Story: Christopher Holder
Okay, I’m going to lead with something uncontroversial: spam is bad.
No one likes spam. Spam is like digital bacteria: it’s everywhere, and mostly you can avoid the worst of it if you’re careful. Stats I’ve read suggest spam accounts for well over half of all the world’s web traffic, and I do occasionally wistfully wonder what life would be like without inbox-clogging calls to increase the size of my manhood, get to know Slavic women better, pick up an errant Australia Post package, get on the first page of Google or collect 30,000,000 Euros from a lottery I didn’t enter.
The unfortunate thing about spam is, self evidently, it works; it has to… otherwise it wouldn’t exist.
Here’s another truism: shouty wholesale pop-up rug shop ads are bad.
I suspect no one has bought a full price rug, and it seems to me that unless you’re paying retail-less-80% then you’ve been taken for a (flying carpet) ride. Rug merchants have taken to camping in recently-vacated commercial premises, then annoying anyone within line of sight of the TV transmission tower with loud-mouthed ads that could strip paint.
The unfortunately thing about shouty ads is, self evidently, they work; they have to… otherwise they wouldn’t exist.
While I’m at it: SMS spam is the worst.
There’s something sacrosanct about the sovereignty of our mobile phones and to have a shady entity send you a text (generally IN ALL CAPS) about who knows what… well, I feel violated. How did they get my number? Was it because I was walking through the Central Station tunnel? Do they know where I live… the children… what about the children? Pull them out of school, head to the shelter, keep our heads down and wait it out for a while until this whole thing blows over.
My kludgey point is: be very careful about how you push messages to people’s devices. Assaulting people’s senses via their computers and televisions is one thing, and in many ways tolerated, but mobile phones? Hands off.
Digital signage is becoming inextricably linked to mobile. The holy grail is to control a punter’s entire digital and physical realm: get ‘em in store, get ‘em downloading your app and once they’ve downloaded your app then you’ve got ‘em hooked — send ‘em push notifications, get ‘em downloading content via NFC (near field communication) transmitters, ping ‘em from an iBeacon as they pass your store. Let’s see you ‘show room’ now ya shopbotting pimply brat! [Pause to recover from fit of maniacal laughter.]
Unsolicited marketing is part of life, but our smartphones do still remain a bastion of sorts. Gen Y mediate their lives via their smartphones and will simply delete you if they feel like they’re being played for fools.
I loved researching this issue’s article on connected stadiums. Briefly, the big idea is this: patrons heading to the big game are increasingly demanding wi-fi to run their off-field entertainment and social media lives during the game and at half time. Stadiums want to satisfy this need and are installing high-density wi-fi as quickly as their cable crimpers allow. But stadiums don’t want to lose punters’ attention, rather, they want to embrace them in a giant digital bear hug and immerse fans in the game environment on the stadium’s terms. To do that you have to offer more than free wi-fi. (Read the story for more.)
In the case of the stadiums, it’s ‘all about the fans’. In the case of retail, it should all be about the customer. In the case of corporates, it should all be about the employee. In the case of government, it should all be about the ratepayer. If you let the sponsors, advertisers, middle management, or bureaucrats hijack the show, you’re scuppered. These ‘stakeholders’ can and will see the benefits, but only if the punter sees the value.
Get your priorities around the wrong way and you’ll be deleted.
Christopher Holder, Editorial Director
chris@dsmag.com.au