FRIDAYS AT FOUR Volume Nine Issue Four

FRIDAYS AT FOUR
Volume Nine Issue Four
April 2012
News and Trends You May Have Missed
From GF Strategies President Greg Flakus
www.gfstrategies.com

• This note leads off this issue–$224 billion is expected this year in US retail

e-commerce sales.

• Use of location based coupons is at early stage, but 79 percent of smartphone users have used or would like to use. (Ad week)
• Two major concerns are cited that may slow the adoption of location based smartphone use—geofencing requires the user to download an application first and opt in. When this is no longer required, the usage rates will increase. The other concern is privacy. Messages via geofencing can get very effective response. One company Shop Alert reports that more than 90 percent of messages are opened within three minutes of being delivered. One concern is that there may become a case of geofence overload as more brands enter the space of location based marketing.
• According to E Marketer, one in three online consumers will be using a tablet buy 2014. Users are interacting more deeply with their tablets than they do with other devices. “Tablet users are more engaged with the material they are consuming. –(Ad Week)
• This comes from Jason Spero Googles head of mobile sales and strategy—

“more than a third of search queries have local intent. People are trying to navigate the physical world. People are moving between connections. What does it mean if you are connecting via broadband as opposed to cellular? What does that tell us about the user?

• With every tweet, every status update and every YouTube video Millenials are doing more than just broadcasting themselves. This generation accounts for 20 percent of the population. 84 percent of this group reports that user generated content (UGC) influences their buying decisions. And Millenials are less influenced by brand messaging –Bazaar Voice study Talking to Strangers
• A recent article about the sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers ran a list of how much each network earns per subscriber. “The most important task will fall to the person the team selects to oversee its media venture, which is where the new owners greatest opportunity to make money lies” –Wall Street Journal
• More news from Proctor and Gamble Marketing Chief Marc Prichard—

“you will see some very heavy duty digital activity for our Olympics program. We have more than 30 brands doing Olympic activities. We will have Community Managers who are amplifying the discussion. – Wall Street Journal

• Nike is getting closer to its customers via Nike Digital Sport. Its latest product is a wristband called the Fuel Band that tracks energy output. It is part of a bigger broader effort to shift the bulk of marketing efforts into the digital realm. Gone is the reliance on top down campaigns celebrating a single hit. Nike is going where its customer is. As CEO Mark Parker puts it “Connecting today is a dialog—Fortune Magazine
• Wired Magazine has just issued 7 rules for identifying the trends, technologies and ideas that will change the world—

Look for cross pollinators, surf the exponentials, favor the liberators, give points for audacity, bank on openness, demand deep design, and spend time with time wasters. “These rules don’t create the future, and they don’t guarantee success…they do give us a glimpse around the corner, a way to recognize that in this idea or that person, there might be something big –Wired May 2012

• Wired also reports on an emerging service called Klout—that claims it measures user’s online influence on a scale from 1 to100. At the Palms Hotel last year, when guests checked in, the front desk checked their Klout scores. When the project started the Palms had the 17^th largest social network following among Las Vegas based casinos and jumped to third on Facebook. –Wired
• Companies are studying line science. Envirosell shows that once a shopper has spent two or three minutes in line, “the perceived wait time multiplied with each passing minute”. Another study by Insead found that even if a line move quickly at the outset if it drags at the end, the shopper expressed dissatisfaction. Another study by Bill Hammack at U of Illionois found that a single file line leading to three cashiers is about three times faster than having a separate line for each cashier. –The Hub Magazine March-April 2012

Our quote for this issue is timely with the NHL Playoffs going on and comes from Wayne Gretzky—“You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.”

Our book for this issue is one we suggested in an earlier edition—

What Matters Now by Gary Hamel.  From the book comes this quote—

“In business as in life,the difference between “insipid “and “inspired” is passion. Passion matters now more than ever.

Watch for a special announcement from GF Strategies coming soon. Our smartphone festival and event application is going to have a rollout with a major national company this summer.