Just because we spent the first part of the week on beach retreat doesn’t mean that we can’t share some awesome marketing news from the week with you. As always, we will keep it interesting so you can get through the rest of your day…not like this exhausted and overdone (not to mention adorable) bunny.
Yawn and Get Free Coffee? Yes Please!
Dutch coffee company, Douwe Egberts set up a coffee vending machine in an airport. Okay, that’s pretty normal…except that this machine also had facial recognition software that detected when people yawned and dispensed a free cup of coffee. The marketing stunt was based on research that showed people switched to Douwe Egberts when they tried it. So why not go to a place where everyone is tired and in need of caffeine and dispense free coffee for every yawn!?
Website Traffic-like Analytics for Brick & Mortar Stores
Very similar to website traffic analytics that tell you which pages are the most visited, brick and mortar stores have been using mobile phones and cameras to track customers as they walk through their stores to determine the most trafficked areas of the store. FastCompany showed readers what this looks like. RetailNext, Euclid, Brickstream, Nomi, WirelessWerx and ShopperTrak are just a few of the services that provide such analytics for brick and mortar stores. RetailNext provides users with a heat map that shows the areas that get the most foot traffic whereas Euclid uses unique mobile WiFi addresses to report how many people pass a store, how many people visit the store, how long they stay and whether they return. How do you feel about being tracked through a store or mall as you shop? Remarkable technology advancement or major invasion of privacy?
Digital Devices Trump Television for the First Time
A new report from eMarketer finds that for the first time this year, American adults will spend more time during the day on digital media (including online, mobile and other) than watching TV. With an average of 5 hours and 9 minutes spent on digital media a day compared to just 4 hours and 31 minutes watching television, digital media takes the top spot for the first time. Digital media also beat out radio, print and other.
Get Rewards with Instagram
Instagram has rapidly grown to 130 million users sharing photos and videos every day. The new (and free) iOS app, SnapMyAd is connecting Instagram users with brands who are willing to reward people for letting them use their photos in ad campaigns. Users sign in with their Instagram profile which then pulls their photos into the app. From there, users search which brands they want to interact with and what type of rewards they are looking to receive. Then, a scoring system based on likes help pick the best photos and the photographer gets rewarded with things like Amazon gift cards, coffee and magazine subscriptions.