Expanding on the idea of on-demand television in 2015, Apple opened its doors to third-party developers on the AppleTV allowing any brand the opportunity to create their own personalized TV channel. (more…)
The latest Pokémon craze is sweeping the streets and business is booming! This latest mixed reality game, “Pokémon Go,” has been sending droves of people into the real world to explore and catch virtual monsters. So why should businesses and marketers cash in to this new craze that has outperformed all social networks based on time spent? (more…)
The Starmark team congratulates FPL FiberNet who earned five top honors at the national 2016 North American Business Connectivity Service Provider Excellence Awards. The event was held Tuesday, June 21st in New York. (more…)
As marketers, it’s time we face reality and roll with the punches of Facebook’s seemingly weekly updates to its algorithms. Actually, one of Mark Zuckerberg’s mantras is “… to keep shipping code…” and he certainly lives up to that. The good news is that the experience is constantly improving for users but it’s back to school again for marketers to learn how to survive in this ever-changing world of paid media. (more…)
A prototype is a representation of a design for review before it goes into production. It allows you to understand and interact with the website or app and provide feedback at a stage where it’s relatively easy to make adjustments before full production begins. Like paper mock-up prototypes in the offline world, prototypes built for digital web and mobile properties are even more important. (more…)
Reprinted from South Florida Business Journal.
Technology is prodding marketers to connect brands with prospects more powerfully than ever before. Among the newest challenges is using what is described as virtual or augmented reality. The strength of the “impression” that can be created with virtual reality, which transports prospects to new locations as if they were there; or with augmented reality, which brings something that isn’t really there into prospects’ current environment, cannot be underestimated. And now there are early efforts to mix these two realities for even more powerful prospect experiences.
Why are marketers so excited about Facebook LIVE? It’s no secret that people everywhere love to watch video. Now, imagine watching a video and having your broadcaster speak directly to YOU and address YOUR questions or comments. With mobile device in hand, businesses wield the powerful impact of live streaming video, the ability to engage in real-time with friends and followers; all the while building relationships and reinforcing their brand! (more…)
Writing actionable SEM copy can certainly present its challenges but understanding what works and doesn’t, can make all the difference in the world when converting prospects into sales. Have you reviewed your SEM (organic and paid) content lately? Is it working? Let us help you with some tips on how to improve your search engine result pages or SERPs. (more…)
On June 9, 2016 business leaders and marketing enthusiasts gathered at the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale to hear Terry B. Jones speak on the Culture of Innovation. (more…)
There’s always something new with Instagram and this time, finally, it’s analytics that are paving the way for further insights into the user experience and providing marketers with the highly-coveted behavorial and demographic information that you’ve craved for far too long. (more…)
Virtual Reality certainly has marketers buzzing which is why it’s the perfect topic for the Starmark Innovation Lab to dive in and explore the ins and outs of its full potential. The possibilities are exciting as well as promising and we’re determined to identify the best possible marketing applications for this cutting-edge technology.
While VR can be a daunting and complex topic to discuss, seeing it in action brings clarity and helps everyone ideate about what’s possible. Similar in design to our location-based technology demonstration app, Starmark eTips, the lab needed to produce an app that could demonstrate VR in a compelling way, show what’s possible, and brainstorm practical applications for our clients.
Starting with the hardware, we acquired an Occulus DK2 and a few Google Cardboard headsets. While these are clearly at the opposite ends of the technology spectrum, they helped us understand the possibilities as well as the limitations of not only top-of–the-line gear, but what is most cost effective.
Our next challenge was to investigate how to shoot or record media in 360° VR. Because it’s all the rage right now, many cameras were on back order but we were able to get our hands on a Ricoh Theta and a HD GIROPTIC which can shoot stills and video.
Then it was time to flush out the roadmap for the new app to ensure that we demonstrate VR’s fullest potential.
We started with photography. Luckily, for the past several years, we have created several virtual tours for some of our hospitality clients. Leveraging the photography proved to be a real win-win in terms of the cost savings since we only had to re-purpose already existing content. Because we needed to demonstrate how to create a virtual tour of a property and have multiple tours in a single app, we picked up three photos each from three virtual tour apps we created. In one of the rooms, we show how to embed a normal video onto a “screen” in the room, demonstrating yet again how to re-purpose existing video assets you already own.
Now it was time to shoot 360° video with our new camera. The camera should be at the center of the action and as far as sound was concerned, we learned that you must have lapel microphones if you want to have good audio. We used a fixed location tripod, but mounting a camera on a selfie stick proved to be a great tool in walking tours. Throughout the shoot, our creative teams were on hand to learn how to stage and shoot a 360° video.
Lasty, we wanted to demonstrate a 3D rendered environment. While these are often used in games, they proved to be invaluable in product demonstrations by allowing for complete control over the environment.
Finally, we put it all together into one cohesive and commanding demonstration. Starting with our rendered environment as our “Main Menu,”, we created a “look to navigate” scheme where you only have to hover over a point for a moment. While the VR headsets do allow for “clicking,” we decided this approach was more intuitive for first-time users, especially when they may be using it without any instructions.
The Starmark VR Lab app is available in the iOS App Store. Download today to envision how you may want to include VR in your annual marketing program. If you need a Cardboard to fully experience VR, contact us and we’ll be happy to send you one!
Reprinted from South Florida Business Journal.
With 88 percent of the U.S. population and 40 percent of the global population counted this year as Internet users, the visitors to your website provide an amazing source of data on your business potential. (more…)