Luke Janssen

Jumping off stuff

Archive for September, 2008

QR codes and bluetooth – give them at least 18 months

September 25, 2008 at 11:05 pm · Filed under TigerSpike Innovation Lab, Work Related Stuff and tagged: ,

It may sound sexy and if all you want is PR then things like QR codes or Bluetooth are excellent ways of getting it. But if you are looking for a successful way to engage people using mobile, look elsewhere. For now. Unless you want to be a pioneer for a relatively new mobile technology. But that isn’t what brands are supposed to do, they are supposed to work out new ways to sell their product.

QR codes = QR woes

Ralph Lauren did a QR code execution that went like this:

  • SMS a word to a number
  • Get sent back a link
  • Install the QR code reader
  • Take a picture with the reader
  • get the offer or go to the site or whatever
We tried it in the office here in NY with the iPhone, Blackberry, LG Shine, and Nokia N95 and it didn’t work on any of them. Something must have been up, cause it can’t be that bad. And we know what we are doing!
Another execution was QR codes on Papa Johns to get free Pizza. Apparently this was a “success”, but they are giving away free Pizza… free stuff to students isn’t ever going to unsuccessful is it?
The bottom line is that there aren’t enough handsets with QR code readers on them to make this effective for brands. Some are blazing the trail, and if it goes off like in Japan then it will be good. But handset churn is 18 months. So wait 18 months. Minimum.
Matt Turnbull went to a conference here and someone was pushing QR codes, and of the 100+ tech savvy people in the audience who were hand held through how to do it, 2 of them actually managed to. 2!. Seriously!
Blue-untruth
My friend Kristy Manson from m.Net and I frequently chat about this. She tried a bluetooth execution on 3 different phones and it didn’t work on any of them. Bluetooth should never be the central concept unless there is some sort of proximity objective. Remember this, and I quote (Alex Hall is sitting next to me) “Bluetooth is just a delivery enabling technology, Firstly there are better delivery technologies out there with wider reach where less customer interaction is required, and secondly, the more importnat thing is the content. Not how it is delivered. Its like saying “hey I went to a Muse concert the other day, and it was so cool! they arrived in a blue bus!”
That sounds a bit crap? is there anything good about them?
What I do like about Bluetooth is that it can get people interested in a specific location at an event or in a store, and that interaction forces engagement with the brand, and QR codes have great consumer information, but they are both (especially QR codes) early days, and I would never recommend a brand pioneers them. Why not wait 12 months until (and IF) they are more widespread, and then do it?
And yes yes, I know they work in Japan… but Japanese toilet technology hasn’t found its way to the rest of the world despite being way ahead of global toilet technology, and so we shouldn’t assume that their tech will either. Some will. Most won’t. It is about behaviour, not tech. More about this later…

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New York ad week

September 25, 2008 at 10:20 pm · Filed under Work Related Stuff and tagged: , , ,

I went to a conference as part of AdWeek which was pretty good. Google and Yahoo are really piling into the space and you know what? I think that they will win (to an extent). Good results are happening for advertisers on both compnys’ mobile portals. Likewise on the payments side of things. Visa, Mastercard, etc. will win the mobile payments war just becuase they are the big guys in the non mobile world.

Some key stats from the talk:

  • 43% of iphone users make US$100k+, 18% US$75-100k (i.e. iPhone users are rich. They are also trendsetters, so they are a good demographic to do stuff with)
  • Mobile usage is highest when you are at home in bed after work
  • Mobile compliments on line without cannibalising it
  • Mobile as a channel is working and is more lucrative than other channels
  • There are more 3G users in the USA than Europe
We haven’t got a google G1 phone in the office yet, but from what I can see its ok. I would wait until the next version, and I still think that the iPhone is a better physical design, and people don’t care about functionlity when they buy a phone – they care about the phone’s design. And if when you are reading this you say “hey! I care about the functioanality” it means you are a geek
And here is a cool cartoon that Johnny Makkar found for me that sums up the single most important reason why the iPhone isn’t doing better than it could do

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Stuart Laundry

September 23, 2008 at 4:18 pm · Filed under Observations and Ramblings and tagged:

One of the ways that New York kicks ass is Laundry. Guys who pick up your laundry, wash it, and drop it off again. And who do it at sensible times rather than the geniuses who only drop off stuff during office hours when you are at work. My laundry guy’s name is Stuart Laundry (I used the same mobile phone naming convention here as ‘Erin Hotgirl’, ‘Lisa Roommate’, ‘Jaqueline Blueeyes’, and ‘Michael Wickedcow’)

Problem is that Stuart’s minimum is 30 pounds (in weight!), so I was forced to buy 10 new pairs of underwear; my underwear being the limiting factor in laundry times. By the way,  since I had no fucking idea what a ‘pound’ was (apart from a unit of curency), I asked someone, who said “oh, yeah, that is about as heavy as a 30 pound dog”. Nice!

A word of advice to the non locals, apparently you don’t tip laundry people. This was supported by the blank look on Stuart’s face as I handed him 20% of the laundry cost as a tip. Who knows why these guys don’t get it and the others do. Maybe they should reduce tipping to a sensible level, say 10%? and then just share it around!… Right so that will be on my “things to change in NY” list after the grid system.

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The USA behind in Mobile?… don’t bet on it

September 9, 2008 at 5:32 pm · Filed under TigerSpike Innovation Lab, Work Related Stuff and tagged: ,

I have been living in New York (well half my time at least) for a few months now, talking to various companies about mobile (still sounds funny when the Americans say it), and while some of them still think that ringtone and logo sites are a good idea, most know their stuff.

People always say that country ‘x’ is behind or ahead of coutnry ‘y’ with the most popular sledge (Australian word meaning to ‘take the piss out of’ [english saying meaning "to put down"]) going to the USA. Well I have news for everyone with that viewpoint. You are all wrong. The USA has not only caught up with Europe and Australia, in many areas is has gone past them. USA has more 3G handsets than Europe now, and alot more higher end devices. Nice work American consumers!

Many say this is fuelled by companies like google and Apple, but as far as I am concerned the main driver is money.

  • Budgets in the USA are simply bigger than other parts of the world. The market is bigger, so the marketing is bigger. Deals that mobile companies are making are bigger. Some of our American competitors like Crisp wireless for example started after us, but are way bigger now.
  • The second reason is that venture capital ensures that even the dumbest wireless startups get funding (don’t get me started on some of the inane companies that have received funding). The Australian VC market is such a retarded cousin to Palo Alto, New York, Boston or London, and it really matters. For exampe I have spoken to some really good, innovative guys in Australia, with a great idea who have received no funding, while the mediocre equivalent in the USA is on an express train past the more advanced Aussie thinkers because they just didn’t have the money.
Yes Asia is still ahead (more on that later), but if I hear someone at a conference saying that USA is behind Europe I’ll take that as confirmation that they don’t know what they are talking about (now insert Ultimate Fighting style chants of “U… S… A…. U…S…A….”)

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Biometrics

September 9, 2008 at 4:45 pm · Filed under The Future and tagged:

HSBC sent me a customer feedback form asking about my experience with the bank. Satisfied, Unsatisfied… etc. but there was no box with “Incandescent with rage” next to it, so I decided not to fill it in. 

The problem is that even when I sign up for sites which do’t require heavy security I get nannied into having a password 6 characters long including letters and numbers. So in the end I either forget, or I make them all the same. The former is annoying, the latter makes security weaker.

What I did enjoy is joining a queue of 7 at the Iris scan at Heathrow rather than joining the queue of 107 at the other counter. Biometrics needs to happen accross all areas. Eyes, fingers, whatever, but somehting needs to be done, the need is clear, but I think that the infrastructure isn’t there yet. 

I think that mobiles will play a role here. PIns can easily be entered, and bluetooth or another RFID type solution shouldnt’ be too difficult to sort out. Any solution is 12 months away minimum, and the winner will be someone like Visa or Amex. It won’t be one of these mobile payments solutions companies that have sprung up in order to soak up VC money that’s for sure.

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Convergence

September 5, 2008 at 4:39 am · Filed under TigerSpike Innovation Lab and tagged: , , ,

I am really liking the move to give away laptops with 3G cards that the carriers are doing at the moment. A few key thoughts of mine about convergence are:

  • PCs are getting smaller. And will continue to do so until it becomes annoying to type or look at them. I have an 11″ sony Vaio which I love (especially as I fly alot and so get to laugh at anyone trying to use a full sized laptop (I travel in Monkey Class – still can’t justify the cost, plus I am sure I am saving carbon from extinction or something). Anyway… laptops are getting smaller and therefore more mobile and therefore more in need of internet connection anywhere, which is why the bundling of the PC and 3G card is a good one, and a big growth area for the carriers in my opinion
  • I use my iPhone way more for data and email and other non voice services than voice (in fact I still use my Samsung for calls) I realise that I am using my computer less and less as a result. Just now I lined my iPhone screen up to my screen and my PC screen is only about 5 or 6 times bigger than my iPhone screen, soon it will be less than a third. Also when in monkey class, the movie plays on a screen thats only about twice as big as my iPhone
  • PCs are getting dumber. Soon PCs will become thin clients with all the processing done on the web, (accessed at ever increasing speeds by sim cards). Apps that I use that have moved on line are lead by Google, with Salesforce also having all the data and processing done on line and Basecamp which we used to use, a great collection of Apps from 37Signals (a company I have lots of respect for).

So Where will convergence stop?

Two things:

  1. The size of my pocket and whether my device feels uncomfortable in it will make a difference. Attention to jeans manufacturers – soon pockets for bigger devices will become useful. The iPhone (sorry to bang on) is big, but also slips nicely into a pocket as its edges are rounded. 
  2. Size of fingers / hands. I have thin girls fingers, so typing on my Vaio is not too difficult. But if you have fingers like my cousins (about 4 times the size of mine) then you are in trouble if you go too much smaller than the smallest Vaios or EPCs.

As I have said in previous posts, plugging devices into brains and projecting them will help this, but that is a little way off yet…

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