Bob Garfield

9 radical technologies transforming digital marketing

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Near-field communication and Google's Project Glass are just the beginning. Find out what cool new technologies will soon be driving your digital marketing strategy.

Radical technology No. 1: Virtual shopping from the living room

Imagine your customers exploring your products (for example, clothing) from their living rooms. In this demo, users can try on outfits and see themselves in various styles in a 100 percent digital environment. The innovative minds at Microsoft and PrimeSense have created a virtual dressing room experience that lets customers use a digital body profile to virtually pick out clothes, try them on, and even see how they fit with a heat map that shows tight and loose spots. This sophisticated technology uses gesture-driven user interactions to provide an engaging digital shopping experience. What does this mean for digital marketers? Maybe a major rethinking of how consumers interact with your brand.

 

Comments

Russell Scott
Russell Scott August 23, 2012 at 9:31 PM

My previous comment was in response to Radical technology #2 and #3, and not the entire article.
I honestly do not see how the increasing dependence on imprecise and unproven data can help marketers become more effective or creative. They will, at best, have more contrary data to support why their campaign shouldn't have failed.

And if technology is really that good, then why are there so many single people in the world?

Russell Scott
Russell Scott August 23, 2012 at 9:21 PM

Really? Isn't the marketer's primary function to be able to already understand these basics and create new and original ways to communicate? Aren't WE supposed to LEAD the thought engagement by creating positive associations with brands, and telling a story that puts a picture in their mind? Using mind-mapping technology to see what someone may or may not be thinking is not in any way an indication of what they are FEELING. To me, this reduces the role of the marketer to the level of a fast food cashier who presses buttons with pictures of the food without ever having to read or understand the word. Showing them a bird and seeing a blob that might be a bird, though miraculous from a scientific point of view, will yield nothing if the marketer doesn't already understand HOW and WHY the consumer is feeling.

And do consumers really want to get an MRI every time they go shopping, just so marketing can gain clarity in picture shapes?

Sounds like a really expensive mood ring.