Quite a long time ago, a chap called Marshall McLuhan said a couple of very clever things. He was born in the early twentieth century and, I guess, by the sixties, he’d grasped the big changes that we’re feeling the culmination of today.
It’s changing the way in which we view the world.
The simplest description of Augmented Reality is that it takes real-world views and mixes them with computer generated content but no description can really cover the jaw-dropping effect it has on people seeing it for the first time (If it works correctly that is). There are a large number of demos displaying the nice shiny effects of this technology as well as increasing numbers of applications being built for mobile devices. The real test will undoubtedly be whether it can deliver real benefits over more traditional interfaces in the long run.
Roll back to around 2004 and Microsoft ruled the roost on pretty much everything to do with computers. They had the most successful operating system, internet browser, office suite, development suite and so on. Bill Gates, their creator and CEO was the world’s richest man by some margin and every major government body was squeezing them over what seemed to be an unstoppable monopoly. But they needn’t have bothered.
All too often the decision to implement a Content Management System (CMS) for a website comes down to the question “How much extra does it cost?” rather than “What benefits will it bring to my business?” Focusing on cost is always understandable when making an investment in a website, but understanding the real cost of not implementing a CMS at the start of a new project must also be given full consideration. Here are some of the common questions we at Equator are asked by clients regarding whether or not to go with a CMS.
Behavioural targeting (BT) has got a bad rap. Plain and simple, we’ve got this advertising method that can give extraordinary value by targeting people with behaviours that we like and we’re ashamed if we’re using it. To understand why advertisers employing behavioural targeting are being shamed we must address how BT works.
In the last sixteen years I’ve worked across the entire agency spectrum with agencies who described themselves as above the line, below the line, through the line, integrated (no line!) and now of course, online. What’s been interesting is that consistently during that time the wider industry conversation about approaching the development of strategic thinking for a brand or campaign has been about ‘Big Ideas’, ‘media neutral’, ‘customer centric’, ‘integrated’ thinking. However, it has been my experience that despite all ideas being good ideas, and the noticeable demise of TV spend in marketing campaigns, still the big brand, core campaign ideas tend to emanate from an ATL agency initially.