Communications Council urges Australian mobile manufacturers to front NFC technology revolution

The Communications Council believes Australia has a major opportunity to become a world class innovator in NFC (Near Field Communications) services – a technology becoming more omnipresent in Mobile phones and other swipe to pay systems. Despite some handset manufacturers holding back NFC technology in mobile phone models in Australia, the Communications Council believes the time is right for manufacturers to incorporate NFC in all future handsets.

Already integrated into some credit and debit cards, such as Visa payWave, the introduction of NFC ‘chips’ embedded into mobiles will be a revolution in how people pay for goods and services on the go.  

50% of all Mobile handsets are predicted to have the technology enabled by 2014

with an anticipated value of mobile payment transactions in excess of $50bn worldwide.

In addition, given every NFC chip will be linked to an individual’s mobile phone, numerous other marketing opportunities will be created such as; accessing additional information from traditional and digital forms of advertising, delivering targeted offers to shoppers when they enter a store, or acting as contactless check-ins for social networks.      

 “We think there are numerous creative applications for NFC technology beyond transactional interactions. Marketing communications clients and agencies are eagerly awaiting critical mass of handsets in the marketplace so they can really start engaging consumers in these exciting new ways.” Iain McDonald, Chairman, Digital Committee.

With the Android powered Google Nexus S becoming the leading mass market NFC handset, and Samsung, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows, and Sony Ericsson all finalising plans, The Communications Council is looking to all manufacturers to accelerate release dates to propel this sector forward.

Australia is already a top 5 Mobile market due to the high penetration of smartphones, and an eager, early adopting consumer base. It is estimated that 60% of Australian Brands have rolled-out a mobile initiative to date, with over a quarter now having a web site optimised for Mobile. “The growth of Mobile marketing in Australia in the last 18 months has been rapid so we’re encouraging marketers to look at where NFC can fit into their Marketing and Customer programs, and take the connections they have with audiences to the next level”  Graham Christie – Communications Council Digital committee member.

About the digital committee:

The Communications Council’s digital committee was formed to represent member agencies’ digital interests, drive digital industry leadership, and develop forward and innovative thinking in digital.  Committee members include Heather Albrecht (Digital Connections), Kathryn Apte (Google), Charles Clapshaw (Tequila), Nic Chamberlain (303), Graham Christie (Big Mobile), Craig Galvin (The White Agency), Nic Hodges (Mediacom), Aden Hepburn (IdeaWorks) Simon Morgan (Publicis Mojo), Ruud Spierings (Facebook), Stephen Von Muenster (Von Muenster Solicitors),  and Mike Zeederberg (Zuni), Joshua Frith (The Dubs), David Whittle (M&C Saatchi), Jenny Williams (Ideagarden).The Committee is chaired by Iain McDonald from Amnesia Razorfish.

About The Communications Council

The Communications Council is the peak body representing agencies in the marketing communications industry to media, government and the public.  The Council creates a footprint across the increasingly integrated world of creative, digital, healthcare, design, direct marketing, promotion, PR, plus creative production companies and strategic planning consultancies. Based on the concept of ‘together stronger’ it champions a proactive and united industry approach. We help grow member businesses and develop individual careers through the provision of professional development services, advocacy and support.

For further information contact:

Linde Wolters

-0282973806

303 wins digital award at Create Awards for Perth Arts Festival ‘Totems’

Our 2011 Perth Festival campaign continues to receive plaudits, after last night winning in the Digital and interactive Category of the Create Awards, from Desktop Magazine. Our personalized ‘Totems’ saw out competition from Guinness, British Airways and Schweppes to win.

The idea gave festival goers the opportunity to create their personalised festival image, unique to them – based on the events they chose to visit. This became their avatar, shareable in the Festival’s online art gallery and via social media, and even able to be purchased as a high-resolution print.

‘This was a perfect project for 303 - we’re a blend of technical and creative types who love to push the envelope. Like much of this year’s festival, ‘Totems’ was a balance of art and science. Now that we are live, its incredible to watch people play with it, obsess with it, and create unique forms with it.' says Richard Berney, Associate Creative Director.

Nic Chamberlain, Head of Digital commented, “we’re delighted with the award, credit to the creative team and my Technical guys for delivering this as well as we did. The ‘Totems’ played a huge part in the total festival design on and offline, and really engaged with audiences of all ages at Festival time”.

You can read more about Totems and this award in next months Desktop magazine.

Plans for the 2012 campaign are already well underway.

Optimise for mobile or lose out...

19% of all emails are now read on mobile device, and Google reports that 14% of all searches are via Mobile – a 3000% increase in just 3 years. This is more than enough evidence for brands to ensure users on a mobile enjoy an experience that that befits their screen size.

As Google says, a poor mobile web experience can negatively shape a consumer’s opinion of a brand or company and make it hard for them to engage or make a purchase. In fact, 61% of users are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone.

Check out these two competing brands, you don’t need me to tell you which one is the better experience.

Google added to the importance yesterday, announcing that websites optimized for mobile will have a better quality score than those that aren’t. So the discussion is not merely about the user experience, not having a mobile enabled website will now impact on the success of your Google search budget.

At 303, we’re soon to launch our own mobile site, and we’re also developing some cost-effective development packages to take to clients that haven’t yet optimized for mobile, so watch this space.

More here: 

10 inches not enough for you ?

A new iPad accessory called Padzilla has been release that turns your 10 inch iPad into a 70-150 inch multitouch screen. While this is great for the people that love to see their Apple products super sized it brings a great opportunity to have large interactive screens outdoors.

Having this set up with in a public space or potentially installed as an AdShell gives us the opportunity to simply purchase an iPad build a game or application for our client which then provides the user a service or experience while they are out and about.

The cost I’m lead to believe is fairly ridiculous at the moment sitting at about 20K + however this should come down pretty quickly as most things (Remember all those people paying 20K for their plasma TVs ?)

For more information check out the link
http://crunchylogistics.com/portfolio/padzilla-70-inch-ipadiphone-case/

Google plus or a minus?

2 months have passed since Google’s latest social media re-incarnation, so I thought it might be interesting to see where they’re at, and a look at what’s next.

Firstly, they’ve had quite a start, reaching 25m users quicker than their friends at Facebook and Twitter did. It’s taken 1 month to reach such mass, whereas it took Facebook almost 3 years. A false number perhaps as social media was at a very different stage in its lifecycle back then, but a positive for Google all the same.

The other key plus for me is around functionality, ‘Circles’ allow users to organize connections in to pots, so you can have ‘close friends’, ‘family’, ‘work’ and so on – which gives the service a lot of flexibility. This is crucial for Google+ on-going success as Facebook isn’t as flexible in this regard. Interestingly, Facebook have tweaked the site recently (you can manage privacy on individual posts now), and expect more to come as they track the progress of Google+ and manage privacy concerns over time.

On the negative side, that 25m+ audience is jam packed full of nerds… perhaps unsurprisingly it’s over-indexing on early adopter Engineers, Software professionals and most importantly – men. The site currently has 70% men, 30% women which is the total reverse of the rest of the social network sphere, where 60/40 women to men is far more commonplace (Twitter has the highest ratio of women to men with 64/36% women to men, Pew Research Study).

The key step now is how they take the service in to the public mainstream and your network of friends, celebrity, sport, news etc. Basically, Google+ needs to step in to the world of your average Joe on the street, who with 2-3 social profiles already may think they simply don’t need yet another service in their lives.

The most concerning stat for Google HQ from the first two months might just be the active user base, statistics show that 83% of the base are inactive, which is higher than Twitter (which is saying something). So they’ve seen a very high take up rate, but now people are inactive and deciding where this actually fits with their other networks.

Another factor is that they’ve not launched business profiles yet, which will inevitably have an impact in terms of buzz around the service – expect that to come in the next couple of months. However, I’m not convinced that’s going to see a new swathe of engaged users arrive and stay.

Google+ will need to find its place in the social world soon enough; but personally I fear that your regular Jane doesn’t have time for another social network, so there’s a lot more work to be done to change pretty entrenched behaviour amongst that group.

The other concern for me is that Google just doesn’t feel inherently social.... you go to them for something different – and social isn’t it. Only time will tell.

Thanks

Nic

 *Bime Analytics Research

303 asks IKEA to pay rent in WA and SA

303 and IKEA has launched the 2012 catalogue campaign in WA and SA, the catalogue is a key element in the brands armoury and 303 have taken a totally fresh approach to the launch. 

The people of WA and SA can earn rent from IKEA just for keeping the catalogue in their home. By signing up, users are able to receive monthly rent cheques via email.

Nigel Richardson, Marketing Manager of IKEA (WA & SA): "The annual catalogue launch is the pivotal point in the year for IKEA and is key to our marketing program. Historically, the focus is on new products and the campaign runs for just a few weeks. We wanted to focus on the inspiration that comes from the catalogue and encourage people to use it throughout the year. The international theme for the 2012 catalogue is 'create space'. That was the brief for 303. We are excited by the concept and the collaborative process of developing this with 303 has been an open and rewarding one."

Sydney-based Simon Langley, ECD at 303: "The IKEA catalogue is an institution. People anticipate its arrival, get excited about it, read it and then it put it on the shelf. We want it to have pride of place. But, with living costs increasing we figured it only fair that IKEA should pay their way. This led us to the idea of IKEA paying people to keep the catalogue in their homes by renting the space it occupies"

To find out all about the campaign, and to start earning rent, go here!

Cheers

Making the New, Old Again

We are all aware of how saturated the globe is now with new technology.
You are even likely to see grandma’s walking around typing an SMS these days.

The convenience that this technology offers us makes it an easy choice, hence its growth as the preferred means of communication.

It could be easily assumed, therefore, that we as consumers prefer everything to be on a screen.

But there is an opposing force, which is driving consumer desire. As technology changes so rapidly there is a longing for how things used to be.

Nostalgia for the more tangible, personal, and authentic ways of the old days reinvented in modern times

So we have a desire for convenience.
Clashing with a desire for engagement.

What if advertising could bring these two ideas together?
If our campaigns don’t just focus on the digital space, but use this as a platform for collaborative projects that the audience can then translate into their own world.

A nice example was executed for the Swedish postal service last Christmas.
The insight being that people still prefer to receive a traditional Christmas card, even though online e-cards were increasing in popularity for the givers.

The creative execution, ‘Living Christmas Cards’, allowed personalised ‘one-off’ cards to be created and ordered online and then mailed to the recipients home as a hard-copy, similar to a post-card.



Another proof of the pudding is the campaign involving the use of iPhones to catch ‘invisible’ butterflies out in the ‘real world’.



Multi-dimensional campaigns that weave their way into peoples lives both on and off-line.

Thanks

Cassie