2013 Trends

2013 is going to be a

BIG year

Rapid advances in technology will bring to life things we have only dreamed about previously

for example:

Flying Cars

Robot Butlers

Personal Jetpacks

Sound technology that allows animals to speak

the reality:

2013 will be less a

Revolution

and more an

Evolution

It means an expansion of what we already have.

It means essentially the same technology, devices and behaviors…

What does this mean??

But on STEROIDS

1. Personalization and Customization

2. Advanced, Integrated Products

3. More Mobility Than Ever

4. Social Grows Up

5. Advertising Gets Smart

6. Intelligent Objects

7. Better Use of Data

7 Things to watch for in 2013:

1. Personalization and Customization

You name it – clothing skateboards, candy – will have customization options so consumers can put their own stamp on their products.

Everything will be Personalized

The combination of more measurable consumer data and more sophisticated analysis of this data will allow brands to predict what a customer needs or wants – and tailor relevant offers to match.

Better Offers and Ads

Digital ads will read a user’s location and offer localized businesses and deals.

Think Google Ads, only instead of the advertisements being related to search words, they’ll be related to a user’s location.

The Right Offer for the Right Person

Facebook’s Custom Audiences moves far beyond basic demographic and interest-level targeting, and Google Shopping allows marketers to advertise at a very granular (even SKU) level and feature such specific product attributes as color and condition.

Hyper Targeted Ads

2. Advanced, Integrated Products

Highly flexible touch sensors are entering the smartphone and tablet markets. They are extending touch capabilities into a range of new products, with designs that are lighter, thinner and sleeker, including excellent optical clarity, low power consumption and at lower cost.

Touch

Holographic Display and Infrared Keyboards

Apple has unveiled plans to integrate mini projectors into future devices, which would enable the user to project video on any surface, including a fully usable infrared keyboard.

An amalgamation of smartphone and tablet, a phablet is cheaper than a tablet with a bigger screen than a smartphone.

Examples include the Amazon Kindle Fire, Asus Google Nexus 7 and the iPad Mini.

Integrated Devices: The Phablet

Users are expecting a highly integrated experience as they move from the Web to mobile devices and back.

Kindle’s Whispersync allows readers to pick up from where they left off, no matter if they are reading online, on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle app on an iPad. The result is a seamless experience which closely mimics reading an actual book.

Publishers in turn can now profile their audiences, build user histories, offer relevant reading suggestions.

Integrated Experiences: Reading

Rather than visiting websites completely unrelated to the programs they’re watching, activity on the tablet/laptop/phone and on TV is becoming increasingly integrated.

Even the traditional functions of both sets of devices is blurring, with users performing ‘internet-like’ tasks on the TV (Photos, email, social networking, Skype) and ‘TV-like’ activities on mobile devices or laptops (watching TV, Netflix, Hulu, etc).

Integrated Experiences: TV

3. More Mobility Than Ever

Proliferation in Mobile Devices

By 2013:

More people will access the web through a mobile device than through a computer

90% of all mobile phones will be smartphones

There was a 28% increase in mobile e-commerce on Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year compared to last year.

In addition to purchases, consumers are using their phones to locate product information, to communicate with family and friends regarding product selection and to take product photos.

Mobile Shopping

Smartphones are evolving to become wallets, keys, health consultants and more. Soon they’ll become de facto fingerprints, our identity all in one place.

Mobile Payments

The new version of the Google Wallet app supports all your credit and debit cards.

A number of services are emerging to batter cater to our increasingly ‘on-the-’go’ lifestyle.

Pogoseat is an app that enables audience members at live events to identify and purchase upgrades to better seats via their phone. The app identifies empty seats with the best views, and once users have selected their new seats they are able to enter payment details, purchase and move.

Mobile-Centric Services

4. Social Grows Up

For general networking, Facebook still rules. But niche networks that provide more of a community feel and that are centered around common interests – sports, music, design, location – are growing in usage.

Facebook dominant but Niche Networks Rising

Amex Open Forum ASOS Marketplace Community

More companies are creating branded communities to interact with customers and prospects, developing environments that are social, casual and fun.

Branded Communities

While social media growth in North America has slowed, growth is taking off in other parts of the world.

Asia: 21% increaseMiddle East and Africa: 23% increaseLatin America: 12% increase

Facebook is the global leader, but in places of the world like China where Facebook is blocked, localized networks dominate, including Weibo, which doubled its base to 400 million users in one year.

Social Goes Global

Social listening and data analysis are aiding numerous departments, including marketing, communications, customer service and product development, all of which are benefitting from deeper user insights.

Social Data

Building on the success of Dell’s and Gatorade’s Social Media Command Centers, more brands are establishing regional centers for listening and responding to communities.

5. Advertising Gets Smart

Mobile technology is allowing brands to turn anything – from bus shelters to print magazines – into retail channels.

Shopping is shifting from an activity that takes place in physical stores or online to a value exchange that can play out in multiple ways.

New ways to reach consumers

Mattel and Walmart Canada created a virtual pop-up toy store, featuring two walls of 3-D toy images with QR codes that consumers can scan with their phones to purchase.

Disruptive content is being eclipsed by integrated, entertaining ads.

Brands have finally learned that interrupting a user’s experience is not nearly as effective as seamlessly embedding ads in the content they want to see and were actually searching for.

Branded Entertainment

Native advertising underpins Google search ads, and it’s also why billions of dollars of ad revenue have shifted to closed platforms like Facebook (Sponsored Stories), Twitter (Promoted Tweets), and YouTube (TrueView Promoted Videos).

Ads that are native to a site don’t live in the corners and don’t interrupt the user; they exist in the stream of content, and bring value to the user in the form of brand content — promoted videos, sponsored stories, relevant coupons, promoted posts, etc.

Native Advertising

Publishers like Forbes, The Atlantic, Gannet, AOL and WordPress have introduced their own native ad models.

Brands are following the lead of Nike, Coke, Old Spice, Apple, Adobe, and GE and are creating quality content to distribute through native ad formats on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and beyond.

Content is King

Even Google is getting into the content game, having purchased both Zagats and Frommers.

• Virgin: Virgin Mobile Live, a social newsroom that publishes content several times daily, featuring new music, apps and web memes.

• American Express: American Express Unstaged, a program that live streams concerts by some of the biggest names in music through the lens of a well-known director.

• Marriott: Live Life to Discover helps guests navigate the city outside their hotel and RLife LIVE program helps them discover new music, films, arts, food and drinks inside the hotel

Everyone is a Content Creator

• Story planning that relates to brand and sales goals• Multimedia content including videos, images and infographics• Using brand journalists to mine for stories within the

organization• Utilizing a data-driven approach• Thoughtful publishing of content to increase engagement on

social networks like Facebook and Twitter

Common “Content Factory” Elements:

6. Intelligent Objects

Everyday items are evolving into interactive, intelligent objects, making our experiences with them more interesting, enjoyable and helpful.

Your Coffee Mug is Smarter than a 5th Grader

Google Glasses are essentially “smart glasses” – aka a wearable computer.

First developed in 1999, The Internet of Things is a concept that is just starting to be put into practice.

The premise is simple: If all objects were equipped with radio tags, barcodes or sensors, they could be identified and inventoried by computers. This would take the task entirely out of the hands of people and transform daily life – we could track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and businesses would never run out of stock.

The Internet of Things

Farming equipment with wireless links to data collected from ground sensors takes into account crop conditions and adjusts the way each individual part of a field is farmed—for instance, by spreading extra fertilizer on areas that need more nutrients.

On a consumer level, companies like Switch2health, Nest, Twine and Jawbone are creating products that use sensors to do everything from send you a tweet when your laundry's done, an e-mail when the basement floods or a text message when you leave the garage door open

Sensors

NFC technology allows commercial transactions to be done wirelessly through mobile devices, without the need for data cards. NFC-enabled phones can be used to transfer files, read product information and make purchases.

BY 2013, sales of NFC-equipped phones will exceed $75 billion, and 1 in 5 phones worldwide will use NFC technology.

NFC

Google Wallet is a prime example of an NFC-enabled phone.

7. Better Use of Data

The ability to take sales, customer, or even social data and turn it into patterns and segments is at the crux of what Big Data is and does. While SEO specialists and marketing analysts have been using internal and external data for years, it’s finally becoming a formalized processes for many brands.

Big Data

The concept of a single data source is essentially obsolete. Multiple systems are being brought together to create a comprehensive user profile.

The five richest big data sources on the Web include the social graph, intent graph, consumption graph, interest

graph and mobile graph.

Multiple Data Sources

Remember Moneyball, the 2011 film in which the Oakland A’s won almost two-thirds of their games with a payroll one-fourth the size of the Yankees? The key to their success was making strategic decisions based on data analysis. They ignored conventional metrics like batting averages, runs batted in and stolen bases in favor of a more rigorous statistical analysis about player performance.

Brands are beginning to implement the same tactics, turning raw consumer data into actionable, real-time insights. The result is a mutually beneficial relationship that benefits the company by giving them an advantage over their competition, and the consumer by having their preferences, goals and needs understood and met.

Actionable Analytics

Users can connect their energy account to the app, see visualizations of their energy use and compare their usage to that of friends and other U.S. households. There are also competitions to reduce household energy waste.

Turning Data into a Game

The Opower energy app is the result of a collaboration between Facebook, the Natural Resources Defense Council, energy information software maker Opower and 16 U.S.-based utility companies.

Final Thought

The best way to predict the future?

INVENT IT

Thank you

Questions?

Russ JosephsSr. Digital StrategistAtmosphere Proximity1285 Avenue of the AmericasNew York, NY 10019Russ.Josephs@atmosphereproximity.com