Like most of you last night much of the Hart team was watching the big game. Sometime during the game, Mike Bell our Chief Creative Officer (Not to be confused with the Toledo Mayor) sent out an email to our team giving us his view point on the ads. That spawned a whole flurry of emails with a few other team members weighing in with their opinions. Being the “social guy” I said hey why not share this with the world? They all agreed, after a few edits because lets be honest there may or may not have been a few adult beverages that were also consumed by some of us (Not pointing any fingers).

In case you missed any of the ads they are on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/superbowl

Audi Green Car

Rich Kretz: This one I don’t think is getting too much notice, but it should. It was an inspired choice in having Cheap Trick rework Dream Police for the soundtrack to this spot. There’s some terrific staging that improves the setups and the kicker with the “Green Police” busting cops for using Styrofoam cups is terrific.

Boost Mobile, ‘The Boost Mobile Shuffle’

Taco Bell, ‘It Rocks, It Rocks’ Featuring Charles Barkley
Rich Kretz: These is just plain embarrassing. In the Boost Mobile spot, while the image of Jim McMahon is a scooter would elicit at least a chuckle, I found it, well, pathetic. And did they shoot it through a sheet of plastic, or what? Poor execution that looked like it was rushed together… As far as Sir Charles goes, Taco Bell has really hit a new low, and this is following their idiotic “I want to order from Denise” campaign. Does anyone have a clue what he was talking about? Child, please!

Snickers Ad
Mike Bell: The Snickers “you’re not yourself” ad is funny. Love seeing Abe Vagoda. Hard to do funny, but they pulled it off. Laughed out loud.
Rich Kretz:Does Betty White ever age? And Abe Vigoda still kicking? Who knew? It kinda reminded me of the Bob Barker scene from Happy Gilmore. Amazingly, showing ancient celebrities get whacked actually is funny in kind of a cheap way. Not usually for the comedic violence, but call this one a guilty pleasure.

Bud Light – House of Bud

Mike Bell:Bud Light “house of bud” was weak. Cheap joke overly produced is still just a cheap joke.
Rich Kretz: Clearly misguided ideas here. Both are clear retreads of past Bud Light themes – irritated girlfriend as outlet for beer and tricking out the joint for easy access. In the end they both feel like poor cousins to the usual output.

Doritos
Mike Bell: Doritos spots are embarrassing. The dog collar, the kid protecting his mom, Casket. All really suck. They are an insult to advertising. Am I supposed to think you have to be intellectually challenged to enjoy Doritos? They are tired, old jokes poorly done. On the same level as local car ads. Somebody please help them.
Rich Kretz: Like Coke, I think Doritos struck out big time with their attempt once again to solicit spots from the “public.” These are all of the sophomoric humor it seems only Bud Light can execute well, and crotch shots and other stupid sight gags can go south quickly in the wrong hands. Besides, I might be in the minority here, but I’m tired seeing smart-aleck kids disrespect adults on national television in hawking a product. Old-fashioned, I guess.

Simpsons/Coca-Cola
Mike Bell: As much as I love the Simpsons, “burns goes broke” Coca Cola spot is a sad follow up to “happiness factory.” And the tag at the end is insipid. “Open happiness.” Really? Sleepwalker in Africa for Coke is again a disappointment. Coke has had great spots in the past. Did they hold back because Pepsi isn’t running spots? These are expensive spots, just not very good. Like someone is making up for weak concepts with big money on production. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Rich Kretz: Wow. One more and they would have went down swinging. The Simpsons epic is overblown and projects its ending from the first moments of the spot, and the sleepwalker, where do I start? The bloated production? The waste of fine cinematography? How much did this thing cost, anyway? About halfway through I’m asking for the polar bears back. And who can’t get going in the morning without a Coke?

US Census
Rich Kretz: The US Census spot is surprisingly not that bad, especially considering the weird assortment of b-list actors involved. Hope that as taxpayers we didn’t pay for that. Deficit? What deficit?

Vizio
Rich Kretz: The most ambitious (and probably expensive, given its scope and that they had to pay Beyonce) of the night is likely getting overshadowed by the flood of cheap jokes and sight gags, but really is a miracle of modern production.  And with this cornucopia of images, it adds to the list of more groundhogs, prarie dogs and beavers in this year’s crop of commercials that has to break some kind of record.  If they kept those kind of records, that is.

Go Daddy
Mike Bell: Go Daddy massage. INCREDIBLY stupid. I at least laughed at the beaver spot last year. The girl-on-girl innuendo is played out like a thirteen year old’s locker room story and is just as believable. Are they really getting any business from this? I don’t see the appeal in Danica Patrick. Only when compared to other race car drivers is she considered sexy.
Rich Kretz: GoDaddy has become no more than a punch line for their spots that are becoming parodies of themselves – and of Danica Patrick, whose strong suit clearly isn’t acting. I’d have to imagine they’re seeing diminishing returns on folks hitting their site to see the “uncensored” ads, but who know? Sex does sell! The Motorola spot was a much better executed version of what GoDaddy tries to do with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Not a bad effort for what it is.

Bud Light – Auto Tune
Mike Bell: Bud Light voice modulation: The much-hated practice in pop music of electronically altering one’s voice is used as a weak attempt to recapture “wassup.” Too bad they didn’t take it beyond that spot’s “calling my friends” gag. Just comes of as a copy of a classic without the cleverness.
Rich Kretz: I found this spot pretty clever, and they might be the first to take auto-tune mocking to the mass market. It’s not going to stick in the consciousness like “wassup,” but it makes for a guilty pleasure and is probably saved by a terrific kicker.

Budweiser, ‘Fences’
Rich Kretz: Please, Budweiser. Retire the Clydesdales from your spots. Please!!

Monster.com
Mike Bell: Beaver hoe down for Monster.com  just makes me scratch my head. How did Monster help this beaver become so successful? Nice editing. And there is something to be said for oddities drawing attention. At least it didn’t make me cringe like the Doritos spots.
Rich Kretz: Monster has always been always very ambitious with their spots, and this is no exception. I don’t get the connection between our beaver friend and landing a job, but what they did was pretty well done.

Focus on the Family, ‘Celebrate Life, Celebrate Family’
Rich Kretz: Lots of focus on this spot because of its pro-life message. I don’t think it was that great or even if you completely go their message, but maybe that was their point: to give you a more subtle approach in this age of shouting. I suppose I think more of Tim Tebow that he would put himself out there, I guess.

Emerald Nuts and Pop-Secret, ‘Awesomer’
Rich Kretz: I’m not sure if Emerald Nuts gets their return out of their annual SB spot, but this one really had me scratching my head: I can’t decide if they’re just trying to leverage the money to cut costs for the two brands, or if you’re supposed to eat them together ala Chex Mix. Someone really has to try that and tell me if it’s any good…

FLO TV, ‘Injury Report’
FLO TV, ‘Moments’
HomeAway, ‘Hotel Hell Vacation’
Rich Kretz: I find that new products often try so hard to get noticed that they don’t leave enough time to get their pitch in. I like the FloTV “Injury Report” commercial but Jim Nance is focusing on “Jason” so much I’m not sure we get enough of what FLO TV is. Conversely, I think their “Moments” spot that features 50 years of television in one minute riveting. Makes you not want to miss another moment, and that’s the essence of their product. The same can be said for the Chevy Chase “Family Vacation” spot for what was it ? HomeAway? There’s so much time spent on the movie clips, does anyone really remember who HomeAway is? Or what they do? It would be interesting to see how many people hit that short film online and if it pays off.

Bridgestone
Mike Bell: Orca rescue for Bridgestone was a sad rip-off of “The Hangover.” The line “now that was a bachelor party.” is a lame ending to another over-produced spot. It’s either the start of a good idea and nobody could think of how to end it or it was all crap and the director made it look presentable. Bridgestone’s second spot was another cringe-inducing suckfest. A car stopped by Mad Max rejects. Guy ditches hot wife (she’s the highlight of the spot) instead of giving up his tires. Sad. Just sad. The spot looks to be inspired by “What’s in your wallet” spots and not pulled off as well.
Rich Kretz: Wow. They really had something there until they dropped that “Hangover” line.  What a way to tank what was otherwise a pretty well-executed concept.  Not sure where Bridgestone is trying to position themselves with these epic setups.

Bridgestone, ‘Your Tires or Your Life’
Rich Kretz: Wow, again. You’d have to say that was a pretty big setup for the single “misunderstood word” gag.  The wife’s reaction after being tossed from the car is pretty good – and the villian’s take is decent too – but where are they attempting to go here – do they think that because Capital One has had success with the goofy villain-as-character approach they should mimic that? How is that going to sell a tire? Short of beer merchandisers and tech companies, who can get away with being so cinematic and obtuse?

Cars.com
Mike Bell: Child genius for cars.com  is intriguing and made me want to listen to the story. A long and expensive way to go to say that everyone has trouble finding the right car. Didn’t position Cars.com  very hard as the solution. But in a sea of mediocre spots, it stands out.
Rich Kretz: Actually, a really good follow up to the David Abernathy spot from last year that had the guy performing open heart surgery “in a crowded opera house…with a ball-point pen.”  The :60 is a hefty story; I would expect the :30 to be excellent.  This is probably my favorite overall, even if it is reworking something they have already done.

Bud Light – Bridge is out
Mike Bell: “The bridge is out” Bud truck rescue that brings the whole town out to make a bridge is pretty cool. Nice effect. I like this one.
Rich Kretz: It seems like once a Super Bowl, Anheiser-Busch seems to pull one epic off.  This is clearly it.  The shot of the old guy on the scooter is priceless, as is the dog pitching in to build the bridge.

Leno/Letterman/Oprah
Mike Bell: David Letterman, Leno and Oprah on a couch was funny. Nice follow-up to last year.

truTV, ‘Troy “Punxsutawney” Polamalu’
Teleflora, ‘Talking Flowers’
Rich Kretz: These reside in the creepy side of town, where spots want to make you unsettled. You have to respect the TruTV spot, even if Punxsutawney Polamalu looks like some whacked-out character froma Tim Burton movie. What’s more, it’s really well staged and casted. On the other hand, the Teleflora spot plain just creeped me out. Talking flowers? Really? Talking flowers?

Career Builder
Mike Bell: Every year has its similarities. Lots of people in underwear this year: Career buider “Casual Friday”, dockers “I wear no pants” free pants spot, bud light “donate clothes” which only went out online – same sight gag. Bud Light does it best. Still ads start to diminish the joke when they’re all telling the same one. Like the mini-Kiss running right near the Punksatawny Palitano. Weird.

Rich Kretz: What’s with the infatuation with men in underpants? And crazy that these two spots ran consecutively; am I the only one who thinks heads are rolling somewhere over that one?Actually, the Bud Light concept that was bounced from the broadcast is better than either of these derivatives (extended version available here: http://creativity-online.com/work/bud-light-clothing-drive/18612)

Brett Favre
Mike Bell: Brett Favre 2020 “maybe I’ll retire” for Cadillac is a great example of not overworking a joke. Brief and funny. Not beat into the ground. Others are doing the Brett Favre retiring joke so this doesn’t rank among my favorites.

Bud Light – Lost Parody
Mike Bell: “Here we go” Bud Light spots: “Lost” parody and observatory end-of-world-nerds-party were pretty lame. Not nearly as cool as other spots for the product. But, throw enough of them out and some are bound to suck.
Rich Kretz: Not Bud Light’s best effort, but the shot of the pebble hitting the telescope in the Asteroid spot was one of the single best sight gags of the evening. And the companion Lost spoof features some highlight shots of its own, especially the reaction of the lone survivor who can’t believe the troop is partying in the face of disaster. Anheiser-Busch throws so many concepts out there, it would seem from multiple agencies, that not all are going to work. However, even their bad ideas are better acted, directed and executed than others who are frankly trying to emulate their long-running formula.

Dodge Charger – Guy’s issues
Mike Bell: Another theme for several spots: Guy’s issues. A man’s life spot for Dove for men; Men making promises in “I will” Man’s last stand” For the Dodge Charger.  Jason’s sad life in a spot for Flo TV with the line “change out of that skirt, Jason”. Apart they are okay. Together they point out how trite and hackneyed this meme is. Dodge was my favorite of the group.
Rich Kretz: A lot of focus on guy’s issues and targeting men this year: I thought the Charger spot was excellent and different, although I’m admittedly I’m squarely in the target demo.  Man’s Last Stand: perfect positioning for the product. The Dove spot actually made me chuckle; it was actually somewhat fresh writing and not so dependent on just slapstick visuals. Nice use of music, as well.
Hyundai, ‘10 Years Strong’ Featuring Brett Favre
Hyundai, ‘Built by Hand’
Hyundai, ‘Painted Hyundai Sonata’
Rich Kretz: Hyundai spent a fortune in placement with some really solid everyday spots. With the rate they are snagging market share, it might actually be a good gamble. The Brett Favre commercial does stand out though, with its matter-of-fact approach. Lots of nice design on the holographic “trophy” too, and the “cool blue” color correction made him seem older and more grizzled. I like it.

Intel
Mike Bell: Intel’s sad robot does a decent job of expressing what a big advancement their new processor is. Again, not overdone. Didn’t beat it into the ground.
Rich Kretz: The sad robot seems to be a trend this year. Not a bad execution, and the humming employees at the end is a nice way to humanize their long-standing tag. It somehow left me feeling unsatisfied, though.

Volkswagen
Mike Bell: VW’s punch spot where people hit each other and say the color of the car is a great example of editing and small changes making the spot better. Old man getting hit in the crotch, what’s not to love. Then that blind guy joke at the end. Great pacing. Funny spot.
Rich Kretz: I’ll take it, reluctantly. Like the Doritos trilogy, crotch shots get old quick on Super Bowl Sunday. That said, this was a nice acknowledgement of an ages-old tradition. And the cameo by Stevie Wonder is really well placed, with Tracey Morgan a perfect foil. Maybe the Slug Bug game will catch back on and they’ll have a real “Where’s the Beef” phenomenon on their hands…

KGB
Mike Bell: KGB Sumo wrestler does a decent job of pointing out that KGB is a fast search engine. Not funny. Tries too hard. But the message still gets across in spite of itself.
Rich Kretz: Don’t really care for this one. Ziploc, Pledge and others have put people “under the gun” or else, and it just seems tired.

Denny’s
Rich Kretz: The whole Denny’s Grand Slam giveaway thing was done pretty poorly, and they are rightly getting panned for it. It’s worth noting, though, that the talent in the Denny’s commercials is Chicago-based Kiff Vandenheuvel, a good friend of Hart animator Matt Karlovec’s from BGSU.  His big break and he probably made a lifetime of residuals in one day.  Not particularly great spots, but for what it’s worth, this one in which he’s featured prominently is the best of a bad lot.

MetroPCS, ‘Tech and Talk: Shaming‘
Rich Kretz: What was that? I felt like I was watching some alternate universe Saturday Night Live skit gone bad or something. Still haven’t figured out what was going on there…

Etrade
Mike Bell: Talking babies for etrade lost some of its cool factor with the new babies. Not as snarky as the “shankapotomas” and other spots with the original baby. Still captivating. Writing just doesn’t seem as good.
Rich Kretz: OK, this campaign jumped the shark a long, long time ago. It was already a retread idea on the coattails of the Look Who’s Talking phenomenon, and yet they’re still riding it. Their last stand was the golf commercial; now it’s just getting a little sad.

Google Search
Rich Kretz: One of the best spots of the night, this simple travel from initial search throughout a life change is executed expertly.  Soundtrack meets visual meets payoff.  Well done!
Mike Bell: Google “Search on” was excellent! My favorite spot. Example of taking something overdone (boy meets girl story) and making it new. Compelling. Draws you in. Had to be the least expensive spot to produce. A great concept and it is allowed to show through.

Photo credit: California4life

Today is the biggest day of the year for advertisers. The Super Bowl, home of the most expensive 30 second ads. Sure in the US people are watching to see two teams battle it out. But as a marketer how many of us are watching for another reason?  People who make ads watch to critque, people who place ads watch to understand where the money is going, and companies are watching to see what creative ads there are this year, so they can try to copy them. The reality is that in 2010 who can afford to place a 2.8 million dollar ad? On top of that would you want to?

It is undeniable that the landscape of advertising is changing. It is not just about the 30 second TV spot anymore. Want to know why you have been seeing more product placements in TV shows? Because people fast-forward past them on their DVR. Or maybe because they aren’t actually watching on a TV, they are watching it on a computer because of services like Hulu, Blip.tv or Boxee.

Frontline just did a compelling documentary on how our society is changing because of how connected we are. Think about it, we are constantly multitasking, using multiple computers, checking our phones, replying to emails. The problem that they highlight isn’t just about advertising. It’s affecting education, healthcare, jobs and more. As advertisers though, this digital society that we are building is also building a resistance to marketing.

This is even worse as the Millenial, Gen Y (or whatever you want to classify the 18-30 y/o generation) comes of age. They are the ones that are starting to hit the job market so that means they will start voting with their own dollars. These Millenials really don’t care about your marketing, they care what their friends think. They are even more immersed in media than previous generations but they  are making decisions based on recommendations or opinions of their friends. The other generations are following suite too because their parents are learning about social media from them. The notion of brand loyalty is also in danger. They might like your product today, but tomorrow a bigger, better product might get their loyalty. This is a scary shift.

As an marketer I have to think that it’s a scary time. Sometimes it’s scary in a good way because we are looking at a whole new direction of advertising, but also scary because it is new territory. This new territory is paved with new mediums and every step of the way riddled with the question of “is this the right direction.” To that question my answer is yes. As long as you as a marketer are changing your approach, using new methods, new mediums then you are progressing.

The 30 second ad might be fading but our jobs as marketers is to figure out how to evolve it. I work on the digital side of things but still I need to plug our digital solutions into the entire marketing strategy. Daily the Hart team looks at a clients problem and figures out a new solution. Most times we’ve never delievered this exact solution before. Today every solution is different, and custom. What stays constant is that we are looking at all mediums like mobile, social, web, video, billboard, guerilla marketing, etc and deciding which is going to work best for our clients. It’s not going to be just one medium. It is going to be a mix of all of them. Adjusting the dial up and down on each medium based on the audience.

Now as you watch those Super Bowl ads look for how they are changing. 10 years ago there might have been a URL they mentioned.  Tonight watch for how many will have mentions of mobile apps, Twitter names, URLs and more to extend that ad? I bet all of them. You are witnessing the evolution of the landscape of advertising right in front of your eyes. Are you ready?

ROI. Three letters that lead just about every planning meeting. And in “O” 10, it will be louder then ever. But is tracking mobile habits as easy as its desktop counterparts?

In rebuilding or exploring any new desktop online experience we heavily rely on analytics to provide us with that important, real-time data on how users are consuming content. It allows us to find importance in everything from top pages they hit (as well as did not hit), time they spend with content, how they come in, where they go out, where we lose them, how we found them, those silly words they used to find us, pages that for some reason just didn’t work, goals, funnels, abandonment….the list goes on and on. All great stuff for data junkies to act on (if used correctly).

One powerful tool of choice is Google Analytics on many client projects. Especially when it comes to rebuilds, We’ve made this an ingrained part of our team’s discovery process. It informs our content planning, information architecture and user experience planning. And it gives our team and the clients’ a benchmark of data. It’s free, it is simple to integrate  yet powerful to use and a snap to share reporting. Used right, it can also be effectively used it to track print advertising through the use of goals and events so one can really apply a success matrix through extended use of it.

google analytics

In November 2009, Google announced Google Analytics for Mobile Apps. As with websites, there are two basic categories of user interaction you can track – pageviews and events. Teams can then use this data to understand which features are most popular and inform decisions about which features should be promoted or prioritized for further development.

For more powerful, enterprise level analytics, there is also WebTrends. And for those of us who have been around a little while and remember Log Analyzer – their product matured from that lengthy install and cumbersome software setup to a little more elegant web based system equipped with all the fancy little dashboards you team needs to produce all kinds of reporting. Of particular interest to this post is their Wireless Dashboard providing explicit detail on a particular website’s device trends, WAP carriers, mobile devices, WAP image support, mobile browsers, WAP markup languages, WAP screen sizes, WAP script support, PALM devices, PALM trends and more.

webtrends dashboard

This is the kind of data that better informs decisions on what to build for. And as we move aggressively toward more users accessing the web over hand-held devices, we want to ensure that our products are prepared and the information is correctly delivered to the masses. This is not to be confused with a more lengthy discussion on correctly developing mobile content, apps, device research, etc. The point is to use these tools to help you better understand how your users are consuming your content. Simply put, if you notice that there is an upward trend in mobile users to your website, and your site is not optimized to deliver content well over mobile devices, then you should consider change.
The above mentioned scratches the surface of analytics for mobile web. But what about at the application level? There are options.

localytics dashboard

Localytics – This is a free app that provides real-time analytics and it currently works with Blackberry, Android and iPhone. Their website says that Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm are coming soon. The service also provides an easy to use dashboard that allows users to create custom segments on-the-fly.

medialytics dashboard

Medialytics from Medialets – is an analytics platform for iPhone and Android app developers that provides key insights on their apps and users. Combined with the parent Medialets, they are a rich media advertising and analytics platform. Back in April, Medialets together with creative agency Razorfish launched Pants Dance, the world’s first Shakable Ad™.

flurry analytics

Another recent merger brought 2 more mobile application analytics and monetization platforms together – Flurry and Pinch Media. Both companies have launched widely used analytics services for the iPhone and Android phones. In the end, the single company named Flurry.

To monetize the data, Flurry recently launched AppCircle, a recommendation platform. Developers install it in their games and it analyzes a user’s taste in apps. Then it recommends apps for the user. These recommendations are likely to be highly useful because they’re based on the user’s past purchases. Flurry gets paid through a revenue sharing agreement with the developer. – Dean Takahashi

Mobclix -provides iPhone analytics and the “largest mobile ad exchange” for your apps. They analytics driven mobile ad exchange allows them to optimize ad inventory to maximize eCPMs through a bidding platform for advertisers, ad networks, and agencies.
So not only are these platforms providing us more data. The platforms are acting smarter by providing real-time data for actionable business decisions. Definitely high value for both the developers and marketers.

There is no perfect tool. Today’s economy demands that we are resourceful and smart. Better data leads to highly approachable creative. Use the free tools to create the business case and benchmark. Energize additional analytics and monetization as necessary. All of these resources are giving analytics away. It is up to you (and me) to use them to make our products and experiences better.

So what’s next? Is there a such thing as too much information?

Recently Toyota released the third generation Prius. Coordinating with the launch you may have seen a number of odd commercials showing off the new car. The focus on the commercial is showing off the connection of nature and automobiles. I could write a whole other post on those ads but for now I want to talk about another way they are marketing the new Prius.

They took that “reality” one step further by developing an iPhone app that is part game, part augmented reality. I first noticed the application in one of their ads in Fast Company. In the lower right hand corner I noticed directions to download the app and take a picture of the advertisement. I was intrigued so I downloaded it.

Now first let me begin with a little background on augmented reality. This is probably a new term for most. Recently there were a number of iPhone applications that enabled this feature. Simply put augmented reality is:

“Looking at the real world with data over-layed in your view”

This can be done using a headset or in this case using an iPhone camera to take images of the real world and overlay data on it. There are some great programs that are out there using this technology.

When I downloaded the application I was pleased to see that is it had more than just the augmented reality app. As instructed in the ad I took a picture hoping for some cool augmented way to interact with the ad. However it turns out that it’s not really augmented reality per sei. It is more of a photo recognition program. Because after I took the picture it pointed me to a static version of the image. This image had small hot spots that I could touch to learn more about those features. It gave me a little bit of information but really didn’t sell me on the car being that innovative. On top of that the type was pretty small. I was a bit disappointed. I didn’t write it off just yet.

Next I tried out the “Tour” feature. This feature allows you to use the accelerometer in the phone to move your iPhone around to see a 360 degree view of the interior of the car. This also has lots of potential but once again under delivered. When I was using the app I couldn’t control the movement at all. I moved left, right, up down. It did what it wanted. I was able to use my finger to point the movement, much better I thought to myself.  This feature ended up being ok but not great.

The next two features I’ll put in the same bucket as they were trying to show off other features of the car by having the user play little “games” with the car. The first one is the draw feature. This feature asks the user to draw things using your finger. The user draws items like boxes, trees, leaves to demonstrate interior room, “greeness”, and aerodynamics. Still adding little to no value in my opinion. This is coming from a guy that is currently thinking of buying a new car. None of this resonated with me. It just didn’t excite me at all.

Lastly the “Play” feature is all about the aerodynamics of the car. Again this feature shows off the new aerodynamics of the car. This is a huge problem with hybrids. The drag of the car can really hurt the efficiency of the electric engine. Essentially this feature puts the car in a wind tunnel where you control the wind. Not a horrible feature to the application, I learned about this car. I ended up playing for a couple of levels. Still just made me say to myself “ok, but I don’t have anything to compare it to?”

The bottom line with this application is that it is a clever application and has good intentions but falls short at really engaging the consumer. If your company is wanting to use such a specialized application to show off your product please provide engage me in fun way while educating me or another way to educate me about why I should buy your product.

With a few simple tweaks to the application it could have achieved this. If I were redesigning this application here is what I would recommend:

1. Interact Feature – Step up the quality on this feature by adding a true augmented reality application. Take it one step further and make it possible to use this same approach if a potential customer is sitting the car to learn more about the features. Heck this could almost be like a little car manual using this feature. This could be a great sales tool for dealers.
2. While educating the consumer on your features, offer a comparison to your competitors. If you want to show how good your product is there needs to be something to prove it.
3. Locating your retailer shouldn’t be hard. It certainly shouldn’t be outside the application. I recommend that you have less features and focus on the real needs of a consumer. Keep in mind what the main reasons that a user would use their mobile phone to interact with your company/products.

What are your thoughts? We’d love to hear what you think.

We regularly have internal trainings to teach our staff about trends in marketing. This month’s topic was on mobile marketing trends. I spoke about what technology we see emerging and how it can be applied.