Womens' lifestyle newsletter DailyCandy took their sweet time getting into mobile, but what they've ultimately done is worth the wait.
Their new Android app called DailyCandy Stylish Alerts is much more than just mobile-formatted content. Rather, it will alert the user to DailyCandy deals when they are near a store offering one.
This geo-aware approach is the right move at the right time. As Jenna Wortham from the New York Times points out:
Applications that run in the background and alert users with a coupon or special offer as they walk by a store have been something of a holy grail for the mobile phone.
But until recent advances in smartphone software, it has largely been impossible to do efficiently, said Josh Rochlin, the chief executive of Xtify, the New York-based geo-notification company powering the DailyCandy application.
“Instead of physically taking the device out of my pocket and checking into a location, this is taking advantage of passively knowing a user’s location and passing down relevant information,” said Mr. Rochlin.
While this sort of push technology can potentially create distracting real-world spam, Daily Candy already has an engaged, trusting audience, which goes a long way. Also, the app is reaching people who have raised their hands and said "Yes! Show me deals!"
While it's odd that an app launch on Android first, the reason is likely that the iPhone did not until recently allow developers to build apps that run in the background, which this one does. iPhone is coming soon, though, they say. It would also be smart for them to try out geofencing technology, which works through SMS -- no app required.
For the June issue of Wired UK, John Battelle put together this database of online behaviors and what they communicate. Everything from a Google search to a Foursquare check-in says something about us.
Sites like Amazon and eBay capture a lot about what we buy, whereas Google and Bing queries signal want. Facebook and Myspace present personal and group identity while the status update deliberately communicates "what I'm doing" or "what's happening."
So what happens when the check-in is thrown into the mix? It adds to an action the context of physical location, or where. The power of place is enormous. We could simply say "I'm watching the game," or we could include the name of a local bar or say, Yankee Stadium. These are two different places with two entirely different ways of experiencing the game. The receiver's understanding of the message is enhanced. With developments like Twitter Places, it seems that we are able to communicate much more effectively while keeping friction at an all time low.
QRcheck.in is a service that lets venue owners generate a barcode-based Foursquare call-to-action. With it, mobile users are able to scan a QR code to check-in, conveniently skipping a step in the process.
With the roll out of Apple iOS 4 comes a variety of new features, one of which gives apps the ability to run in the background. Location based service Loopt has immediately taken advantage of this by offering auto check-ins.
When you check-in to a venue, there is a new “Live Location” area at the bottom of the check-in screen. This is a slider which allows you to set how long you’d like Loopt to update your location in the background without you having to do anything. This slider can be set from anywhere to a few minutes up to 8 hours. When it’s set, if the iPhone notices you’ve left an area (which it can tell by your phone switching cell towers), it will update your location on the Loopt map that is built in to the software.
This could be a natural next step for location based services. For one, there has been talk about the need for a "check-out," or notifying friends that you are no longer at a given location. Secondly, users have reported "check-in fatigue," something that services have been trying to work around with additional incentives.
Privacy is definitely still a concern, so Loopt has given users the ability to publish exact location to just a specific subset of their social graph. Surely, the way we think about privacy and control of our location data will change with time, this is just one step in the grand scheme of things.
On Arbor Day Weekend, QR codes were seeded across NYC's Central Park, transforming it into a mobile interactive experience. With web-enabled smartphones and QR code readers, users could explore "The World Park" in a new way. Upon scanning a code, users were presented with educational trivia about the park. Friends could compete for the most correct answers across categories like Science, Pop Culture, Art, and History. After attending, we wanted to learn more about the project so we spoke with Michael Ferrare, founder and owner of Agency Magma, the group that put the event together.
What is the inspiration behind the World Park, the goal?
Wow, nice to ask. I was moving to NYC after having lived in Miami for over four years. One of the first things that took me over was the history and the landmarks that people seemed to just pass over. From Washington Square Park to Union Square, most people don't know what they stand on and what they are walking over. They are walking over history. Life. Artifacts. Moments in time.
Now, take instantaneous information technology, GPS specific locations, and Wikipedia at anytime. You can learn more about where you stand, anytime you want. Although it sounds like a great opportunity, the biggest problem is information overload. So, I thought...wow, Central Park is so rich in history, what if we brought all of the information in the world, boiled it down, and presented it in such a way that is was as if the park was speaking to you? Letting you 'opt into' mobile data and rich content-relevant to all people (thus the categories such as science, pop culture, history, and art).
After meeting with the Parks, they loved the idea and wanted to see it in action. The park is always looking for new ways to engage the younger, next generation park visitor with their local and international tourism destination; The World Park attempts to deliver on that concept. By taking the technology that younger consumers already use and overlaying that onto the park, you can have a very low impact (physical imprint on the park, compacted signage system) interaction with the park, yet drive a much deeper park interaction through words, images, videos, and artifacts from history.
Why QR codes?
The World Park would turn New York's Central Park into an interactive board game, that was the idea. We could have just used an app that tracks your location, then served up content like 'playing cards' for our interactive park tour board game, but budget didn't allow for it.
QR codes are a visual thing. However, they are ugly too. So believe it or not, we spent over 100 hours designing that QR code. We wanted to be the first to introduce it on a somewhat mass scale in an memorable way, it's a digital tree. It's so much more recognizable and memorable than compared to a 2D bar code; traditional QR codes don't have a personality, we have a tree for an Arbor Day launch event. We're proud of that tree, but we know that geocaching and apps are another way to go. Tracking is a huge deal for us and the Parks.
It's also very important that we introduce the idea as a physical board game. In the world of public locations such as Central Park or The Moma (museums and park signage), people still need visual notifiers to know that they can interact, or find the bathroom. QR codes fit our budget, allowed us to create a visual in-nature existence and make it all feel like a real Candy Land like board game.
Are you willing to share the success of your efforts?
On Saturday (one of two days), we had over 1200 particpants making at least one scan. That's huge to us. We got the local New Yorker engaged and excited to go into the park, or even put forth an idea that persuaded them if they we're strolling by. Everyone was really excited about the idea and jumped in if they had an iPhone or smartphone. The Droid/Verizon users had the best experience. The connectivity on AT&T was spotty, which is why we want a local WiFi sponsor for our next event.
Finally, does Agency Magma have any previous work related to mobile, or any coming?
Yes, of course. The World Park is a mobile interactive experience meaning it uses mobile technology, but it in fact moves from city-to-city. New York is planned through the fall, and we are currently offering the next World Park weekend event to be sponsored by a local organization. The experience is also being presented to other tourism groups particularly in major metropolitan areas, although we have received a few great calls from Oregon and a children's museum. Currently, we're looking for technology partners to make it bigger and better.
Previously, we worked on a project for Toyota Matrix which used mobile as a part of an ARG to feature the campaign alter egos in a real life experience-all while they are in the car coming to visit you . The mobile phone allowed us to make their personalities come to life, and allowed people to interact with the characters via texting and voicemail. In the past, I have done many campaigns that integrated mobile including work for Virgin Atlantic, Burger King, and Toyota. Last year we used our QR code digital tree in a small fundrasier for Central Park after a tornado destroyed 300 trees. It was small, but certainly fun. We also did a small test campaign for Sony's District 9 that used mobile as a way to unlock hidden movie content from the street via QR codes.
The World Park is our first big mobile idea that's much more than just part of an integrated advertising or marketing campaign. It's the actual experience that people come to play with, a mobile experience that takes place in the real world, in a real location. It's great that it happens while people move around. By motivating you though an interactive board game, we think that visitors will engage with the park, walk further, and discover and enjoy more of what it has to offer. It's like allowing the park to have it's own "pitch" if you will.
At the end of the day, we believe that we have an idea that can make for a next generation tourism experience. The World Park is what we think the park interaction of tomorrow could look like.
Michael is founder and owner of Agency Magma, a NYC marketing company that provides "fuel for brands." Previously, he helped start the Integrated Creative Department at Crispin Porter + Bogusky and has worked with brands at a variety of agencies including Avenue A/Razorfish and Saatchi & Saatchi.
Foursquare is getting a little smarter. Today, the team revealed an update that closes the feedback loop, taking advantage of users' data to improve their experiences. The "nearby places" tab now takes into account a certain number of variables in order to make better place suggestions.
We consider things like the popularity of each venue, its distance from you (of course), and some neat effects like category and the current time — for example, at 8am you’re more likely to check into a coffee shop, but at 8pm bars and restaurants are more popular. We have sophisticated algorithms that balance all of these factors to present you the best possible list of venues so that you spend less time searching and more time enjoying wherever you’ve checked in.
Generally, we pour a lot of data into applications that don't use that information well. Through pattern recognition, though, context-aware mobile applications are becoming increasingly aware of user motivation and hence smarter. Siri (recently acquired by Apple) keeps track of user input over time, then observes and cross-references patterns in things like time of day, location, and activity to make better suggestions. This is the idea behind intuitive search and is what drives a lot of location based advertising.
Science has shown that we display obvious patterns in our daily routine. As Albert-Laszlo Barabasi discusses in his book Bursts, we really aren't as random as we think we are. The mobile phone, always on and ever present, is able to keep track of this and learn about us. Applications like Foursquare tip us off to a future where everyone has a smart and personal mobile assistant, suggesting what we should (or should not) be doing.
We observe emerging mobile technology, cultural trends, and consumer behavior, then connect the dots to generate mobile strategy and intelligence for leading global brands. This is what we're seeing and thinking.
