A few months ago we got our hands on a new Augmented Reality (AR) marketing tool for smart phones that could prove useful for our commercial real estate clients. Rofo, a commercial real estate search tool, and Junaio, an augmented reality browser, joined together to create the first commercial real estate augmented reality mobile application. You can view a one minute video of it here, but basically it allows anyone to point their smart phone at a building and see any real estate space available, including photos, space size, costs and more. In one click you can also email the listing broker or landlord. Bye-bye real estate signage, hello peering through walls.
But is this really a new technology? Not really. Not by the new definition of new, aka developed within the last 6 months. Augmented Reality (AR) has been around for several years, you just may not think of it as that. How about that Yelp app on your smart phone that finds and reviews restaurants you’re close to via your phone’s GPS. Or how about Layar, a popular app that shows you what is around you by displaying real time digital information (layers) on top of reality. Augmented reality (AR) has been growing rapidly since 2009, but what’s exciting (and a bit creepy) about this tool of late is the way marketers are starting to use it. Here are just a few:
POS augmented reality application: LEGO augmented reality kiosk shows what’s inside the box.
iPhone RFID: object-based media – location-based urls with your phone – wave your phone by an object and it tells you something about it, drives you to a URL.
Tissot watches – sit in front of your computer and virtually “try on” the different styles.
These are most likely just teasers for what media and communication experiences will look like in the near future. According to Juniper research, the current global revenue for augmented reality (AR) is currently less than $2 million, but is projected to be around $1.5 billion globally by 2015. At this past spring’s SXSW conference, a panel of augmented reality developers said the future of AR is working it into the everyday, via glasses/goggles or even AR contact lenses. They said once these tools are available to the masses, marketing and advertising as we know them now will once again be a thing of the past.
Hold on. It’s coming fast. And it will give all new meaning to the term “reality check”.
Compared to the 152 million Americans who use Facebook daily, statistics show only 13% of Americans actively engage on Twitter. Oh sure, there are 175 million registered Twitter accounts, but only about half of them follow 2 or more people. About 90 million Twitter accounts with zero followers and 56 million accounts following no other accounts.¹
And yet Twitter seems to get the most social media attention second to Facebook, right? Why?
Surprisingly it’s not because Lady Gaga tweets about her sex life, or because Coby posts pre-game comments. It’s because of what happened during the election in Iran, the earthquake in Haiti, the Tsunami in Japan, the killing of Bin Laden and, most recently, the many tornado warnings tweeted across the south. It’s because Twitter’s powerful ability to instantly deliver important information anywhere in the world is undeniable. And people are catching on. In fact, Twitter celebrated its fifth birthday on March 21 and announced that “While it took about 18 months to sign up the first 500,000 accounts, we now see close to 500,000 accounts created every day.”
How many of these new accounts will be made up of active users? Here are some recent new statistics:
1. Most new active Twitter users are 25-49, well educated, affluent, early adopters and tech savvy.
2. Most new active users engage in the environment daily, and are considered influential within their online world.
3. Most new active users follow companies and brands to learn about products and services and to offer advice, input and recommendations regarding them.
4. Most new active users (79% to be exact) are more likely to recommend brands they follow.
5. More new active users are conducting B2B business than B2C business.
Let’s focus on that last one. Why is B2B so popular in this environment? Maybe because tweets can be very targeted and relevant, creating reputations of knowledge and influence. Think of a tweet as a potentially powerful blog in 140 characters or less. Then think of how easily it can be spread (aka re-tweeted) as a recommendation. Worthwhile messages can go from one influential person’s following of 500 people to 500,000+ potential customers in a matter of minutes. Try getting those engagement numbers from a direct mail piece! And to top off Twitter’s B2B strength, remember that the more relevant the 140 characters are to a potential customer’s keyword searches, the higher the tweet post will show up in organic search results. This message content can enhance a business’ overall SEO. Not bad for a free communication tool, eh?
Twitter will most likely continue to morph into something no other social media resource can offer. It’s live search capabilities, along with its increasing credibility as something more than celebrity stalking, will no doubt add millions of new active users over the next year or so. With massive numbers of active Twitter users, you find untapped potential.
Time will tell. What do you think?
¹Stats from Hypebot
In the song “Tracing” John Mayer sings the following verse that has always resonated with me:
And if you want to know the moment
I knew that I was still alone
I found I’d never learned your number
I only stored it in my phone
You’d think by now
I’d know the shape of calling home
“The shape of calling home” is the perfect way to describe the feeling of dialing a phone number from memory and seeing your finger trace that familiar shape across the keypad. There was a time, not so long ago, when we memorized all our most important phone numbers. Sure, details of infrequently used numbers could be stored in computers, address books or rolodexes but the good ones – the ones that really counted – we knew them by heart.
However, with the advent of the smart phone, speed dial and self-syncing contact lists, the day-to-day necessity for memorizing phone numbers has been eliminated; especially for younger generations that have grown up with this technology at their fingertips. When you hit “reply” to a text message, it barely crosses your mind that there is even a phone number involved.
There is no doubt that such new technology has brought with it a whole lot of convenience. Even if you lose your phone… no big deal… just update your Facebook status to request all those misplaced numbers.
But in certain situations, no amount of technology can quite replace a memorized phone number. This was starkly illustrated in the title of a blog entry I spotted recently quoting a survivor of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. It read, simply: “No phone, don’t remember parents’ number, no way to contact my family” [http://hearthevoicefromjapan.blogspot.com/2011/03/no-phone-dont-remember-parents-number.html]. This person’s contact list was, quite literally, washed away in the disaster.
Living in earthquake-prone California, it is hard to ignore the fact that unforeseen events might occur at any time and if they do an old-fashioned dial-it-yourself phone might just be your first means of contact to those nearest and dearest to you. So think of this as a public service announcement; memorize those important phone numbers and encourage your loved ones to do the same. Let’s hope there isn’t any reason for you to thank me for this advice anytime soon. But if there is, you might find great comfort in knowing the shape of calling home.

















