How AR and VR can Help Your Marketing

I'm convinced Augmented Reality has a very strong future to empower digital interactions between people.  VR is more niche as it requires a greater commitment of intensity during the interaction.

Here is one take on how either can be useful for your marketing:

You’re planning your next holiday but rather than reading reviews and looking at images of the resort you intend to stay in, you put on a virtual reality headset and are instantly transported there. You walk around the hotel, head out onto the main strip and wander past the shops and restaurants, making your way down to the beach where you can almost feel the soft sand between your toes and the sea breeze in your hair. You’re longing to get into the turquoise sea and so remove the headset and hand over your credit card.

It sounds futuristic, doesn’t it? Well, newsflash – that reality has already arrived...

Here is the full story:

https://www.clickz.com/4-ways-to-use-immersive-technology-to-change-the-face-of-your-marketing/219424/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Something Different - Black Holes at the Heart of our Galaxy

I think it was Star Wars (1977) and the ongoing halo effect from the moon landings that did it for me.

I love outer space.

When 'A Brief History of Time' was published in 1988 I devoured it as a teenager. A book that wrote about the origins of our universe, the mystery of outer space, and delved in to the mystery of black holes?  Awesome!

So I keep an eye out for stories in this realm.  Please forgive the deviation from the normal tech and digital/retail stories but I think this is great stuff that you might enjoy too.

Generally the way it works is the study of Physics is broken in to two groups: theoretical physics tries to explain the universe, experimental physics tries to test the theories.  There is always a huge lag from the theory to the testing as setting up these tests can be a massive, expensive, and very time-consuming affair.  This effort needed a minimum of a couple decades of accumulated data to test work the long-deceased Albert Einstein put forth.

Wow!

Here is the full story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/science/black-hole-milky-way.html

Here is a snippet from the piece:

For the last two decades, two rival teams of astronomers, looking to test some of Albert Einstein’s weirdest predictions about the universe, have aimed their telescopes at the star, which lies 26,000 light-years away. In the process, they hope to confirm the existence of what astronomers strongly suspect lies just beyond: a monstrous black hole, an eater of stars and shaper of galaxies.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Our Children and the Information Age

As I've written about extensively we are just entering the new Information Age with incredible information all in our pockets through our mobile devices. 

What is all of this doing to each of us?

We are only starting to see the changes that are coming and are very early in understanding what the ramifications of those changes are.

Here is one story that claims the Rich and Poor divide in the U.S. is resulting in unexpected reaction to these questions: the wealthy are disconnecting their kids because they can afford to while the poor can not.

Here is a snippet from this worthwhile piece:

The parents in Overland Park, Kan., were fed up. They wanted their children off screens, but they needed strength in numbers. First, because no one wants their kid to be the lone weird one without a phone. And second, because taking the phone away from a middle schooler is actually very, very tough.

“We start the meetings by saying, ‘This is hard, we’re in a new frontier, but who is going to help us?’” said Krista Boan, who is leading a Kansas City-based program called START, which stands for Stand Together And Rethink Technology. “We can’t call our moms about this one.”

For the last six months, at night in school libraries across Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., about 150 parents have been meeting to talk about one thing: how to get their children off screens.

Here is the full story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/style/digital-divide-screens-schools.html

Do those of us in the industry have a responsibility to be aware of these questions and even address them?  I think maybe so.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Artificial Intelligence and Creative Writing

I was blown away merely by the headline for this story.

Supposedly the "creative" jobs are safe from the coming robotic overlord dystopia (tongue in cheek of course).  Not any more.  Now AI can help write creative stories.

Wow.

Just.

Wow.

Read the full piece here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/technology/ai-is-beginning-to-assist-novelists.html

Happy ... Writing and Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS I have completed my first fiction book and self-published online so this one really grabbed my attention.

PPS One more. A.I. defeated a team of lawyers to create an error free contract in less time.
https://m.slashdot.org/story/347623

Nike and the Store of the Future ... Today

It started for me with the launch of the Nike Apple Watch.

An Apple Watch branded specific to Nike.  Cool looking too.  There's much more going on there than I realized at first however.  If a loyal Nike customer is wearing that watch, they likely have the Nike app to go with it and ... what happens when that combination goes to a mall near a Nike store?

Bingo.

Nike Stores are really at the cutting edge as this piece talks about.  Here is a snippet from the piece:

Retail isn’t dead, boring retail is. That was the sermon Nike was preaching at its New York City headquarters yesterday in a presentation by chief digital officer Adam Sussman, senior director of Nike Stores Experience Michelle Warvel, and Ron Faris, head of Nike’s SNKRS app and s23 NYC digital studio. The brand is using SNKRS to connect with culture, experimenting with turning experiences into retail opportunities, as well as preparing to roll out in-store features in which customers check out their new kicks with their phone.

I love how that article begins by the way.  So very true!

I talk about the traditional ranking of retailers, Tier 5 the smallest like your local christmas tree vendor, and Tier 1 the largest like Walmart.  There is really a "super tier" now.  Those retailers putting it all together: digital interactions (mobile and social), ecommerce, and a great in-store experience.  They are the very top of the list.  Some companies can do one of those great and succeed but they'll never be the biggest of the big.  Two gets you a long ways but the very best do it all.

Here is the full story:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90256871/nike-showcases-its-mobile-vision-for-the-future-of-retail

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Journalism and Blockchain

If you don't have any idea what is happening in "Blockchain" you aren't alone.

Here is Wikipedia to help:

By storing data across its peer-to-peer network, the blockchain eliminates a number of risks that come with data being held centrally. The decentralized blockchain may use ad-hoc message passing and distributed networking.

Peer-to-peer blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability that computer crackers can exploit; likewise, it has no central point of failure.

And the full Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain

Here is a good little story about a huge publisher looking to blockchain tech for journalism.  Worth the read.

https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/10/10/forbes-fix-journalism-blockchain/

Here is a snippet from the story:

Publishing giant Forbes is joining a blockchain-based journalism network to begin experimenting with publishing its content using decentralized tech.

In an announcement yesterday, Forbes revealed it has teamed up with blockchain-powered journalism platform, Civil, in an effort to gain more trust with readers. As part of the collaboration, Forbes will also publish content on the blockchain.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Google Phone vs Apple iPhone

Great little article from the folks over at TechCrunch that looks at the most recent offerings from Google and Apple.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

First off, if you’re strapped for cash, or more accurately just want to be more responsible with the cash you do have, the price tags of these devices communicate some loud differences. The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL go for $200 less than the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, respectively. Paying $1,000 for a phone is wild, but it’s the world we live in...

Here is the full article:

https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/09/pixel-3-vs-iphone-xs-how-do-they-stack-up/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant