RFID: The Social Media of Tomorrow

Now while part of me is afraid of what RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology can do, a majority of me is excited. This, RFID, is the future, not augmented reality. It has all the buzz words of today such as traceability, social, public/personals personas, e-commerce and mobility. As a digital communicator, this is what I am looking forward to. Depending how early developers and marketers harness these RFID tools, it won’t be an invasion of privacy, but rather something completely intuitive and captivating.

Like the Internet and social media has affected all aspects of daily life, I believe RFID will begin to do the same. As of now the possibilities that RFID can contribute to communications, marketing and PR are so unfathomable, it might as well be labeled as sci-fi. So I’ll keep on dreaming.

Here is a video what a single swipe of an encoded RFID card can do.

Nearness from timo on Vimeo.

Discuss.

image source: Ti.Mo’s flickr

High School Wasn’t That Bad (Pre-Social Media)

Maybe it was because I grew up in a typical suburban environment, had a small group of close friends, and was just not cool but not uncool in my teenage days, but I don’t remember high school being that awful. I knew a handful of kids who had it rough, but I don’t believe it drove them to self destruction, or worse, school destruction.

This past week, Chicago’s Public Radio’’s This American Life’s program revolved around bullies, and 2 teenage boys in the UK’s plans to blow up their school were foiled; and in the previous months news programs reported ad nauseum about school bullying. I don’t say it doesn’t exist. But at the same time, it’s not news.

As main stream media continues to sensationalize common day occurrences/horrors, and social media makes it easier to get every Tom, Dick and Harry’s opinion out to the world, the little things that were usually swept under the rug, or dealt with behind closed doors are now out in the open and have become entertainment.

In high school, I kept a blog. When my feelings were hurt, I posted about it. When there were new photos, I posted them. I created events and poetry and they were all found on my Xanga page. The difference was that only my friends really had an interest to see what was going on in my life. And every once in awhile, I would post something that could cause either drama or a riff among friends, but it was a big splash in my small social life pond. But now, the social networks are more tightly bound. I tweet it, it goes to my followers and it is also posted onto my Facebook, where a whole new variety of people have access to it, including classmates, teachers and parents.  As a result, I constantly have to keep in mind what I want people to know about me.

Back in 2004, comments would come from the people I talked to every day, now “likes” and @replies pop up from people I haven’t even seen since 2004.  I run a casual PR program just for me, thinking about the audience and the message. And that got me thinking. Now is the time that an educational program (that goes beyond the retro-active “you shouldn’t have done that”) should be instated. When someone complains on their Facebook about getting a wedgy, they should be prepared how easy that wedgy-giver can see that and realize their impact and continue with their actions.

Image source: tigronx254’s Flickr

Brand Loyalty > Money Saving = This Gen Y-er.

I’m a Gen-Yer. And although I love it, I don’t always love the advertisements geared to me. Think about it. Advertising and messaging all pushes us to buy the non-estentials.

Since this is my first year living on my own in a real apartment, where I have to use cash instead of a student I.D. to buy food. My wants and needs are changing. Just a few months ago, it was clothes shopping all the way, now it’s grocery shopping. And I’m not the only one in this shift.

I now care about saving money some what. I care about what I buy. I care about what’s left in my bank account.

Now while I am among the 72% of those under 34 have printed or downloaded a coupon, money saving isn’t my primary reason on buying products. I have no problem spending the extra dollar or two to buy a brand I am familiar with. That’s right, in my world, brand loyalty comes first. In fact, the numbers are 37% of 18- to 29-year-olds buy based on brand.

While advertisers, marketers and PR are people are struggling to figure out how to see to my generation, I can tell you this… we buy household products too, and we aren’t all moms.

Stat sources: AdAge
Photo source:

Posted via web from saratara’s posterous

Product Placement… Done right?

So Chuck is one  of those television shows I watch. And on Monday, they had an episode that had an obvious but still semi-fitting product placement as seen below.

Those characters stayed in character. Big Mike is known for loving food. Morgan is known  for being a goofball and cheesy in a lot of his delivery. When Heroes made a product placement drop last season for Verizon, it didn’t blend.

So televised product placement…

In my opinion, if product placement goes unnoticed, then it is unsuccessful. Product placement almost every time receives an eye-roll. But Subway’s placement was successful, it was uninterruptive, yet noticeable and the eye-roll was a slightly smaller eye-roll.

Advertisers take note. Bad product placement gives the company a bad note. Since we are trained to spot an advertising effort from a mile away, product placement will never go unnoticed. The best you can do is make it the least interruptive and somewhat transparent.

All in all, product placement isn’t dead yet.