The next generation of in-store experiences put your phone at the center of your new “Around Me” universe.

Get ready for the age of context-aware shopping (and marketing). Apple announced iBeacon to its developer community at WWDC 2014 and the race is definitely on to create totally new in-store experiences. The next generation of in-store experiences could be centered around beacon technology, data from brands, and putting your phone at the center of your new “Around Me” universe. We’ll see Apple’s own retail locations blanketed with iBeacons for store displays, making reservations, getting sales assistance, and more. The idea is to model the product and stamp it with the “Apple Cool” factor early on.

And the early results are eye-popping. Research firm inMarket reports that beacons in retail stores caused a 19x increase in interactions with advertised products, and a 6.4x increase in the likelihood that a shopper kept an app that sent them a beacon message on their phones.

Offering users promotions or discounts on products they’re actually standing close to and providing accurate in-store mapping is interesting. What kind of promotions and engagement will marketers and advertisers dream up to leverage this new technology?

With around 40% of the world connected to the internet and over 73% of online adults using social networks, the guys over at IDF Marketing have pulled together this rather nifty infographic with some interesting global stats around social media usage in 2014. Been wanting to know where consumers are, who they are and what they are doing? Well then check this out.

The News

The film adaptation of Reif Larson’s 2009 novel, The Selected Works of TS Spivet, was released in cinemas on Friday, 13 June. This is somewhat remarkable, considering that the book was initially deemed “unfilmable”. In a recent interview in the Guardian, Larson explains that, despite a flurry of initial interest from Hollywood agents, the book was too challenging to adapt for cinema. So when he unexpectedly received an e-mail from the filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet (of Amélie fame), he was astonished. Jeunet wrote that he was “smitten” with the novel and wanted to make the film. Thus began the intricate process of translating the novel; by rearranging sequences, adapting characters and re-ordering scenes, Jeunet deconstructed the book piece-by-piece to re-create the story.

Behind the news

Adapting a novel to film is a bit like transcreating an advertisement into a foreign language: it needs to be re-crafted with a different mindset. For a film, it is not enough to simply lift dialogue from the novel and drop it into a script – such literal translation merely results in a dramatisation of the book. In a novel, narrative is used to convey characters’ thoughts and feelings; in a film, the challenge is to translate the interior of a novel into scenes using visual tools and cinematic techniques – acting, lighting, photography, soundtrack, etc. – this is the language of film. Books can tell, but films have to show.

Beyond translating the book into the language of film, there needs to be artistic synergy between the book author and film director. In the interview, Larson speaks of his admiration for Jeunet and “having the distinct sensation that somehow this director had crawled inside [his] head”. He later says that “Jeunet’s way of seeing was embedded into the DNA of Spivet”. Thus, it is no coincidence that Jeunet approached Larson: the two were able to relate to each other artistically, drawn together by a sense of familiarity “bound not by blood but by aesthetic sensibility”.

In order for a film to retain the original meaning of the book, it must capture the essence and spirit of the story. This is echoed in Larson’s sentiment that he wanted Jeunet to “look beyond the bounds of the text to get at the ‘essential spirit’ of [his] book”. Recognising that books and films are two distinct forms of storytelling, Larson wanted the director to be faithful to his work, but ultimately to create a new story, not just reproduce the original in a different medium.

Whether Jeunet achieved this is up to the readers and viewers to decide. From Larson’s part, he felt “a sense of familiarity” but also some detachment while watching the film, realising that the story was no longer his alone.

News

For the next month, football fans around the world will be united in World Cup fervour, a collective frenzy ranging from pure elation to inconsolable rage and quiet disappointment. International events such as the World Cup present the perfect opportunity for global brands to appeal to customers in their local market based around one global concept. Which is exactly what Coca-Cola has done with its anthem “the World is Ours”.

The song is the anchor for Coca-Cola’s World Cup campaign – the brand’s largest campaign ever, covering 85% of its markets (175 out of 207 local markets). The brand chose David Correy, a Brazilian-American X-Factor contestant, to perform the main song. Coca-Cola has adapted the song for local markets, working with local artists and translators to create 32 country-specific versions.

Behind the News

In today’s globalised world, culture, brand and identity are becoming increasingly homogenous: from Maputo to New York iconic brands such as Coca-Cola are instantly recognisable; football fans are equally as excited about the World Cup in Lima as they are in Amsterdam. It’s everybody’s drink, everybody’s game. Everybody’s world. This is the lynchpin of Coca-Cola’s World Cup campaign – the idea of a shared global culture.

At the same time, there is a counter-trend towards localisation. National identity still counts, local customs are important and language matters. Localised campaigns encourage greater brand interaction and engagement, as they are given relevance and meaning. Customers can better relate to a campaign if the theme song is in their own language, the humour resonates with theirs and local nuances are accounted for. A localisation campaign is successful when customers feel a true connection with the brand.  

Through its World Cup campaign, Coca-Cola is attempting to do exactly that. The “World is Ours” is hinged on an overarching idea of a shared global identity, embodied by the World Cup: thirty two teams gather together from everywhere to play one game, and follow one set of rules. Yet each of those teams is unique and different. It’s a global strategy focusing on local identity. 

Coca-cola has not just directly transplanted the campaign to local markets; by using local artists, trans-creation and interpretation, the brand has lent authenticity to the campaign through cultural adaptation. 

“Have fun is my message. Be silly. You're allowed to be silly. There's nothing wrong with it.” – Jimmy Fallon

Marketing is like television: it can be either incredibly boring or incredibly exciting, depending on the content, idea, and execution of its creators. If you're a brand marketer (or a brand who hires them) and your ratings are suffering, all is not lost.

Here are some tips inspired by TV wunderkind, Jimmy Fallon, on how to make your marketing ready for primetime:

For those who weren’t lucky enough to be sipping cocktails on a yacht in the south of France this week at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity 2014, we’ve pulled together some of the keynote highlights and quotes to make sure you’re up to date on all the goings on.

Starcom won Cannes Media Network of the Year

Starcom MediaVest picks up the crown for Media Network of the Year. Read more…

Twitter chief Costolo revealed e-commerce plans

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo hailed mobile as the key media platform of the future and further revealed plans from to social media giant to move into e-commerce. Read more…

Courtney Love backed competition for creativity

Courtney Love said that the creative process can be kick-started by making sure that you are challenged by people better than yourself during her appearance on stage. Read more…

Martin Sorrell summarised it perfectly when he pointed out that ‘Mad Men’s’ Don Draper would be perplexed by today’s advertising world and its shift in focus towards “Math Men” and data-driven advertising. Speaking ahead of Cannes Lions 2014, Sorrell said the emergence of programmatic was now materially impacting the annual advertising jamboree – pointing out that Cannes now had award categories for data and data visualisation. To this point Sorrell stated, “This balance of Mad Men and Math Men, of art and science, left brain, right brain is really very important and we have to understand it.”

The publishing industry has long struggled to find the right monetisation mix that works for everyone – advertisers, publishers and consumers. However, today striking this balance is not only possible but it is also, for a number of reasons, becoming crucial.

With competition for people’s attention increasing in the digital space, consumers have more options to switch media channels than ever. And if it’s not fickle consumers making life difficult for publishers it is the search engines constantly tweaking their algorithms to favour only quality content and pages with fewer and fewer ads. This, of course, undermines the traditional ad model that most publishers are used to.

As we can now no longer rely totally on advertising, one model for survival in the current media landscape is to boost revenues through “content + commerce”. I believe there is a virtuous circle that can be achieved by providing a good experience for the user. This starts with helpful content in an environment that makes the consumption of content both friendly and efficient. If the customer is happy with the advice and experience then it is easier to connect them with the marketers on the page. Having said that, this is easier said the done, and why a lot of publishers just add more and more ads to the page to compensate for the click through rates. But the rewards make it worth the effort.