KomodoPR.com

An article in today’s FT reports that social media is stealing the show over at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Apparently augmented reality is the buzzword over there at the moment. I’ve come across this a couple of times and been told how it’s the ‘future of marketing’ by its proponents.  But what exactly is it?

Well, basically, it’s when a view of the world is supplemented with computer generated images. So, for example, when you hold your phone up to a chair and view it through the camera, some information could pop up on a screen about price, or there may even be a virtual object on your screen (so you could see what a virtual chair in your living room, could look like). I guess you could say it’s a bit like how The Terminator  or Robocop views things – you know, they look at someone’s face and some data about their criminal records appear next to them… Geddit? Well, maybe this video will help:

Pretty damn cool, right? (And much more sophisticated than Robocop or Terminator’s viewing tech).
It’s on the horizon and I’ve heard about the costs (they’re high). I’m going to reserve judgement on this one until I’ve seen more proof that it delivers decent ROI.

But at this stage, as a novel marketing toy, the brand who will find the greatest success with augmented reality will be the brand that times their campaign perfectly, so that it rides the wave of interest when the public really understands it.

Of course, the campaign itself needs to be really hot and innovative, too. That goes without saying. But if marketing experiments on Second Life taught us anything at all, it’s that if you get in there too early, you’re only reaching niche early adopter audiences. Too late and you’re another ‘me too’ and you’ll miss out on the valuable buzz that surrounds a truly innovative campaign.

A colleague recently pointed out an article from Mobile Crunch about a PR firm who had apparently got a bunch of interns to write five-star user reviews to promote their client’s iPhone games on Apple’s App Store.

Now, as members of WOMMA (the Word of Mouth Marketing Association), we’re bound to a strict code of practice that means that we have to have to be totally transparent in how we operate on behalf on our clients in the digital space.

However, as UGC content becomes more engrained into audience channels, so too does the opportunity for clients to ‘engage’ with audiences (rather than try to ‘influence’ them). We advise clients to give beta testers the product and listen to their feedback – both positive and negative. We like to ask clients to pay particular attention to the negative feedback and engage the proponents of it by asking for suggestions about how they could improve things. This way, the target audiences have a stake in the product or service, and are much more likely to be more engaged with the brand.

It’s always a good idea to give the beta testing a dry run, behind closed doors, before it goes public, that way clients can make adjustments and prepare for any potential perceived weak-points in their products or services.

Now, the one sticking point with this approach is that it requires clients to be brave and accept potential negative feedback in a public space. But if they’re prepared to listen to this and make changes, there’s a great opportunity build more trust in brands.

For more on WOMMA’s code of conduct click here.

Komodo client, This England magazine, recently honoured D-Day veteran, Mr. Ted Roberts, with the Silver Cross of St. George Award, at a breakfast reception in the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. Mr. Roberts was honoured because he has single-handedly raised over £100,000 for war-disabled charities, including the London Taxi Benevolent Association and the Not Forgotten Association.

Among the dignitaries who helped to honour Mr. Roberts were the Rt. Hon William Hague MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary; Councillor Douglas Auld, the Mayor of Bromley (from where Mr. Roberts hails) and Mr. Peter Cleminson, National Chairman of the Royal British Legion.

BBC London and ITV’s London Tonight were amongst the media throng present; and both created very nice broadcast features which aired six times on the day of the ceremony.
 
This England and we Komodos were extremely pleased with the outcome of this memorable event – especially in such esteemed company!