How Will Layar's Interactive Print Influence the Future of Internet Marketing?

The days of seeing a product in a magazine and then finding it in a store or online later to purchase it are over. Today’s consumers want what they want and they want it now. Waiting is not an option. With the new augmented reality and interactive print technologies from Layar, the wait is over.

 

 

Using augmented reality, Layar turns any print or flat page into an interactive storefront. After a customer has downloaded the free app onto their smart phone or tablet, they simply point their device at an ad in a magazine and click, and they are taken to the company’s online store or a video or a social media outlet.

Currently, this technology is being used extensively by Dutch companies, but is it now finding its way into North America. Over six million consumers in the US have downloaded the app and over twenty-seven million have worldwide.

What does this mean for the future of internet marketing and consumer buying? This technology blurs the line between print and online marketing. Marketing campaigns will be designed with an eye towards creating visually stimulating and eye popping ads that shake up the entire buying experience and encourage readers to move from the page to online immediately.

When one thinks of online marketing, social media comes to mind and the interaction between a company and its customers. Video certainly plays a part as well and connecting the social media to a website or store and moving your customers from one to the other has always been the goal. With Layar’s augmented reality, print ads can now be shared on social media and be completely interactive.

Consumers have always been susceptible to impulsive purchases. As advertisers push the limits of amplified reality, consumers will be able to buy anything they see at anytime from anywhere. As the Layar technology moves into books, not only will someone be able to purchase a book they see at their friend’s house, they would be able to buy items listed inside. For example, imagine the hero wears a certain brand of shirt. The brand name can be made interactive and before the reader gets to the next page or the hero saves the day, he or she can have purchased it.

The uses will be endless. Now when you read a review of a new restaurant and you will be able to click on it and immediately see video of the food, the restaurant itself, and even customer’s enjoying their meal and giving feedback.

The one area of concern companies will need to deal with is over saturation. When static pages become active with video, social media, and purchase options, keeping the consumer’s attention will be a challenge. Sensory overload and attention span will need to be considered when developing a marketing plan that includes interactive print.

Immediate purchases, augmented reality, and a closer connection with customers is the future. Performance Marketers will devour these new opportunities on a global scale. In time, there will be nowhere that a product cannot be bought or a video watched. It will be an exciting time, so don’t be left behind.

What instances have you seen interactive print being used in the last few months?

Trends & Innovations in the Affiliate Marketplace - Live Blog Post from AMDays

I'm live blogging in a few different places this week while at Affiliate Management Days (the new affiliate management conference in San Francisco) and so far I've found it to be really fun and interesting. I'm sitting in a session called Trends & Innovations in the Affiliate Marketplace being taught by Google's Ali Pasha.

I have to leave early, but here are my take aways from the first 20 mins of this session:

  • Google affiliate network spends 70% of their time thinking about what will move the needle and push the limits to trends and innovation optimization.
  • Top three focuses: Social, Mobile and Commerce

 

Social

  • Social was actually started by PC Flowers and Gifts (they had about 2300 affiliates in 1996) and they recognized the gap between communications - especially between multiple people at the same time.
  • The new kind of affiliate is the social affiliate - and especially if CELEBRITIES become affiliates themselves. Not only will they create a ton of cash, but their followers will benefit from riding the coat tails of celebrity product endorsements.
  • Make sure as an affiliate manager you're providing affiliates with tools they can use in the social space. Think of how the promotions would look as an end product and provide what they need to help them achieve that look.
  • Think about fashion bloggers and mom bloggers and provide tools that make their posting faster and easier than past.
  • Create a social presence - offer your followers incentives  - engage with partners building social
  • Follow this lead from customers: Demand - Ideation - Production - Distribution (Threadless.com is extremely successful at this - they speak with your community FIRST, then design the product and make it)
  • Shapeways.com executes well on nurturing a community to harness ideas and creating products based on that need
  • "Turn social data into doing"
  • Enable users to get connected with your product early

 

Mobile

  • Make sure your conversion tracking works!
  • Tables are here to stay - they are DIFFERENT from "mobile" - you do not use tables when you're on the go and does not have the same constraints as a true "mobile" device (have separate experience for tables / mobile)
  • People who are on tables are more likely to buy than someone on their phone therefore focus on these first
  • HowtogoMo.com helps you evaluate how good your site is to go mobile
  • 93% of US retail shopping is still done offline - 70% use a smartphone while shopping in store
  • Google wallet will help increase conversions on mobile and tablet devices as you no longer have to carry your wallet - have the info in your phone and even connect it so you always collect loyalty points through your purchase. This can be done even for offline sales.
  • RingRevenue.com and RevTracks.com work with Google to help leverage the affiliate marketing channel.
  • Offer complimentary "online" "offline experiences for customers that can be leveraged by affiliates

 

Tips

  • Track your shopping cart abandonment rate, then create a coupon strategy around fixing that.
  • Segment everything - so you can track and make better decisions going forward
That's all I have time for at the moment. Must go feed the baby. Will post on the Types and Value of Affiliates by Kush Absulloev of VMInnovations next!

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