Grand Opening of aquarius Shanghai
aquarius asia set foot on the Chinese stage in July this year and celebrated the launch of its new office in Shanghai with the “Grand Opening Party” on December 1, 2011 attended by more than 100 guests. Bathed in blue light and with beats served by renowned Shanghai DJ Mia, aquarius’ office space was filled with the atmosphere of a hip club. Indulging in a huge buffet, delicious German beer, Glühwein and gingerbread, aquarius staff from Shanghai, Munich and Hong Kong as well as clients, friends and guests enjoyed an exciting evening with digital exhibitions and powerful performances.
Associate Account Director Cheyenne Law, Consultants Genie Yip and Xuxu He welcoming guests
The evening was kicked-off with an energetic drum performance that immediately caught everyone’s attention. The Chairman of aquarius asia, Marc Finsterlin, held a warm welcoming speech and introduced our teams and experts in the Shanghai, Hong Kong and Munich offices together with founder and partner of the aquarius group, Rainer Wiedmann.
Drum performance
Chairman of aquarius asia, Marc Finsterlin talking to the guests
To give our guests an impression of our work, we had set up various showcases all over the office to exhibit our technological edge in the digital world.
Our past, current and future projects were shown on computer screens. Especially our vision of the digital future, the ‘Seamless Concept’ and the ‘Internet of Things’, caught the attention of our guests as fascinating and innovative future projects. Once science fiction, devices communicating with each other independently and digitally, tearing down boundaries in the communication flow between humans and machines, it will soon become reality in the digital world. Our motion sensor project, making use of Xbox 360’s Kinect device, involved our guests actively in the digital world by offering them the possibility to virtually dress their avatar in one of our client’s winter clothes collection only through hand movements. Further Internet experiences of the future were given to interested guests through our introduction to 3-D websites.
The climax of the party was the unveiling of a stuffed Bavarian deer head complete with a pair of antlers by company partners Rainer Wiedmann and Marc Schmitt from Munich as a symbol to highlight the company’s roots in Bavaria.
The party was rounded off by a performance of a bianlian ‘face-changer’, a traditional dance custom from China’s Sichuan province that includes a fire breathing performance.
Judging by the after-party feedback from our guests, the party was a huge success. Our guests noted in particular the friendliness and expertise of our staff and used the opportunity for business talks as well as for making new friends. We are looking forwards to the next great event on our premises in the future!
Interested in our services in China? Marc Finsterlin and his team in Shanghai are looking forward to your request!
Bianlian: ‘Face-changer’ dance performance, a traditional custom from Sichuan Province, China
Founder and partner of aquarius group, Rainer Wiedmann (left) with his wife and members of the aquarius teams in Shanghai and Hong Kong
Tablets for the masses
Tablets have been on the market since two years now, but they have become one of the hottest items sought after during Christmas sales. According to a survey conducted by Germany’s Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM), 13% of all Germans wanted to either gift or purchase a tablet during this year’s Christmas. According to BITKOM 2.1 million tablet computers will be sold in 2011, which is 162% up compared to last year. In spring, the association had estimated that sales numbers would reach 1.5 million units – this forecast was now overturned quite sharply. The boom of these touchscreen devices is forecast to continue well within next year: In Germany alone 2.7 million units are forecast to be sold, a growth of 29%.
Source: BITKOM, EITO 2011
In 2011 13.4 million PC were sold in Germany
Success of tablets leads to a change on the PC market
Looking at the number of tablet units, the market share of these devices has already reached 16% of the overall PC market within the past two years. Netbooks are suffering from this development. Their sales share went down steeply from 35% to 7% (900,000 units) in 2011. Notebooks, that hold the biggest market share of about 50%, also felt the impact of tablets. In order to compete with them, notebooks have already become increasingly lighter and smaller. These so-called Ultrabooks such as Acer’s S3 or other models in this class from companies like Asus or Sony will have a bright future, it is said. Currently, approx. 1 million units of the new Ultrabook generation are sold world-wide per year. According to market analysts of HIS iSuppli their share on the notebook market is bound to surpass 40% by 2015 (2% in 2011).
World-wide tablet market: Kindle Fire from zero to runner-up
HIS iSuppli sees Apple’s iPad as the leader on the tablet market, holding a market share of 65%. But with an estimated 3.9 million sold units until the end of this year, Amazon’s Kindle Fire skyrocketed in Q4 from zero to become the runner-up on the market. Samsung comes in Third with 1.4 million sold units, equivalent to a 5% market share.
Source: IHS iSuppli
Case Study: Beer brands go for digital campaigns on Christmas
‘In 1874 a green beer bottle was a great invention, just like Augmented Reality is today’, says Oliver Bartelt, Manager of Communications at beer brand Beck’s in a press release to underscore the brand’s innovative thinking. Over a century in the past the brewery was among the first to offer their beer in green instead of the more common brown bottles. Thus, the brand created a distinctive trademark that stood out from the crowd. As part of the Anheuser-Busch InBev group, Beck’s is striving to live up to its legacy and increasingly looks for ways to integrate digital cutting-edge technologies into their marketing strategy. Below we have compiled a number of interesting ad campaigns from the beer industry:
Beck’s ‘Green Boxes’ projects to be presented in Berlin using AR
The centerpiece of this project are the so-called ‘Green Boxes’ that were exhibited worldwide in big cities such as New York, Miami, Mailand and London before. As part of a bigger marketing campaign this project aims to open up the young and urban target group to art, design and music using unusual ways. For the kick-off in Germany the artist group FriendsWithYou, which is also a sponsor of the project, developed an interesting augmented reality animation that is open to the public at the Brandenburg Gate until the beginning of January. Using the Beck’s Key App, smartphone users can hunt for other ‘Green Boxes’ throughout Berlin-Mitte and discover their virtual content. The AR-artspiece becomes visible via smartphone, tablet PC or iPad.
Beck’s Augmented Reality App in Berlin aims to reach the urban and young target group
Source: obs/Anheuser-Busch InBev
Heineken’s Social Christmas: ‘Social Christmas Tree’ and ‘Beerfriender’
Christmas is a good time for beer brands around the world to reach out to consumers via the social web. Heineken is no exception. Only a few days after announcing cooperation with Facebook, the Dutch beer brand aroused attention with social Christmas projects. In Singapore for example the traditional Christmas tree gets a makeover as Social Christmas Tree. Via a special feature on Facebook consumers can send season’s greetings digitally to their friends. The Tree will also be erected in Singapore for real, standing 11m high. Season’s greetings submitted by users will be displayed digitally.
It is well known that beer strengthens the sense of community among strangers. Heineken makes use of this common knowledge through another Facebook application. In a social campaign innovative beer kegs of the company are presented. The so-called ‘Beerfriender’ app now connects people, that would like to have such a beer keg as Christmas present for themselves, but instead the app makes it look like they gift it to somebody else. To get a grasp on this admittedly peculiar idea we recommend to watch the below video:
Austria: Bierfinder app by a small brewery
The world’s beer market is controlled to 50% by four of the largest brewery conglomerates. But an app launched by a relatively small brewery in Austria named Fohrenburg shows, that not only the giants are capable to make use of the most advanced digital technologies. The brewery was the first in Austria to develop a so-called ‘Bierfinder’ app, which makes it all the more easier for users to find the nearest bar or restaurant that serves the beer of their preference. Of course, this is also an outstanding app for the time after Christmas. Using their smartphone, beer lovers can see in which bars, pubs or supermarkets in their vicinity Fohrenburger beer is available. The app gives directions and shows the distance to the desired destination.
Bierfinder app by Austrian brewery Fohrenburg
Source: Fohrenburger Brauerei goes Augmented Reality
A booming market: Earning real cash with virtual goods
The business with virtual goods has become increasingly attractive and has already managed to influence the entire media landscape: the IPO of online game agency Zynga in the US and Nexon in Japan this December, the launch of Facebook Credits and Google+, the continued rapid growth of in-app purchases for the mobile platforms iOS or Android to name just a few. Virtual goods already exist for almost a decade, but a real market was only established in 2007 when developers began to develop social games on Facebook. Especially there and on other social platforms games like Farmville lead to over boarding cash boxes for developers.
Screenshots: Zynga E-Cards and Cityville credits
A multi-billion dollar market in the US
According to a recent study, Techcrunch sees the first signs for a mature market in the US. The digital goods market there surpassed the US$2 billion threshold reaching US$2.2 billion in 2011, as market researchers of
Inside Network in their study ‘Inside Virtual Goods – The US Virtual Goods Market 2011 – 2012‘ found out. In 2012 the market volume is forecast to reach US$2.9 billion, in 2010 the market volume was just US$1.6 billion. Virtual goods on Facebook generate more than half of the market volume: US$835 million in 2010, US$1.2 billion in 2011 and an estimated US$1.6 billion in 2012. Based on Zynga’s IPO filing, Techcrunch estimates Zynga’s share on Facebook’s virtual goods market to reach 75%, which shows how much the success of Zynga is dependent on Facebook. Market researchers at in-Stat found that in 2010 sales figures went beyond the US$7 billion world-wide. By 2014 it is estimated that this figure will double to reach US$14 billion.
However, the much more interesting market is the one of mobile social games, Techcrunch finds. According to Inside Network the market volume of this market (only virtual goods, iTunes and the like excluded) reached US$350 million in 2011. The forecast for 2012 sees this number rising to reach US$500 million. One of the reasons for this growth might be that one single developer such as Zynga does not dominate mobile platforms.
Case Study: Cooperation between American Express’ Membership Rewards Program and Zynga
The cooperation agreement between American Express and Zynga shows how important the business with virtual goods has become for many brands. Since last year, customers of American Express can exchange their loyalty points with virtual incentives in order to further upgrade their farm, their hotel or other online possessions. Every month more than 200 million users play games developed by Zynga, which holds an enormous potential to generate reach for American Express.
American Express Membership Rewards Program: Apart from travel tours, coffee mugs or eat-ins at restaurants social games also feature virtual cows, ovens and game cards
A booming market for trading platforms for virtual goods
Facebook Credits enables many online retailers to offer their customers an extra incentive to buy goods. The virtual currency is integrated into the purchasing experience, e.g. when a customer decides for a certain product, reviews products or subscribes to a newsletter. Provider Ifeelgoods offers specialized services with virtual credits for the electronic trade and offers retailers to integrate these services on their websites. Gamers can trade their virtual goods via a Live Gamer Online Marketplace. The platform also supports advertisements for virtual goods, analyses, virtual gifts, display windows for items, catalogue management, payment systems, an own game currency and many more elements for publishers. The company entertains partnerships with EA, Sony and Real Networks. Their financing capital amounts to a respectable US$30 million.
Conclusion: Virtual goods sales have become a solid source for real income for the industry, particularly in the area of social games. According to Deloitte, an increase in the number of users leads to fewer turnover per capita though, while the value of advertising increases. This allows for a more balanced monetization across all users. In any case, there is still much untapped potential on this growing market for the advertising industry. The Internet still is one of the biggest playgrounds for users.
The big stand-off: Android vs iPhone
Smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives. Browsing online, making calls, writing emails, updating the calendar and compiling To-Do-Lists, networking with others and much more – smartphones are in our hands 24/7. No wonder that invisible to our eyes a fight for market shares is going on. As soon as a customer decides for a certain brand of smartphones, he not only goes for the phone itself but also for a whole business model. In one corner, there is Apple’s closed business model, in the other corner Google’s Open Source model. This actually makes a comparison between the two competitors quite complex, since Apple actually has only one product in store. Google’s Android on the other hand works on different smartphones from different brands and in different price categories.
It seems that the fight for market shares already has a winner: In Q3 2011 52.5% of all new smartphones sold worldwide used Google’s software, only 15% were iPhones. The Android software that already took over global market leadership in 2010 thus further enhanced its reach. These are the results of a survey conducted by Gartner Inc. Symbian based systems are down to 16.9% and the Windows Phone currently does not play a significant role on the market, which might change in the future. Looking at profits, the picture looks quite different: Apple is the unchallenged number 1 in making profits , holding 52% of all profits made with smartphone sales. But anybody who is interested in generating reach for his services, will have to take the Android market into account. This poses quite a challenge for most companies, because the business and sales model behind Android apps is quite different than that of Apple.
Source: Business Insider, data by Gartner Inc.
The below chart clearly shows the enormous growth of Android-based smartphones:
Android: rising star of the year
Source: Business Insider, data by Gartner Inc.
Navigating indoors: Finding the best bargains in malls and airports with ‘Indoor Google Maps’
Recently there is a boom for digitalized indoor maps. They not only lead customers to the shop’s front door, but also beyond to the inside and through the shop to a certain display shelf where the customer will eventually find his desired product. Nokia introduced its ‘Destination Maps’ service back in fall, which makes it possible to determine a person’s position indoors with a deviation of only 30cm. Google now followed suit and provides navigation services through public spaces for users. Its ‘Google Maps Indoor’ started out with airports and malls in the US and Japan, cooperating with partners like Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Home Depot, Takashimaya from Japan and Ikea of Sweden. Users can identify their own position via a blue spot on a map, which also shows information such as floor and shop number. The advantage for companies is, that customers find their way to the desired product much faster and thus can be lead to bargain deals more easily.
Finding the desired product at Ikea:
This service is particularly interesting since it does not operate using GPS. In order to determine a user’s position, Google uses a mix of different radio signals in the vicinity of the user in order to calculate the exact position. Nokia’s Destination Maps also work in that way, making use of nearby radio signals to determine the position of a user. For an app to correctly interpret these signals is the real challenge. If the technology proves to be reliable, then these kinds of location services are bound to attract numerous customers looking for bargains and good deals, thus enhancing the opportunities and the range of additional services in the mobile retail business.
Case Study eBay: Pop-up store ‘Christmas Boutique’ to push mCommerce in London
Looking at last year’s sales figures, eBay expects to reign in this year’s best sales result on this weekend for eBay.de and eBay.co.uk. On Dec 4 2.5 million articles are forecast to be sold via online and via mobile in Germany alone. This marks an increase of more than half a million articles compared to last year. Launching a broad PR campaign, eBay now seeks to promote mCommerce via own points-of-sale during the year’s peak sales season. From Dec 1 to Dec 5 the Internet company will open its ‘eBay Christmas Boutique‘ in London’s Westend. Almost 200 hot Christmas gift items can be ordered in the store via smartphone. Consumers do not have to carry their purchase home, the item will be delivered by post. All they have to do is to scan the item’s QR code, pay for it and let eBay do the rest. Those who do not own a smartphone may use one of the tablet PC’s available in the store.
The tag line of eBay’s store is ‘no tills, no queues, no bags, no stress’. But imagine this: Thousands of people that have nothing better to do on this first Advent weekend than to rush downtown joining the crowds at the eBay store and scan QR codes via a smartphone app, only to leave with empty hands – literally. While this gives mCommerce a certain twist, it definitely helps to increase awareness.
London: Christmas gift shopping via QR codes at the ‘eBay Christmas Boutique’
According to eBay, mobile applications have helped the company to more than triple its annual sales volume in 2010. The sales volume reached approx. US$2 billion back then. In 2011, eBay forecast that its sales volume will reach US$4 billion. To strengthen mCommerce, eBay currently runs experiments with other models of pop-up-stores. In Manhattan eBay had window displays adorned with products and wish lists from a number of celebrities. In New York and San Francisco the company opened up ‘Give-A-Toy’ stores. Consumers scan the QR codes on toys’ price tags through the display window, thereby donating money or toys for a good cause.
USA: eBay’s ‘Give-A-Toy’ stores give window-shopping a new meaning
Digital channels driving force for growth: Online beats offline in the ‘consumer journey’
Germans love to do research: 90% of German Internet users use the Internet to find information on products. More than two Thirds search the web for a product advertised on TV. About one Third uses a smartphone to look up information on a product while in the store. The importance of social media is also increasing.
These are the core findings of one of the world’s most comprehensive research studies in regard to behaviors and habits of online users in more than 60 countries. TNS, a market research company and consultancy, interviewed more than 72,000 consumers for their study ‘Digital Life’ in regard to their ‘consumer journey’, i.e. online and offline contact points with products. ‘Consumer journey’ denotes the process from the first contact with a product while seeing an ad, the decision to buy a product, to the actual purchase and after sales customer relationship management. Since long this ‘journey’ has not been linear. Due to an increase in digital channels, today’s consumers show a different kind of decision making process than they did in the past: Consumers take their time to think it through, do more extensive research on the product and are influenced in their decision making by much more factors than before. The conclusion of the study: Online beats offline. Online recommendations were cited as being most important during all five steps in the ‘consumer journey’: Step 1: Awareness for new products; Step 2: decision for a product/brand; Step 3: decision on the place of purchase; Step 4: after sales support; Step 5: brand loyalty.
Online is more important than offline in the ‘consumer journey’
Source: TNS Infratest ‘Digital Life’ by faz.net Netzökonom
Based on the study’s findings, it is recommended that advertisers not only convey a coherent message via different channels, but also develop an understanding about the many media channel’s roles during the ‘consumer journey’. The ultimate target is to allocate the media budget according to each channel’s respective relevance.
Source: TNS Infratest ‘Digital Life’
Mobile Shopping: Does mCommerce jeopardize or strengthen brick and mortar retail?
aquarius at the 2nd German eFood Congress
12% of all German Internet users have already shopped food online – according to a Bitkom-survey (state: October 2011). Nevertheless, these purchases are rather about single products and not (yet?) so much about the weekly Saturday’s shopping. Up to now, mCommerce does not seem to play a relevant role for (food) retailers in Germany, as aquarius’ study ‘Mobile Internet in retail’, released in summer 2011, shows: Out of the 28 investigated retailers (food, FMCG, apparel and media), more than one third has not recognized mobile Internet as a sales channel and another third does no mobile marketing at all.
Can food retailing afford to lean back and hence will be the only branch not to be confronted with significant changes due to digitalization? Or should retailers and manufacturers act right now at an early stage in order to take advantage of the chances that e- and m-Commerce have to offer?
These and other questions will be answered by Rainer Wiedmann, founder and Managing Partner aquarius, at the 2nd German eFood Congress in Wiesbaden on December 12, 2011. You are more than welcome to visit our presentation ‘Mobile Shopping: Does mCommerce jeopardize or strengthen stationary retail?’.
Please find the program of the 2nd German eFood Congress here.
Tickets are available here.
Google+ is not Facebook, is not Twitter, is not SOCL
Attention is a valuable good. With the launch of Google+’ corporate pages another social network is vying for consumers. Rumors have it, that also Microsoft wants to earn big in the social web boom. According to The Verge Microsoft plans to launch a kind of social search engine called SOCL. There are seemingly endless opportunities now to make use of the social web and directly communicate with consumers, thereby increasing brand awareness. For companies it is increasingly difficult to stay up-to-date. Many companies are asking: ‘We already have a Facebook and Twitter account, is it really necessary to have Google+, too?’
The answer is neither a clear Yes nor a clear No. It is not that simple. It actually depends on a lot of factors. Social Media is not a strategy in itself. Nevertheless, it is a means to reach certain strategic marketing targets. Just to join a social network because everyone is doing it does not really make much sense, especially taking technical resources and personnel needs into account. Every social media channel needs active care and maintenance, which is time and labor intensive.
Google+ vs. Facebook
The new G+ pages, a competitive answer to Facebook’s fanpages, are quite different. You can find a lot of comparisons between G+ and Facebook on the net. An interesting summary was published by ReadWriteWeb. The industry’s magazine compared the presence of BMW and Mercedes-Benz on both networks: While Facebook seemingly has the first mover advantage, i.e. more reach and technical know-how, G+ still has a high potential for user involvement, despite its rather limited functionality. ‘Circles’ for example is a convenient tool for corporations to disseminate information to certain people or pre-defined target groups. ‘Hangouts’ might be useful in the customer service field, so that companies can get in touch with their customers directly via video chat or in order to bundle similar customer inquiries. What is (yet) missing are customizable own landing pages, games or shopping functions. Discount offers or coupons that are very much welcomed by users on Facebook, are banned on G+ altogether.
Pioneer on G+: Pepsi’s brand page
Connecting search functions, social web and music: Building a killer feature?
The distinctive difference between both networks is that with G+’ corporate pages the boundaries between search function and social web are becoming less clear-cut. The seamless integration of Google+ into Google search is a factor that should not be underestimated. The chances to be found on the net are much higher with a well thought-through presence on G+. Search queries that start with a ‘+’ will be linked to a respective G+ page and the companies own website in future.
Google’s new music service ‘Google Music’ is also closely connected to Google+. Via cooperation with Sony Music, Universal, EMI and other smaller music labels more than 13 million songs are available for purchase. As soon as a friend has published a purchased song on G+, others can listen to the song for free once, making Google a content provider. Facebook on the other hand perceives itself as a sharing platform. A so-called Artist Hub enables artists to market their music directly via Google Music and they can determine the prices for their songs themselves. Google gets a 30% commission in this deal.
Conclusion: Do companies need a G+ page? As always in marketing, there is no general answer to that. Social web is a complex phenomenon, which requires it to be part of a broader strategy, i.e. a plan on how to make use of available potentials for the own brand. The question is in how far social media presence can add value. Depending on a company’s targets and target groups the answer will be quite different. The decisive factor is, that the way how people communicate with each other is changing. This in turn changes how people form an opinion on certain products and brands. We think it is about time that companies start to talk about that at the highest management levels.
