Responsive web design is something of a current fad for brand sites. Some people will tell you it is the ONLY way to develop. However, as with all things technology, the tool of choice should be a strategic one – what is the brand trying to achieve and what is the best way to deliver it? Responsive design is great for some things, but it may not always be appropriate. A large eCommerce site, is a good example of where responsive design is problematic.
The approach will also impact on SEO. eConsultancy have published an excellent article on the considerations of mobile design on SEO (see diagram below):
Month: September 2012
How Many People Scan QR Codes in Europe?
Are brands finally wearing down consumers with QR codes? After many years of plugging away at them, the latest data form Comscore on EU5 suggests that smartphone owners are beginning to scan them. In the UK, for example it is around 3 million people. Pretty good, but still little over 10% of smartphone users. However, compare that to some of the other most used functions – daily web browsing 82%, social media access 81%, YouTube viewing 92% (UK figures from Our Mobile Planet). QR codes are far from mass media.
QR codes can be useful, however many brands use them poorly and there is far to go. Econsultancy has suggested that the Comscore figure is under-represented, who found that 19% of UK users had scanned codes. One clear piece of data, though, is the rise in QR scanning. Besides awareness, high levels of smartphone adoption are probably helping to drive the activity.
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Five iPhone 5’s Which Never Happened
Here are five iPhone’s which don’t actually exist:
Tell people an iPhone 4S is a ‘5’ and see what happens :
The projected keyboard on this concept phone caused quite a stir and many people thought it was real:
Great concept of a future phone, it will probably be the iPhone 9:
A camera is ultimately only as good as the lens. Here’s one (bulky) solution:
When the iPhone 4 first appeared with reception problems (the Death Grip), some wag created this concept for the next generation iPhone:
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iPhone 5: What’s the Impact on Mobile Marketing
Not the iPhone 5 (obviously), it’s the iPhone 7 of course.
The best round-up of the new iPhone 5 (6th generation) comes from The Next Web. From a mobile marketing standpoint, do the changes have any real impact?
Given that the original iPhone (and app store) changed the face of mobile marketing, any update from Apple may have a significant impact. Although the updates to the iPhone were essentially incremental, there will be some changes for marketers:
Larger Screen – the impact is not significant, delivering a slightly better user experience, however by introducing a new size, this may well impact on app builds and particularly legacy apps. Will brands be up to spending more money on development? Could this drive more businesses to choosing web and responsive design over apps?
4G Support – brands need to provide a rich content engagement. Access to the rapid growth of 4G networks will open up a whole new world of brand content and is probably the most significant update from a marketing perspective.
No NFC – this is also significant for marketing … a significant disappointment. It was unlikely that Apple would have shoved an NFC chip in their handset – they like to do things their own way and define the market. However, we know that iPhone users tend to drive demand and activity – web browsing, app downloads and mobile social media , have all been boosted by Apple’s smartphone users. If we want to see NFC driving forwards then seeing it in an iPhone is the best way to do it.
Siri – this has yet be used as a marketing channel, so the updates have little impact (especially if you are outside the US)
Finally (though not on the subject of mobile marketing) the end of Ping was announced. Apple have never been a social network business, and the launch of their music recommendation system was never likely to succeed (I was bemused by it when they Ping it two years ago). The company’s real foray into social media came last year with the deep integration of Twitter in to iOS.
Brands, Innovation and Creative Technologies 