's crotch this time!" So, it's not surprising that when Heineken StarPlayer by AKQA launched I would be interested.

Fans of sports love to predict what their team, their rivals, the refs, etc. will do. Through predicting behaviors and actions on the field, fans feel connected to the action, almost like they themselves are calling the shots. It opens the door to being part of something larger than oneself. It creates a community. A perfect example is the Boston Red Sox Red Sox Nation. Heineken StarPlayer taps into this existing behavior and expands it from the real-world into the digital space via mobile (iPhone only for the moment) and Facebook. It creates a game within the game.



As noted in the Creativity Online write-up, here's how the app works: "Heineken StarPlayer is a 'dual screen' soccer app that lets fans watch UEFA Champions League (UCL) matches on TV while they play the game in real-time.

The game can be played on a PC, iPhone or iPod touch and is downloaded from iTunes or played on the Heineken Facebook page. To score points, players anticipate events unfolding on the pitch live and make decisions on what will play out. When a key event occurs, the app triggers in real-time a 'Match Moment' and gamers are asked to choose from outcome options (for example, will that goal go in?). Players can compete and share scores with their friends, via Facebook, as well as other players around the world."