As 2013 makes its way toward summer,
we've already seen some major highlights for the year. With the
advent of Tegra 4, Project Shield, the Ouya, Unreal 4, and a host of
other amazing product and services, it's a year year full of wonder
and possibility. There are, however, trends that have continued and
shaped into tangible forms over these past few years, as the force of
casual and mobile games begin to take a forefront seat. People want
content on the go, cross-platform, and all the work in between,
they're looking for anything to improve the quality of an experience,
that feels less like a chore.
The two things that stand our in this
arena are Gamification, and of course, cross-platform content
personalization. While there's certainly a lot more, most trends can
be summarized directly in these two arenas. If there's one thing we
can all certainly agree on, it's that everyone pretty much loves
games. People love achievements, as well as getting something for
taking the time to do most anything. How impacting this is on our
daily media consumption is surprisingly profound. It's pervasive even
– you know it's gone somewhere when it has its own summit revolving around it – especially
when there's a dedicated Penny Arcade episode to it.
A lot of what we see is focused on
turning typical consumer engagement into a meaningful game-like
experience, but the application is spreading. For instance, social
networking has some of these elements, along with places like
Foursquare, Dashlane, and many others, which offer badges for doing
menial tasks. After all, lets face, it, we're all more likely to make
the effort for things like filling out profiles and whatnot if we
start getting leveling bonuses on a site for doing it. A lot of
forums have done this kind of thing for years, though the range and
detail is something that's increasing, across the board. The researchis staggering for this, according to DriVE by Daniel Pink,
insisting autonomy, purpose, and personal improvement are the
defining characteristics motivating people – core tenants we see
consistently presented in Gamification.
Of course, there's other things going
on – cross-platform personalization – that are the foundation of
the digital revolution. At the end of the day, people want content
somewhere other than their TV, or just their computer. They tend to
want it on any screen, be it phone, tablets, laptops, or their TV –
all at their convenience. Anyone who uses Netflix can attest to its
ability to keep pace with whatever you're watching or doing, even if
you change your platform. It knows – it recognizes the network and
produces you have on your account, and can adapt and keep up,
accordingly. It even does so with its advertisements. TV show Vegas
is an excellent example to use: Tuesday time slot it drew in almost 11 million viewers fairly consistently.
The problem of course, is that the average age was 60.7 years
– well above the 18-35/49 demographic the marketing slots are
directed toward. In the face of the digital wave, however, that's not
nearly the problem it may be on TV, where with algorithm's based on
what you watch, when, your profiling, etc, such as with Netflix, you
can measure the kind of advertisement that would be more relevantly
suited to a consumer, rathe
r than at a broad category. It's a lot closer to “shooting fish in a barrel” rather than “aiming in the dark” so-to-speak.
The data, posted at Digital Trends, is fairly clear – there's a
change in the weather concerning net usage. In just 4 years mobile
traffic went from 1% to over 13%. It's certain this is a steadily
growing trend. With that growth comes certainty that more people are
going to expect more synergy between their devices, and the need to
market and advertise specifically with detail to a consumer, will
grow with it. With micro screens, the amount of marketing you can do
in a given space decreases – so the need to be more user-specific
will increase, accordingly. Certainly a good thing, as it's market is a growing one up to9%.
Consider also, the
rising cost of digital marketing, just look at conversion costs
for companies like GREE, who pay up to $15 per user acquisition – clearly driving up the market - it become pertinent to be
specific, more now than ever.
At the end of the day, marketing
directives have a fairly obvious path. As we continue into a world
that's entirely wired, having us transition from device to device,
advertising and marketing initiatives need to be just as pliable.
With focus on cross-platform personalization of content and
advertisements, in addition to Gamification to improve the percentage
of invested consumers, ads and commercials probably wont lessen, but
at least they'll be more specific and interesting to you, and
certainly less bombastic across every page.
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