Is There Any
Way Through Mobile Phone Mayhem?
Those
few square inches on your screen represent the most valuable real estate ever
created. You can try to wedge your way in--and you'd better bring something
extra special-- or take a different approach, like Upshow.
For
many years, I've maintained that, when a startup is trying to influence
long-established consumer behaviors, it's always smarter to design any new
required actions so that they move in the same directions the prospective
customers and existing users are already headed. It's simply not
practical or cost-effective to try to redirect people's ingrained actions and
then find that you're required to spend great gobs of time and money, which you
typically don't have, in a struggle to change millions of minds. Better to build
on my behavior; help me do what I'm already doing faster; start with
incremental adjustments that make me more productive; or provide the easy wins
and successive rewards that save me time or money. Don't try to
bully me into behaving or beat me over the head with your message.
We won't change
because we're basically lazy and really stuck in our ruts. And the biggest rut,
and most pervasive tether of all, is our mobile phone. Yet those very phones
also represent a game-changing and fundamental shift in the way that brands,
bars and businesses are going to have to reach out to customers.
Today, 95% of U.S.
adults have a cell phone (75% of them are smart phones) and 80% of us check our
phones within 15 minutes of waking. The others are just too embarrassed to
admit it. We're all looking for that daily dose of dopamine along with our
morning caffeine and things accelerate rapidly from there. On a typical
weekday, you'll look at your phone more than 160 times, which equates to about
3.5 hours a day. Nothing in human history has ever rivaled the
emotional and psychological attachment which we have to our phones and the
degree of dependence is growing across all ages and across the
world.
Likewise, there's
never been a more powerful and ubiquitous marketing platform. Our phones
possess three characteristics that are essentially superpowers: they're
intimate, immediate and interruptive. Simply stated, they're omnipresent,
they're always on, and they're impossible to ignore. They're much more of a
buddy, an accomplice and a sidekick today than any of our BFFs. And, for
marketers and merchants, they're the keys to the kingdom and the best way for
anyone to break through the clutter in our lives. That said, the barriers to
ready access continue to increase.
This is in part
because, while the digital world continues to expand, our own personal worlds
are shrinking especially given our limited ability to manage and focus our
attention amidst the endless stream of fluff and flutter. We're more apt to try
to shut down and shut off the outside world these days than to openly and
excitedly embrace it. And, we're increasingly sticking to our familiar ways;
visiting the same few sites and platforms; using the same
small number of apps; and largely loath to change or look elsewhere.
As a result, effective engagement is hard to achieve these
days. If you want my attention, meet me where I'm at, go with the flow, and
don't bust my bubble or mangle my mood. Trying to launch a brand-new app
today is like trying to teach a fish to ride a bicycle. Even if you
could, why would you?
An equally
significant barrier to new entry is the fact that the scarcest and most
precious real estate anywhere these days are the screens on our phones. They're
jammed with excess icons that we barely
remember (and never use) because we're hoarders and lousy housekeepers. There's
no more room for anything new. And, just as we've learned about friends
on Facebook and connections on LinkedIn; more itself
isn't better - only better is better.
So, if you can't
pry my phone out of my hands, and I'd rather die of hunger or thirst than
download another app for my phone at some bar or restaurant, both you (and
whatever venue I happen to be in) better figure out fast how to get my
attention and get your messages in front of me.
One emerging and
elegant solution is to hitch a ride on that phone without requiring the user to
do much of anything--including loading anything new. That's the premise
behind Upshow. If you're on the premises --
restaurant, bar, doctor's office -- you can be on Upshow. And it's a
two-way street.
If you're sitting
at a restaurant table, Upshow more than replaces some greasy and beat-up table
tent or fills in if the server is too busy table-hopping to tell you about
tonight's special anythings. It all just pops up on my phone. And frankly, even
if you give me a terrific and shiny new tablet to order from, I don't really
want to spend my time learning all about your system in order to order. But my
phone's a whole 'nother thing.
I'm already an
expert on Twitter and Instagram. I've already got those apps sitting open on my
mobile. And I've been taking selfies and other goofy shots of my buddies all
night long while I'm trying to watch a dozen different games on the video
screens stuck on every wall. But suddenly, I'm starting to see something else
going on in the place as other tables start to point excitedly at the monitors
because their selfies are starting to show up in real-time for
everyone to see. And I think, what am I: "chopped
liver"? So, I ask because I'm actually interested, and it turns
out that I just add a hashtag with the bar or restaurant's name to my IG posts
or my tweets and it's a done deal. All of a sudden, I'm
"dualing".
There may be
fancier names for this phenomenon - like screen convergence or shared media -
but I like my word, dualing, because that's what's really
happening. My content, my experience, and my attention are now in two places at
once (and shared with the whole place) and I'm paying rapt attention to both
because I'm in charge and I'm driving the show. I'm engaged,
I'm open to offers, suggestions, contests, coupons, etc. because there's now a
direct two-way channel to my phone. And I'm willing to listen as well.
This is a whole new
game and the next big thing in digital in-venue engagement and entertainment.
And it's basically "free" to everyone. 100% free to the user. And
whatever modest investment the venue might make in the Upshow backend system
and software is peanuts compared with what they've already spent installing a
zillion monitors everywhere. And did I mention that the vast majority of this
"authentic" content is created for zero cost by the users themselves
and then sent (along with the venue's branding) to everyone on their social
media networks.
The best promotion
is word of mouth and a picture is worth a thousand words. Catch up with
Upshow.