Welcome to my new blog about the technology and media use in the future. This time I’m going to discuss the prospects about how technology is going to develop itself in the near future. For those of who think that technology is already far and for those who have difficulty to stay up-to-date with all new devices in the year 2010, the future is going to be hard. For those who are into new devices and who like technological developments, the future is going to be exciting and interesting. Microsoft is trying to develop the newest things and they are coming up with this so called “skinput”.
Within a few years it is possible to play games like Tetris with the aid of your own hands, just by touching the top of your fingers in stead of using a keyboard or a controller. Imagine that you try to call someone just by typing in the phone number on your hand. It sounds weird and unimaginable, but it is going to be the future. See the first video below for more clarity.
Or children, maybe even adults if they want to, can put together “moving puzzles”. In stead of a puzzle with a nice picture, Microsoft is coming up with pieces of videos which are going to be the puzzle pieces. Microsoft is developing kinds of interfaces which are probably going to replace old-fashioned devices. For example an interface for choosing a menu in a restaurant and with the same interface it is even possible to pay the bill. Just by laying down your credit card on the interface. You can decide how much you want to tip the restaurant on a touch screen and by picking up the credit card you just have paid. Or no more annoyance with cables when you want to upload your pictures from your camera to a computer. You can just lay down the camera on the interface and within seconds your photos appear at the interface. With the aid of the same interface it is possible to edit the photos by making them bigger or smaller with your hands. This all probably sounds unimaginable and weird, but you can see what I try to make clear in the second video.
To complete the set, the third video will give a more future perspective about what is going to be possible in the year 2019. I hope you all are slightly into technological developments, because the future is going to be very interesting. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about these prospects.
donderdag 20 mei 2010
woensdag 19 mei 2010
USA against nuclear Iran
In this blog I would like to show you a form of advertising which I think is very impressive and striking. In one of my previous blogs I discussed the fact that the Dutch government has positioned big, live billboards in Amsterdam and Rotterdam to reduce aggression towards public service employees. In this blog I will also discuss media use by the government or better indicated as media use by a country.
My parents went to New York last week and as you all know, New York is the place were advertising is playing a major role in the daily life. Since my dad knows that I’m interested in advertising and media use, he took this picture of a billboard in the centre of New York.
The man on the picture is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran. He is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. He flouts international law by developing a nuclear weapon. America is against nuclear Iran and America thinks that this should concern every American citizen. It is unacceptable for them that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. It could be very dangerous for the world, but especially for America and probably also for the West when Iran is in possession of a nuclear weapon. A nuclear Iran is a danger to world peace.
In my opinion it is very clever from the USA to position these billboards in all major American cities. This is probably one of the best manners to inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime, their intention to develop a nuclear weapon and the role that Iran is playing in terrorism. Besides that, the government or America as a country makes other countries aware of the fact that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Since there are thousands of tourist every day and they all go back to their countries with the knowledge that Iran is engaged in nuclear weapons. By placing these huge billboards with the striking appearance in big cities as New York, Iran’s plans are within short time a worldwide discussion topic. Better said, the USA is trying to create nationally and internationally awareness of Iran’s plans.
On the billboard is a website mentioned, so the billboard is to reach the attention of the people and to persuade them to go to their website. At uani.com people can protest against nuclear Iran, like the abbreviation UANI (United Against Nuclear Iran) actually says.
This blog is less based on the actual media use of America, but more on the UANI campaign. Because this campaign is a current form of media use with an interesting topic I had to make a blog about it. I hope you liked reading it en hopefully you will also read my next blogs.
My parents went to New York last week and as you all know, New York is the place were advertising is playing a major role in the daily life. Since my dad knows that I’m interested in advertising and media use, he took this picture of a billboard in the centre of New York.
The man on the picture is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran. He is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. He flouts international law by developing a nuclear weapon. America is against nuclear Iran and America thinks that this should concern every American citizen. It is unacceptable for them that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. It could be very dangerous for the world, but especially for America and probably also for the West when Iran is in possession of a nuclear weapon. A nuclear Iran is a danger to world peace.
In my opinion it is very clever from the USA to position these billboards in all major American cities. This is probably one of the best manners to inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime, their intention to develop a nuclear weapon and the role that Iran is playing in terrorism. Besides that, the government or America as a country makes other countries aware of the fact that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Since there are thousands of tourist every day and they all go back to their countries with the knowledge that Iran is engaged in nuclear weapons. By placing these huge billboards with the striking appearance in big cities as New York, Iran’s plans are within short time a worldwide discussion topic. Better said, the USA is trying to create nationally and internationally awareness of Iran’s plans.
On the billboard is a website mentioned, so the billboard is to reach the attention of the people and to persuade them to go to their website. At uani.com people can protest against nuclear Iran, like the abbreviation UANI (United Against Nuclear Iran) actually says.
This blog is less based on the actual media use of America, but more on the UANI campaign. Because this campaign is a current form of media use with an interesting topic I had to make a blog about it. I hope you liked reading it en hopefully you will also read my next blogs.
maandag 10 mei 2010
Payment system in a social networksite
Welcome to my new blog! I also will pay attention in this blog to a new “phenomenon” in Holland, just like I did in my previous blog. In Holland we have a popular social networksite, called Hyves. Just to keep in touch with friends and to “find” old friends, like Facebook for instance. This site has recently added a payment system to transfer money to friends or to do micro payments to organizations.
They linked an application for a mobile phone to the site to make it possible. This application, called “My Order”, makes it possible to pay a drink in your favourite bar or to pay a pizza for example. I don’t know if this possibility is useful and if this is what all Hyves users were waiting for, but time will tell. Hyves guarantees that all payments will securely be processed. It is possible to guarantee this, because they make use of a digital wallet (MiniTix), developed by a Dutch bank (Rabobank). All Hyves users can make use of this payment system now, even though if they aren’t registered at MiniTix. They do not even have to have an account at the Rabobank. Users only have to make sure that their mobile phone number is linked to the payment system and that they have to deposit money on their Hyves account. This account does have a limit for people who want to deposit a lot of money. MiniTix does have a function which ensures that people have the possibility to deposit money automatically from their bank account to their Hyves account when their digital wallet is empty. The video below shows how the payment system works.
It is intended that Hyves users can do transactions to at least 30 percent of the catering establishments in the beginning of next year. Until today, users can only do transactions at 13 cinema’s and dozens of restaurants in 21 cities. Hyves in general is still very popular as evidenced by the growing numbers of members. There are almost ten million registered members of which nine million Dutch.
My doubts about the system
The future will tell us how popular Hyves’ payment system is going to be, but in my opinion there are quite a few snags to this innovative social payment system. Since (young) children aren’t responsible enough to “work” with this kind of systems. There are already too much kids with enormous mobile phone bills. I think this says enough about how kids think about money in general and about how they deal with things where they are simply not responsible enough for. Just because they don’t think about the consequences. It is simply incalculable for them and they shouldn’t even think about such matters. Parents cannot control their children all day long so they have plenty of time to figure out how they can use the payment system. The general conditions say that kids under 18 can’t use their system, but they can just indicate that they are above 18. Who is going to control if everybody who is using the system is 18 or older? I don’t know. So as you can conclude, in my opinion it is to “dangerous”, since almost all children do have a Hyves account, but I hope that Hyves has discussed all possible scenario’s before they implemented this system. Time will tell!
Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about this situation.
They linked an application for a mobile phone to the site to make it possible. This application, called “My Order”, makes it possible to pay a drink in your favourite bar or to pay a pizza for example. I don’t know if this possibility is useful and if this is what all Hyves users were waiting for, but time will tell. Hyves guarantees that all payments will securely be processed. It is possible to guarantee this, because they make use of a digital wallet (MiniTix), developed by a Dutch bank (Rabobank). All Hyves users can make use of this payment system now, even though if they aren’t registered at MiniTix. They do not even have to have an account at the Rabobank. Users only have to make sure that their mobile phone number is linked to the payment system and that they have to deposit money on their Hyves account. This account does have a limit for people who want to deposit a lot of money. MiniTix does have a function which ensures that people have the possibility to deposit money automatically from their bank account to their Hyves account when their digital wallet is empty. The video below shows how the payment system works.
It is intended that Hyves users can do transactions to at least 30 percent of the catering establishments in the beginning of next year. Until today, users can only do transactions at 13 cinema’s and dozens of restaurants in 21 cities. Hyves in general is still very popular as evidenced by the growing numbers of members. There are almost ten million registered members of which nine million Dutch.
My doubts about the system
The future will tell us how popular Hyves’ payment system is going to be, but in my opinion there are quite a few snags to this innovative social payment system. Since (young) children aren’t responsible enough to “work” with this kind of systems. There are already too much kids with enormous mobile phone bills. I think this says enough about how kids think about money in general and about how they deal with things where they are simply not responsible enough for. Just because they don’t think about the consequences. It is simply incalculable for them and they shouldn’t even think about such matters. Parents cannot control their children all day long so they have plenty of time to figure out how they can use the payment system. The general conditions say that kids under 18 can’t use their system, but they can just indicate that they are above 18. Who is going to control if everybody who is using the system is 18 or older? I don’t know. So as you can conclude, in my opinion it is to “dangerous”, since almost all children do have a Hyves account, but I hope that Hyves has discussed all possible scenario’s before they implemented this system. Time will tell!
Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about this situation.
dinsdag 27 april 2010
Live, interactive, huge billboards
Welcome to my new blog! In all my other blogs I discussed media use in general, commonly used for profit purposes. In this blog I will discuss media use for non-profit purposes. In this case it is all about the safety of public service employees and to reduce aggression on the streets. In contrary to my previous blogs, this blog will pay attention to a widespread phenomenon in Holland.
This bizarre phenomenon is that the use of violence towards public service employees is extremely rising. For example, the violence against the police and ambulance personnel during New Year’s Eve of this year increased enormous compared to New Year’s Eve of last year. It went wrong this year 138 times, compared to 97 incidents last year.
Obviously, violence towards public service employees is unacceptable and it is extremely “crazy” that this happens in the first place. People on the streets who see it happen that any madmen starts fighting with ambulance personnel or police men (who are practically on the streets for everybody’s safety) are most of the time afraid to intervene or completely flabbergasted. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice came with an idea to place huge, interactive, live billboards in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. From now on, people in public are confronted with street kids who behave violently against ambulance personnel. With this new approach, the Ministry of Justice hopes to make the people in the streets more aware of what happens in the streets. Besides that, they hope that these people will do something to stop the aggression towards public service employees.
At the end of this blog a video is shown about what the huge, interactive billboards look like. This video will also show which four tips are presented to the people in the street in order to inform them about what to do and how to act in a violently situations. Finally, media use is rising in a lot of organizations and it is very popular these days, but fortunately media use is more than only profitable for organizations and handy or nice. Hopefully, this form of media use can reduce the aggression on the streets and hopefully this can also contribute to a better atmosphere on the streets.
Please let me know what you think about this new approach of the Ministery of Justice in Holland.
This bizarre phenomenon is that the use of violence towards public service employees is extremely rising. For example, the violence against the police and ambulance personnel during New Year’s Eve of this year increased enormous compared to New Year’s Eve of last year. It went wrong this year 138 times, compared to 97 incidents last year.
Obviously, violence towards public service employees is unacceptable and it is extremely “crazy” that this happens in the first place. People on the streets who see it happen that any madmen starts fighting with ambulance personnel or police men (who are practically on the streets for everybody’s safety) are most of the time afraid to intervene or completely flabbergasted. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice came with an idea to place huge, interactive, live billboards in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. From now on, people in public are confronted with street kids who behave violently against ambulance personnel. With this new approach, the Ministry of Justice hopes to make the people in the streets more aware of what happens in the streets. Besides that, they hope that these people will do something to stop the aggression towards public service employees.
At the end of this blog a video is shown about what the huge, interactive billboards look like. This video will also show which four tips are presented to the people in the street in order to inform them about what to do and how to act in a violently situations. Finally, media use is rising in a lot of organizations and it is very popular these days, but fortunately media use is more than only profitable for organizations and handy or nice. Hopefully, this form of media use can reduce the aggression on the streets and hopefully this can also contribute to a better atmosphere on the streets.
Please let me know what you think about this new approach of the Ministery of Justice in Holland.
dinsdag 20 april 2010
Augmented Reality
My new blog this time is about Augmented Reality. I was surfing on the internet this afternoon to find an interesting topic which has something to do with media use. During this internet session I came into contact with the concept “Augmented Reality”. I have never heard of it before and I was really surprised about the fact that there are technical applications like this, notwithstanding we live in a “digital world” nowadays. If you have also never heard of this concept before, you are hopefully getting a bit curious. First, I would like to explain something more about this great concept and later on in this blog I’ll show a video to get a better idea and to give an example of Augmented Reality.
Augmented Reality is a topic that is aimed at the adding of digital, computer-generated images to the reality (things that are really there). It is as far as I know, one of the latest and newest hypes on the field of internet, technology and marketing (correct me if I’m wrong). It is used in some organizations to encourage people to go to their website or to promote certain products, services or events. As is shown in the video at the end in this blog, you can imagine that it is very original and striking to make use of Augmented Reality. It can also be used to attract people’s attention for different reasons, to increase the visitors experience in attraction parcs and musea.
Augmented Reality increases the interactivity and the degree of information provision. It works for several purposes, but here follow a few examples:
-it can add information to peoples sight (for example to the sight of a mechanic, as is shown in the video below)
-it can function as navigation or a simulation, for example to practice for your driving license.
-it increases the quality of videogames and other interactive purposes for in peoples leisure time.
A Dutch Layar application is introduced and it integrates live internet within the physical environment on a mobile phone. “Layar” places different layers on the image of a camera, as the name suggests. In this way, the camera adds some virtual layers on the reality which results in the fact that your mobile phone can function as a tour guide for instance. There are shown two videos below. One which shows the way how Augmented Reality can increase the work of a mechanic and the other in what way it can increase the interactivity in a playful, but instructive way. I hope you like the videos and please let me know what you think about the concept!
Augmented Reality is a topic that is aimed at the adding of digital, computer-generated images to the reality (things that are really there). It is as far as I know, one of the latest and newest hypes on the field of internet, technology and marketing (correct me if I’m wrong). It is used in some organizations to encourage people to go to their website or to promote certain products, services or events. As is shown in the video at the end in this blog, you can imagine that it is very original and striking to make use of Augmented Reality. It can also be used to attract people’s attention for different reasons, to increase the visitors experience in attraction parcs and musea.
Augmented Reality increases the interactivity and the degree of information provision. It works for several purposes, but here follow a few examples:
-it can add information to peoples sight (for example to the sight of a mechanic, as is shown in the video below)
-it can function as navigation or a simulation, for example to practice for your driving license.
-it increases the quality of videogames and other interactive purposes for in peoples leisure time.
A Dutch Layar application is introduced and it integrates live internet within the physical environment on a mobile phone. “Layar” places different layers on the image of a camera, as the name suggests. In this way, the camera adds some virtual layers on the reality which results in the fact that your mobile phone can function as a tour guide for instance. There are shown two videos below. One which shows the way how Augmented Reality can increase the work of a mechanic and the other in what way it can increase the interactivity in a playful, but instructive way. I hope you like the videos and please let me know what you think about the concept!
dinsdag 13 april 2010
How “Dell” has implemented SMM
In my last blog I discussed the main idea of Social Media Marketing (SMM). I mentioned the key point of entering into a dialogue or a relation with the target group. In this blog I’m going to explain this a bit more by giving an example of a company who has implemented SMM. But first I’m going to elaborate on an action plan in order to have a good SMM strategy, which is crucial and forms the basis of your campaign, like I mentioned in my previous blog.
Action plan
First of all, you have to define a mission. Try to come up with a few goals and convert these goals into success factors. Next, make sure to have a nice budget and employees who want to go for it and who believe in your idea. Important to keep in mind is that SMM is not something you do “in a week”. A good SMM campaign requires time. Do some research and determine where your target group is and which social media they are using the most. Then start online with reputation management. First, you need to find out what your target group is saying about you or your products and services on the internet. Subsequently, participate in conversations, convince “opponents” and help, inform and interact with (current) customers. Develop blogs, forums and unique content to increase brand awareness. Try to stay innovative and keep interacting with “your people”. Evaluate new things you tried earlier and measure the effects. Important is to improve weaker points and optimize your results. Companies want to see the difference as fast as possible and they are a bit impatient, but it is important to be patient and to evaluate and improve if necessary.
Dell
In 2009, Dell implemented SMM in their organization. Dell started its own community site, where the customers have access to twelve blogs, dozens of forums, media galleries and the successful “Dell IdeaStorm”. The Dell IdeaStorm is a digital place where (potential) customers can drop their ideas about current products or just “wild ideas”. It is Dells intention to react on all comments and ideas, whether it is positive or negative, but just to give a signal to the people that Dell stands for customer loyalty and that they want to help out customers with problems.
Tons of useful ideas were send in and a few were actually used to improve their assortment and to listen to their customers. This is very smart, because those customers think that they are “a part of the organization”. This is how you create commitment. Next time, customers who feel that they are taken very seriously by Dell are definitely coming back to Dell. If you have already read my previous blog, you know that customer retention is much cheaper and easier than attracting new customers. Conclusively, Social Media Marketing can be very advantageous and profitable, but make sure to have a good strategy and try to be patient!
Action plan
First of all, you have to define a mission. Try to come up with a few goals and convert these goals into success factors. Next, make sure to have a nice budget and employees who want to go for it and who believe in your idea. Important to keep in mind is that SMM is not something you do “in a week”. A good SMM campaign requires time. Do some research and determine where your target group is and which social media they are using the most. Then start online with reputation management. First, you need to find out what your target group is saying about you or your products and services on the internet. Subsequently, participate in conversations, convince “opponents” and help, inform and interact with (current) customers. Develop blogs, forums and unique content to increase brand awareness. Try to stay innovative and keep interacting with “your people”. Evaluate new things you tried earlier and measure the effects. Important is to improve weaker points and optimize your results. Companies want to see the difference as fast as possible and they are a bit impatient, but it is important to be patient and to evaluate and improve if necessary.
Dell
In 2009, Dell implemented SMM in their organization. Dell started its own community site, where the customers have access to twelve blogs, dozens of forums, media galleries and the successful “Dell IdeaStorm”. The Dell IdeaStorm is a digital place where (potential) customers can drop their ideas about current products or just “wild ideas”. It is Dells intention to react on all comments and ideas, whether it is positive or negative, but just to give a signal to the people that Dell stands for customer loyalty and that they want to help out customers with problems.
Tons of useful ideas were send in and a few were actually used to improve their assortment and to listen to their customers. This is very smart, because those customers think that they are “a part of the organization”. This is how you create commitment. Next time, customers who feel that they are taken very seriously by Dell are definitely coming back to Dell. If you have already read my previous blog, you know that customer retention is much cheaper and easier than attracting new customers. Conclusively, Social Media Marketing can be very advantageous and profitable, but make sure to have a good strategy and try to be patient!
woensdag 31 maart 2010
Social Media Marketing
Nowadays, people come in contact with dozens of forms of advertisement. People’s minds work in a way that only a few very striking and interesting advertisements get their attention. In general, people can remind the brand or the advertisement itself from only one or two of these striking advertising expressions. So why would a company spend tons of money to advertisements which, in the worst case, wouldn’t be recalled by anybody. This is a different way of evaluating advertisements, but in the busy society where people live in these days it is a lot more profitable to reach the target group by using social media. Since the social media revolution is emerging these days it is easier and probably cheaper to get the attention of the people by using social media marketing (SMM).
In this blog I’m going to discuss social media marketing.
The main idea of SMM is the entering into a dialogue or a relation with the target group instead of overwhelming them with lots of advertisements. This can be done by using online communities, forums, blogs or other types of social network to get in touch with “your” people.
The first advantage is that participating or registering in social networks is free. Compared to spending money on advertisements which are only recalled by some people, participating in social networks is advantageous. As mentioned in the beginning of this blog, there is a so called “social media revolution” going on at the internet. Subsequently, the amount of visitors on sites as Facebook, LinkdIn and Twitter is rising in unprecedented quantities. This means that companies can generate brand awareness to (potential) customers all over the internet, only by a “little” time investment. This doesn’t mean that SMM is “just something extra” on companies’ to-do-list. Before starting with the actual SMM-campaign it is essential to create a clear strategy. Identify what the organization needs to achieve with SMM. An example of a strategy is mentioned before in this blog, such as generating more brand awareness or creating better relationships with your customers. These are just some examples of strategies, but there are lots of more to imagine. In order to achieve the goals it is important to do research about the target group. Important questions can be: “Which social network is commonly used by the target group?” and “Which style is the best to approach the target group?”. After doing research companies can actually start with their SMM campaign.
Key point in approaching the target group is to treat them as individual customers. Obviously, important customers are more important than smaller customers. Get to know your customers better in the beginning and try to interact with each other. Significant detail is that the customers want to be understood and they want to get the feeling that the organization is helpful. Customers will respect this and probably/hopefully this results in loyalty. And never forget this thumb rule: “It is better and cheaper to keep your current customers satisfied and loyal, than attracting/finding new customers”.
In this blog I’m going to discuss social media marketing.
The main idea of SMM is the entering into a dialogue or a relation with the target group instead of overwhelming them with lots of advertisements. This can be done by using online communities, forums, blogs or other types of social network to get in touch with “your” people.
The first advantage is that participating or registering in social networks is free. Compared to spending money on advertisements which are only recalled by some people, participating in social networks is advantageous. As mentioned in the beginning of this blog, there is a so called “social media revolution” going on at the internet. Subsequently, the amount of visitors on sites as Facebook, LinkdIn and Twitter is rising in unprecedented quantities. This means that companies can generate brand awareness to (potential) customers all over the internet, only by a “little” time investment. This doesn’t mean that SMM is “just something extra” on companies’ to-do-list. Before starting with the actual SMM-campaign it is essential to create a clear strategy. Identify what the organization needs to achieve with SMM. An example of a strategy is mentioned before in this blog, such as generating more brand awareness or creating better relationships with your customers. These are just some examples of strategies, but there are lots of more to imagine. In order to achieve the goals it is important to do research about the target group. Important questions can be: “Which social network is commonly used by the target group?” and “Which style is the best to approach the target group?”. After doing research companies can actually start with their SMM campaign.
Key point in approaching the target group is to treat them as individual customers. Obviously, important customers are more important than smaller customers. Get to know your customers better in the beginning and try to interact with each other. Significant detail is that the customers want to be understood and they want to get the feeling that the organization is helpful. Customers will respect this and probably/hopefully this results in loyalty. And never forget this thumb rule: “It is better and cheaper to keep your current customers satisfied and loyal, than attracting/finding new customers”.
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