Over the years, I've noticed that there are certain brands that have managed to stay on top of cool social media trends.
I know how hard it is to keep up with all the changes. There's a lot going on in that world. New features are constantly being added to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram ... and once you've mastered one, another one pops up.
But, like I said, there are certain brands that always seem to be experimenting with these changes, fearlessly, as soon as they come out. Starbucks is one of these brands.
A few days ago, as I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, I came across this video on Starbucks' Instagram account:
How did they do that?! If this was your first reaction, then welcome to the club -- that was exactly what I said when I saw my first Hyperlapse video.
If you're wondering what a Hyperlapse video is, then you're in the right place. In this post, I'll explain what Hyperlapse is, how to make a Hyperlapse video, and show you some cool examples of brands already doing it.
First of all, what is Hyperlapse?
Hyperlapse is a free app by Instagram that condenses videos into brief, moving, hyper-speed videos. Instagram released the app in mid-August 2014 in an effort to deliver more "simple yet powerful tools that let people capture moments and express their creativity," according to their blog.
The key innovation here is the built-in stabilization technology that lets you film these time lapse videos without having to keep your hands still. It's a perfect way to deliver a message to social media users with short attention spans.
How can I use it in my marketing?
Before we get to the instructions, let's see how you can use it in your marketing using some examples of brands that have done it well.
Official Tourism Organisation of Denmark
Who knew there were cool, winding bridges made just for bikes over in Copenhagen? I sure didn't, and this video from Denmark's Tourism Organization makes me want to hop on a plane over there stat.
Use Hyperlapse to give your followers a tour of your office, an event you're participating in, or an activity that's related to your product or service. Just remember: Move slowly. If you move the camera around too much or too quickly, you'll give your audience a headache.
Mazama
Mazama used Hyperlapse to show how their products are designed and produced. How their "drinking vessels" are made is as important to them as the final product, so these videos align very well with their company values. (Plus, they're really cool to watch!)
Footlocker
Footlocker used it to create hype around a new product. The video caption reads, "The Nike Kobe 9 'Bright Mango' drops TOMORROW! Will you be lacing these up? #approved #hyperlapse". Which of your own products could you feature using a time lapse video?
Okay, I'm ready. How do I make my own Hyperlapse video?
Want to make your own? Of course you do! It's so easy that you don't even need an account. Follow the steps below to get started -- and practice a few times until you get it down pat.
It will open straight to the video camera. No account needed.
Step 2: If prompted, allow it to access your camera.
Step 3: Tap the white circle once to begin recording a video, and tap again to stop.
You can record for as long as you'd like.
Step 4: Choose a playback speed between 1x-12x.
It'll show you how long the hyperlapsed video will be for every speed in comparison to how long your video was in real time. For example, a 40-second video in real time will become roughly a 7-second Hyperlapse video at 6x speed.
Step 5: Tap the green check mark to save it to your camera roll. From there, you can upload it straight to Instagram or Facebook (or upload it later by accessing it on your camera roll).
Step 6: Share away on social media!
Here's what one of ours looks like on Instagram:
Have you used Hyperlapse to jazz up your marketing? Tell us your tips in the comments below!
Advertisers want to zero in on the mobile-focused consumer.
Yesterday, we provided an in-depth look at how mobile could become the premiere advertising channel. But there's obviously plenty of work to be done.
So we asked industry players: What is mobile's big challenge going forward?
Here are the seven most-intriguing responses we gathered.
1. Richard Guest, Tribal DDB president: "The truth? Embarrassingly poor creative ad formats. Shrinking the banner ad to fit on a phone screen is neither going to help gain a consumer's attention nor excite marketers."
2. "If mobile ad formats don't evolve and improve, mobile advertising will be relegated to the margins—used only for direct response and lead generation," said Eric Bader, RadiumOne CMO. "What's missing, and represents a disadvantage for brand advertisers, are the formats to deliver emotion and warmth. Mobile ad formats are still leaning toward direct responsedue to the format limitations, but also need to be the best way to communicate brand values—the emotional and the rational—in order to become the lead advertising channel."
3. Theshift from banners to video needs to happen but won't occur overnight, suggested Guillaume Lelait, general manager of digital marketing company Fetch. "Brand marketers realize that display ads, especially the small banners, the 300 x 50 pixels, are probably not the best format," he said. "So they believe that video is a much more important format, while native and in-stream ads like Facebook [can be] very effective."
4. David Hewitt, vp, mobile practice lead at SapientNitro, said: "The mobile space is more industry based and less relationship focused. In many cases, it still operates with a 'push mentality,'where consumers are considered wading around like ducks for a piece of bread."
5. "If there might be any downfall to mobile advertising, it would be consumer indifference," contended Bob Dorfman, Baker Street Advertising creative director. "Today's digital consumer is smarter and wiser to advertising and knows when they're being jobbed. As mobile ad technology gets more sophisticated in reaching prospects, marketers will need to offer advertising that's relevant, honest, entertaining and unobtrusive."
6. "With increased brand spending will come demands from advertisers for integrated, end-to-end solutions that make large-scale buying easy and provide detailed performance metrics. In addition,the agencies who control the bulk of large brand spending will want to make their advertising purchases in familiar ways, and that means buying audiences—not networks, publishers or clicks," said Craig Palli, Fiksu's chief strategy officer.
7. Mike Schneider, vp of marketing for Skyhook Wireless, said: "The No. 1 problem is ineffective ad targeting. Now, users can opt-in to [personalization] based on in-app behavior, social media and location. Ad-tech solves the problem by using the gift of this data to make ads feel more like content so brands, publishers, platforms and consumers all win."
Beacon technology is practically revolutionising the customer retail experience by bringing a whole new dimension of digital interaction between you and your customers. #Retail industry is going through a massive churn and CIOs and CMOs must pay attention in order to provide superior customer service by providing relevant shopping experience. (Read my previous article : Top 10 priorities for Retail CIOs for 2014 - 2015)
What is iBeacon and why is it better than NFC?
iBeacon is, for those who may not know, a version of BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) software which was introduced by Apple starting version iOS 7. What we have seen in the past couple of months is that a whole new breed of developers and firms are coming with their own version of software to not only collect details of their customers but also proactively guide them in order to develop stronger and lasting relationships with their customers.
While Apple, Estimoto, Paypal seem to dominate the market, a ton of new developers and firms are developing beacon technology driven apps for their specific customer needs (see Infographic plug below).
How will it transform the retail industry?
Big Data Analytical Insights: Beacon technology can give retailers tremendous insights into the vast amount for data that they can slice and dice to really understand individual customer needs, how they navigate and what they buy etc. This is a great means to continuously improve in-store experience for their customers and eventually encourage them to shop more.
Improved customer service: By gaining insights into your individual customers you can engage with them on a personal level and seek feedback from them. This will help retailers tremendously improve shopping experience and complementing it with superior customer service.
Convert customers in loyal friends: This highly individualised service to customer will not only create loyal clients but through active engagement you could pick brand ambassadors who could become friends and actively engage with their network to promote your brand!
For more insights into digital transformation with cloud computing, big data, social and mobile, please feel free to visit my blog. Here a few related blog posts you might like to read:
The most common questions were about how writing fits into the design process. When do you focus on writing? How do you write while sketching? How do you test and iterate on copy?
I didn’t have any simple answers prepared. But we do design work with startups all the time, so over the past six months, I made an effort to examine how writing fits into that work. Every time we did a design sprint with a Google Ventures portfolio company, I focused on copywriting, and looked for successful patterns and approaches. Here’s what I learned.
Your earliest sketches should contain real text--not “lorem ipsum," and not squiggly “text-goes-here” lines. Take the time to write realistic copy in your sketches, because the screens you are sketching are probably 75% text. A good rule of thumb when sketching is to spend as much time on copy as you spend on layout or visuals.
A lot of sketches look like this:
But this is much more useful:
“But!” you might be saying, “I don’t know what the copy is supposed to say yet!” This is the perfect time to start figuring that out.
It’s best to accept that writing is part of the design process and empower your team to “design” the text content alongside the visuals.
When you work this way, your team can generate and test different competing solutions--and that includes different competing copy. You wouldn’t settle on one layout without exploring a few alternatives, so make sure you try different text solutions before deciding which direction is best.
Clearly, it’s not practical to write an entire company story or FAQ page in a sketch. Which copywriting challenges should you tackle in the sketching phase?
Nouns and verbs
Start to work on your nouns and verbs. What are the objects in your system and what are the actions? As a general rule, you should try to minimize the number of nouns and verbs, but you also don't want to overuse words. For example, if you are designing an email app, don’t call the messages “mail” and also use the word “mail” to mean send.
It can be tempting to use the name of your company or product as a noun or verb in your app, but it’s tricky business. Company names have a big job to do in identifying the company--when you overload them with additional meaning, they can be confusing. Clarity beats cleverness every time.
Headlines
If you’re working on a marketing site (where the goal is to describe something), start working on your headlines. What are the main points you’ll use to explain your product or company? A pithy headline (“Simple.”) might sound great in theory, but once you start sketching it will become clear that you need more than one word. (You’ll also see that a 20-word headline, which looks okay in 11-point type, is too big for the top of your homepage.)
Once you have several sketches, you need to decide which one (or which parts) to prototype. At Google Ventures, we like to use dot voting to select the overall concepts and components we think are best.
During critique, try grabbing a highlighter and tagging the bits of copy you really like. Even if your favorite text is spread across three or four sketches, you may be able to stitch it together in a coherent way (e.g. the headline from one sketch and the feature list from another).
When your favorite components (text or visual) don’t fit together into a coherent concept, make a note of those conflicts. If you have two or more strong, but conflicting, approaches, it might make sense to create multiple prototypes and stage abattle royale.
A true prototype helps you learn something important about what you’re building. With copywriting, you’ll probably want to answer questions like “do people understand?” and “can people do what they want to do?”
To do this, you’ll need a prototype that has detailed, complete text--just say no to “lorem ipsum”--so people will react as if it’s a real product or website. As you move from sketch to prototype, bring your copy to the next level of detail. In your prototype, make sure to:
Combine copy elements from your sketches that work well, and make sure everything makes sense together.
Replace squiggly lines or “text goes here” from sketches with the real thing. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to look real.
Drop in real-sounding names, titles, etc. For example, if you’re prototyping a homepage with customer testimonials, don’t attribute every quote to “John Doe.”
It’s best to write copy in the context of a page layout, whenever possible. You’ll get immediate feedback on how long your text should be, and you can start creating a visual style and hierarchy that supports the content.
Since I usually prototype in Keynote, I’ll spend a bunch of time working on copy in my Keynote prototype. I don’t write copy in a separate document unless I need to write a lot of templatized copy (like team bios) or need to collect text from a group.
And don’t forget: you’ll need a real-looking prototype to house your copy if you hope to show it to customers and learn from their reactions (which you totally should!). Copywriting is important, but a visually detailed prototype is essential for productive user testing.
User research is your opportunity to put your prototypes in front of customers and get their real reactions. Your research participants will read and react to the copy you wrote (as long as it’s real!) and help you understand which of your ideas are best.
During research, you’ll want to not only watch what people do, but listen to what they say as well. It’s a good sign when test participants start to lift phrases from your copy and use them to describe what they are doing and seeing.
We recently did a design sprint with Cluster, a startup that allows you to create private spaces with friends and family, then share photos, videos, and messages with that group. We created two prototypes, each containing a different set of ideas for how the product should work. While the user interface from the first prototype worked best, it was clear that the copy from the second was the winner--the users we interviewed were using taglines and terminology from that prototype to describe the app.
For our next design sprint, we combined the best UI with the best copy in a single “greatest hits” prototype and it performed very well in research.
When you write down your observations and insights from each interview, don’t forget to capture specific bits of copy that worked well and didn’t work so well. You can write these on the whiteboard as exact quotes, and color-code them green or red to indicate whether they were successful.
And when you’re done, make sure that important copy (e.g. headlines, button labels, and so on) make it into your summary of what worked well in the study. This is your chance to resolve conflicts and decide between two competing versions.
Of course, it’s possible you didn’t come up with effective copy in this iteration--that’s okay, at least now you know. In your next iteration, take what you’ve learned and come up with some new ideas you can test.
Regardless of details, it’s important to make copywriting an integral part of your design process. Don’t leave it until the end. Don’t do it all upfront. Don’t offload responsibility to a separate person or team who’s not involved in design.
Software products have become more visual over the years, but they’re still mostly text. The words on the screen are essential for helping users understand your product, find what they are looking for, and actually use your product as intended. This is especially true on small screens!
In our work with startups, we’ve seen how effective it is to bake copywriting into every step of the design process. Give it a try on your team, and let us know how it goes! Tweet us at @GVDesignTeam or@jazer.
It basically takes two seconds of Googling to discover that a whole lot of people believe wearables are the future of technology. The most optimistic of those believers think wearables have the power to transform society in the same manner as PCs, the Internet, andsmartphones. And wearable technology is just getting to the point where it’s possible for products to be equally practical, capable, inventive, and essential.
But we haven’t gotten there yet. Right now, we’re still hung up on things with screens that you canwrap around your wrist--smartwatches and activity trackers. And while these devices have generally done what they promise to do, that promise has been unambitious. They’re practical and capable, but they’re hardly inventive or essential. Fitness bands can tell you how active you’ve been over any given span of time, but for the most part they can’t deliver meaningful insights to what your long-term activity patterns mean. Smartwatches have taken certain aspects ofsmartphone usage and made them more efficient or convenient, but they have yet to offer anything that you can’t ultimately do with a smartphone.
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There will be plenty of people who will benefit from smartwatches, but there won’t be many people who will be worse off for not having one.
Of course, every revolutionary innovation has had its universality and usefulness questioned in its infancy, and it's possible that the smartwatch as it exists now could evolve into the next piece of tech that people can’t function without. Maybe sending personalized vibrations to another person becomes the next communication craze. But for the most part, a smartwatch is just another screen that’s a conduit for information, and we’re starting to reach the outer limits of what can be done with that. To make wearables truly inventive and essential, designers are going to need to look beyond the smartwatch.
So many concepts and ideas related to wearables are focused on ways to interact with smartphones less--controlling your music, displaying the QR code for a boarding pass, or replying to a text message with your voice. Or there’s this idea that wearables have to be a thing we interact with at all.
But what if wearables focused more intently on the things smartphones can't do? Take Google’s planned contact lenses, which will help diabetics monitor their insulin levels, as an example. If you consider their impact in the near future, it’s just technology with a single function that serves a relatively small part of the population. But even then, if successful, it could become an essential product for diabetics, who will no longer have to constantly prick their fingers to get the same information.
Taking the longview is where projects like this get exciting and potentially revolutionary. Maybe it could lead to the platonic ideal of Google Glass where digital information is delivered over your natural field of vision in real-time. It would be the augmented reality experience nerds have dreamed of.
And sure, that's an idea which is wildly ambitious, but it provides a new interaction method that existing gadgets can't provide. That’s when innovation becomes essential.
Which is why, this week, we’re focusing on the future of wearables beyond the smartwatch. We’re looking at people who are not only designing and engineering products, but also considering new ways to use them. We have concepts from some of the best industrial design firms in the world imagining entirely new ways of using wearables. We talked to companies that are working to make current wearables more useful. And we look at businesses that are experimenting with how wearables fit into the workplace.
Hopefully that will make you--the designer, the entrepreneur, the engineer, the consumer--think about what wearables should be in the future, what they can be today, and what will make wearables a necessity in your life.
Over the years, I've noticed that there are certain brands that have managed to stay on top of cool social media trends.
