Click here to view the embedded video.

Smart TVs allow you to watch internet videos on HD or even 3D, check Facebook, and make video calls via Skype. Sony currently offers over 20 channels including Wiggle Time TV, YouTube, Ziln, Golflink, and Wired.

The Stuff Channel on Sony Internet Television extends the video content developed by Fairfax’s journalists around the country right onto internet-enabled TVs. Nigel Tutt, general manager of Fairfax Digital, says that the extension of stuff.co.nz onto the television screen is a no-brainer. “Last year we had on average over one million video views per month on stuff.co.nz. Our customers have a great appetite for video with their news, and as internet-enabled TVs become more prevalent, the ability to access quality local and international content right in their living rooms will be attractive. He points out more and more consumers are scanning news on their mobiles as well as the internet, and Fairfax is all for this multi-screen usage.

“Extending to the television screen is the next step in our strategy of providing our customers the news and information they want in the medium to suit each moment of their day. While the print medium is still of crucial importance, we have seen significant growth in our customers accessing our content on a variety of screens – from smartphones to computers to tablets, and now televisions.”

The chief executive of TUANZ, Paul Brislen agrees that IPTV is a no-brainer and a service set only to grow. “IPTV is not a future technology. With more than 100,000 internet-enabled TVs in homes across the country already, and all the major manufacturers now selling IPTV sets, easily accessible online content is in easy reach, and will be the game changer in driving TV on demand – it puts the power back in the hands of the viewer.”

Matt Walton-Smith, general manager of channel and product marketing at Sony New Zealand, welcomes Fairfax Digital to Sony’s growing range of channels. “Fairfax Digital has embraced the possibility of what IPTV can provide, enabling New Zealanders to watch local and international news videos from Stuff, whenever they want it.”

Competition from all angles

In a move sure to send chills up the spines of major broadcasters, Fairfax has also signed on the dotted line with ABC as part of its IPTV. This allows Fairfax access to ABC’s long play content, striking a painful blow to major broadcasters. Nigel Tutt expects television viewing to continue to converge onto multiple platforms.

“Fairfax is very well placed right now. It has the advantage of already having an audience to deliver video to, and we are planning to expand the amount content we deliver. We have the advantage of no time restraints. We can publish what the audience want, when they want it. We don’t have to wait ‘til 6pm,” he says.

Operating since September 2009, online television network Ziln beat Fairfax to the IPTV punch. Anyone can set up a channel on it, it is free to access for those with broadband and it hosts 25 niche channels of Kiwi-only content including docos, comedy, and fishing shows. Ziln also recently signed a major deal with Sony securing its availability on all Sony internet capable televisions (smart TVs), which effectively moves PC-based internet channels to the big screen lounge television. And, as Manning says, it has never been easier or cheaper to make your own TV shows and it is no longer the preserve of big companies.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Xero, which was founded in 2006 by tech entrepreneur Rod Drury and small business accountant Hamish Edwards and now has 60,000 customers, was the only New Zealand company to be nominated for and win an IxDA award. Stimulant/Sifteo’s pretty frickin’ amazing Loop Loop took out the best in show.

“It’s awesome to see our team get recognised alongside some of the most innovative designers in the business,” says Xero’s head of design, Philip Fierlinger. “You wouldn’t expect to see an accounting system sitting in the company of some of the world’s sexiest, most ground breaking products.”

IxDA president Janna DeVylder said: 
“Great interaction design does not suddenly appear; it’s through a considered design process, understanding of behavior, and clear intent that these projects shine.”

And while Xero is still waiting to break even, a recent filing to the stock market shows it hopes to double revenue in 2012 (the 2011 financial year saw revenue of $9.3 million and a loss of $7.5 million).

Rhys Darby launches 2degrees business

2degrees’ chief executive Eric Hertz says it’s the launch into business services, and products such as the $149 plan and CarryOver Minutes that are behind the company’s success. So where are they defecting from? The NBR says they are mainly ex Telecom, which has posted the massive loss of 95,000 customers in one quarter, followed by Vodafone, reportedly down 50,000 in six months according to their most recent customer number updates.

The team at 2degrees has also grown – to more than 545 humans, with the most expansion in customer service and sales staff.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the year ahead, 2degrees hopes to poach even more customers with the promise of more plans like the recently announced $19 Data Combo, the $149 plan, and CarryOver Minutes. Of course, having national treasure Rhys Darby as brand ambassador, starring in some of the funniest ads around won’t do any harm either. Check out the latest Darbulous effort above.

NBR’s TOTAL NZ MOBILE CONNECTIONS

Vodafone: 2,434,000
Telecom:  2,079,000
2degrees: 875,656
MVNOs: 50,000

The numbers clearly show a large number of the population have more than one mobile phone account and/or data devices with SIM cards.

Only available in Japan, it is to be released as a special Valentine’s Day edition smartphone, in a colour scheme called ‘Bitter Choco’. The device even comes complete with a recharging station designed to resemble a chocolate box. Only 30,000 of the models will be produced by Sharp, running Android 2.3.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cheaper smartphones and data plans, as well as consumers who have come to expect—and often brag about—discounts (as discussed in the latest Trendwatching briefing Point-Know-Buy) means deals are increasingly going mobile. Last month GrabOne, which receives 55,000 daily visits on its mobile app, announced 12 percent of its sales were via mobile and it set a target of reaching 25 percent of all sales through mobile by September 2012. And this initiative, which was launched in Auckland today, goes live in Wellington next week and allows customers to view deals (mainly food & beverage and entertainment deals) for nearby businesses on the move, is a big part of that strategy.

“GrabOne Instant allows Grabbies to explore new real-time deals which are close to where they live, work or play,” says GrabOne marketing director, Campbell Brown. “There are many businesses, particularly eateries, that could pack in a few extra customers over the lunch period. For example, Instant allows merchants to attract customers who are in the neighbourhood looking for dining inspiration and gives our customers great deals wherever they are.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

One very smart move from GrabOne was handing out Android tablets to 2000 of its major merchants, thereby enabling them to upload deals themselves should they have capacity for more customers during quiet times, as the video featuring one of GrabOne’s major deal-givers Mexicali Fresh that was made by Small Town Media explains. And for those frustrated at having to print a coupon out and show it to the archaic merchants (in my case, Fullers), the tablet redemption system allows buyers to redeem coupons by scanning their mobile. This system will be expanded across New Zealand this year, and, in more good news, the average 20 percent of customers who forget to use their voucher before the cut-off date will be pleased to know that they only pay for the Instant deal once the voucher is redeemed.

Elsewhere in deal land, the relaunch of Flossie.com was nearly two years in the planning and the e-commerce platform offers members a chance to fill quiet-time appointments and in return receive discounts, products and other incentives.

“As a result of the GFC we saw a significant decline in discretionary spending in the hair and beauty category,” chief executive Jenene Crossan (AKA Freer) says. “Women have simply not been able to justify heading back in for treatments with the same frequency.  Things that were clear ‘needs’ before have been relegated to ‘wants’.  Our site will enable women to feel guilt-free about re-prioritising their hair and beauty needs, by making appointment times affordable.”

Along the lines of the wotif.com model or Aussie site Unbooked.com, Crossan says the focus on the ‘quiet-time’ appointments will clearly differentiate the site from mainstream deal websites.

“What we have launched today is only phase one. Our first job is to earn trust with salons and spas and prove to them that we can put bums on seats, and we can also get them returning regularly. We’ve basically ‘poked the eyes’ out of the deal sites, taking the good bits of them—like making it really easy to purchase—and then adding a flavour of our own, like an extremely limited number of vouchers just in the quiet-times focusing on really high-end salons and spas. This limited exposure coupled with low commission rates and realistic prices will not leave retailers out of pocket. Our next phase is system integration, meaning we can offer the ability to book and buy a real time appointment.”

Of course, whether consumers actually do return at full-price when they’re becoming increasingly accustomed to distressed rates and deals is a matter of debate and was one of the reasons 1-Day Out shut up shop last year. But, for many merchants in this economic client, a little is better than nothing at all.

From today a major marketing drive kicks off using partner site nzgirl.co.nz, Facebook targeted advertising and email marketing. Radio, TV and newspaper partnerships have been formed and will round out the sales funnel.

The app works by prompting consumers to focus their smartphone’s camera on different parts of the new label to enable the various experiences. There are a number of triggers on the new labelling that the app will recognise, including the front label, QR code and back label map.

Pernod Ricard New Zealand managing director Fabian Partigliani said the campaign was a way to both entertain and inform consumers.

“As the winemakers who pioneered Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, staying curious is integral to the brand’s DNA and this is the next exciting evolution. We wanted to bring this curious experience to life in a tangible, engaging and interesting way. The World’s Most Curious Bottle has allowed us to capture the essence of Brancott Estate while enriching our consumers’ experience.”

The Pluk app and platform was developed locally by Foxtrot Media, a subsidiary of digital agency Tango Communications, and managing director and co-founder Boyd Wason says the uptake has been impressive so far (even with a small glitch at the outset that saw Google auto-correct the name to Pluck in the Android Market, making it impossible to find) and after just ten days, well in excess of 10,000 people have downloaded it.

A “recruitment campaign” was launched across TV3, FOUR and MediaWorks radio stations on January 16, encouraging viewers to download the app to go in the draw to win a Suzuki Swift. Once it has been downloaded, the more ‘pluks’, the more chances you have to win. And, as this campaign runs for another four and a half weeks, Wason hopes to have 50,000 signed up by the end of February.

Any commercial can be pluk-enabled to provide a direct channel to the advertiser’s brand content and offers. And, almost like a fancier version of the QR code, the digital possibilities for interactivity are limited only by the advertiser’s imagination.

Melanie Reece, general manager of integration at MediaWorks, says the feedback from advertisers and consumers has been universally positive so far. Advertisers–and the high-level marketing directors they’re talking to about the technology—are seeing the potential of combining the mass-reach strengths of television with the ability to engage directly with the audiences. And consumers are actually using the app once it’s been downloaded and have asked for more opportunities to get pluk-ing.

“It’s nice to be first,” she says. “It’s a really exciting way to start the year.”

The second screening phenomenon isn’t new, of course. Social TV is on the rise and she says Heineken has done something with smartphones for the FIFA World Cup, Pepsi also embraced it in the US and some of the bigger networks overseas are looking at similar technologies. But she says the world-first aspect of Pluk is that it’s tailor-made for advertisers, and it also dangles a very easy to use carrot in front of viewers.

Reece wouldn’t divulge how many advertisers had signed up for the scheme. But it already has ads ready to go and she’s setting some “pretty ambitious targets” for the end of February. And, as more compelling offers from advertisers launch, she expects the oneupmanship to kick in and uptake to increase.

The younger generation use their phone to run their lives, so she believes this technology will be popular with younger viewers. But, at present, smartphones are still largely limited to affluent, tech-savvy viewers. As the prices drop, however, the penetration of smartphones will also increase and MediaWorks wants to have the technology in place to harness that.

Aside from the apparent benefits to local advertisers, the technology is also very valuable to Wason and co. He set up Foxtrot a few years ago because he saw the opportunity around mobile. But nothing really happened until recently. Like search algorithms, he says only a few people around the world have figured out how to link smartphones with TV ads, so it’s too expensive to buy that IP. But he and the team set about building the structure from scratch and now he says a number of big global players are looking at it seriously.

“It’s nice to own something and then launch it here. And we do want to be based in New Zealand.”

GrabOne marketing director Campbell Brown attributes the increase in Kiwis buying deals via their mobile phones to the streamlined mobile experience, a unified mobile platform for all devices, optimisation of emails being viewed on mobile devices, and less Kiwis behind their desks during the Christmas period.

“Globally there are eCommerce sites with mobile purchases as high as 40 per cent,” says Brown. “While this would be a remarkable feat in the current New Zealand market, we’re confident of achieving our target of 25 percent of all sales via mobile by September.

Mobile based browsing allows businesses to offer real-time deals to attract relevant or nearby consumers.

“Although mobile commerce in New Zealand is still very much underutilised compared to other markets, we’re certainly no longer confined to accessing the internet via our desktop computers, especially with the increase in affordable Android based handsets and surge in tablet purchases,” adds Brown.

GrabOne released a full version of their app for both iPhone and Android in October 2010 featuring all seven vertical sites including Experience, Families, Escapes, Home & Garden, Store, Bottle and Tee. GrabOne has consistently improved its mobile offerings since they launched and has worked hard to educate customers on the advantages of using their mobile app.

“You can’t just deliver a mobile offering and expect people to begin purchasing,” says Brown. “You need to ensure you offer a seamless customer experience and look after them. No matter how savvy your customers are, if they’re in the habit of browsing on mobile and purchasing from their computer they need to be convinced of the benefits of shopping mobile and assured of a secure transactional environment. It’s still an emerging opportunity here in New Zealand but the tipping point has arrived.”

Expect more short-term and real-time location-based deals to customers via the upcoming GrabOne Instant, which is currently in development.

“This flies in the face of the competition New Zealanders have come to expect and deserve. Customers will stay if they get value and should have the right to leave if they don’t,” says Hertz.

“2degrees has invested more than $350 million to create competition, backing itself to win and keep customers by giving them a better deal. We thought that this kind of monopolist behavior was a thing of the past, but there’s clearly still a need for consumer protection from dominant players.”

He says Telecom’s justification that SIM-locking will help young people get cheaper phones was insincere.

“This is not about better handsets. Improved competition is already driving down the cost of feature-rich smartphones. This is a cynical move to lock in the most cost-sensitive consumers so they can’t make a choice,” he says.

“Telecom says it will not SIM-lock customers on its XT network. That’s because business customers wouldn’t stand for it and neither should young New Zealanders.”

Skinny Mobile is a “youth -focused” sub-brand of Telecom, and is basically a rebranded version of the network also known as XT. The 20-odd team, led by Paul O’Shaunessy, is expected to launch in January, kicking off at the Rhythm and Vines festival. O’Shannessey told NBR that Skinny would have no ad agency, instead turning to “youth-sourced marketing” for its launch ideas and plans.  Their social networking has already begun on Twitter and Facebook, where they have already received flak about the SIM locking.

2degrees has asked the Commerce Commission to gain assurances from all New Zealand mobile operators that they will not SIM-lock their handsets and take action if they attempt to do so.  The question is over timing… and whether the Com. Com. will decide before Skinny launches.

Brands become more playful

Gamification is a simple idea: engage people by applying game mechanics to non-game situations. For example; next year Dad could unlock his Super Dad achievement for purchasing Pampers five weeks in a row, earning himself a ten percent discount reward. Or he could get 50 points each time he and his friends buy Special K in the same week, and level to Master Environmentalist for reducing his car’s weekly mileage and refuelling with BP.

Virtual togetherness

Social media technologies that let people interact with television programs will explode in 2012. This will see TV becoming an even bigger echo-chamber for interaction and engagement. Throw in Twitter, a backstage blog, a handful of hash-tags and an interactive app and TV will be on social steroids. Social media will allow users to interact with TV shows in innovative ways and TV producers will use this data for creative inspiration.

Services such as Bluefin Labs and GetGlue indicate traditional TV ratings may be augmented by “social ratings” as advertisers will no doubt be keen to understand how well a show is travelling beyond the TV audience.

Online advertising: real-time decision making

2012 will see increased demand for real-time brand and creative-based campaign insight, fueling the emergence of intelligent automated decision-making processes for campaign optimisation which are a significant improvement on current click-based systems. This will be the year when this impact is felt across the industry. Media buyers will invest heavily in their demand-side platforms and become accustomed to responding to real-time analytics.

Industry players such as market researchers and creative agencies are rising to the challenge and creating solutions that provide real-time ad evaluation and creative recalibration. Successful players will be those who learn to merge real-time data from media plans with analytics and creative evaluation to optimise online advertising.

Wide spread adoption of the mobile wallet

Many of us take our phones everywhere we go, much like our wallet.  So it makes sense to combine them.  One less thing to lose!  The rise of mobile payment systems is one of many indicators the mobile phone will become the hub of our lives.  Not only is it a social enabler, bringing us texts, calls, emails and Facebook, it enables practicality. In a few years we’ll be using phones as identification, license, passport, office pass, boarding pass and as keys to our cars and homes.  God help us when we lose it.

Other predictions include the continuing rise of online video, viewed on over-converging platforms, from mobiles to tablets to old fashioned television.  And expect more mobile marketing – using the data and movements of consumers for target marketing. For more crystal ball gazing click here