Extending the print media. The New Standard.

It is wonderful to see the Augmented Reality (AR) integration with print media brought about by Times of India and Adstuck Consulting.

What sets this use of AR aside is that it is not designed as an one-off advertisement that has AR integration which are generally viewed as gimmicks, but rather is firmly planted as a standard feature on the morning newspaper on a daily basis and that will ensure its wide-spread adoption and usage in a short time.  

This technology has been around for years as QR code readers, but no newspaper in the world has used it editorially to delight its readers and create a new level of interactivity.

Believe this is how the future of not just newspaper but most print media would look in the era of convergence. The increase in the user base would have a huge and a positive impact on the usage of the technology for advertisers.

Download and test it from here and let me know what you think.

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Understanding Frictionless Sharing

The term frictionless sharing refers to one’s online activity on his or her social network and connected personal profiles being automatically shared without having to click a button. Anticipating a potential decline of social button usage, Facebook launched frictionless sharing so that the volume of content on Facebook would continue to grow at an accelerated pace. Frictionless sharing potentially eliminates the need of social buttons as a way to share content with social network connections. When end users approve frictionless sharing applications, all media consumption is automatically posted to their profiles for the world to see.

Many companies like Spotify, The Washington Post, and The Guardian have already adopted frictionless sharing, and we can expect more companies to do the same as people grow tired of clicking multiple buttons to share content across their social networks. While frictionless model continues to be controversial – especially around the invasive quality of its functionality – some reports suggest that many people have come to accept information sharing as the price one pays to participate in social networking. However, it’s only a matter of time before the passive sharing of content causes too many privacy violations to be ignored – forcing more people to question the need to “pay a price” at all.

Read more of Frictionless Sharing and about Building Connected Brands without Disrupting here

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SHOP FLOOR; THE NEW PRIME TIME. Trend No. 3

3. FREQUENT REPLACEMENT;

We are increasingly moving towards or already living in a “disposable product” society. The quest for quality and durability has been replaced by the desire to stay “current”.

The mindset of the consumer is to buy cheaper – replace quicker – stay current on technology. While this is especially true for things which were in the past considered to be indulgent purchases, and which have now become more “every day” and common – say for example a blender or a iron, however, even bigger ticket items are getting disposable.

This is not to say that the consumers are moving away from “luxury” – quite on the contrary, however, that is a different category and has different drivers.

The consumer is keen on staying current rather than investing heavily into something which will last longer – this is also prompted by frequent technology upgrades and fear of investing heavily into something which could become obsolete in a hurry.

While this trend has various levels of adaptation in different geographies, a recent study by NDP Research across North America assigns this as one of the leading reasons why there is growth in private labels beyond the consumer products category.

Take a product category like a blender; the shopper is willing to buy a private label or a basic blender and replace it every couple of years with newer and better blenders rather than buy a machine which will guarantee a 7 year usage life – in which time it is bound to be obsolete.

Now consider this shopping behavior to that of a generation ago when what was purchased was expected to last.

RIP ~ ATL (well almost)

We have been discussing & reading about research which indicates drop in the ATL spends while there is corresponding increase in the BTL (including online) spends by one industry vertical after another. However, the recent research article based on the survey conducted by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK – the "Marketing Trends Survey," conducted by Ipsos MORI, kind of made me sit up and marvel at the speed at which the change is happening.



As per the survey only 15% of the marketing budget is planned to be invested into adverting, the balance is opportunities in the “btl and digital” domains: deep dive into the article here:

However, going a little back in time, the trend was eminent (the scale and speed are stunning) and inline with a different research undertaken by IDC in the US years back, which was focused on the major IT industry spenders, which very clearly indicated an intention to drop spends on both org. personnel and the $ spends on ATL (as much as 20%) while moving larger allocations to Direct. This was 3 years back.


Also very clear where the areas of focus for most marketing decision makers / spenders. They were obviously gunning for tools which had worked and showed the higher returns on the
marketing dollars as against the traditional media. This was more so in verticals where the marketing spends were predominantly focused on a B2b or B2 “a well defined C” formats. Lead generation and digital were the areas to place bets on! (refer below) In a way what was projected as “possibilities” in 2003 are turning to realities in 2007.


However, I think the trend has never been questioned in the last decade or so (other than by a few die hard ATL fans). It is also very obvious from the investments being made by media holding companies: they are without doubt investing into marketing services and digital. That’s where the growths are.

The fact that BTL (read promo) outweighs ATL, was established in markets like the US as way back as 03. Well documented in the PMA and Promo study. Below is the image from the study presentation which had shaken all of us then, where-in it was 1st established that Promo spends are higher than ATL in the US.





While the facts and figures are beyond doubt, and the trend is moving eastwards, the reasons for the change in scenario is simple – better and defined ROI, period.