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This morning I read that in 5 years, mobile browsing will outnumber PC browsing. I don’t think that many people would be surprised by that statistic, its one that reflects my own preferences right now, and no doubt many others. But what is surprising is the still slow, take up of mobile versions of businesses’ sites.

The site I spend most time on is the BBC’s, keeping a check on the news and so on, and I go on it several times a day. Even if I am sat in front of my computer, I go to it on my mobile, and the main reason for that is that I much prefer the mobile format. It is simplicity itself, easy to use, easy to navigate. The main site by comparison, now that I am used to the mobile site, feels much more cluttered and it takes me longer to get the key summary of information that I want.

This is an important lesson for businesses that are considering adding a mobile site to their portfolio. Don’t be tempted to just follow the same rules for a mobile site design that you would for your main site, and just translate it to a smaller scale. People use mobiles in a very different way to PCs, and regular visitors to your site (and it is vital that you encourage regular visits) will respond well to more streamlined information which will make it easy for them to use and save them time.

So have a look at the BBC’s sites today and start thinking about how you can apply the same principles to your business.

I’ve seen two particular AR examples this week, which provoke an interesting comparison for how you can get the best effect for your brand.

The first example I saw was for Waitrose. The AR element was integrated as a ‘final surprise’ in their Christmas TV ad. The second was for Starbucks. An AR app which works when you point your phone at your coffee cup.
Putting any creative opinions aside for these two examples, they will succeed or fail based on a single element; how simple and convenient it is for the customer to participate in the AR experience.

Think about the Waitrose execution for a minute, it’s primarily produced as a TV ad, so you need to be sat on your sofa, mobile device in hand, ready to go the second the ad appears on your TV screen – which of course you have no advance warning about. Compare this to the Starbucks app. You’re sat in Starbucks, coffee and phone on the table right in front of you. You point your phone at the cup and have a play with the AR characters that pop up in front of you. Easy and fun.

For augmented reality to work well – and justify the cost, it has to enhance the customer experience (which both examples do), but also seamlessly integrate into normal behaviour and prolong or deepen their exposure to the brand through interaction. My money’s on Starbucks getting the best results.

There are many businesses with high volume photography and video needs, which prefer the option of handling this in house rather than outsourcing to independent studios. It is an option that often makes perfect cost and control sense for them. However, from my experience in dealing with many of these businesses, there are some common pitfalls. In-house studios generally run very efficiently and do work very well. But sometimes the department just needs an objective heath check…

So, have a good look at your in-house studio today. If you get it right you’ll reap the rewards, with a hardworking, flexible and productive team; who understand your brand, its ambitions and the customer, and who will give you consistently great results. And it doesn’t get any better than that.

I love John Lewis, it’s my favourite shop. I’ll go there at every opportunity rather than shop somewhere else. Why? Because the store layout is easy to figure out, I can find stuff, the staff are knowledgeable – and lovely, the product is good…you get the idea. Each of the shopping channels are best practice examples; the stores have just had tens of millions of pounds invested in them to update and improve the layout and enhance the experience. The website has been great for years, good layout, minimal clicks to purchase, good cross sell, consistent product photography. And finally the catalogue. When I worked on the photographic and brochure strategies for B&Q, I spent many an hour reviewing all the major retailers brochures across a period of 3 or 4 years, and John Lewis were consistently the strongest in all aspects; photography & styling, page layout, customer navigation, call to action. I could go on.
 
Not surprising then, that they consistently report strong growth, regardless of the economic environment. It seems they can’t do anything wrong. Or can they?
 
The latest TV ads, similar to recent the ones that went before them, have great sentimentality and of course have excellent production values. In themselves they tell a nice story. But I’m not convinced about what they are really saying about John Lewis. As a brand advocate, I should naturally want to find reasons to like them but I don’t. In fact I strongly dislike them. The impression they have given me is that John Lewis are starting to show a hint of smugness and arrogance, overstating their role in people’s lives.  And I wonder if this somehow marks the start of a less successful period for them? I hope not, but I will be watching closely.

Put #Siri into tweetdeck and have a look at the hundreds of users who are enthusing about their new personal assistant. For those who don’t know, Siri is the Personal Assistant app which comes with the new iPhone 4S. It uses advanced voice recognition technology to answer questions and perform actions, directing the user to internet services and products. The technology has the potential to bring answers to the user in a way that allows them to bypass the need for search engines. Forbes blogger Eric Jackson called Siri a ‘Google killer’ provoking much debate and comment, including the view that Google would probably create a similar and potentially better product. So, Siri isn’t necessarily a Google killer, but it could ultimately lead a technical revolution that kills search. Consumers are always looking for easier and quicker ways to get information. Imagine asking your phone a question and getting a single answer rather than having to search through pages of search listings. Sounds great doesn’t it? However, for the single answer to be the right one, the answers are based on personal knowledge of the user, relying on a whole different level of data capture than we’re used to.
So, what does this mean for brands? If consumers become less inclined to search and rely on intuitive systems for sending them relevant content, brands will need to build highly personal relationships with their customers, which will only work if their customers really trust them. Is it time for brands to start thinking about this, or will Siri just be regarded as a novelty which will wear off soon?

I’ve had a BlackBerry for 4 years now and I’m sure most of you will be like me, phone in hand 24/7. I’ve never thought about how many times I look at it a day. So I thought I would work it out. Maybe once every two minutes? Across an 8 hour working day that is 240 times. If I reply to something half of those times, and that takes me on average 45 seconds, then I am spending 1.5 hours of a working day on my smartphone! And letting myself be distracted 30 times an hour!
 
If you are a business owner and employer, just think what that distraction is doing to your own productivity, and probably worse, that of your employees?
 
It is very important to stay connected and in touch with emails, twitter etc, but smartphones are a place where business and non-business interests converge, so in truth, probably half of that time checking and interacting with our smartphone is spent on non business related activity.
 
Times are tough and businesses need to stay sharper and more focused than ever. Allowing smartphones to create so much distraction on a personal or corporate level has to be viewed as a serious threat to productivity.
 
For my part, as a small business owner, I have turned off all alerts on my smartphone, except for the actual phone. I am scheduling time to check and review the other content that I receive to manage my time better and don’t allow myself to be distracted every minute or so. And the effects? A huge surge in work output and much better concentration. Time to check your own smartphone habits?

Successful businesses all have great marketing strategies. So, if you are a business owner, of any shape or size, my question to you is how good is your marketing? No, really, how good is it? How much time do you spend a week on it? How many marketing pillars have you got constantly supporting your business and driving sales? How well are they working?
 
Here are five ways that a Marketing Consultant can rev up your business and keep it growing
 
1. Get professional advice. You’ll benefit from insider knowledge about what works for other people.
 
2. Save you time. If marketing isn’t your strong point, or you need to focus on another part of the business, then delegating the marketing to a third party will give you precious hours back without letting the marketing slip.
 
3. Keep your marketing strategy fresh. Even with an in-house marketing team, it’s easy to get stale or dare I say it, even lazy. A good consultant brings new ideas into the business and creates an opportunity to engage and motivate your marketing team.
 
4. See things differently.  So many clients tell us they’ve tried something, and it didn’t work. You may well have tried, it, but why didn’t it work? Often the message or the execution wasn’t right or they didn’t try it for long enough. It is vital that marketing is done properly and that you can measure how well it has (or hasn’t) worked, so that you can learn and improve.
 
5. Bring new skills into your business. A good marketing consultant will be generous with their knowledge and will help you and your team, develop and build your expertise.

Last week I was at the DMA’s annual conference. There was a great line up of speakers, and the first was Susan Helmont, Aviva’s brand director. At the end of a very candid case study about her recent experiences with Aviva’s last two TV campaigns, she took questions from the floor. The first question, from an experienced agency MD, was to ask her opinion about the latest Muller advertising campaign – starting up a fairly lively debate in the room, with mainly negative opinions.  Initially, I couldn’t quite recall the ads. Then I remembered a comment from my 4 year old daughter earlier that week. She was pointing out the back of one of my magazines, and telling me that the ad on it was the same as the one on TV. She was talking about the Muller campaign. If I’m honest, they still don’t get my attention (I’m not a Muller fan), but they have certainly captured the attention of an extremely influential target audience – children. It reminded me that not all advertising is aimed at me. It also shows the importance need for the creative execution to amplify the effect of integrated campaigns. When we form our opinions of ads and creative, we need to take care to judge advertising campaigns through the eyes of the target audience, only then can we truly understand if it is both good and effective creative.