A couple of weeks back, when I wrote about location based interactions, I’d said that the limits of my imagination prevent me from thinking of anything beyond brand ‘controlled’ interactive sensors in individual products as a way for non-retail brands to directly connect with their consumers – at the point of consumption.
Thanks to RWW, I found this extremely interesting presentation which gives perspectives on the future of social media analysis and how brands will capture and use the data to increase business value – for itself and hopefully consumers too. I also remembered a McKinsey “Internet of things’ report from last year in this context.
“social media is still viewed by many as just a tool rather than as an immersive environment.” Must admit I hadn’t thought about it that way. Meanwhile, there is indeed a lot of focus on the data we can get from social networks. But that’s only one source of data. There are many others too, including those which don’t even involve a consumer’s active communication. One look at the RFID wiki page will give you a perspective on the possibilities.
If brands can take cognizance of the rapid advancements in technology, and work on how they can capture, analyse and apply data, then the contexts and ways they can interact with their consumers will substantially increase. Perhaps their dependency on existing communication platforms will decrease too, especially if they consciously build their own platforms. One old but still relevant example, which I have used earlier too, is Nike+, which uses popular social tools to augment the fundamental data capture.
until next time, data entry barriers?
@manuscrypts: One can arrive at a similar observation about immersion from a different trend. Technologists have been trying to build Virtual worlds (Second life, Habbo Hotel) and 3D internet (many) and telepresence / holographic immersions (sorta AR) for quite some time now. Especailly in building workplaces or alternate social societies and positioning brands inside of them. Obviously, we are at first few iterations and its going to take different forms along the way. Building own platforms, yes, ‘cos its going to get cheaper, but cross-pollination is only going to increase.
Agree. There has to be quite some evolution before brands are confident enough to build their own platforms and technology makes it simple enough.