A Day made of Glass: Is this our future?

‘A Day made of Glass’ is a video released by Corning in 2011 that depicts their vision of how their technology will affect life and shape our world in the future. If you haven’t seen it have a quick look below.

I remember being in awe of this video when I first saw it a couple of years ago. At the time I was a design student so this fascinated me in terms of how it was really a step into the future and how it would assist in the way I designed. It is now three years on, no longer a design student but a marketing student and I see this video in a very different light.

This is the reality of our future, no longer an ‘if’ but a ‘when’, and as marketers this technology gives us even more opportunities (and more screens) to sell to customers and try to engage them. As you can see if the video it can change all aspects of our lives and digital marketing will be able to infiltrate every single aspect as well. As a marketer this should excite me because of these opportunities and the chance for more people to see my work but to be honest, this future scares me. To infiltrate every part of our lives with marketing will be an overload, can you imagine waking up and seeing toothpaste ads on your mirror? or as you cook to see ads for your local shopping centre? This would be an overload of advertising to me that will alienate customers but also remove the emotional connection to brands through over exposure.

The idea of a life seen through glass scares me not only for the loss of personal connection and overexposure to brands but also the appreciation of life without technology. Maybe its just me though…would technology like this scare you or can you not wait for it to begin? What do you think the future of advertising will look like once this begins? Let me know. 🙂

Here is a sequel to the first video if you are interested in seeing what else this technology could do for us.

References:

http://www.corninggorillaglass.com/news-events/All-About-Cornings-A-Day-Made-of-Glass

Are Instagram Ads all that bad?

As we have all heard by now Instagram has gone the way of Facebook in Australia, restarting the never ending debate on whether paid advertising is spoiling social media. I think that Facebook has taken advertising too far as a platform, spoiling a users experience with too many advertisements with little to no relevance at all to what we as users want. It is now a question of how Instagram will avoid this and the perils of ‘burning out’ as a platform.

Personally, I use my Instagram account to post food photos and to follow fashion and fellow foodies but the overarching purpose of Instagram is to share photos, more often that not beautiful ones. I’m a big believer that based on this Instagram will be able to successfully integrate advertising in a seamless way. Its been done in the US to little disagreement, an example being a Michael Kors ad. It garnered 36,000 likes and 200 negative comments due to relevance. 300 is a big number but so is 36,000. It shows Instagram is relatively accurate on their target audience and who this appeals to. To me, a relevant ad can only help me and expose me to more and as long as I’m not spammed and its not something totally ridiculous I’m open to it because we have to be realistic, to keep Instagram we have to be open to their methods of money making.

^ Beautiful, Definitely an ad that I’m up for. 😀

Instagram have stated “Since introducing ads last November, we’ve worked with a handful of top brands to draw creative inspiration from the community and create ads that were engaging and felt natural in people’s feeds,”. I feel as long as this can premise can be maintained and as they say it is “natural” it should be substantially effect our instagramming experience, it may even provide us with a little more eye candy 😉

Comment: Let me know if you disagree, Should Instagram be introducing advertisments? Will it turn you off Instagram?

Reference:

http://adage.com/article/digital/michael-kors-s-instagram-ad-36k-likes-200-enraged-comments/245082/

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/instagram-to-launch-ads-in-australia/story-e6frg996-1226948520106

Hello to Ello: What does it mean for Digital Marketing?

Over the past year I’ve heard many people including myself say that Facebook is on a downhill trend much like other social media platforms have experienced in the past (*cough* Myspace *cough*). It might not be a rapid change, but from this we might be saying hello to Ello in the near future. Ello is a new social media platform that has taken off in the past month and is being referred to as ‘anti-Facebook’. The founders of Ello are determined to keep the site ad free and will not allow data to be collected and sold to brands. This sounds like a great alternative to the ad saturated Facebook but what does it really mean for advertising?

Ello lives by the following manifesto:

“Your social network is owned by advertisers.

Every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow is tracked, recorded and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.

We believe there is a better way…We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce and manipulate—but a place to connect, create and celebrate life.”

This manifesto is extremely attractive to users as Ello is gaining 30,000 new users per hour. It is also largely anonymous with users being able to use any name and information to set up their profile. Marketers must not only be concerned about their ability to advertise but what this means for their customers. Customers are becoming so disillusioned and mistrustful of brands and their methods that they are turning to these anonymous and arguably insecure platforms to avoid them, erasing their digital footprint.

It is my belief that online marketers need to now stand up and take responsibility for their actions and find more meaningful and transparent ways to market to customers.  Being bombarded by ads or by catchy jingles isnt enough these days as customers wise up to their actions. It is now that brands need to start earning the trust of their customers through social media, before social media platforms such as Ello can dominate.

A Local’s step into the Digital Age

Yesterday I was sitting in a dentist’s chair talking to my dentist about his impending move to a new location. He was indeed trying to distract me from excruciating pain I was about to experience but something he said made me think, he mentioned his newly created website and its importance.

When we speak of ‘digital marketing’ we think of how retailers and the big brands are using tools such as Google Ads, Facebook, websites and Twitter to expand on their business and increase their brand recognition but how about your everyday service provider such as your family GP, a vet…or even a dentist? Their benefits and their features are self explanatory and often we maintain the same doctor for a long time so the need to compete and advertise is unseen, with the odd review or listing in a directory considered satisfactory.

Times are changing though with the rise of online chat, teleconferencing and high mobility work increasing a consumer’s geographical market. As a consumer I didn’t even realise the importance till my dentist explained that using Google and its tools he had discovered a majority of his business came from online. He was and still is benefitting from being the only dentist within 15km to have a fully functioning, modern website that is updated daily…known in the area for having waiting lists for weeks for his services.

The world is changing so is it time for your local GP to step into the digital age and get competitive?