The marketing possibilities of a programmable wearable

Source: Broadcast Wear website. Control what's on the shirt with an app.

Broadcast Wear has launched a touch-enabled programmable t-shirt, heralding new applications for marketing.

The Hyderabad-based company’s brainchild features a flexible, washable LED screen integrated into clothing that can be paired with the Broadcast Wear smartphone app to instantly display any text or design. The t shirt can be tapped once to switch the screen on, and then again to switch itself off.

The same t shirt could be used for different marketing campaigns, standing out well especially at night. “Broadcast Wear is the future of self-expression. It’s your digital canvas to communicate with the world. The microcontroller and Bluetooth chip in the programmable t-shirt connect wirelessly to your smartphone, so that the LEDs display anything you type,” said Broadcast Wear Founder Ayyappa Nagubandi.

The future of banking may include screenless ATMs driven by mobile apps

EyeLock, a provider of iris-based identity authentication solutions, and Diebold, a global provider self-service technology, software and services, have teamed up on a screenless, self-service ATM concept  that is more compact than traditional ATMs. A prototype called Irving is currently being tested by Citibank in the US.

The design of the new concept ATM does not have a PIN pad, card reader, or screen. Instead, all transactions take place via a mobile app on the user's smartphone. In addition to near field communication (NFC) and quick response (QR) code technology, the new system uses iris scanning from EyeLock to identify the customer once at the ATM.

"EyeLock believes that the age of carrying plastic cards and remembering passwords is just about over and the era of unfettered personal access through biometric technology is just beginning," said Anthony Antolino, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer for EyeLock. "For banking and other applications, EyeLock's iris identity authentication solutions are not only highly secure, but very easy to use."

According to Frank Natoli, Executive Vice President of Self-Service Technology at Diebold, customers sign into their banking app on their phone or tablet and determine how much money they want to take out. Once the withdrawal is input, they then go to any EyeLock-equipped ATM on the network to complete the transaction. They would simply approach the machine, which identifies them through NFC, scans the iris of his or her eye to quickly verify identity, and the ATM dispenses the correct amount of cash. The whole process takes less than half the time of a typical ATM transaction today - with Irving, cash withdrawals can be completed in less than ten seconds.

"While digital channels are evolving, cash will continue to play an important role in consumer transactions," Natoli said. "That's where Diebold comes into play – to bridge the digital and physical worlds of cash in unprecedented ways through cardless transactions, mobile integration and faster, more convenient access. The Irving concept embodies a new era of banking and puts the user experience at the top of the pyramid to connect consumers with their money when and how they see fit." 

Citibank is in the early stages of testing the high tech ATM and plans to roll it out are still to be determined. "At Citi, we are always looking for innovations that simplify and enhance the banking experience," said CitiFinTech CEO Heather Cox.

Hashtag: #CES2016

Smartfren Android subscribers to get smart start screen from Celltick

Source: Android Play Store.
The MySmartfren app.

Celltick, a mobile marketing provider, has partnered Smartfren Telekom (Smartfren), a telecommunications company in Indonesia, to launch an intelligent start screen for Android subscribers.

Smartfren will provide its 12 million subscribers fast access to their most frequently used applications and functions, including special offers through a customised version of Celltick’s Start that will be preloaded on Smartfren Android devices. Existing Smartfren users will be able to download promotions via SMS broadcast, the Smartfren website or the Mysmartfren application.

Start provides users with an intelligent start screen. Smartfren users will get a quick view into the most relevant news, personal social media feeds, weather, web search and more. With the latest version of Start, users can personalise their start screens with stickers and play interactive games utilising innovative lockgames technology. Start utilises a recommendation engine that uses big data techniques and collaborative filtering methodologies to adapt the start screen to users based on how they use their device.

“We are committed to providing technologies that add value to the mobile lifestyle of our subscribers, while making it easy for them to use it. Celltick Start allows us to lead the way in providing the best of breed mobile experience on the best of breed network available in Indonesia. We continue to show our commitment to providing high value to our subscribers with this partnership,” said Hermansyah, Head of Service of Smartfren. “By working with Celltick, we will provide localised and targeted services that build loyalty and deliver value to our millions of subscribers.”

"We continue to focus on developing an intelligent, engaging start screen that users love and value,” said Ronen Daniel, CEO of Celltick. “Adoption of Start by Smartfren is further proof to the market leadership position of our value proposition and the joint vision of both companies to provide high quality services to Android users. We are fully committed to ensuring success of this partnership.”

The Start ecosystem includes hundreds of themes, plug-ins, stickers and lockgames (Editor's note: games that can be played on a locked screen). In 2014, Celltick powered billions of mobile-initiated commerce transactions for virtual and physical goods, serving more than 150 million active consumers across 25 countries.

Interested?

Download Mysmartfren

Three-device users begin to be the norm in Asia Pacific

Source: Appier blog.

Appier, the cross-screen technology provider, has found that users with three devices are setting the trend for multi-device ownership in Asia Pacific.

Nearly 40% of multi-screen users are operating more than three devices, the company said in its Asia Cross-Screen User Behavior Research Report for the first half of 2015, analysing user behaviours across PCs, smartphones, and tablets in ten key Asian markets. Singapore (21.2%), Australia (20.8%) and the Philippines (20.8%) boast the highest percentage of three-device users, while Japan (32.7%) and Taiwan (25.7%) claim the biggest percentage of multi-device users operating more than four devices. 

"We are fully aware that the vast majority of marketers are no longer approaching cross-screen and cross-platform advertising as an option, but rather as a top priority," said Chih-Han Yu, CEO and co-founder of Appier. "Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and data analysis, Appier's cross-screen user behaviour research report fleshes out the multi-screen landscape in Asia while also pointing out where the scale of screens and receptivity come into play."

Key findings include:

Greater complexity in cross-screen user behaviour

Forty-three percent* of multi-screen users in Asia exhibit vastly different behaviours on different devices, up from 38% in the second half of 2014.

Golden Wednesdays

The highest usage across devices and the highest number of reachable unique devices was generally recorded on Wednesdays. In the meantime, Mondays, Tuesdays and Sundays were all good days for advertisers to pique the interest of active users, keeping in mind that males are more active than their female counterparts across devices.

Mid-size devices and Android OS grab the spotlight

In 1H 2015, mid-size smartphones (3.8'' to 4.8") and tablets (9.7") dominated the market in terms of usage. Android was still the winner in mobile operating systems, despite losing some of its share to iOS comparing to 2H 2014.

Different ad formats play different roles on different screen sizes

In most Asian markets, high conversion rates for online ads occurred on devices with high click-through rates (CTRs). User preference for banners and interstitial ads varied depending on the size of the screen and the device used.

Interested?

Download the full report 

*The report is based on data from Appier campaigns ran in the first half of 2015 in ten markets including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Some 490 billion data points from the Appier database were analysed.