Tocquigny's TripCast™by Jeep®
(eyeball time: 2.5 minutes but you might read faster…or longer if you get into the cool video clip…)
the dea skinny on what’s happening:
check it out… it’s Jeep®’s first iPhone application: TripCast™, a trek-tracking, geo-social sharing utility which leverages iPhone as a mobility platform using all its bells as whistles for Jeep® branding purposes. Check the vid now… please…or else you won’t know what we are talking about below unless you are a savant or swami with powers none of the rest of us have… more below…
a lot of advertising or interactive agencies talk the trans-media talk but few know how to do it. Comes Tocquigny, an amazing austin-based full service interactive, social and mobile marketing firm. they get it on pretty much everything and are creating very innovative trans-media campaigns and solutions to enhance brands.
o.k., more on why we love this iPhone app…
1. this is what great product branding is all about
Tocquigny ‘s TripCast™by Jeep® fully leverages apple’s iPhone as a mobile entertainment platform for the Jeep® brand… Jeeps® are about adventure. but you knew that. while it is true that you can make a social statement pulling up in a tuxedo or ball gown in a Jeep® for valet parking at the next met ball in nyc, Jeeps® are more about, well, like taking an adventure trek someplace. to swipe another product’s motto: “share the fantasy!” mobility can also be about adventure, travel, maps, social networking, personal videos and photos…they all are fun and…you got this by now…so are Jeeps®!
that appears to be the general logic behind Jeep’s® TripCast™, which enables you to share and broadcast your trip, via twitter and twitpic to friends and family as a well as map your trip data in real time and listen to iTunes music. you can also store your trip for all kinds of Jeep®-like adventures which are part of the Jeep® “adventure experience” brand: kayaking, biking, and hiking. TripCast™ by Jeep® is a part of a new form of socially branded entertainment emerging in the marketplace. you don’t need a Jeep® to use TripCast™ so it is subversive the way the best advertising always is…it gets you thinking life might be more fun owning a Jeep® having an “adventure experience” parked in your driveway, available on demand . [note to don draper: that is great creative branding.] the trans-media entertainment experience is synonymous with the brand. the iPhone application features leverage the brand and the mobility concept wonderfully in an integrated way.
2. leveraging trans-media content with the mobile platform’s features
most iPhone applications are “hi! I am an application. I happen to be running on your iPhone. but that is just because i can.” true, there are thousands that leverage one or more aspects of the iPhone’s features but most don’t. Jeep’s® TripCast™ goes the extra mile using features built into the iPhone in a broad and deep way most others don’t: real time mapping, the iPhone camera, video, connectivity to facebook and twitter/twitpic, music from the iTunes store and mash ups with gowalla and foursquare’s technologies which run on the mobile platform as well.
3. showing how powerfully trans-media can work for mobile
it is sad but true that most brands simply “get on facebook” and think they are done. they don’t think about how they can leverage their brand features with the features of the platform with which they are working. the core qualities of what their brand is about…in Jeep®’s case, a mobility metaphor. obviously, Jeep® is a synergistic [sorry, bucky, we had to use that word] brand for mobility. that is what a car/truck/SUV does. it moves around places. like a mobile phone, it is the essence of mobility. Tocquigny’s creative genius was putting these concepts together and expanding the Jeep® adventure experience metaphor into “adventure entertainment tools” linking the brand with the application they built and on the technology platform where they placed it.
the stakes:
according to the latest pricewaterhousecooper’s “2010 global entertainment and media outlook,” the wired and mobile global advertising market will be $66 bb in 2010 and grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.4% over five years to $103 bb US in 2014. While not the size of exxon’s annual revenues these days, when viewed as a single segment of the worldwide advertising business, it is impressive growth, second only to video games. Anyway, nothing to sneeze at in the world of digital entertainment.
the dea takeaway:
1. brand managers and agencies
get with the trans-media program even more than you are. but don’t get all gimmicky on us with all kinds of gizmos and silly ideas. a good place to start is to think about trans-media venues, platforms and features which would lend themselves well to your advertising brand. then carefully and deliberately map your brand’s core qualities to the target market experiences you can provide and then pick the appropriate content and platforms for them the way Tocquigny did for TripCast™ by Jeep® by selecting the iPhone for a mobile application. make sure they are compelling, aligned with the brand and useful.
2. partner up
you know a lot but not everything. depending on who you are, figure out your ecosystem and do what you do best. if you are a brand manager, find a great agency who understands branding, trans-media, content and technology. if you’re an agency, find people and companies that know how to integrate facebook, foursquare, gowalla and iPhone apps together with content, video, phone and photo assets. if you’re area a content management company, find ways to create, manage and publish content easily across platforms with easy-to-use content management templates (like multiple mobile phone types from different companies, in this case). if you’re a network player, built a value-added services layer into your service architecture to allow closer integration with your mobile partners be they phone manufacturers or content providers… but nobody can do the whole mash up themselves. although it’s getting much easier…
3. the mobility opportunity and its core characteristics
think about all the ways you can leverage the fundamental qualities of the mobility experience…ask yourself some of these key zen mobility questions to get started, add to the list, then work yourself back to the pieces of your puzzle… your brand, your digital venues, your content, and the platform features you can leverage, etc. once you have locked onto some initial creative concepts…you are on your way…
mobility questions
for more information, please contact us at 512.825.6866 to discuss the issues more fully and the specific impact & implications to your business. it’s free!
thedigitalentertainmentalliance.wordpress.com 