The possible impact of Google Glass on digital marketing

The official launch for the Google Glass is 2014 and everyone in the digital platform had been eyeing on it way beyond it's release. Like all Google products, the Goggle Glass is user-friendly and captivates the world with the features it has.

The Google Glass is mainly operated by voice recognition, it allows one to capture the world especially in challenging areas. Riding on the roller coaster, travelling on the helicopters and capturing instantaneous moments. Besides, LIVE streaming and video recording is possible as well.

There is also an in-built technology that helps one to navigate like the GPS and the traditional business of Google's real-time search had been incorporated as well.

The sleek and light design is a bonus point. In this era, everyone need their data in real-time and in the simplest form. By having the Google Glass, everything can be done in real time especially when videos and photographs are involved. There's no need for you to capture the current moment via your mobile phone and punch in multiple steps in order to get your things published on the world wide web. With the Glass, everything is done in the simplest and fastest way. With a single voice command, videos can be captured and share via facebook or other social media right at that moment.

There will be no need for tricky set-ups for LIVE broadcasts to transmit videos through the internet. With the Glass, everything can be shown LIVE from the user's views. Information is transmitted at an even faster speed. Influencers are able to share information at an even faster speed. People from the other part of the World are able to experience the moment through the eyes of another instantly.

Marketers are able to promote more location-based marketing schemes with the incorporation of Google Glass. The Google Glass is able to locate the precise location of individuals, sharing with the users the best offers and information of the user's current location. And if the user indicates a particular preference to a certain genre of shops, Google will be able to capture the data and send relevant information to this user. When the user is at a foreign location, Google can promote the nearby shops or places of interest to the user. Advertisers will be able to promote their business to consumers in this manner. For shops that had been waiting for customers to visit them for a long time, the push factor is stronger now and Google Glass will be able to direct traffic to them. This is particularly useful when one is at a foreign land and needs urgent assistance.

With the Google Glass, it will be a whole new era for the digital marketing market. The invention of a new product that allows information to transmits at an instantaneous way at the perspective of an individual. Users are able to get information as the blink of their eyes and receive relevant information due to their needs.

Google Glass and Marketing

The Google Glass is a new way for us to use technology on the go. However, will it have much impact on marketing?

Based on the specification available on the internet, it is actually not much different from those android tablets (Wi-Fi version). Advertisement will likely be mostly in the form of emails, sms (if connected to the phone) or a notification and the advertisements may likely to be generalized. However, the Google Glass may show its strength in close proximity marketing or advertising.

Consider a shopping mall with a portal which has all the shops information in it. With this system, the shops have all the information of the products and promotions in the portal. On top of this, restaurants can have the seat information in the system. For the Google Glass users will have an application which allows them to records the things they want to buy. The

Upon entering the shopping mall, the user can triggers the application to sync with the portal and the list of things with the necessary information will be available to the users. With those information the users can decide if he wish to make the purchase or delay it. He can also make a price comparison or even see if there are other related products. If the products he wants to purchase is in those super market like NTUC Fairprices or Cold Storage, the Google Glass may direct him where to find those products.

If the user is going for lunch or dinner, from the Google Glass he can view the information of the restaurants in the shopping mall. If needed, he can make reservation with the restaurants and can even pre-order certain dishes which he likes. If he is waiting, he may browser the portal for advertisement or promotion that the shops in the mall are having.

Overall, the Google Glass eliminates the need for one to keep checking the smartphones or tablets for information. Since it is always “On” all the time, pushing information to the users will be much easier. However, Singapore can be rather slow in adopting such new technology.  

 

PS: Because I don't have a Google Glass with all those information, I will have to visit all the shops in Tampine One to see if there is something I want :P

The Publicis Omnicom Groupe

Some thoughts on the possible impacts on digital advertising with The Publicis Omnicom Groupe.

1. Traditional vs. Digital Ad Spending

Publicis has been known for its digital expertise built up over the years with acquisitions of various digital agencies such as Digitas, Vivaki and Razorfish. What this could mean for existing clients (from Omnicom) who have long largely depended on traditional advertising? They could be looking at tapping on Publicis’ digital capability by transferring traditional media spending to the digital side.

In essence, more digital advertising spending.

Does this mean more business for the digital agencies?

Yes! But…  The digital agencies will be competing within the group to win new businesses! And one way to win new businesses? Lowering agency costs.

Similarly, digital agencies outside the The Publicis Omnicom Groupe (e.g. WPP) may go down the same route. (Which was exactly what happened to traditional creative agencies, undercutting costs is one almost sure way of winning new accounts!)

In a nutshell, costs may get lower when it comes to hiring a digital agency. Digital advertising is going to be cheaper?! Good news for marketers, bad news for agencies.

Maybe on not such a grim note, creativity will come into play too. On to the next point…

2. Higher Expectations of Creativity in Digital Advertising

Outspending your competitors to gain more coverage may be one way to go, but grabbing the attention of your target audience is the challenge. How are we going to cut through the clutter?

I suppose next up, we may expect to see new fanciful ways of digital advertising.

3. Digital Advertising Competition Between Client Rivals & The Smaller Companies

A quick background (two of Publicis’ and Omnicom’s clients)

Omnicom’s clients: Pepsi & Unilever

Publicis’ clients: Coca Cola & P&G

With the merger of Publicis and Omnicom, competitive digital advertising may get interesting between the client rivals. Apart from larger ad spendings, more banners, more outbidding and outwitting, we are also looking at competition from the smaller companies.

Will this mean it will become harder for smaller companies to be seen on the digital realm given the bidding system in digital advertising? Let’s give the Digital Strategists an opportunity to shine on this one.  

Case Study: impact on digital advertising of the just announced merger between Publicis and Omnicom

I believe there will not be much impact on digital advertising but definitely there will be still be some consent on how this merge will affect the clients.

As we know before the merge Publicis and Omnicom are like holding company where there are a lot of creative and advertising company under them. There are running independently and might be following some guideline from them.

Example Tribal DDB is one of my agencies, which is under Omnicom. When they present to use they are presenting as Tribal DDB and not Omnicom. Therefore there is a min impact to those clients whether they merge or not. As long they can help the client get what they wanted.

Even they are under Omnicom, from my understanding they don’t work together. Never did I hear they saying, I can ask if my other sister company if they can help you out.

The only thing that might be affecting client is direction from the HQ. Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Bing and other media company might want to come connection with their management from HQ. Building the relationship with them might take up this bigger pie of the advertising and media share out of it.

Let say the HQ pass down instruction that we be spending more money using Google services then Facebook, it might be affect clients who want to advertising their promotion on Facebook too.

Having working with my marketing department together with these agencies, no matter what thing happen they will still stick with them. Even how we complain among ourselves that they don’t get work on time, didn’t get proper files, bad coding, not easier to maintains for website and many more, higher management still stick with it.

Google Glass Evil Prank

Anyone like to try this prank?

Two Key Features of Google Glass and its Impact on Marketers

The Google Glass is slated to be launched for the consumer market in 2014, and much anticipation has been revved up amongst marketers and users alike. For the consumers, it will be more of the “cool” factor and entertaining user-experience; while for the marketers, we will be keen to find out how to maximise advertisers’ value through the Google Glass channel.

Due to the mobility and personal nature of using the Glass, two key features are expected to be integrated in the Glass – location-based searches and personalised ads. Through Google Glass, the wearer can get instant information and marketing messages about his/ her surroundings through image recognition app; making it more informative for the wearer as well as a great marketing channel for retailers, restaurateurs and other location-based advertisers. In my opinion, it can be super exciting and fun for some users, but could be also be a nuisance to some users. Nevertheless, having an activation-deactivation option within that app would be a great feature for users. Althernatively, we will be expecting permission-seeking feature being used when marketers are engaging the Glass users. For a start, I can also foresee that advertisers would need to put up signage at their retail stores to remind and encourage shoppers with the Glass to use the location-based search app, to know more about, sales promotions and other merchandise-related information, at least in Singapore.    

In the case of personalised ads, it is believed that with Google’s dominance in the internet search business, it is expected that Google will eventually reach a level of expertise and capability to create highly-personalised search information packages for individual users through the Google Glass medium. Now, users are definitely very interested to experience such a phenomenon; especially it is something that has been created in SCI-FI genres a long time ago. I would love to try it as a novelty experience but in the long-run, I would still prefer to have the option of varying my degree of information exposure to Google, in terms of my personal interests, search preferences and “likes” within the digital world.  As a marketer, we can predict a more positive ROI for advertisers due a more targeted marketing campaign like never before. In terms of market analytics or feedback, it will be even more accurate.    

From a technology point of view, I would foresee a flooding of aggregated and customised information between users and advertisers that has not been seen before, which would require humongous technical capacity and speed to process.     

Welcome to the new digital age!

Tony Leu

Buying Google AdWords against competitors: A good sign for Southeast Asia, so learn to deal with it

http://sgentrepreneurs.com/2013/07/25/buying-google-adwords-against-competitors-its-more-common-than-you-think/

The startup community in Southeast Asia is up in arms over Rocket Internet again. This time, it’s about their perceived unethical bidding of keywords and placement of ads to siphon from competitors to their own websites.

In Indonesia, Zalora was “caught” buying Google AdWords against smaller rival Below Cepek, although the Rocket Internet company later retracted the ads and issued a vague apology.

In Singapore, Zalora engaged in a similar practice against online cosmetics store Luxola, and the campaign was even extended to multiple countries in the region.

Since the issue was brought out into the open, however, Zalora seemed to have tweaked its approach:

Before. Screencapped by TechinAsia.

After.

In Southeast Asia, this tactic has in fact been practiced under-the-radar for a few years. Since 2011, Philippine daily deal sites Ensogo and Metrodeal were found buying ads on the search result pages for CashCashPinoy and Deal Grocer, and the campaigns are ongoing even now:

Metrodeal on CashCashPinoy’s search result page.

Ensogo on Deal Grocer’s search result page.

So it’s not just Rocket Internet that’s doing it. The practice is so common worldwide that there’s a term for it: Competitive Keyword Advertising. It’s controversial for sure, and battles have been fought in courtrooms to settle scores, but often with cruel results for trademark owners.

The root of the unhappiness stems from how small business owners are disadvantaged against larger counterparts. Google AdWords placements work through a bidding process, which means bigger players have the upper hand due to their financial muscle. It’s no level playing field when smaller competitors don’t have the wherewithal to outbid the likes of Rocket Internet.

Trademark infringement comes into play here. Competitive Keyword Advertising isn’t evil per se, especially if the ad doesn’t cause any confusion and Google users are clear that the ad refers to a different company.

But a line is crossed when ad buyers deliberately use a competitor’s trademark in its copy, leading consumers to think that the Zalora ad, for example, is referring to Luxola. Ethically, the needs of consumers rise above all since e-commerce companies are ultimately serving shoppers.

Unfortunately, in terms of legal or arbitrary recourses, small business owners will find it tough going. Suing a trademark infringer is a costly, time-consuming process with no guarantee of victory.

Google has a well-documented arbitration process for such disputes which allows trademark owners to prevent ad buyers from using their names.

The problem though is that ethics is as useful as soiled tissue paper here. The process is subjected to intellectual property law, and again small business owners are disadvantaged.

Given the global nature of e-commerce businesses, a trademark infringer could easily place ads on the search pages of multiple countries. Small business owners, on the other hand, would unlikely have registered his or her trademarks at that point in each of these countries, a necessity since intellectual property does not cross borders.

And since Google requires trademark owners to show proof of their ownership, a registered trademark would have an advantage over an unregistered one since the former provides more clear-cut documentation.

Unfortunately, the process of registering trademarks can take a long time. I was told that it takes one to two years in the Philippines. And that’s an eternity in the startup world.

This is a reality that e-commerce companies in Southeast Asia must deal with. It can be a good omen: If competitors are willing to duel over keywords, there’s surely plenty of spoils to be won in the region’s e-commerce sweepstakes.

For startups and small business owners, their best recourse for now might be to apply public pressure on these large companies to change their practices. It’s an approach that appears to have the best shot of working.

Since the law favors the rich, it’s far better to appeal to the consumer’s moral sense.