Author: Lucy

Mobile commerce is more appealing to 37 percent of American device users

| November 25, 2014

American consumers feel that smartphone based shopping has a greater draw than the in-store experience.

According to the results of recent research that was conducted by Dynatrace – an app performance management firm formerly known as Compuware APM – 37 percent of American smartphone and tablet users see mobile commerce as a more appealing experience than actually going to a store’s physical location in order to make a purchase.

The research also found that many Americans will be choosing m-commerce for their holiday shopping.

In fact, among tablet owners, 42 percent said that they will be doing more of their holiday shopping this year over mobile commerce channels than they did last year at the same time. This makes it look as though this year – which was one that saw a considerable number of milestones in the mobile technology category – has the potential to break some records when it comes to sales over smartphone and tablet optimized websites and retail apps.

Among the respondents 37 percent said that they would do more shopping over mobile commerce than in store.

Mobile Commerce appealsThey indicated that they will be using m-commerce over smartphones and tablets more often throughout the holiday shopping season than they would be going into physical store locations in order to buy what they want.

The research involved the participation of 1,353 people in the United States who own smartphones and/or tablets. It was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Dynatrace in October. It found that even among the consumers who will be going to physical store locations, 25 percent will be making purchases over their mobile devices while standing inside the shops.

According to the Dynatrace director of omnichannel strategy, Erwan Paccard, mobile commerce has “transformed holiday commerce—in fact, retailers are at a tipping point, as they must perform for mobile users or perish at the hands of competitors.” He added that consumers are bringing their smartphones, and even tablets, into stores with them on an increasing basis and are “becoming virtual shopping assistants. And when users encounter poor-performing mobile sites and apps, they buy from competitors and broadcast their frustrations.” He pointed out that retailers that fail to cater to those consumers over the holiday season “do so at their own peril.”

Augmented reality used by Microsoft to recreate out of home ads

| November 20, 2014

The AR technology is converting bus shelters into an exciting mobile gaming experience.

Microsoft has been making a number of large and important moves into mobile technology and now it has combined the experience with video games by bringing augmented reality into out of home advertising locations such as bus shelters.

The company has outfitted three bush shelters with AR experiences to promote its Sunset Overdrive video game.

The bus stops are located in London, England; San Francisco, U.S.A.; and Melbourne, Australia. These shelters have each been outfitted with special augmented reality technology that brings the viewer right into the digital environment of the video game. From a distance, these ads look as though they are traditional digital screens. However, when viewed more closely, the AR technology makes it appear as though the figures that are moving around are actually going to leap right out of the screen.

These augmented reality ads are supported by the Empowering Media agency, and Clear Channel Outdoor.

Augmented Reality - Bus ShelterThe displays were created by Grand Visual, which is a company that creates digital out of home advertising experiences. This is not the first time that the company has worked with augmented reality and has incorporated it into its advertising. It is a company that was behind a number of high profile outdoor advertising experiences using AR, motion graphics, and color recognition, such as those from Pepsi, Heineken, and Tropicana.

The Xbox One video game being marketed through this effort, Sunset Overdrive, was created by Insomniac Games and is meant to be the first installment of a franchise of shooting games that will place the player in a fast action situation in which they will battle mutant attackers. This innovative form of advertising makes it clear that Microsoft is serious about its efforts to stand out within a video gaming marketplace that is considered to be quite heavily saturated.

While it is likely that this augmented reality advertising technique will draw lots of attention for the video game, this campaign is truly interesting for the impact that it is likely to have in upcoming outdoor ad display trends.