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SXSW 2014: Mobile In Latin America

Posted on by Lab Team

The fact that mobile marketing is not bigger commercially in Latin America is a little mind boggling in my mind. Many creators of major streaming content already come from the region, for example Grooveshark was created in Mexico and Brazil is one of the larger in country user bases for the newly purchased WhatsApp that is part of Facebook’s global mobile domination.

From the session that was held at SXSW, directed by Pablo Salazar Rojo-managing director of Naranya Ventures, the big needs are that surfaced are really funding, knowledge, and education.

  • More education will create additional talent on the continent.
  • Building relevance for mobile will be based on more conferences and development of conversations in countries about how mobile can work for businesses and brands
  • Fiscal incentives are dearly needed to assist with funding. Some government budgets are $1mm and below

Naranya Ventures is building more accelerators in Latin America to build momentum and development of research, funding and acceleration of the conversations. One of the methods he discussed was using what works in Africa, with mobile payments, and social and leverage in Latin America to create structure at scale.

But the real thing we think that may stimulate growth are the tests that America Movil and others area pushing  in Latin America that have deeper pockets to invest and already have existing infrastructures in Central and some area in Latin America

Take a look at one of the upcoming events in May for 5/2-5/6 Emerge Americas in Miami here. It will be one in a series of many events that will help push this issue forward in the future.

SXSW 2014 Preview: The Lab’s Panel Picks

Posted on by Lab Team

It’s that time of year again; mid-March means [maybe] less snow and SXSW Interactive. Startups, technologists, pundits, marketers, engineers and BBQ aficionados will descend upon Austin for several days of waiting in line for panels and several nights waiting in line for parties. The Lab will be down in Austin with a crack team of scouts, strategists and content creators.

There are literally hundreds of panels to choose from, and we have our eyes on dozens and dozens of them. But for the sake of brevity, we’re going to give you our three picks for each day of the festival. These are the three panels, for each day, that we think are most worth attending.

We are making these picks through the lens of marketing and the goals of Mediabrands’ clients. There will undoubtedly be some fantastic panels on responsive web development and maybe drones. We’re here to focus on brands and audiences, and thus our picks:

Friday March 7th

 

Saturday March 8th

 

Sunday March 9th

 

Monday March 10th

 

Tuesday March 11th

 

If you make it to these, we hope to see you there. Maybe we’ll grab some BBQ afterwards.

Apple Showcases CarPlay

Posted on by Lab Team

As has been heavily rumored, Apple has officially stepped into the connected car fray. Their system, called “Apple CarPlay,” claims to be the best iPhone experience for the car by essentially putting the iOS on the dashboard. The ultimate goal, of course, is to provide full functionality of phone use while driving, and then some. Apple claims that the system is not only hands-free with Siri integration, but is also predictive, knowing where you might want to go in the surrounding area based on addresses found in your emails, messages, calendars, and contacts. Of course, Apple’s Maps is deeply integrated, eschewing the still-popular Google Maps along with it. Streaming music is a prominent feature as well, featuring iHeartRadio, Spotify, Beats Radio, Stitcher, and more. CarPlay is presently being integrated into new models from Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo, with many more committed future partners. As in the past, Apple has waited until there was a demonstrated interest and reason to strike, and struck hard and fast when the time came. With Apple involved with over a dozen car companies, it’s safe to say that the era of the connected car is officially here.

Hisense Scales Down For Mobile World Congress

Posted on by Lab Team

Any visitor to CES in the last two years can attest to the Chinese manufacturer’s intent on making a huge splash at the conference.   Their gigantic booth seems engineered to cause the uninitiated to ask: “What is this company I’ve never heard of? And how did they get a booth as big as Samsung’s?”

With that experience in mind, I was surprised to see their comparatively pint-sized set up at Mobile World Congress (pictured above). Competitor Huawei, by contrast, had a large presence and sponsored the conference badges which featured its logo prominently.

When I walked up to the booth attendant to sincerely ask if this was “the main Highsense booth,” his answer was as direct as it was disarming: “Yeah. We can make the stands as big as you like, but we’ve only got 12 phones.”  Fair enough.

 

 

 

MWC 2014: RealVNC Revolutionizes The Connected Car

Posted on by Lab Team

UK’s RealVNC do a very simple thing that is set to revolutionize the connected car: they mirror the screen on your phone on a touch screen in your car.  Their technology, on display at MWC 2014, also powers “MirrorLink”– a platform being rolled out by the Car Connectivity Consortium, which included members like Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Samsung, LG, Sony,  HTC, VW, Hyundai, Fiat, and Renault.

For years RealVNC has focused on PC to PC linking products that have been used by millions,  but it’s put a strong emphasis on the mobile automotive space in the last 2 years.  It sells its technology to a variety of car manufacturers, and counts itself among the members of the Car Connectivity Consortium.

The Consortium’s goal is to make it easier for developers to create apps for the connected car by letting automobiles access apps downloaded to your phone.  They also will be enforcing safety standards for those apps to make sure that drivers only utilize apps safe for use on the road. With a large booth in the walkway between halls at MWC, the consortium was able to draw significant attention at the conference.

MirrorLink uses a simple USB cable to connect your phone to your car, and it will be available in certain vehicle models this year including the VW Gulf. HTC will have it pre-installed in certain phones, and had a Gulf on display at its MWC booth with a few MirrorLink apps users can download in the Google Play store.  Once the devices are linked, all actions you take on the car’s touch screen are mirrored on the phone in real time– including calls you make.

See the photo below of MirrorLink in action in the VW Gulf.

IMG_0642

 

 

MWC 2014: SAP’s Vending Machine with iBeacon, NFC, and Facial Detection

Posted on by Lab Team

Check out SAP’s futuristic vending machine in the video below, on display at Mobile World Congress.  It slickly implements pretty much every innovative technology you could ask for including an iBeacon, NFC reader, facial detection (powered by Intel), social media integration and more.

SAP envisions people signing up for loyalty programs tied to a network of these machines, allowing you to earn rewards, pull up your favorite selections on any device, and even buy and send gifts to friends in the program directly from the machine. I was given $10 an a free account, and as you can see from the video the machine addressed me by name when I swiped in via NFC.  If were using an iPhone, the iBeacon could push me an offer or message once I was withing range.

There are about 1,000 of these vending machines in the US now.   SAP is also improving the supply chain side of the equation but collecting data on which sodas are most popular on each individual machine to ensure that companies don’t miss out on sales by running out of product, or carrying the wrong product.  Customers can even request that new beverages be added to the machine in the future if they don’t see what they want.

Sign me up.

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Messaging App LINE Shows Off Samsung Partnership at MWC 2014

Posted on by Lab Team

Japanese messaging app LINE continues to show a knack for strategic alliances.  After making a splash at CES with its LG integration allowing you to chat with appliances, the company has an installation at Samsung’s developers pavilion at this year’s Mobile Wold Congress to display special features developed for Samsung mobile phones.

Watch a video of the Galaxy 3 Note demo below where users can split the screen and have LINE on the top half and a browser on the bottom half. You can then drag content from the browser directly into chat messages, or do the same with photos from your gallery.  Although the implementation is quite different, it has some similarity to Kik’s new URL browser, which allows you to find and share content from the mobile web.

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MWC 2014: DNP’s iBeacon App Solution For Retailers

Posted on by Lab Team

While MWC remains an Apple-free zone, this year’s show features a plethora of retail beacon technologies looking to capitalize on Apple’s recent iBeacon launch. Japan’s DNP (Dai Nippon Printing Co) is displaying a templatized white label app solution for retailers looking to integrate iBeacons into the in-store experience.

DNP says the first iteration of its platform is aimed at the Japanese market where consumers prefer an emotional connection with a brand. Coming into proximity with the iBeacon triggers a question on your phone simply asking how you’re doing and an offer to send someone to help with anything you need. Coupons are also readily integrated into the platform for stores looking to make offers available to consumers.

DNP’s solutions on display this year are split 50 /50 between NFC and beacon technology, a telling sign of the current state of the industry.  Having had more time to develop for the NFC world, their offerings there include quantified self integrations with hardware partners like Triplesense — an instore skincare device and sales aid that measures how dry your skin is. Once the analysis is complete, sales associates tap their phones against the device to get skin care product suggestions for the consumer.

MWC: Sony Launches Ambitious “Lifelog” Quantified Self Solution

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The highlight of my first day at MWC was the Sony booth where the company (an IPG client, in full disclosure) rolled out a Lifelog app companion to its new SmartBand as part of an all-encompassing approach to quantified self.  Sony’s goal is to capture not only your fitness and sleep activity, but also location and all your mobile phone activity like time spent on chat apps, Facebook, Twitter, and listening to music.

All that information is plotted on a scrollable timeline that lets you see what you did hour by hour, or week be week, and the UX is top notch. The backdrop image even changes to reflect the actual weather conditions at every point on the timeline, and you can access a host of charts to get a better look at how you’ve spent your time.

The SmartBand integrates with your phone and other device in a few novel ways. For example you can control the music playing on your phone by tapping the band– one tap to skip to the next song and two to go back a song.  You can even sync the wristband with your boardroom presentation and tap to scroll to the next slide– a feature compatible with any device running Android 4.4.

Lifelog comes pre-installed on the new Xperia Z2, and other Android phones can communicate with the SmartBand via either Bluetooth or NFC.