AR is really catching on with marketing projects. It is growing steadily because it is fairly inexpensive, it can fit on a website and it is new.
From a marketing perspective what is not to love? It is a an opportunity to get clients involved and excited. It creates an emotional connection to a product that no one can fake.
This sort of relationship between people and a brand allows them to experience it or its benefits in a brand-new way. People are becoming more comfortable with this technology and that means they are engaging in it more often. Marketers see this and have responded with more AR based initiatives.
One place with a lot of growth is in kid’s toys and games. For instance Nestle in France released a cereal box that that when held up to a web cam becomes a game console with a motion sensor just like Wii. Their video explains pretty well this unbelievable technology. Check it out:
So FYI I’m a Bimmer guy. Like the cars (not so much the drivers – yes the cliches are true unfortunately). BMW is coming out with a new 5-series and they just launched this teaser commercial to announce the full showing on 11/23. But the teaser is really cool to look at.
Take a look, it was filmed in the BMW museum using an actual art-exhibit piece—- NO CGI. Pretty cool. And very ballsy.
So if you haven’t heard about it, there is a new Google Android smartphone out on the Verizon network, and its called the ‘Droid’. Its cool for a number of reasons. One, its the version 2.0 of the Google Android Mobile OS, so its improved over the first version that was launched on HTC phones. Second, the phone hardware was done by Motorola (yes, remember them?), and this could be their first hit since the Razr back in the early 2000s.
The reviews so far has been good. Here are some links to two:
So, why am I talking about the Droid? Well we got involved ourselves with the launch. Working with one of our Clients, we help developed this cool mobile marketing app that is now in selected Verizon Wireless stores. Regular folks can come to a special laptop with our app, use the webcam to do a face-capture, and then the app will make them into a ‘droid’. You can then use this new image to send to your own phone or a family/friend’s phone number.
We’ll show how the app works in a later post, but here are some of Plus Factory’s members as newly captured ‘droids’.
azand » 09 November 2009 » In General » Comments Off
A call to action is an important part of successful web design. When done right it can help users to navigate seamlessly through a site when done wrong these little buttons can cause big frustration for users and have an even bigger impact on a page’s success. It may seem like a lot for a little button, but think about it, these buttons are asking users to do something (usually click!). You want to ask nicely!
Let’s start with a lesson on how to make a bad button. Make it indistinguishable from the rest of the page. In fact make it not even look like a button, just link the copy. Use a word on it that people aren’t expecting and would never look for when they are trying to checkout, buy, contact you, or whatever. This way even if they do manage to figure out where it is they’ll be confused and unsure if it really is a good idea to click it. Fill your website with buttons like this and you won’t have to worry about customers complaining — they won’t know how. In fact pretty soon if your website is frustrating enough you will not even have to worry about pesky customers at all!
Now if you’d like to make clickable buttons that isn’t too tough either, it just takes some design and common sense these and the right call to action make people click happy. Start off by making it easy for people to find it, if they are looking for it, it is your job to make that button pop right out. Don’t make them work! If they can’t see where to “Buy Now” who’s to say they’ll hang around, they will probably just go somewhere else and get it. It is silly to lose people at the crucial moment because they can’t find a button! Make them distinct. They should be big and filled in with a color that contrasts with the background. The easier they are to pick out, the easier they are to click.
Another equally important thing to consider is what copy to goes on a clickable button. This is crucial; the right words on buttons can encourage more click thru. Choose them carefully. People are wary of clicking on buttons (especially for downloads); tell people exactly what clicking on the button will do and gain their trust. If you can reassure them and communicate the benefit for responding at the same time you are golden. This can be a little tricky to do in only a few words, but think urgency, use action verbs and your button will be clickable!
