Archive for the ‘Interactive’ Category

While driving down the street, you’re startled by a billboard depicting a meth addict. Next to the text “Meth Project,” you recognize those red eyes as yours, that sparse hair as the full head you once had, and those freckles on your gray skin confirm that this is indeed you.

You speed up to get as far away from the disturbing image as possible while writing it off as merely someone who has the same features. As you take the next exit, you see a Calvin Klein ad with an attractive male and female physique. You fantasize about running on the beach in a Baywatch-style manner, and continue to look up at the face staring down at you. You then realize the fantasy is real; that’s your face on the model’s body.

This isn’t a delusion; this is the result of advertisers utilizing various technological advancements, including Autodesk 123D Catch, to transform a photo into 3D matter.

This type of facial recognition may soon be mainstream in the near future. Technological advancements constantly enable advertisers to go above and beyond to exert influence in a person’s life. Gone are the days of longing to see yourself in an ad. Advertisers want to make the transition to buying, using, or experiencing a new product as easy as possible so it is no longer necessary to picture yourself in an ad — now they let technology do it for you.

Tracking cookies gives advertisers a glimpse into an Internet user’s surfing tendencies. It can be looked at as mildly intrusive, or it can be looked at as attentive, ensuring that the user is presented with relevant material that adheres to that individual’s lifestyle.

If you don’t live under a rock, you’re going to be advertised to; isn’t it better that the material is related to you?

Face recognition, on the other hand, already exists in advertising. Billboards can detect facial features to identify women from men and then alter ads accordingly. Showing the face of the viewer is simply taking the technology one step further.

Rather than looking at this new technology as disturbing, take a different stance. While browsing in the mall, you no longer need to try on that suit because the advertisement already tries it on for you. Can’t figure out whether to bundle up for Alaska or pack the swimsuit for Hawaii? At least now you can literally see yourself experiencing both places.

The technology creates a more efficient way for advertisers to meet consumer needs without end-user effort.

Advertisers need to place their audiences in a situation to be able to effectively communicate their message, and although I may not have that model’s body in the Calvin Klein ad, I can sure think about what it would be like… or just look up the next time I’m driving.

Lydia Jorden is a marketing intern at Burns Marketing. 

Have you seen what leading titles like Wired, Fast Company, and others are doing with online magazines? Very cool stuff like integrated video, real interactive experiences, social integration, and more – all accessible across mobile, tablet, and desktop platforms. Now, you can launch your own interactive magazine, too. Check out this digital project we just published for HP Enterprise Services, and let us know how we can help you bring your engaging ideas to life in a unique publication: http://www.epageflip.net/t/13229/

At Burns Marketing, we love our smartphones. No, I mean we REALLY love our smartphones. In fact, in the last few weeks we haven’t been able to stop kissing them. If you walked through our creative department recently, you may have witnessed designers, developers, and copywriters working long hours with their lips pressed passionately against the screen – all for a new app called LipTricks that analyzes your kissing technique.

Here’s how it works: When you kiss your phone, LipTricks detects your lip position and movement (if you’re really brave, your tongue is tracked, too) and gives you feedback in the form of badges that you earn for different kiss achievements. Unlock the granny badge with a quick peck, or the newlywed badge with an extra-passionate smooch. You can imagine what it takes to unlock the pup badge. Some kisses need a little bit of planning, like the Cinderella, which requires your lips to be touching the phone at the stroke of midnight. There are 20 badges in all – and a few hidden ones to reward those of you who are extraordinarily gifted.

LipTricks is available for the iPhone and Android devices; download it today. Happy Valentine’s Day from your friendly engagement marketing experts at Burns Marketing.

Digital content enables you to tell a rich story about your brand, support sales teams, and deliver engaging content to your customers. With help from Burns Marketing, you can realize the benefits of digital content without having to build complex tools or distribution systems.

With our digital publishing system, we can take a simple PDF file (a brochure,  newsletter, annual report, etc.) and add rich assets including video and document links. After publishing, the document is available for viewing on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. The publishing system automatically takes care of formatting the document so it can be correctly viewed on the iPhone, iPad, and Android OS phones and tablets – eliminating the need to have multiple versions and removing compatibility issues.

Watch our digital content publishing demo for an overview of how the system works from an end-customer prospective.

IDG Research Services says two-thirds of B2B marketers expect to increase their digital spending in 2012. And you? Do you plan to use online platforms to gain greater market share?

Give us 5 to 10 minutes of your time to take the 2012 Digital Marketing Trend Benchmark Study, and Burns Marketing will return the favor. We’ll share the survey results to give you valuable insight into what your peers are doing to shape the evolution of digital marketing.

Take the survey before Friday, February 10 to make sure your opinions are counted. And by participating you’ll be sent a copy of the study results.

Click here to get started.

Recently, two of our interactive developers attended Kentico Connection 2011, a three-day conference put on by the developers of the content management system (CMS) primarily used at Burns Marketing.

The conference was geared toward the release of Kentico version 6.0 – the latest and greatest from the Czech-based software company. Programs were broken into two separate tracks: business and technical, with a combined training session on the third day using Kentico’s new Enterprise Marketing Solution (EMS).

Kentico’s development team presented the technical track programs and included in-depth exploration of many of the new features available in version 6.0 – including the system’s Application Programming Interface (API) and Kentico’s new macro language, K#. The depth of the speakers’ knowledge on the system and its usage was second to none.

Kentico’s management team and members of the North American sales office led the business track programs, which focused on usability of the system and improvements to the user interface, including broader browser support for the “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editor, batch processing of media files, and a highly flexible columnar layout tool.

One highlight from the event was the keynote address by Janus Boye, founder of J. Boye, the international community for web and Internet professionals. Boye, a highly regarded technological analyst, discussed emerging trends in web development and the need to emphasize the user experience when designing and programming for the web. Boye also spoke in a breakout session on the second day about the ever-changing world of mobile web development. While the conference wasn’t geared to one aspect of web development in particular, Boye’s perspectives provided a launch pad for questions throughout the sessions.

Another highlight was a handful of presentations from Kentico Gold Members on how they use the CMS to solve problems and create innovative user experiences for their customers – from taking advantage of the system’s scalability to provide content at an enterprise level, to using the system’s flexibility as an application framework.

Kentico’s new EMS ties into the CMS, allowing users a single comprehensive marketing solution with features such as campaign tracking, lead qualifying, A/B testing, and a website analytics tool. Conference attendees were given access to a virtual account and website for the duration of the training.

In a industry that’s overwhelmed with content management systems, Kentico’s ability to offer a robust, yet flexible solution is the primary reason Burns Marketing continues to recommend this product to our customers.

The Burns Marketing interactive team has completed a new app called the Ghost-O-Meter. Now, you can detect the presence of ghosts using your phone. Read the haunting story behind the app and download it for free here. Happy Halloween from Burns Marketing!

To continue the QR code discussion started in our October 12 and September 15 posts, here’s another example of how those little black graphics can be used to find creative solutions to business challenges.

The first electric vehicle (EV) charging system on the market to offer customers a simple hands-free, automatic way to charge their EVs, Plugless Power was preparing to exhibit its ground-breaking technology at an industry tradeshow in Europe. The tech company needed to share its story with attendees – and draw attention to its product … which sits under the car, hidden from view. Sounds easy, right? Aye, here’s the rub: tell that story without using any exhibit boards, handouts, or other visual materials. (Yes, the devil’s in the details.)

The Online Fix
The answer was to go online. Burns Marketing helped Plugless Power place conspicuous QR codes in several spots around the booth. Attendees who scanned the codes were transported to a designated landing page on Plugless Power’s mobile site, where they found high-level information and graphics about the proximity charging technology as well as announcements specific to the tradeshow.

Why It Worked

1. Europe and the event site in particular had good mobile coverage.
2. The audience demographic is smartphone-savvy.
3. The scanned QR code went to a landing page designed specifically for the event.

QR codes were scanned, attendees learned about the cordless thing under the EV, and Plugless Power’s creative approach set tongues wagging. That’s what happens when you plug the power of technology into a challenging, nontraditional situation.

QR codes are used to take prospects from an offline experience to an online experience on their smartphones. This specific application model implies certain usage guidelines. We’ve put together a list of our top 10 guidelines to help you give your prospects the best possible experience.

1. QR codes should support your business goals. See our prior post about the taco stand for an example of violating this.

2. Make sure the situation where the QR code appears actually enables your prospects to use it. A QR code on a billboard along a highway makes no sense, but a QR code in a store window or bus stop does.

3. Does your target audience have a smartphone? Smartphone penetration is very low among seniors ages 65 and older, so QR codes don’t make sense for products targeting them.

4. The QR code link should always take prospects to a site that rewards them for the effort of scanning. They took the time to get out their phones, wake them from sleep, open their scanner apps, scan the code, and wait for the browser to open the page. They expect to be rewarded for their time. Provide a uniquely pleasurable experience in the smartphone environment, like a mobile-optimized website or a video with unique content designed for smartphone viewing.

5. Reward scanners with a unique value that’s only available through scanning the code, like an exclusive coupon or a product.

6. Help people avoid unpleasant experiences. A tradeshow attendee may want to learn more about your product, but your booth is mobbed with people. A QR code on a booth wall could enable attendees to learn about your product without entering the booth.

7. QR codes can help extend the reach of your marketing channels. They make print a more valuable medium for an etailer because it reduces the effort required to move a prospect from viewing a printed ad to visiting a website.

8. Short encoded URLs are easier to scan. If a user has to try multiple scanners to capture the code, you will lose them. Ideally, print the short URL right next to the QR code, providing prospects a choice of entering the URL into a browser, photographing the URL for later reference, or scanning the code directly.

9. Provide content on the linked page that rewards prospects for sharing via text, Facebook, or Twitter. If your goal is to get prospects to share, make sure the shared content can be presented equally well on desktops and mobile devices.

10. QR codes can support games and broadcast results. Keep in mind that wherever you host your game, your players will need cell phone coverage.

Do you have a guideline for using QR codes that’s proved successful? Share it with us.

This week Adobe acquired two companies (TypeKit and PhoneGap) that offer services that we at Burns Marketing are big fans of. If you work with us, you may have heard us mention these technologies. I thought I’d give you a quick summary of what they are, why we like them, and what it means for you now that Adobe is calling the shots with these products.

TypeKit
A few years ago, the environment for rich typography on the web was a bleak landscape. You were limited with what you could do with type and what kind of fonts you could use. Some hacks sprouted up like FontBurner and other font replacement technologies, but there wasn’t a great way to deliver great fonts to web browsers. Until TypeKit. TypeKit has a large library of great fonts, and for a monthly fee, TypeKit gives you a relatively easy tool for dynamic typography on your site. Read more about it at typekit.com.

Typekit was a nice acquisition target for Adobe because fonts are an important part of their business. Adobe sells fonts and is a major presence with online technology. I wouldn’t be surprised to see TypeKit incorporated into PDFs, HTML editors, Flash, and their mobile technologies. Probably the biggest competitor to TypeKit is a free service called Google web fonts, and now Adobe has another asset in their rivalry with Google. (As a sidenote, TypeKit was instrumental in helping Google’s service get off the ground, so it will be interesting to see if that partnership continues or if the technologies diverge from this point.)

PhoneGap
PhoneGap is a great tool that allows you to more easily create apps that work on the iPhone, Android, and other popular mobile platforms. These apps are created using standard web technologies (HTML, JavaScript, and CSS) so you only have to write the code once. This significantly lowers the time and costs associated with creating apps. PhoneGap is an open source project that has been gaining traction in the last year. So far, Adobe looks like they will honor the open source heritage of PhoneGap, and the code will remain open.

Why would Adobe want PhoneGap? To their credit, Adobe has been embracing HTML5 recently, even though on the surface it would appear that HTML5 is a direct competitor of their Flash product. Owning the leading tool for creating HTML apps obviously boosts Adobe’s credibility in the mobile space and keeps them flexible since they don’t have to be handcuffed to a single mobile operating system. With PhoneGap they can feed apps into iTunes, Android Marketplace, the emerging Windows phone market, and any other new phone that enters the market. For more on PhoneGap, visit phonegap.com.

So is this all good news?
Honestly, it’s a little concerning when a big company buys up thriving “little guys.” So many products stagnate under the bureaucracy of larger organizations. I’m optimistic that the talent at Adobe will further advance both these services. I would hate to see TypeKit or PhoneGap lose any momentum. Time will tell whether or not these acquisitions are good news or not.

Adrian Hanft is a creative technologist at Burns Marketing. You can follow
him on his blog at adrian3.com as well as on Twitter, Flickr, or Vimeo.