EMEA

New BBC interactive guides: responsive, dynamic and accessible web design

iWonder is the evocative name for the BBC’s new interactive guides. The name conjures childlike enquiry (I wonder!), ‘90s crisps (Golden Wonder) and fits nicely with the Beeb’s and Apple’s use of the stunted ‘iProductname’ format.

The guides are the BBC’s new content format, described as ‘sit forward’, allowing the user to learn by doing.

They organise video and audio, infographics, text and activities into stories.

I’ve been having a play with the guides and given some brief thoughts below. Do go and check them out, they’re a powerful tool for schoolchildren or older autodidacts.

The internet of things: five new products changing the market now

I am subtitling this post, ‘products become services, services become transparent’.

Econsultancy researcher Andrew Warren-Payne sent me a list of internet of things developments, products that have emerged over the past year and are now available.

He knows I’m interested in internet enabled things as I’ve written a few posts before about what to expect and about why everyone is so fascinated by the IoT.

I’ve tried to keep the discussion rooted to what marketers need to know about IoT. It’s easy to get carried away talking about fridges that know when you’ve run out of milk but realistically there’s no demand for that. It won’t be happening any time soon.

But what will be happening is the gradual transition from one-off purchases where the customer is never to be seen again. This will transition to services, where a customer’s purchase ‘talks’ to the store or manufacturer and a relationship is established throughout the product lifecycle.

Whether it be refills, repairs or upgrades, the seller can keep in touch to potentially make you a more loyal and valuable customer.

Additionally, customers will be able to demand accuracy and transparency from many service providers, as internet enabled devices afford greater data analysis, or life-logging. Cost-saving could be a major benefit, for consumers and suppliers.

So what are these emerging products Andrew has spotted?

Is Dr Martens’ no in-store return policy bad for business?

Ordering online from Dr Martens is enjoyable. There are lots of shoes and boots that I want in my life, such as the Pendleton pictured here.

But Dr Martens doesn’t accept in-store returns.

This is something that, with the advent of multichannel retail, consumers have come to expect. I wonder how this is affecting buyers and business? 

Google

12 inspiring marketing campaigns from Google

Google helps us all market our services. That statement can start a healthy debate amongst many in the media, but I think I’ll stick with it.

Of course, Google has to market itself, too.

Even the biggest and most successful companies must market themselves in some channels. Apple, for example, may shun social media, but it’s all over the television and out-of-home and has a distinctive presence on many high streets.

So, I thought I’d round up some examples of Google’s marketing that have stuck in my mind and continue to leave me mindful of Google’s all-conquering innovation.

Hope you enjoy!

CPM is dead: a guide to viewability in online advertising

We are all exposed to display and video advertising and we all have a view on its efficacy.

In this post I’m going to take a beginner’s look at measurement in display and video advertising and ask if advertisers are finally getting a good (read ‘transparent’) deal.

How is improved measurement across display advertising changing the nature of the web? Will it start to feel lighter on ads as advertisers demand their ads are not just served but viewed by a human being?

What are the standards for viewability and if the networks are adopting them, is this the death of the impression?

Vistaprint: too much cross-sell or just enough conversion?

Vistaprint has an interesting order and checkout process. There is lots of cross-sell and a decent amount of persuasion tactics used.

A few years ago, the website was all sorts of wrong, as Graham Charlton detailed, beaten only by GoDaddy.

Things have moved on and I must say that I don’t think it’s too complicated any more. There are a number of steps to the order process and to the checkout process but that was to be expected when designing a customised t-shirt (my chosen product).

Cross-sell and upsell is now presented on pages where I already feel assured the design process is going well.

Mainly there was a lot of clear information and some fairly persuasive copy and design techniques which I think has been judged correctly.

However, the company must be careful to keep cross-sell relevant. After being offered similar products, stationery and the like, I was then offered website builds and marketing services. This felt wrong and made me think the process might become more tiresome. If I was busier, I could have abandoned at this point.

See what you think of each stage of the order process..

The five most interesting mobile loyalty apps

When a good idea comes along in retail and digital there are soon many, many start-ups getting in on the action.

Take loyalty apps for example. Loyalty is a big beast. Many types of company may consider it part of their remit, from digital payment solutions, to social-style check-ins, to group buying sites, or indeed a retailer’s own app.

I’ve previously looked at the state of apps in retail and found that using loyalty schemes is pretty much the major rationale for customers using a retail app.

Whether customers will settle on retailers’ own apps or on a generic loyalty scheme provider (perhaps lumped with payment) remains to be seen.

But of those tens of consolidated loyalty apps, which are the best? Here’s the list of five I think are most interesting. Whether mobile wallets such as PayPal and Google Wallet will buy them up remains to be seen but the space seems set to get richer before it gets poorer.

Do big retailers need to create social value to succeed?

The high street debate is one that attracts much comment on the Econsultancy blog.

Feelings run high when it comes to ensuring the survival of stores in our towns. The situation has yet to crystallise, though it’s clear there are business models that aren’t best suited to bricks and mortar any more. 

Alongside the trend towards experiential retail (shops doing more than simply selling stuff that consumers can buy cheaper online), a trend towards creating social value in the community may be emerging. 

High street vacancy rates are steady in the UK at 14% in 2013 and independent stores such as cafes are on the increase. Part of the reason for this is social and local. 

Most of us still value our retail centres as places to take a ‘humanity bath’, meeting people outside of the office, the church/mosque/synagogue and your neighbourhood. 

But what else can big retailers do to engender a closer community? Does every store have to get involved? What about digital technology, can it play a part at a community level?

The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) has released a report detailing the business case for socially aware retail. The report includes the results of six months of research with three ASDA stores. 

Whilst most of the findings are relevant mainly for larger focal points, chiefly supermarkets, here’s what I gleaned…

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