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  • Enhancing Digital Promotion Using Physical Tools: AMC Theaters Augmented Reality Enabled Movie Posters

    Enhancing Digital Promotion Using Physical Tools: AMC Theaters Augmented Reality Enabled Movie Posters

    Bringing back a marketing dinosaur

    Marketing has been going through a seismic shift over the last decade. A field that used to be dominated by print advertising and billboards is rapidly being replaced by miniature smart phone websites and pay per click advertising. Even though new technology has begun to phase out the traditional methods of promotion, there are some new methods that actually make use of decade old tools such as print advertising.

    AMC Theaters is one of the largest entertainment venues in the country. They bring in billions of dollars in revenue each year and are one of the staples of the entertainment industry. Even though they have evolved their marketing with smartphone applications and pre-movie screening advertisements, they have found a way to integrate new technology into the most basic of their industry’s marketing, the movie poster.

    New technology  has allowed for smartphones to create augmented reality. User will look at the outside world through their mobile screen and be treated to a different experience than their eyes initially perceived. AMC has integrated this into movie posters. By viewing the poster using the phone camera, movie details, movie trailers, and ticket information will pop up on the screen. This process works on movie posters inside the theater, as well as VR enabled posters that are present in print magazines and on websites.

    Applications for your business

    If you have print marketing efforts, including posters, signage, or magazine ads, it may be worth seeing if you can enhance these marketing efforts with some digital technology. QR codes are scan-ready media that will take a customer to your designated mobile website once they scan it. You can also go the AMC Theater route and create a complete augmented reality experience with your print advertising. This method will greatly enhance the level of interaction that your print advertising has for customers. Even though this method can be effective, here are a few pointers to use when integrating this software:

    • Make the destination as good as the journey: If you create a beautiful print advertisement and then have a scan area to give the customer more information, make sure that the mobile experience is as good as, or better, than the print one. QR codes and VR efforts have been criticized for their marketing effectiveness because they are misused. A company will create the possibility for this interaction, but when customers use it they are taken to a non-mobile website, or worse, the link may not work at all. Having the technology work correctly and seamlessly is key to success.
    • Put it in the right place: This type of technology is well suited to a movie theater inside a mall where the majority of people have a smartphone and cell service & wifi are in abundance. However, virtual reality marketing will not work if it is being used on a roadside billboard where people drive by, or in a section of the city where cell phone reception will be hard to come by. Make sure that customers will be able to access your great content whenever you present the option.

    Virtual reality and augmented experiences were only seen in science fiction movies a few years ago. Now everyone with access to a smartphone is able to participate in this futuristic marketing. At DigitalParc we have the app development tools to help you get on the cutting edge of marketing promotion. Good luck with your digital and print advertising, and thanks for reading!

  • American Airlines: Hits the target with email marketing campaign

    American Airlines: Hits the target with email marketing campaign

    “Email is a persuasive channel—it helps brands put custom content in prospects’ hands to remind them about deals and discounts,” said Brafton, a marketing news industry. Many corporations are off the email marketing bandwagon, however email marketing is still a powerful strategy—if the email content is accurate and timely. In order to accomplish this, brands need an apparent insight into what drives web traffic, and what encourages web users to engage and to convert.  American Airlines is an example of having a successful email marketing campaign, as they have a powerful and active ecommerce hub.

    According to MediaPost, American Airlines increased website conversions by 400% with its new email strategy.  This strategy is called the “Abandoned Cart Program”.  The idea of this strategy is to target prospects that browsed American Airlines flights, added a desired flight to their shopping cart, but ultimately did not purchase the flight.  If the flight is ignored for more than 24 hours, American Airlines sends out a personalized email offering the lowest and most flexible price to the flight the prospect added into their shopping cart.  Compared with standard fare sale campaigns, the email strategy resulted in 300% higher open rates and 200% higher click-through rates—along with the 400% increase of conversion rates.

    “Not only did the Abandoned Cart Program deliver phenomenal results, but the learning it provided on big data analysis is helping us to improve the relevance of all our email programs,” said Kay Kerman.

    This was an instance of a retargeting campaign, where companies use ads to offer the customer a better deal so that they’ll come back and convert when they were so close to doing so on their original visit.

    The American Airlines email campaign proves that customer involvement, call-to-action marketing, and a successful email marketing strategy will drive online conversion.  Marketers and industries that wish to develop their online strategies should develop influential email campaigns that support customer relationships in order to successfully increase conversion rates.

    Take a look at your business and see what channels you’re getting conversions from. What channels could you be seeing more from? Whether your company is massive like American Airlines, or runs a nearly microscopic operation, you need to open opportunities.

    No matter your budget, you should be looking to diversify your advertising budget into as many channels as possible. This is how you find growth and reach more people. Don’t be afraid to take risks, you may yield results you never expected possible.

  • Microsoft: “Social Media Boosts Productivity at Work”

    Microsoft: “Social Media Boosts Productivity at Work”

    The increasing rise of social media bans in work environments is being frowned upon by Microsoft, as new results from a two-year study found that using social media at work increases productivity.  Therefore, a new Microsoft global survey concurs, “Nearly half of employees report that social tools at work help increase their productivity, but more than 30% of companies underestimate the value of these tools and often restrict their use.”

    A total of 9,908 information workers in 32 countries were surveyed in the study conducted by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). This survey found that 39% of employees feel there isn’t enough collaboration in their workplaces, and 40% believe social tools help encourage stronger teamwork. Additionally, 31% said they are willing to spend their own money to buy social tools.

    According to the numbers, it is easy to conclude that banning social media in the workplace is becoming useless.  In a separate study, conducted by KMPG, found that job satisfaction is a clear indicator to keep social media alive in the office.  This is because 63% of employees at organizations with open policies on social media said they were satisfied with their job, and in opposition, only 41% of employees with social media restrictions said they were satisfied with their job—a 22% difference.

    Nancy Baym, who wrote on the Microsoft Research Social Media Collective Blog, said, “We are learning that blocking and banning policies are ineffective, giving traditionalist supervisors a false sense of control that, in reality, has been slipping away for years.”

    Joe Nandhakumar, a professor of information systems at Warwick Business School, collaborated with the team in the two-year study.  He made a point with saying companies treated email as a distraction when it first came out, and even treated the telephone as a distraction in work environments.  Therefore, he suggests that businesses should change because social media has become a fact of life.

    In the end, anything can be a distraction—coworkers, a computer, and even daydreaming.  However, it’s the way you utilize these distractions by turning them into something positive.  Working with people equals teamwork, using a computer equals a tool for research, and daydreaming equals creativity.  What can your company do to use social media as a positive?  Well, that is up to you.