Projecting Into The Future

Projectors are quite amazing now days. Over the past few years there have been new uses for projectors that have made half time shows and ceremonies quite memorable. Here is an example of the mesmerizing uses of this technology.

What makes these developments in projectors so amazing are the potential uses it has for marketers. Using a projector for marketing is nothing new, for many years stadiums have placed images of logos on crowds with the use of a projector. What makes things interesting is the use of 3D projecting, at least the illusion of 3D. The video above is a great example of the impact 3D projecting can have. If marketers are able to create elaborate advertisements much like the ones played in stadiums then it could create a large impact. It can create another level of creative expression in marketing. 

Projector use could be very impact in the upcoming projector smart phone devices. The Samsung Galaxy Beam has a built in projector that allows people to project images from their smart phone onto flat surfaces. "Samsung Galaxy Beam’s built-in projector gives you the freedom to share all kinds of contents with your friends virtually anywhere." (bellu, 2013).

For now people can only speculate on the use and popularity of such devices but devices such as these are important to markers in preparing for the next useful platform. 

WILLEMS, O. (2015, APRIL 22 ). The NBA is Using Projection Mapping to Wow Crowds Pre-Game. Retrieved from PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2015/04/nba-3d-projection-mapping-quince-imaging-the-famous-group-los-angeles-clippers-nuggets.html

bellu. (2013, January 8). How to Enjoy DVD Movies with Samsung Galaxy Beam. Retrieved from http://www.aneesoft.com/blog/how-to-enjoy-dvd-movies-with-samsung-galaxy-beam/

Samsung. (2015). Features. Retrieved from http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxybeam/feature.html

Why Marketers Should Consider Dumping Facebook

The notion of a company dumping their Facebook page sounds ludicrous, but there are a few valid reasons why a company should consider it. 



Neil Pate, a blogger at KISSmetrics Marketing compiled a list of articles and blog posts all 
suggesting companies should discontinue using their Facebook pages for marketing purposes. The extensive list explains the downsides of using a Facebook page which mainly included: "Facebook takes traffic away from your business website", "requires too much time to manage", and "has too many extraneous ads, distracting from the brand’s presence". These maybe valid points to consider, if companies Facebook pages are taking up a lot of time and money that is being diverted from other important online elements and isn't providing an acceptable yield then considerations should be made. If the company's Facebook page is engaging, and people interact and converse rather than just looking and forgetting then it is a good idea to keep maintaining. 

In 6 Reasons Why You Should Quit Facebook, an article from Entreprenuer, suggests similar complaints but form the consumers points of view. It says that Facebook is a time waster, a money pit, its untrustworthy, personal profiles are no longer private, and companies won't miss it. This shows that peoples attitudes about Facebook are changing and marketers should be aware of this fact. 

An article from Henry Adaso, from dmn3.com shows a statistic on the confidence level companies have when marketing on Facebook.

As shown in the pie chart, 37% of companies feel uncertain about their effectiveness on Facebook. Part of the uncertainty is from vast amount of advertising done on Facebook which makes people wonder if they are being heard. 

These blogs recommend companies to look at their goals.If their goals for Facebook involve customer interaction and engagement than Facebook is a great fit, if the goals are unrealistic or don't capture the true use of Facebook than companies should consider putting less time and effort into maintaining or discontinue using it. They finally recommend that companies probably shouldn't get rid of their Facebook but rather cut back and divert its Facebook followers to other online presences. 

It will be interesting to see this same statistic in the future and see where companies certainty level lies.

Marketing in Video Games

MMORPG, I am sure that everyone has heard of popular examples of them like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2. The concept is pretty simple, you control a character, explore a virtual world, kill monsters, leveling up, and interact with other players. The question is, what does this have to do with marketers?

Guild Wars 2

MMORPG are great for utilizing new platforms and using them to enrich player experiences. If you are a MMORPG player then you know the most annoying thing about a game is when the developers don't listen. Lack of communication greatly impacts the popularity of a game. One of the great platforms that have came out was Twitch by Amazon.

Twitch offers live streaming video, meaning people could watch live streaming videos of events, in-game demos, and a chance for developers to show off cool new features. Twitch's chat system allows people to talk to each other and to the people in the live stream. This allowed for a live question period that could be answered by the people in the video. Video streaming also assists players in planning and learning for their respected games. In an article found on mmo-play.com, it talked about how Twitch has changed the gaming community and level of player engagement. 

"People into console and mainstream gaming who have no clue what MMOs are can take a look through a streaming service right away without ever having to load up a game. No hassle, no downloading, no sign up. Just a quick search, select a stream, and you can take a look and see what all the fuss is about. In general live streaming has helped promote MMOs and given them a stage to gain viewership and interest." mmo-play.com.

Another article from brandpopulace.com highlights 5 aspects that marketers could learn from MMORPG. Certain aspects that MMOPRG have could work very well with forms of marketing. Aspects such as user generated content, constant content all the time, a culture of advocates, providing progression, and creating mobility are great strategies that could be implemented well in marketing. 

Here is a mobile app that is for an MMORPG, players can check out the in game market place on the go.

Lastly, an article from b2bento.com, "3 Marketing Lessons from the MMO Gaming World" talks about more features that could be useful for marketers. One of the most interesting points that was found in this article was the importance of "Free-to-Play". This term is most often the deciding factor for MMORPG players. This means that players are able to play for free without any one-time, or monthly subscription fees. They do offer players a chance to make micro payments from an in-game store but this is purely the players choice. 

Free-to-Play concept could work well for subscription based services. By offering people free access to certain elements and then offering a chance for additional content to be purchased creates more choice for people. If people are wanting more for the service then they are able to upgrade for the additional content.

It will be interesting to see if MMORPG will think of more ways to implement new and exciting apps and revolution the way they are used. 

Reed, I. (2013, May 18). Twitch.tv Changes the MMO Landscape. Retrieved from http://mmoplay.com/:http://mmo-play.com/mmo-blog/twitch-changes-the-mmo-landscape

Populace, B. (2015). 5 Things Marketers Can Learn From MMOs. Retrieved from brandpopulace: http://www.brandpopulace.com/5-things-marketers-can-learn-from-mmos/

Chester. (2013 , september 11). 3 Marketing Lessons from the MMO Gaming World. Retrieved from b2bento:http://www.b2bento.com/2013/09/3-marketing-lessons-from-the-mmo-gaming-world/

Ad Blockers for Marketers

How many times has this happened to you? You get on your computer, open up the internet browser and start searching something up when all of a sudden...

I know this type of ad is the extreme and intrusive type that is usually a scam or malware but today's banner ads and popups have a similar effect on people. To show you the extent of how bad it has gotten, take a look at the video above, even this has an ad...

I started off searching for a topic to write about for my blog by googling a few topics I thought were interesting. I opened up a few tabs and started to read about a few topics. Within a minute I was distracted by the multiple banner ads that littered my screen preventing me from reading the articles. I realized then that this was the perfect topic to discuss. 

Online advertisements,we all have them, every site we visit, Facebook page we look at, Youtube video we try to watch that gets abruptly interrupted and our mouses hover in anticipation for that glorious "skip" button to appear. Over the past few years more and more internet advertising are being used which is taking up more of the pages we view. This has pushed many people to start using Ad blockers. 

Ad blockers are programs that add on to your internet browser as an extension and prevents all advertisements from being show. What is displayed is a webpage that shows only the content that was published without any banner ads. There are other extensions such as popup blocker and ad filters. All of these programs help show the original content. 

The use of Ad blockers have been on the rise. An article from by Adobe marketing shows that content producers are pounding the internet with a wave of ads and people are getting sick of it. 

The graph above illustrates the huge increase in users over the last 5 years. In the recent year, "4.9% of all global Internet users had enabled an ad blocking plug-in."¹.With so many users using ad blocker marketers have to think of a new way to attract attention without being intrusive. The article also shows that a study was conducted asking a group of 1600 people, 

 "Sixty-one percent of respondents stated they were completely unwilling to receive such advertisements, yet only 20% of respondents stated they would be willing to pay some sort of fee for an ad-free experience."

The study shows that a large percentage of users wish for a ad free experience and some people were willing to pay for it. 

Another article from CMO.com shows that the average age of the users who use ad blockers are from the age of 18 - 29 years old which is the desirable age for advertisers. Ad blockers threaten the way companies advertise online, so companies find more ways to find more intrusive and "in your face" ads that stand out the most, even if its for a second.²  

After seeing all this, the real questions is whats next for content producers? 
What needs to happen is: 

• Advertisements need to stop using second rate ads that people find annoying. They need to show that there is value in showing these ads by offering the viewers something they can latch on to. 
• There should also be an option to close some of the disable some of the ads, especially those that use heavy flash animation. This would give people the chance to view an ad once or twice and then allow them to close it and view the webpage they are looking at without the constant distraction. 
• Have an ad that is:
• static
• preferably text only
• the placement of the ad should not be distracting.

Steps such as these could be "whitelisted", which basically means that it wont be blocked by Ad blocker. This way the ads will be unblocked by the Ad blocker and people wont feel annoyed.³

^{1. Adobe marketing    2. CMO}  3. Tweak Your Biz

Roberts, M. (2014, November 4). Online Advertising. Retrieved from Digital marketing blog: http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/advertising/increased-use-adblockers-drives-change-digital-advertising/

Foster, C. (2014, September 10). Growing Use Of Adblockers A Wake-Up Call For Digital Marketers. Retrieved from The Digital CMO/ Branding & Communications: http://www.cmo.com/articles/2014/9/9/adblocking_goes_mainstream.html

Sills, L. (2014 , March 19 ). Marketing » Is Adblock Plus Killing Digital Marketing? Retrieved from Tweak Your Biz : http://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/2014/03/19/adblock-plus-killing-digital-marketing/

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