We're a month into the New Year. So, what's in store for major brands in 2012? I have a few predictions.

No cheating on the basics

• Apple's radical simplification of the in-store experience is infusing retail environments across many industries. The use of station-free cashiers, “genius bars” and organizing retail space by activities will become the norm not only for computer and electronics outlets but also for banks, car dealerships and even apparel stores. And if they are really smart, these retailers will change the way they train and manage their employees to maximize these efficiencies.
  
  
• No longer is customer service just about processing a transaction. Today's consumers seek advisors who can help them buy the right products or services and explain how to use them. The brands that recognize the importance of having knowledgeable, professional customer service associates will build strong loyalty with their customers.

Tackling the social space

• It's a fool's errand to try to control the messages that slosh around in cyberspace — but that doesn't mean brands shouldn't be seeking ways to influence what is being said about them in the social space. Those companies that in the past participated on Twitter and Facebook, but without a clear strategy in place, aren't seeing the results. Brands must be clear, coordinated and authentic in all channels; and they can't confuse followers with engagement. Period.
  
  
• The rapid adoption of tablets and the increased capability of smartphones are changing what people do and how they do it. Consumers are becoming much more comfortable during “mobile moments,” making purchases using any kind of device and depositing checks through smartphone apps. The most successful brands will be those that are more adoptive and flexible and employ unique features that cater to the mobile environment while keeping simplicity top-of-mind.

Must-dos for marketers

• Brands are shifting into new environments and developing new personas. As a result, the brand is becoming an organization's avatar — and there will be an accelerating need for back-story development and sensory branding. What has not changed is the importance of articulating a clear and compelling story that resonates with consumers. The most successful brands will always need to think like storytellers — with a strong sense of narrative — in order to draw customers into a lifelong relationship.
  
  
• Major brands are increasingly turning to large agency networks, such as Omnicom, WPP and IPG, and asking them to cherry pick top talent across different disciplines. These brands are seeking nimble, strategic teams to help with their complex business issues. Those marketing services firms that aren't locked down by old agency paradigms and can respond in novel ways will win deeper client relationships.

After all is said and done, it will be interesting to see if 2012 meets my expectations — but I'll be ready for a fair share of unexpected moments and bolts from the blue. And you should be too.

Howard Belk is co-CEO and chief creative officer at Siegel+Gale, global strategic branding firm.

Mobile is an action-oriented medium. Mobile shoppers are moving targets, so stationary forms of traditional branded engagements need not apply. Effective mobile marketing strategies accentuate the unique strengths of the medium and must work to solve the numerous elements of variability associated with marketing in the moment.

The mastery of managing high levels of volatility will prove to be of great worth. The opportunity to engage consumers in a contextually relevant manner based on knowledge of both time and space with campaigns that provide increased interaction and social relevance is unrivaled in any other communications medium.

The variables associated with a successful mobile marketing campaign are the immediacy, mapping, interaction and collective aspects. Each variable must be planned for in order to deliver a relevant experience between brand and customer and strengthen the mutual connection.  Today's digital native consumer is empowered with more information and access to brands than ever. They are also hyper-connected to an influential social graph where tribal knowledge is constantly being shared. As such, successful marketers can no longer simply market at consumers — they must learn to market to context and, in turn, remain (or become) relevant.  The strength of the mobile medium from a marketing perspective is its ability to provide customers with contextual relevance in their engagements with brands. The margin for error in any connection is slight, so considerations must be made for each changeable element to ensure the experience is on-brand and on-point.

Immediacy variable

The mobile medium is in the moment. Unlike other communications vehicles that are stationary and heavily presentation-oriented, the mobile medium is actionable, time-sensitive, on-the-go, and always “on.” Given the limited time intervals of engagement opportunity, brands must ensure that communications are crisp and the call-to-action is clear, concise and quick to participate in.

Mapping variable

One of the primary differentiators of the mobile medium is location awareness. Engaging in a contextually relevant way assumes an entirely unique perspective through which brands can determine the location of a consumer. Brands are then able to interact with customers instantly — and with location-based relevance — through the intensely personal smart device that is always within arm's reach.

Interaction variable

Today's hyper-connected customer actively seeks out true engagement with the brands they most admire. A unidirectional, one-size-fits-all approach to marketing, from a mobile perspective, undermines the strength of the medium and fails to deliver truly interactive experiences between the brand and the consumer. Successful mobile strategies encourage customers to participate in the connection encounter with the brand.

Collective variable

Mobile marketers must learn to market within the social graphs of their consumer base. A natural byproduct of increased access to information in the hands of the digital native is shrinking levels of brand loyalty. Word of mouth is still the most effective form of marketing. Providing contextually relevant, engaging experiences with consumers compels them to share by drawing upon a very basic human need to be altruistic and communicate experiences that help others.

Marketing to the collective requires an understanding that the power of shared experiences has far-reaching implications beyond the immediate, in-the-moment interaction.

The mobile medium represents the most powerful mechanism for delivering contextually relevant consumer-brand communications as yet experienced in marketing. To take advantage of its unique capabilities, however, successful marketing strategies must evolve beyond the employment of a unidirectional approach to really communicating with customers.

The digital natives of today's hyper-connected world seek contextual relevance in their engagements with brands. Their experience is defined not only by the message itself, but the context in which the message was presented. Marketers who effectively solve the variables associated with the mobile medium will provide unique experiences for consumers, irrespective of the constraints of time or space, in ways differentiated, highly relevant and intensely personal.  Only then will they realize the power and influence of marketing in the moment.

Scott Forshay is a luxury and premium brand marketing consultant and mobile strategist at Morpheus Media, a CREATETHE GROUP Co., in Austin, Texas.

With 2011 in the rear view mirror, it's time to take stock and look ahead. If your company has been sitting on the sidelines unconvinced of the need for a social media strategy, then 2012 brings you the gift of clarity. The answer, of course, is: Yes, you need one. Your customers, your sales force and even your investors demand it. And if that doesn't convince you, just watch your competition.  So, for all you laggards and wallflowers, let's talk about getting social.

We understand if you've been a bit hesitant about diving into what appears to be an uncontrollable, unpredictable world. But this is no longer an early adopter situation. The fat part of the bell curve is here and if you're not in, you're out in the cold. But other than just jumping on another bandwagon, what are the compelling business reasons to get on board?

Forrester Research recently summed it all up neatly. What they discovered is that across all social media there are relatively few voices shaping the discussion. Typically, it's about 20% of the audience that starts discussions. Then, once the topic is set, another 20% actually get engaged. The bulk of the online population stays in the shadows, happy to soak it all in behind the anonymity of their monitors.

That's in general. But when you look specifically at many industries — take financial services, for example — the power to influence opinions is concentrated in even fewer hands. According to Forrester, when it comes to discussions about financial topics, the initial content is created by only 15% of the audience. And it gets worse: Those who jump in and discuss those topics comprise only 10% of the audience. That's less than half of other industries.

If you're in the financial services business, or another straggling industry, it's high time you made sure your voice is heard. You can talk about FINRA regulatory issues being a challenge, but they are no longer a barrier and the complexity of your business is no excuse either.

Consider for a moment the work IQ recently did for iShares designed to help make exchange traded funds (ETFs) more comprehensible. This stuff is so complex financial professionals barely understand it, let alone consumers. But social media means meeting people where they are and talking to them in a contextually relevant way. That's where this video does an excellent job, and as a result has quickly found a following — so much so that iShares even launched a contest around it on Facebook. Wait a minute, a Facebook contest about ETFs?

So here's your moment of clarity to start the New Year: Who knows more about your business, you or the emboldened faceless few? Isn't it time you were part of the conversation, so you can influence the perceptions of your customers, your sales force and your investors? If knowledge and thought leadership are key competitive differentiators in your industry, as is the case in most industries with complex value propositions, your company needs its point of view to be heard where the conversations are taking place.

Right now it's not too late for industries like financial services that have waited on the sidelines. Yes, the audience is ahead of you, but the trail has been well-blazed, which means you can leverage considerable experience to craft an intelligent, informed entry into the social media world.

But before you jump in it's important to remember that social media is not a strategy in and of itself. It is rather a communications channel and an opportunity to be heard. Certainly what you say and how you say it is always the “secret sauce” in the mix, but more on that another time.

Tony Quin is CEO of digital agency IQ.

If there's one word that best described the state of the ad industry in 2011, it was “tumultuous.” With deep agency cuts and lackluster growth, we were dealt our fair share of bad news. But tumult can be a good thing, a chance to step back, assess and reset accordingly. As the old adage goes, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, so let's reflect on the lessons learned and take a look forward at what the future holds.

Kick the click
We've relied on the click for far too long and it's about time we saw it for what it is: a clunky, vague metric that provides often meaningless data. The click is hardly the most accurate way to measure user engagement within a display advertisement, yet we're still relying on click-through rates (CTR) to inform our media buys. Hovers, scrolls and video plays are far better measures of how well an ad is resonating with users. They are also much more telling indicators of how an ad will translate to key actions like tickets sold, new users or new fans.

In 2012, I think we'll begin to see more of an emerging class of app-like ads that incorporate rich functionality into the units themselves, providing unique metrics and engagement data. The third-party components that comprise these ads — movie lookup or ticket purchase, flight search or even live chat with a brand representative — will revolutionize display data, bringing highly attuned, accurate and actionable information to brand marketers. Being able to track and report on these metrics leads marketers to insights far beyond what they can garner from CTR or even more sensitive metrics like video plays and Facebook likes.

As ads begin to behave more like apps through the addition of these third-party components, marketers and publishers alike can gain new insights and greater value. For brands, these metrics show when high-value actions have taken place and more reliably demonstrate purchase intent. For publishers, higher cost-per-impression is ultimately gained by showing that this new class of ads brings brands more valuable user engagement.

Stay on your toes
By tuning into current trends and using the tools you have at your disposal to engage with your customers right now, your message will resonate far beyond that of the average display ad. In 2012, agility is key. In order to launch and thrive, businesses — from large corporations down to one-man-show startups — will begin ramping up their ability to quickly strategize, experiment, assess circumstances and make snap decisions in real-time when needed. The content you're putting out, the speed by which it reaches your customers and its relevance to the market matters more than you think.

In our tweet-happy, Facebook-friendly world where consumers get what they want before they even know they want it, speed matters and relevance equals resonance. Agility lets you reach your customers with your message when it's most valuable, thus making it more impactful and allowing it to stick longer. For example, think of an investment firm that switches up its campaign to include ads focusing on investing for the long-term when the market takes a wild swing or a snowboard manufacturer that promotes its custom boards after an unusually early first snowfall.

Agility will let us get creative, think quickly and “ship” ideas 24/7. Instead of kicking back after a campaign goes live and waiting for the results to roll in, we'll immediately begin tuning in, taking note of what works and tweaking what doesn't. By plugging into content that your customer cares about and constantly taking into consideration current events that will help you meet your customers' needs, there are no more excuses for campaigns that aren't speaking to your target audience.

Take little risks — and lots of ‘em
Taking calculated risks will help brands achieve success, faster. The agility I mentioned before lets you make small adjustments and introduce new ideas in real time. Take, for instance, a social media manager for a cleaning brand tweeting different content until she finds what her audience likes — one day it's tips and tricks, the next, celebrities whose images need a good scrub. Making constant tweaks gives you real-time insight into what messages stick so you can quickly discern the best ways to reach your customers.

Making smart decisions and swapping out the traditional banner ad for one with dynamic, rich components will also capture your audience's attention far more consistently than the average banner ad. And if something's not working — perhaps those uninspired tweets with company news aren't gaining much traction — then get rid of it. Using an agile model will let you swap out the tweets with a new contest or video. Substitute those in and see if they stick. If not, it's back to the drawing board.

In 2011, we saw campaigns taking weeks, sometimes months to get with it. That's not going to fly in the year ahead.

With new metrics, experimental models and a fresh mindset, we're about to see a major shift in the way online advertisers engage with their audiences. The industry has the tools to upend the way the ad world goes around, and 2012 is the year it's going to happen.

Will Price is CEO of ad tech startup Flite.

Through the years, I have worked on many lead generation programs at Jacobs Agency, but I did not grow up in a direct agency, nor does Jacobs Agency purport to “be” a specialized direct agency. However, I think this has worked to our advantage, particularly when we look at solving lead generation and prospect nurturing challenges for our clients. We approach each lead generation effort asking, “How do we connect with the target emotionally, relevantly and with impact? How can we push mailing formats within the client's budget to improve open rates? How can the format reinforce our message or idea? And finally, how can we ask for that meeting or sale through an engaging and relevant incentive?”

Incentives are often the lesser concern when developing a direct marketing campaign, but can help companies make headway in getting in front of prospects. For years, it seemed that direct agencies were singlehandedly pushing Apple products into the market, first with the iPod, then the iPhone, iTouch and now the iPad. But if you want to break through, how can you do that if everyone is offering the latest iPad? The end result is to get your message to resonate with your target.

Something to consider first: Does the incentive fit relevantly with your message? If competitors are offering the same thing, will your message and offer break through? Some direct campaigns are successful because they are creative and relevant without even offering an incentive.

If you do offer an incentive, aligning that incentive with strategy and creative is vital. Often it can be a breakthrough or help round out the main message you are trying to deliver. It may be the last thing that pushes for the desired action. For instance, when developing a direct mail piece for an HR outsourcing firm trying to recruit from the Silicon Valley, we developed a piece that included a hand-crank cell phone charger. This was not only hip and green and resonated with the tech company recipients, but it also reinforced the idea behind the direct mail campaign. We wanted to communicate that what really powers technology is “people power” and that our client could help create the right employee benefits program to compel those people.

Trendy gadgets do work well, but if used, they need to fit with the strategy behind the direct marketing effort. Incentives for the sake of incentives are just clutter. When developing a high performance server campaign targeting the oil and gas vertical, we recommended our client offer an outdoor GPS alongside messaging urging recipients to find oil faster using a new server solution. The GPS device fit with the campaign as an incentive to “explore” technology options by requesting a meeting. We have also used noise-canceling headphones as an incentive for a national cable company to demonstrate that amidst all the problems and issues an organization faces, they are available to listen and offer solutions to these problems.

Finally, sometimes budgets are better put towards “skin in the game” or decision-making tools for the prospect. Thought leadership content such as white papers and webinars, online tools, apps or a complimentary consultant's assessment are more relevant, effective and useful. This approach establishes a brand as a partner and thought leader. By providing insightful information, brands can lead a target audience towards a sale.

Incentives can be an important part of a lead generation effort — however, it's important to determine whether the latest gadget, or perhaps a thoughtful white paper, will be the most relevant and effective means of communication to encourage a prospect to take action. Apply creative juices towards that piece of the puzzle and you will have a campaign that not only breaks through the cluttered communications landscape but will also further engagement.

Flora Caputo is VP, executive creative director at Jacobs Agency in Chicago.

In copywriting, as in Scrabble, some words are worth more than others.

Whether you're writing an email, banner ad, print ad, letter, postcard, art card, radio spot, brochure or tweet, the words you choose can make all the difference.

Some words have the scientifically documented power to attract the human eye; others, the tested power to lift sales. Others still have the proven ability to make what you're writing appear to be more truthful.

You can imagine the impact this can have on response rates and return on investment.

Consider these examples:

• Robert Levine, in his book “The Power of Persuasion,” cites certain studies that demonstrate how the words “easy,” “quick” and “improved” can all increase product sales. Think about whether any of them can be attributed to your product or service.

• Dan Ariely, author of “Predictably Irrational,” devotes an entire chapter to the pulling power of the word “free” — an age-old favorite among direct marketers.  Ariely says: “‘Free' gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuable than it really is.” People, concludes Ariely, find the word to be “irresistible,” and so they act.

• Two University of Georgia professors, Velma Zahirovic-Herbert and Swarn Chatterjee, studied the effect of street names on house prices and found that any street with the word “country” in it adds 4.2% to the value of the house. Those with “country club” in their names add an additional 5.1%. This is with all other factors, for example, community amenities, being equal. People will actually pay more for a house that simply sounds as if it's in a prestigious location. This is good insight into how people behave, especially if you happen to be naming a product or service.

• Numerous eye-tracking studies show that the human eye naturally goes to words promising news — words such as “introducing,” “announcing,” “new” and “now.” I call them “eye magnet words” because of their ability to attract readership, and I always try to use them in prominent pieces of real estate such as subject lines or envelope teasers to draw the reader in.

• Social scientists have found that losses can be twice as psychologically powerful as gains. Put another way, avoiding pain can be a more powerful motivator than achieving pleasure. So, how can this affect your word choice? You'll get more response advising someone “don't miss” rather than telling them to “take advantage.”

• In his book “Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive,” Dr. Robert Cialdini writes about an infomercial copywriter named Colleen Szot. Szot changed her spot's traditional call to action from “Operators are waiting, please call now” to “If operators are busy, please call again.” This three-word change, according to Cialdini, caused sales to “skyrocket.” Why? The inference is that many people are already calling, which leads viewers to feel like they don't want to be the ones to miss out on a hot product.

• Matthew McGlone, a University of Texas psychologist, conducted research showing that phrases that rhyme are actually judged more accurate and truthful than non-rhyming phrases that convey the same information. Think about the implication this has for taglines like “Nationwide is on your side” and “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” Think about the implication it can have for your company.

The truth is, all words are not created equal, and as a direct marketer you can give yourself a definite advantage when you select certain ones. Remember, when you want to increase readership and response, it's not enough to say what you need to say. Whether it's attention or dollars you're after, you have to say it in the way that makes them pay. How's that for a rhyming phrase, Mr. McGlone?

Nancy Harhut is chief creative officer at Wilde Agency.

I hope you don't need me to tell you how important the idea is in marketing these days. When everyone has the same list, the same boring offers, comparable infrastructure and wide array of media choices, it's the creative idea that differentiates – the single idea which reflects the brand's point of view and connects with the customers to provoke a perceptual and behavioral change to solve a problem. Ideas resonate with people. Ideas make brands and clients famous.

But I'd be quite negligent to leave out that the actual craft of the creative – the design, the copy and the user experience – matters too. In fact, in most award shows, we advise jurors to judge both the brilliance of the idea and the quality of the execution. The distinction is worthy since very often a great idea can have a crummy design or a failed headline. Similarly, a lovely execution can sometimes be devoid of a compelling idea behind it.

One often forgotten aspect of execution worth pointing out is nuance. Nuance means getting the execution ”just right” so as to match the target and the ambition of the idea, as well as fit the category. Food creative, for example, must have appetite appeal, luxury goods have to sound premium, and messaging targeted at nervous new moms should reassure. Authenticity works. The customer has to believe you know what you're talking about.

I learned the importance of nuance early in my career. As a young copywriter, after two failed attempts writing ads for Fleishmann's Egg Beaters, my first boss Dennis Ferrone realized I'd never cooked a day in my life. Naturally, my food copy stank. So, to pick up the nuance of how to talk about food, he sent me out to buy as many cookbooks as I could carry home and read them all before attempting a rewrite of the ads.

A night combing through hundreds of recipes did the trick and I sat down to successfully write my first print ads. In the 20 years since, I've been able to romance food, cars, clothes, cosmetics, industrial supplies, pet supplies, technology and even complicated financial products with nuance. To this day, I appreciate that instead of taking the assignment away from me, Dennis instead taught me “how to fish.”

Nowhere does the need for nuance become more apparent than when you're recording audio for radio or podcasts. As a copywriter for AT&T's regional campaigns in the early '90s, I had to help a big national brand seem as local as the-then Baby Bells. My scripts had to reflect the local diction of West Virginia, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Kentucky and 10 other states that this nice Jewish boy from suburban New Jersey had never been to. Just as importantly, the actress's voice had to really sound like someone from there.

In the first recording session for West Virginia, everything we tried sounded phony. In a moment of spontaneous clarity, I dialed up the Wheeling Public Library and, on speaker phone, had a conversation with the friendly librarian until the actress nodded that she “got it” and I had it too. The technique worked so well, we repeated it for the next six months as we rolled out the campaign across the country. We called libraries, town halls, schools and hardware stores, trying for off-hours when they wouldn't be too busy to make chit-chat with a curious New Yorker.

For some products and services, obviously, one has to be more sophisticated. Assigned to Cisco Systems as creative director, I bought a copy of “Networking for Dummies,” but it was conversations with actual engineers and Forrester Research analysts that really helped me “get” the language to use. Don't tell the account executive or planner who stays up all night writing the creative brief, but I find the right material usually isn't in the brief but in the mouths and minds of the real people inside the company and industry. Listen closely, and you'll pick it up.

In marketing, as so many of us move from brand to brand, we have to admit we are subject matter dilettantes. But that doesn't mean we can afford to be lightweights.

Mat Zucker is a member of the John Caples International Awards Executive Board.

As the steam rises from your Monday morning coffee, you eagerly sit at the computer to start the week – until you open the weekend's latest revenue report and the cold sweat begins. Sales are down to projections, the CEO is on line two and you need to deliver answers, quick. Forecasts were revised just one week ago; all indicators pointed upwards then, so what went wrong? How can the adeptly created models falter yet again?

It is no longer good enough to respond to our consumers' behaviors. We need to have the ability to predict them. We have become a reactive society in our marketing efforts, chasing after customer behaviors like mice after a hunk of cheese. I am not debating the indispensable value of core strategies which Arthur Hughes taught us through the fundamentals of recency, frequency and monetary value. These tools have served us well and we will continue to utilize them as the foundation of our marketing practices. That said my contention is that, as next generation marketers, we need to augment our marketing capabilities with new competencies to improve performance.

How we will accomplish this challenge is no small feat and will be a continuous learning process. As we know, past performance is the best predictor of future behavior. Consequently, building in a process to iteratively learn from our customers' choices, similar to Apple's Genius Bar or Amazon.com's search, will enable you to provide more customized offers to the individual customer. 

Other strategies include cluster and conjoint analyses, as well as enhanced segmentation. Digging deeper into a customer's profitability will permit you to make more informed reinvestment decisions in each individual customer, rather than solely measuring revenue. The more data points in your arsenal regarding buying behaviors, profit-per-visit and customer profiling data will better prepare you to develop more accurate forecasts.

One key piece of data that is often neglected is satisfaction surveys. Customer comments are often viewed as “soft” and thus routed to the obligatory service department where they are addressed in isolation. These sentiments need to be woven into the fabric of each department to raise awareness about how their efforts are being perceived. It is essential that we keep our fingers on the pulse of consumer sentiments by listening to their feedback via formal surveys as well as social media. Looking for patterns in customer comments both positive and negative will unlock revelations to enhance your customers' experiences and buying behaviors.

By applying enhanced data strategies, you will be able to provide the appropriate offers to the precise customers at the right moment. These efforts will enable your organization to better forecast demand by anticipating customers' next steps and optimize marketing spend so as to ultimately become a more profitable business.

Jeffrey Boorjian is VP of marketing at Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas.

NFC technology has arrived. NFC, or near field communication, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange and wireless connections between two mobile devices in close proximity to each other, usually by no more than 10 centimeters or so.

It's being lauded as the great enabler of mobile payments, but there are some important considerations for both the consumer and companies looking into this technology as part of the future of their payment processing strategy.

There is a great deal of discussion going on right now on the subject of NFC, mobile wallets and the potential applications for sales, service and marketing.

Security and permission concerns. Security is a prime concern for the consumer and clearly needs to be resolved and communicated to ensure uptake.

The very nature of NFC necessitates close proximity between the mobile device and the reader, which some say means there is likely to be less risk of a security breach because there is the potential for two levels of security that will protect the consumer: the passcode to get in and then a pin code when paying. Therefore, NFC has the potential to be twice as secure as using conventional credit cards or Interac. In addition to that, the problem of cloning cards is removed and some companies are looking at integrating biometrics.

Communicating this and gaining confidence is a main enabler for consumer adoption, so check out these useful security references:

• Mobile wallet, NFC and security
• Google Wallet and NFC security: guarding against 'sharks with lasers'
• NFC phones to get biometric security support

Consumer adoption. Both mobile providers and device manufacturers see consumer adoption as an important part of their product strategy. AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA are all involved in ISIS, a national mobile commerce network that aims to transform how people shop, pay and save. Device manufacturers are also getting ready. Google launched the "Google Wallet," Nokia stated that all new smartphones launched in 2011 will have NFC and Samsung is planning a large-scale rollout at the London 2012 Olympics.

In-Stat, an NFC chip manufacturer, predicts 1.2 billion NFC chips will be shipped by 2015, which translates into 30% global penetration, supporting a user base of more than 375 million people. This means we are on the way there. However, getting consumers to uptake a new way of paying for goods still needs a change in perception.

Introducing NFC with a big splash and then expecting instant adoption is unlikely. We are already on the way to seeing how it can be used and gateway solutions will introduce the idea of paying using the phone to help drive positive perceptions towards using this method when NFC is more widely available in both the mobile base and stores.

Use for sales, service and marketing. We know that mobile wallet technology will help consumers pay for goods and services easily and that sales, service and marketing functions can use it as a mechanism for driving better in-store consumer relationships and advocacy.

Line-ups, payments and pithy small talk with cashiers will eventually be replaced with in-store staff acting as guides who will be akin more to marketing and service representatives than sales people.

Mobile payments will be preceded by easy access to product information, recommendations for related products, coupons, messages and other offers when the consumer is in-store, enabled by both scanning the mobile device over NFC-enabled information tags and geofencing. This leads to an immersive retail environment where brands can engage and inspire consumers based on their interests, preferences and in-store actions. The logical result? Increased revenues and loyalty. When you can link consumer preferences and in-store behavior, the net effect will be greater.

Brand and retailer collaboration and planning will be key, as will the development of mobile applications that use NFC-reading capabilities.

Some brands, like Starbucks and Swisscom are already in on the game, and other brands are also starting to create more immersive environments to engage consumers using mobile. Even the recent "X-Men" movie was advertised in the U.K. using NFC – the first campaign of its kind in Europe.

Time to get moving. NFC is coming, and with that mobile wallets will soon become the norm – but only looking to mobile technology and NFC as ways to achieve that is shortsighted. We need to start planning for consumer engagement through devices to drive people towards payment, advocacy and loyalty.

Start thinking about how this technology can augment your current sales, service and marketing programs and, once adoption is on the way and consumer confidence is good, start planning some simple pilot activities. Welcome to the new world of engagement.

Nikolas Badminton is Tribal DDB Canada's director of digital strategy.

Great direct marketing creative offers any company a real competitive advantage, especially because so few firms are doing a truly good job. One reason for the lack of high-performing creative is a reliance on newly minted “online experts” for integration of digital into a marketing strategy. The Web has a lot of guidance in both direct marketing strategy and the integration of online channels, but some amazing resources are mixed with many that should be avoided. The real trick, of course, is being able to discern which information to trust. As a starting point, I'd like to dispel three of the biggest myths out there. 

Myth #1: Direct marketing is dead

With the advent of every new communication medium, there has been an overwhelming rallying cry to reinvent the rules. Direct marketing experienced this first with radio and TV, and is now revisiting it with online, mobile and social. But what's really going on is not a revolution, but rather an evolution.

Detractors will say that online/mobile/social has nothing to do with the “advertising of the past” and that today's savvy consumers will reject anything that even resembles traditional advertising. The reality, however, is that consumers are consumers. Their willingness to purchase hasn't changed. They'll still fill out a form, click a link or even make a phone call with the proper motivation – and the key to direct marketing creative has always been to find the source of that motivation.

Myth #2: Direct marketing creative starts with the designer

There was a time when copy drove direct response creative and copywriters often led and directed creative teams. The reasoning was that while a designer would approach a creative goal by envisioning the visual aesthetic needed to attain a goal, a copywriter would start by envisioning what was necessary, in terms of design and copy, to form an attachment with the user.

But the advent of online direct marketing has skewed the creative dynamic toward the designer. Now it is often user interface and user experience designers leading creative teams, tasked with unveiling the perfect means of connecting with the user. But the reality is that the emotional connection with the user (the hallmark of direct marketing) is often being overlooked.

Of course there has been a large move toward creating “personas,” which detail just who a company's target users are and what they are motivated by. But knowing everything about a person is very different from knowing how to compel that person to act, and that is what copywriters do best. The moral here is to recognize that your experienced copywriters are valuable members of your creative team, and that successful direct marketing creative is built on knowing how to connect with the user.

Myth #3: Senior management always knows best

There are many executives who are absolutely brilliant in their roles, but who don't understand creative. This often doesn't stop them, however, from dictating what creative should be and hiring a creative team whose sole purpose is to bring their “visions” to light. Valuable creative resources can be wasted as a result. If you're an executive and your team is pleading with you to try something that you don't agree with, it's important to be open to testing the ideas. And keep testing. That's what direct marketing creative is all about.