For the theatre release of their new movie ‘How to be Single’, Warner created Sharetapes to distribute at the premiere and as promotional material. They also integrated the tapes as part of their social campaign; the tapes were programmed with a public Spotify playlist which was amplified through their Twitter account.
Universal Music Dierks Bentley
Universal Music used Sharetapes to distribute exclusive digital content for their Dierks Bentley box set. The cards were branded as ‘Dierks Bentley’ Black Cards and featured a coupon code, which users entered into the landing page programmed to the tapes. This allowed users to access the exclusive content as well as enter a competition to meet and greet the artist.
Spotify SXSW
Spotify partnered with Bose to create customized Sharetapes to distribute at Spotify House during SXSW 2015. The tapes were linked to a custom Bose playlist featuring bands playing at the event.
Visa Whitepaper
Visa used Tactify to deliver their latest research Whitepaper. Users simply tapped or scanned the card and were able to download or email the document to their inbox.
IBM Bluemix
IBM Bluemix Sharetapes were distributed during Bluemix developer week. Once tapped or scanned, the user was presented with a dedicated Spotify playlist.
Melbourne Writers Festival Twists and Turns
Tactify developed a world-first beacon application for advertising agency JWT which turned festival-goers into the hero of their own choose-their-own-adventure stories. Participants were able to listen to a story through their iPhones which ‘twisted and turned’ with each street they chose to walk down, combining traditional storytelling with high-tech geo-location beacons to create a unique literary experience.
Networking to Build Your Personal Brand
More Opportunities
There is a common myth that you only need to network when looking for a new job or promoting a new company. False! Networking can open up a number of opportunities for introductions, future job offers, partnerships, speaking opportunities, client leads, and more. Creating strong connections and leaving a positive impression will open doors today, and years from now.
Advice
Meeting new people means hearing different perspectives on industry trends, your business or campaign idea, and your personal brand. Many professional events are also centered around short presentations or discussions which can help spark ideas and generate feedback on your brand or current project.
Assistance and Influence
Networking opens up the great opportunity of getting and giving assistance. In How to Be a Power Connector, Judy Robinett suggests three questions for networking: How can I help you? What ideas do you have for me? and Who else do you know that I should talk to? Offering assistance where needed, and also asking for help, will strengthen your connections and open up more possibilities of working with people in the future. When it comes to sharing news that your business has launched or just something as simple as promoting a blog post, having a large network will help spread the word and drive awareness.
Networking and building your personal brand goes hand in hand. If you’re new to, or nervous about, networking, check out our next post on the best tips to get the most out of networking at events!
5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Boost Productivity
Entrepreneurs juggle dozens of tasks on any given week with constantly fluctuating schedules. With already busy schedules, being as productive as possible When your to-dos pile up, productivity can plummet. , leaving you with less free time to use networking and working on your personal brand. Getting more accomplished during the day will reduce stress and allow for creative time to brainstorm and rejuvenate. se these five tips to ease work stress and boost productivity.
Plan tomorrow, tonight. Get a jumpstart on your day by planning the night before. Knowing what tasks you need to accomplish at the start of every day will help make your mornings more productive and less stressful. Be aware of your deadlines so you can prioritize and be flexible for other tasks that come up.
Break up your responsibilities into milestones. Whether it’s building a product, finishing a report or launching a website, don’t list your end goal as one big task. Break it up into smaller assignments that are you can accomplish within and hour or two. You’ll have more motivation and feel more accomplished at the end of the day.
Schedule time to check your email. Constantly checking your inbox and responding to emails can interfere with productivity and take up hours of your day. Pick a few times throughout the day to check your email so your attention is solely on the assignment at hand.
Stop mutitasking. Like checking your email every five minutes, multitasking can cause distractions and even lower your IQ. Giving yourself 60 to 90 minute intervals on one task will help limit the amount of multitasking and get your tasks done faster.
Take a break. Our brains are only able to focus for 90 minutes, on average, and need a 20 minute break afterwards. Completing a task followed by a short break will boost your productivity. Take a walk, grab a power snack or take a few to meditate or nap.
Pandora Samsung Sharetapes
For the launch of Samsung’s premium speaker offering, we created custom Sharetapes in conjunction with Pandora. The Sharetapes launched a custom landing page on the users smartphone and directed them to Tweet with a pre-programmed hashtag, view information on Samsung Sound’s product homepage or listen to the soundtrack for the event on Pandora.
The Essentials for Building A Personal Brand
Whether you’re in a full-time position or leading a startup, developing and maintaining a personal brand can go a long way. A distinctive brand can create new business and career opportunities, expand your professional network and build thought leadership. Here are a few ways to create a personal brand that stands out.
Create a personal style. A unique logo can go a long way in building an impressive brand. Just like a company brand, a logo or design can express your individual style, values and personality. When creating content and connecting with your followers, be yourself.
Share meaningful content. Creating your own content will establish thought leadership and is valuable for SEO. To compliment your own content, share content (blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts) from colleagues, friends, industry leaders and people you admire or would like to add to your network. Social media is an easy way to get noticed.
Unify your digital presence. Social networks are a necessity for your personal brand: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, a personal website. Having a unified presence across all of these networks is important for reaching your network no matter where they are. You should have a similar look to each profile and use the same username when possible. For example, your Twitter and Instagram handles should be the same so your followers can find you and your profiles are linked when sharing between networks.
Take it offline. Social media can be a great way to build your personal brand but your real life connections will take you even further. Networking at events and getting to know your colleagues will build your network and your knowledge of your industry, not to mention open up a number of opportunities. Personalized business cards that link to your online profiles add a great touch to unify your physical and digital presence.
For new grads and executives alike, a distinctive personal brand will build your network and create opportunities, online and offline.
Using Mobile to Drive Engagement for CTI and the South Sydney Rabbitohs
At Tacitfy we make mobile marketing simple. Connecting traditional marketing materials like posters and flyers with mobile can create highly engaging campaigns and drive results for brands. By allowing users to interact with mobile apps or webpages, your brand can provide more information and relevant content. Having well-designed physical materials, apps and websites with content that is engaging and relevant to your users are key factors to a successful mobile marketing campaign.
We worked with Capital Training Institute (CTI) to build a mobile marketing campaign for the South Sydney Rabbitoh’s members weekend campaign. CTI is a Registered Training Organization (RTO) and the official membership partner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs national rugby team. Their goals were to increase brand recognition, direct users to enter the Grand Final VIP ticket competition and encourage user generated content on social media with the hashtag #trainlikesam in reference to the Rabbitoh’s team captain.
To engage fans and drive them to the Grand Final ticket draw, we created custom Sharetapes that were handed out during Australia’s popular “The Footy Show” and printed Sam Burgess face masks equipped with QR codes to be distributed on game day. The QR codes (and banner advertisements) drove users to a special microsite where fans could enter the competition, stream a customer Spotify playlist and view more information on CTI.
The microsite received over 1,000 unique visitors and hundreds of entries for the Grand Final ticket draw. The hashtag #trainlikesam trended at number five on Twitter and was tagged on more than 430 posts on Instagram. By combining traditional marketing materials with mobile we were able to drive more user engagement and brand recognition for CTI and the South Sydney Robbitohs.
Is Mobile The Missing Piece to Your Marketing Strategy?
As consumer behaviors shift so must marketing strategies. Mobile is no longer the second screen, so why is mobile still at the bottom of business’s marketing plans? Salesforce’ State of Marketing report revealed that 90 percent of marketers agree that it’s increasingly important to “create a cohesive customer journey.” What is the most effective technology to enable a complete journey? Mobile.
There are a number of ways to implement mobile marketing into your strategy. At the very basic, all websites should be mobile responsive. A poorly designed mobile website will disrupt your customer’s journey by providing a poor user experience. For example, if a customer wants to make a purchase on their smartphone, being unable to do so because of a poor design or experience could result in not only a lost sale but a lost customer if your competitors have already optimized for mobile.
What can you do integrate mobile into your marketing strategy? Almost half of surveyed marketers use SMS, push notifications, mobile apps or location-based functionality — up from 23 percent last year. Mobile apps are one of the most expensive option but can be great for news sites and web services. For e-commerce businesses, mobile ads might be a simpler option to drive users to their website. Retailers have many innovative opportunities to integrate not only mobile ads and apps into their website but location-based technologies like iBeacons, push notifications and geofencing. Right now, only 18 percent of surveyed marketers are using these technologies.
As marketers continue to understand the power of mobile tactics, they should no longer be part of a separate strategy but an integral part of overall marketing plans.
BBC NEWS G20 SUMMIT POSTCARDS
The BBC ran a special series of news programs around the G20 Summit in Brisbane 2014. In order to distribute their media kits, the BBC engaged Tactify to create NFC and QR connected postcards featuring a link to the media kit, social media, sign up and BBC app downloads.
PARRAMATTA CITY COUNCIL BEACON TRIAL
Parramatta City Council are using Beacon technology and mobile apps to improve customer experience and foot traffic flow in the newly refurbished Parramatta Church Street Mall. Tactify built specialized mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices that interacted with Beacons and collected data about user journeys as they moved through the mall.
FRUTTARE ICE CREAM LAUNCH
Pandora teamed up with Unilever to promote the launch of their new icecream brand Fruttare. In addition, they created Sharetapes for the launch which were distributed at selected stores and events.
OZTIX BIGSOUND 2014
Oztix was the major sponsor of Australia’s premier music industry conference, BIGSOUND 2014, Australia’s answer to SXSW.
For the conference Tactify created branded Oztix Sharetapes which were attached to the invitation card. The invitations were handed out to attendees at the event. The Sharetapes featured a microsite that linked users to the event app download, event RSVPs, social media links and event timetables.
HUNGRY JACKS SHAKE AND WIN APP
To promote Hungry Jack’s new shake and win app, Tactify created NFC and QR enabled door stickers that were distributed to all metropolitan locations. To date they have received over 500 app downloads directly from interactions with the stickers.
SOUNDS OF IBIS SHARETAPES
For the launch of the flagship ibis Hotel in Adelaide, Accor Hotels recorded three artists live. Before the party was over (within two hours), the recordings had been uploaded onto Bandcamp and were distributed on Sharetapes.
Bringing Back the Mixtape with NFC-Powered Sharetapes
From lyrics that perfectly describe a feeling to a song that brings you back to a moment in time, mixtapes are one of the most classic and unique gifts to share with friends, family or a significant other. But who has cassette or CD players anymore?
At Tactify, we created Sharetapes–a throwback to the classic mixtape but upgraded for the digital age. Here’s how they works:
- Upload digital media, like a Spotify or YouTube playlist, to a blank Sharetape online.
- Share the physical card with a friend or significant other.
- They can simply tap the Sharetape using an NFC-enabled phone (like these), scan the QR code, or enter the code from the back of the Sharetape online.
- The media will automatically start playing!
Sharetapes are the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Share a collection of love songs, romantic movie clips or original songs with your significant other, or celebrate the single life with a weekend playlist for your friends!
Sharetapes are available for $2.49 each, or a pack of five for $9.99. Order soon to make sure you have them in time for Valentine’s Day!
How will the Internet of Things Impact Retail In 2015?
The Internet of Things has exploded over the last couple of years as smartphones and the ability to be always connected has become an increasingly integral part of our lives. Bonnie Cha at re/code describes the Internet of Things as “the connection of everyday objects to the Internet and to one another, with the goal being to provide users with smarter, more efficient experiences.” You can see her “Beginner’s Guide to Understanding the Internet of Things” here.
Google’s acquisition of Nest last year set the stage for IoT to expand this year and the conversation about IoT’s impact on everyday life was discussed widely at CES. Consumers are increasingly aware of connected homes and cars. A study by Affinnova showed that consumers mostly want connected home appliances and products like refrigerators that enable remote viewing of your contents and recommends recipes, smart light bulbs that notify you when a bulb has gone out and connected sprinkler systems.
But how is the Internet of Things impacting retail? First, connected home sensors that send notifications to your phone to indicate when you out of a product like washing detergent, milk, or light bulbs are great for retailers. Creating a easy way for consumers to order these products right from their phone means that retailers have the opportunity to improve customer experiences and loyalty.
Next, connected technologies like beacons and NFC will likely increase in 2015. These technologies enable retailers to communicate with consumers in a meaningful way based on their location, delivering deals and notifications that are relevant in real time. The iPhone 6 and ApplePay will also influence retailers to adopt NFC technologies for easy checkout experiences.
The most important thing for retailers to take advantage with the Internet of Things right now is data. Whether connecting your products to home sensors or using in-store location technologies, analyzing data will enable retailers to better understand their customers. When are they shopping? Are they accessing your app while in store or at home? Do they prefer app notifications, or SMS? The more brands and retailers understand their customers, the more they will be able to connect with them at the right time, place and in the right manner.
How do you see IoT impacting retail this year?
5 Things to Know About Geofencing
When setting up a geofencing campaign, there are a few things to keep in mind in order to achieve the best results.
Get your content down first. When using geofencing, you’re sending notifications to consumers. Getting your content down first is the foundation to any successful campaign. Know what you are trying to achieve, for example, if you want consumers to make a purchase, sign up for something, or share content with their friends. Give them a call to action, and make sure the content is enticing and relevant.
Double check the location. Geofencing perimeters can cover a wide area. That’s why they’re great for outdoor events and venues. For the best results, ensure that they are accurately placed in order to reach the right customers. You don’t want consumers outside a baseball stadium to receive a deal exclusive to fans watching the game inside.
Size matters. Setting your perimeters too big or too small will affect the success of your campaigns. If the area is too big, the content you deliver might not be relevant enough. If the area is too small, however, you might not reach enough people to achieve the results you want.
Test and retest. It’s important to test that the technology is working properly (people are receiving notifications) but it’s equally important to test different messaging (people are seeing the right notificaitons. With the Tactify dashboard, you can use A/B testing to try different notifications, analyze which messages are being responded to the most, and adjust your marketing to achieve the best results.
Analyze the data. Last, take a look at the data at the end of the campaign. Who responded the most? What demographics did your messaging resonate with? What locations saw the highest traffic? Not only will this data help design your next geofencing or location based marketing campaign, it will give insight into your audience in general. Maybe you’ll discover a new customer base you never considered before!
The Difference In Using NFC and Beacons
More and more brands are recognizing the value in adopting mobile marketing and location-based technologies to reach consumers. For brands new to these tools, it’s important to understand the different options available and the best scenarios to use NFC versus beacons. Choosing the right technology for your campaign and brand is critical in reaching your consumers in the most meaningful way, and achieving desirable results.
Cary Stemle has one of the easiest breakdowns of different location technologies:
“Think of it this way: Cellular communications provide wireless coverage with a footprint measured in miles; WiFi’s footprint is measured in yards; BLE’s is measured in feet; and NFC’s in centimeters.”
Let’s talk about beacons first. Beacons work on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) which communicates a signal between a bluetooth-enabled device and the beacon’s transmitter. If you want to reach consumers in a wide, general vicinity, beacons are the way to go. You can push coupons, store promotions and messages at very inexpensive prices. Using the Tactify platform, you can easily update your messaging and branding, and measure engagement and conversions. Beacons are great for high traffic areas, entertainment venues and events.
NFC, on the other hand, is a more personalized experience. NFC tags communicate with mobile phones only when the phone is in extremely close proximity – usually a few centimeters – which gives consumers more control over when they get notifications (and who can see their data) . NFC is best for payments and specific tickets and access cards. For example, you could place an NFC tag on an event poster. Interested consumers would be able to tap the tag with their phones and access more information. With beacons, every bluetooth-enabled phone that passed by would receive a message about the event, which may be overwhelming. Another use case is handing out NFC-enabled rewards or business cards.
There are a number of creative ways brands are using both beacons and NFC to market to their customers – and reach them right on their phones! Check out Tactify’s solutions here – load, update and track your campaigns from one central dashboard.
Mobile Marketing Predictions for 2015
Mobile payments
ApplePay could make mobile payments mainstream. Brands and apps, especially those that are retail-focused, can now make the user experience even more seamless. Eighty-six percent of shoppers use their smartphone to compare prices and browse sales. Connecting these with the ability to make a purchase without entering credit card information, or by just using their phone in store, will make an easier and faster shopping experience, in store and online.
More Location Based Marketing
Major retailers like Lord & Taylor and Walgreen’s have rolled out major pilot programs to test the effectiveness of using iBeacons for in-store marketing. In 2015, expect to see more brands using iBeacons, geofencing and push notifications to engage with customers and create innovative campaigns. About half of consumers say they are open to sharing their location and information in order to join a rewards program.
Better Content & UX
With the ability to use location and big data to better understand users and customers, expect to see better content and more intelligent UX. Advertisers, marketers and publishers recognize the effectiveness of delivering more relevant content using these tools, and are using new methods to understand how to connect better. Expect apps, ads and content to become more engaging and relevant.
What trends would you like to see in 2015?
3 Principles for Great UX
Optimizing Mobile For Holiday Shopping
- Half of holiday sales will be influenced by digital interactions
- 84 percent of shoppers use digital tools before or while shopping, and convert at a 40 percent higher rate
- 101.7 million US consumers will purchase on their mobile devices
- 86 percent of retailers expect their 2014 online holiday sales to increase
9 Facts That Show Mobile Is Ready for Another Huge Year
Mobile has come far in the last year with beacons and mobile payments getting a big boost. But those numbers are expected to grow even more in the next year. Here are nine stats to prove it!
By the end of 2014, 6.9 billion people will have cell phone plans. That’s about 95 percent of the world’s population.
There are 143 million smartphones and 71 million tablets smartphones in the US.
Five percent of smartphone owners aged 18-44 can’t recall the last time they didn’t have their mobile next to them
A survey of UK smartphone users found that they use their phones for 221 tasks consuming three hours and 16 minutes per day.
In Europe, mobile commerce is expected to account for nearly 50 percent of all online sales by 2018, according to Forrester.
In the last year, purchases made using a smartphone or tablet increased 48 percent to $8 billion.
It’s just young people shopping on mobile – 25 percent of mobile shoppers in the US are over the age of 55.
Half of B2B vendors sell through mobile phones and that is expected to rise to 75 percent by the end of 2014.
Mobile advertising has doubled from $4.4 billion in 2012 to $8.5 billion in 2013. By 2017, mobile advertising is expected to hit $31.1 billion.
It’s safe to say 2015 will be another big year for mobile! What are you most excited to see?
Tactify Will Be Competing In The Web Summit PITCH Competition!
We are excited to announce we will be participating at The Web Summit annual PITCH Competition in Dublin! On November 4 – 6, 2014, we’ll be joining 200 other startups for a three round competition. We can’t wait to share what we’ve been up to at Tactify and how we’re bringing the internet of marketing to everyone.
Due to the expansion of the Internet of Things, the mobile advertising marketing is exploding and increasing exponentially year by year. We created Tactify so businesses, small and large, can easily use the newest mobile technologies in their campaigns, such as beacons, NFC, QR codes and geofencing. In two minutes, you can create fully responsive mobile and in-app content for events, info points, price promotions, product information and contact profiles. Update and measure all from our centralized dashboard without a line of coding involved!
We’ve worked some amazing brands in the last year including Spotify, Pandora, Sony and the BBC, and helped advertising agency JWT create an interactive beacon campaign for the Melbourne Writer’s Festival.
If you’ll be at The Summit, be sure to stop by our booth and hear our pitch on stage. We’ll be at booth HIP312 in The Village on November 5th and ETP107 in Simmonscourt on November 6th.
You can also help us get to the semi-finals by tweeting @Tactify with #pitchvote between 9am – 5pm on November 4th and 5th (only tweets from Dublin count). The two startups with the most votes will get a spot in the semi-finals.
Hope to see you there!
What Does Apple Pay Mean for Marketers?
Starting today iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users can opt to store their credit and debit cards in Passbook and make purchases with the simple tap of their phone using Apple Pay. Apple finally adopted near field communications technology with the release of the iPhone 6 in order to power Apple Pay. With Apple leading the way, experts are predicting mobile payments will become mainstream. While Google Wallet has been around since 2011, the hype of Apple Pay may lead to an increase in mobile payments among Android users, too. Forrester predicts they will increase fourfold to $90 billion by 2017!
How to Set it Up
- Download iOS 8.1 and open the Passbook app
- Tap Set up Apple Pay
- First select your card that is linked with your iTunes account and confirm
- Then, you can scan new cards with the iPhone camera.The first card added will be your primary card.
How It Works
Once Apple Pay is set up, it’s easy to use in stores. At stores using Apple Pay, iPhone users can simply tap their phone to the point of sale (POS) terminal and verify the payment with Touch ID or a pin code. The transaction will securely be sent to the bank and with approval, the purchase is complete.
Apple has said over 220,000 US stores will be using Apple Pay including Apple, Bloomingdales, Macy’s Duane Reade, McDonald’s, Sephora, Petco, Panera Bread, Staples, Nike, Walgreens, Subway and Whole Foods. Users will also be able to pay with Apple Pay with a number of apps including Target, Tickets.com and Uber.
What Marketers Need to Know
The largest impact Apple Pay is expected to have is on the adoption of mobile payments. According to Digital Trends, a new law will take place in the fall of 2015 requiring merchants to support credit cards with Chip and PIN security, and therefore, merchants are expected to updated their POS terminals which will likely be Apple Pay enabled. The easy and secure process Apple has created, as well as their track record in changing consumer behavior, are other reasons to believe mobile payments will become mainstream.
Apple said they are not collecting or storing transaction information in order to ensure consumer’s that Apple Pay is secure and private. While this will help with the adoption of mobile payments, businesses will not be able to collect this data to optimize marketing campaigns. Instead, ensure consumers their information is secure and test other mobile marketing tactics such as NFC stickers, beacons or geofencing.
Are you planning on using Apple Pay?
How to Use Mobile to Increase Retail Sales
The ability to use mobile in marketing campaigns brings heaps of opportunities to increase retail sales. At Tactify, we believe that independent stores should be able to have campaigns that are as innovative and impactful as multinational stores. No matter the size of your store or staff, there are a number of ways to increase sales and expand your brand.
First off, there are huge benefits to incorporating mobile into your marketing campaigns. Almost two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone – and 55 percent of consumers who use coupons on their smartphone end up spending more money in store or online than they originally anticipated. A new study showed that mobile plays an integral part in the shopping experience of millennial moms – with a third saying mobile played a part in the inspiration and research part of shopping, and half saying they turned to their phones in-store to communicate with friends and family about their purchasing decisions.
So how can you increase your retails sales with mobile? Here are a few options:
- Send push notifications using geofencing or beacon technologies to communicate with your customers based on their location.
- Use NFC stickers or QR codes around the store offering coupons and reward points.
- Reward customers who check in on social media and/or share their purchases with friends. Use NFC, QR and push notifications to make this even easier.
- For iPhone users, integrate coupons and rewards cards with Passbook. Customers can easily save and access these on their phones (without a separate app) and eventually this will link to ApplePay.
- Integrate your social media with coupons and rewards to redeem in-store or online.
- Stay on top of the latest technologies like ApplePay to give customers the easiest and fastest check-out experience.
With any marketing campaign, make sure to use analytics to constantly evaluate and optimize your campaigns. Test which tactics get the most engagement with your customers and result in the highest ROI.
Check out Tactify’s products and mobile marketing solutions here.
The Scoop on Beacons & Privacy
Location based services, specifically beacons, have raised some privacy concerns recently. Due to recent hacking and tracking controversies, sharing their location doesn’t appeal to all consumers — though most are willing to share their location in return for discounts, coupons or other rewards. When it comes to using beacons for marketing campaigns, there are a few key points for consumers and marketers to understand in order to calm any privacy concerns.
First, beacons work only when a user has installed something – either an app or a Passbook pass. If neither of these are installed, beacons will not communicate with your phone.
Second, bluetooth needs to be turned on in order for beacons to work. If bluetooth is disabled, then beacons are unable to transmit any messages. (more…)