Leader’s Blog

Titanium is a huge step toward closing the gap on multiple version, same application development cycles. The primary advantages to companies will be reduced costs, mitigated risk of bugs, and efficient management of a single code base, in turn allowing brands to deliver total quality experiences, regardless of platform or device.

No longer will application developers need to manage multiple sets of code across multiple platforms. And Titanium enables developers to work with application coding languages many already are experienced with. That translates to minimal learning curves, heightened levels of innovation, and faster time to market.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of Titanium is the ability to more consistently represent the brand across digital marketing assets and multiple mobile devices. Users will still experience interfacing differences native to platforms such as the iPhone and Android, but companies will be empowered to cost effectively provide the same set of functionality and content to every user. That means we are truly nearing seamless experiences in the 360 degree delivery of digital marketing.

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InStyle magazine launched its first e-commerce site to offer its readers an online shopping experience in a fully branded InStyle environment.  So what would encourage a publishing company to try its hand at online retail?

The leap isn’t as far as it sounds.  InStyle has long been evaluating fashion, trends, and designers within the pages of its magazines, so it makes sense that that they lend some of that experience to selling apparel online.  The site, which borrows its look from the pages of InStyle magazine, is also carefully tied to the magazine content to cross promote products on and offline.  The other piece of the puzzle that InStyle brings to the table is editorial credibility.  Loyal readers of the magazine will find “editors pick” merchandise and feel confident that the publishers who have provided them savvy fashion advice on the pages of the magazine will continue to do so on the online store.

Many have discussed monetizing content as a way to lifting the publishing industry out of its current slump but it will be interesting to see if an approach like this one will keep them viable.

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More companies are working with outside consultants to help reveal the science behind customer behavior. It seems like just about every company is employing customer experience design and measurement services from outside experts these days to better understand the customer mindset, browsing and purchasing habits.

However, few analytics companies have fully realized the importance of studying the role integration plays in the science. And that is why EMC’s acquisition of Conchango is not only refreshing, but should give consumer product and retail companies confidence that the art behind the science is being considered and factored appropriately.

After all, multi-channel marketing is much more then segmentation, tactics, capturing metrics, and studying them to turn analytics into actionable insights. In fact, most experiences begin with one simple factor, attraction. May it be visual or messaging that connects with the customer, the science is often the result of the creative. And as more analytics companies begin to take those factors into consideration, the more their clients will win and gain true insight into their customer’s behavior and be able to pinpoint what it is that achieved that first point of attraction.

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Promotion via social media is most effective when companies leave it in their customers’ hands.  Fashion Magazine did just that when launching White Space, a contemporary designer section at the Bay in Toronto.  The guests were treated to food, fashion, and music during this exclusive, invitation event.  Throughout the venue there were laptops set up encouraging guests to tweet or post Facebook updates about the event. 

Fashion Magazine and White Space really hit the mark by asking their guests to drive the social media “chatter”.  Not only did they save the cost of an agency-driven social media campaign, but they also kept the content in the hands of the guests.  Some might argue there is risk in replacing company sanctioned content with guest tweets, but I’d argue there is also significant opportunity to improve the viral reach. 

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