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The iPad is a dream. Got it?
eMarketer reported today that iPad sales are expected to more than double in the coming year. With some 8.5 million of the devices sold in the U.S. in 2010, that gives Apple a sweet 88% of total U.S. tablet sales. And, while the devices are big in the U.S., total global sales of all tablets are reported by Gartner at 19.5 million for the year — and that’s not shabby either. No wonder other brands are scurrying to develop their own tablets and trying to swipe some market share from Apple. eMarketer predicts iPad sales to be in the neighborhood of 20 million for 2011 and reaching 30 million by 2012. Those are some massively impressive numbers.
At T2 + Back Alley, we’re finding more uses for the iPad on a daily basis, both internally and as solutions and innovative marketing tools for our clients. Apps are touted as the websites of the future and our creative team is digging app design, creating other mobile marketing solutions and doing tons of experience design.
Our favorite use of the iPad this past year might have been the way the fashion industry embraced new media and started creating content for use on tablets and other mediums. This moved designers into the realm of not only designing and creating beautiful clothing, but designing and creating content to showcase the fruits of their labor as well. We predict there will be more and more unique and innovative ways that brands use tablets like the iPad and that we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg so far. And with Wired reporting that Apple’s version 2.0 of the iPad is rumored to be delivered in April 2011 (along with some intel about some spiffy new cases that are in the works), we’d recommend postponing a holiday purchase and waiting for the new, improved model.
What about you — any innovative uses of the iPad that have been your particular favorites?
Designing mobile marketing solutions for our clients is an integral part of our business plan. If you’re reading this blog, I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know. We are a mobile society and carry our mobile devices with us everywhere. If we leave the house without them, we turn back and get them — the thought of getting through a day without connectivity in the palm of our hands is untenable.
A billion people accessed the mobile Internet worldwide in 2009 and Gartner forecasts call for expect usage to double within five years as mobile overtakes the PC as the most popular way to get on the Web. Additionally, according to MarketingProfs’ mobile devices are the most personal method of reaching people and messages are more likely to be read on the small screen than they are on the big.
According to an Outsell study, consumers who have a smartphone spent an average of more than 25% of their waking hours interacting with their device. That same research shows that by 2014, more than half of web browsing will be done from mobile devices.
Despite this clear trend, 56% of marketers are currently doing no mobile or browser advertising. With devices such as the iPad, Android and iPhone becoming capturing increasingly more marketshare, marketers could be missing out on big rewards.
Mobile advertising is still in its early days but this space represents huge opportunities for marketers across B2B, B2C, E-commerce and non-profit organizations. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2010, 1.2 billion people will carry handsets capable of rich, mobile commerce and that that will be the preferential way of reaching consumers.
This is exactly why my company is designing for the mobile space. It’s not going away — and according to the stats above, helping clients develop mobile marketing solutions should be a growing business segment for T2+Back Alley Films.
We spend a lot of our time focused on experience design. The goal is always to create content that engages consumers and provide experiences using video, mobile, location-based technology, digital billboards and other experiences. That those experiences be memorable is key and always what the creative team is charged with bringing to the table. That the experience design drives sales and compels people to action, is even more key.
Mobile and location-based experiences are on savvy marketers’ minds these days, as they are great at helping create buzz and compelling consumers to do something. Jimmy Choo’s Foursquare scavenger hunt during London’s fashion week is a great example of a location-based initiative that not only created a ton of buzz, but also drove sales as women ran all over London in search of the current “it” shoe.
We worked with the folks at PRNewswire to create a scavenger hunt experience based on QR codes for use at the PRSA annual conference held in Washington, DC this past week. This created not only excitement for conference attendees, but also doubled as an experience (and a competition) that served to make the event even more memorable. Additionally, it created a lot of buzz for the PRNewswire brand and, ultimately, got a lot of PR and marketing pros thinking about how they could use experience design in innovative ways for their clients.
Want to know more about how companies can use strategic media placements and a variety of new and emerging channels to engage their audiences? Join us for a FREE webinar sponsored by PRNewswire this Wednesday, October 20th, at 12 PM Central.
The panel will be moderated by Michael Pranikoff, PRNewswire’s Director of Emerging Media, and he’ll be joined by T2+Back Alley Films’ Interactive Experience Designer, Garrett Fuselier and the very smart Amy Webb of Webb Media Group.
For more information and to register, click here.
Alright, so it’s only imaginary ‘out of this world’ but new augmented reality technology is being used much more by advertisers to blur the line between the real world and the virtual world. If you’re not hip to augmented reality (or AR), blogger Nick Brucher explains that AR is “based on holding a 2D image up to a webcam and then seeing a 3D image on screen.” Advertisers initially began offering consumers AR experiences through specially designed micro sites. For example, BMW developed this site so their consumers could experience using a Z4 coupe painting a canvas in a TV spot.
AR is now being integrated into both mobile and print executions, too. Mobile applications include things like AroundMe which allows consumers to locate restaurants, bars, museum etc., wherever they are simply by holding up their smartphones and VegasReality, designed by MGM Mirage, which merges real Vegas and virtual Vegas and delivers new ways to explore hotels, restaurants etc.
Print publications are making their magazine issues more dynamic by integrating AR. In the most recent issue of UK’s Grazia – readers were not only able to read about the dynamic front woman of Florence + Machine they were also able to make her sing and dance around.
One of the most dramatic integrations we’ve seen recently is being executed by JC Penney in partnership with Heart’s Seventeen.com to create a virtual dressing room. The days where consumers have to roll the dice and gamble on a piece of clothing they’ve purchase online are, in some instances, a thing of the past. Shoppers will automatically be fitted during the live-video stream (no symbols or pieces of paper here), and motion capture technology then enables users to “try on” different clothing articles they like by simply pointing at the screen. Here’s a video on how the dressing room will work:
Demo via Nick Burcher
Innovative magazine publishers and brands are turning to AR more and more and we think it’s awesome. AR allows readers to go beyond the pages and actually interact with the content. And, especially when it comes to the fashion industry, we’re seeing more and more of the players in the industry not only creating clothes, but creating innovative web content – and consumer experiences – as well. Teri Rogers wrote about that over here, and if you’re interested (and she’s always interesting), go check it out.
Bottom line, any time you can engage consumers on a deeper level it’s a big benefit. In the context of online shopping, AR enables consumers to better visualize what an item will look like on them – and can actually enhance the shopping experience – and most, important, help close the sale.
T2 is a collection of artists who create stories and imagery for all types of media.
Back Alley Films is a daredevil production task force who creates messages across all media platforms.
