DIGITAL WORLD
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SPEAKING IN DUBLIN RECENTLY, INTERNET CONTENT GIANT AOL’S DIGITAL PROPHET DAVID SHING SAID THAT AFTER THE WORLD’S AWKWARD FUMBLINGS WITH TECHNOLOGY DURING THE INFORMATION AGE, and the embarrassing and punitive lessons of the Social Media Age, we’re now entering the Age of Context. This will be a world where wearable tech and big data will combine to hopefully make our lives better. Shing told the Digital Ireland Forum: Global 2.0 that major
‘The web is about iteration. Mobile is about surprise and delight. When you do anything with mobile, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’
engineers over the coming year at its Dublin development centre.
CATCHING THE REAL TRENDS Shing said that SoLoMo – social, local, mobile – is a real viable trend and that most people on the planet shop and buy within an eight-mile radius of their home and that 68pc of mobile minutes used are within the home. He said a massive revolution is coming to advertising. “There’s going to be a
brands around the world are currently trying to captivate audiences via social media using breaking news events, such as the recent birth of Prince George in England, to strike a chord with audiences. He cited brands including Charmin, Coca-Cola, Oreos, Starbucks and Hasbro’s Play-Doh as trying to cash in on the royal arrival. He said a major change is under way, where the digital
conversation between brands and consumers is being recalibrated, but “not everyone is getting it right”. Brands spending money on apps rather than effective mobile- optimised websites were wasting their money and fewer people are downloading apps, he noted. “The web is about iteration. Mobile is about surprise and
delight. When you do anything with mobile, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Dublin – a city that Shing finds himself spending more and
more time in because he loves the buzz and energy of the place – is home to one of AOL’s major software hubs, where developers are creating the content systems and advertising systems for the future. A growing player in Ireland’s technology landscape, AOL
currently employs more than 170 people in Dublin, with the majority of them being software engineers. In recent months it emerged that AOL Ireland plans to hire 40 new software
revolution in the way we market things driven by the power of social. Brands will move away from generic ads and behavioural assumptions towards actions and specifics. If I type in a search for ‘pink shirt’ I should get a direct reply from brands telling me the walking distance to where I can buy the item.” He also cited the example of clever marketing on Pinterest
by a brand that succeeded in posting a large number of photos in a timely sequence to dominate a fashion page. I asked Shing afterwards if the global marketing machine is
set up for a challenging age where sophisticated analytics and software will vie with instinctive derring-do on new networks and across a range of form factors. “It is a challenge, the marketing machines aren’t set up for
it yet but they can be. It is a matter of understanding where the consumers are and how they wish to participate in that environment. The Pinterest example was driven by someone who understands what it means. Can my brand participate in a very authentic way? Yes it can. When Vine came out we saw all these brands jump on Vine asking themselves, ‘how can I make a story that lasts six seconds?’. Are they set up to play? No. But are they starting to jump on the ship? Yes.” He said brands are moving away from programming around seasonal content to maximising the effects of one-off events, like the Queen’s Jubilee, to understanding what is breaking “to have the mindshare of consumers because that is what digital is really good at right now”.
Issue 7 Autumn/Winter 2013 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 45
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