3 MarkeTING aT THe INTerSeCTIoN of Mobile

CoMMuNICaTIoNS aND CoMMerCe 47 Context — The New Gold of the Mobile Industry
Alan Herrick Torsten Schollmayer

51 Could Mobile Lead Your Customer Experience?

5 MoBIle MoMeNTS
Paul Bevan
Hilding Anderson, Rachel Zinser

Technology
19 VIewSIGHT
54 Digital Marketing Platforms: Taking Back Control
Marketing and Media
Dan Barnicle

Table of Contents
21 What’s New in Digital
Nigel Vaz 57 After the Release: Maximizing Value From
Your Commerce Platform Investment
24 Rise of the Machine —
Sheldon Monteiro
Death of the Media Planner?
David D’Alleva 61 Platforms in the Cloud: Deciding to Use or Own
Scott Petry
27 The Cross-Channel Challenge:
Building Pervasive Information Architecture
65 INTerNaTIoNal PerSPeCTIVeS
Michael MacLennan
North america:
31 Media of the Moment Justin Barkhuizen, Rob Murray
David Bradfield australia: Mark Krebs
China: Jennifer Tan
34 Predictions for the Next 5 Years
in Retail Banking Singapore: Jue Lu
Alex Sion India: Vidhya Sankarnarayan
russia: Yulia Rubina
Social Media Middle east: Matt Horobin
36 Branding Out Loud Without Losing Your Voice:
Germany: Torsten Schollmayer
How to Avoid Social Dilemmas in the Digital
uk: Paul Bevan, Chad Cribbins
Knowledge Marketplace
Erik Gottesman
85 foreSIGHT: THe oNe To fIVe Year
39 If a Tweet Falls in the Forest: TreND ouTlook
Using Listening to Drive Social Media Strategy Rob Gonda, Hilding Anderson
Annicka Campbell
94 NoTe froM THe eDITor
42 Social Commerce — Hilding Anderson
Beckoning New Opportunities
Chitranjan Sood

45 Is Social Commerce Exempt From ROI?

Uwe Tueben
we believe in the intrinsic relationship
between brands and the brand experience
“revolutions never go backwards.”
– Wendell Phillips

we live in interesting times.

2012
spread Unilever’s mission to encourage people to share life’s
and that, ultimately, all communications small moments of happiness. This “ice-cream truck for the

will be interactive. Marketing at the Intersection of The way we go about living our lives has been forever
transformed by the unceasing march of digitization and device
digital age” leveraged facial recognition and 3G technologies to

Communications and Commerce proliferation. In the wake of this transformation stands an

create an industry-leading, award-winning brand experience.

Written by Alan Herrick, President and CEO; Sapient Corporation
emboldened, digitally armed consumer who is an opportunity
— and therefore — a target. The challenge for brands?
Get to that consumer first … and last.
Television’s monopoly is over. The couch is no longer the main
seat of brand impact. And the lines that used to distinguish
communication from commerce are barely discernible. More
sales are occurring via digital channels but, more importantly,
the brand experiences being delivered by those channels are
influencing the traditional retail shopping pathway. Add the
silo-breaking effect of mobility to the equation and you end up
with a $500 billion advertising industry in desperate need of
an integrated, seamless solution that blends traditional with
digital, marketing with sales.
Shortly after Sapient acquired Nitro Group, a traditional,
brand-led agency, in June 2009, I was often asked why we
made, what many considered, an upside down decision: a digital
shop acquiring a traditional agency. The answer I gave then is
the answer I give today. Because we believe in the intrinsic
relationship between brands and the brand experience and
that, ultimately, all communications will become interactive.
Clients ask how they can stay ahead of the curve and navigate
change. For CEOs to achieve these goals it must start by letting
go of the “above the line, below the line” mindset. There is no
line. Brand success hinges on two key capabilities: optimizing
investments and creating high-impact, integrated customer
experiences, which is at the heart of what we, at SapientNitro,
call Idea Engineering.
Empowered consumers are dictating when and where they
interact with brands. They don’t think in terms of touch points;
they see, hear, and feel the collective brand experience,
regardless of where or how it’s being delivered. That is why we
must create robust, technology-enabled brand experiences
that will allow CMOs and CIOs to get the most out of the
multi-functional nature of digital channels.
Another great example of how technology is liberating the
traditional boundaries between marketing and commerce
channels is Tesco. To increase its online market share in South
Korea, the UK’s leading grocery chain developed a mobile app
that allows customers to view and purchase products at virtual
stores installed in subways. The campaign reflects some of the
earliest examples of how brands can create and satisfy demand
in the same environment. As a result of its virtual stores, Tesco
increased online sales by 130% becoming the number one
online grocery store.
More and more, clients are turning to SapientNitro to
understand how they can evolve to thrive in this new world.
This is exactly what SapientNitro was built for, and why our
distinctive ability to create brand experiences at the intersection
of multi-channel marketing and multi-channel commerce is so
relevant today.
In the following pages of Insights, SapientNitro subject matter
experts present their perspectives on how business leaders
can successfully face the challenges posed by today’s complex
business environment. From harnessing the voice of the
consumer through social media management and listening
tools to constructing optimal multi-channel experiences using
pervasive information architecture, the cloud, and user content,
our authors address a diverse range of market, marketing, and
design topics.
At SapientNitro, we see the challenges facing our clients and
are inspired by the array of opportunities they present for
companies to create truly groundbreaking experiences. In this
complicated world where connections and capabilities are
being reinvented, Insights is the ultimate accelerator.
We appreciate your participation, your interest, and your
support of SapientNitro, and I wish you all success as you
navigate this ever changing, always exciting business world.

Experiences like Unilever’s Share Happy, the world’s first

smile-activated vending machine that was created to help
Mobile
Moments
Written by Hilding Anderson, Sr. Manager, Research + Insights; SapientNitro Washington, DC
and Rachel Zinser, Associate of Research + Insights; SapientNitro Chicago

135,000,000
exploring Multi-Channel Mobile experiences
Mobile represents the next major frontier for interacting with the digital
world. Be it the Amazon Kindle, Redbox reservation system, Google Wallet,
or M-PESA’s Kenyan experiment, great mobile apps create interlocking
connections between the web, kiosks, physical stores, and other platforms.

U.S. and W. Europe Smartphone Sales

MOBILE DEVICE
SALES ACCELERATE

2010 2011 2012

Global Tablet Sales
 The initial Google Wallet rollout is quite limited. It is available eBay’s PayPal 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use
Companies are now able to — and should strive to — we interviewed 23 mobile professionals, conducted only in the U.S., only on the Sprint version of the Nexus 4G
1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set
provide a single, cohesive experience in the store, at heuristic evaluations for each app, and asked our top phone, only on the Android marketplace, and supporting only Heuristic
Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design
home, or on the go. These new experiences place the strategists to identify the most important, influential two payment types (Citi Mastercard and Google prepaid).
Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity
customer at the center of a company’s ecosystem of apps offerings in each of the following categories: Professional
The Google Wallet delivers the first salvo in what promises to Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance
and devices, which have the potential to create genuine
• Mobile wallet be the next major wave of mobile technology — perhaps the
value for both the company and the consumer. Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic
• In-store mobile most significant mobile innovation since SMS and broadband
Demonstrating genuine value for consumers is a test • Integrated experiences connectivity. It opens doors for more secure transactions, real 2nd 3.6 overall

for any mobile application. To get past the initial "trial (multiple devices or channels) time offers, and a brand new real-time marketplace. Starbucks Mobile application: a widely adopted,
and forget" model of 80% of mobile apps, there must • location-based technology in-store payment tool
be consistent and repetitive value. even among • emerging technology Google wallet 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use The Starbucks App doesn’t offer the fullest set of functionality
applications that are commonly used, we still found • International experiences 1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set compared to Google Wallet or PayPal. It only works with
Heuristic
troubled user experiences. applications such as Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design Starbucks stores, and the app was not always intuitive
Google Maps, eBay Mobile, and amazon kindle meet a guide to scoring: We evaluated the strength of each (especially on initial setup).
Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity
the test. others do not. application across three equally-weighted sections. Professional
Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance
Yet based on our interviews, it is one of the most influential
example Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic
mobile wallet applications. It has the key elements of any
1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use

1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set mobile wallet application: multi-platform, multi-location

1st 3.9 overall
Heuristic (over 7,800 locations), multi-payments, and an integrated
Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design
eBay’s PayPal: Peer-to-peer player with opportunities rewards program.
Mobile wallet Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity
Professional A leader in online payments, PayPal has invested heavily in
Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance
building out its mobile payments platform, although it falls Ultimately, it is a promising start, which shows the potential
The mobile wallet is an ambitious experience — much more Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic for the digital wallet, but may be swept away — certainly
short of a true mobile wallet offering. PayPal lacks a mobile
than just touchless payment with near field communication from this list — when multiple wallet solutions come out.
phone of its own, reducing its ability to influence future
1st 3.9 overall
(NFC) at the point of sale (POS).
mobile wallets design and implementation. It does allow
consumer behavior. In addition, our interviewees emphasized Starbucks 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use
Ideally, a mobile wallet will allow mobile devices to store easy peer-to-peer mobile bill payment, and mobile web Mobile
five key challenges of implementing a mobile wallet: security, application
all the elements of a physical wallet digitally. It will include purchases, but doesn’t integrate with any physical retail 1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set
versatility, customization, ease of use, and design. Heuristic
photos, government-issued IDs, credit card information, stores — yet. Its NFC-based peer-to-peer payment Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design

cash-equivalents, and loyalty cards. It will use location and
preferences to notify users of nearby brands, sales, and
deals. It will allow payment processing with a simple swipe
of the phone.
At the time of this report, there is only one mainstream,
full-fledged digital wallet technology in the U.S. The mobile
wallet will have profound implications for a variety of
applications including:
• Personal financial management and banking
• Shopping and product comparison tools
• Payment and card services
• Promotions and couponing
• Loyalty and customer services
• Tickets, passes, and event integration
Our research suggests that substantial NFC mobile wallet
adoption is at least four years off, based on the pace of
adoption and the complexities of the service model. As Gartner
noted,1 the biggest challenge isn’t the technology but changing
Google wallet: a brand new platform that holds promise technology is a start of a mobile wallet capability. Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity
Professional
As the first mobile wallet solution, the Google Wallet Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance
As one of our interviewees said, “[PayPal’s] mobile can
combines tap-and-pay mobile payment, location-based offer Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic
serve as a unique bridge between the digital and physical
discovery, integrated loyalty cards, and a digital transaction
worlds.” Another noted, bluntly, “PayPal will be big.”
3rd 3.3 overall
history to create the first true mobile wallet experience.
others of note: Verizon and Payfone, Bling Nation,
The mobile professionals polled emphasized Google’s
ISIS, and Apple
strong relationships with banks (Citi, Visa, Discover,
American Express have all announced partnerships),
its in-house mobile phone engineering prowess, and its The domestic mobile wallet challenge: Changing consumer behavior
substantial financial resources as key factors.
NFC and the mobile wallet face a substantial Yet in the U.S., our interviewees feel it will take
In our initial testing, we found that tap-and-pay works well challenge in the U.S. substantial incentives to transition us from a credit
with the thousands of PayPass devices deployed at major card swipe culture to a tap-to-buy technique. Many
retailers. But more significantly, Google’s SingleTap connects Internationally, consumers are already using of our interviewees feel that the key to accelerating
a purchase to a loyalty or reward card, and can apply coupons touch-to-pay technology. According to our adoption will be loyalty programs, simple and
during checkout. Boarding passes, tickets, digital receipts, interviewees, Canadians commonly tap credit cards easy-to-use offer redemption and couponing, and
and other personal transaction information are also core for payment, while in Japan they’ve been using mobile real-time offer delivery as promised by Starbucks,
elements. Location-based offers can shape consumer tap payment technology for years. Sparkfly, Shopkick, and many others.
behavior and drive in-store traffic.
1
Gartner “Market Trends: Mobile Payment, Worldwide, 2011" 8
In-Store Mobile

The in-store mobile experience has, as one of our
industry interviewees delicately put it, “a great
opportunity for improvement.”
We’re seeing glimmers of that future now: integrated
bar-code scanners, practical mobile tools, inventory
visibility, and location. A few of the best applications serve
as a guide while you browse the store. Some of the strongest
even offer concierge services, allowing you to make
appointments with sales associates and experts for custom
services (think: clothing tailors or personal shoppers).
Core elements of leading branded applications include
reviews, ratings, recommendations, cross-sell and up-sell,
features comparison, or video. More advanced functions
include ordering from the aisle and shipping it directly
Our interviewees believe these in-store mobile experiences Practical tools add value in-store or when preparing to a gift certificate has been earned. It delivers rewards and
should be a core, strategic area of investment for many large shop: everything from the basics (finding Home Depot special offers in-store and allows users to purchase products
consumer-facing firms. And recent research shows the locations) to more complex features (using the toolbox's directly from the app.
firms are responding, with 40% of surveyed online business caliper, tape measure, and converter).
managers planning on building a mobile-optimized site.3 Our testers' main disappointment with the experience
The integrated barcode scanner holds promise of in-store was the app’s inability to save what the user had looked at.
But, creating a fantastic in-store mobile experience takes a integration, but wasn’t working during our testing. Scanned items are not automatically saved into a history.
long-term commitment. According to a recent Forrester report, However, most online reviewers of this app had no problem Also, the manual “save” feature was not functioning
60% of all eBusiness managers either do not have a mobile with the barcode. correctly when we audited the app.
strategy, or have one that has existed for less than a year.4
Home Depot has made a substantial investment in the Best Buy reward Zone 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use
While there remains overall room for improvement, we did application, and it shows. The interface is well designed
1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set
identify several examples that show the strong potential of and makes goal completion easy and intuitive. Yet even Heuristic
Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design
mobile devices and their use in-store. a top in-store experience still has technical glitches and
ROI concerns. Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity
Professional
apple Store app: Your personal concierge Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance

home, or integration with social networks. Apple’s application enables users to make purchases, read Home Depot 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic
reviews, reserve products, view in-store events, and schedule 1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set
Heuristic 3rd 3.5 overall
With a few exceptions, most in-store mobile applications Genius Bar appointments. The in-store mode also lets users
Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design
are largely disconnected pilots, apps, and mobile sites with see how many people are in line and estimates wait times. others of note: Barnes & Noble, Redbox, ShopSavvy,
Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity
low adoption (just 20% of smartphone consumers have The differentiated value is transparency. This same Professional RedLaser, My Coke Rewards, and Shopkick
downloaded and used their shopping application to receive technique could be applied to any sort of one-on-one service, Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance

coupons, price alerts, and product deals).2 The result: and could be applied at many different major retailers. Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic

confused consumers and low ROI.

2nd 3.6 overall
Solid scores across our heuristic evaluation in ease-of-use, a fight with your partners:
we identified three main issues: feature set, and design round out the product. Grocery store chains versus CPG companies
Best Buy reward Zone: In-store shopping for
• ease-of-use. Getting set up and then using these apps Grocery store chains and CPG companies, long
technology geeks
is too difficult, inhibiting adoption. Most require multiple apple partners, are seeing their relationships evolve in this
1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use The Best Buy Reward Zone app is another full
steps, and require the consumer to remember to activate Store app new digital world.
1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set featured application.
the app while in the store. Can a consumer opt-in to a Heuristic
Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design Increasingly, large CPGs and grocery store chains are
brand on one device and receive those messages wherever In our review, we found that the Best Buy Reward Zone app investing in mobile experiences. Yet they’re targeting the
Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity
they are in another? Not today. Professional is a complement to the store and works to infuse the social same customers with similar applications. Long-time
Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance
• lack of value. Functionality generally doesn’t show content from the website into the shopping experience. partners are becoming competitors over who will
Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic
enough value to be compelling. Most apps haven’t quite The most helpful capability within the app is the QR scan own customers' search and discovery methods,
figured out the right value proposition for users — narrow 1st 4.0 overall feature, whereby users can surface additional product developing a parallel system of marketing to traditional
enough to be easily used by consumers, valuable enough information like users’ reviews and other nearby Best Buy in-store facings.
to be regularly used. Promotion and rewards plans are Home Depot: Bringing utility to the in-store locations where a product may be available.
anemic; special offers are not very special. mobile experience This is another example of how a mobile and
• Integration points. The third issue is weak integration The Home Depot application delivers genuine value to its It also allows Reward Zone members a quick view into digital world is upsetting existing relationships
with existing processes and back-end technology. Problems users — it's useful and relevant to the consumer while the points that they’ve earned at Best Buy as well as the and business models.
include non-imaging POS systems, untrained sales associates, still remaining on brand. opportunity to redeem points directly from the phone when
and a lack of integration between the mobile phone, POS, and 2
http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/06/02/one-five-smartphone-owners-
the back-end CRM system that should drive the loyalty, use-shopping-apps-survey-finds
personalization, and customization options presented. 3
Forrester Research “Mobile Channel Strategy: An Overview,” June 2, 2011
4
Ibid
10
Integrated experiences

Integrated experiences offer the holy grail of our digital challenge. Other industries like retail have taken a slower This ability to pass profile and status information between and a highly regulated industry, airlines have been forced
future: one device, many channels, and multiple devices, path to multi-channel. devices, and the cloud, is of strategic importance far to aggressively cut costs, particularly in customer service.
with a single profile. beyond the Kindle. It represents the future of integrated The Delta Airlines kiosk, mobile, dot-com, and loyalty
While many are talking about it, few have mastered the
experiences: multiple specialized devices, while program integration scored highly. Mobile ticketing and
The ability to seamlessly jump across devices or channels multi-channel consumer journey. Our interviews identified
simultaneously making the device irrelevant. check-in highlights the potential of multi-channel
is the key. Soon, you'll be able to create a wish list on several best practices for building these journeys:
integration. Delta’s efforts integrating loyalty programs
Target’s mobile app while waiting on the train, purchase amazon kindle
• Meet the consumer where they are. Provide the right 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use with other channels (e.g., personal SMS messages to
those items on your PC at work, and change the shipping
set of tools — mobile, kiosk, digital display, sales- 1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set platinum flyers after flight delays) helped put them on top.
address on your iPad at home. Your personal information Heuristic
associate devices — for where and how your Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design
and ordering data won't change across devices. Mobile ticketing, combined with enhanced loyalty programs,
consumer wants to engage. Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity digital status updates of upgrades, flight delays, seat options,
Many of the early leaders we’ve found are those facing • Think and organize beyond silos. Many business Professional
Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance post-flight feedback, and even those apologies due to
industry disruption, forcing them to rapidly change. professionals are still thinking in silos, and developing
Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic cancellations or delays become possible through the
Airlines, books, banking, and car rentals are all facing a a separate solution for PC, mobile, TV, and social.
consumer's channel of choice.
Organizations should consider the overall experience 1st 4.3 overall
this creates for their customer, and optimize that While our evaluation found data integrity issues, and slow
our interviewees identified six key components experience across organizational boundaries and silos. Banking (uSaa): Mobile deposit and banking from home performance hampered our ease-of-use score, the promise
of future in-store mobile experiences: • Consider back-end technology. Digital tools are built A pioneer in an industry not known for innovation, USAA’s of an all-mobile ticketing and rewards future is glimpsed.
1. Integrated loyalty, personalization, and on top of your existing technology. If you don’t have mobile application is a leader in multi-channel experiences.
customization options. Based on past buying airline kiosks 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use
one view of the consumer, or your technology stack
USAA’s pioneering work allowed consumers to deposit checks
history and level of loyalty, the retailer will push is unstable, it will impact the quality of the offer. 1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set
from their phone for the first time. The mobile app reinforces Heuristic
specific offers. For example, Sparkfly offers • Support in-store technology. Traditionally, most Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design
its strategic position: as a branchless bank (USAA has only a
progressive discounting — 10%, 20%, 30% over in-store IT support is focused on the PC platform.
handful). Tight integration between the remaining channels: Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity
time, rewarding repeat customers. Make sure you have a plan to support products when Professional
web, mobile, and call center is essential. Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance
2. real-time deals and messages. Retailers will they go down. Do you have the right skills in-house?
Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic
be able to push relevant, real-time messages to • Plan for ongoing upgrades. Just as with any in-store The app offers remote check deposit, quick (and secure)
the user as they walk through the store, perhaps product, you’ll need to have a plan for regular mobile login, and accident claim photo submission. 3rd 3.3 overall
personalized by the area of the store. upgrades to new displays, interfaces, and
3. ability to digitally "like" or share a product on USAA changed expectations of what service from your bank others of note: Zipcar and Streetcar (UK), Banking (Chase),
product offerings.
a shelf. Retailers will be able to connect the really means — without investing in thousands of branches. and Shazam
• repurpose content. Make sure you reuse any video
in-store shopping experience with social networks. Suddenly, the ROI for mobile becomes clear.
or static content created for one channel to others.
4. enabling sales associates. Store associate- This benefits the company by reducing rework, and Mobile, social, and location: an era of radical transparency
Banking (uSaa) 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use
enabled mobile devices will help improve benefits the consumer by creating a single, easier to For better or for worse, combining mobile, social, and
demonstrations and provide richer, more learn experience. 1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set
location is going to transform shopping experiences. For
Heuristic
personalized selling. Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design
retailers, it's no longer easy to have unique pricing and
5. Digital displays. There will be a roll out of new amazon kindle: one profile, many devices Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity product selection for each regional store. Consumers can
digital merchandising options, including tablets The Amazon Kindle is reshaping media consumption. Professional
Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance sniff out the best possible price quickly and easily — either
attached to the aisle, large touch screen kiosks, With tremendous scale and a quality product; today,
Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic at your store or on the Internet at your competitors' sites.
and interactive displays. Amazon is selling more eBooks than paper books.
6. New physical configurations. Look for mobile 2nd 3.8 overall Increasingly, the shopping experience becomes infused
The Kindle suite of products sets a new baseline for
POS devices (think: Apple store), or being able with entertainment, on top of a much more robust set
multi-device integration (seamless switching across
to scan on your phone as you shop. airline kiosks (Delta): Cut-throat competition of fulfillment options. Multiple screens, interactive
devices). Consumers can read on a mobile phone, review
drives kiosk, mobile innovation elements, and even gaming have become a potent part
it with a PC, and continue on the tablet at home.
The modern airline experience is a fiasco. With their backs of the retailing world.
against a wall by high fuel prices, cutthroat competition,

12
location-Based Technology
Few technologies show the societal impact of digital technology Yelp: Global, crowd sourced service evaluation tool
for average Americans as clearly as the rise of GPS. The ability Yelp’s aggregation of comments and ratings, augmented
to instantly access a vast database is incredibly powerful, and reality, and location create tremendous value for consumers.
opportunities are still being discovered. Its search features are its strongest asset, allowing users to
conduct manual searches where the user designates search
It is easy to take for granted the tools that Yelp and other parameters, while also leveraging location-aware technology.
similar community review sites offer. You shouldn’t. Just Additionally, the augmented reality integration, the Yelp
five years ago, getting this information required a paid Elite Squad rewards program, and local relationships have
subscription, or a physical guide. Information was largely helped to sustain its growth over the past three years.
undated, and reflected expert views.
Yelp has also started to make inroads into Foursquare's
The ideal future for location-based technology is for all and Groupon’s territories with a check-in feature that can
mobile activity to be filtered based upon its current location, unlock special deals for users, although this initiative has
and areas of recent activity. Location becomes a layer, had limited success and is being reconsidered.
which defines all the other functions — you can find your
friends who are nearby, shop nearby deals, find good The bottom line: Yelp is in the process of becoming a
restaurants, and more. global taste arbiter.
Google Maps: an uncredited, yet essential location tool Yelp 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use
Mobile mapping and routing technology represents the
1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set
greatest practical application of mobile technology that Heuristic
Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design
we’ve seen over the past 10 years.
Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity
Professional
These tools have a new sophistication: mode of transportation Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance
options, contextual layers (traffic, hotel finder application, Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic
restaurants, gas stations), GPS integration, special offers,
2nd 4.3 overall
and rewards integration. These tools, not coincidentally, are
an excellent fit with the Google Wallet.
“ one of the amazing things with Google Maps is that every
day there is some other new things going on there. The
latest is being able to download maps for offline access
on your mobile phone.” – Mobile Business Professional
foursquare: flash in the pan or genuine value? facebook Places: Beyond the check-In
Foursquare has had a continuing struggle to stay relevant Facebook was the first large network to acknowledge
and active. the lack of value of a check-in. They officially removed all
check-in notifications from their feed, and instead allowed
Their recent partnership with American Express — which users to seamlessly Geotag status updates, photos, and
allows consumers to pay with an American Express card videos. Users find much higher value in adding location to
and receive deals and coupons after check in — is a strong their digital assets.
effort to make the tool more valuable and relevant for
consumers. Foursquare's tips for individual locations is In the end, Facebook has effectively integrated location
another differentiator. across the 600-million user platform, even though the
location tag is only used by a tiny percentage of users.
As one interviewee stated, “Foursquare is still a leader [in
location-based tools]. Amazing work. They’ve come up with Location is evolving from an action or service, to a ubiquitous
a value proposition for consumers and businesses that may attribute that simply adds value, and plays a key role as
become less of a recommendation engine but more of a brands become situationally aware and contextually relevant.
check-in service.”
In our research, most felt Facebook's location tagging
foursquare 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use remains important, and highlighted the event location
1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set
check-in and ability to check in friends. The lack of tips in
Heuristic locations and limited mobile commerce integration remain
Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design
a weak point. Much more public facing than Foursquare,
Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity
Professional several noted the different makeup of friends on the
Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance
two platforms.
Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic

This cloud-based technology allows computation-intensive In the end, most people’s go-to tool for location check-in
3rd 4.0 overall
displays on simple, low-power devices (so long as you have remains Foursquare — for now.
good data).
facebook Places 1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use
In the end, Google should be appreciated for what it is: the
1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set
definitive location application. Heuristic
Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design

Google Maps Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity

1 2 3 4 5 Ease-of-Use Professional
Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance
1 2 3 4 5 Feature Set
Heuristic Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic
Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5 Design

Mobile 1 2 3 4 5 Familiarity 4th 3.4 overall

Professional
Review 1 2 3 4 5 Importance
others of note: Gowalla, SCVNGR
Strategic Importance 1 2 3 4 5 Strategic

1st 4.7 overall

14
emerging Technology
The Emerging Technology section of this report examines
the most interesting future and emerging technologies
developments relevant to marketing services. By 2013,
when mobile web traffic is expected to exceed desktop
traffic on the Internet, many of the nascent technologies
we identify in this report will be more developed. Others will
be gone. Here are the top emerging technologies identified
by our interviewees.
augmented reality: Combining the digital and
analog worlds
Augmented reality (AR) has been an emerging technology
darling for years. The technology superimposes digital
images on the real world, often using smartphone cameras
and displays to capture and display this view.
It holds more promise for consumer applications today than
ever before.
Early examples included automotive head-up displays,
Yelp’s Monocle, and webcam-based virtual try-on. More
recently, Facebook and Google have rolled out applications
capable of recognizing human faces and landmarks and
then presenting relevant information. These tools combine
data from GPS, digital cameras, broadband, and cloud-
based information. Overlay databases such as Wikipedia
and Google Maps can present special offers, or allow a
mobile device to quickly find and display important and
relevant information near a location.
Examples include pure-play firms such as Layar, which has
more than 700,000 active users worldwide using their AR
platform. World Lens allows users to point their mobile
device at street signs for instant language translation.
Panasonic offers the virtual VIERA TV simulator to model
how the TV will appear in a consumer's room.
Key applications, according to Gartner,5 include exploration
(finding things in your vicinity), suggestion (indicating real-
world objects of interest), and direction (indicating where
consumers should go).
As AR continues to evolve, business applications will
include branded points-of-interest, local relevant
information, special offers that allow consumers to find and
learn using their mobile device, and businesses to present
and market to this audience.
Gesture recognition: Taking touch screen to the next level
The gestural interface (e.g., Microsoft's Kinect, Apple's
iPhone, or Microsoft’s Surface) was a surprising top-scorer
in our mobile expert survey. In some ways, this is just a
natural evolution from the touch screen revolution that has
occurred over the past five years. A whole generation has
grown accustomed to not needing a mouse, keyboard, or
button to manage their digital tools. Combined with the
accelerometers built into mobile devices, gesture or natural
interfaces could control one or many screens and
interactive elements in the retail setting.
Examples such as the Kinect or MIT’s SixthSense lab —
which explore the new technologies of full-body gesture
and augmented reality experiences — highlight how far
we have come and how much further we have yet to go.
Other examples such as the Kymera Magic Wand — which
controls devices at a distance through motion — can
create engaging user experiences.6
In terms of practical business applications, our respondents
highlighted this type of technology as a major opportunity in
three to five years. But they also pointed out that, right now,
there is a lot of hype but few scalable options. "There are
examples related to building a campaign, or dropping a
single kiosk in a mall, but few operate at scale."
Nevertheless, when combined with augmented reality,
voice recognition, and even telematics, there is a long-term
opportunity to reinvent human-computer interaction, with
massive applications for consumers and the enterprise alike.
Telematics: when computers talk to computers
Every year, millions of new devices are connected to the
Internet. Some are devices we understand today — mobile,
tablets, PCs. Others we are less familiar with — vending
machines, IP telephones, elevators. And increasingly, everyday
sensors (and networks of sensors) are being enabled.
5Gartner “Hype Cycle For Emerging Technologies, 2011”
6Ibid
Applications range from remote sensing, building
management/automation, logistics, automotive, eHealth,
and agriculture. Wi-Fi, RFID, Bluetooth, and WiMAX are
some of the enabling networking technologies.
There are substantial opportunities for efficiency
improvements: remote monitoring of fuel, gas, electricity,
tracking the location of a fleet of vehicles, or optimizing
delivery truck routing.
Increasingly, this data is being sent over the Internet. In the
future, data sent and received by sensors and machines will
dominate traffic online.
The rise of these sensors will have major efficiency
benefits, but will also raise real challenges with data,
analytics, and modeling, as information threatens to
overwhelm our ability to process it.
Voice recognition: The natural communication technology
A surprisingly high-scoring technology, voice recognition
has an opportunity to transform computer interaction.
International experiences
Despite the lead of Asia and Europe in 3G adoption, SMS
usage, and QR codes, the surprising consensus among our
pool of international mobile professionals is that the U.S.
remains the leader when it comes to mobile offerings —
at least in terms of smartphone-based mobile apps and
the mobile web.
Indeed, in most of the world, mobile represents the
“first screen” — the go-to device for digital information,
entertainment, and conversation. According to comScore,
smartphone penetration in Japan is around 10% — far
below the U.S.’s 32%, and also far below the penetration
rates in the UK and Spain (each around 40%).7 International
users are doing more — or at least a lot — with less.
Our interviewees also mentioned that a combination of
device fragmentation across Asia and Europe are slowing
7eMarketer “Asia-Pacific Mobile: Redefining the Digital Landscape,” July 2011
Yet with over 15 years of investment, it is still not perfect.
Mobile phone manufacturers from Google to Apple to
Samsung have also been offering it successfully for some
time, often using crowd-sourcing models to minimize the
training the older systems needed. Virtual assistants such
as Siri — which was acquired by Apple in 2010 and may be
included in the iPhone 5 — allows a personal assistant to
provide recommendations and assistance. Google has offered
a more basic voice-to-text transcription service for some time.
And the promise was enough for Ford and other large
automotive companies to begin offering voice recognition
as an option in some vehicles.
Driven by continued investments in mobile, voice recognition
will continue to improve, from a hit-or-miss call center tool
to a reliable partner for consumers and businesses.
others of note: Content provider paywall, E-Ink daylight
color display, Mobile device barcode scanning,
QR codes/2-D barcodes, and translucent displays
the adoption of new technology. But there are some exciting
applications coming from overseas, and we highlight
several below.
M-PeSa: Mobile banking for the unbanked
M-PESA, Vodacom’s offering in Kenya and select other
countries, is an exciting application of emerging mobile
technology to improve the lives of the unbanked in the
developing world.
This financial platform for low-cost, peer-to-peer payments
has seen massive growth. It has seen particularly large
growth in Kenya, where 13.5M have an M-PESA account,
while only 3.5M have a bank account. It supports the
ubiquitous and low-cost feature phone. In many cases, it
represents the entire set of financial tools for Kenyan users.
16
 Sapient Nitro:
Strategic
As a result, people in these countries are starting to use shopper's cart. Once purchased, the goods are delivered Heuristic evaluation Mobile Professional review Importance
Category Name Ease-of-Use Feature Set Design Familiarity Importance Strategic Overall Rating
their mobile devices for more. Over the next decade in to the customer's door right after they get home.
emerging countries, many people’s first exposure to the
Internet will be through a mobile device. And this, in turn, Conclusion Mobile wallet
will change their expectations of future devices. eBay Paypal Mobile App 4.0 4.3 3.0 3.7 4.1 3 3.6 2nd
Google Wallet 3.7 4.7 3.3 3.1 4.4 4 3.9 1st
In this report we’ve highlighted six major categories of
Starbucks Mobile App 4.0 3.3 3.0 3.9 3.1 3 3.3 3rd
Homeplus Subway Virtual Store: Grocery shopping research we examined — mobile wallet, in-store mobile,
while waiting for the train integrated experiences, location-based technology,
In-Store Mobile
The 2011 winner of a Grand Prix Lion for Media, for “Best emerging technology, and international experiences.
Apple Store App 3.7 3.7 3.7 4.6 3.9 4 4.0 1st
Use of Outdoor,” the Homeplus Subway Virtual Store is a
B&N App 3.7 4.0 4.0 2.9 3.1 3 3.3
remarkable business and mobile breakthrough. Homeplus We found that while there are a great many mobile 4
Best Buy Reward Zone App 3.0 3.3 3.3 3.0 3.5 3.5 3rd
(rebranded from Tesco to gain local audience relevance) applications, in total, the space is uneven. Mobile 2.7 4.3 4.3 3.1 3.3 4 3.6 2nd
Home Depot App
is a South Korean/British discount store retail chain jointly represents a major new frontier for brands. As we look Redbox App 3.7 4.3 3.0 1.9 2.4 4 3.3
owned by Samsung and Tesco with 113 local branches at the top mobile applications available to date, what is RedLaser App 4.0 2.0 2.0 3.7 3.7 2 2.8
throughout South Korea. most remarkable is how much opportunity remains to get ShopSavvy App 4.0 3.7 3.7 2.5 3.2 3 3.2
the product right. Years after the first smartphone arrived
Customer research revealed the urgent need to avoid rush in the market, sophisticated experiences remain Integrated experiences:
hour in the supermarket. The solution from Tesco was to in development. Multiple Devices or Channels
save time by doing the grocery shopping on the way home. Airline Kiosks (Delta) 2.0 3.3 3.3 4.2 4.1 3 3.3 3rd
For its "shopping on the move" campaign, Homeplus Whether it is mobile payments, in-store shopping and Amazon Kindle 4.3 3.7 3.7 4.1 3.8 5 4.3 1st
created virtual stores in subway stations at rush hour brand experiences, or integration with location, social, Banking (Chase) 3.3 3.7 3.7 3.1 3.8 3 3.3
using floor-to-ceiling pictures of actual store aisles. Each and loyalty programs, there is still ample time and room Banking (USAA) 4.3 4.0 4.0 2.5 4.1 4 3.8 2nd
product includes a QR code, which adds the product to the in the competitive landscape to be successful. Macy’s iShop Mobile App 3.0 1.7 2.3 2.7 3.2 2 2.4

location Based Technology

Facebook Places 4.0 3.0 3.3 3.9 3.9 3 3.4 4th
Notes on Methodology Foursquare 3.7 3.7 4.0 4.1 4.2 4 4.0 3rd
We spent over three months of intensive research to SapientNitro clients that would otherwise be eligible Google Maps 4.3 4.7 4.0 5.0 4.7 5 4.7 1st
identify and evaluate leading mobile experiences across were excluded from a final ranking in this report. Gowalla 2.7 2.7 3.0 3.3 3.2 1 2.3
six key categories. SCVNGR 3.7 3.7 3.7 2.7 3.2 2 2.9
Among the companies we interviewed for this report: Yelp 4.0 3.7 3.3 4.2 4.1 5 4.3 2nd
We conducted in-depth interviews, followed by an online poll, Sparkfly
of 23 mobile business professionals. These experienced leaders 360i emerging Technology
(40% with over a decade of professional experience in mobile) Major National Retailer Augmented Reality 4.1 3.9 5 4.5 1st
discussed what they felt were the leading examples in each Smartsoft Mobile Augmented Social Experiences 3.3 4.0 3 3.3
Major Mobile Wallet Provider Content Provider Paywall 2.8 3.2 4 3.5
category, and scored them in the poll.
E-Ink Daylight Color Display 2.7 3.5 2 2.6
Banking 2.0 Author
Mobile Device Barcode Scanning 4.6 4.1 3 3.7
A heuristic evaluation was conducted across nine elements in Digby
Motion-Gesture Technology 3.8 4.1 5 4.5 2nd
three major categories — ease-of-use, feature set, and design. Kurt Salmon
QR Codes/2-D Barcodes 4.7 3.7 2 3.1
Telematics/Internet-Enabled Vehicles 3.3 4.1 5 4.3 3rd
Finally, a strategic review was conducted to understand In addition, we consulted with SapientNitro’s top mobile
Translucent Displays 2.5 4.1 4 3.6
the long-term significance of each offering. strategists working with major brands such as Coca-Cola, 4
Voice Recognition 3.9 4.2 4.0 4th
Foot Locker, New Balance, Dove, Chrysler Ram and Dodge,
Mars, MetLife, Volvo, Vail Resorts, and the TSA.

18
Viewsight
A collection of essays, written by Idea Engineers, on a broad
spectrum of topics affecting commerce and technology.
Marketing and Media
"what’s new in digital?" might just be a misleading
what’s New in Digital question. It’s tempting to try and pick the Next Big Thing
— mobile and social are the new trendy buzzwords, the
latter epitomised recently by properties like friendster
and MySpace. Consumers make or break trends, just like
Written by Nigel Vaz, Managing Director; SapientNitro UK
a popular new song that drops off the charts a few
months later.
The focus instead should be on the fact that, for thousands
and thousands of businesses and brands in every imaginable
market, the digital age has already changed or is about to —
in a profound, fundamental way that cannot be ignored.
Digital — that incredibly broad concept — is no longer the
teenager that brands flirt with to simply pretend to be
current. It is a fully-grown adult and it is punishing those who
are not ready to embrace it, especially since consumers have.
The convergence of consumer behaviour, innovation in
business models, and technology is changing everything.
Take, for example, the video rental chain Blockbuster that
managed to replace every mom-and-pop video shop.
Then the world got "digitised" and its business model
became as good as redundant. What Blockbuster needed
was not a digital campaign or a television campaign, or even
a really brilliant Twitter feed before anyone else "got"
Twitter. It needed someone to tell them they had to change
their business with a whole new business strategy and then
redefine the roles for communications, technology, and
customer experience in that.
When Tourism Queensland came to us with a problem
that would normally have been solved by a simple TV ad
and some posters and calendars distributed to travel
agents, we came back with a suggestion that turned out
to be "The Best Job in the World."
That campaign illustrates the fundamental way that the
digital age is changing the guts of most businesses and
how that, in turn, requires all of us to do things in a
radically different way.
One of the reasons that SapientNitro is in Fortune magazine’s
Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies is that our clients come
to us with business problems and we have the strategic,
creative, and technical expertise to come up with solutions.
Another example of this is the situation faced by publishers
like The New York Times. They came to us because the days
of breaking news to readers every morning are now gone.
It needed to fundamentally change how it engaged users
to maintain its relevance where news was being broken
around the clock, and many times not by news reporters.
The solution was to look at what The Times does best and
use the digital medium to redefine its relationship with its
consumers and maintain its legacy of relevance.
That’s how we came up with the concept of Breakingviews,
and how The Times went from having a strategy of selling
news printed on paper in a 24-hour editorial cycle to
breaking insightful content around the clock a few
minutes after an event.
High street retailing, or retail activity in the traditional areas
of towns or cities, is another industry that is undergoing
a profound change. Ten years ago, mainstream thinking
was that online stores were an adjunct to the main high
street business.
So when thinking about how Foot Locker could enable their
brand promise of “sneaker enthusiasm beyond reason,”
the answer wasn’t to create just another campaign to gain
their customers' attention for a second. It was to create
a community for the global audience of the sneaker
obsessed — a resource that appeals to collectors and
fans: Sneakerpedia.
What’s different about it? Sneakerpedia isn’t really a
campaign. It’s a growing, living social space that has
already generated 4.5 million mentions online, even though
membership is currently limited while the site is in beta.
And it isn’t created by a team of marketing pros; it’s created
by the fans for the fans and powered by Foot Locker.
Our clients often come to us and ask for a mobile app.
But we deliver only a few.
22

Conversely, exactly none of our clients has ever come to
us and asked us to build them a vending machine that can
recognise when people are smiling, but we’ve built one
anyway. Why? Because it was the solution to one of
Unilever’s problems — getting people to buy ice creams.
In many stores, the ice cream freezer is burried in the back.
We found a way to make ice cream more accessible.
Unilever's Share Happy became a lot more than just a way
of getting ice cream up in front. It was a beautiful campaign
because it created a phenomenal commerce channel
for Unilever and, at the same time, a very cool brand
impression (yes, with a great social media aspect).
So, Share Happy was not just a digital campaign with a
cool new mechanic, but a fundamental change to ice cream
selling that blurred the lines between sales, marketing,
retail, and digital.
What is big in digital? It is realising digital doesn’t really
exist. The brand is the experience, and the experience is
an amalgamation of the perception created by all
Marketing and Media
rise of the Machine —
communications and interactions, across all brand
touch points from marketing and communications to
sales and service.
Death of the Media Planner?
To give consumers an excellent brand experience,
businesses and their advisers need real focus on business
problems, and a mix of marketing, communications
creativity, and deep technological expertise to deliver the Written by David D’Alleva, Media Director, North America; SapientNitro Boston
answer to these problems.
It’s hard to ignore the hype and instead focus on tackling
complex issues, but with Idea Engineering, we can conceive
and execute real ideas that deliver real results.
The takeaway
Understanding what’s The takeaway isn’t about obsessing
over the next hyped trend; it’s seeing how it digital is
changing businesses on a profound level.The successful
approach is to tackle business problems with strategy,
creativity, and technology: Idea engineering.
First published by Campaign in July 2011.
You say you want a(nother) revolution?
Technology. Can we imagine what our lives would be
without it? It is the fabric of our day-to-day experience
— and we both demand and anticipate its continued
evolution. This rapid evolution — rather revolution —
isn’t the final frontier or last chapter of its story. It’s
just the latest chapter.
If we dust off our history books (or, more realistically,
conduct a Google search on our computers, smartphones,
or iPads), we would learn that this revolution began over
250 years ago when major changes in agriculture,
manufacturing, mining, and transportation had a profound
effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the
times. It marked a major turning point in human history
where almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in
some way. Today, we are living in an “Age of Innovation,”
A media planner's purpose is to select
media for advertisement placement on
behalf of their clients. They must achieve
business objectives through their advertising
budgets by recommending the best
possible use of various media platforms
available to advertisers. Their roles may
include analyzing target audiences,
keeping abreast of media developments,
reading market trends, and understanding
consumer motivations.
where technology continues to act as both a catalyst and fuel
to change. In the last 30 years alone we’ve seen the personal
computer and the Internet become as common as the
television or the telephone.
This evolution has given rise to the idea that the Holy Grail
of media attribution and measurement is getting closer every
day. But it has also made us question the role of the media
planner. Can machines and technology — the modern day
R2-D2 or Optimus Prime — replace them? The answer is not
an emphatic "yes" — or "no" for that matter. Simply put, we
know they haven't yet, but media planners must certainly
evolve to hold their ground.
Media’s new face
Let's first step back to understand the changing media
landscape. Over the past three years alone, there has been
rapid innovation taking place like never before. Media is
becoming measurable. Media is becoming attributable. The
worlds of traditional and digital are on a collision course.
Just think about it. Out of home is rapidly becoming digitized.
Television is becoming a targetable monitor for digital
content. Even the standard newspaper size has shrunk to fit
an 8”x10” (or smaller) screen — one that can’t be tossed on
the front porch or rolled up to swat a bug. Even in the display
media world, nearly two decades since the first clickable ad,
and after a decade of struggling with remnant inventory and
sheer tonnage, ad networks are now more "tech-ed up" to
make network buys safer and more effective.
We witnessed a plethora of alphabet soup surface during
this time as well. RTB (real-time bidding) emerged at the
intersection of data and inventory liquidity, creating an
explosion of choice where display ads could run. Three
other letters became one of the most searched media
terms in 2009: DSP. The rise of DSP (demand side
platform) machines gave way to the promise of efficient
and scalable audience buying.
Today, display isn’t just banners and buttons, and shouldn't
be seen as a dirty word. It’s any advertisement that can be
displayed across many devices and in many formats. It is
mobile. It is video. It is contextual. It is viral. It is social. It is
search. It is everywhere advertisers want and need to be.
Users are in control — billions of times a day.
we can rebuild the media planner — with technology
Fact: There are millions of sites accepting display ads,
significantly increasing the level of effort for a media
planner. It would be too difficult for media planners to
explore them all. Even a few dozen sites would require a
planner to spend an inordinate amount of time, even before
the campaign launch. So technology in the online display
arena is certainly helping media planners not only find
audiences at scale but also become more efficient.
Yet it's not a fact that the “human lens” can be replaced by
robots, and this lens will continue to be a crucial driver for
agency clients — one that won’t be replaced by hardware,
software, algorithms, and artificial intelligence — at least
not in the foreseeable future.
But the planner’s role in the campaign process requires an
evolving skill set in order to succeed. Media planning is no
longer just about reaching audiences. Today’s it’s also about
engagement. Planners of today must look, listen, and
respond to real-time insights and strategies. Gone are
the days where planners could "set it and forget it." The
DNA of the new media planner must accomplish these
three things.
1. Master relationship management. The media planner
should continue to work closely with their key vendors in
creating and identifying the right media opportunities for their
clients. These relationships will continue to lead planners to a
plethora of unique opportunities and first mover advantages
— a value add that cannot be taken for granted.
2. exhibit search-like prowess. Given the campaign-
empowering tools at a planner's fingertips (e.g., vendor
dashboards), the media planner must harness and master
this Pandora's box of raw insight to their advantage.
They must unleash a search-like approach to campaign
management, roll up their sleeves, be proficient with the
tools available, and dive into the day-to-day intricacies.
3. Be a data geek. The media planner cannot be afraid
to roll around in the mud with the data nuggets available.
While they understand the client objectives, they must also
be able to understand the data, which truly blends art and
science. The ability to quickly interpret raw campaign data
in order to drive proactive conversations, develop key
insights, and leverage them quickly is paramount.
While the rise of the machines has brought the media
landscape many changes and efficiencies, the fall of the
media planner has been exaggerated. However, there is
certainly a change in the air that is forcing planners to
evolve if they want to remain relevant and valued to
agencies and clients. In the end, those who want to evolve
will succeed. Those who choose not to evolve won't.
Time and technology will wait for no one.
26
Marketing and Media

The Cross-
Channel
Challenge:
Building
Pervasive
Information Consumers, now more than ever, are engaging with As Aristotle aptly put it, “the whole is greater than the

architecture brands across multiple channels. No longer do they

Written by Michael MacLennan,
Senior Information Architect; SapientNitro Toronto
interact with brands solely through traditional media
like television, radio, or print. and, since 2009, the
sum of its parts.” There is no quote more relevant when
examining cross-channel experiences. Blunders happen
every day, whether it's a customer who has downloaded a
number of people browsing the web has more than retailer’s mobile application but struggles to understand its
tripled; this number continues to grow as more devices structure or someone who has researched a product online
offer browsing experiences comparable to a desktop only to find out that it’s no longer available at the store.
experience.1 additionally, social networking sites like In one study, over half of those asked reported buying
Twitter and facebook now present companies with new products offline after first researching online. Additionally,
opportunities to interact with their consumers and another 43% reported starting their research on a computer
promote products and services. or mobile device only to contact the company directly because
they could not find the information needed to complete the
How, then, do we bridge the gap?
transaction online.2
Information architects and user experience designers
are tasked with creating new platform experiences by
In an effort to reduce customer frustration, Andrea Resmini
considering how these varied touch points build a brand’s
and Luca Rosati proposed integrating a small set of heuristics
cross-channel relevance. As a result, these individuals
to keep in mind when creating cross-channel experiences.
must consider how their efforts will create a seamless
These heuristics concern themselves with ensuring that this
experience1 that transcends beyond these new channels.
experience is consistent across every platform, adapting to
user needs and to the context of the experience, and
In response to this growing challenge, a new idea has
suggesting relevant connections among the varied pieces
surfaced in the design community. Pervasive Information
of information offered by that particular company.
Architecture, coined by Andrea Resmini and Luca Rosati,
promotes a holistic methodology to user experience design
in order to create a seamless cross-channel experience.
Sapient incorporates an approach that aligns with
this methodology.

1http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2011/01/2010_mobile_bro.html
2
See Andrea Resmini and Luca Rosati (2011), Chapter 3

28
Case studies
Sprint
SapientNitro's efforts building both the web and mobile
experience for Sprint inherently used key design approaches
to ensure those experiences were seamless and integrated.
With SapientNitro's cross-channel expertise, we were able
to ensure that every Sprint channel built a strong sense of
place through consistent connections, both visually and
structurally. As illustrated in Figure 1, maintaining the look
and feel of the experience allows Sprint’s customers to
easily orient themselves as they move between platforms
to perform various tasks including paying bills, viewing cell
phone usage, and exploring incentives to upgrade phones
or service plans.
Figure 1. The image above left represents the mobile
experience while the image on the right illustrates the web
experience. The similar look and feel ensures a strong
sense of place for Sprint’s customers.
Jeep
The redesign of Jeep’s history site sought to make it easy to
navigate over 70 years of the company's history. As a result,
the current design breaks up vehicles by decade allowing a
simple and effective navigation structure for browsing the
different generations of Jeep vehicles. And, when the client
chose to use the iPad application, the challenge became
experience-based within a different context that made the
large set of data usable and pleasurable for the consumer.
In the end, the solution culminated in an interface that
leveraged the touch screen of the iPad in a unique way that
allowed users to explore the history of Jeep in a simple way.
Figure 2. Each thumbnail allows the consumer
to browse Jeep vehicles by decade.
References: Andrea Resmini and Lucia Rosati (2011).
Pervasive Information Architecture: Designing
Cross-Channel User Experiences, Albany (MA): Burlington.
As illustrated in Figure 2, the interface of the application
also aligns to a similar structure found on the website itself,
making it intuitive to familiar users.
Cross-channel experiences are pushing users toward a
holistic and ubiquitous approach to products and services.
This means that designers must incorporate strategies that
consider the larger context, as interactions become one
seamless flow between the real and the virtual.
SapientNitro's approach to cross-channel challenges makes
it easier to provide solutions that inherently align with new
emerging ideas like Pervasive Information Architecture.
Figure 3. Similarly, each grill image
represents a specific Jeep decade.
30
Marketing and Media
life is made up of moments: good and bad, happy and
Media of sad. In today’s connected world, moments happen in
many different places and spaces. They shape customer
the Moment
impressions and notions of what a brand represents.
Too few marketers effectively harness these moments in
a social world, losing opportunities to optimize brand and
Written by David Bradfield, Director, Marketing social equity in conversations and communities. But it
Strategy and Social Experience; SapientNitro Toronto is challenging to create authentic moments. People often
resist intrusive brand pushes because they lack context,
relevance, or personal appeal.
So how do you effectively humanize your brand and create
channels out of moments that amplify the consumer voice
and generate genuine engagement around the brand?
Organizations that succeed listen to and respect their
customers. They recognize brand value from the customer’s
perspective. They work to create meaningful moments that
build on customer preference and reinforce business priorities.
If those moments are significant enough, community
members can be motivated to share them in an instant,
turning experience into action. Every marketer wants their
customers to advocate for the brand, to share their positive
experience and impressions.
Context | Conversation | Community | Captivate
SapientNitro has developed a model called Media of the
Moment to help organizations understand the way people
experience brands and interact with others. There are four
elements to these seamless multi-channel experiences.
Context
Conversation
Community
Captivate
1. Context
Context frames the moment. It can be physical or digital,
and is shaped by the “here and now.” Where am I? Why
am I here? Who am I with? What does this mean to me?
Context opens peoples’ eyes to options. As they consider
new brands, products, or services, context may emerge
through a conversation with a friend, Internet search,
product review, or advertisement, to name a few.
Moments can be unpredictable because context is such
a moving target. Marketers need to understand consumer
context and align with those conversations and
communities. That doesn’t mean being intrusive,
but respectful and useful instead.
Effective marketers understand that a multi-channel strategy
is a necessity in today’s fragmented world. With people
trusting media less and seeking alternate sources of
authority, understanding the consumer journey is essential.
2. Conversation
Moments spur conversation with people who are
personally close to “me” or close to the moment based
on proximity or context. Conversations represent potential
points of entry for brand representatives and advocates.
This is not an opportunity to interrupt. It is a chance to align,
a moment to understand your brand through the eyes of the
consumer. Conversation does two things in the modern
marketing mix:
1. It allows you to move beyond push tactics into a dynamic
relationship with individuals who care about your brand
enough to share their opinion — good or bad. These people
can be influential. Conversations teach, and insights
gleaned can impact your entire marketing ecosystem.
2. It forces you to let go a bit. Online conversations are
personal and informal. They don’t often happen on your
turf; conversations happen in person, over the phone, via
email, and on social messaging platforms such as Twitter
and Google+.
32

eMarketer reports that 60% of U.S.
social network users were at least
somewhat likely to take action when
a friend posted something about a
product, service, company, or brand
on a social media site. Only 18% were
not at all likely to take action.
3. Community
Conversations are not always 1:1. The right context and
conversations may lead customers to a community sparked
by the moment — where sustained engagement and an
“always on” environment add depth to their experience,
connect them with others, and can reinvigorate a brand by
offering insight into the subtext behind the community activity.
Additionally, communities are more private. As a result, the
members set the direction for terms of engagement and
community tone. Social networks such as Facebook, even
if a presence is branded, are not owned channels. You can
manage but not control the conversation.
Marketing and Media
4. Captivate
Many brands strive to captivate the customer through
engaging experiences such as games, applications, or Predictions for the Next
5 Years in retail Banking
loyalty programs that drive value. Captivating experiences
have a longer duration and carry a higher value proposition
to the customer.
A captivated customer can create context, drive Written by Alex Sion, Vice President, Digital Strategy and Financial Services; SapientNitro New York
conversation, and engage a community in a way that
traditional media is currently unable to achieve.
Concluding thoughts
Media of the Moment is a model designed to pull customers
closer to the brand. Context establishes fit and relevance.
Conversations build alignment. Community drives engagement.
Captivate encourages people to spend more time within
branded experiences. Ideally these experiences
build deeper moments that are valuable and shareable.
It's one thing to meet customers in the moment, but in order
to convert a customer into an advocate we need to motivate
them to share that moment. Sometimes just asking is
enough. Provide them with digital keepsakes that can be
shared. Photos, videos, facts, coupons, and group incentives
all help people tell their stories and carry them forward. Our
ability to turn experience into action holds incredible brand
potential. It is powerful, authentic, and “of the moment.”

while many customers are still satisfied with their
banks, it's no surprise that the banking industry — from
products to channels to transactions — has changed
and will continue to do so. and, in the next five years,
the following shifts will affect everything.
1. a giant will fall. Somewhere, sometime within the next
five years, a historically significant retail banking institution
will run out of steam. And the culprit will not be the wizards
of Wall Street. It will be a broken distribution model. For
many firms, the cost of branch-centric distribution,
service, and acquisition through traditional media techniques
continues to rise while the fundamental profitability of core
banking products gets squeezed by government regulations,
competition, and savvier consumers. For these firms, the
fundamental cost model is out of whack with the ability to
generate profits. Banks will scramble to re-align distribution
costs to profitability, launching bold multi-channel technology
initiatives. One won’t do it, won’t be able to move fast enough,
or will struggle with execution and change management.
It won’t survive.
2. New stars will rise. As a giant falls, several new stars
will rise. And the catalyst will not be a game changing
product, interest rate chicanery, or an unbeatable rewards
program. It will be a steady but fundamentally transformative
change in the distribution cost structure and client experience.
These will be the firms who are aggressively investing now —
whether they are startups, traditional players, or challengers
from the technology, retail, or telecom space — in a new
client experience. They won’t all be digital- or mobile-
centric. In fact, expect several to be fairly low tech and take
cues from high-engagement, high-touch businesses like
direct selling. What they will have all figured out is a better
way to distribute engaging products, services, and
experiences to customers.
3. a bank will slash its traditional marketing and media
spend by 90% while increasing customer acquisition and
engagement. One bank out there will soon embrace what
many Internet and technology companies already understand:
Your customers are your marketing machine and the
Social Media
Branding out loud
experience you deliver them is your message. This bank will
slash its traditional marketing budget and re-allocate all
those dollars into amazing customer experiences and then
without losing Your Voice:
provide a platform for those experiences to be “heard.” This
doesn’t necessarily mean awesome Facebook pages and lots
of tweets, but it will likely mean some contemporizing of the
notion of community. How to avoid Social Dilemmas in the Digital knowledge Marketplace
4. a completely “crowd-sourced” bank will emerge. Written by Erik Gottesman, Director; SapientNitro Boston
P2P payments, social lending, stock tweeting, social credit
scoring, and underwriting — will somebody connect the
dots already? A “bank of the people” will pop up
somewhere, and it won’t be “off the grid.” It’ll be
mainstreamed: a legitimate alternative to the traditional
banking system. Money will be deposited, loans will be
made, secure payments will clear, and risk will be
managed. And guess what, it’s not going to be
The Communist Manifesto: Part II. It will be wildly profitable
with 10 “employees” and a million customers.
5. The main battleground for distribution will not be
on the street corner or online — but in the workplace.
As some banks learn that building relationships with
errand-running multitaskers isn't easy and other banks
realize that non-stop email spam about interest rates is just
plain irritating, they’ll start to understand that grounds for a
relationship-oriented approach can exist at the workplace.
While workplace banking is nothing new, the approach will
dramatically transform. What banks will realize is that
workplace distribution is not just about bulk discounts —
it’s about demographics and psychographics. It’s about a
community of colleagues and friends. Companies have
personalities and often hire like-types. Banks that figure
out how to craft workplace experiences that add value to a
company and then leverage its natural community will have
caught on to something special.
The current retail bank experience looks nothing like it did
10 years ago, or even last year for that matter. As these
predictions come true in the upcoming months, there will
be implications and new challenges that arise in the new
retail banking world. And that's something you can bank on.
Your workforce and your customers are your new “shadow impregnated with brand-transforming power reveals their To establish a vibrant and durable marketplace, your The takeaway
management.” Social tools for sharing knowledge, solving susceptibility to the many social, political, and economic company should invoke the following six strategies: Social technology is blurring the boundaries of the
problems, and shaping new ideas are increasingly foibles they predicted. As real-world markets have shown, organization. But, by employing these new "social
pervasive both inside and outside the enterprise. economics are inseparable from politics and underlying 1. Identify the brokered social objects (e.g., testimonials, strategies," your organization can mute the negative
Consequently, organizations risk flirting with age-old social contracts, whether explicit or assumed. And while support requests, product ideas) that create maximum network effects that present a threat to today's socially
free market problems in a new context imbued with the measures used to treat these market inefficiencies vary, market liquidity. transformed brand experience.
power to not merely transform the organization — the fundamental problems (e.g., information asymmetry, 2. Invite participants to collaborate in the market’s
but the total brand experience. over-exploitation) are common and solutions must treat procedural and structural design.
all three forces — in a balanced way that works for each 3. Build market authenticity and trust by connecting
Two markets, connected
individual corporation. real-world and virtual indicators of repute.
Television personality and Twitter aficionado @PiersMorgan’s
4. Balance the system of social and material incentives
recent and well-publicized Delta flight debacle provides but
Market-based problems call for market-aware solutions that engender self-identification, contribution, and
one example of branding’s participatory new stage. The CNN
One example? Ratings and reputations. While they may reciprocity without measurable dilution.
talk show host slammed the airline after missing America's Got
reduce some problems on many social platforms, they still 5. Adopt a floating pricing mechanism to focus and
Talent auditions following a string of airplane troubles and bad
provide only partial answers to social dilemmas such as agitate the most valued forms of participation and
customer service.
reciprocity and complacency, and expectations of social and discourage monopolistic behavior.
material incentives. Another example concerns moderation 6. Partition or de-partition markets to optimize for size
Social messages such as Morgan’s, combined with near-
policy. Open or un-moderated platforms allow diversity, but and time perspective of decisions affecting the
obsessive re-tweeting, create a market force that is not fully
invite a flood of shallow or negative contributions. Closed brand experience.
controllable. This effect occurs equally inside the enterprise.
or moderated platforms increase quality, but sacrifice
Endowed with social tools, employees reveal their do-it-
diversity and participation. The solution isn't always clear
yourself tendencies, innovating solutions to procedural
cut, but establishing a workable market design sensitive
inefficiencies, synthesizing new products and services, and
to these concerns involves making trade-offs — with
generating real value while simultaneously exposing the firm
real-world consequences — that, if poorly chosen, will
to new risks and confounding management. It is within these
inhibit marketplace efficacy, value, and fairness.
Systems of Engagement (to use the term coined by Geoffrey
Moore) that an increasing volume of brand knowledge is
In an article entitled, "How to Find Answers Within
created, challenged, and even destroyed. The individual
Your Company," which appeared recently in MIT Sloan
experience, swept into vibrant and inclusive dialogue, has
Management Review and Harvard Business Review, authors
usurped the official experience methodically crafted by few.
Hind Benbya and Marshall Van Alstyne offer guidance for
dealing with such market-design dilemmas. Benbya and
The social marketing trifecta
Van Alstyne suggest that executive leadership function like
Over a decade has passed since Thomas Davenport and
a Federal Reserve, promoting flexibility and liquidity instead
Laurence Prusak suggested, in their well-regarded book
acting as a central planner. Evidence suggests that embracing
Working Knowledge, that knowledge markets are subject
this paradigm shift produces benefits not solely limited to the
to three distinct but inseparable sets of forces: economic,
company, but offers opportunities externally to the consumer
political, and social. At that time, the commercial Internet
as well. Despite the privacy, property, and governance
was still in its infancy, and “social” on the scale evidenced
challenges it poses, this approach may indeed offer the
by Facebook or Twitter had barely been contemplated. Yet,
greatest reward.
Davenport and Prusak’s observation proved prescient.
Recognizing social forums as knowledge markets

38
Social Media

If a Tweet falls in the forest: as a marketing research practice, social listening (also
known as social media conversation analysis, social media
monitoring, or digital anthropology) has been growing
online through social listening. With studies ranging from
a few days to a few months, the insights generated through
listening research are frequently used to inform, drive, and
using listening to Drive Social Media Strategy steadily in popularity in recent years. In its most basic evaluate strategy for our clients.
form, social listening can be described as the analysis
Written by Annicka Campbell, Associate, Marketing Strategy and Analysis; SapientNitro Chicago of consumer conversation happening on social media In recent years, the Research + Insights team has conducted
platforms in order to distill insights related to products, social listening research specific to a wide range of industry
brands, or behavior. for researchers and strategists, in verticals. Over time, we’ve begun to identify a number of
particular, social listening has revolutionized the way we conversation patterns that are industry-unique. For example,
study consumer behavior online. commercial banking brands tend to generate high volumes
of negative sentiment. We’ve found that these conversation
Social media lends itself to oversharing, passionate debate,
patterns aren’t just true for the client in question — they hold
and self-expression, often in a very public context. New
true for the way consumers are talking about many brands
behaviors predicate new methods of study; today, marketers
within an industry. Therefore, these conversation patterns
have access to a vast universe of rich, real-time data being
can act as unique guides to development of social media
generated by social media users related to nearly any topic,
strategy, by industry. While the development of a more
brand, or behavior imaginable. With access to this kind of
comprehensive framework is a long-term undertaking,
data, researchers are able to identify and understand the
we have provided our initial thoughts below.
way consumers behave, perceive, and discuss brands and
products online. While social listening isn’t a replacement for
financial services
other forms of market research, it does add a layer of insight
In the financial services space, the most obvious application
and perspective to strategy and creative messaging that is
of listening is customer relationship management. With
completely unique.
unhappy users frequently taking to Twitter to voice concern
over unresponsive customer service representatives and
In such an ever-changing space, the potential applications
ailing online banking websites, providing customer support
of social listening are nearly endless — as are the means of
via this microblogging channel is a no-brainer. Moreover,
culling this type of data, as new listening platforms emerge
in the realm of using listening as a behavioral research tool,
and evolve as quickly as the tweets they track. Major brands
Twitter can be a great place to understand customer
are also quickly increasing their investment in such research.
perception towards aesthetic design and creative work:
We’ve seen companies like Gatorade and Dell adopt internal
“Why does the Chase website look just like the PayPal
social listening "command centers" as a means to identify
website? O_O are they related? Or is that just the standard
and address the needs of their customers (and potential
thing for money sites?”
customers) in real time. Other companies, like Xerox and
Kodak, have built out their listening capabilities to drive
Another one of the most consistent themes emerging from
specific business objectives like acquisition and product
financial services listening is a high volume of negative
development research — all by paying attention to what
sentiment, particularly on Twitter and forums. The global
their customers are saying on social media sites.
economic crisis and resulting bailout in the United States
have coupled to produce feelings of cynicism and mistrust
At SapientNitro, we’ve developed a range of ways to apply
from consumers online. As one Twitter user recently said:
social listening to our clients’ needs. In addition to community
“I don’t understand my bank. They attach chains to their
management and influencer identification, our Research +
pens?! If I’m trusting you with my money, you should trust
Insights team also specializes in studying consumer behavior
me with your pens!”

40

Banking customers are often turning to web forums and
message boards as a means of finding (and providing)
unbiased answers and support specific to mortgage, credit
card, and small business financial products. Listening to the
concerns and questions expressed by customers on these
forums is an integral step toward rebuilding the trust lost
between bank and customer over the past five years. There
are many active forum communities and blogs for bank
customers to share problems, advice, and news related to
their personal finances.
One forum dweller gave the following advice to his peer
regarding the expected closure of an account: “The guy IS
responsible to you as a customer to tell you who took them,
and it is ABSOLUTELY NOT his responsibility to tell you to ‘get
a lawyer.’ The person at your actual bank branch also knows
exactly what is going on … you need to go bug them about it
first thing in the morning. Did you, by any chance, make two
deposits into separate accounts that may have totaled more
than $10k if they were on the same deposit slip?”
automotive
In the case of automotive brands, we’ve found that social
listening is a wonderful way to inform creative messaging.
Cars and car brands have an emotional connotation in the
U.S. (as in other countries), and for auto fans, social media
is a great way to connect with like-minded enthusiasts and
discuss what they love the most about their vehicles:
"I love driving down dark country roads in my truck.
#luckytoliveinthecountry #newhashtag"
Social Media
Social Commerce —
In turn, auto brands can use listening as a way to
understand what values and stories their core advocates
are using to describe and discuss their brand.
CPG
Not surprisingly, we’ve found that social listening research
Beckoning New opportunities
holds substantial potential for CPG brands, particularly
Written by Chitranjan Sood, Senior Associate,
in terms of generating product use cases and behavioral Business Consulting; SapientNitro Gurgaon
insights. Through listening, traditional brands can uncover
innovative uses and applications of their product that would
otherwise go undetected by traditional research methods.
“Tartarus, the most effective toothpaste for children under
the age of twelve, can also be used for dogs!”
This can help identify new demographic targets and
messaging opportunities — specific to season, day of the
week, region, and more.
We would also note the effectiveness of social listening
as applied to tracking of media campaigns. “As an owner
of both a hamster and an Xbox 360, I find myself hating the
most recent Kia commercial for multiple reasons.” In
addition to qualitative analysis, the tracking of sentiment,
volume, and topical reaction to both traditional and digital
messaging can provide granular information on brand
perception before, during, and after a campaign or new
product launch.
We’re excited to continue this study in understanding social
media conversation patterns as a way to develop more
meaningful and relevant social media strategy. We continue
to share these new insights with clients through research
deliverables, thought leadership, posts on the SapientNitro
Idea Engineers blog, and academic publications.
Social media has had a profound impact on the way
brands interact with consumers. Invariably, all
consumer-facing companies use at least one social
media channel to engage customers. Social media’s role
as a marketing tool has assumed so much significance
that a number of companies now have dedicated
senior-level positions for social media.
The next phase of social media evolution is its convergence
with e-commerce channels — popularly known as social
commerce. Increasing numbers of consumers are using
social media platforms to access brands’ websites,
research products, and post comments. Consumers are
also "following" brands to know more about product
updates, promotions, and discounts. This rapidly-evolving
consumer behavior is forcing brands to use social media
along the entire consumer engagement process from
brand awareness to conversion to retention and growth.
Now and later — social commerce by the numbers
Social commerce has taken the digital world by storm.
Social commerce startups have proliferated and, in the
first quarter of 2011, received funding of nearly $2 billion.
Groupon alone received $950 million. The market is also
ripe for consolidation — 2011 has seen big-ticket acquisitions
of social commerce players by companies such as Yahoo!
and Walmart.
But now, the social commerce market is set to explode
in the years to come. Dollar value of products such as
electronics, apparel, and movie tickets sold through social
media is expected to rise to $30 billion by 2015. Wireless,
cable, and financial services companies will also have
multi-billion dollar opportunities.
"If I had to guess, social commerce is the next area
to really blow up." - Mark Zuckerberg
Social Commerce Market Size 2010-2015 ●Social media optimization. As part of social media
optimization, services can be offered such as news feeds,
$30
+56% deal offerings, or online social media events. Leading
$20 $14 U.S. brands such as Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret, and Dell
$14 currently run feeds on various social media platforms.
$9
$9
$5 Rest of
$5 $3 $16
$1 $12 the World How does social commerce benefit brands?
$6 $8
$4
Social commerce can benefit your brand in three
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 primary ways.
The six pillars of strength First, it allows you to monetize your social media investment.
Social commerce is based on six main elements. Companies have already invested time and effort to have a
They are as follows: social media presence. But by adding commerce functionality,
social media investment can effectively generate ROI too —
● Social shopping. This involves use of social media stores which can easily be measured in terms of sales and profit
on Facebook or other social media sites, which get users to increases as a result of investment and promotion of
bring their online social network to e-commerce sites in social media.
order to make purchases. 1-800-FLOWERS and Levi's are
examples of brands already making use of social shopping. The tools social commerce can leverage (some that have
● ratings and reviews. Customer opinions are integrated never been available before) — things like live chat, feeds
into e-commerce sites or comparison shopping sites, with deals, or social media events — all help to facilitate
sponsored reviews, and customer testimonials. Marks & online sales. And social commerce apps, ratings and
Spencer used Bazaarvoice’s ratings and reviews solution reviews for instance, are also integrated on e-commerce
to allow its customers to share their opinions and provide sites, resulting in additional prospects for increased sales.
feedback on over 24,000 products.
● recommendations and referrals. Customers are Second, it helps gather market insight. Through social
rewarded for referring new consumers, and shopping commerce, brands can make important observations
recommendations are based on similarities in profiles on buying behavior, key themes of consumer conversation,
of customers. Think: Apple’s iTunes Genius and Netflix’s and trends with respect to particular age groups or
Cinematch. specific locations.
● forums and communities. In discussion forums, people
often solve each other's problems or answer questions. And last, it can improve customer loyalty. Enhanced
And online communities can be linked to an e-commerce customer experience as a result of a variety of social apps
site with a loyalty, advisory, or social CRM purpose. Juicy will drive consumers to use social media channels again
Couture’s conversion rate increased 162% following and again, and brands will reap the rewards of a one-time
the implementation of an online community portal called investment in social apps many times over.
Club Couture.
● Social ads and apps. Ads can be placed in media space Hot trends to watch
on social media platforms as well as within blogs and Social commerce will be in style for the foreseeable future.
forums. Social apps are widgets that support social There are five trends to keep a close eye on — and consider
interactions and contributions. Chick-fil-A ran a successful using in your business strategy:
ad campaign on Facebook, whereby users who clicked on
the fast food chain's ads received coupons.
● loyalty and referral marketing. Brands will use social
media platforms to run a variety of loyalty and referral
marketing programs in their bid to maximize customer
experience. Consumers are enamored with special deals
and discounts; giving them reward points for purchasing
and referring products will further strengthen their bonds
with brands.
● Social CrM. Social media is also seen as a customer
retention tool. The CRM market is buzzing with activity and
all the leading vendors have added social dimension to their
CRM suite. Vendors are also reporting robust growth in
revenues on the back of increased focus on the use of social
software for marketing and customer service.
● Mobile social commerce. Integration of social media with
e-commerce on mobile platforms is also expected to hold
fort. More consumers are using smartphones for accessing
customer reviews on products, and brands will certainly look
to incorporate ratings and reviews in their mobile offerings.
● location-based marketing. Consumers using location-
based apps are heavy users of social media. These users
are also not averse to data sharing, and brands will focus
on this important user group to drive social commerce.
● Group buying. The success of Groupon has attracted a
number of companies to move into this space. Given that
discounts and promotions are the most important reason
for consumers to indulge in social commerce, there is hardly
any doubt that group buying will be among the hottest trends.
The market can see consolidation and expansion in new
territories and broaden the product portfolio.
Social commerce will continue to capture the imagination
of consumers, brands, and agencies. Ever-growing numbers
of people accessing social networks on smartphones,
emphasis on word of mouth marketing and user-generated
content, and clear-cut measurement will further aid the
growth of the social commerce market. And social commerce
will be an integral part of companies’ multi-channel
strategies. Capturing mindshare, enhancing customer
experience, and generating commercial value out of strong
relationships will be among the top priorities of brands —
and agencies and technology companies will play an
increasingly vital role in helping brands realize the true
value of social commerce.
44
Social Media

Is Social Commerce Social commerce is on everybody’s minds — and on the

minds of most marketers in particular.
“supported” the purchase with their comments; once it
reaches “critical mass,” the deal is done, and the transaction

exempt from roI?

Written by Uwe Tueben, Director, Technology; SapientNitro Dusseldorf
at a recent conference, I saw a presentation delivered by
a young, successful online store specializing in bikes that
was gaining positive customer feedback and revenue.
These cutting-edge guys decided to launch a store on
facebook as part of their social strategy. Their regular
online store is great — highly tailored to the needs of bike
enthusiasts. It has ratings and recommendations and even
product videos. The facebook store is … well … a store that
kind of works — once you figure out how to enter it. as
with many facebook applications, users often have trouble
finding and launching f-commerce capabilities.
As a market launch campaign, the company offered a 10%
discount on each purchase within Facebook. When I asked
what their strategy was to pull people into the Facebook store
after the 10% campaign had ended, the response was, “Well,
we believe we will grant the 10% permanently.”
is settled. These techniques can increase the quality of the
customer experience of the online store.
a good customer experience drives increased conversion
In fact, we recently evaluated the customer experience
quality of online stores run by the 25 leading multi-channel
retailers in Germany. We also conducted consumer research
into digital and traditional behaviors of their customers.
Together, this data demonstrated a clear link between the
customer experience and key business success metrics.
This documented correlation should simplify the justification
of an investment in an improved customer experience —
particularly in social commerce. Yet many times, investments
in customer experience are delayed or cancelled, due to a
lack of confidence in the ROI. With modern web analytics
and social media monitoring in place, those doubts should
be lifted.

Why is that? Because without a discount, there is no reason
to buy with Facebook over a traditional online store. Is this
social commerce? Yes, but social commerce can be much
more. As with their traditional online stores, e-retailers need
to understand their customers’ needs, and they need to be
open to experimenting with social channels to make it work
for them.
Taking social commerce to the next level
A better example of the potential of social commerce — be it
on Facebook or another platform — involves pulling in social
comments and social affirmation to drive higher conversions.
Start with what we have today: Consumers have the
opportunity to show on Facebook that they “Like” your products.
But you could go much further than this. Imagine a
“conditional checkout process” for consumers who are
unsure whether they should buy your product or not — either
online or in-store. At the end of the online checkout, or on a
mobile device in-store, the consumer publishes his or her
pending purchase to Facebook. The transaction is kept in the
pending state until a certain number of friends have
A good social commerce strategy should, without any doubt,
lead to conversion and/or margin improvements in the short
term. This is not to say Facebook commerce is the answer;
rather, we view f-commerce as a promising but still unproven
new technology. When combined with elements of social
commerce (e.g., reviews and ratings) and other channels
(e.g., Twitter or SMS), it can be an effective way to leverage
social interactions between friends and families to achieve
your social commerce strategic goals.
Social commerce remains an evolving set of technologies. As
part of the maturation process, we'll see more experiments
like the ones described in this article. To maximize success,
companies should focus on customer need, measurement,
and ROI as part of the social commerce strategy.

46
 what we are seeing today is only the surface of the real
potential for mobile services. This is because producers,
brands, and agencies are still doing what people do when
they discover a new channel: They transport existing
products and ideas into the new channel, but neglect to
dig deeper to reach "the gold."
Because banner and display advertising had worked well
on desktop screens, the obvious reaction is to simply
reduce the size of the ads on mobile screens regardless
of where users were or what they were doing.
This mistaken behavior happens because it is too exhausting
and time consuming to think disruptively and consider the
user context. Unfortunately, we are often “prisoners of our
own ideas.” We tend not to be objective and are therefore
bound by our own thinking most of the time. However,
according to The Next Web article, "Everyone Sits in the
Prison of His Own Ideas," new thinking is needed for
developing successful mobile services. There are several
ways to accomplish that goal:
● Trying to get an idea of what people want by doing
market research,
● Building something you really need yourself,
● Building something your friends say they need,
● Copying and pasting someone else's idea and
improving upon it, or
● Letting a thousand flowers bloom and watching
what happens.
Second, we need to distinguish if it is a proposition that will
serve every user with the same need or if we need to design
the product in ways that serve different people with
different needs.
Let's start with two case studies, from the least complex
to the most elaborate.
autoTrader's iPhone app. This app was created and
developed by SapientNitro, and only available in the UK
market, which originally focused on one specific idea:
Users were in the streets (a very mobile situation) when
they spotted a vehicle they liked. SapientNitro asked,
"How can we leverage that moment into a mobile opportunity
for AutoTrader?"
The initial information that these users needed was the
make and model, its price, and how to purchase it. The
solution was to use the iPhone camera to identify the car
model by taking a photo of the number plate and then
match it with the government database. As a result, the
user got the exact model, could search for it within the
AutoTrader market, and then could contact the car dealer.
This was not an adaptation of the desktop AutoTrader
portal. There were no sitemap or navigation elements.
The entire focus of the concept was to serve the needs
of the user to identify and shop from the street.

Context will certainly be the key driver for popular mobile

offerings that serve specific customer need. And while there
is no best way for victories in mobile, there are
strategies for building a winning mobile service.
Mobile
Case studies: user context considerations for mobile

Context — The New Gold So how do we design, create, and develop a mobile service
with user context in mind?

of the Mobile Industry
Written by Torsten Schollmayer, Mobile Experience
Strategist; SapientNitro Dusseldorf
First, we have to look at the existing assets of the mobile
product or service and what the core value might be. If we
can identify these things, we are halfway there.
Figure 1. The AutoTrader iPhone application
48
The Homeplus Subway Virtual Store. This product was
the 2011 winner of the Cannes Lions for “Best Use of
Outdoor.” For its "shopping on the move" campaign,
Homeplus created virtual stores in subway stations at rush
hours showing their goods on displays that looked exactly
like those in real stores, including prices and advertising.
The difference was that people shopped with their smart-
phones by scanning the QR code and putting the products
in virtual shopping baskets. Once purchased, the goods
were delivered to the customer's door after they get home.
Users could avoid rush hour in the supermarket and save
time by shopping on the way home.
Figure 2. Homeplus Virtual Subway Store
Complex mobile services need a
“Paddle, Swim, and Dive” approach
But what if the mobile service that needs to be designed and
created must serve different users with different needs?
For this scenario, SapientNitro recently introduced the
“Paddle, Swim, and Dive” approach, which generally fits well
and provides the right level of detail to initiate the concept.
In the “Paddle” phase of a mobile product, we see a person
who urgently needs to solve a problem or save time. This
might be a quick look at the news, a pop-up reminder, or
anything that is only “one-click” away.
In the second phase, when the user wants or needs to
“Swim,” he or she gets a richer level of detail for the
content or the function that enables shopping or browsing
quickly and securely.
In the final stage, when the user is “Diving,” he or she has
extra time and is able to use all the functionality that leads
to the desired goal.
Think disruptively and create simple + social
Along with accepted design principles for mobile services,
there are other determinants for creating successful
mobile products that leverage the idea of “considering
user context.”
When thinking about a user's behavior in a mobile
environment and how to match this to mobile products,
a common mistake is to copy a great idea or adopt already-
known behavior patterns and market offerings that exist
in the non-mobile space.
To be successful, however, the principles need to be based
on disruptive and creative thinking that are very different to
known offerings and highlight the core value and function of
the mobile service.
Additionally, we should also consider what the mobile
device means to us in the context of “being on the move.”
Every user is unique and uses the device in a personal way
— and often under severe time pressure. This means that
we need to build mobile services that are social, simple,
and connected to the personal environment of the user.
To illustrate that theory, take the example of Gigalocal.
Gigalocal is a service that describes itself as the first
“microworking” mobile application that offers a market-
place for micro deals and offerings. Users will be able to
suggest and provide service delivery via their smartphones
from two perspectives: buyer and seller.
Gigalocal is focusing on city or local markets, which means
that users can immediately act on offerings in real time.
Typical services that could be offered and consumed via
this mobile service include repairing a bike, getting glasses
from the optician, or buying a Big Mac and Coke for a
special price.
Gigalocal uses the power of user context by combining the
time the user has with the urgent need to get a problem
solved while providing a unique, social, and simple service.
Figure 3. Gigalocal
The digital wallet of 2012
If we look at the trends that may greatly impact the near
future, it is obvious that the technical environment for
mobile payment will soon be a reality. Global banks, credit
card companies, and Internet companies like Google are
attempting to position themselves as the first contact point
for payments with mobile devices.
One of SapientNitro's “Idea Engineers,” Christina White,
phrases our perspective:“Most of us carry some sort of
payment method [in our wallets], but you probably have
a bit more — loyalty cards, business cards, receipts,
insurance cards, IDs, subway tickets, event tickets, and
the list goes on. A digital wallet is not just a way to pay. It’s
taking that actual wallet in your back pocket and all of its
contents and associated behaviors and integrating it into
some type of digital device.”
To convince the user of the benefits of using a mobile device
as their digital wallet, we need to rethink the user's context
and what would provide the added value to bind the
customer to the service permanently. The digital
combination of one place and continuous availability
will be the core values of the digital wallet.
Figure 4. The digital wallet
If you are thinking about creating and delivering a digital
wallet, a mobile commerce solution, or any other mobile
service, you must consider user context. Once this is
recognized and appreciated by your customers, usage
and distribution can be built on a solid base — leading
to success and satisfied users.
50
Mobile
Could Mobile lead Your Just a few years ago, the idea of mobile taking the lead
in customer experience would have seemed ridiculous.
However, thanks to the iPhone charge, mobile is now
Customer experience? significantly more important to most brands, and has become
an integral part of their multi-channel experiences.
The opportunities that accompany this new technology
Written by Paul Bevan, Mobile Strategist; SapientNitro UK
is real, but taking advantage of them will not be easy.
Brands will have to create great customer experiences,
and this comes with challenges and questions that must
be answered.
Is mobile working?
To understand how far mobile can go, it is important to
understand how far it has come. The audience for mobile
interactive customer experiences has grown quickly. Mobile
ownership is now nearly ubiquitous. And while phone and text
still dominate usage, interactive usage has grown significantly
in two major areas of mobile — Internet and native apps.
In fact, people now spend on average 32 minutes a day
using mobile Internet services, and more than 15 billion
apps have been downloaded from the iTunes App Store
alone. Customers are consuming these mobile experiences
on both phones and tablets, at home, at work, and on the
move, and are looking for experiences that are fun, useful,
usable and/or convenient.
Customers are also becoming increasingly comfortable
transacting on mobile, which has led to impressive revenue
figures. Online retailer ASOS brings in more than £1m a
month through mobile transactions, Amazon brought in
$1bn from 2009 to 2010, and eBay sold $2bn worth of
products last year.
However, the influence of mobile reaches far beyond just
direct sales. Brands are using mobile to build awareness
through advertising and create affinity through customer
care and loyalty programs, and consumers are using mobile
to research products both at home and in-store. Because
mobile devices are carried with the consumer constantly,
they become powerful tools for creating multi-channel
brand ecosystems that can deliver real value.
On the other hand, mobile services aren't perfect: 90% of
apps are deleted after 30 days and 38% of people are not
satisfied with their favorite brand's app. The mobile web
does not fare much better; 25% of people would not revisit
a retailer’s mobile site after a bad experience and and 75%
of the UK top 100 retailers do not have mobile-optimized
versions of their website even though people spend three-and-
a-half times longer and look at three-and-a-half times as
many pages on optimized sites, compared with non-optimized.
will mobile continue its rapid ascent?
The demand for mobile services and their commercial
importance will only increase — and quickly. We have
identified four areas that have influenced mobile growth,
and will continue to do so.
1. rise of the smartphone and tablet. Mobile has been
propelled by the explosive sales of smartphones and tablets
that give people a far richer experience. Sales of smart-
phones in the UK jumped 74% between 2010 and 2011.
Tablets were virtually non-existent 18 months ago, yet
worldwide tablet sales in 2010 almost hit 16m units, and
this is expected to grow to 56m units by 2012.
2. availability of cheap, fast data. The availability of cheap
data bundles, the rollout of 3G across the UK, and the
launch of LTE/4G in 2014 will mean greater mobile
broadband speeds and even more mobile growth.
3. awareness of mobile services. Many mobile solutions
fall at the first hurdle because firms fail to pay proper
attention to launching their services. One example? There
are over 420,000 apps in the Apple App Store alone. To
compete with the saturation, smart brands are looking at
how to best tag apps, categorize, and drive participation.
4. Better technology. In the past few years, a range of
improved technologies such as cloud-enabled, NFC-enabled,
and location-based services have started to deliver more
complex experiences. Over the next few years, technology
will continue to improve. This trend will only continue.
52
Can you meet the challenges?
Just because the screen is smaller doesn't mean the
obstacles are any less. Key challenges to keep in mind follow:
Match your offering with your audience. Understanding
your audience is the first step. This is particularly important
in mobile as audiences are fragmented by form factor
and usage, which are also heavily influenced by culture
and geography.
Mobile behaviors should also be considered. This includes
filling spare time, performing small jobs that are ideally
done on the go, and offering a third screen at home. Then,
the real value comes from detailed understanding of your
audience and unveiling key insights.
Craft the right experience. The range of front-end
technology is broad and changing by the day. They include
native apps, hybrid apps, NFC, 3D, and good old SMS, to
name a few. From the business point of view, a deep
understanding of the technology is not necessary.
What is important is choosing the right technology.
These decisions have a direct impact on the consumer. For
example, typing in a URL is very different than downloading
an app. The end solution may accomplish the same goals,
however the consumer expectations can be wildly different.
See what the customer doesn’t. Richer mobile experiences
frequently require access to back-end systems such as
product catalogues, e-commerce systems, and account
information. Too often, companies do not consider their
back-end architecture sufficiently. As a result, mobile
experiences that rely on good access to back-end
systems are often delayed or never come to life at all.
Think strategically. When creating consistently great
mobile experiences that deliver customer and business
value, strategy matters. The time for one-off mobile
experiments has now passed.
The first step is to have a clearly defined mobile strategy in
place that includes a roadmap. This needs to be supported
by a conviction that warrants the growing investment
required. Many analysts will suggest that there is no such
thing as a “mobile strategy” — only a multi-channel strategy.
While this is true, mobile often carries the load for innovation
and business transformation.
Conclusion
Could mobile lead your customer experience? The simple
answer is yes! And even if it does not lead, it will without
doubt play a critical role. There are a series of mountains to
climb, but consumers are demanding it and the opportunities
are huge, so the time to act in a serious fashion is now.
Technology
Digital Marketing Platforms:
Taking Back Control
Written by Dan Barnicle, Vice President, Content
Management and Collaboration; SapientNitro Munich
Planning, delivering, and measuring sophisticated
multi-channel marketing campaigns has never been
more difficult.
Marketing was once much more straightforward:
TV, radio, print, and physical store channels were taken
care of by one agency. Today, two main factors are
changing everything: the explosion of channels to meet
communication needs, and the push toward personalized
engagement marketing.
We now have microsites, mobile, apps, VOD, real-time
social conversations, and a vast number of other
channels, leading to specialized agencies, organizational
challenges, profit nightmares, fragmented technical
governance, asset inefficiencies, and new competition.
Multiply that across a portfolio of brands across a number
of local markets in a fast-paced social world and what do
you get? An overwhelmed marketer with a big problem.
Hence the rise of the digital marketing platform, designed
to centralize digital assets, group and manage content,
reuse processes, connect with external sites, and apply
advanced analytics. The result enables rapidly launched
experiences using pre-built and tested digital components,
and shifts the cost from developing digital functionality to
providing marketing services.
The digital marketing platform is no
longer a technology problem, which has
become relatively straightforward; it is
now a business problem, a philosophy,
and a working model.
The digital marketing maturity model
Marketing organizations’ digital marketing maturity falls
into three distinct "ages."
1. The early years. In this initial stage, the retailer is
"dabbling" with digital marketing. There is no common
process or technology approach. Numerous silos of agency
and technology partners create flexibility, but only
occasionally share assets or technology investments. Small
scale means that these inefficiencies can be considered a
cost of doing business, and worthwhile given the flexibility
and time-to-market benefits.
2. The awkward years. The retailer is struggling with scale
and cross-campaign analysis. It is frequently "reinventing
the wheel," but isn't sure how to evolve. Symptoms include
overspending on redundant technology investments. This
company may also experience occasional security and
liability incidents due to inconsistent processes.
3. The adult years. In this phase, scale is fueled by a
standardized operating model and consolidated technology.
Additionally, coordinated consumer data, campaign
analytics, and reporting across campaigns are optimized.
The benefits of this fully mature platform include:
• Marketing innovation
• Speed-to-market and nimbleness
• Intimate consumer-brand relationships
• Effective and holistic consumer intelligence
• Measured campaigns in real time
• Optimized technology investments
• Reduced liability and data security risk
The digital marketing platform solution
The digital marketing platform toolset allows marketers
to maximize their campaign or marketing strategy, and can
also enable important organizational changes, which are
essential for productivity. Digital marketing enablement
touches on eight areas:
1. an organizational model. There are a number of
interweaving elements that are critical to a successful
campaign including content, production, and technology.
Strong organization is paramount and the key is in building
out those connections.
2. Campaign production processes. Inefficient and
redundant processes are minimized, and a consistent
process — critical to reuse — is rolled out across the
organization. Benefits are seen by all the players involved.
3. Technology governance. A close working relationship,
and clear governance structure is essential to overcome
the inevitable technical challenges.
4. Standardized campaign types. Clients typically develop
a core set of campaign types to speed time-to-market.
The common technology platform must anticipate and
support these types. An actual campaign could be a
hybrid of long-lived (e.g., websites, brand affinity, content
syndication, social networking, mobile apps) or short-lived
campaigns (e.g., promotional web or mobile sites, social
networking campaigns).
5. Managed platform capabilities. Identifying and
enhancing the core management platform capabilities
is essential. Content management, digital asset
management, social or community presence, marketing and
campaign management, measurement and analytics, or
consumer data management make up this set of opportunities.
6. Digital production toolkit. Creation of a set of reusable
asset libraries — from copy to HTML to video and more —
can deliver a campaign much quicker, with better results.
7. Multi-channel campaign delivery. Combining the asset
libraries with the standardized processes and campaign
types allows rapid multi-channel campaign delivery.
From iPhone apps to in-store end-caps to viral videos,
multi-channel is all about quickly executing cohesive
marketing on every appropriate touch point.
8. Campaign management and analytics. Testing,
learning, tracking, and adjusting are all tremendously
challenging. But for true engagement marketing,
it is essential.
One global consumer products company
estimates that, due to a lack of coordination
and process subordination, over 50% of their
digital marketing spend goes to production
and technology capability costs alone —
which could be better spent on creative
strategy, concepts, and experience design.
In the end, the challenges of a true multi-channel digital
marketing enablement can be accelerated with a platform.
But we believe that how you integrate the platforms — with
their various capabilities — is critical. Accountability for
digital marketing, long divided among various traditionally
and digitally focused constituents, must be explicitly
defined. Governance must focus on enablement and
acceleration, not on constraints.
Incentives become a critical part of the driving platform
adoption across an organization — whatever your agency
and partner model.
Does one production model fit all?
Choosing the right balance between centralizing production
partners, and allowing a modest set of loosely coupled
firms to operate relatively independently is a tradeoff
between capability, coordination and overhead costs,
and ability to scale. And, in most cases, allowing fully
ungoverned production procurement should no longer
be an option.
Conclusion
The digital marketing platform is a tool to meet the
complex needs of the marketing creative process, creative
agencies, and production agencies. Tactically, it offers the
opportunity to accelerate specific campaign roll outs, and
optimize those campaigns from existing assets and
processes. Strategically, it addresses governance gaps,
optimizes digital marketing processes, and provides a level
of nimbleness, control, and insight that allows marketers to
focus on driving marketing innovation and effectiveness.
56
Technology
after the release: Maximizing “There will come a time,” wrote louis l'amour, the great
american storyteller, “when you believe everything is
Value from Your Commerce
finished. That will be the beginning." l’amour passed
away more than a decade before digital commerce went
mainstream, but he eloquently captured the gestalt of a
Platform Investment
digital platform going live. launching a platform today is
no small feat, typically taking months — perhaps years
— of effort. Yet, on the eve of launch day, the real work
Written by Sheldon Monteiro, Vice President; SapientNitro Chicago has just begun. The operational and evolution challenges
are many, and it’s no surprise that we see some
platforms thrive while others stumble and fail.
$
There are nine things every customer experience
executive should know on launch day:
1. It feels like you just gave birth. No matter how much
you planned, you will be surprised in the first few months,
and not in a pleasant way. There will be issues, whether
related to scalability, stability, operations, or content. Peak
business periods and hours tend to reveal quite a bit about
the behavior of your new platform under stress. And after
a few 3 a.m. calls, it might feel less like you launched a
system and more like you brought a colicky infant home
from the hospital.
Smart firms take a pragmatic approach in the first six
months. They realize that the only true test is one with real
customers and traffic — a staged go-live — where the
platform is gradually opened up, in parallel with existing
platforms. In addition, they invest T+180 continuously
stabilizing, improving processes and reviewing analytics.
Every anomaly is a learning opportunity, which should not
be squandered. This critical period should be used to
fine-tune your release process.
2. New platforms start out with a mortgage. And, no,
we are not referring to the check for your platform signed
by your CFO. Going live on time and within budget likely
requires some compromises in the business tools or
technical maintainability.
You can view these deviations from the optimal solution in a
manner similar to a mortgage or debt — the loan you took
that will result in more work down the road. Debt is not
necessarily a bad thing (you did launch after all), unless
you let it get out of control. Then you find yourself applying
patch after patch, resigned to inefficient operational
work-arounds or foregoing opportunities because change
simply costs too much or takes too long. There is a real
temptation to focus all investments in post live releases on
adding new user features, which may worsen the problem
by actually adding debt.
How to avoid this fate? Avoid interest-only mortgages.
Create a list of operational and technical debt, and address
items that improve future agility and reduce recurring work.
One of our major telecommunications clients conducted
four major platform releases, but then invested their fifth
release almost exclusively to reorganizing the platform
code for easier and more streamlined maintenance
supporting their organizational structure. That meant foregoing
new functionality in the fifth release in favour of non-user
facing features, but which enabled less friction, cost and time,
and higher through-put, in every subsequent release.
3. Design, build, and test must evolve to listen, respond,
and evolve. Today, no platform investments lack technology
to measure customer experience. Analytics are common-
place, yet all too often we see firms stumble with listening
or responding to their customers. Data may be plentiful, but
it isn’t worth a dime if you don’t have an effective process to
make changes based on the information.
Often, it’s measuring too many things, an over-reliance on
generic metrics, or a lack of a working process that cripples
insights from driving action.
Empirically, we have observed that firms that initially
choose no more than three top-level core metrics have an
easier time making informed changes — especially those
requiring material investments.
4. Marketing, business, development, and operations
must converge. At go-live, it's unlikely that the marketing,
business, development, and operations teams are on the
58
same page. We commonly observe organizational
structures and incentives tailored for slowly evolving
enterprise resource planning systems, rather than those
required to facilitate customer expectations.
We have two proven suggestions to drive change:
For one, you can force alignment by establishing a fixed
and firm calendar of “global releases.” Global releases are
a vehicle for major feature changes that require enterprise
coordination, and complement smaller, interim releases
that are localized in scope of impact. Every business unit,
department, and individual knows that any significant
change happens on set release dates that are established
in advance every year, and negotiation of what goes into
each release happens on set dates prior to the releases.
If scope is not closed by the due date, the desired change
does not make the release.
Or, consider using iterative, incremental time-boxed
practices for enhancements and operations. Agility is an
acute challenge within a “design, build, transfer” model
that is prevalent in enterprise IT, where the developers who
build the system and know most about its workings hand
over the code to a junior, inexpensive maintenance group.
In contrast, those development teams that continue to work
using agile methods integrated with marketing, business
and operations are able to increase feature through-put and
respond faster to change.
5. Time + attention + resources = value. During the initial
platform launch, it’s common to work alongside senior
executives. But as time goes by, we see less focus from
the C-Suite, with operational management relegated to
someone two or three levels removed.
One telecommunications firm we worked with immediately
moved post release into a functional silo structure, and
a modest budget was almost fully consumed by routine
maintenance. Larger enhancements were funded via
capital requests through a lengthy and bureaucratic
approvals process. It took them five years after go-live to
introduce a sorely needed technology feature — functional
clustering — that they knew was needed three months
after go live. In contrast, another client, also with a modest
budget, actively incentivized development and operations to
improve deployment and process efficiency, with sustained
C-Suite visibility. In a few months, the team was steadily
deploying platform changes to production every two weeks.
Notwithstanding executive focus and attention, significant
financial resources are required to maintain the platform
and stay competitive — after the first year post live, the
typical enterprise IT application devotes 80% of on-going
spend to maintenance and only 20% to enhancements and
upgrades. For digital commerce platforms to remain
competitive, we have observed that an even split is more
appropriate between lights on and evolution spend on an
on-going basis.
6. New platforms need help fitting in with established
channels, structures, and incentives. Though discussed
often, few firms have truly mastered multi-channel today.
In many instances, their ability to get there is compromised
due to organization and scale constraints.
At one major office supply chain, the store associates will
literally intercept customers headed towards the in-store
kiosks to make a purchase — an egregious example of
incentive misalignment. Regardless of how delightful the
online platform experience or the in-store experience is,
multi-channel fails if the organization and incentives are
not aligned.
Conversely, another Fortune 50 client aligned all digital
platform investments under a single program executive
reporting directly to their COO. Their in-store, call center,
and digital experiences are synchronized across brands.
Incentives are aligned. Digital is not a channel; it’s a part
of the business, enabling every channel.
While technology plays an enabling role, your best hope for
realizing the promise of multi-channel is to understand why
your employees act the way they do and then plan accordingly.
7. Content is not the redheaded stepchild. In the race to
go live, content is commonly not treated with the same
rigor as development or system testing — and may not
even be fully defined. Often, content teams are too anemic
to sustain the effort needed, but consumers still demand
personalized, differentiated content.
Prior to launch, one major retailer realized they would
require several million dollars of additional funds to
re-shoot thousands of product images (based on hard
data that product imagery was a major conversion driver).
Another retailer disbanded their catalogue business only
to realize 18 months later that authoritative content on their
website was strongly correlated with increased dwell time
and conversion. It took them considerable time to staff and
rebuild their content capability.
8. additions will be needed — just avoid spit and duct
tape. Your significant investment and robust platform
will feel like it's falling behind before the year is out as
customer expectations and industry innovation forge ahead.
Think through new feature additions with a custom (not
vendor-provided) business case — including what you
might learn from smaller investments that can inform
future decisions. Also, create a vision — user journeys
relayed through video narratives, rich media prototypes
placed in a test area of your site to stand trial in the court
of customer opinion.
While being first with new features may not always be
the wisest, being a fast follower is often prudent, and
maintaining experience parity with your direct competitors
is a cost of business in a digitally connected world.
9. Your platform is a product — sell it. Whether you think
about (and manage) your new platform as an IT application,
a channel, or as a product will have a massive implication
on its success.
At the height of the dot-com boom over a decade ago, it was
fashionable for organizations to anoint a dot-com czar, and
essentially view the investment as a new channel, even a
new business. In large part, that was driven by investor
appetite to pursue e-business metrics as distinct from
business metrics. In the bust that followed, companies
retrenched, czars went out of fashion, and the former
platform investments were typically folded under a
mid-level IT manager. Unsurprisingly, starved of executive
focus, many of those investments languished and were
ultimately written off.
In hindsight, digital was not and is not a channel — it’s
simply part of business, across channels and customer
touch points. The trap many firms fall into is that digital is
viewed as “infrastructure” — or an enabling technology
commodity. The net result is bespoke or duplicative
investments in technology, business process, and
operations. In contrast, the platforms that support digital
are maximal in their business value when viewed as an
integrated and strategic product suite across channels
and business lines.
A major CPG client has invested in a global marketing
platform that operates across their brands, business units,
and partner marketing agencies. It provides common
infrastructure, content administration, and analytics.
A small, full-time staff of platform account managers
interfaces with each global business and their marketing
agencies. It’s an effective “platform as a product” model —
one with direct focus from their CMO and CIO.
Chances are, you are aware of some of these issues.
But if you have gained some valuable insight from these
proven practices, then consider leading the change.
Making change happen takes some doing — it takes
destroying some notions and creating some positive
friction to do things in a new way. louis l'amour once
again provides us inspiration: “I would not sit waiting
for some vague tomorrow, nor for something to happen.
one could wait a lifetime, and find nothing at the end
of the waiting. I would begin here, I would make
something happen."
This is an excerpt of a longer article series, which is
available at http://ideaengineers.sapient.com/
60
Technology
Platforms in the Cloud:
Deciding to use or own
Written by Scott Petry, Director of Technology Strategy; SapientNitro Atlanta
a decade ago, digital marketing and e-commerce involved
building websites. any substantial website was built
using technologies like content management systems,
personalization servers, rules engines, and e-commerce
platforms. and the first step in the process was to make
a fundamental decision about whether to buy or build.
Since the available solutions could often meet business
requirements, most companies chose to buy, rather than
getting into the business of developing and maintaining
software (though buying often led to the need for a team
to develop, maintain, and operate software regardless).
Today, digital marketing and e-commerce are infinitely
more complicated than websites alone. Consumers engage
with brands across a dizzying array of digital channels that
are integrated into the traditional physical world in ways
that make it impossible to distinguish real from virtual.
The complexity of consumer experiences and interactions
across all these channels presents a daunting technology
challenge for anyone tasked with building the platform
to support it all. Fortunately, several leading software
companies and a few innovative startups have been able
to keep pace with the proliferation of digital channels.
However, just because your software provider has a new
version, doesn't mean you can use it. In fact, you probably
can't. The latest version is probably a complete overhaul of
their solution, and the customizations you've deployed over
time are probably not compatible.
we need a new strategy
Marketing is a nimble industry, and marketers are looking
for their technology partners to deliver all the latest and
greatest capabilities swiftly and cost effectively. The decision
we need to make today is whether we can effectively take on
ownership of the platform required to achieve the business
objectives or not. If we don't want to be in the business of
software development and maintenance, we need to find
built-for-purpose solutions (or services) to use. If we don't
want to be in the business of software development and
maintenance, we need to find ready-built solutions to use.
The big question is how to decide. The criteria for the
decision needs to be objective and measurable, not
emotional. We all take great pride in our work, and we
enjoy ownership and relish control.
62
In IT, this often leads to a desire to own and control the
platforms that run the business, so the systems can be
deeply understood, and when something breaks, the
situation can be addressed within the team to get the
business back on track. It seems harder to manage a
bad situation when we are dependent on a vendor to fix it.
Conversely, in the business team, the need for control often
leads to a desire to avoid IT as much as possible; IT has few
resources to deliver new solutions, limited capabilities
with the latest concepts, and spotty performance when
it comes to swift resolution of issues. It is often more
effective to put pressure on a vendor who is motivated
by the same metrics as the business, and expect them
to deliver the best solution or resolve the issue swiftly.
But those are all emotional criteria. Objectively, it comes
down to value — benefit versus cost. In marketing, value
is the ratio of working spend to non-working spend — the
higher the ratio, the higher the value. Working spend goes
toward media, content, conversations with customers,
merchandising, and taking orders. Non-working spend
goes toward infrastructure, development, process
management, and operations and maintenance.
We also need to consider the timing of non-working
spend versus working spend. The value of working spend
depends on the success of the campaigns being executed.
If non-working spend associated with a particular
campaign is high upfront and the campaign fails, we'll be
left with a very low ratio of working spend to non-working
spend. We need to be able to align the costs to the
benefits. (And, of course, we need to measure to
understand if our working spend is really, well, working.)
enter, the cloud
This is where cloud-based platform services can really
change the game. In the cloud, we can have the latest
innovations and capabilities readily available, and
pay-per-use pricing models — everything we need to
balance the value equation for marketing and e-commerce.
There are some situations where owning the platform really
does make sense. For example, with unusually complicated
back-end systems to integrate, highly-specialized
requirements, or if the business is so large that managed
solutions just aren’t scalable enough, owning the platform
is in the best interest of the company. Maybe.
However, we’d still rather get to the cloud if the offerings
were there. While most new concepts are built in the cloud
(e.g., ratings and reviews, recommendations engines,
video serving with in-stream tagging, multivariate testing,
location-based targeting, etc.), few fully-featured content
management and e-commerce platforms are available in
the cloud today. And when they are, they tend to have
generalized capabilities, limited scalability, or unproven
vendors. It is not a small task for software vendors to
become cloud service providers. It represents a fundamental
shift in their business models, their sales forces, and their
organizations.
The question that still remains is who — not when.
The time is now.

own Versus use

10 Working spend 10 Working spend

Non-working spend Non-working spend
9 9
Business value Business value
8 8
7 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Figure 1. Own (left) versus Use (right) quarterly spend and value over 3 years
The Use model delivers 35% greater business value on 18% lower non-working spend

64
 International
Perspectives
Seven questions. Nine markets. Nine local perspectives.
In this section, we explore what's hot and trending in major markets around the globe. From the
iPhone, Foursquare, the digital wallet, and QR codes to Angry Birds, Vodafone, and even Jay-Z —
read on to hear what our counterparts around the world think about consumer behavior, technology,
trends, multi-channel experiences, the future of privacy, and the best media campaigns out there.

GerMaNY ruSSIa
SINGaPore
uk
NorTH aMerICa CHINa
MIDDle eaST

INDIa

auSTralIa
Q&a
NORTH AMERICA
Written by Justin Barkhuizen, Strategist; SapientNitro NYC, Rob Murray, Strategist; SapientNitro NYC
QueSTIoN 1
In the past three years, what were the top three trends in
digital consumer behavior and activities in your region?
evolution from GuI to NuI. The rise of gesture-based
interactivity has radically changed the way we engage with
machines, and has allowed digital activities to be consumed
by a much broader audience. Apple's latest OS "Lion" is based
entirely on NUI learnings; Wii, Move, and Kinect immerse the
gamer in ways we only dreamed of before. Just ask any parent
on a long road trip with their 6-year old what price they'd put on
that iPad.
QueSTIoN 2
In the next 12 – 24 months, what do you see as the key
opportunities for marketers in your region?
Marketers will have an e-dentity crisis; smart marketers will
find a successful solution. They will be challenged by the
everyday barrage of content, options, and opinions their
consumers face. They will understand that iPads and
QueSTIoN 3
what would you highlight as examples of multi-channel
marketing campaigns in your region?
One success was Bing's Jay-Z: Decoded campaign.
QueSTIoN 5
what is the latest, hottest mobile application or mobile
product in your region?
There are many. Flipboard for iPad is an elegant display of
personal content. Instagram offers a visual, social story of
location-based bias. Whether we’re checking in at the U2
concert and sharing that experience on Instagram with
anonymous fans, or snapping QR codes at Best Buy to make
sure we’re getting the best price, geo-based technology has
accelerated the recession of the divide between the physical
and digital realms. And we can’t go back.
always public, all the time. The socialization of media and
the mobilization of connectivity means that every activity,
question, cry for help, and status update is packaged,
published, and public — usually in the moment. It's no
longer behind the walled garden.
smartphones consume more data than PCs. And that data
is ingested in large part through apps.
Smart marketers will also understand appification —
that content is being chunked into packets of digestible
experiences. And they will adopt an "86/4" not “24/7" mentality;
they will realize they are no longer fighting for day-parts or a
share of 24 hours, but for the 86,400 seconds in a day.
QueSTIoN 4
In the last 12 months, what were the most creative,
design-driven campaigns of note in your region?
The Ralph Lauren 4D experience stands out.
everyday life. Spotify contains every song ever sung in the
cloud and is available on demand. HBO GO lets its users take
their living rooms with them. And Evernote makes it possible
to save thoughts and then access them anywhere.
QueSTIoN 6
In the next 2 – 3 years, to what extent do you view
consumer privacy as a concern in your region?
what are the implications?
Supercookies, zombie cookies, and history stealing — industry
self-regulation is not working and consumers are more
privacy-aware than ever. In the next 6 – 24 months, we will see
the federal government enter the world of online privacy
regulation. If there is one issue where Republicans and
QueSTIoN 7
what are the most important social platforms
regionally and why?
facebook. Its hush-hush music platform, Instagram-esque
photo filters, and video chat innovations show that the leader
is aware (unlike MySpace) that it needs to evolve to stay on top.
Twitter. They are the de facto live search provider, and
continue to make the proposition make sense for brands
with their "sponsored" suite of products.
YouTube. The world's number 2 search engine is simply
a synonym for online video, and is a continually leading
innovation in the display world. Their latest suggestion?
Democrats agree, it is online consumer privacy protection.
The implications for marketers are both unclear and profound
at the same time.
What is known is that every channel and touch point will
now have a new layer of privacy requirements that will affect
creative and user experiences. What will always remain is that
consumers will surrender personal data for a valuable and
relevant experience.
Maybe they're the best place to test new shows before sinking
millions of dollars into production and network expenses.
foursquare. The race to own check-ins is over. Foursquare
won — hence the demise of Facebook Places. Innovations
include their masterstroke American Express deal, opening
up monetization opportunities and silencing the cynics.
Google+. This platform cleverly exposed a chink in Facebook.
It has a bunch of features, and is integrating them into their
properties pretty well. There's a lot riding on this — including
becoming the number 1 web destination again.
68
Q&a AUSTRALIA
Q&a CHINA

Written by Mark Krebs, Strategy Planner; SapientNitro Brisbane Written by Jennifer Tan, Chief Creative Officer, China; SapientNitro Shanghai

QueSTIoN 1
In the past three years, what were the top three trends in
digital consumer behavior and activities in your region?
"always on." Smartphones have truly flooded the market,
with many consumers upgrading to the most current
generations of products (largely, the iPhone 4) after their first
24-month phone plans. Tablet devices such as the iPad are also
increasingly common, particularly around the workplace.
QueSTIoN 2
In the next 12 – 24 months, what do you see as the key
opportunities for marketers in your region?
From a brand point of view, it will be about delivering added
value across the entire customer experience (Australian
consumer confidence is currently at its lowest levels since the
Global Financial Crisis). From a channel point of view, mobile
will be key as will connecting it with social CRM.
Connectivity. The ubiquity of social media has seen the
number of social "creators" plateau, giving rise to the social
"spectator" — largely driven by voyeurism. This can be seen
from an APAC region point-of-view with Australia having
some of the highest usage levels for Facebook globally.
e-commerce. This trend is driven by the trends above,
as well as the strength of the Australian dollar.
QueSTIoN 3
what would you highlight as examples of multi-channel
marketing campaigns in your region?
Tesco's virtual stores in Korea are exciting. In Australia,
CommBank's augmented reality newspaper ad could be
the future of advertising.
QueSTIoN 1
In the past three years, what were the top three trends in
digital consumer behavior and activities in your region?
Micropayments via social gaming, online commerce via
Taobao, and group buying platforms have reigned supreme.
QueSTIoN 2
In the next 12 – 24 months, what do you see as the key
opportunities for marketers in your region?
Integrating social media with e-commerce plus the
prevalence of micropayment online will lead to successful
social commerce. In addition, marketers should take advantage
of video-based marketing and in-store interactive marketing
via digital screens.
QueSTIoN 3
what would you highlight as examples of multi-channel
marketing campaigns in your region?
Lynx has one of the most successful multi-channel
campaigns. It relies on humour, celebrity endorsement,
and sexual innuendo to sell its products, and attracted
70,000 followers on Weibo and Renren in the first three
months alone.

QueSTIoN 4
In the last 12 months, what were the most creative,
design-driven campaigns of note in your region?
Drambuie's "The Premise" campaign and Foot Locker's
Art Prize.
QueSTIoN 5
what is the latest, hottest mobile application or mobile
product in your region?
Pocket Hipster. As one enthusiastic consumer put it,
“It’s like, the best music app ever!”

QueSTIoN 6 QueSTIoN 7
In the next 2 – 3 years, to what extent do you view what are the most important social platforms
consumer privacy as a concern in your region? regionally and why?
what are the implications? Facebook, thanks to the connectivity it offers, and YouTube,
Privacy? What privacy? With Google Street View, WikiLeaks, the content king.
and data harvesting, public is the new private. The implications
are far-reaching and yet to be seen.

70
 China's Social Media Market

Youku
Renren
Tudou
Sina Weibo
QueSTIoN 4
In the last 12 months, what were the most creative, QueSTIoN 7
design-driven campaigns of note in your region? what are the most important 1,300m
Mercedes, 7UP, and Levi's. social platforms regionally and why?
Video sharing via Youku.com and Tudou.com is the most 2,500m
QueSTIoN 5 QueSTIoN 6 popular social media activity, followed by messaging on
3,300m
what is the latest, hottest mobile application or mobile In the next 2 – 3 years, to what extent do you view QQ.com (China's instant messenger) and bargains on 3,600m
product in your region? consumer privacy as a concern in your region? Taobao.com (China's eBay). Search on Baidu.com is also
Currently Nokia and its app store are dominant, with what are the implications? important as every search allows users to create or join a
90% market share in China. Consumer privacy is still a nascent issue in China, but there forum thread.
was a recent move to enhance consumer protection. This will
have some implications on businesses who are used to paying
about $250 USD for thousands of pieces of vehicle owners’
information, including their names, cell phone numbers,
home addresses, vehicle models, colors, and more.

72
Q&a
Written by Jue Lu, Senior User Experience, Design; SapientNitro Singapore
QueSTIoN 1
In the past three years, what were the top three trends in
digital consumer behavior and activities in your region?
Smartphones and tablets, social networking, and digital data
in marketing and public service campaigns.
QueSTIoN 3
what would you highlight as examples of multi-channel
marketing campaigns in your region?
The Taiwan Tourism Bureau's Fun Taiwan Challenge on
TLC has found great success.
QueSTIoN 4
In the last 12 months, what were the most creative,
design-driven campaigns of note in your region?
A clever use of technology and design for retail
interaction was Melvyn's Nike Trackball campaign.
Formula 1 and Samsung Smart TV also developed
successful interactive campaigns.
QueSTIoN 5
what is the latest, hottest mobile application or mobile
SINGAPORE
product in your region?
Currently, FlightLover and taxi booking apps are paramount.
QueSTIoN 2
In the next 12 – 24 months, what do you see as the key
opportunities for marketers in your region?
Marketers must focus on digital interactive street media,
including digital signage, and figure out how to effectively use
mobile, real-time data, and innovation via a crowd. And social
networking is poised to become a future driver in purchase
through social video and live TV.
Additionally, the digital wallet will become a reality.
QueSTIoN 6 QueSTIoN 7
In the next 2 – 3 years, to what extent do you view what are the most important social platforms
consumer privacy as a concern in your region? regionally and why?
what are the implications? Facebook still the most popular social networking site.
Privacy is government driven. Singaporeans are quite mindful Facebook is like an extended arm of the individual‘s
(but sometimes a bit naive) of their security. While we take personality and voice. That, and Twitter.
it seriously, we are certainly reliant on the government to
ensure the technology is safe and secure.
74
Q&a
QueSTIoN 3 a mania across the nation over the last couple of years.
what would you highlight as examples of multi-channel MTV India’s experience also comes alive across a variety of
marketing campaigns in your region? youth-centric media touch points including mobile, social

INDIA The Vodafone ZooZoo campaign is one of the most successful

examples of multi-channel marketing in India. ZooZoos were
networking, and TV. The brand currently has one of the fastest
growing and most highly engaged communities on Facebook
launched as Vodafone’s brand mascots in 2009 and became and Orkut in India.

Written by Vidhya Sankarnarayan, Director; SapientNitro Gurgaon

QueSTIoN 1 Base: All India Internet Ever Users

In the past three years, what were the top three trends in (Urban) (All figures in Million)
digital consumer behavior and activities in your region?
Top 8 Metros Other Metros 5-10 lake towns Less than 5 lake towns
Mobile social media usage has increased. Active mobile
5 Mn 9 Mn 12 Mn 16 Mn 32 Mn 46 Mn 50 Mn 63 Mn
Internet users have increased to 26.3 million in India, as of March
5%
2011. E-mail, chat, search, social networking sites, and portals are 4% 20% 20% 19%
29% 29% 30% 36%
among the most commonly used applications. Lower subscription
13% QueSTIoN 4 handprint in blue (Team India’s colour). Fans continue to
7% 7% 6%
rentals, the availability of Internet-enabled cell phones at cheaper In the last 12 months, what were the most creative, "Bleed Blue" today.
10% 12%
15% 19% 20% 12%
prices, and increased digital literacy are some of the reasons why 12% design-driven campaigns of note in your region? In addition, Parle Hippo developed a very successful
mobile Internet penetration has risen. 20% 21% 21% Nike Bleed Blue. Cricket and Bollywood are India’s two campaign. Hippo chose to partner with its consumers in one
18%
E-commerce sites are hugely popular among consumers. biggest religions and every Indian marketer is constantly of the most inventive and simple Twitter campaigns India has
Indian e-commerce is on the rise, with around 17 million
77% 58% 55% 55% 41% 38% 37% 34% seeking opportunities to leverage them. The simple, yet seen. It asked them to tweet whenever they could not find
users. The fact that they feel comfortable shopping on the evocative, "Bleed Blue" mantra, which ran across traditional Hippo at outlets near them, with a promise to stock the outlet
Internet in a country that has historically been shy of online and new media, captured India’s imagination during the World as soon as possible.
spending speaks about the rising acceptance of the digital 2000 2001 2003 2004 2007 2008 2008 2009 Cup cricket frenzy of 2011. The campaign leveraged cricket Hippo’s campaign resulted in not just resolving the brand’s
medium in India. Sites like Flipkart.com have built a strong fervor in India by collecting over 11 million handprints via an distribution problem, but also kick-starting brand sales to
network of customers and escalated their business and valuation considerably over the last year. Additionally, group buying innovative digital and events-led campaign that inspired fans the point of selling out across over 200,000 stores.
and discount sites are gaining ground at a rapid pace. For example, Snapdeal.com attracts 500,000 visitors every day. to express their loyalty to the team by simply marking their
Internet usage is also skyrocketing. Small town India is edging out metropolitan cities in terms of Internet usage.

QueSTIoN 2
In the next 12 – 24 months, what do you see as the key
opportunities for marketers in your region?
With Internet-enabled mobile phone penetration going up,
Indian digital consumers are getting excited about the
possibilities it offers. Metro consumers are using mobile
phones for social networking, searching, and more. Social
networking is in fact beginning to emerge as one of the
biggest motivations to use the Internet on mobile, especially
among the youth. Internet on TV has also entered the Indian
market and could take-off in the next two years, offering
marketers the opportunities in brand tie-ups, applications,
games, etc.
Additionally, Foursquare is showing signs of lucrative growth
in the India market. It has caught the fancy of metro youth and
youth marketers in particular and is increasingly waking up to
its potential.

76

QueSTIoN 5
what is the latest, hottest mobile application or mobile
product in your region?
India is one of the most exciting emerging mobile markets
across the globe. Over the last few years, costs of handsets
Q&a
and mobile service offerings have plummeted making these
the most attainable digital devices.
Smartphones are currently the hottest mobile device.
Android is already investing in this trend by setting up its RUSSIA
largest development hub in India.

QueSTIoN 6 India’s relationship with personal space and privacy is very

In the next 2 – 3 years, to what extent do you view
consumer privacy as a concern in your region?
what are the implications?
different from that of the rest of the world. India’s current
buy in to digital media comes from the way they expand and
Written by Yulia Rubina, Senior Strategic Planner; SapientNitro Moscow
improve an individual’s life. It remains to be seen whether and
in what sense privacy will be a concern in India.

QueSTIoN 7
what are the most important social platforms
regionally and why?
Facebook’s popularity among Indian online users is at a high
with around 31.5 million users, double of what it was in 2010.
Over a third of Indian Internet users are on Facebook. Orkut
had been the leading social network in India since 2005, but
Facebook ousted Orkut as the number one platform in
July 2010. Orkut now rests at #10.
LinkedIn has also evolved into a highly popular and influential
social networking site among Indian professionals. LinkedIn
has grown at a rate of 76% in the past year and with a user
count of 9 million, it is poised to get bigger.
QueSTIoN 1
In the past three years, what were the top three trends in
digital consumer behavior and activities in your region?
Smartphones. Mobile Internet audiences were two times
bigger versus general Internet audience last year and mobile
content and applications demonstrate active growth.
The Internet. The amount of users and their activity is
growing on the Russian Internet (Runet), as well as the
amount of viewed pages and time spent. In general, the
typical urban person spends two hours a day on the Internet,
with half of this time devoted to social networks.
IPTV. With more diversity, and higher quality, the amount of
people watching TV (federal and online channels) is increasing.

QueSTIoN 2 russian Internet activity

In the next 12 – 24 months, what do you see as the key Portals 26 MMH.
opportunities for marketers in your region? Social 51 MMH.
Networks 5 MMH.
Integrated campaigns with interactive cyber elements,
5 MMH.
advocates who are willing to recommend and talk about your News 2 MMH.
brand or product in social networks, and mobile marketing Resources 9 MMH.
will be dominate opportunities. Education 6 MMH.
5 MMH.
Software 2 MMH.
Video 15 MMH.
Product 10 MMH.
Catalogues 6 MMH.
7 MMH.
Blogs 5 MMH.
Weather 5 MMH.

QueSTIoN 3
what would you highlight as examples of multi-channel
marketing campaigns in your region?
Red Quest aimed to engage a young audience. This mobile
tariff plan from MTS was developed to save Russia from the
increasing smog and heat. At the heart of this campaign is a
team game that resulted in 3.5 million unique visitors in the
first two months, 1.04 million registered participants, and
800,000 app installations.

78

QueSTIoN 4
In the last 12 months, what were the most creative,
design-driven campaigns of note in your region?
Red Quest, Windows with noise insulation, and BCE PABHO.
QueSTIoN 5
what is the latest, hottest mobile application or mobile
product in your region?
Red Quest, Angry Birds, and Foursquare.
QueSTIoN 6
In the next 2 – 3 years, to what extent do you view
consumer privacy as a concern in your region?
what are the implications?
Many Russians do not care about privacy. In fact, there is no
direct translation of the word. We are quite open and comfortable
posting pictures in social networks and sharing details of our
private lives. Perhaps because we are used to living in limited
spaces and were given no privacy during Soviet times.
QueSTIoN 7
what are the most important social platforms
regionally and why?
In August 2010, Russia ranked #1 worldwide in time spent on
social networking sites, with Vkontakte, a site geared toward
socialising and fun, at the top. Also highly popular is
Odnoklassniki, a social network service primarily for
classmates and old friends.
Q&a
Written by Matt Horobin, Strategic Planning Director; SapientNitro Dubai
QueSTIoN 1
In the past three years, what were the top three trends in
digital consumer behavior and activities in your region?
We've seen two. The first is significant growth in popularity
and prevalence of social media usage. The most popular
social media sites are international versions such as
QueSTIoN 2
In the next 12 – 24 months, what do you see as the key
opportunities for marketers in your region?
Despite the above activity on such networks, social media
marketing has yet to be truly maximised. Brands are active in
the online social space but in a very timid, traditional way. This
lack of confidence likely stems from the "mystification" of the
social space and a general lack of understanding. Brands are
also concerned about the implications of engaging with
consumers in an open, two-way dialogue and the ceding of
QueSTIoN 3
what would you highlight as examples of multi-channel
marketing campaigns in your region?
There are very few examples of campaigns using mobile as part
of a multi-channel campaign. However, a leader in innovative
communications within the region is Batelco, the leading
Bahraini Telco, with its "Infinity" campaign.
QueSTIoN 4
In the last 12 months, what were the most creative,
design-driven campaigns of note in your region?
MIDDLE EAST
Facebook but we have local versions as well.
The second is increased smartphone ownership.
While Smartphone sales are trending, this ownership is not
necessarily leading to high levels of usage of smartphone
technologies due to prohibitive data costs.
control that comes with this — as well as a perceived lack
of measurability.
Transforming such activity into genuine consumer
engagement, leading to accountable brand- and revenue-
building opportunities, will be the next step.
The next opportunity will be mobile engagement. With mobile
penetration at nearly 200%, this channel offers massive
potential. Currently brands rely on push SMS campaigns to
engage with mobile users, mostly alienating rather than allying
them. Critical to success will be a more competitive mobile
landscape with more affordable pricing, which is on the horizon.
A second example of harnessing online consumer behaviour is
the Standard Chartered "Food Explorer" concept — although
this was almost entirely online and not so multi-channel in its
approach. It involved establishing an online dining community
to promote SC's credit cards and an associated discount at
selected restaurants.
Again, Batelco launched a much-acclaimed brand campaign,
which is probably as creative a campaign as has ever come
out of this region.
80

QueSTIoN 5
what is the latest, hottest mobile application or mobile
product in your region?
Tablets — either in form of an iPad, a Samsung Galaxy, or a
BlackBerry PlayBook. These big-ticket items tend to come at
QueSTIoN 6
In the next 2 – 3 years, to what extent do you view
consumer privacy as a concern in your region?
what are the implications?
At a governmental, social, and legal level, privacy is not such
an issue. Given the mostly non-democratic nature of the
QueSTIoN 7
what are the most important social platforms regionally
and why?
Facebook is the most popular social platform. Twitter is
gaining ground but is still relatively niche. In a region that
struggles with self-expression and individuality in the real
world, the virtual opportunities for self-expression are very
compelling. Community is also a critical pillar of Arab culture
and the instant, real-time connectivity that such platforms
enable is unrivalled.
a high price and therefore remain niche amongst wealthier
audiences. However, these audiences are key influencers and
will define wider consumer behaviours as prices decrease and
associated up-take broadens.
Middle East (well, until recently!), there is little concern
regarding personal privacy at an institutional level. This
privacy issue only becomes a concern at a personal level
where individuals may not be comfortable sharing content
(e.g., imagery) of themselves and their lives, given the
custom of women remaining veiled in public at all times.
Facebook recently proved itself as a formidable catalyst of
social change by facilitating uprisings across the Arab world.
At the same time, Facebook is also being used by youths
looking to date, meet, and marry.
Blogging is also big — particularly in Saudi Arabia where
this serves as really the only means of self-expression —
particularly for women. As a result, blogs are now
tightly controlled.
Q&a
Written by Torsten Schollmayer, Mobile Experience Strategist; SapientNitro Dusseldorf
QueSTIoN 1
In the past three years, what were the top three trends in
digital consumer behavior and activities in your region?
QR codes as marketing tools for mobile microsites, the
growth of e-commerce (especially for brands like Adidas or
electronic goods), and social media campaigns and activities
within Facebook.
QueSTIoN 3
what would you highlight as examples of multi-channel
marketing campaigns in your region?
The remote EPG of the IPTV service of Deutsche Telekom is
available via mobile website, mobile app, and desktop website
QueSTIoN 4
In the last 12 months, what were the most creative,
design-driven campaigns of note in your region?
Vodafone launched several real-time campaigns promoting
moments with music in combination with social networks.
QueSTIoN 6
In the next 2 – 3 years, to what extent do you view
consumer privacy as a concern in your region?
what are the implications?
Historically, German customers are very sensitive with
privacy in general, and with data security in particular. A lot of
regulations are currently in place and the media acts quickly
if there is a breach in any kind of privacy. The fear of giving
away privacy and owning the data is huge.
GERMANY
QueSTIoN 2
In the next 12 – 24 months, what do you see as the key
opportunities for marketers in your region?
Mobile commerce and the digital wallet (NFC) will drive the next
wave of marketing meets technology. The smartphone will be
the most used Internet device and will be complemented by
tablet devices. Consumers and sales personnel will interact
with these devices and will be standard in-store.
in order to manage (e.g., add, edit, delete) recordings on
the IPTV box in the users' living rooms.
Additionally, the Audi car campaigns are the most advanced
offerings on all channels, presenting quality and brand
value continuously.
QueSTIoN 5
what is the latest, hottest mobile application or mobile
product in your region?
The most used and downloaded mobile app is the WhatsApp
Messenger application, which offers simple text messaging for
all mobile platforms. Despite any availability on web or desktop
platforms, the traction still grows: Group chatting and picture
and video sharing are the key functions.
QueSTIoN 7
what are the most important social platforms
regionally and why?
Facebook is heads and shoulders above the others.
But Twitter, and the VZ-group offerings (StudiVZ and
SchuelerVZ) are valuable too.
82
Q&a
QueSTIoN 4
In the last 12 months, what were the most creative,
design-driven campaigns of note in your region?
Using clever campaigns to connect with consumers in the
QueSTIoN 6
In the next 2 – 3 years, to what extent do you view
consumer privacy as a concern in your region?
what are the implications?

UK region. Generating great ideas, which deliver real value and

deliver them using innovative technology. One example is a
bus shelter campaign run by VitaminWater — "Recharge."
By recharging your cell phone while you’re waiting in the
bus stop, VitaminWater stayed on-brand — and offered their
customers a positive experience to boot.
In addition, mobile and associated technology, location-based
services, and the mobile wallet are massive opportunities.
Ability to form truly multi-channel experiences — and
delivering on those experiences.
It's important. A client is currently engaging us on a project
related to this topic, in which future monetization of data relies
on permissions to enable business services like location driven
advertising and targeted marketing. The key is to provide trust
and reassurance, and to show, wherever possible, the benefits
to the customer. So whilst reassurance and privacy is key, more
and more consumers are also realistic that data can make
modern services better.

Written by Paul Bevan, Mobile Strategist; SapientNitro UK, Chad Cribbins, Associate Creative Director; SapientNitro UK
QueSTIoN 1
In the past three years, what were the top three trends in
digital consumer behavior and activities in your region?
Higher adoption of smartphones and tablets. There has been
a huge increase in touch screen devices. Greater maturity of
QueSTIoN 5 QueSTIoN 7
what is the latest, hottest mobile application or mobile what are the most important social platforms
product in your region? regionally and why?
Vouchercloud displays vouchers for restaurants, retailers, Facebook is the obvious leader in the UK. It offers a nice
and evening out events. The interface is nice and intuitive. global platform, with an intuitive mobile offering. LinkedIn
industry. We've gone from “I must have an app” to a more
web app, which uses HTML5 technology to provide native-like provides huge amounts of value in the B2B space, and is
mature and business-driven approach. Increasing customer
experience through a mobile browser. growing in popularity.
demands. Fun, useful, and usable experiences on mobile
TripAdvisor isn't the newest, but their mobile app uses the
devices whenever, and wherever they want have become
hybrid model quite effectively.
standard and expected.

QueSTIoN 2 Particularly important to international firms. Yet many times,

In the next 12 – 24 months, what do you see as the key
opportunities for marketers in your region?
Health and mobile apps. Being able to use your mobile
device as a health monitor will become even more popular.
Consumers will use phones to remind themselves to take
drugs, measure heart rates, and track their loved ones with
dementia via GPS.
Standardization. When you visit a company’s page in a given
region, it needs to feel the same as those in other areas.
offers, pricing, and stores vary. Branding needs to feel
consistent, but regional leaders need to be able to tailor
their offerings and merchandise according to local needs.
Collaborate and leverage technology. More and more in
mobile, you can only offer the caliber of experience that people
are requiring if you have a solid set of front-end and back-end
technology to support it. Until you get the technology stuff sorted,
you can have nice ideas, but all those things are reliant on effective
technology behind the scenes. That’s often the painful bit.

QueSTIoN 3 Additionally, the Aurora Group, a major UK retailer, will deliver

what would you highlight as examples of multi-channel
marketing campaigns in your region?
British Airways' mobile ticketing campaign allows users to
check in on the way to the airport and use a QR code to get to
their gates as quickly and easily as possible.
orders from any channel — mobile, in-store, eCommerce —
within 90 minutes, thanks to a fantastic, organized inventory
system. They also recently announced an iPad point-of-sale
device for sales associates to take payments, and to browse
and order on the brand's website.This sets a new benchmark
in this space and has delivered huge success in the UK.

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foresight:
THe oNe To fIVe Year
TreND ouTlook
Written by Rob Gonda, Global Head of Innovation; SapientNitro Miami and
Hilding Anderson, Sr. Manager, Research + Insights; SapientNitro Washington, DC

Tomorrow’s consumers are increasingly empowered to participate and

share their perceptions of brands, products, and their environment.
The implication? Brands will be forced to respond and react faster and
better than they have in the past. Social, geo, local, mobile — all these
terms reflect a new reality: an empowered consumer with more
information and tools than any one brand or individual can handle.

Interesting, yes, but also scary, as major brands rise and fall. watch for
these new trends — what we call the SapientNitro Seven.
1
The SapientNitro Seven: Trends to Shape the Next one to Three Years
Trend 1: Transmedia Storytelling
Marketing has evolved from the traditional one-value
message broadcast, and the consumer has evolved from
passive to engaged. Technology has empowered people to
consume media at their own pace, in their own terms, and
shifted the notion of trust — from the brands to other people.
Over the past few years, research has demonstrated that
the power of a recommendation drastically improves
conversion; people have found an easy way to tap into their
friends' networks for recommendations, disrupting the
focus of brands attempting to influence this new space.
But the wheels keep turning and, by 2014, we will have
reached an era of data and friendship overload. In fact,
studies show trust has shifted so much that people world-
wide need to hear the same thing three to five times before
they believe it; in the U.S., it gets as high as eight to nine
times. People will have so much advice online that the true
value of that advice will be reduced — the law of diminished
returns. People will revert back to seeking expertise, not
just friendly input; they will seek expertise from a subgroup
of their social circles or from experts in the field elevated by
brands. It is an opportunity for brands to regain their voice.
Messaging and information will need to be consistent across
channels — TV, radio, print, digital, mobile, and social will
all have to confirm, extend, or complement the same
information to gain that trust of the skeptical consumer.
The truth is that today's art of storytelling goes beyond
narrative and requires the understanding of networks,
group dynamics, and social spread. The introduction of
social media has further coined terms such as "social
currency," "likeonomics," and "attentionomics," all
attempting to put a structure around the art of word of
mouth, conversation propagation, and influence.
Brands will succeed when they understand the proper
media mix, allow stories to run free, take their own shape,
empower liquid content, and understand that their brand
experience is the sum of all the little moments — and they
need to make each one of them count.
when will this trend be relevant?
It is relevant now, and will continue to be increasingly
relevant over the years.
who will be affected?
2
Brands, advertising agencies, PR agencies
Trend 2: Data Is the New Holy Grail
Data is the most undervalued aspect of our business. It is
traditionally misconceived as analytics and afterthought,
and more recently upgraded to mining results to refine
strategy. However, those who undercover the power of data
to drive personalized experiences that optimize outcomes
will succeed.
There's a new notion of "big data" and specialized
databases optimized for NoSQL. The amount of data
collected today is far greater than the amount of data
possible to consume. Companies are investing in data
scientists and experts in visualization; the art of making
the most complex relationships easy to absorb by the
business minds is becoming highly valuable.
Advancement in storage capacity and processing power,
especially the one delivered by cloud computing, is making
it possible to quickly process and understand the data in
macro and micro levels, allowing it to be used to customize
real-time experiences. The holy grail of data is a centralized
database with a single view of the customer and all related
dimensions: customer data, their relations, sales,
marketing, advertising, transactions, behaviors, and social.
We will not only have all these dimensions and be able to
apply advanced business intelligence, but be able to use
them in real time to predict the next action and optimize
brand exposure.
The semantic web has been a long time coming, the true
web 3.0, if we dare to keep the term web in this new era.
Semantic computing will allow all brands to be contextually
relevant and aware, driving an optimized value exchange
between brands and consumers.
when will this trend be relevant?
Early traces are surfacing, mainly focused on behavioral
display advertising and socially driven commerce. More
integrated solutions should start appearing in two years
and a fully formed contextual computing ecosystem should
take shape in five.
who will be affected?
Brands, media companies, technology companies
3
Trend 3: Technology Invades and enables
advertising and Marketing
There should be no doubt that today’s customer experience
is enabled and driven by technology. Everything from the
very basic notion of connectivity: broadband to cloud
computing to mobile devices and tablets to smart televisions
to in-store kiosks to digital merchandising. The consumer
drives, and the money follows. Many top venture capital
dollars reside in the technology domain, sponsoring high-tech
and innovation startups, which are fueling the evolving
customer experience.
It is — and will continue to be — interesting to observe
the impact of pure technology companies in the world of
marketing and advertising. Take Google Labs. It wasn’t
until 2010 that they started to get recognition: Super Bowl
ads, the Ad Age A-List, and in 2011 appearing at Cannes,
winning five Lions, and winning "Media Person of the Year."
They have been shaking the industry not just by being
creative, but by using technology to bend the limits of
what’s possible. A perfect example is their ongoing Chrome
Experiments, which use HTML5 to build dynamic new
experiences in the browser, which weren't possible before.
HTML5, for instance, has opened the doors not only to
innovation on the web, but is particularly strong in the cross-
platform application arena, enabling building applications that
run on multiple mobile platforms, tablets, even on TV.
when will this trend be relevant?
Venture capitals are betting on disruptive technology. There
is a mass overvaluation in the private equity section, and all
eyes are on tech companies that are going public to either
predict a sustainable growth or another bubble.
who will be affected?
Venture capitals, startups
4
Trend 4: Digital Invades retail
Integrating the physical world with digital technology (and
vice-versa) is one of the most interesting and opportunity-rich
territories of our age. It happens everywhere, but one of the
largest opportunities and demonstrations is happening in
retail environments. Innovative brands are using digital
experiences to draw new customers, enhance their shopping
experiences, extend and facilitate social communications,
and — soon — will integrate mobile payments.
1. enter, customer. The digital retail experience starts
before customers have even entered the store. Back
projections, cameras, and gesture recognition (made
easy through Kinect), allow people to engage with stores
without stepping in.
2. ambient in-store interaction. Once hooked, digital
installations engage, immerse, and entertain, enticing the
customer to stay and shop.
3. a richer product experience. Once shopping, digital
technology including short code, RFID, reader displays, and
augmented reality will be able to provide a wealth of detail
around the item the customer is interested in, from related
products, to reviews, to promotions.
4. lean on me. The shop assistant will use digital
technologies as well to help the customer evaluate
and compare choices and offer advice.
5. The fitting room. Augmented reality browsing and
customization will be increasingly possible.
6. a second opinion. People seek validation by close social
circles. Retailers that understand the purchase lifecycle
and provide a shortcut — such as validation without leaving
the store — will have the power to increase the conversion
significantly.
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when will this trend be relevant?
We’ve seen initial prototypes in store, though not many
have shown significant results and ROI. Over the next
couple of years, the cost of these experiences will go down,
5
allowing deeper experimentation and growth.
who will be affected?
Retailers, design companies, technology companies
Trend 5: Collaboration and Co-Creation
Brands and products used to be a closed system. Research
and development, manufacturing, marketing, and retail
were all different silos. But the system has changed —
feedback loops are now open, and everything is
interconnected. Brands used to hire research focus groups
to understand consumer perception, whereas now the
feedback is immediate and everyone has a voice. Not only
that, but consumers are passionate about becoming part of
the community and having a say in the product’s future.
Smart brands are allowing their advocates to evangelize
them, influence connections, and provide critical feedback.
They build systems and tools to elevate their brand advocates
and give them an even larger voice. By building and
moderating these communities, brands have the opportunity
to sit on a gold mine of insight and data that will not only drive
their product and release strategy, but will potentially inform
every aspect of their business.
A great example is Sneakerpedia by Foot Locker, a
community that enables sneaker fans to post and share their
collections. By providing tools for an existing community to
communicate, get closer together, and elevate their status,
Foot Locker built themselves an insights factory that can
understand demand through many dimensions such as
demographics, cultures, locations, and seasonality. These
insights can inform stores about inventory, fulfillment,
marketing strategy, and drive vendor relations — all because
of what seemed to be a simple community repository for
"sneakerheads."
A further step in brand advocate involvement is true
co-creation — everything from the store experience
(Starbucks), the advertising (Old Spice), or the product
(VitaminWater). It gives fans a sense of belonging, ownership,
early buy-in, and guarantees success as the end result.
when will this trend be relevant?
Brands are already betting on, and building, communities,
though some are still learning to identify tribes and
understand complex relationships. Co-creation requires a
much more liberal approach but after a few success stories
over the next few years, it will begin to push stronger adoption.
who will be affected?
Brands
6 7
Trend 6: Cloudification
“The Cloud” has been picking up rapidly with growth of
a combination of software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-
service, and infrastructure-as-a-service solutions; but
despite the level of abstraction or solution layer, easy
access to endless storage and processing power is reducing
barriers to entry and giving birth to more start-ups and
services than ever before.
Amazon AWS is leading the charge in the infrastructure
side, hosting massive services such as Netflix, Foursquare,
BackType, HootSuite, IMDb, and Yelp just to name a few.
The race however, is to win the connected experiences:
iCloud, Google+, Spotify, Pandora, and Kindle are all
allowing users to sync content through the cloud and
allowing mobile phones, tablets, and TVs to converge.
Led by the music industry, and extended by Google and
other brands, the ability to move licensed content, shared
content, and, in the future, even entire operating systems to
the Internet will create substantial value for organizations
and customers alike.
For instance, Google+ might be a much closer competitor
to iCloud than to Facebook. It will embed itself natively into
Android mobile devices, Google TV, Chomebooks, and the
Google ecosystem, allowing people to socialize, and store,
and share all their pictures, videos, music, and more —
exactly the same promise as Apple iCloud. Ultimately,
these giants are not fighting to own your data, friends,
or social networks; they want to own the experience.
Benefits will include easy access across devices (a key
expectation for the new multi-channel consumers), lower
hardware requirements, and integrated community and
social networks. Downsides will include a reliance on data
networks, privacy concerns related to the data being stored
and shared without your permission, and performance. But
the cloud is here to stay, even when it doesn’t make sense
for all applications.
when will this trend be relevant?
The cloud is the de-facto platform solution for every
solution provider start-up, music and videos are rapidly
adopting, and will play a revolutionary role in user-content
storage over the next 36 months.
who will be affected?
Large companies, consumers
Trend 7: real-time everything
In the age of constant connectivity, information travels
at the speed of light. Technology enables instant
communication — although it’s nothing new. People use more
SMS instead of email, social network chats and feeds, and
Twitter to announce earthquakes before the mainstream
news channels can mobilize their traditional channels. All
these experiences are setting expectations of responsiveness
— and brands need to evolve to provide them.
However, the real opportunity is for the brands. Access to
real-time data allows brands to be more relevant in every
engagement, and brands must be situational-aware and
contextually relevant to succeed.
The world of data has evolved from being used to analyze the
past, to optimize the present, and ultimately to predict the
future. Real-time data gives brands the ability to combine and
compute massive sources of data — including demographic
and psychographic, historic purchases, sales and marketing,
social and conversational, and externalities such as
environmental, political, and economic data. Calculating
correlations and causality among all the different variables
allows the brand to build predictive models to optimize
every interaction — ultimately gaining relevance with the
consumers, but with the goal of increasing the conversion
ratios and sales.
Access to real-time data — and being able to process and
compute in nanoseconds — is changing the decision
making engines. Small and large technology companies
are all investing in real-time decisions, using a wide array
of techniques: neural networks, statistical models, and
even genealogy.
One example of this trend in the media space is real-time
bidding (RTB). A simple concept, RTB matches real-time
supply and demand of media properties to maximize
relevance and gain. RTB is slowly evolving to incorporate
more sophisticated decision engines that are not solely
based on price, but actually value and yield.
Data is abundant and will be soon commoditized; context
will continue to gain relevance and soon create a context
marketplace. In the near future, the money will reside in
the media properties and the right audience segments.
Real-time everything represents predicting every outcome
and constantly adapting to responses, applied at the macro
and micro levels.
when will this trend be relevant?
Real time, now.
who will be affected?
Large companies, consumers
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The long Term: what to watch for in Three to five Years
3
Marketing services are experiencing a major and rapid
4
evolution. Predicting the future in this space is difficult.
we have created four future scenarios, which illustrate
visions of the world in 2014 to 2016.
2
Most likely, none of these scenarios will be completely
accurate. rather, they should be used as a tool to help
make crucial business decisions. Invest in a portfolio of
1
capabilities which, when combined, will strategically
position your company most advantageously across a
combination of these scenarios.
Scenario 1: Privacy
A combination of government intervention, over-aggressive
use of cookies and tracking technology, a well-publicized
murder based on a privacy invasion, and poorly managed
advertising and marketing business will result in changes
for privacy. Governments will intervene, severely restricting
a number of key marketing technologies.
Nevertheless, we will see the next generation of existing
tracking technologies. Today, facial recognition is already
in use by Facebook (and called illegal by the UK and
German governments) and in select retail locations to
identify visitors by gender, ethnicity, and age. Cookies are
being replaced by alternative tracking technologies such
as flash-shared objects, HTML5 storage, and HTTP ETags.
Companies like Phorm are conducting behavioral analysis
of ISP data to deliver targeted behavioral ads.
If these trends continue, we expect a privacy response
across the three main areas: mobile, shopping, and online.
Mobile. Major new controls will be built into systems
to allow precise, app-level control of location-based,
geo-fencing, and personal information.
Shopping. In-store biometrics and tracking will be
delayed or pushed off, digital innovation in-store will
suffer, and the dot-coms will be the ultimate winners,
as consumers seek anonymity.
online. All ISPs will be required to conceal and block
cookies and other tracking mechanisms when requested
by the consumer. Personalization, email, and cross-sell
effectiveness will be greatly reduced.
Implications for major brands
Don’t over-invest in social commerce and tracking tips.
Respect consumers privacy concerns today to help reduce
the risk of this scenario. Be prepared for potential
regulatory changes.
Scenario 2: Digitally enabled retail Business Models
Major advances in digital retail will transform the way we
shop and enable the creation of entirely new retail business
models. Moving beyond the integration of digital we
discussed in Trend 4, above, in this scenario the retail
industry is forced to adapt to an ever-more digital business
in order to compete with new business models.
Kiosks and mobile integration will become routine. New
layouts will optimize flow, remove checkout aisles, and
allow associates to check out consumers anywhere in the
store, maximizing sales per square foot. Major pharmacies
will roll out kiosk-only stores (think: Redbox writ large).
Rich, interactive exhibits in retail stores will delight and
entertain younger shoppers, and create an entirely new
level of brand engagement.
New business models around virtual goods, extensive multi-
channel delivery options, just-in-time inventory, and pop-up
stores become important levers to complement the still-
dominant traditional retail channel. Efficiencies gained from
nimbleness and reduced overhead will result in lower cost,
which will allow small businesses to complete with the
massive capitalized investments of large retailers. Pure
digital offerings will allow businesses to mobilize quicker,
perhaps enter a new time-share or charter model —
leasing only the time they need.
Meeting the customer at the moment of truth is a timeless
guiding principle, which will hold and sustain value as
technology improves customer segmentations and is able
to better predict consumer behavior.
Implications for major brands
If you have a retail presence, be prepared for a major
investment in your physical footprint, along with the
back-end technology, which drives these experiences. Those
companies who lag in their investment will find their in-store
experience fails to attract this new demanding consumer.
Scenario 3: Mobile everywhere
Goodbye, desktop computer. The mobile device (including
tablets) will continue its rise, becoming the dominant device
on the Internet. Mobile shopping, mobile advertising,
consumer behavior shifts, and the mobile wallet will
converge to make mobile the go-to choice for shopping,
reading, and watching while on-the-go or at home.
Tablets will have overtaken laptops for typical users, while
desktops and laptops will be mainly for content creators:
developers and designers.
U.S. usage will begin to track more closely to Southeast
Asian behaviors, and mobile will be the way to have
personal time while at home, on the bus, at school, or
spending time with a group. Carriers will make major
investments into data networks as bandwidth (despite
upgrades to WiMAX or LTE) will continue to be a major issue.
Smartphone users will become the majority and adoption
will continue to increase at an accelerated pace, at which
point they will not be called smartphones anymore, they
will be just phones. New phones, enabled with GPS,
cameras, Bluetooth, and NFC will connect, pay, and
become full-featured tools to enable consumer digital
lifestyle. Wearable devices — eyeglasses and contact lenses
— will use integrated sensors, cloud-based processing, and
cloud-based data to present additional layers of information
of the world around us; but at their heart, they will still be
powered by the universal connected device: the mobile phone.
Implications for major brands
Mobile will no longer be another track, channel, or
extension of a web-centric campaign; instead mobile
will take the front seat and be the center piece, core and
essential as the primary digital medium, with all other
media as extensions.
Mobile commerce is no longer a luxury — in this scenario,
your mobile presence will influence the majority of your
sales across all channels. Multi-device support will
continue to transition from an optional luxury to an
essential element of a company’s strategy.
Scenario 4: Context will Be king
Social networks and major Internet players are making
headway in storing every aspect of our lives. Facebook is
effectively tracking people, their relations to each other,
and their relations to brands, objects, things, and tastes.
Google is tracking click behaviors, keywords, and interests,
and with Google+ it will bring in personal data such as
videos, photos, music, and games. Apple iCloud is playing
in a similar space, trying to capture all user-generated
assets and commoditize the storage, sharing, and
socialization aspects. They are all becoming master social
data warehouses.
However, smart and effective engagements will be the
ones who can consume, process, and act on all this data in
real-time, at the moment of truth. We will see new types of
companies surfacing and providing enormous value: RTDE
(real-time decision engines). These RTDEs will use
advanced semantic analysis and statistical models to
leverage the massive amount of data, understand the
nature of every engagement, and predict the best possible
scenario for a brand to engage.
There will be a strong emphasis in value exchange. People
will perceive much greater value when brands understand
their needs, in context of the exact moment, and help them
fulfill them. Brands become more situationally aware, and
therefore more contextually relevant.
Raw data, highly valuable today, will slowly get commoditized
— giving room for media, audience identification, and
contextual brokers to take the main stage.
Implications for major brands
Brands have to evolve from broadcast message delivery,
beyond enabling social conversations, into understanding
context of conversations. There is great value to be unveiled
by fusing existing data sources with new ones. Yet the focus
in the future should not be on data collection, but rather on
technology or services that allow access to the valuable
data when needed. Real-time usage of this data — to
predict outcomes and maximize the chances of success —
will separate leaders from followers.
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Note from the editor:
We do live in interesting times. Consumers are in the midst of a dramatic change — mobile is hitting critical mass and digital is
influencing up to 45% of all retail sales, even as companies struggle and, too often, fail to move beyond their silos to connect
with their customers across channels.

As I reflect on the content of this report, I'd like to highlight eight key insights:
• The Google Wallet, PayPal, and Starbucks (and perhaps Apple) represent the future of payment, loyalty, and
rewards programs. (Mobile Moments: Mobile wallet)
• Companies must escape from "desktop thinking" when developing new products and services. Specific
techniques, including user research, can help envision new mobile services. (Context — The New Gold of the
Mobile Industry)
• Apple’s mobile app accelerates face-to-face interactions in store; for in-store mobile applications to be successful
over the long-term, they must represent a tangible, genuine value for consumers. (Mobile Moments: In-Store Mobile)
• Digitally enabled retail stores and, more importantly, new retail business models (pop-up stores, large kiosk-only stores,
and rich interactive exhibits) have substantial potential. (foresight: The one to five Year Trend outlook: Trend 4 and
Scenario 2)
• Device-agnostic multi-channel experiences, like the Kindle, will paradoxically allow for increasingly
specialized devices, while enabling seamless switching. (Mobile Moments: Integrated experiences)
• Digital Marketing Platforms are allowing marketers to plan, deliver, and measure sophisticated multi-channel
marketing campaigns. (Digital Marketing Platforms: Taking Back Control)
• Challenges remain after you roll out your new commerce platform: we explore what they are, and how to overcome
the inevitable compromises you’ve made along the way. (after the release: Maximizing Value from Your Commerce
Platform Investment)
• Thoughts from the Middle East team revealed the search for self-expression and individuality on Twitter, Facebook, and
blogs amid the Arab Spring. (International Perspectives: Middle east)

We hope you’ve enjoyed reviewing Insights 2012. Our goal for this report was to pull together some of the best thought leaders
across SapientNitro globally, and share our perspectives on the evolution of communication and commerce. We hope this
report has succeeded in helping you better understand this ever-changing landscape.

Respectfully submitted,

Hilding Anderson, Research + Insights

Editor of Insights 2012

acknowledgements:
This report could not have been assembled without the support of a great many people. Several I’d like to highlight
include: Lauren Cohen, Todd Cherkasky, Rob Gonda, Rachel Zinser, Abby Adolph, Julie Capron, Seijen Takamura, Annicka
Campbell, Scott Tang, David Hewitt, Steven Fisher, Byron Cunningham, Sherie Freedman, Allison Bistrong, Sarah Bosch,
and many others.

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about SapientNitro
SapientNitroSM, part of Sapient®, is an integrated marketing
and technology services firm. We create and engineer highly
relevant experiences that accelerate business growth and fuel
brand advocacy for our clients. By combining multi-channel
marketing, multi-channel commerce, and the technology that
binds them, we influence customer behavior across the
spectrum of content, communication, and commerce channels,
resulting in deeper, more meaningful relationships between
customers and brands. SapientNitro services global leaders
such as Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Foot Locker,
Singapore Airlines, Target, and Vodafone through our
operations in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
For more information, visit www.sapientnitro.com or
follow us on Twitter@sapientnitro.

for additional information:

lauren Nguyen Cohen
Director, Marketing
SapientNitro San Francisco
lcohen@sapient.com
@ltnguyen

for media inquiries:

David laBar
Global Communications Director
SapientNitro NYC
dlabar@sapient.com
@dlabar

Design
aaron Thornburgh
Art Director
SapientNitro Washington, DC

emily Carroll
Designer
SapientNitro Miami

editor
Hilding anderson
Sr. Manager, Research + Insights
SapientNitro Washington, DC

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