by Cheryl Tieken

Hold onto your seats ladies and gentlemen… Google has just announced a new feature… again. And this one’s a doozy. Well, for all of us Sci-Fi freaks, Trekkies and tech-nerds, we probably could have predicted this was coming someday.

So anyways, guess what? Next Christmas, forget about buying your significant other a sleek new leather wallet. Why? Cause Google is already on top of that.

Today, Google officially announced it’s newest innovation – Google Wallet. The idea is to be able to put tickets, credit cards, receipts, coupons – you name it – all on your mobile device. Even your driver’s license. Already available on the Google Nexus S 4G (Sprint), the whole wallet concept will function through an NFC technology.

So what does this mean? This means that soon you’ll be able to pay for a meal at a fast-food joint, like McDonald’s by waving your phone in front of an NFC-chip reader – very similar to Mastercard’s current PayPass system. In fact, Google’s system is already able to work with this system, which is currently in place in over 300,000 merchant locations.

The plan is to also have billboards with embedded coupons so all you’ll have to do is wave your phone in front of them to get the coupon. Pretty cool huh? Less paper wasted. As the daughter of a tree-hugger, I love that.

As far as credit cards go, you’ll just need to create a PIN which you’ll enter before you pay for anything. This will prevent people from being able to scan your phone and get all your info. Sounds safer than a wallet if you ask me. Can’t put a PIN on a credit card. And as someone who has been the victim of identity fraud, I more than appreciate this capability.

So far, Citi, Sprint and Mastercard are all talking about helping Google Wallet launch. Macy’s, Subway, Walgreens and Toys R Us have already said they will be the first to support the new technology. And Google has said it will not charge a transaction fee, but will instead make money via ads and via Google Offers – Google’s current stab at the whole Daily Deals epidemic. In fact, Google Offers is slated to tie in with Google Wallet – sending you an “offer of the day” which will be exclusive to Wallet users.

Google Wallet is scheduled for a trial this summer in New York, Portland and San Francisco with other cities to follow.

Well, we knew it was coming. Technology never ceases to amaze. And although I think it’s a cool idea and definitely love the paperless thing it does for the environment, I have to say this whole thing makes me a tad nervous. I can’t help but go back to images of computers-turned-human and monkeys jumping around giant monoliths (a la 2001 Space Odyssey). In the words of a friend of mine, “I guess it’s only a matter of time before we have chips like that inside ourselves.”

So what do you guys think? Google Wallet – cool new thing or something we should be wary of? Comment below!

by Cheryl Tieken

Around the office, we are all on chat – all the time. We need to be so we can communicate with each other quickly and easily. Yes, I know what you’re thinking… Geez, those lazy people over at JT, why can’t they just get up and walk over to someone if they want to talk? Trust me, having that quick way to communicate and share files is essential.

Well, when I first started here at JT, I was practically shunned for not having AIM or Adium set up. My rinky-dink Gmail Chat just wasn’t suffice to the rest of the team because all of them were using the other two. So, I bit the bullet and created an AIM account.

Turns out, if I had just waited a few months, I wouldn’t have had to. Gmail chat and AIM are now linkable. Ok, ok, not big news to the rest of the world, but this seemingly tiny event has made me think more about the changing world of online interaction.

I mean seriously, it’s amazing how connected people are nowadays. Take Facebook. When I joined, I was in the first wave of the new social media platform. It came to the University of Washington shortly after it’s creation – back during a time when it was exclusive to four-year university students. At the time, the whole thing just seemed so weird to me. If I wanted to talk to someone, I’d just call them. Why the heck did I need to “write on someone’s wall?” But here we are, six years later and the whole entire world is on Facebook. Revolutions are happening over it, babies are being named after it, nearly every country has access to it.

I recently met some people from England and Facebook has made it so easy to stay connected, even though we live thousands of miles apart. Think about it. You can chat, post on someone’s wall, look through all of someone’s photos – literally acting as if you were actually there in front of the person. Social media has made the possibility of being multiple places at once, virtually possible. When you throw in mobile and its ability to constantly be online, it’s almost exhausting how connected we are – all the time.

So what do you think of all this connectivity? Is it empowering? Do you enjoy the ability to constantly be connected to people? Or do you find yourself turned off? Seriously people, tell us what you think!

AdAge Digital just came out with this article about QR Codes and their continuing evolution toward mainstream in the US. After our last article on the subject, we thought it necessary to keep you in the know and updated as big brands like Macy’s, Best Buy and Post Cereals make waves in the future of QR Codes.
Here it is:

For years marketers have cited the success of 2-D bar codes overseas and eagerly waited (and waited) for them to take hold in the U.S.

Thanks to prominent endorsements from Target, Best Buy, Macy’s and Post Cereals, that day might finally be nearing. Those marketers are placing the codes in front of a broad swath of consumers, while the likes of Home Depot, Visit St. Pete-Clearwater (Fla.) and even real-estate agents are using the codes on plant tags, tourism guides and home listings, respectively.

As the rectangular, pixelated codes become harder to miss, more and more consumers will explore them; meanwhile, major marketers are placing an emphasis on education, a key hurdle to adoption. Whether they’ll catch on with consumers is still to be determined, but they’ll be prolific enough to be judged on their own merits as a marketing vehicle.

Macy’s is behind the most visible QR-education effort, with a 30-second spot now running nationally. The spot, which was cut down from a demo posted to Facebook, YouTube and Macy’s own site, shows shoppers how to use the codes and explains what they’ll get access to when they scan one with their phone.

The effort is part of Macy’s Backstage Pass campaign, which uses QR codes — or quick-response codes, a form of 2-D bar code — and SMS texts to give consumers access to videos featuring star designers. It works like this: Shoppers download a QR-code reader, in this case one called ScanBuy. Then, using that reader, they snap a picture of the code, which triggers content to pop up. There are abundant in-store signs and employees are armed with more than 100,000 lanyards containing instructions on how to use the codes.

“We really felt that we needed to educate folks on this,” said Martine Reardon, exec VP-marketing at Macy’s. “They might not know what to do with it. It’s important to tell them.”

Though the campaign just launched last month, Ms. Reardon said views on the videos are already quadruple what was expected. “One could say the metric we put out there wasn’t aggressive enough,” she said. “But we know we’re on to something.” The Backstage Pass videos have attracted anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand views on YouTube, with a video featuring Kelly Osbourne grabbing just shy of 3,500 views; the video demo of QR codes has snared 2,200 views.

And as the pace of campaigns picks up, mainstream-media outlets are giving marketers an assist on the education front. In Tampa Bay, Fla., local media outlets have been raising awareness of the codes, with TV anchors scanning them on air as they report on Visit St. Pete-Clearwater’s latest campaign.

David Downing, deputy director at the tourism group, said the use of QR codes resulted in the most-successful sweepstakes campaign it’s run. More than 20% of the 25,000 entries it received during a four-week period came directly from QR code scans. Mr. Downing said the group had hoped for 8% to 10%. The codes have now become ubiquitous in the group’s materials, popping up on nearly every page of the Visitor’s Guide.

“We know there’s been a learning curve. And we know [2-D bar codes] have been out there and met with some mixed success,” Mr. Downing said. “But it really does lend itself so perfectly to what we do. People are moving around a destination from place to place, and they want instant information.”

Best Buy, a first mover in the space, added QR codes to all of its product-information tags in the fall. Though it’s done little formal education around the codes, it’s tough to miss them when you walk into a Best Buy store. Scanning the tag directs consumers to the product-detail page on Best Buy’s mobile site. Over time those tags could also point to a video, product ratings or enable the customer to add the product to a wish list.

Best Buy’s Live Mobile Scan map.

“It was a little bit of a bet. But it was a good bet to take,” said Spencer Knisely, senior director of Best Buy’s environmental-design group, of the decision to add the codes to its product tags. “We’re fortunate now to see the market catching up. … Retail is a great place for this. We think of [QR codes] as a personal shopping assistant”

Best Buy has also created a “Live Mobile Scan Map” at bbyscan.com/map which tracks the items scanned in stores across the country. Mr. Knisely said the company has even been experimenting with QR codes as a polling tool. A sign hanging in Best Buy headquarters asks employees to scan a code corresponding with how they’re feeling. One code is positioned inside an image of a thumbs up, the other a thumbs down. When the code is scanned, employees see how many others are in a good or bad mood. Mr. Knisely says that sort of tool could be used to ask customers about their experience in the store.

It will also be hard to miss the codes in the cereal aisle, with Post’s Honey Bunches of Oats adding them to more than 12 million boxes. The brand is banking on QR codes as the primary distribution vehicle for “Honey & Joy,” a web-based sitcom that will premiere exclusively on Jesta Digital’s mobile-web platform BitBop. Katie Lay, Honey Bunches of Oats’ brand manager, cited research that showed the demand for QR-code experimentation outstripping the supply, particularly among the cereal’s target audience of women ages 25 to 54. The brand found that a third of its target is looking for the codes, Ms. Lay said.

Post Cereals promotes its QR codes campaign via web sitcom.

But even as the codes catch on, there’s still a long way to go for them to have the kind of broad-scale adoption that major brands expect out of their marketing vehicles. And marketers are well aware, the campaigns are not foolproof. Poor internet connection, slow load times and outdated phones all contribute to an inconsistent experience for consumers. Persuading consumers to download mobile apps that can scan codes has been another major obstacle for QR-code campaigns, said Laura Marriott, CEO NeoMedia, a QR agency and tech company. That’s assuming consumers already know what to do when they see the codes. And then there’s the fact QR codes can seem like a hassle — any extra step a campaign requires typically reduces response rates.

For those reasons, Julie Ask, VP-principal analyst at Forrester Research, says there’s no rush when it comes to 2-D bar codes, though the environment is ripe for experimentation. “It’s interesting. It’s growing. And the analytics are good,” she said. “There’s no doubt that people are going to use their phones to engage more with the physical world. But there’s a lot of different ways you can do that. … Marketers are still mostly in the experiment stage and learning.”

By Nicole Fletcher

I read this post and really enjoyed it especially after posting about this year’s Social Super Bowl and its #fail regarding its lofty, social expectations. The NCAA and it’s sponsors have really stepped up the plate it seems and here’s a post from USA Today to give you the low down. Feel free to tweet at us and tell us what you think about it!

There was a time when March Madness was just about basketball.
But with social media as a tool, some of the nation’s savviest marketers are turning the college basketball’s championship tournament into something more akin to an online hoops party for lovers of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. People can tap on their laptops or mobile phones and play along with all kinds of games and contests and, yes, even watch the games.

The 64 teams picked Sunday will play for the title in the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament over the next few weeks. For marketers from Coca-Cola to Papa John’s, it’s a social-media marketing event, a chance to coax consumers to play with their brands.

“It’s the ultimate sporting event for social media,” says Jason Kint, general manager at CBSSports.com. In addition to TV coverage, every game can be watched free online. For $9.99, you can watch the games on your iPhone.

But folks aren’t just watching. They’re chatting. Five of the 10 busiest “peak” minutes of Internet traffic ever were linked to the NCAA tournament, says Akamai, a Web technology firm.

Marketers are trying to be part of that chat with:

•Involvement. Coke Zero is sponsoring a Department of Fannovation Brain Bracket asking fans to vote online for the best idea to improve the tournament. “We’re empowering fans to shake up the status quo in college basketball,” says Linda Cronin, director of interactive media.

•Phone apps. MillerCoors launched an iPhone app, Tip ‘n Spin, in which folks earn points by balancing a basketball on a Miller Lite bottle. “Marketers struggled in the past for a forum for daily interaction with consumers,” says Mike Davitt, Miller Lite marketing chief. Social media offer that forum.

•Contests. Applebee’s is offering $1 million to whomever picks the winners of all 63 tourney games via its Facebook page with Twitter updates.

•Sweepstakes. Papa John’s Papa’s in the House Hoops Sweepstakes on Facebook let fans pick the prize: a $2,000 shopping spree and pizza for a year, says Jim Ensign, digital marketing chief.

•Sex appeal. Captain Morgan rum is asking fans to pick their favorite Morganette (women who tout the brand at bars) on Facebook to win a free trip to Las Vegas. “This is how our target customer lives his life,” says Tom Herbst, marketing chief. “He chats, e-mails and watches TV on his computer. It’s where he communicates.”