Starhub Mobile: App for the Visually Impaired

DIGITAL UTILITY

Some thinks brand should be useful. Do you?

Indeed, lots of brands offer little services to illustrate their promises to encourage buying their product. The most famous example is Michelin; which created a book to encourage people to travel and their use their tire at the same time!

What’s new ?

A Facebook service, a phone app, a connected object … all services created thanks to digital have the same goals that the one created before the Internet. But the low cost of some of theses services enable brands to develop more and more service, for smaller targets.

THIRD EYES, AN INITIATIVE TO CROWDSOURCE VISION AND CARE FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

Starhub Mobile noticed that more than 7 million Singaporeans have a mobile, which means that if only one in a hundred spent at least 10 seconds to help others, there would be 200 hours of voluntary work each day.

This Singapore telecommunications specialist offers an application to crowdsource vision and care for them. Using a smartphone a visually impaired person can easily take a picture of anything. The image is then shared with micro-volunteers in real-time as a query. The volunteers can describe the image to the visually impaired, from wherever they are, making volunteering effortless, easy and instant. The replies are then converted from text to speech for the visually impaired. With this app, anyone, anywhere, can connect to a visually impaired person.

What is crowdsourcing ?

According to Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson, editors at Wired Magazine, “crowdsourcing represents the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call. This can take the form of peer-production (when the job is performed collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the use of the open call format and the large network of potential laborers."

This application uses crowdsourcing intelligently, as participation only takes a few seconds but is of great assistance to blind users. "With MySmartEye, anyone can help the visually impaired in mere seconds anytime, anywhere. Imagine all the time spent waiting in queue at the bank, for lunch, for the bus or train--this is time that could be spent bringing happiness to others," said Chan Kin Hung, head of personal solutions at StarHub.

That’s a nice way to connect people to each other through their smartphone.

Results

- replies within the first 20 seconds is 3.7

- incorrect responses is less than 0.004%.

- “Project Third Eye demonstrates that together we can change lives. I believe it’ll open more than just eyes, it’ll open hearts.” Michael Tan, Executive Director, Society of the Visually Handicapped.

Samsung created a mobile application based on the true story of twins borned separately

The concept: Dual-screen

To launch its Gear fit and Gear 2, Samsung created a dual screen campaign to demonstrate how its device can help people stay connected anywhere at any time.

Thanks to the application called an “another me”, users can visual 2 teasers on different phone. One telling the the story of Anais Bordier, the other the one of Samantha Futerman, twins who were separated at birth. They met at the age of 25 thanks to Facebook.

To fully live the experience, it is necessary to connect two mobile of the company and append them. That's when everything takes shape: the two videos interact, soundtracks complement, and a visual game between the two screens is created. The application also offers the possibility to conduct its own story on dual screen using photos and videos of each terminal.

The originality of the campaign: A mix of sentiment and technology

I would like to attract your attention on the use of sentiment in advertising.  Advertising agencies know how to play with consumers’ feeling to send a particular message to the potential consumers who will memorize it easier that way. There are various advertisements that rely on feelings whatsoever joy, happiness or fear.

Samsung created a very sensitive campaign showing the links created by its phones. But why did they not imagine an interaction with social network?  Notice that without them this amazing story wouldn’t have existed.

Results: sentiment still work on people

1, 5 million views within 10 days

96% approval rating on YouTube

Awareness and preferences reached nearly 50%

What is « Digital detox »?

The digital is: New methods of works, new ways of organizing your life, sharing information… We now can consider digital as a culture rather than a technic

The digital is primarily a shared culture, memes, a way of seeing the world, to think yesterday (the Minitel generation, Bi- bop), the today (social networks ) and tomorrow ( a future where everything has to be invented ) .

This led brand to call our digital nostalgia. We had to disconnect to share more in real life.

When the use of digital pushes to disconnect and return in the “real wold”, it replaces the product in the center of  attention.  Calling to disconnect will generate connected echoes. To illustrate this notion we are going to talk the initiative of a Brazilian restaurant

 A Brazilian restaurant invites its consumers to disconnect

The concept

Venga a Brazilian restaurant, that advocates a return to the fundamentals of communication in face to face, had the idea to offer a Wi-Fi network that would encourage "human connection. "When the user tries to connect to Wi-Fi network, a message appears advising him to socialize in real life with his partner rather than being connected in the virtual life. This system has reduced the number of shares on social networks and improves human relations in moments of conviviality.

Originality  

The originality of the concept is based on the fact that the restaurant gives a time of relaxation and conviviality. It does not invite to share on social networks, but invites to the revival of human socialization. He does not neglect the networks provided but instead it places usability and human interaction above.

Moreover, even if the campaign is not based on digital, it uses this culture to make some noise around the restaurant.

Digital Detox: Ready to unplug?

To understand better what is digital detox, here is a definition coming from the oxford dictionary: "A period of time during which a person refrains from using electronic devices such as Smartphones or computers, regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world”

The total break is a reaction, at least, proportional to the extent of digitization we experienced in recent years. Not be too extreme it can be consider as a transition to a more rational and measured use of technology.

The results: Digital echoes 

- 347 check in

- 1540 likes

- 17 posts

- 752 tweets

    Key points to remember

- Brands take over digital culture 

- The notion of digital detox

references : 

http://leblog.wcie.fr/2013/05/17/un-restaurant-bresilien-invite-ses-consommateurs-a-se-deconnecter-dinternet/

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/digital-detox

How to prove thanks to digital?

Brand always had things to prove: Washing powder which wash more than white, shampoo to make your hair softer, food that product won’t make you fat but will make you feast… And they still do.
Digital gives new tools to carry those messages. For example, Ariel created a connected pressing in a station, Unilever shampoo organized violin concert with hair instead of strings, Coca-Cola trick their passage to show them their product Coca-Cola Zero is as good as the original. In this article, I would like to focus on Sony that produces a virtual music festival experimenting 3D sound of its new audio helmet. This would be opportunity to talk about augmented reality.

What’s new: Turn consumer into active player 

To begin, it is very important to understand what kind of changes come with digital communication. Rather than carry proof of their speech by scientists in white lab coats, thanks to television advertisement, they create events for customers and consumers to experience the real proof of the product. These real experiences, featuring mostly false witnesses are filmed and broadcast, reinforced by purchase of advertising space on the web and sometimes TV. Then, millions of consumers discover the result of an experience they have not lived in real life, exactly like those they encountered at the time with scientist in lab coats. Moreover, its is an opportunity to create buzz around a brand or a product.

To sump up, what is new is that, in advertising, “consumer actors” have replaced scientific actors. Indeed, with digital, the consumer is more and more involded in the brand.

Sonny Head phone Music Festival: The 1^st virtual music festival

The Challenge or the insight

While the use of Smartphone continues its expansion in Japan, more and more people listen to music from their phone. Yet, the majority continues to use headphones provided by default with the mobile. Sony wanted to change this behavior. 

How to influence consumer to switch to Sony Headphone for a higher quality music experience?

The big idea

To launch its latest headphones, MDR-1, designed and optimized for smartphones, Sony has created a virtual music festival with its headphones, which benefits a 3D augmented reality technology. In collaboration with the four most prominent rock bands at the moment in Japan, Sony has invited fans to enjoy virtual concerts via their smartphone in several stores around the country. People were able to ‘attend’ the virtual festival via their handsets on the streets of Tokyo, at retail outlets and electronics stores across the country. At each venue, people could view the virtual gig and were offered a free trial of Sony’s latest headphones.

The purpose is to showcase the advantages of its headphone and smartphone technology, thanks to a digital experience, where the consumer is involved.

In this action, Sony achieves to create a complete concert experience: hoards of people merchandise and print advertisements. Everything you would normally experience at a real concert.

Augmented reality is at the center of the consumer experience

First thing first, here is a definition from Wikipedia of augmented reality:

“Augmented reality (AR) is a live, copy, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data”

During the Sony Head Phone Music Festival, to activate the AR functionality, users must launch the HMF app and point their device in the direction of posters. Once the marker is activated via camera, the app launches the stage and the bands start playing. Images talk better than words. Let’s take a look at this video:

Augmented reality has been used by many brands, but only to showcase the technology rather than offer an experience linked to the brand issue. HMF has a direct link to the produce: the MDR-1 is at the center of the experience. This campaign gives a relevant way to test the new headphones, so consumers stop using their default headphones, and invest in headphones specifically designed for smartphones. It has been a very good strategy. As proof, the following numbers.

Result: Mission accomplished!

- 1 million$ of free publicity
- The festival attracted 469160 fans
- In January 2013 the MDR-1 was the most sold in Japan
- The festival attracted 60,000 people

Key points to remember:

- Brands use new digital tools to give proof
- Consumer has to be involved in the experience
- The notion of Augmented reality
- Every campaign must be built around a specific issue

Credits
Client: Sony Marketing Japan
Agency:  Naked Communications, Frontage
Production: Kakezan, MTV Japan, Plannet, P.I.C.S.
PR:  ANTIL.
AR System Development: Sony Corporation Intelligent System Development

References : 

http://leblog.wcie.fr/brands/sony/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality
http://blog.midem.com/2013/02/contagious-insight-sony-drives-headphone-awareness-via-virtual-music-festival/#.Uv01Cc2vo9E

Pauline Laurent