Anuj Agrawal

My Posts on TechCocktail

 

 

 

When I first started this blog, it was a great place for me to throw out my perspectives on mobile and the tech world in general. But then I realized, it would be great if this site had an audience who could actually read this stuff.  So I went out and started contributing to TechCocktail, a popular tech blog based in the DC area.  TechCocktail is one of the most comprehensive outlets about startups and entrepreneurship across the country.  My posts tend to have a bend on the product choices and strategy of the companies that I write about, both startup and Fortune 500.  Below is a running list of my contributions to the blog:

11/22/2011 - App Review: Unleashing Your "Creativity"
10/6/2011 - The Apple iPhone Strategy: We've Seen This Before (picked up by Techmeme)
9/15/2011 - 9 Startups Created at Startup Weekend Delaware
9/1/2011 - ZipTip's Mobile Payment App Acknowledges Great Service
8/26/2011 - Jumio Update: Targeting Bloggers
8/12/2011 - 3 Ways to Survivie App Fatigue
8/4/2011 - Jumio: Processing Credit Cards Through Webcams
7/19/2011 - Goshi: The Location-Based Marketplace
7/5/2011 - MoviePass Launch Fizzles Out
6/24/2011 - "Shazam"ing Interactive Content on TVs
6/9/2011 - Food for Thought: Analyzing the Pizza Industry for Startup Ideas
5/27/2011 - Apple: Eating Their Own Dogfood
5/19/2011 - The Chicken and Egg of 3DTVs
5/5/2011 - Is the Battle for the Living Room Becoming Over-Rated?
4/21/2011 - Kindle Library: Driving Mass Market Customer Adoption
4/14/2011 - Newspaper Digital Paywalls: A Test of Consumer Loyalty
4/7/2011 - Mobile Payment Apps: A Starbucks Case Study
3/25/2011 - Keeping the Madness In Your Pocket With Live Mobile Streaming

"Checking In" On Location-Based Marketing

So wouldn't it be cool if you could walk by a Starbucks and get a mobile coupon?  Haha, just kidding.  If you've been in the mobile space for a while, you know that has been the promise of location-based applications for nearly a decade.  While mobile coupons are starting to appear, they aren't quite making the splash that has been promised since data started being delivered to the phone.  But leave it to social networking to get things cranking around location-based services that are actually compelling, consumer friendly, and have real potential to be a serious marketing tool for businesses.  

With social networking becoming mainstream over the last few years, location-based services are gathering the most traction through social networking tools like Foursquare, Gowalla, and MyTown.  My early experiences with these services provide a sneak peek into how they have the potential to transform the loyalty program landscape.  Before, other than standard reward cards almost every establishment offers, McDonald's Monopoly game was one of the more inventive and fun loyalty programs.  But with restaurants beginning to offer discounts, no wait times, and even free vacations (Moby Dick's in the DC area had this running recently) for their Foursquare "Mayor", people are again incented to visit establishments to gather badges and mayorships to show off to their friends.  I must say I myself have been caught up in this when I see an establishment offering up freebies to frequent, um, checker-inners.  

The Changing Landscape Of Online Video - What's Next?

With Hulu’s pending launch of their premium service, let’s take a step back and theorize how the video content industry is changing.  It is incredibly hard to get people to start paying for something that was previously free.  While Hulu’s idea is to provide access to older episodes as part of the premium model, they are still asking people to pay to consume video online.  In my view, the only way you can charge for content is to have access to some type of exclusive content that is not available on every other video aggregation site.  Rather than trying to change consumer behavior to pay for online content, the more likely structural change will need to be on the advertising side of the equation, since consumers are already used to seeing ads. 

Right now consumers create value in 2 ways: they pay a cable/satellite TV bill (the access fee), and they view ads. Online, they pay no access fees for video, and they significantly fewer ad spots. So of course more people are moving online, it’s basic consumer behavior!  However, as this deteriorates the industry’s value, the structure of the business will need to change.  Think about the value chain players:  content creators, providers, distributors, and consumers.  Providers ultimately get paid for ads, but those ads need to be seen by people, thus, the newfound power of the cable distributors to command higher fees from the networks.  While there is a shift in consumer usage from the TV to a variety of online devices (PCs, gaming consoles, mobile devices), at some point content creators need to continue to be paid to actually be incented to create the content.  But if people continue to cut their cable cords and too much value is taken out of the traditional distribution model, more expensive or higher volume advertising inventory will need to be created within online video streams.

Social Matchbox DC Spring 2010 - Recap

Earlier this week in DC was the Spring installment of Social Matchbox, an event that brings together promising startups in the community to present their business ideas, seek funding, and gather feedback from a crowd of passionate digital media fans.  It was an impressive roster of presenting companies with a heavy emphasis on consumer facing concepts.  I fully expect at least a few of these companies to get funding.  In particular, here are the ones who stood out:

 

 

Love this concept.  I walk around with CVS, Barnes & Noble, and grocery store loyalty cards in my wallet, and each time I visit these places, I need to empty out my entire wallet to reach them.  CardStar takes the hassle out of managing each card and makes the card available on your phone by re-creating the bar code associated with the card.  The best part is that beyond the simple convenience factor, this allows retailers to push down special, personalized deals to your phone.  This app is going to make my wallet seriously thinner...literally. 

 

Shopflick: Personalizing Online Selling

There is a new service out called Shopflick, that allows online sellers to augment their item with a video ad.  After poking around the site, I find it to be a fresh and entertaining way to engage buyers in the online shopping experience.  Many of us have either bought or sold things on eBay and see the same stock product description and image that everyone else posting the same item has used.  Now, video will be able to provide much more differentiated information on the product and allow a stronger connection to be formed between the buyer and seller.

Shopflick: Get Mini Smart Cars yourself!
See more of ShopflickTV Features on Shopflick!