Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

In order to further our understanding of the behaviors developing around mobile technology, we have been reaching out to experts across the globe for their unique insights. By doing this, we are able to escape ourselves and become exposed to new perspectives.

Amber Case is a cyborg anthropologist and tech consultant based out of Portland, Oregon. Previously, she was involved with PR and digital strategy at Wieden + Kennedy and has blogged for the Discovery Channel. She founded CyborgCamp, a conference on the future of humans and computers.

With all the hype surrounding augmented reality, we asked Amber to clear things up and help us put the technology into perspective.

Amber: In a way, augmented reality has been hyped for years. It's been used for military and corporate purposes, and it's been quite expensive. But augmented reality really started as virtual reality. It was a little too early for its time. For one thing, the idea of the interface was not stable yet. The idea of wearing a heavy helmet on one's head is not socially, economically, or physically feasible.

Now that mobile devices and webcams are available to enough people to make augmented reality a more common occurrence, AR speculation has blossomed once again. iPhones and other mobile platforms now contain locative technologies, accelerometers and ongoing connectivity. They've become a common and affordable interface, allowing augmented reality to finally have more than a few common platforms to stand on.

Virtual Reality is often defined as an opaque experience that is separate from the real world. But mobile devices are melting into our reality instead of taking us away from it. We are using information to connect us to people and to plan the experiences of our future self and those around us. We are using personal mobile devices as video game controllers for the world around us. Virtual Reality has dissolved into actual reality.

We are gaming animals. All throughout history, games were substitutes and simulations of war. Now our wars are fun. They're soft wars. The race to get the most followers and most views on a website. The race to share. They're still very evolutionary, we're just playing the game on a different platform that doesn't involve us physically as much as mentally and strategically. We've become emperors of our own empires, sending out robotic troops to scrape websites, gather RSS feeds and plot trajectories on digital maps. We have robots that grab and tell us our stats. We count our troops. We have Facebook walls that, when printed out, would span the length of Egyptian temples. They'd also contain as just as much history.

The first augmented reality was spice, and that was a heavy market for the Europeans, who had a quite a lot of bland food. Augmented reality is hyped a little like that. Marketers find it tasty, and business writers like to sprinkle it onto a lot of the passages they write. It makes the tech go down faster, so to speak. For more on that, I'd watch Bruce Sterling's keynote at Layar.

Stay tuned for more of Amber's thoughts on the topics of location based services, the internet of things, slow data, and more.

Japan's Mobile Art Lab has come up with a creative new way to entice customers to "snag" good deals. With iButterfly, users can explore the city looking for butterflies using the iPhone GPS. There are several types of butterflies that can be captured, layered over the real world using augmented reality, and each one contains a variety of coupons and content.

Another included feature is the ability to share butterflies with friends using Bluetooth. Users are ranked according to number of butterflies collected. This is a creative way to make coupon collection fun, and once the app is tuned up, Dentsu, a Japanese ad agency, has plans to sell clients on using iButterfly for their marketing campaigns. Watch the video demonstration here.

[via stellawongo]

You're stuck in a stall with a clever response to that scribble on the wall, only problem, you're a Sharpie short. With BlockChalk, mobile users can now mark up and annotate the real world through a digital space. How does it work? By tagging text comments with coordinates, they are fixed to a physical location and pulled up only when others are in the same space. Think geo-tagged tweets or Foursquare and Loopt tips, which when put together become one piece in the larger trend towards hyperlocal content. The app is available for iPhone, Android, and webOS making the likelihood of stumbling across a friend's digital trail of witty remarks and complaints all the more likely.

RealSki is an iPhone app that brings augmented reality navigation to the ski slopes. Users can now find their way around trails and locate on-mountain features like lifts and car parking at select North American ski resorts.

Of the many augmented reality apps we've come across, this is one that presents actual utility. It is doubtful that "Patrol Chute" or "Spaulding Ridge" is found on Google Maps, unlike most of the bars Stella's AR app will pull up. As augmented reality receives major hype in 2010, we hope to see more apps like RealSki that present value and aren't just a gimmick.

If you build it, they won't come. Every good mobile marketing campaign includes not only a "mobile presence" (e.g., an app or a mobile site) but just as importantly, a "mobile path" to discover it. For example, this path could be a keyword/short code, a QR code, image recognition, a "send to a friend" option, even a link on a Facebook page.

In this series we’ll be analyzing a mobile campaign by looking at these two key factors: Mobile Presence (i.e. what and where is it?) and Mobile Path (i.e. how do you find it?)

First up is IKEA’s Einrichtungskamera (translated as "Camera Body" or Portable Interior Planner) application. It was launched in Germany and ran from February through August of 2009.

Mobile Presence

Key Insight: People lack imagination, at least when it comes to visualizing furniture in their homes.

Technology: While this is being called "augmented reality," it technically uses a more simple layering functionality. This application is optimized for all handsets and not more feature-heavy smartphones.

As explained in MobiAd:

Using the camera from the consumer’s mobile device, the application lets the user visually place pieces of furniture from IKEA’s new PS collection in their homes.

• In the application are images of as many as eight pieces of furniture. The customer selects the product they are interested in, and then selects “Take a Picture”.
• The user aims the phone’s camera at the area of the room where the furniture might be placed.
• The image of the room appears on the phone screen, along with the superimposed IKEA furniture. The furniture can be scaled larger or smaller to make it fit better in the scene.
• The user can take a picture of the final scene then save it on the phone, or send it via MMS directly from within the application.

(photos via MobiAd)

Mobile Path

According to MobiAd, IKEA made the mobile application discoverable in three ways:

• In-store posters asked consumers to text in and receive a link to the mobile download site via SMS.
• IKEA launched an online microsite (via the IKEA official site) on which consumers could enter their mobile numbers and receive the SMS with the WAP link.
• Bluetooth pillars were installed in certain IKEA stores in Germany, which periodically sent out signals to nearby phones inviting the subscriber to download the application.

IKEA saw an average user response of 5.21 percent via the in-store Bluetooth post, the application was requested by SMS in-store a total of 6,800 times, and the IKEA PS microsite saw a unique user base of 15 percent, according to MobileMarketer.

Takeaway

Mobile augmented reality is getting a lot of hype, but it's still limited to advanced smartphones. This application could achieve scale while still delivering a "Wow" factor AND utility. The three-pronged approach towards discoverability was also certainly key to its success.

Texting in via SMS should be standard to any campaign that hopes to reach the masses. An online presence is also a must-have (though it can be a simple call-out on an existing website). Bluetooth will vary by region, but in Germany it is standard on phones and consumer acceptance has been increasing enormously over the past couple years in Germany (there was a 70% increase from 2008-2009). According to our colleagues at Proximity, general acceptance is high--about 60%.

Of course, the success of any of these paths is always dependent on the attractiveness of the promoted product, the perceived value of the message, the performance of the technology and an eye-catching call-to-action.

[Via MobiAd]

To promote Louisiana's Voodoo Experience music festival, New Orleans agency Zehnder Communications built a custom augmented reality application for use with Layar. Users could find information about performances, attractions, and services by simply looking through their smartphone's camera. Not sure who's on stage right now? Peer through the Voodoo app to find out, and see who's next with artist profiles and web links. We've covered the potential for mobile technology built around music venues and the application of social media with websites like Superglued. Here we discuss  augmented reality and the future of mobile with Dave Maher, Zehnder's Director of Digital Communications.

Were there any specific observations or inspiration that led to the creation of this application? What's the story behind it?

Dave: Layar® awarded Zehnder one of its first 50 developer keys, based on our ideas to utilize the technology. One of those ideas was to enhance the experience of concert/festival visitors, allowing them to find their way around the festival more easily, learn more about the bands playing on stage, and the like.

Voodoo Experience was the perfect venue to launch this application, as it draws a very technology-savvy, early adopter young crowd. Since Layar was relatively new to the United States and brand new on the iPhone platform, we thought this would be key to a successful launch.

Our interactive team worked very closely with the festival producers to launch the application, which was developed in less than four weeks.

Was it constructed specifically for this event or will there be future uses for it?

Dave: While the application was for the Voodoo Experience, the platform lends itself to use for major festivals and concert events. We intend to expand its use in partnership with festival organizers hoping to bring a technology component to their events for the purpose of enhancing the customer experience.

Do you know how many people used it? How did you make people aware of it?

Dave: We are wrapping up a case study on the application and will include usage data. As soon as it is available for release, we will share it with your readers.

The application was promoted through a variety of channels. It received coverage in Fast Company magazine, through the joint PR efforts of Voodoo Experience and our own PR team, and through an amazing amount of online communications (social, bloggers, etc.). Additionally, the application was featured on Apple’s iTunes store with the Layar application, which increased awareness tremendously since Layar was new on the iPhone platform.

Do you have any thoughts on the future of augmented reality? Is it more than just hype?

Dave: Augmented Reality has numerous potential uses from location-based mobile applications to web cam marker-based executions. These could be anything – entertainment, shopping, educational, etc. The real power of AR comes when marketing and development communities find practical uses. It represents the future for how consumers will get much of their information and an entirely new world of marketing opportunities for companies. Over the next year, expect to see the technology improve as well as the strategic executions. The number of AR users is only going to grow as more practical uses are created and the hardware becomes available.

Does Zehnder have any future plans for implementing mobile strategy?

Dave: Absolutely! Louisiana Economic Development (LED) has been instrumental in introducing legislation that specifically targets digital tax credits. We feel like this could be a boon to growing this industry in Louisiana, and at Zehnder specifically.

In addition to Layar’s mobile augmented reality, we are also working on traditional augmented reality projects, applications for iPhone/Android/RIM users, and even some exciting new work with QR codes. The future of mobile is incredibly exciting and we hope to be on the leading edge.

For a better look at the Voodoo app, click here.

BusinessWeek just came out with a roundup of the "Most Intriguing New Businesses," which include a handful of mobile start-ups we've been watching. Here we get all meta and do a roundup of their roundup...

CitySourced

CitySourced's iPhone application lets people snap pictures of potholes, graffiti, and other annoyances and send them directly to the right person at City Hall.

Also see: @TC50: Mobile StartUps that Build Upon Human Behaviors

Bump

One of the hottest free iPhone apps, this software from Bump Technologies lets users share personal contact information and photos simply by bumping two phones together.

Also see: MobileBehavior TV Episode 5: Will Mobile Kill The Business Card?

FitBit

FitBit sells a $99 gizmo that tracks movement, exercise, and sleeping patterns. The data zips wirelessly to a Web site, where you can chart your progress.

Layar

Layar has created free software that lets smartphones deliver "augmented reality"—text and images laid over scenes viewed through a device's camera.

Also see: WTF Augmented Reality Parts One and Two

Sense

Sense Networks' technology, which crunches real-time, location-based data from wireless carriers and cars, can be used to craft next-gen marketing and ad campaigns.

Also see: Find Your Tribe With CitySense