Prepared bySimon Miskimmin

Prepared for

NI Government Advertising Unit

The Future Of Digital

Please Take This Presentation With A Pinch Of Salt...

1. “There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home” Ken Olson, President, Chairman and Founder of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977.

2. “I think there is a world market for maybe 5 computers.” Thomas Watson Chairman of IBM 1943.

3. “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 Tonnes.” Popular Mechanics, forecasting the march of Science, 1949.

4. “There’s no chance the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance” Steve Ballmer, MSFT CEO 2007.

In This Presentation:We will look at . . .

• Groupon• Foursquare• The iPad

• Recent developments• Future trends

Your Customers are Becoming Digitizedand the pace is increasing!

• Groupon was launched in November 2008.• The idea came from Andrew Mason who showed

his idea to his employer Eric Lefkofsky.• Eric Lefkofsky invested $1 million in the project.• The company now has an approximate value of

over $1.35 billion, with an estimated turnover of $500 million for 2010.

• Groupon was initially launched in the US and Canada, but is now available in the UK.

• There are currently 35 UK cities registered, and one is Belfast.

• They are the fastest company EVER to reach 1 Billion in sales, taking just over 2 years, beating the likes of eBay who took 5 and Apple who took 8.

• In late 2010, Google offered $6 billion for Groupon.

How Does It Work?• Groupon is a very simple to use and effective electronic

commerce website.

• A retailer, pledges an offer, this is usually a product or service, with a massive discount, usually between 50% and 90%.

• The offer runs for one day on the Groupon website.

• If a customer is interested in the deal, they click ‘Buy Now’

• Once they click ‘Buy Now’, they give their credit card details.

• When the offer has received enough buyers (called the floor level) the offer goes live.

• The buyers then have their credit cards debited for the agreed amount.

• The buyers are then sent the vouchers via email to redeem.

• If the deal does not go live, the buyers are not charged a penny.

Advantages of Groupon

• It generates added interest in a product or service.• Encourages people who may not be interested in the

product to buy it, just because of the bargain price.• It generates guaranteed revenue for your business.• Groupon can connect to your Facebook and Twitter

pages.• Members (called ‘Grouponers’) receive £6 credit for

every time they recommend a friend who buys an item.

Disadvantages Of Groupon

• Profit per item is significantly reduced.• If your business pledges an offer, you must honour

it if the floor level is met, or else Groupon users would cause havoc for your business online.

• You’ll need to ensure you can cope with the increase in sales i.e phone calls, emails, virtual and foot traffic.

• Groupon takes 50% of total revenue.• The retailer has to pay all associated credit card and

administration costs.• Groupon pays the income from the deal in three

equal instalments over the life of the deal (i.e How long the vouchers are valid for)

• One Coffee shop in the US offered $13 worth of Coffee and snacks for $6, once Groupon took their cut she was left with less than $3 for each voucher, not even covering her costs, she lost $8,000 and very few new customers actually returned.

• Groupon UK has over 15,000 Facebook fans.• Groupon Belfast has over 8,000 Facebook Fans.• In the US, GAP sold $11 million on Groupon in just

a single day.• Similar Group Buying sites are available such as

Living Social and TaoBao in China which sold 255 Mercedes Smart Cars in 3.5 hours.

• Groupon will not monopolise the group buying market, but they are definitely the market leaders.

What is ?

• Foursquare is a location-based social networking site.

• Foursquare boasts 5 million members World Wide.• Foursquare encourages users to explore their Town

or City and rewards them.• Users can find out what people near them

recommend, what their friends are doing and collect badges for completing tasks.

How Does It Work?• Someone who wants to use foursquare

must register with foursquare. • They can then download the relevant

app to their phone (providing it is a smart phone with GPS)

• Foursquare encourages users to go out and explore their Town / City, try new things and meet new people.

• Users go about their Town or City and every time they go into a location which is registered with Foursquare, they check in.

• Every time they check in, this can be submitted across your Twitter and Facebook to let your friends know where you are and what you are doing.

• Each check in earns you points, and points go towards badges.

• These badges can be proudly displayed on your Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook profiles.

• The user is encouraged to write reviews about their experiences, such as ‘In McDonalds Belfast, great service...’ etc.

• The user who checks in the most at a certain location is the mayor.

• In the USA, there are special offers for Mayors such as The Mayor eats or drinks free etc.

• You can see places others near you have recommended.

• On 22nd October 2010, Astronaut Doug Wheelock unlocked the ‘NASA Explorer Badge’ by checking in to the International Space Station.

• Domino’s Pizza increased their revenue by 29% ($26 million) by using Foursquare.

• Mayors were given free pizzas and users were given free side orders for ‘Check Ins’.

Running Of Foursquare• Foursquare has only 32 employees.

• Locations can only be checked into if they have been registered on the Foursquare network.

• Users help run and maintain the Foursquare network by creating places.

• Superusers are like moderators, they are users who can add, merge or delete locations.

Problems With Foursquare?• Websites have popped up to highlight the dangers

of giving out too much information online.

• Please Rob Me was launched in 2010, it took Tweets and Facebook posts from foursquare and compiled them on their website.

• Please Rob Me website was not cynical, but could have been used by opportunists.

• The idea behind Please Rob Me was to make users consider if they should let people know they are out?

• Please Rob Me also filtered ‘Check Ins’ by location to show how easily it could be done.

• Jesper Andersen (a white hat hacker) collected information of 875,000 check ins and compiled them, he contacted foursquare to make them aware of the failures in their security. Foursquare have since been working on their privacy controls.

Criticism Of Foursquare• The creator of Foursquare has had to defend

Foursquare numerous times, once claiming it was not a ‘fad’.

• Experts suggest the privacy issues put users at considerable risk.

• Some feel badges are questionable, such as the ‘Bender’ which is only gained through ‘Checking In’ to a pub, bar or club four nights in a row.

The iPad

• The iPad was released in the UK in May 2010.

• At the last count in October 2010, 7.5 million units had been sold world wide.

• By the end of the first half of 2010 it held a 95% share of the world tablet computer market.

What is it?• The iPad is a touch screen tablet computer. • It runs on the same operating system as the

iPod touch and iPhone, which lead to many people saying it was simply a big iPhone.

• Screen size of 9.7”• Has either Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi and 3G integration.• It is ideal for surfing the net, creating

documents, writing emails and listening to music.

Benefits Of The iPad

• Very user friendly.• Speedy operating system.• Can be used to play music from your iTunes library.• Can be used as an eReader, compatible with

Amazon Kindle eBooks through Kindle App.• Can be used to play videos from iTunes or stream

videos through youtube.• Can be used with Apple Tv as a mini TV.• It’s very very light, only weighing 680 grams.

Problems With The iPad• Doesn’t have a camera.• No multi tasking – One process

at a time.• No HDMI output, this prevents

watching high quality content fromyour iPad on your TV.

• Touch Keypad, impossible to use for Users with a disability.

• No flash, leaves holes in websites and can’t stream some videos.

iPad Rivals• Since the arrival of the iPad many other

big companies have been releasing their rivals.

• The Samsung Galaxy tab is smaller with a 7” screen, but has a 3.2MP camera and 1.3MP camera for video. It is priced very confidently against the iPad – Initially costing more than the iPad.

• The interesting thing is, the iPad was not the first tablet, Archos have been making them for years. They offer the Archos 10.1 which like the Samsung also runs on Android.

• RIM have already revealed their first tablet to the media – The Blackberry Playbook. The Playbook will also have two cameras, and can record video in 1080p (Full HD)

• There are rumours of an iPad 2nd Generation in 2011. This would combine the features Apple users think are missing from the iPad. – A camera and smaller screen. Surprisingly, most experts think Apple will reduce price and size to compete with the Amazon Kindle, not any of the other big brand tablets.

A Universal Platform• Apple devices can only run Apple Apps.• Other phones/tablets use can only run

Android Apps.• Blackberry phones and tablet can only run

Blackberry Apps.• In the future we could see a universal App

platform which means an App can be created and sold across all platforms instead of three or more individual Apps being designed.

• The iPad will probably have 4G integration in coming years, make it very convenient to use.

• The iPad is not designed to replace laptops and netbooks because it is a new class of device. But it probably will spell the end for them.

• For nearly 3 years now, there has been speculation that Facebook would attempt to replace email, in 2011 that could actually happen.

• They have been developing the possibility of allowing users to have all their email, chat and text messages all in one place.

How will it work?• Users would receive an @facebook.com email

address.• You would link your mobile phone number to

your Facebook account this would allow you to receive your text messages from friends.

• You can also use Facebook chat, but you can use Facebook chat with users on different IM platforms such as Jabber and AIM.

Facebook Email

• The email would be a simplified version, it would not have a “cc” or a “bcc” but emailing friends does not really require these.

• You would still be able to send attachments, in the form of photos, videos and links.

• Some companies have tried to make Email social, but it can’t be, because it lacks social content such as a relationship and priority.

Why is it so different?

• The main attraction of this new development is that users have unified communications all in one place.

• If someone emails you, texts you or IMs you, all of these will appear as one continuous thread of conversation with your friend.

Intelligent Software

• The new Facebook interface will have two folders, one for friends and the other for any other emails (such special offers from online retailers and Facebook notifications)

• If one of your friends messages you, you will only receive it in your friend folder if they are on your friends list.

• It prioritises friends, such as how recently and how frequently you were in contact with them.

• It is expected that Facebook will intelligently map relationships in detail in the future.

• This will replace the large ‘Friend List’ which is currently in use.

• It will also give priority to frequency contacted friends, and lower priority to friends who have not been in contact in a while.

Mobile

• Mobile will be massive in the next few years.

• By 2013 Mobile Phones will take over PCs as the most used device to access the internet.

• Tablet computers such as the iPad are beginning to revolutionise how people access their emails, create documents and surf the web.

• In the USA mobile marketing has been growing in popularity for about a year.

• The results are surprising and convincing:

• 96% of messages read within 20 minutes (Compare that to email marketing)

• 3 -7% Response Rate• 10 - 20% Conversion Rate• ROI 6 times higher than other forms

of digital marketing.

• 4G will be the fourth generation wireless service available.

• The fastest available is currently 3G, which operates at download speeds of 1.5 MBPS.

• 4G will initially operate at between 2 and 12 MBPS.

• Industry experts predict 4G will eventually be able to offer 100 MBPS, twice as fast as the quickest fibre optic broadband available in the UK today.

The Impact of 4G• 4G handsets will be available in the US from early

2011 and is expected to be widely available in the UK in 2013.

• It will revolutionise how we use our smart phones, laptops and tablets.

• With 4G hitting speeds of potentially 100MBPS the need for home broadband could be removed. But it is the price of mobile internet which is holding the industry back. We could see prices dramatically reduced and therefore increased growth.

Apps

• Applications or ‘Apps’ have revolutionised the way in which we use our mobile phones.

• Now, Smart phones, eReaders, Tablet PCs, MP3 players and even TVs are utilising apps.

• In 2011, 1.2 Billion people worldwide will have a smart phone capable of utilising applications.

Location Based Services

• Smart phones and other devices now have integration with GPS (Global Positioning System)

• The GPS allows the user to be Geo-Targeted, that means – The user will be automatically sent text messages or promotions once they enter or exit a certain location.

• Geo-Targeted messages could include a ‘Welcome to ...’ message, discount codes or a ‘Thanks, come back soon!’ message.

Functionality Of Location Based Services

There is huge potential for these services to be utilised in a variety of ways:– Parents could keep track of where their children are, almost like a

tracking device, to ensure they stay out of trouble.– There is the possibility it could be used to disable the text function

on your phone when you are driving.– Auto-fire a text message to your friend to let them know you are

near by... Although not great if you are avoiding them.

Social Commerce

• Buying and selling on Facebook is rumoured to be very likely in 2011. It will allow users to buy and sell through Facebook and will have a basic payment gateway such as PayPal.

• Delta Airlines began selling tickets via social commerce in 2010.

• Disney launched a ticketing store for buying cinema tickets to Disney Movies.

The Green Gadget• As the idea of socially responsible and ethically minded

consumers continues to grow, environmentally friendly gadgets are anticipated to become more and more popular.

• We have already seen mobile phones and iPods with cases made from wood.

• Green Netbooks which run on very little electricity and are built with end of life in mind.

• Laptops, mp3 players and mobiles made from recycled materials are already entering the market.

• Solar powered mobile phones and phones which require very little charge.

What have we learned?

The pace at which digital technologies evolve and progress is staggering.

When a new technology bursts on to the scene, it does not take long for the public to pick up on it. Some of the examples mentioned in this presentation did not even exist until last year and have already acquired mass awareness.

Basically, it is nearly impossible to predict what is around the corner, but what is obvious is that we all need to be prepared and willing to embrace the next big thing before it passes us by.

Preferred Communication Changingare you ready to change?

All of this new technology is exciting and it is the future, but let us not forget the proven technologies that have been and will continue to deliver real ROI on a massive scale, such as;

Email Marketing

Paid Search Marketing

Display Advertising

eCommerce

Search Engine Optimization

And now … Social Media Marketing and Video & Mobile Marketing have become integrated into the overall digital marketing mix.

A healthy digital marketing mix!

Thank you for taking the time to sit through our presentation!

Presented by: Simon MiskimminCertified WSI Digital Consultant

simon@wsidigitalweb.comwww.wsidigitalweb.com

http://twitter.com/@WSIDIGITALWEB http://www.facebook.com/WSIDigitalWeb