Technology

According to the 1987 movie “The Running Man,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2017 is the year the world goes into economic collapse, even though things aren’t all rosy in the current climate worldwide, they definitely aren’t as bad as this movie predicted! One thing 2017 will definitely be exciting for is seeing what technological trends and consumer markets have to offer us this year! Over the next 5 Episodes I aim to show you what I think will be big this year not only in the world of technology but how this will translate to to the Promotional Product Industry.

Earlier last month, the world’s biggest Consumer electronics and technology exhibitions took place in Las Vegas Nevada, CES 2017. It was so exciting to see the plethora of new technologies hitting the market this year, some of them relevant and ready to hit the market, others wacky futuristic concepts, but all have one thing in common, they are all pushing the technological boundaries showing us what could be the world of tomorrow. And what does consumer electronics and technologies being introduced into society have to do with the promotional product industry? I almost guarantee you if there is a popular product finding its way into the consumer market, it will just as quickly become a popular item in the promotional merchandise market also, nine times out of ten you can see a straight correlation between popular new products to buy and popular new products to brand. Over the next 5 Episodes I aim to show you what I think will be big this year not only in the world of technology but how this will translate to to the Promotional Product Industry.

1)    USB Type C

I know what you’re thinking, not another type of connector, but bear with me for one moment as theoretically USB Type C has the ability to be THE One and only Connector you’ll need (One Connecter to rule them all!…for now anyway!) The transformed shape is actually not too dissimilar from current USB connectors; it is just slightly thicker and wider than the popular micro-usb. Great news is for those of you, like me, who plug your phone in to charge in the dark, you will be happy to know, like the Apple lightening connecter, Type C can be plugged in front to back or back to front! The unique quality USB type C has is that it supports all different types of connections, from

charging, to data transfer, audio and even visual! This means that the USB type C can replace not only all of your current USB charging and transfer cables, but it will also replace Aux, HDMI, VGA and DVI cables.

USB chargers can currently only handle 5 volts at 2 amps (generally) whereas to fully power a computer, the source would need to output at least 20 volts at 5 amps.. Coupled with USB 3.1 and type C connectors the power is now scalable up to 100 watts, providing enough power to charge computers, laptops, tablets, phones, cameras, home robots, spaceships ok maybe not a whole spaceship…. Possibly just the LED lighting… Although I joke about spaceships this integration process is not a distant future, flagship mobile devices have already started incorporating USB Type C ports and reaping the benefits of superfast data transfers and charging. Although USB type C and USB 3.1 are different things, you will generally see them combined to create this USB connected powerhouse, which will make smart devices smarter and your personal and portable computers more portable.

In the next episode we will see the new developments in virtual reality and what we think 360 video has to offer us this year.

Up until relatively recently, the term drone never really bothered us; it was a word that was seldom heard of, and when it was mentioned, was used in a military context

But what use can these products have promotionally? The question has already been answered by several large companies that are already using Google Cardboard like products in several different ways. Last month on our website I posted a blog detailing what I thought would be the top three trends in promotional merchandise this year, in this I mentioned the concept of VR headsets being used alongside experiential marketing.

I used the example that if an estate agent gave out the cardboard headset to prospective buyers, they could send the buyers ‘virtual tours’ of properties on sale, and if the buyer then needs to contact the estate agent, their contact details are right there printed on the headset. Another idea derives from a practice that already happens in the automotive sales industry, where a

salesman would video a tour of the inside and out of a vehicle, outlining the unique selling points, as they are videoing them, even showing some of the functions  in use. Now if you translate this to virtual reality, an automotive sales company can do a 360 degree video of every vehicle that comes in, inside and out, outlining the functions etc. and when someone shows interest send them a fully branded VR cardboard headset, with access to the videos of the vehicles they have interest in. Almost all experiential services could benefit from ‘taster virtual reality tours’ tourist excursions could be revolutionised with these first person experiences, I can literally think of hundreds of ways this technology can be used to benefit companies in several different sectors.

As I mentioned before large companies have already started using these products promotionally in their own unique ways, a very current fantastic example is the New York Times, whose campaign created a milestone in VR history. Early last November The New York Times launched their VR mobile app, and on the following weekend sent out Google Cardboard headsets to every home subscriber, this means they sent out over a million VR headsets across the USA. This is an incredible step forward in the world of virtual reality, the NYT VR app’s first 360 degree video will show the struggle of three refugee children; this video was produced in partnership with VRSE.

It is important to remember that we are still in the very early stages of mass consumer adoption with this technology, and several of the world’s largest organisations are already using this technology for promotional uses, companies like Coca Cola, Volvo and Disney etc. In the promotional product industry companies are always looking for something different, something new, something that provides their customers, or potential customers, with a brand experience that stays in their mind, and this is exactly what Google Cardboard does. Promotional Virtual Reality has only just begun and who knows where we will be in 20 years from now, we could have food companies emailing taste tests of their food, we could have perfume companies sending you glimpses of their latest scent, we could even run the worldwide marathons, from the comfort of our living room, the opportunities are virtually endless.

This blog is a continuation of Episode one’s explanation of what VR is and how it works, here I hope to show you the future of VR, stepping back from just VR headsets and entering a world where full immersion of the 5 senses can make its way into virtual reality

In 1965 Computer Scientist and all round new age pioneer Ian Sutherland was quoted describing his concept of the ‘Ultimate Display.’ He said

“The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal.”

Up until this point I have only talked about one of the five senses, companies all over the world are hoping to correlate this virtual reality technology with the other four senses. Spatial audio is something that isn’t a new concept at all, with surround sound systems we have been experiencing spatial audio for a while now. Last year Google bought out Dublin based company Thrive Audio, a company specialising in ultra-realistic spatial audio for virtual reality. On the basis of this I really don’t think it will be too long before Google start integrating ultra-realistic directional sound into the Google Cardboard application, allowing the user to hear sounds from varied distances all around.

The word haptic derives from the Greek word “haptikos” which translates to pertaining to the sense of touch. From a programming point of view touch is more than likely the most difficult to recreate in a virtual world, visual and audio are definitely less problematic to recreate hence the technological advancements in those areas. That’s not to say they haven’t tried, the research that has gone into tactile feedback technology is extremely vast, and we are finally reaching the point where we’re finally in touching distance (no pun intended.) Saying all this haptic technology isn’t actually a new concept, we have been using it in gaming and mobile devices for a while now, every time your phone vibrates or games controller rumbles we are receiving tactile feedback through haptic technology. To give you a glimpse into what the future holds for haptic technology we have to go back to 2009 where researchers from the University of Tokyo developed 3D holograms that can be touched with your bare hands. This was achieved through acoustic radiation pressure which recreates the sensation of pressure against skin. This is bringing us back to Ian Sutherland’s concept of really being able to feel virtual items and sit on virtual chairs, which is definitely the end goal when it comes to this technology.

It’s not just touch that is being researched; companies are also exploring the possibilities of taste and smell in virtual reality. In 2013 new scientist published an article describing how a team from the National University of Singapore have developed an electrode synthesiser that can simulate 4 different tastes (salty, sweet, bitter and sour) by attaching these electrodes to your tongue. They hope this could lead to creating tasting experiences through virtual reality, where people will be able to taste virtual items as well as see and feel them. To get the full experience of tasting, smell will have to come into the equation also; this is where companies like FEELREAL enter into the fold. They have already conceptualised and developed a product that aims to revolutionise the virtual reality experience. The FEELREAL VR mask is an add-on accessory to a VR headset, that not only simulates smells, but also the effects of wind, heat and water mist. The current limitation with the technology is that the user has to buy and insert relevant cartridges to the experience, so for example if it’s a racing experience the user enters the burnt rubber cartridge.

Now can you imagine a world where people can send and recieve virtual promotional products, this would be fantastic in the world of sampling, at the moment virtual samples are an photograph/illustration of the branded product or a sometimes you’ll recieve a 3d rendering, with haptic technology, you could hold the product in your hand, feel the texture of the material and really know the product inside out before it’s even materialised. The next and final installment is all about using current Virtual Reality technology from a promotional product standpoint, I hope you enjoy it!

Healthy Promo

A new year means a new start, and for a lot of people that means it’s time to get fit and healthy, and as you will already know, there are plenty of consumer gadgets out there that assist in doing this. Generally speaking if something is up and coming and popular in the consumer world, more often than not, it becomes popular in the promotional product industry too. In fact, there are already a few health and well-being promotional products out there, such as branded pedometers, activity trackers etc. But with new and improved tech entering the consumer market, we will soon be seeing these in the promotional world too. Products such as Bluetooth coasters which tell you to drink more water, water bottles which can tell you what temperature you’re water is, heart rate monitors that connect to your phone, alarm clocks to wake you up gently to keep you feeling refreshed in the morning, all these products, if not already, could find their way into the promotional market. Now imagine all these products synchronised together, creating a selection of promotional gifts that all talk to each other not only assisting in helping you get healthy, but also adjusting your whole lifestyle for the better.

Experiential Promo

Experiential marketing is a type of promotion that is aimed to directly engage with the consumer, a strategy that invites the user to interact with the brand first hand, rather than passively receive their marketing messages. Now when I say Experiential Promo in this sense, I don’t mean that promotional merchandise could singlehandedly replace this type of marketing, what I mean is, there is definitely room to increase the usage of promotional merchandise during the use of experiential marketing. Now, this isn’t exactly a new concept, a great example of this previously in action was during the 2012 London Olympics. Throughout the summer of 2012 Samsung set up a brand experience in several locations around London where they allowed the general public to see and use the new Samsung devices at the time. They even had a Samsung Olympic app that the public could play! Visitors could also have their photos taken with the latest Samsung products; these pictures would then be printed on site and given to the visitors as a personalised badge. Now by giving the user this badge, they were not only giving them a reminder of the day and brand experience, but the actual badge shows the photo quality of the Samsung item, therefore subconsciously creating a reminder of the brand alongside one of the features and benefits of the product. I personally think more and more companies will be looking to increase their brand experiences, not only do they evidently work, but they also create a PR buzz that just isn’t possible to recreate through regular marketing channels. My final trend should hopefully shed some light on how brands can do this a little more in 2016.

VR Promo

When I first started writing this blog, this was originally going to be a part of the experiential promo section, but after getting the feedback of how popular this concept was at recent promotional trade shows, I thought it deserved it’s very own dedicated shout-out on just how popular it will be this year. The reason I was going to put it in the previous section was it is a great concept to use this specific type of promotional product if a company was to create a brand experience around a virtual reality campaign. We have seen great examples of promotional products being used alongside virtual reality in recent years with the use of apps like Blippar in the marketing world, companies would have the ‘Blip’ printed on a product like a stress ball or T-shirt, which can be brought to life when focusing the smart phone camera on the ‘Blip’ through the Blippar app. Now there is an emerging trend in the world of technology that is quite literally taking things to a new dimension with 360° virtual experiences. Companies like Oculus Rift, Microsoft, Sony and HTC are all looking to develop this technology further. Virtual Reality headsets are devices that you wear over your eyes like a pair of goggles, they generally block out all external light and replace it with an immersed digital visual in first person view. The BBC’s technology correspondent described 2016 as the year VR goes from virtual to reality, and I agree with the author that Google’s introduction of Google cardboard VR headsets have made virtual reality available to the masses. The concept of creating practically the same 360° VR experience with using very basic components and your smart phone is a genius idea. Also the fact that the majority of the product is made out of cardboard not only keeps costs down but provides a fantastically spacious branding area. A great example would be if a real estate agency decided to have their own branded version of cardboard VR headset, they could give it to potential customers, fully branded with the company’s details, and send them 360 views of potential properties, thus providing the wow factor and a reminder of the real estate’s information.

In my opinion, I think all three of these trends are incredibly exciting prospects to look out for, and I can’t wait to see how they all shape and transform the market in 2016. The VR Promo trend in particular is one that I will be keeping an eye on, and expect to have more to say about it later on in the year, so expect updates in my blogs to come!