24 Mar 2011
Just yesterday Starbucks announced that over 3 million people have paid for their caffeine fix through Starbucks Card Mobile, the new app that allows for mobile pay at counter. Starbucks cards already account for 22% of all transactions, so it would make sense that customers are happy to continue to pay through a pre-paid card, but one that lives virtually on a smartphone.
Starbucks Card Mobile is the first example of mass-adoption of a mobile wallet, and you should expect to see this happening much more, and soon, due to use of near-field communication (NFC). You likely already know NFC; if you’ve ever paid by holding a credit card a few inches from a swipe machine, then you’ve seen this technology at work. Visa is currently testing this technology in smartphones. How easy is it to pay by phone? Very. Watch and see.
Breaking Down a Barrier
This technology, a blending of…
...Continue Reading
09 Mar 2011
You are likely conscious that the television experience has changed in the past decade. We once participated in appointment TV, taking the time to sit down at a specific hour to watch a specific show. Today, two significant behavioral changes in consumers are redefining the entertainment landscape.
These changes require television networks and advertisers to evolve rapidly to keep their shows, content, and ad buys relevant to a demanding consumer set.
People now consume television via time-shifted DVR, online (legally), online (illegally), mobile device, Internet streaming to TV, and a wide variety of other methods.
Viewers now consume multiple forms of media at the same time, such as watching TV on a television while checking Facebook on a computer. This is commonly referred to as two-, three- or multi-screen viewing.
...Continue Reading
02 Nov 2010
We’ve been pretty excited about work we’ve been doing with Linkfluence, a cutting-edge firm out of Paris (ooh la la) that, in their own words, analyzes, segments, and maps conversations taking place in social web communities. Essentially, they’ve analyzed and mapped the social web in France, the UK, and the US. In 2009, based on their mapping of the US, they launched a site called Politicosphere, which gives an insightful look at how (or if) political conversations track through the online political community.
As tomorrow is election day, the online world is buzzing with political conversations. As we are in the process of working to relaunch and run Politicosphere, I’ve got the intersection of politics and social media on my mind. On that note, I want to draw attention to an interactive map the New York Times put up. This map looks at Twitter buzz around individual candidates’ Twitter handles, including…
...Continue Reading
22 Jun 2010
I wonder if James Surowiecki thought that crowdsourcing was poised to become an internet hot topic when he wrote The Wisdom of Crowds. Whether or not he knew, his book certainly got to the strategic core of the why’s and how’s of the power of the crowd. I read that book in 2004 and I was simply passionate about it. I wanted to understand how to better harness the concept of aggregate thinking (not crowd thinking) to make better decisions.
Throwing money into the abyss?
I was quite excited when Kiva first opened its (virtual) doors. Kiva harnessed the power of storytelling, as well as ease of online payment, to help online individuals make a difference they felt connected to. I was equally excited when I watched the rise of crowdsourced funding in the startup world. I believe there is value in this. I know some people who argue that it’s just…
...Continue Reading
BrandonSings:
Room_214:
Hello_BenHere:
MattAt214:
jo_rogel:
runquatro:
ElyseHeslin:
JamesOClark:
JasonCormier:
peterahall: