Sunday 29 January 2012

Augmented Reality: it's like real life...but better

Augmented Reality - it might sound a little like an oxymoron, considering you can rarely amplify reality itself. But with augment meaning 'to add more of the same thing', it indicates exactly that - a heightened real-time experience of a brand, of which we can learn more about the World around us.

Mashable describe it as "a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics, or GPS data."  Educase provide a simpler definition, and proclaim that Augmented Reality - or AR - "takes a real object or space as the foundation and incorporates technologies that add contextual data to deepen a person's understanding of the subject."  Both Common Craft and Econsultancy.com heap praise on the concept, and posit that it is "an engaging way of combining live video with computer-generated data and visualisations." 

In essence, your vital ingredients are a smartphone with an internet connection - such as an iPhone, Blackberry or Android-powered device - and the relevant software, usually in the form of an app. Experts agree that whilst AR using smartphones is just catching on, the future will see AR utilising infrastructures as small as a pair of spectacles - meaning the naked eye will directly experience augmented reality, leading to a more engaging experience.



Two recent examples I located of AR in action are from different sides of the Atlantic, but are great examples of technology enhancing one's brand experience. American's leading board sport apparel maker, Airwalk, invited customers to download the GoldRun app, before visiting one of 2 sites, one in Los Angeles and one in New York, where the AR experience would take place. Using the smartphone's camera function, users would locate 'virtual shoes' that were GPS-linked to each location. On doing so, users were then taken to an exclusive Airwalk e-commerce site and given a passcode to purchase a limited edition pair of shoes.
The effect was "basically a store that didn't exist. It only existed on your phone through augmented reality." (Source: clickz.com)


Meanwhile, North London premier league outfit Tottenham Hotspur unveiled the world's first ever Aurasma-enabled team shirt, a technology that "seamlessly blends real-world images and objects with interactive multimedia content such as videos and animations, called 'auras'". Fans must first download the Official Spurs News app to their smartphone - at £1.49 a pop - and then point their Aurasma-enabled iPhones and iPads at the front of this season's Premier League t-shirt to see footage of this season's goals. Videos are updated throughout the season and will include exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, player interviews and news. Photos of the players wearing the shirts when reproduced in newspapers will also trigger video content, so long as they feature the Aurasma logo. Furthermore, the official team photo will 'come to life' when viewed through Aurasma.

With all this in mind, what does AR spell for the future of PR? Firstly, we'll see a cultural shift from consumers being recipients of content to taking an active role in gathering and processing information - an extension of man's desire to connect with others and be part of a community.

There'll be rapid uptake as smartphone device have become ubiquitous and accessible to most.

Organisations will see ROI, as using AR means you can demonstrate more than one product in a range, driving traffic to your website where you can show consumers even more.

Finally, the arrival of AR heralds faster learning with fewer resources - it's cost-effective for organisations, but PR practitioners must stay one step ahead as consumers become knowledge-rich.

Sunday 22 January 2012

PR for PR

It would seem slightly ironic that the PR industry needs, essentially, a PR overhaul. But it's true. Many a seasoned practitioner would be quick to admit at times, PR has had an image problem, regularly being confused with its cousin 'spin', which is characterised by tacky red tops and a certain Mr Clifford.

But it's not just spin that has caused confusion around the industry; it would seem that PR's very own practitioners, those who have cut their teeth at a time when newspapers were still big business and posting a press release first class equaled 'hot off the press', have become unsure as to what modern day public relations is. For those 'old school' PR's who are yet to embrace stakeholder activism - social media - and continue to be alienated by blogs, Twitter and the online universe, then the industry is facing an identity crisis.

It can be argued that the first step to giving the PR industry an image overhaul is to redefine what public relations in the 21st century is. For those working in the industry, it is vital that they understand how consumer generated content has radically changed the communication landscape, and what this now means for the day-to-day running of organisations. Adam Lavelle, from the board of Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WMMA) says: "Before the rise of social media, public relations was about trying to manage the message an entity was sharing with its different audiences. Now, PR has to be more about facilitating the ongoing conversation in an always-on world."
Dan Tisch, chairman of the Global Alliance for PR and Communication Management, adds to this: "The role of public relations and corporate communications has shifted from creating content to attempting to influence the content created by others."

Indeed, the rise of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, MySpace and YouTube have not only brought down the geographical and social barriers in place pre-Internet, but as a medium it has facilitated participatory information sharing, and in doing so, it has been "the enabling mechanism for a communications revolution that is driving significant changes in the dynamics of society." (Phillips and Young, 2009, p3). Thus, it is changing the landscape of PR and marketing as we know it at an astonishing rate - organisations "once had the impression that they had control of what was said and believed about their activities." 'Digital natives', or those who have grown up with and are familiar with the online world, have become accustomed to a new level of transparency, and "operate under the assumption that everything they do will eventually be known online." (Brogan and Smith, 2010)

In the past, when passive consumption through watching TV was the norm, there was no alternative to dealing with PR and marketing. PRO's and marketing executives were able to execute campaigns relatively unchallenged because the channels didn't exist to say otherwise. Now, individuals not only contribute to these conversations, but they run them too, a phenomenon known as commons-based peer production.

For decades, communication has been one-way, top-down, but now the tools exist for many to many, two-way communication, and the PRO's of yesteryear must accept this change and incorporate it into their PR toolkit with gusto, no matter how daunting the prospect may be. Only with this change can PR's image begin to be salvaged.

Saturday 21 January 2012

Conducting a Social Media Audit

Tapscott and Williams posit that "the new mass collaboration is changing how companies and societies harness knowledge and capability to innovate and create value" (2006, p20). Whilst audits have been common practice in companies for the past 30 years, now, with the increasing expansion and fragmentation of the communication landscape and where "mass collaboration can reshape an industry overnight" (p31), organisations have no choice but to audit their online presence in addition to their offline activities. In doing so, brands can avoid oversharing, project a consistent voice and be best placed for dealing with crises.

The following is a rough guide to auditing an organisation's - or even an individuals' - presence online.

- First, list all online profiles where your brand has a presence, even if its an inactive presence: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Tumblr et al.

- Next, secure domain names on all sites (remembering to remain consistent - don't drastically vary usernames unless your are forced to). Some websites will do this for you, such as Know'Em.

- Check the levels of completion on each site - by this, I mean you should complete the very basic information, in particular contact details. That way, even if your brand isn't active on that site (yet), users can be directed to somewhere that is active.

- Branding - check that all logos, slogans and colour schemes are up to date. Consistency, consistency, consistency - the root of all successful branding, be it for companies or personal use.

- Style Guide - are all contributors sticking to the house style? Is the 'voice' consistent across all channels? In a socially connected age where the corporate voice is becoming irrelevant, its okay to be informal and engage with your audience, but remember that online content exists forever and one slip up can be to the detriment of the whole brand. If in doubt, don't post it.

- Content and Regularity - striking the balance between posting too little and posting too much is a fine art. You want users to know they can contact you via that channel should they have a query, but you don't want them to be checking your Twitter feed for the last time you were active. If in doubt, draw up a communications calendar, whereby you schedule posts/tweets, and respond to queries in a structured way.

- Sharing - vital for driving more traffic to your channels and increasing visibility is the option to share tweets or posts with other users. Have reshare options clearly set out at the end of each post. Similarly, you may choose to share interesting articles from other brands or opinion leaders too, but consider that you are not embellishing false or controversial viewpoints before you post.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and may vary from industry to industry. Such audits should typically take place once a month, or more frequently in digital industries where change lurks round every corner.