Why Aftonbladet is my favourite mobile site!

The short version: Aftonbladet has designed a mobile experience around me. I´m the centre of that experience. They are giving me the content or information I need, where and when I need it. They are entertaining me and giving me something I cannot find elsewhere. First a short, short background.

Aftonbladet is one of Sweden´s biggest national newspapers. At an early stage they have been focusing on the mobile channel. In May this year they launched a new mobile site. In average the mobile site has 1,2 million unique visitors per day. Numbers don´t lie. They are in their own category when it comes to performance in the mobile channel in Sweden. 

When it comes to designing an awesome mobile experience there are lot´s of stuff you need to consider and focus on. 

Mobile = Personal Internet 

First. Mobile has transformed itself to becoming the primary way people access the internet. It has become people´s personal and private internet. You mobile phone is your private device, it´s in your pocket when it´s not in your hands, and you will never leave the device out of sight. 

Mobile is about context

You are using your mobile phone many times per day in different situations depending on time and place. Either you are bored, waiting for the bus and want to kill time. Or maybe you are in hurry and want to check out something right now. Over time you probably have developed a behaviour where you repeat actions like setting you alarm, checking your mail, weather or listening to music. It´s what Google has defined as urgent now, bored now, repetitive now state of minds. 

Therefore, you should treat any mobile experience with respect to the user, what they want, how they want it and when they want it. And of course the more interesting content you will give the user, the better, and the more time they will spend with your mobile site. 

Mobile = opportunities.

You need to exploit the endless functions and opportunities that comes with a mobile phone. It has GPS in it, it´s easier to share stuff compared to using your desktop etc. Of course there are more mobile phone specific features (push, accelerometer etc) enabled when developing a native apps.

I will give you a few examples why I think Aftonbladet has created the best mobile experience with that in mind.

"Good Morning. News while you were asleep."

In the morning I usually wake up after some snoozing. I´m grabbing my phone and starting to browse the Internet for the first time of many during a normal day. I want to know what has happened over night, that´s the first thing. The first thing you access on the site is "Goodmorning. News while you were asleep." A collection of news that has happened during the last 8 hours. Yes, that´s exactly what I want. 

Local weather forecast

After I have browsed the news I wanna know the weather right now, or more exactly the temperature. Then I know what to wear. You click the menu bar and there you can see the temperature right now from your location. Mobile is about location and the GPS gives you the possibility of adding a location layer on top of the information you wanna present for the user. It´s extremely relevant for me for to know the weather and I don´t wanna access the iPhone´s own weather app, because I know it´s inaccurate.  

Live event interaction

I´m still watching TV on my, well, good old TV. In this case Melodifestivalen (Eurovision Song Contest). Damn! (all Swedes do this) I´m not carried away - a bit bored - and of course I´m keeping my mobile phone close. When you enter Aftonbladet´s site you are able to instantly rate the live performance and you can see how other people are rating the performances. Awesome. 

Sharing news

One big problem when it comes to sharing news on your mobile phone is that you need to reenter your username and password to be able to share it on Twitter, Facebook or whatever. It takes time, and I prefer  to copy paste the URL instead. However, this is an awesome example of how sharing is made easy using the mobile phones own sharing function. It takes you directly to the app. Smooth. 

There are lot´s of other stuff that makes the mobile site stand out. When there are big live soccer matches they are broadcasting with live pictures and text. Text is not extraordinary but the amount of live pictures are. 

The mobile site also has a separate TV section, even with a live section. I would like to know they are organised around producing such a huge amount of news and content?

Big up to Aftonbladet. You have won the mobile news battle in my (and many others) opinion. 

Sales people = multi touch point guide

Yesterday I had a really great personal mobile experience. I know it might sound a bit like a cliché since this it what I work with on a daily basis - but I wanna share it with you. Summer has  - sort of - arrived in Stockholm. It means its time to get my summer wardrobe up to speed. I usually buy a few t-shirts and if I feel for it a pair of shorts. I went to the Weekday shop on Drottninggatan. They got the most basic stuff - and it´s cheap. Perfect. I spotted a pair of shorts, tried them on, I liked them, they were too big, and of course my size was sold out. The sales guy guided me to the other store, which is located in another part of the city. I go there every second month - but I would never wait that long or take the ride to get a pair of shorts.

I didn´t give up. With my mobile fucked up mind I went to the mobile site, found them easily and ordered them. It took me less than 4 minutes, although I had to register as a new user. 

What I think is crucial with this:

Sales people need to break down the barrier between the online and the physical world. In the era of showrooming they should be educated to guide people to the best destination, in this case the mobile site, where I could order my shorts right away.

I hope it´s the perfect fit! 

From cash to chaos (still)!

I had a mission. This weekend I would dig deeper on the mobile payment thing. What´s it all about? What kinds of options are there? Do we actually need a smarter way to pay for the stuff we buy? Hopefully, to take it from chaos to order (in some way). Oh, and main focus is Sweden. 

 

Right now we pay with either cash, with our credit card or with e.g. SMS that will be charged your phone bill. We pay for stuff we buy either physically in the store or online. If we buy/sell things from people we know (or don´t know) we do a bank transfer or we use more secure payment methods like www.paypal.com or Internetgirot.se The last one costs money and takes time. Not the best combination. 

 

We are moving towards a cashless society. In Sweden cash represents 3% of the Swedish economy. That´s not much and in my opinion a really awesome thing. Why: Coins especially are really annoying. They take space in your pocket (you might drop your pants), there is a great risk that you lose them, and it takes time to get them (withdrawal from the bank). For the businesses it is more expensive to admin huge amounts of cash.

 

Last week I attended a seminar about the mobile phone as a future wallet. The thing I´m taking with me from the seminar is: We are still in an experimental phase when it comes to mobile payments. No one has found a solution that solves all problems. Do we actually have a problem? To sum it up: Chaos and if industry people are confused what are the real folks then?

 

I read this article starring Google´s VP of Wallet and payments Osama Bedier. I like it. He got some great points. First: “There’s a lot of ideas and not a lot of problems being solved” which sums it up really well. Secondly, “Credit cards already work pretty well if all you have to do is payments.” We don´t have serious problems right now. What a lot of people are asking for are just secure payments. Of course it would be nice to be able to do it with your phone. Lastly, "It took 50 years for the credit card to become the dominant means of payment, so it shouldn’t be surprising that mobile payments haven’t immediately taken off." We need to be patient. It will take time for the industry to solve it and it will also take time for the mass to adapt to new technologies and to change behavior.

Let´s have a look at the big monster (read: All the different parties that want to take a bite of the cake). I´m pretty sure that I´m missing some players. Bare with me:

 

Banks - we got the banks. They handle our money (savings and loans) and you pay them for it. In Sweden the banks are collaborating on a mobile payment solution. It´s called Swish. Still a bit unclear what it means. However, the main thing I can read from it is that it enables transactions between people through a mobile device or a mobile app. So if your friend is a Swish member you can transfer money (via an app) with the use of that persons phone number. Sounds pretty straightforward, however, you need to download 2 different apps (the Swish app and a Mobile Bank ID app) and the process for getting it sounds slow. One thing that is crucial is the pricing? Will it cost - and in that case - how much? Today, if I transfer money (through my Internet Bank) to a friend or somebody I know there is no cost. Of course it would be smoother to do it through your mobile device, however, I´m personally not willing to pay for it. Another thing: Your friend needs to have it to make it work.

If transactions are free I will download the thing. However, it will take time before it is rolled out. The sign up process sounds a bit complicated - and it will slow down the reach to the masses. Another question: How often do people need to transfer money to other people on the go and in real-time? (I´m doing traditional money transfers less than 10 times per year). To be honest I have a hard time seeing how this collaboration of banks should be able to innovate the mobile payments thing. They are slow moving by nature, and being more parties slows it down even more. 

 

Note: There are other alternatives. E.g. Swedbank that created their own payment service, Bart. An app that is linked to your Swedbank bank account. In practice it works like: You enter the amount on your phone, a QR code is created - and the cashier will scan that QR code and the money will then be charged your bank account. They will open up for other bank holders. I have a hard time understanding whether this is smart or not. 

 

We are moving on to the evil operators. The one´s steeling all our money J

 

Operators - we got the operators. The one´s that take care of your phone and charge you for everything you do with it. They have teamed up and created the WyWallet solutions. Again, it´s an app that is linked to your bank account.  Today, premium SMS is an easy mobile transaction. Premium SMS will not disappear with WyWallet, however, you need to own a WyWallet account to do this. Again, the process of signing up, to load your account with money seems a bit complicated. P2P payments are free for now, but will you be charged 1 kr. from next year. Besides, there will be a fee included if you want to transfer money from your WyWallet account to your bank account. What is of interest: How will the flow be for paying for things (in retail) and other mobile payments.

 

One huge challenge from my point of view is the fact that you need to own a WyWallet account!? I´m not interested in having another account, and especially not willing to have one where it will cost me money transferring money from my WyWallet to my regular bank account. 

The heroes. The one´s trying to fuck the established players.

 

The start up scene - examples here are Square / iZettle - card reader payments (linked to your iPhone or Android phone) focused on solving local merchants problems only taking cash & P2P transactions.  Square is this little card-swiping plug-in for smartphones. iZettle  is a chip based solution. iZettle works in Sweden.

 

We got other parties like merchants (in US Walmart launched their MCX payment in collaboration with Target, Best Buy); credit card companies (Visa, Amex etc.), Paypal, Amazon, Klarna etc and I´ve probably missed a whole lot of arguments and important take-outs.

 

However, looking on the big players I think the startup scene will win the business to consumer transaction race. They actually solve a real problem. Reasons: They innovate faster and got a natural user focus. Something that e.g. banks and operators are lacking.

 

When it comes to P2P payments I think it will take time. It is not a real (and frequent) problem, but more a nice to have thing. Still. It may cost a fee & it is dependent on the counterpart having the exact same payment solution (in most cases).

 

There are other aspects that need to be take into consideration like: receipts, all kinds of user-friendly statistics & if you get the chance to consolidate all your cards in 1 mobile solution. Plus, if new technologies like NFC gets standard. However, it will take years from now on.

 

I´m gonna finish it with a few quotes:

- "There needs to be consolidation within mobile payment options." and continues: "Until there is uniformity, mobile payments will not become widely used," says Max Goldberg, founding partner for the Radical Clarity Group, on the RetailWire forum. I totally agree with him. 

 

And do people do have real problems with payments today?

 

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Why creativity doesn't fit into the media agency formula!

YES! It´s my first blog post in 2012 (Happy New Year btw.) I sure hope it attracts a lot of clicks, although my blogging gets more and more infrequent. Back in the days I would check Google Analytics stats every second hour. I lost the statistics game. Damn!

Let me start out by saying. I've got a media agency background. My thoughts come from conversations with people in or out of the media business - and not solely from my working experience. I loved working in the media industry (still part of it somehow) and most people are really skilled and awesome. I don´t hope people see this post as a: “You aren`t working on the media agency side anymore and now you can just shoot with shit “(can you say that?). But often it is easier to understand things when you are not in it.

I think it´s an interesting topic only because people (and client´s) need to understand the complex world of media agencies and why creativity never will be performed to perfection. 

Another fact: I don't know all media agencies and how they work with creativity, but I have seen some output.

No more assumptions. I promise!

Creativity = stick out

I love creativity. It can be many things. It´s complex. For me it`s that unexpected and daring solution/thought/thing that gets more attention. All types of agencies want to be creative. Why: Because you get paid for it (if the client is fair), it can make you stick out from the crowd, plus it is what most clients ask for.

4 reasons why media agency creativity is limited

1. Client structure is safe. You aren't pushed to deliver the best work for your clients every fucking time (and many clients demand it). Client structure is safe in the way that you got longer agreements. And most agencies are part of bigger networks. That “stay hungry” culture is non-existing.

2. Innovation is not at the heart of the culture. It's administration. Success is about minimizing time spent on the client. It means: You seek out for the easy solution to a client´s problem. Creativity is time consuming and takes a lot of energy.

3. Integration is king and integration is a barrier to success. A successful media agency campaign is an integrated 360 campaign. Why: you bring more departments into play = internal success. I think ideas get too constructed that way and the genuine part disappears.

4. Media agencies are distanced from the media (of natural reasons, I know). That's why media owners have overtaken media agencies in terms of creativity. They are able to test ideas and are closer to the making of the creative solutions. Of course digital is better suited for it. On the other hand one can say that media owner’s don´t have a close client relationship making creativity too far from the strategy.

What to do?

Is this actually a problem? The fact is that the one´s paying for the party (read: client´s) think so.

I think there are two aspects to consider.

One is: Media agencies could consider rethinking their business and skip the creative focus.  If you are not chasing it 100% you will never manage it at perfection and then there´s no reason in doing it. Competition is hard and in the long run you don´t win by trying to do everything. That´s positioning. Focus could be even more on effectiveness.

Another aspect is the client. They also got a responsibility in this formula. Don´t demand creativity from all the agencies you work with. Figure out what agencies are best at what and make them perform that.

Does that make any sense or am I talking complete nonsense? I´m passing the ball to you guys out there.

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Improved brand experience IS your marketing strategy (@Fly_Norwegian)

The best way to get some rolling brand love is to create something really useful and make it free for your crowd. Norwegian.no offers free WiFi on selected flights and with success if you listen to the users. From time to time I read status updates or tweets from friends with a "Wow, I´m xx feet off ground writing this update from my Norwegian flight". That´s really good advertising. So skip all the social media strategies, buzz metrics, number of likes, thumbs up, competitions etc. and create an innovative, useful, free and unexpected (in the sense, that people would expect it to cost) service for your crowd and you will get the genuine brand love.

In a market where it´s all about price it´s a clever way to stick out from competition. So, great work norwegian.no

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Telia wants you to be the next Mark Zuckerberg

I´m full of admiration for the work CP+B Europe has developed for Telia here in Sweden. In short the campaign is centered around the idea of becoming the next app millionaire. To grab people´s attention to the campaign Telia have partnered with iSwap faces founder Alex Vlachos and use him and the iSwap faces app in all the communication. All the roads leads to Facebook where you can submit your idea with a simple sketch. The winner gets the app produced by Telia and gets all the revenue. The competition has ended and 25.000 ideas have been submitted. Pretty impressive. Hopefully Marek and I will be picked as the final winners.

What I love about this piece of advertising: (I know I´m biased because I love advertising, tech and startups)

1. It sticks out. Telecom is all about pricing and boring specs.

2. It taps into the insight that people are dreaming of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg or the less famous Alex Vlachos.

3. It got a natural link to Telia´s core business

4. The campaign is supported by a whole lot of ATL comms

5. It can start a conversation. [I know it´s not so representative, but I have kick-started many conversations about this competition. What surprises me is the quality of ideas coming from people in "so-called" non-creative jobs]

6. It is more than just a competition. Way too many campaigns are centered around a weak competition - forced engagement - this one differs because people needs to be creative with a greater purpose.

7. It´s a great example of modern storytelling. The mechanic of linking all the elements elegantly together (ATL, Facebook, target audience, PR, endorser) - and of course the great potential of making the campaign live longer using the winner (and the story behind) in a second round.

The only thing I would change if I was in charge was to socialize the campaign even more (group work), and of course to have a real app where people could submit their ideas from.

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Interactive game from McDonald's #Stockholm

I had fun today thanks to McDonald's. By coincidence I dropped by Stureplan. For non-Swedish people it's a central square located in Stockholm. The Swedish version of Times Square. Yeah, and then there is a big screen. It was interactive today. You could simply battle McDonald's in ping pong steering with your smartphone. The steps are: Go to www.picknplay.se on your smartphone. Enter your name and prize. Queuing starts. Then you receive a notification when it's your turn. It took 3 minutes. Game on.  Brilliant! I lost but I got a loosers Icecream by showing my coupon at the nearest McDonald's. Next game will take place the 14th of May from 15-17. Go have some fun. 

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Favorite tweet this week

Powered by @mattyb123 - clever words from a man with a not so shining profile name

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What gets me out of bed in the morning [sort of word game]

Brands not corporations

People not target groups

People not clients

People not colleagues

Development not money

Things not projects

Meanings not number of slides

Groups not hierarchy

Time not working hours

Coffee not meetings

Stories not PowerPoint

Space not office

I like to twist my mind creating a reality that is non-corporate. I think motivation, productivity and creativity is better suited in a non-corporate world.

Do you follow me?

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Random pics from #SXSW 2011 and SF

A short picture stream shot with my eyes. Or at least very close.

SXSW 2011

People queing for the IPad2. People all ages.

A world of tweets visualization at the frog design party. The installations were amazing.

Another installation.

Rest room surveillance.

SF 2011

I like this entrance.

Custom build bicycles.

This coffee shop produces its own coffee.

Grey-haired old dude watching an Apple demo.

The clash. Past vs. future.

Mustache coloration.

Old McDonald`s.

 

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Now this is technology!

<p>Now this is technology! from Christian Hermansen on Vimeo.</p>

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Brand love or brand stealing? [pic]

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Twitter on speed #SXSW

First time attending South by South West I can only say that I will make a strong comeback next year and probably many years to come. For those you that haven't discovered SXSW it's a beautiful mix of talks, beer, BBQ, workshops and queuing. People call it spring break for geeks. I prefer Twitter on speed. Actually the queuing thing was just a good thing since it brings people together. Oh, and then it's in Austin, Texas. I have read many wrap ups so far and one thing that stood out is people's different take on it. The scale of this conference does that it's impossible to attend more than 1/100. The fragmentation influences on the conclusions. I can't get a quote out of my head summing up that the Internet revolution is two-stepped. First thing was about connecting people. Check. Most people are connected. Now it's about making people really understand the value of this connectivity. This is so goddamn true. We are in stage number two. The Internet seemed to be a community. Now it´s for everyone. Let me get back to my wrap up. This probably gonna change when I have consumed an enormous amount of info and notes. However, with my eyes, I saw four things I want to share with you:

1. Gamification. How to add a game layer to interaction? How to motivate action? Foursquare is the grand old man that we all look up to - and I think we will see more cases of adding fun to the stuff we do through our mobile. Seth Priebatsch said a clever thing about gamification. School failed because it uses a game mechanic where you can lose. It disrewards action. Instead it should motivate action and that´s what brands should think of in future. 
2. Group-behavior. How to organize in groups. For me GroupMe stood out. What I liked most about this thing is that it´s simple and that it solves a true problem. "Old" technologies such as text and mail never got a grip of that need. 
3. Digital wallets. How our mobile will become our wallet replacing money? Transaction gone mobile. Starbucks is one of the earliest examples of transaction gone mobile. Check it out here

4. LBS level 2. Location, location, location. How to be relevant in the right context and how to put deals to it. Start-up worth mentioning in this perspective: Hurricane Party. And the Foursquare AMEX partnership. The technique: When you check in at selected locations and for example purchase at least $5 worth of goods, you will get a $5 credit on your statement. Confused, look here.

Other things I was amazed by:
Facebooks role in SXSW. People didn't use it. Twitter was THE thing. Coded real-time communication is the only thing that counts for geeks.
The use of Foursquare. We went to a party at the driskill hotel. At that time 461 people had checked in. Fucking amazing.
Productivity. I don't understand how people can produce so much during the festival.
Multi-tasking by heart. Most people communicated face to face while tweeting, check-in, updating.
Apple over Android. IPhone and Apple owned this festival and I was the only one with a Sony Ericsson device.
I met an Apple employee. He wouldn't install the Foursquare app on his phone because of the design. It was way too ugly. Steve, you did a great job!
Energy. As a newbie I was truly amazed by the level of energy. People are extremely passionate. It was contagious.
Vision is about looking into the future. Sounds obvious but isn't when looking around the brand landscape.
Nerds are rockstars in Austin.
Innovation is about doing more than telling.  

Brands should exploit and develop a brand system (apps, information etc.)

This experiment and outcome. It doesn´t take time to create great ideas and to produce them.

This guy.

More to come...

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THE NEW DORK - Entrepreneur State of Mind

My friend Soren showed me this one. Funny. 

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Ice bike #Stockholm

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