OPINION: The game's changing for digital marketing

The widespread adoption of social media and spectacular growth in mobile internet usage continue to change the marketing landscape, but mark our words — the world is about to change again.

Major Asia-Pacific countries are leading the way, with social network reach in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia exceeding the world average. At the same time the number of mobile subscribers continues to grow, with some Asian countries nearing 90 per cent penetration rates, said eConsultancy’s Internet Statistics Compendium Asia-Pacific, April 2011.

In China, according to the Asia Pacific Digital Marketing Year Book, 2011, nearly half of users access social networks on their mobile phone and 27 per cent of Asian shoppers are either already paying for goods and services using their mobile device, or are planning to do so in future.

Outpacing the herd

With such impressive numbers, it’s not surprising that people are excited about social and mobile, but smart companies realise that customers don’t theorise about these tools in the way that digital marketers do. They see brands as single entities with which they interact using increasingly diverse means – they simply expect brands to “be there” when the next big thing happens.

It’s hard to imagine a world where social and mobile aren’t the major buzzwords, and they certainly won’t disappear. Still, Reading Room’s research with consumers in Europe, in Australia and in Asia shows that emerging technologies in augmented reality and gamification are already influencing consumer behaviour. Our research work on the application of game theories to digital behaviour conducted with Queensland University of Technology have shown that these have immediate practical applications when added to the take-up mix of social media and mobile. This is not yet an area well understood within many marketing teams.

Augmented reality on the other hand is a technology that we have seen some clients use too quickly before the technology was ready.

From augmented nightmares to practical fantasies

At a basic level, augmented reality (AR) is the overlay of graphics over a live video stream or other real-time display. The technology’s been around for almost 15 years and early adopters were quickly excited by its potential. Initial innovations include printed ads with barcodes that users hold up to their webcam to see superimposed screen-based animations.

Although some original AR solutions don’t necessarily hold mass market appeal, recent examples show that businesses are gradually finding more user-friendly applications.

Japanese advertising agency Dentsu gets users of their iButterfly smartphone app to “catch” virtual butterflies that carry coupons and content related to the user’s location. Layar users can superimpose a virtual layer of information on their phones video stream, showing anything from a local building’s history to the location of a hip nearby coffee shop.

Let the games begin

If augmented reality is still in its infancy, then gamification is coming of age.

Using the power of game dynamics to drive desirable outcomes isn’t new – economists have been at it for ages. But increased connectivity and technological advances are opening up new opportunities.

60 per cent of Japanese social network users play social games, and the market for social games in China grew by 75 per cent in 2010, found eConsultancy’s report. It’s tempting to see this as a great strategy to reach computer-literate youngsters, but it has a wider reach: a study of UK and US social gamers found the average player to be a 43-year-old woman.

T-Mobile’s real-life take on the popular Angry Birds game has clocked up nearly 6 million YouTube views and counting. Here, an ironic take on an existing (and pointless?) game has helped the company’s campaign go viral, but game mechanics can themselves be exploited to realise outcomes in a fun and creative way. For example, Microtask's Digitalkoot game gets players to weed mistakes out of the Finnish National Library's e-archives.

I’m online, therefore I am

Both gamification and augmented reality are manifestations of an important trend. The very experience of “going online” is being redefined, with “online” becoming a seamless part of our daily existence, reflected in multiple-device access, an always-on mentality and rich, interactive experiences.

But with each new opportunity to interact comes an opportunity to be ignored. Social-media savvy, experience-hungry users don’t want to be sold to, so developing effective conversations requires finesse, strategic thinking and sensible adoption of technologies.

To stay ahead, smart businesses need to embrace new technologies ever more quickly. The separation between marketing teams and the technology teams is no longer tenable as many of the old marketing shibboleths fall to the continuing digital storm.