Greenlight

19,000 Geeks Walked Into a Bar in Austin, TX…

Okay, so the bar came after all-day in the Austin Convention Center (or one of the 10 SxSW Interactive "campuses"). SxSW Interactive is a where diverse blend of bright minds come together and produce some of the most inspiring and intellectually stimulating discussions pertaining to present best practices and future technologies. But you’ve probably read that in eight other blog posts, so let’s skip the fluff and get to the bit you care about.

[The Hype] Group Messaging. The chatter of Austin during SxSW Interactive was dominated by group messaging. Beluga (which has already been purchased by Facebook) and GroupMe are the frontrunners in the field, but with such a low barrier to entry, the market is already flooded and fragmented. Remember the HD DVD / Blu-ray player debacle? Well in this scenario there are 10 options instead of two. And, much like the Foursquares and Gowallas of yore, the hope for mainstream adoption is futile until one of two things happens: (1) A public consensus is reached and one app reigns king or (2) two apps bubble to the top AND learn to play nice with each other.

[The Future] Near Field Communication. The up-and-comer that really piqued my interest (and will probably score even more attention NEXT year) is Near Field Communication Technology or “NFC” if you want to avoid stumbling through that mouthful.

When you leave your house, you probably make sure you have three things: your phone, your wallet and your keys – at the very least. Well get ready to scratch the last two off the list because soon your phone is all you’ll need. NFC supports tons of life-changing applications – it can allow your phone to serve as a credit card, a fob and even a key in certain instances. And while this is fantastic for the everyday user, it’s also a huge advance for marketers because we’ll be able to let customers tap a window decal and receive rewards, connect to sites, et cetera. And THAT means today’s QR codes will be shifted to what I like to call “pog status” and we’ll only have to worry about those funky little squares in past tense.

But Kris, how do I know this isn’t some sort of over-hyped technology that will never make it to the mainstream? Good question, doubting blog reader.

Nokia is incorporating NFC technology into all of the phones they produce this year, and Samsung’s Nexus S ALREADY has read/write capabilities in place. Google is also developing a mobile wallet app, dubbed “Cream”, and several US banks have shown interest. Plus, AT&T, T-Mobile (which as you know is also now AT&T) and Verizon have all agreed to the Isis standard for NFC, and that in and of itself is a pretty big deal. Not to mention, VeriFone (the company responsible for almost all of your card swipes) is totally on board. The technology is pretty much guaranteed to be in every smartphone produced next year.

As the distinction between the digital and physical realms continues to blur, marketers need to stop focusing on digital versus traditional, and realize that they are not competing or even separate. There is simply the consumer’s experience of brand.