Is 2011 The Year for Semantic Technology?

Information Management Newsletters, February 24, 2011

Luca Scagliarini

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Consider the following facts:

• 79 percent of American adults use the Internet, according to a May 2010 survey.
• 38 percent of Internet users log onto an online networking site like Facebook or LinkedIn each day.
• 8 percent of Americans on the Internet use Twitter.
• 28 percent of Internet users look for information online each day about a service or product they are thinking of buying. (Stats from the Pew Research Center.)

It’s crucial for institutions of all kinds to have a pulse on the public’s opinion regarding relevant issues, products and ideas. Still, modern technology has made the extraction and utilization of this information and related opinions more difficult than ever. From chat rooms to Twitter, Facebook and blogs, there is an ever-growing amount content from which many of us are trying to separate the useful insight from the weeds. The advent of chief listening officers in the corporate world only reinforces the desire to keep tabs on customer dialogue and sentiment in an effort to protect brand reputation and keep customers happy.

Is Facebook Driving Adoption?

Currently, most companies don’t have the time to invest in analyzing the mass of social information on the Web. This is where semantic technology comes into play. At its most basic level, semantic technology is able to understand the meanings of words expressed in their proper context no matter the number (singular or plural), gender, verb tense or mode (indicative or imperative). But this is just the starting point. Semantic technology incorporates morphological, logical, grammatical and natural language analysis that translates into higher precision and recall when searching for information, delivering all of the most important and accurate data to the user.

Semantic technology allows enterprises to monitor and assess information contained in Web-based conversations and unstructured information so that companies can get the lay of the land when it comes to overall sentiment. And while the enterprise is gradually adopting semantic technologies, the consumer realm has a mind of its own.

Decisions by major companies, particularly those like Facebook, to acquire semantic technology companies seem to point to a move toward more widespread semantic technology adoption. Facebook is a kind of parallel Web universe, with its own content, search functions, applications and games. It has content of every type and of every quality, so it’s necessary to render that content more useful in an effective and realistic way.

Also, companies that need insight on public opinion about a particular topic can rely on semantic technology to pull together relevant search results that accurately reflect the comments, tweets and posts about that product, idea or issue. Given these capabilities, it’s clear why Facebook sees such value in adding semantic analysis into its own search function. As the king of the social networks, with more users than Google, Facebook does not have to be in agreement with anyone regarding formats, ontologies, tags or concepts when it comes to semantic search. Because of this, Facebook can define its own standards and impose them on its users, putting it in a privileged position to start applying semantic technology to its own content beyond the “Like” feature. With a gradual, focused process, semantic search will prove both interesting and useful for Facebook and its users in the future.

Potential in the Enterprise

Nowhere is there greater potential for semantic technology than in the enterprise, especially as companies increasingly understand the value and impact of critical information coming from outside the organization via social media outlets. This information, in the form of unstructured data – comments on blogs and discussion forums, independent reviews, posts on Twitter, Facebook, etc. – has a great ability to influence the enterprise. It represents intelligence that, when coupled with internal data, can signal significant benefits for the bottom line.

With its functionality and ability to integrate structured and unstructured data, semantic technology supports corporate knowledge management and business intelligence efforts, especially in the areas of:

Customer service. Semantic technology helps companies analyze the conversations customers are having on the Web and provides useful insight in relation to overall customer needs. When it comes to interacting with call centers and online support, it provides an even greater customer service reach to provide immediate, thorough response to customer queries.

Competitive monitoring. Semantic technology helps companies take listening abilities one step further by capturing and analyzing the online opinions of users, understanding not only what is being discussed, but how it is being discussed. This enables companies to keep tabs on the latest information from competitors, as well as the reactions customers are having in response to competitive news.

Research and development. For organizations with a large focus on and investment in R&D, semantic technology’s ability to integrate structured and unstructured data enables organizations to share important data and manage a tremendous amount of information. This makes it an invaluable resource.

At its simplest, semantic technology is a listening technology; at its most complex, semantics support critical business decision-making. The fact is semantic technology helps break through information boundaries contained between business walls and the insight culled from the vast web of Internet consumers.

What’s Ahead for Semantic Technology?

Semantic technology will increasingly be recognized as a tool that helps provide early identification and analysis of consumer sentiment, purchasing trends, market deals and competitive information. Moving forward, monitoring social media-focused comments and conversations will be a core part of any business. By uncovering information in its true context and form, organizations will be able to strategize, analyze and make smarter predictions.

In the coming year, I think three trends will dominate the social semantic sphere:

1. A higher value (and in turn an increased investment) will be placed on the ability to gather a dynamic, more accurate real-time view of the market.
2. Traditional market research will begin to permanently incorporate social media influence through the use of semantic technology.
3. An increased precision and quality in the search of social information will result as more companies enter the semantic space in an attempt to tame the semantic Web.

What are your predictions for semantic technologies in the coming year, particularly as they relate to social media?

Male order: redefining the power of persuasion

By Barry Didcock

21 Feb 2011

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News reaches me of an interesting retail experiment taking place.

Hypnotic Shop is an installation by “sensual artists” Sam Bompas and Harry Parr at Browns Focus clothing store on London’s upmarket South Molton Street.

The idea is to use smells and subliminal messages to make people buy things, although it goes some way beyond pumping out baking smells, a la Tesco.

It starts with an optical window installation that uses “vertigo therapy” to pull you in, and then employs music which will make shoppers feel sexy while also making them less inclined to nick stuff.

So nothing like Kasabian, then.

Bompas and Parr have even “spiked” the shop with “micro-encapsulated vanilla scents” to be released as customers walk across the shop. American research has shown that when these kinds of “feminine” scents are released, sales of clothes can double. When the installation comes down on March 15, sales data will be analysed – or “crunched” as they say in the retail business – to see if it’s made any difference to profits.

Bompas and Parr are Old Etonians with quite a track record for this sort of bonkers behaviour. Their core business is actually jelly-making, and among their previous projects are a glow-in-the-dark alcoholic jelly created for Mark Ronson’s 33rd birthday party and a Willy Wonka-style chewing gum that changes flavours as you chew.

They’ve also created something called Alcoholic Architecture, a breathable mist of gin and tonic that you walk into – and then stagger out of looking for a taxi and a kebab. (Note to Janet Street-Porter: that’s the sort of rambling you should be promoting.)

“We worked with three doctors to calibrate the ratio of gin to tonic,” Bompas tells me. “If you were in the mist for 45 minutes, you would have had the equivalent of a large G&T. One of our experts was Dr Andrea Sella, a chemical explosives expert at University College London. With that much gin in the air, there was a risk of explosion.”

I must say I’m sorely tempted to hop on the next Megabus south to offer myself as a guinea pig to Bompas and Parr – and if I wake up back in Buchanan Street bus station wearing a basque and acid-pink Vera Wang pedal-pushers, we’ll know their hypno-shopping thing really works.

Mobile mad men: Advertisers want to dominate your phone

20 February 2011

By Rory Cellan-Jones

Technology correspondent, BBC News

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If you think that your mobile phone is one place where you can get away from advertising, think again.

The marketing industry has decided that mobile is the platform of the future and is rushing to send messages to your phone.

"2010 was the breakthrough year for mobile advertising," says Kerstin Trikalitis, chief executive officer of Out There Mobile Media.

"We've seen triple-digit growth rates in the last eighteen months and this trend is continuing through 2011."

She is speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where advertising on phones has been a big theme for several years.

But this time, the space devoted to firms selling mobile marketing and the gimmicks employed seemed bigger and brasher.

Inside one hall a man on stilts is mugging for the cameras to promote one mobile advertising agency, while outside saleswomen are encouraging passers-by to swipe their phones across their chests to receive a marketing message via an RFID tag.

"We are at the start, there's lots of enthusiasm, and the industry is set to hit $20billion this year," says Marco Veremis, President of UpStream, a mobile marketing consultancy.

"But it's a bit like TV in the 1950s, it's still under development and we don't know what the killer format will be."

And that is clear - when you roam the Barcelona fairground asking exhibitors to show you some typical mobile adverts, they struggle to find something impressive.

Keep it local

In the early stages a lot of the advertising has been from the mobile operators themselves, sending texts to customers promoting their own services.

The biggest trend is probably local search adverts, where, for example, you look for somewhere to eat and the nearest restaurants pop up.

And who is already dominating this area? Google of course, which is already taking its massive share of search on the web to this new mobile platform.

With Google Maps the main navigation tool on most smartphones, the search giant's sway over this form of advertising can only grow.

Then there is advertising within mobile applications, many of which are free and so need ad revenue to be viable.

Ragnar Kruse's firm Smaato helps place adverts in all sorts of apps on all operating systems and across different regions.

"Apps are now a $15bn business, with $2bn from advertising, so advertising is a very convenient way for developers to make money."

Mr Kruse claims that consumers are more likely to recognise a brand which pops up in a mobile app than on a website. Adverts within games are also becoming more and more common, often to promote other game titles.

But the industry has quickly realised that many traditional methods just do not work on a phone.

"The main thing to remember," says Marco Veremis," is that mobile is really personal and intimate - people don't like being advertised to on something that they call their friends or relatives on."

Display advertising, which is big on the web, is just too annoying on a mobile phone's tiny screen.

When you are navigating your way across a website on a touchscreen smartphone, display ads are a big distraction, and there's evidence that many mobile users end up clicking through by mistake.

Moving pictures

Another big growth area is video, with pre-roll adverts or interactive click-and-play campaigns.

But again this risks annoying customers who have to wait to see the content they want, and until networks become a lot better at handling video there is little threat of big advertisers moving TV spending to the mobile phone.

So advertisers have to be careful that their mobile offerings do not prove counter-productive by making smartphones less useful.

According to Kerstin Trikalitis, who says major brands like Unilever and Procter and Gamble are now putting big money into mobile campaigns, the key is to show the right ad at the right time.

"When an ad is targeted and it is valuable then consumers do like it. We are getting response rates of 20, 25%, which shows it's working."

But research published recently showed that the mobile industry still has lessons to learn about advertising. A survey of UK consumers for the mobile marketing agency UpStream showed that only 14% of consumers had ever clicked on a mobile display advert, and 32% said the ads irritated them.

"The main challenge for marketers," says Marco Veremis, 'is how you advertise in a way that doesn't look like advertising."

Expect plenty more marketing messages on your mobile, but if the advertisers succeed, maybe you won't realise that they want you to buy something.

How Starbucks turns a window into an interactive display

By John Cook on Friday, February 4, 2011, 2:47pm PST

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Is this the future of retailing? Starbucks is promoting its Tazo Tea brand through some pretty cool interactive displays at stores in Toronto and Vancouver, B.C.

As you'll see in the video above, customers on the street can use their hands to guide various insects and birds through a short game that promotes Tazo teas. I'd love to see this in Seattle, so let us know if you've come across anything like this at your neighborhood Starbucks.

Experiential Retail: The Next Technological Revolution?

By Erin Skarda on February 15, 2011

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Technology has undeniably changed the way we communicate, read, play and even how we live, but for the most part, these shifts have focused primarily in the online world. Not anymore.

The latest digital innovations seamlessly bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds, creating user experiences that are interactive, socially integrated, personally tailored — and ingrained into our everyday activities. It may very well be the next wave of a technological revolution, and at its core is one of the most social hobbies we partake in (well, at least most women partake in): shopping, of course.

Welcome to the world of experiential retail, where in-store shopping is enhanced with interactive interfaces, augmented reality and social media integration to create a unique experience for each individual consumer. From virtual mirrors that allow users to try on makeup without actually putting it on their faces, to window and storefront displays projected in 3D (or even 4D, as was the case with Ralph Lauren in 2010), these technological trends have been popping up in stores around the world, and could soon be available in a mall near you — if they aren't already.

Last month at the National Retail Federation Convention in New York, Intel Corporation unveiled its Connected Store concept, a two-story, 2,400-square-foot experimental retail storefront, equipped with the company's latest advances in interactive in-store shopping. By partnering with brands such as Adidas, Best Buy, Kraft Foods and Procter & Gamble, Intel introduced new ways that retailers can engage with their customers — and revealed what may be the future of shopping. (More on Techland: Kraft Scans Your Face To Determine What You Want to Eat)

For Adidas, Intel created the adiVERSE Footwear Wall, which allowed users to peruse more than 8,000 shoe styles in 3D on one of its multiple touchscreens. Not only does this enable customers to shop with ease using technology they are already comfortable with, but the adiVERSE system has the added benefit of helping Adidas track their total inventory and therefore allows them to offer greater product selection in stores. (Check out a video of the adiVERSE Footwear Wall below).

Alternately, Intel's partnership with Procter & Gamble showcased new ways for advertisers to connect with shoppers on the spot through digital signage placed at the end of store aisles. When a customer is within 10 feet of one of these signs, it reacts by gathering metrics such as the person's gender and age, enabling advertisers to target the consumer with relevant content (similar to Kraft Foods Meal Planning Solution). With the ability to tie into stores' loyalty card programs, distribute e-coupons and interact with smartphones, this platform is mutually beneficial for consumers and advertisers, and already exists in stores around the globe.

So is experiential retail here to stay or is this just another passing trend? Judging by the success of campaigns launched by high-end brands ranging from Disney and Puma to Burberry and Da Beers, it looks like we're going to be seeing more technologically advanced shopping options in the very near future. In fact, in Germany, a grocery store devoted to exploring these types of innovations — the Real Future Store — has been in operation since 2008 and enjoyed overwhelming success. Sales have reportedly increased by a solid 15% since the store's inception, but whether this is due to the technological offerings or the inherent need to buy groceries remains unknown.

While retailers may be interested in trying these types of shopping experiences in their own stores, consumers might not be as quick to change their tried-and-true habits. For example, in a BBC report on the Real Future Store, customers enjoyed the recipe kiosks and were enchanted by the ocean sounds that complemented the seafood department, but were less enthused about an option to identify themselves at the register using just a fingerprint. Maybe that's going a little too far, but at this point, retailers seem willing to experiment with new technologies to determine what works for their customers, and what doesn't.

After all, experiential retail may make shopping smarter and even more entertaining, but there's one thing that these new technologies still can't do: Satisfy a woman's intrinsic desire to shop, even when she doesn't need anything at all.

Trends in the Time Consumers Spend with Media

January 2nd, 2011 at 11:02 am

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In 2010, consumers spent an average of 4 hours and 24 minutes each day watching TV and video, while being online for 2 hours and 35 minutes.

There are only so many hours per day that consumers can spend watching TV, reading newspapers and surfing the internet. But as marketers may suspect, the time devoted to media is undergoing some not-so-subtle changes.

eMarketer recently conducted a meta-analysis of data from dozens of research firms using a variety of methodologies. The result is a series of estimates of how much time consumers spend with all major media, regardless of multitasking or simultaneous usage, from 2008 to 2010. The estimates apply to average media usage of the general public, not solely to the users of each medium.

The average time spent with all major media combined increased from about 10.6 hours in 2008 to 11 hours in 2010, according to eMarketer. TV and video (not including online video) captured the lion’s share of all media time, about 40% each year. The internet’s share of media time increased over the same period, from 21.5% to 23.5%, as did mobile’s share, from 5% to 7.5%. The share of time spent with magazines and newspapers fluctuated between 10% and 7.5%, while radio and all other media—video games, movies in theaters and outdoor media—declined.

To account for multitasking, an hour spent watching TV and surfing the internet was counted as 1 hour for TV plus 1 hour for internet use. Also, use of each medium is discrete: Time spent listening to the radio does not include streaming stations from the internet, for example.

In 2010, consumers spent an average of 4 hours and 24 minutes each day watching TV and video, while being online for 2 hours and 35 minutes. Mobile devices received an average of 50 minutes’ worth of attention every day—the same amount of time allotted to newspapers and magazines combined. eMarketer expects that time spent with mobile devices will continue to increase, most likely taking time away from print media.

In fact, time spent with mobile devices is rising faster than all other media. In 2010, consumers spent 28.2% more time with mobile devices, which covers all mobile activities on all mobile devices. That gain was even higher than the 21.9% growth in 2009. Time spent on the internet showed moderate but steady gains, at more than 6% each year since 2008. All other major media posted declines: TV and video lost 1.1% in 2010, while magazines and newspapers lost 9.1% each. However, as consumers continue to consume more media every day, those losses are not immediately significant.

Marketers need to pay attention to these trends as they project budgets and develop marketing strategies for the coming year—and years. Mobile devices will claim more and more media time per day, while TV, print and radio will slowly lose ground to digital media. Those trends have been most apparent with print media in recent years, but are now beginning to show up in TV and radio usage as well.

How do colors affect purchases?

By Neil Patel on Aug 31, 2010

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For retailers, shopping is the art of persuasion. Though there are many factors that influence how and what consumers buy. However, a great deal is decided by visual cues, the strongest and most persuasive being color. When marketing new products it is crucial to consider that consumers place visual appearance and color above other factors such as sound, smell and texture. To learn more about color psychology and how it influences purchases, see our latest infographic.

View an enlarged version of this infographic >>