Ted Baker Taps Google Voice For An Interactive In-Store Experience

What Happened
Fashion retailer Ted Baker is teaming up with Google for a voice-activated, in-store experience that leverages Google Voice to engage with shoppers. Customers visiting Ted Baker stores can open the Google Voice app, utter the phrases printed on the store windows, and receive clues to unlock rewards. The feature is geo-fenced so only shoppers in Ted Baker stores will have access to it. Besides this interactive experience, Ted Baker also created a shoppable film which will be distributed through retail partners and department stores to play on their websites.

What Brands Need To Do
By tapping into the voice activation enabled by Google Voice, Ted Baker devised a fun way to engage with customers and reward them for visiting stores. Together with the shoppable film, this initiative is illustrative of the fashion retailer’s willingness to venture beyond traditional marketing channels and explore newer forms of marketing. At a time when consumers are growing tired of ads and increasingly turning to ad-free services and ad-blockers, brands need to experiment with new approaches such as interactive store experiences and shoppable content to effectively reach their audience.

The Lab has extensive experience in designing interactive store experiences for beauty and fashion brands to engage customers. Our recent work with NYX Cosmetics includes a digital beauty bar that incorporates social and mobile elements into a sampling experience. If you’d like to advance your strategy to reach connected shoppers, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 


Source: Glossy

Shazam For More Than Just Music

Read original story on: The Next Web

We first heard of Shazam’s ambitious plan to go beyond simply music recognition back in January at CES. Now, the company has officially launched a new “Visual Shazam”, as it continues to expand its platform for contextual content discovery. The new feature that will allow users to use Shazam app to scan physical products, QR codes or print ads for more interactive experiences on mobile devices. The mobile interactions reportedly include augmented reality visuals, exclusive behind-the-scene videos, good ol’ coupons and more.

Similar to the visual scanning tools like Google Goggles or Amazon Firefly before it, this new Visual Shazam could offer great opportunities for brand integration. At launch, Shazam is already teaming up with several big-name partners from various industries, including Levi’s, Guerlain, Hearst, Condé Nast, Time, Harper Collins and Disney in promotion of its new blockbuster, “Tomorrowland”.

Compared to regular QR codes, “Visual Shazam” stands out with a vast built-in user base (Shazam claims to have over 100 million monthly mobile active users), its versatility in applications, and general user-friendliness. As the interactive mobile experience continues to grow in prominence, we expect to see more brands to give it a try.

This Portable Projector Can Turn Any Wall Into A Touchscreen

TouchPico Projector from TouchJet aims to offer a new twist on the portable projectors by turning the image it projects into an interactive touchscreen. Paired with a wireless stylus, which utilizes an infrared switcher, the handheld projector can track the movement of the pen in front of its projected screen with some help from an embedded infrared camera, thus allowing users to interact with any on-screen objects. If successfully commercialized and popularized, this device could potentially be put to great use in powering a more interactive experience in OoH advertising and in-store retails.

Simple.tv & Silicondust Launch Cord Cutters DVR

Simple.tv partnered with Silicondust, the manufacturer of networked TV tuners, for a new generation of DVR. It ships with two tuners with ethernet ports, an antenna-in port, and a single USB port to connect external devices to store TV recordings. Simple.tv debuted single-tuner hardware that allowed users to record shows in HD and then stream those shows to mobile devices, computers, or Roku boxes last year, and this latest effort looks to expand capabilities within this field. The new hardware will likely enable users to replace their expensive cable service with the cheaper offering, while still allowing them access shows from major broadcasters. In short, Somple.tv have released the ultimate cord cutting enabler. 

Microsoft Phases Out “Tag” Barcode Technology

Microsoft has chosen to phase out it’s Tag barcode technology, essentially a more sophisticated QR offering that allows for more data stored in a smaller space. The product that marries the physical and digital has some utility, but the lack of consumer adoption has made it less impactful. In fact, eMarketer reports that approximately 1/4 of smartphone users have ever scanned a QR code and those that do with regularity has to be far less. While NFC looks to supplant QR, it may be running into the same roadblocks.

Burberry Launches Smart Personalization With Made To Order Line

Burberry has begun offering seamless (ha, ha) personalization of garments from its Made to Order line.  Customers can now order outerwear and accessories straight from the runway in-store, online, or from mobile devices. Garments will be delivered nine weeks later with personalized nameplates, and an embedded technology that, when scanned, will trigger a short film of the actual garment’s creation on a mobile device.  As an added bonus, inside Burberry’s Regent Street location in London, the film can be triggered on smart mirrors.  This is only one facet of Burberry’s exemplary adoption of technology, including its strong use of social media and other creative interactive installs in stores.

United Arrows Mannequins Make Customers Dance

Microsoft’s Kinect technology made another appearance in creative out-of-home displays as airport clothing store United Arrows debuted its new front window display in Tokyo featuring United Arrows-clad MarionetteBots (half mannequin, half robot) that mimic the movements of passerby.  The inclusion of marionette strings gives some charm to the mannequins’ somewhat clumsy movements, and the engagement factor is certainly high.  Kinect technology has been enticing brands for some time, and more creative uses of it like this are certainly on the horizon.