I'm very excited to welcome Carla Blumenthal as a partner and regular contributor to The Lost Jacket. Carla has been an established blogger at Life Before Noon and Gals' Guide and has come roaring into the PR and social media space. Carla brings with her knowledge about a variety of gender, demographic and marketing issues that clearly define her voice which is something that is extremely important to me. She will bring a decidedly different perspective from mine and definitely add to the conversation here. -Stuart
With messages waiting in inboxes, Facebook pictures to stalk, and unlimited music to discover, it’s not hard to see why we’re glued to our technology. There’s a generation, of all economic classes, that has grown up using the computer as a social device and as an extension of themselves. But in the social web that we live in, consumers have come to expect the speed and the unbounded possibilities of instant media.
Lately I’ve been thinking about a post by Josh Spear about the infinity and growth of the web. Because there is a generation of the world that grew up digital,
they (myself included) know nothing but the concept of infinity in relation to data and information.
So here you have consumers who are constantly looking for new content and services online. If you-the brand, the customer service, the complete package- don’t supply what they're looking for, it’s not hard to find another brand, service, or Craigslist listing that will.
Free Refills? Unlimited! From here.
The Internet’s “infinity” allows us to have unlimited space for messages, data, and storage and to locate whatever information we’re looking for. It’s not just when we’re sitting at home on the computer anymore either- smart phone technology and even WiFi in the sky blurs this infinity online with real life.
The Internet, in my mind, is truly an oxymoron: a mystical black hole of data that must be searched versus sites that distinctly organize my life (think Google versus Facebook and Mint). Even the areas of life online that can be organized, like Gmail and Facebook, have unlimited (or what seems like it) space.
So what’s the next step to feed our consumers ? Real time marketing integration online that dilutes the online and offline divide that also taps into our concept of infinity. Using Augmented Reality to blur the lines between computer graphics and real world objects- like USPS allowing consumers to measure package sizes via webcam prior to heading to the post office. Maybe it's using QR codes to integrate mobile into a campaign to send consumers a message, content download, or to a site. These technologies allow for countless ways to integrate real time efforts into marketing.
What other ways can brands adapt to this idea of infinity?
-Carla
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tagged as Augmented Reality, infinity, instant media, QR
