our connection to places

Transcription

A
EBOOK
OUR CONNECTION TO PLACES
How technology enhances our relationships with physical space: for digital marketers
By Greg Kihlström
Space is transformed into “place” when humans give it bounds and believe
it has value. Place is constructed and reconstructed over time by different
groups of people. Construction of place is dynamic and influenced by human
perception, cognition, self-concept, social dynamics, economies, cultures, and
histories. Perceptions of place are ever-changing, depending on social interactions, context, and time. In cities, for example, changing patterns of social
communication can make and unmake places, elevating or diminishing the
appeal of a site or business. This process has perhaps been accelerated by
internet communications and crowdsourced inputs.
Green Cities: Good Health, “Place Attachment and Meaning”
University of Washington
CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This ebook would not have been possible without both the hard work
and efforts of the Carousel30 team, and the research and writing by the
authors and researchers cited in the pages that follow.
Edited by Janelle Kihlström
Illustrations by Greg Kihlström
©2015 Carousel30. All rights reserved.
OUR CONNECTION TO PLACES | GREG KIHLSTRÖM
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART 1: WHAT IS A PLACE?
PART 2: OUR CONNECTION WITH PLACES
PART 3: CREATING A DEEPER CONNECTION
PART 4: MARKETING & TECHNOLOGY’S ROLE
CONCLUSION
ABOUT CAROUSEL30
ABOUT GREG KIHLSTRÖM
3
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Space is transformed into “place” when humans give it bounds and believe it has value… Construction of place is dynamic
and influenced by human perception, cognition, self-concept, social dynamics, economies, cultures, and histories. Perceptions of place are ever-changing, depending on social interactions, context, and time...This process has perhaps been
accelerated by internet communications and crowdsourced inputs.
Wolf, K.L., S. Krueger, and K. Flora. 2014. Place Attachment and Meaning - A Literature Review. In: Green Cities:
Good Health (www.greenhealth.washington.edu). College of the Environment, University of Washington.
As digital marketers, we talk a lot about “mobile” -- devices, advertising, websites, you name it -- and we often talk about how consumers use these devices as they navigate the real world. Often, however, we are talking about the digital and physical worlds as
two separate entities which occasionally overlap and sometimes intersect. What continues to happen is a convergence between
the world we see on screens and the world we experience with our senses. This white paper will talk about how this converged
approach helps us connect people with the places we want them to experience.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
There are many experts on the topic of places, place attachment and many other related areas of study. The author of this white
paper does not claim to be one, simply a digital marketing professional and a researcher using some of the best information on the
topic of our relationship to places in order to relate it to principals in marketing.
The intended audience of this white paper is digital marketers -- not architects, planners, philosophers or social scientists! Thus, we
may summarize some topics that, while truly deserving more in-depth discussion, cannot be treated with as much care and time
as other professionals wish they might. Any of the books or articles referenced in the quotes and citations would be a great start if
you want to do a deeper dive into the topic of places.
HISTORY
The early days of digital marketing were spent on creating infrastructure to build a better Web. This was done in a world very separate from the real, physical world. In face, virtual reality experiences have existed (and still do exist) as a very distinct experience
from the “real” world.
Whether it was Geocities that, in the 1990s, organized itself into “neighborhoods” by user topic, to Second Life, which attempted to
more closely replicate a physical three-dimensional world years later, we as humans have been striving to find a way to bridge the
gap between physical and virtual for many decades.
For years, many skeptics derided online retailers such as Amazon, and all the while, consumers slowly warmed to the idea. As
online shopping pulled ahead while brick-and-mortar retailers struggled to keep up, we have now seen that consumers are not tied
to performing one type of activity in a single type (physical or virtual) location. Instead, they purchase on mobile apps, shop on their
desktop devices at work, and stop by the store on the way home. There is less and less distinction being made between one medium of communication or commerce than ever before.
THE PROBLEM
There is clearly a desire to create a deeper connection between the virtual and physical worlds for many reasons. This could be
anything from a real estate developer wanting potential retailers to lease a space in a new shopping center, to a nonprofit organization wanting potential visitors to understand the importance and impact a particular place has had over time and across audiences
for generations.
5
To do this, we must better understand answers to the following questions:
● What defines a place and makes it distinct from a virtual space?
● What creates our connection with a place and why is this so important?
● How can we create an authentic connection between the digital and physical worlds that transcends a particular product,
device or medium?
What do digital marketers want in relation to physical locations? One challenge was tracking online/offline behavior and one of
attribution and tying the two together. As mobile technology such as smartphones have become ubiquitous, with nearly two-thirds
of U.S. adults using them, our ability to track this stuff has gotten more sophisticated.
Beyond tracking, marketers also need the ability to create a deeper connection between people and places for many reasons.
PURPOSE OF THIS WHITE PAPER
Rather than talking in depth about the Internet of Things (IoT), beacons, or other particular technologies which come in and out of
relevance, this white paper will talk more about emotional connections to the places that we interact with on a regular basis. Technologies will come and go, but our need to learn, share, and engage with the places we visit and occupy will continue to be a challenge for which marketers will continue to challenge themselves to find better and better solutions.
This white paper will attempt answers to the questions posed in the previous section, with the goal of providing digital marketers
understanding and some potential tools to better create connections that are meaningful between the places they represent and
the audience which would benefit from the connection.
Our next step will be to better understand exactly what we mean when we use the term “place.” By ensuring we’re all in agreement
about what a place is, we can then talk more about what it means to connect more with one.
6
PART 1
PART 1: WHAT IS A PLACE?
“Space” and “place” are familiar words denoting common “experiences”. We live in space. There is no space for another
building on the lot. The Great Plains look spacious. Place is security, space is freedom: we are attached to the one and
long for the other. There is no place like home. What is home? It is the old homestead, the old neighborhood, hometown, or
motherland. Geographers study places. Planners would like to evoke “a sense of place.” These are unexceptional ways of
speaking. Space and place are basic components of the lived world; we take them for granted.
Yi-Fu Tuan, “Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience”
First, in this chapter we will concern ourselves with the definition of a “place” as a physical space. The famous geographer Yi-Fu
Tuan, in his book “Space and Place : The Perspective of Experience” defines place as occupying both a physical as well as an emotional
space. While it is highly recommended to read his take on this topic, we will be defining places as having geographic or physical bounds
here.
We will discuss some emotional components of our relationship to places in the next chapter, but first, let’s talk about we mean when we
use the term “place.”
ATTRIBUTES OF A PLACE
What makes something a place? Once we eschew the emotional components, we can define a place as somewhere that has the
following characteristics:
● Location
It occupies a set of geographic coordinates, taking up physical space in three dimensions
e.g. a 3-story building, a 100-acre lot, a 25-mile stretch of road
● Context
It exists in relation to something else
e.g. in the city of Philadelphia, across the street from Whole Foods, on the shore of Lake Michigan
● Purpose
It exists to represent something, provide a service, or share information
e.g. a residential apartment, a historical monument, an electronics store
Once we have defined a place by these 3 primary attributes, it becomes easier to then give each place we identify a definition according to these items.
Let’s take a deeper look into each of these attributes:
LOCATION
In our definition of “place,” everywhere that we discuss will have a set of physical coordinates which it occupies. This means that a
latitude/longitude (or more likely a series of coordinates) will create the boundaries of this place.
More often than not, these coordinates will be converted for the lay person into an address. For those of us still using snail mail,
this would be the mailing address, so:
1234 Main Street
Metropolis, NY 11111
8
In other cases, the address may be input into another third-party tool such as Facebook, Instagram or any host of tools and simply
given a name that keys off of an address. For instance, a user doesn’t have to know the address of the restaurant they are taking
food photos of in order to post them to Instagram. That social network platform handles it based on your location and its correlation to the address of the restaurant.
Once we have the location of a space, we can perform several important actions, including:
● Placing it on a map
● Showing photos, videos or other activities that happen at or nearby the location
● Perhaps the most obvious -- we can drive, bike, take the bus or walk there!
CONTEXT
Slightly more abstract than a mailing address, every location also exists in relation to something else and has relevant information
to those visiting. This could simply be the following:
Starbucks is across the street from my apartment.
Or, it could also be any of the following:
● The building was built in 1933
● This is the headquarters of Acme Corporation
● My office is on the 21st floor of the building
● This restaurant serves Vietnamese cuisine
● Target opens at 9am and closes at 10pm
● This gelato shop got 5 stars on Yelp!
Think of this as metadata for a location. Beyond an address, the context is the information which is important to the user.
PURPOSE
Finally, every location has a purpose. Some, you may argue, have a more noble purpose than others (a hospital may be more helpful
to humankind than an ice skating rink), but they all exist for a reason. A coffee shop sells coffee. A museum teaches people about a
particular set of subject matter. A park provides recreational space.
Purpose builds on context by defining why we go there. For instance, the Vietnamese restaurant mentioned earlier may serve great
food, but if I’m looking for a nice sit-down dinner and they only serve takeout, it’s clear our purposes are misaligned.
CONCLUSION
It’s obvious why context helps us as we are defining places. We need to know if the place is relevant to us (e.g. I hate seafood,
so Red Lobster may not be a good restaurant choice in Kalamazoo, MI), and once we do, we can make further choices, including
whether or not to go there.
Our next step is to examine the emotional and psychological connection we have with places, which we’ll do in the next chapter.
9
PART 2
PART 2: OUR CONNECTION WITH PLACES
“But in spite of everything -- in spite of the mobility, the individualism, and the economy -- on some level we do recognize
the importance of place. The first thing we ask someone when we meet them, after their name, is where they are from, or
the much more interestingly-phrased “where’s home for you?” We ask, not just to place a pushpin for them in our mental
map of acquaintances, but because we recognize that the answer tells us something important about them. “
Julie Beck, “The Psychology of Home: Why Where You Live Means So Much”
The Atlantic, December 30, 2011
In order to understand our connection with places, let’s talk about the facets of our relationship. These range from more personal
aspects to those that are more practical.
Jennifer Cross of the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University discusses our relationship to our surroundings in a
paper entitled “What is Sense of Place?”
Cross writes:
“Sense of place has become a buzzword used to justify everything from a warm fuzzy appreciation of a natural landscape
to the selling of homesites in urban sprawl. The truth is we probably have no single “sense of place;” instead, we bring to
the places we live a whole set of cultural preconceptions that shape the way we respond to the place, and in some measure reshape the place to fit those preconceptions….”
In this paper, she goes on to divide our connection to places into 6 primary aspects, seen in the table below:
Relationships to Place1
Relationship
Type of Bond
Process
Biographical
historical and familial
being born in and living in a place, develops over time
Spiritual
emotional, intangible
feeling a sense of belonging, simply felt rather than
created
Ideological
moral and ethical
living according to moral guidelines for human responsibility to place; guidelines may be religious or
secular
Narrative
mythical
learning about a place through stories, including: creation myths, family histories, political accounts, and
fictional accounts
Commodified
cognitive
(based on choice and desirability)
choosing a place based on a list of desirable traits
and lifestyle preferences, comparison of actual places w/ ideal
Dependent
material
constrained by lack of choice, dependency on another person or economic opportunity
For the purposes of this white paper, we’re going to condense those 6 into 3 primary categories that summarize them:
1. Personal:
Biographical, or having a tangible physical and temporal relationship to the individual
1
Table was taken from: Cross, Jennifer “What is Sense of Place?” November 2001
11
2. Emotional:
Spiritual/Ideological/Narrative, or having a psychological relationship to the individual
3. Practical:
Commodified/Dependent, or having an intermittent or circumstantial relationship to the individual
By combining some of these into these 3 larger groupings, we’ll be able to explore the impact that digital technology and devices
have on our relationship. Next, we will talk a little more about each of these three aspects. In this case, a single place may be relevant in 1 or more of the 3 categories above, or it may not. They do not always all apply to a single place.
PERSONAL
There are some places that have deeper meanings for us than others. The house we grew up in, the restaurant we went on the first
date with our significant other, or somewhere else that has a particular “biographical” relation to us. The “personal” label we are
applying here means that this place has had a significant biographical impact on us as an individual, whether it is over a short or
extended period of time.
Examples of a place that may have a personal relationship with an individual:
● Childhood home
● City you lived in during your college years
● The island where you spent your honeymoon
There is something often intangible about the connection here, but it is still nonetheless an important one, and something that ties
us to a particular place in a different way than the other categories.
On a more tangible level, the apartment you currently live in, or the office building you commute to 5 days a week could also be considered personal. They are places that you are tied to and that you have a physical connection to.
EMOTIONAL
There may be some perceived overlap between the Emotional and Personal categorizations. While with Personal we are mostly
concerned with a place that has had a direct biographical impact on that person, the emotional component may hold an ideological
or psychological value to the individual, whether or not they have a close personal biographical connection.
One example of this is a sense of patriotism for a historical site. While an individual may not have personally participated in World
War II, a visit to the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC may have a profound emotional connection to an
individual. This emotional category could also apply to a place of worship or something on a more spiritual level or connection.
Examples of a place that may have an emotional relationship with an individual:
● Church or religious site
● Capital or representative building or memorial for one’s home nation
● Headquarters of an organization you feel passionately about
PRACTICAL
This is the most distinct of the three categories, as it is often the most tangible of them all. A person’s connection with a place is
often a practical one. For instance, you live in specific part of town because you can’t afford to live in the wealthiest neighborhood,
or you visit the drugstore because you need headache medicine.
12
Examples of a place that may have a practical relationship with an individual:
● The store you stop at on the way home
● The neighborhood you moved to when you were a struggling young professional
● The toll booth on the way to New York
When Cross defined places as having a connection that was “commodified” or that the individual was “dependent” on the place,
this is what she was referring to. There is a very practical nature to the place, and sometimes we have a choice to go there (in the
case of the drugstore) and sometimes external factors may be keeping us somewhere (an inexpensive neighborhood).
CONCLUSION
By understanding our relationship with places, we can more fully understand what it is that connects us with them. The short answer is that there are many ways that we are connected to places, from very deep and personal connections to more superficial or
fleeting ones.
Next, we will take a look at what we’ve discussed so far about places and see what it means to create a deeper connection with
them.
13
PART 3
PART 3: CREATING A DEEPER
CONNECTION
At a party someone asks, “How do you like Minneapolis?” The typical response is: “It’s a good city, a good place to live in,
except perhaps for the winter, which seems to last forever.” Thus with tired phrases our personal and subtle experiences
are misrepresented time and again. Another form of lazy communication is the colored slide show of the family outing.
Its effect on captive guests is soporific. To those who have taken the trip each picture may suggest something intimate,
such as the feel of the warm sand between the toes, that does not appear on the slide. But to guests the pictures are only
pictures, often visual cliches that threaten to march over them in endless platoons.
-Yi-Fu Tuan, “Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience”
The purpose of exploring this topic has always been to find ways to use technology to create a deeper connection between humans
and the places they interact with. The challenge to all of us is to move beyond the “slide show” Tuan describes above, and into
something that truly engages us in an experience that moves us, and relates to an emotional component that makes a place meaningful for the individual.
First, let’s review what we’ve discussed and better define what a connection with a place really means.
UNDERSTANDING OUR CONNECTION
We’ve already looked at places in two different ways: our personal relationship to them, and the attributes that a place has. What
happens when we line up our 2 dimensions of recognizing and categorizing places? Looking at the table below, we see two ways of
looking at a place.
Relationship
Attributes
Personal
Emotional
Practical
Location
Context
Purpose
Already we can see that a place can have multiple dimensions and have several different types of relationships with a person.
There seems to be one thing missing, however. Besides our relationship with them, and the attributes they may have, places also
have a means, or channels by which they connect with us.
Let’s make one more list. This time we are going to categorize the methods that we connect with places. Again, while there are
many ways and many categories that we could create, let’s narrow this down to three primary ways:
1. Physical
Something we experience in person
2. Virtual
Something we experience remotely or through a non-physical interface
3. Relational
Something we experience remotely or in a physically abstract way
Let’s explore each of these a little more to better understand this third dimension:
15
PHYSICAL
This is probably the easiest to define and the first way we ever as humans connected with a place. A Physical connection means
that you are literally there. You can walk around it, touch it, experience it first hand. This includes:
● Entering a building or seeing it from the outside with your own eyes
● Kayaking in a river
● Sitting in a restaurant
VIRTUAL
While “virtual” is generally understood to mean digital, interactive, or online, the term can also apply to any way of remotely connecting with a place. Anything from a using Google Street View to scope a place out, to viewing a slideshow (either Flickr or an old
school Kodak Carousel slide projector) can qualify as connecting with a place virtually.
Other examples of a virtual connection would be:
● Visiting a website
● Augmented reality while you are visiting a place
● Viewing photos in your aunt’s photo album
RELATIONAL
This is by far the most abstract, but there’s an important distinction between something which is virtual and something which is
relational. When a place has a relational connection, you are neither physically there, nor are you virtually experiencing anything.
For instance, your connection to a place is relational when:
● You are traveling towards/away from it (e.g. I am catching a flight to Atlanta)
● It is too large a place to truly experience all of it at once (e.g. I am a citizen of the United States)
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Ultimately, we as marketers must take all of this knowledge and understanding of places and find a way to use it as we strive to create meaningful connections between the locations we represent and the audiences we wish to reach.
Below is a representation of the 3 different dimensions of connection we’ve discussed, as well as their subcategories:
Many times, a person can be connected to a place in multiple
ways. One example, in the quote below, shows how a person can
have both a physical and an emotional connection:
“By sense of place, I mean people’s subjective perceptions
of their environments and their more or less conscious
feelings about those environments. Sense of place is
inevitably dual in nature, involving both an interpretive
perspective on the environment and an emotional reaction
to the environment.... Sense of place involves a personal
orientation toward place, in which one’s understanding of
place and one’s feelings about place become fused in the
context of environmental meaning.”
David Hummon, “Community Attachment: Local Sentiment and Sense of Place”
16
In reality, there will be many different ways and different dimensions in which we connect with just about any place we interact
with. Our aim should be to offer as many different avenues of connection between people and the places we represent as possible.
The more ways we connect with a place, the more of an attachment we will have with it.
That being said, there are some aspects of our connections that are stronger than others. Below is a slightly modified version of
our 3-dimensional view, illustrating the same 3 dimensions, but this time, showing how the subcategories under each: Relationship, Methods and Attributes, also has a hierarchy of those which foster deeper connections than others. According to research by
the University of Washington College of the Environment2, it is good to remember that emotion is central to place attachment and
it often enhances the relationship that individuals have with their surroundings. For instance, under “Relationship,” the Practical
subcategory, while often important, is not as deep a relationship as one which is Personal. Likewise, under “Methods,” a physical
connection with a place will always be a closer one than a relational.
HOW DO WE APPLY THIS TO THE WORK OF A MARKETER?
There are many ways to use what we’ve discussed so far. Ultimately, this is about creating a more meaningful connection. By utilizing as many of the items that fall closest to the center of the circle as possible in the preceding chart we will have the strongest
bond with our audiences.
Here are a few other ways to use this information:
● Creating a sense of home ties our audiences to our location in a very personal way
● Making our store go beyond simply being practical, and infusing it with a strong purpose can strengthen the bond
● Adding a virtual experience to a physical one can also make it stronger
You will undoubtedly find other ways to combine the elements in a way that is relevant, memorable and meaningful.
CONCLUSION
With three dimensions to look at, our exploration of the ways that we connect with places is done for the time being. We’ve been
able to map them and even established some criteria for how to determine what type of connections can be the most valuable.
Next, we will look at how technology can help us in our quest as marketers to better help people connect.
2
Green Cities: Good Health, “Place Attachment and Meaning” University of Washington College of the Environment.
17
PART 4
PART 4: MARKETING &
TECHNOLOGY’S ROLE
“...The trend is more than just “digital out of home,” which is a phrase that gets used a bit too broadly to describe this cultural shift. Instead, it’s a complete rethinking of our public spaces as digital experiences.
Garrick Schmidt, How Demand for Digital Experiences Is Transforming Our Physical Spaces
We’ve discussed people’s relationship to places, the aspects of places that are relevant to visitors, and the methods we use to experience and interact with places. In this chapter, we will now explore how to apply marketing technology to what we’ve learned so far.
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH?
Before we delve into channels and tactics, it is important that we understand that a long-term and truly beneficial marketing effort
of any kind must be clearly anchored in a winning strategy. That strategy must be anchored to organizational goals and objectives
in order to succeed.
At its core, the goal of our efforts to connect people to places via marketing and technology should be one of the following:
●
●
●
●
Provide an emotional connection to a place that makes an experience more meaningful and memorable
Provide greater context to a place
Make a place easier to find and navigate
Make a task (whether it is recreational or more practical) more enjoyable, memorable and easier to accomplish
You may have one or two additional goals that are a variation on one of the above, but generally speaking, we are trying to accomplish one of these four, and here is where digital tools can help us augment our experiences.
WHAT ROLE CAN TECHNOLOGY PLAY?
Technology can augment almost any experience if executed well. A few roles that technology can play include the following:
● Augmentation
Using information and data to enhance an experience
○ Timely information
○ Background information using text, audio, photos and video
● Wayfinding
Using technology to navigate to, from and within a space
○ Mapping and directions
● Relevance
Using technology to filter and provide suggestions that are meaningful to the user
○ Real-time information
○ User-generated reviews
● Monitoring and Tracking
Providing methods to learn more about how people interact with places in order to enhance the experience
19
SEVERAL METHODS OF CONNECTING TO PLACES THROUGH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
“Cultural institutions have a big challenge on their hands in a digital age. How does the experience of a physical space, of
visiting a building housing priceless objects, one-of-a-kind artefacts and engaging exhibitions, translate digitally?”
- Sorcha Daly, Translating Physical Spaces Into Digital Experiences, CreateHub
We won’t discuss every method of connecting people to places via digital, but the list that follows includes several important ones:
●
●
●
●
●
●
Mobile Devices
Internet-connected Devices
Beacons
Augmented Reality
Social Navigation
Tracking and Monitoring Tools
You’ll notice that there can be some overlap between items in the list above, but we’ll address each separately to talk about the part
each plays.
Mobile Devices
This is by far the obvious one. Smartphones and tablets are ubiquitous in this age and they are helping us navigate, make decisions
via online reviews, and learn more about the world around us. According to Pew Research3, two-thirds of Americans own smartphones now.
The easiest way to reach people now is through a mobile device. Whether it is through a web browser, text messaging, augmented
reality, push notifications or just about anything you can imagine, smartphones are the most universal way to connect with people
who are at your location. For this reason, even most of the other methods described here use a mobile device as the “hub” of the
experience.
Internet-connected Devices
The Web is abuzz about the Internet of Things (IoT) lately, so much so that it is hard to escape articles and commentary about it.
MediaPost4 states that there will be 4 billion-plus Internet-connected devices by 2016 and nearly 14 billion by 2020. This means
everything from Amazon’s Echo device to your Nest thermostat, to your Smart TV and beyond. Alarm systems, devices that add
products to your Amazon shopping cart and many others are continually coming our way.
How do these help us connect people with places? The right kind of device is one that enhances a user’s experience. Devices that
determine where you are in an exhibit, allow you to connect to them via smartphone to get more content or information about the
object you are looking at, or even those that monitor an area to see if someone might have questions or need assistance. Devices will continue to become “smarter” and offer more interaction. It is our job as marketers to find useful ways to interact with our
guests that add to an experience.
Beacons
How do you turn your physical location into an internet-connected “device?”
Beacons are the latest in several generations of devices that push and pull information from users, primarily using their mobile
devices. Used in retail stores, automated homes and many other locations, beacons are generally placed in fixed locations and provide the capability for users to either acquire information, take actions, or be tracked and monitored. For instance, the Signul app
allows its owner to automate their home5 by interacting with beacons within the space.
According to Business Insider6, beacons will directly influence over $4 billion worth of US retail sales this year at top retailers (.1%
of the total), and that number is projected to climb tenfold in 2016.
3
4
5
6
Smith, Aaron. “U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015” Pew Internet Research. April 1, 2015.
Martin, Chuck. “4 Billion Connected Devices by Next Year” MediaPost. November 11, 2015.
Vancouver Sun. “Personal beacon Signul lets you automate your digital day.” October 29, 2014.
Smith, Cooper. “How beacons — small, low-cost gadgets — will influence billions in US retail sales.” Business Insider. February 9, 2015.
20
Augmented Reality
While certainly not new, augmented reality provides a powerful way of enhancing a person’s physical interaction with a place. By
providing real-time information and data to a person while they are physically interacting with a place, we thus “augment” the experience. To take this a step further, how can we take what has traditionally been a method to add data points and context to a place,
and make it a more powerful experience?
In a paper called “GeoNotes: Social Enhancement of Physical Space,” Persson and team make the argument that a social component is needed in augmented reality (AR) in order to make it more meaningful to the user:7
A major function of augmented reality systems (AR) and wearables is to enhance physical space with a virtual information
space that adapts to the geographical position of the user, e.g., Many AR systems are often based on some sort of positioning technology (e.g. GPS). AR systems, however, are often
hardware intensive (e.g. goggles) and tend to be a bit ‘clumsy’
for the user. Moreover – and this is the major problem – the
information in AR systems is mostly created by professional
content providers like institutions and organizations. The
virtual information space of AR systems is socially dead in so
far as ‘ordinary’ users cannot leave explicit traces (e.g., annotations) or implicit traces of usage and other behavior. This
makes AR information spaces non-dynamic, nonsocial and
non-communicatory.
A social component adds a new level of personal and potentially
emotional connection to an experience with a place.
Social Navigation
The term “social navigation” can refer to anything from Waze to Yelp or many other services that help people find places to go
based on any number of criteria including:
● Popularity (through reviews)
● Proximity (through geolocation)
● Contextual Relevance (through keyword or category search)
By adding a social component to the way we find places and interact with them, we add in a component that adds relevance in a
new and exciting way beyond the methods we’ve previously discussed.
Tracking and Monitoring Tools
Many of the tracking and monitoring tools used to track interactions and behavior with places will be similar to those we use to
track website analytics. This is part of the push to get so many Internet-connected “things” out there, so that we can track the real
world like we would a website. That being said, tracking movement in retail stores and other such behaviors often use separate
software and tools. It is our job as digital marketers to then combine all of the data from the physical and virtual experiences into a
single view so that we can better understand how online and offline behavior coexist, support one another and in some cases differ.
CONCLUSION
What we’re seeing, at last, is a genuine move beyond delivering a one-dimensional brand communication cascaded
through a series of channels. Brands are now building saliency, increasing sales and market share through physical interaction. They are creating storytelling, entertainment, fun and utility where consumers really are part of the experience
itself, everywhere.
Maggie Lonergan, Creative Bloq, February 20, 2012
The connections we create between individuals and places can be made stronger through the use of digital technology. As marketers, it is our job to find the best and most relevant methods of connection. Remembering that the more layers we provide to a
person’s interaction with a place, we can use technology to enhance both the immediate and the long-term relationship.
7
GeoNotes: Social Enhancement of Physical Space Per Persson, Fredrik Espinoza & Elenor Cacciatore Social Mobile Computing Group, SICS, Box 1263, 164 29 Kista, Sweden
21
CONCLUSION
PART 5: CONCLUSION
Brands that are able to offer customers effortless channels that help them go between the digital and physical landscapes
will have a greater chance at succeeding in the digital age. By prioritizing continuity and blending the experiential aspects
of each space, brands can increase engagement and create a successful omni-channel experience for their customers.
- Juliet Carnoy, Business 2 Community
Our connection to places is often an emotional one, and it is one that cannot be replaced by technology. Instead of replacing one
type of connection with another type, we as marketers should strive to find ways to augment an existing connection. We know this
from the other work we do already. The more of an emotional bond we can create, the better.
By understanding the relationships we have with places, the methods we interact with them, and the attributes that make a place,
we can more effectively find ways to connect people with them. We can know that a personal or emotional connection will almost
always outlast a physical or virtual one. By finding ways to create virtual experiences that build a personal or emotional relationship
with a place, we can often deepen the bond, thus augmenting the experience, the memory, and the affinity.
Our work as marketers is now to take these three dimensions and create as holistic an experience as possible to people in their
ongoing relationship with places.
NEXT STEPS
What do we do next? As a marketer, you will most likely have upcoming campaigns, and other initiatives to plan. Take what you now
know about making the most powerful, memorable and relevant experience and apply this knowledge in a meaningful way to your
efforts. The best results will come when you have multiple layers to the connection you create.
There have been few exact instructions in this white paper, because the possibilities are virtually endless, and the technology
and tools used to accomplish what we’ve focused on are in some ways in their infancy. A word of caution, however, is to avoid
the “easy” path of simply thinking that a mobile website will provide the emotional connection and engagement with your subject
matter that you desire. By combining methods, interfaces and ways of communicating, some very interesting things are bound to
happen. May you be successful in your efforts toward providing a better experience to everyone who interacts with the place you
are marketing!
23
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information and to contact Carousel30,
please go to:
www.carousel30.com
Carousel30
500 Montgomery Street
Suite 650
Alexandria, VA 22314
24
ABOUT CAROUSEL30
Carousel30 is an award-winning digital marketing and technology agency based in the Washington, DC area. Working with national
brands on marketing and advertising campaigns, websites and other interactive experiences, the agency works with top organizations across many industries including membership associations, nonprofits, financial services, and education. Founded in 2003,
Carousel30 continues to be a leading innovator in the digital marketing and technology fields. The company is led by Founder and
CEO Greg Kihlström.
In addition to the industry verticals mentioned above, Carousel30 has worked with several location-based clients and organizations
to enhance the user experience through digital media. Some of these organizations include the Trust for the National Mall in Washington, DC, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Union Station in Washington, DC, the City of Alexandria, VA, the Golden Triangle neighborhood in Washington, DC, and the Trust for the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Through Carousel30’s experience with
these locations and clients, the agency has built a unique practice area that connects people to places in new and innovative ways.
Honored by awards such as the Webbys, ADDYs, iMedia Agency Awards and others, Carousel30’s work continues to break new
ground in the digital marketing field. Carousel30 has also been featured in Advertising Age, Capitol Communicator, Web Designer
Magazine, Washington Business Journal, The Washington Post, and Website Magazine.
Driven by a set of core values, the agency has been honored by SmartCEO in its Corporate Culture Awards as a great place to work
with a strong, collaborative team. Its work spans all mediums and marketing channels and has served clients such as AARP, AOL,
Ben & Jerry’s, National Guard, Starbucks, The Nature Conservancy, Toyota, and the United Nations.
More information is available here:
Website: http://www.carousel30.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/carousel30
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carousel30
25
ABOUT GREG KIHLSTRÖM
Greg is the Founder and CEO of Carousel30 and a digital strategist and creative director who has worked with top brands on a number of campaigns, including AOL, AARP, Ben & Jerry’s, Geico Direct, MTV, Starbucks, The Nature Conservancy, Toyota, TV One and
Washington Wizards. He has received numerous awards and honors from the Webby Awards, ADDYs, American Marketing Association, iMedia’s Digital Agency Awards, Summit Creative Awards, and others over 15 years of experience in the advertising industry.
His work has been published in books by Rockport Publishers and Crescent Hill Books and industry-related magazines such as
Communication Arts and Graphics. He has been featured in and interviewed by several prominent news outlets and publications
such as Advertising Age, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, SmartCEO, Website Magazine, Web Designer Magazine, Bisnow, The Washington
Times and The Washington Post. Greg has participated as a judge in renowned design competitions around the country. He frequently speaks at industry events on
a global basis and has served as keynote speaker, presenter and participant in panel discussions at such events as Internet Week
New York, Internet Summit, SMX Social Media, Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit, Digital Capital Week, EventTech and DMAW’s Digital
Day. He has written several white papers on industry topics and has written articles for Target Market Magazine, Website Magazine, Capitol Communicator, and is a regular contributing writer to Washington Business Journal, Search Engine Watch, and iMedia
Connection, a leading online publication for the digital marketing community. He is President of the Board of Directors of the DC Ad Club — the Washington D.C. chapter of the American Advertising Federation,
where he has also served as Vice President, a member of the steering committee of ADWKDC and on the ADDYs and Communications Committees. Greg is also the Division 1 Chair on the National Board of Directors of the American Advertising Federation,
representing the largest chapters in the nation. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Trust for the George Washington Memorial Parkway. He recently served on The Trust for the National Mall’s Communications Advisory Committee along with a group of
marketing experts from agencies around the country, as well as the board of AIGA DC, the Washington, D.C. chapter of the world’s
premier design association. He is also an active member in the American Marketing Association, and the International Academy of
Visual Arts. In addition, Greg frequently helps young professionals in the advertising industry with career development, by serving as a mentor
to young advertising and marketing professionals through the DC Ad Club’s Career Catalyst program, speaking to college students
at events such as the American Advertising Federation Student Conference, and speaking to classes at colleges and universities
such as Georgetown University, American University, Virginia Tech and Westwood College.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gregkihlstrom
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom
26
A
EBOOK
©2015 Carousel30. All rights reserved.

our connection to places

Transcription

Similar documents

Greg Webb - St. Francis High School

World Airshow News 1

PDF - Greg Natale

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS Sunday, March 13th Greg Norman`s

101.9 chill

WHITEHAVEN MARLBOROUGH `GREG` SAUVIGNON BLANC 2015

5695 264th Street • Langley

Bombora TD TrainingDeck

Sometimes marketers get caught up in the creative process and