DDB Influences #3
In this issue we’ll give you our point of view on the much anticipated Apple Watch launch and its potential influence on our relationship with technology. We’ll also tell you why brands should stop talking about Big Data and start focusing on Agile Data and how they can use it to deliver more Real-time Communication.
March 2015
This edition’s topics:
1. Apple Watch. Well-dressed Everyday Technology
Apple says it’s the most personal product they have ever made and that it will change our relationship with technology. Will it? We give you a glimpse into the Apple Watch’s potential influence on our lives and habits.
2. Go Real-Time or Go Home
A major challenge for today’s brands is to deliver relevant, Real-time Communication and content. That’s why Agile Data is becoming so important and we’ll tell you a bit about how this works and how some brands are already doing this right.
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1. Well-dressed everyday technology.
For Apple it is the most personal product they have ever made — they say it’s a new chapter in the relationship people have with technology. Is it? The question is: will the Apple Watch change the game again? We will only know for sure at the launch on April 24th but we are convinced that if someone can do it, it’s Apple. Samsung (23% market share), Motorola (10% market share) and many others like Fitbit, LG, Pebble (all around 7% to 6% market share) had their chances in the last years, but only appealed to geeks and early adopters. Reminders of the period before the iPhone came along.
The first good move was the positioning of the Watch — it wasn’t announced like a normal gadget but communicated like a fashion item. Apple chose the one and only Vogue, mother of all fashion magazines, with a 12-page spread. Vogue China even put the Apple Watch on the cover of its November issue. You can buy it at high-end department stores like Galeries Lafayette. And Apple used fashionable influencers to promote the watch: fashion titans Suzy Menkes and Karl Lagerfeld were seen posing with the Apple Watch and supermodel Christy Turlington endorsed its exercise features.
No matter what style preferences there will be a wristband for everyone. It seems the watch will fit us perfectly, the question is if the technology will suit us as well?
What’s the influence?
We are already being flooded by Apple Watch apps. Everyone, so it seems, wants to be a part of this new trend and the development resembles the early gold rush of the iPhone app-era. So what can the watch be used for? Where will it affect our habits and lives?
If you ask Apple it should affect the way we communicate, the way we stay healthy and fit and it should rise our productivity — all in all making our lives better.
Add cheerfulness to communication:
The Apple Watch allows a new kind of communication. You can connect with a friend and get his or her attention by tapping on your watch (through a technology Apple calls “Digital Touch”), draw a silly doodle on your friend’s display or send your current heartbeat. A very personal way to let someone know you’re thinking of them.
Fitness, comparable to already existing smartphone functions, but easier to use:
The Apple Watch wants you to live a healthier life and monitors your every move — on the wrist it is more precise and always around and easier to use during sport than a smartphone. It tells you how many calories you’re burning, distances you have run, your heartbeat and pulse all in a glance. It is a fitness device designed for casual and professional athletes.
The Apple watch as a remote control:
“BMW i Remote” will be the first car app for the Apple Watch. With the watch you will know when your electric BMW is fully charged, you can set the interior temperature on-the-go, lock and unlock the door, flash the headlight, honk the horn and track your car on a map.
The announced Apple Watch apps are mostly just adaptations from the iPhone apps. Some are smarter to use because of the new device, some are just more fun. But the device is a platform for much more innovation and only the future can tell exactly what will come out of it.
The PSFK report “Future of Retail” gives us an insight of what is up next. In their vision, the retailer reacts on existing needs and new behaviours (e.g. the rise of the home delivery services or the rise of smart devices). In the Wholefoods of the future you can pay seamlessly or get recommendations for your shopping on your smartwatch (e.g. seasonal fruits, best prices).
By:
Sabine Brockmann // Senior Strategic Planner, DDB Germany
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2. Go Real-Time or Go Home!
Real-time communication is, due to the fast moving times we live in, not only possible — it is expected. The key to create real-time communication is Agile Data. With Agile Data companies can provide the right content within the right context to the right people. But what exactly is Agile Data and how can companies use it? Agile Data is pretty much the basis for Real-Time Communication. It enables companies to react when it is most relevant to their customers.
From Big Data to Agile Data.
We all know the term “Big Data” by now, it seems inevitable. There are many definitions out there. The one I favor most comes from Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier. Within their book they define Big Data as “the ability of society to harness information in novel ways to produce useful insights or goods and services of significant value.”
Another, rather fitting comparison comes from Duke University Professor and TED Speaker Dan Ariely, who compared Big Data to teenage sex:
However, the concept of Big Data seems to be more about gathering information than using it. And there is a lot of data out there. Within one minute, approximately 1.4 million GB of data is transferred over the Internet. See for yourself:
What’s the influence?
Data is great; it provides information about our customers, leads to insights and is the basis of communication strategies. But usually there is a huge time gap between generating and using data. Despite the fact, that data is most valuable the moment it is generated. Companies need to act within these moments to fuel greater content, to build stronger relationships and to gain greater loyalty. The biggest challenge is to lay the foundations to act agile. Companies need to be prepared, they are forced to be brave and are obliged to implement agile marketing within their DNA.
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Two examples of how brands are using Agile Data.
1. Carsurfing
Carsurfing is an app that connects drivers with free seats with people that need a lift and are going to the same event. It is like airbnb for cars and similar to “Mitfahrgelegenheit.de” or “BlaBlacar.de”. People offering or seeking rides enter information about the event they want to go to and Carsurfing helps them to connect.
Carsurfing became big using Agile Data. In 2012, as developers were importing events listed on Facebook into the Carsurfing platform, they noticed a spike in connections related to Burning Man, an annual art festival in Nevada, USA.
They focused on getting people connected on Facebook so they could find their way to Burning Man. They built a dedicated landing page for Facebook users going to the event. Within a couple of weeks, they helped to arrange 800 rides and became a well known app at the same time.
2. Adidas went #allin with its Real-Time marketing hub
Adidas went well prepared to the 2014 FIFA Football World Cup in Rio, striving to be the most talked- about brand at the tournament. With a 40-odd Social Media Team packed in a war room, Adidas wanted to take its sponsorship to the next level. “We knew we were going to do something real-time, that isn’t completely brand new to us, but it is at this scale.” Tom Ramsden, brand marketing director for Adidas Football, stated in an article from Ad Age.
The article describes how Adidas uses Agile Data:
At 1 p.m. the France vs. Germany match kicks off, and by 1:14 p.m. Adidas player Mats Hummels has scored the first goal, for Germany. Adidas’ Social Media Agency, We Are Social, preps an image of Mr. Hummels, and it’s live within a minute at @adidasfootball and @adidasfussball.
“After the game we’ll have the image on outdoor projections in Munich, Berlin and Hamburg,” Marc Oltmann, Adidas’ senior communications manager, Area Central (Germany), says. “Public viewing is huge in Germany.” By the next morning it will be on digital out-of-home sites on the subway and on flatscreens in German stores. With five minutes to go in the match, Adidas’ Mr. Hughes tells the team three pieces of content are ready to go if Germany wins: a Hummels photo, a Vine video of his goal and a group shot in case another German player also scores.
“It’s about telling the right stories at the right time,” says Joe Weston, a We Are Social account director.
And Adidas has achieved what it set out to. According to the company’s website the brand has been the most talked-about brand during the tournament with an increase of 5.8 million followers across all major social media platforms and over 917.000 mentions of #allin on Twitter.
How to act agile:
Jasper Bell, strategy consultant at Amaze London, has developed a 4-point checklist as a requirement for companies in order to act agile:
1. The ability to identify the opportunity:
Companies need to make sure they have the resource to monitor, listen, analyze and understand social conversations or events that are relevant for their brand.
2. The ability to respond:
Brands need a certain journalistic, legal and design skills to respond quickly to an event.
3. The ability to measure the outcomes:
This is about the direct measures of success and wider proxies, having the right analysis tools, listening tools, qualitative data, and the impact on reputation if this is measurable.
4. The ability to develop a strategic framework:
Going back to the principles, this is related to getting the business to buy into agile marketing practices, as well as providing terms of reference that allow it to happen.
In the end, Agile Data is about acting faster and making better decisions.
By:
Bastian Schmitz // Strategic Planner, DDB Germany
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Published by the Planning department of DDB Germany.
Concept by Oskar Valdre, Sven Grammes & Nina Rieke.
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Want more insights? Don’t hesitate to contact us:
Laura Maroldt, Laura.Maroldt@de.ddb.com // Head of Corporate Communications
