[Miscellany] Poorly placed advert, Guardian on Google Home, and reads

1. Poorly placed advert

I spotted this advert on an in-flight magazine, aboard a plane. It was from Turkey’s tourist board:

 

Sounds like a great use of old and new technology: the company grabs the customer’s attention with a high impact photo on glossy paper; then, the customer uses their phone to scan the QR code, and be transported to the advertiser’s website for a rich, interactive and, possibly, personalised experience.

 

 

Except that the advert was placed in an inflight magazine. Sure, there is limited competition for the customer’s attention, in a plane. And it’s the right type of customers. But you need Wi-Fi, if you are going to use the QR code. And there was no Wi-Fi on this one, even paid.

 

So, great idea. Poor execution.

 

2. Listening to The Guardian on Google Home

With smart speakers becoming so popular, there are more and more companies developing products for this platform. Findability on the platform is a challenge, though. For instance, if you want to listen to the daily news bulleting by the Guardian, on your Google Home, you need to use the following command: “Hey Google, talk to the Guardian Briefing.”

 

I thought that this was an interesting example of the power of smart speakers as influencers of consumer choice, and gatekeepers of brand access to consumers, as discussed by Niraj Dawar’s HBR article. After all, how many people (even faithful Guardian readers) will use (or even know about) this specific command, vs. simply asking for the news headlines, wherever Google might be drawing them from?

 

 

3. What I am reading

I got a little bit of funding to produce a short podcast series, to enhance public engagement in research, at Brunel University. The thing is, I don’t really know much about producing podcasts. The closest that I got to producing a podcast was creating a series of voice recordings for a Customer Relationship Management module that I used to teach.

 

So, I picked up this book at the library. Do you have any tips on podcasting for me? Or recommendations?

 

 

Coursework marking done. House hunting seems to be over (fingers crossed). Working on paper revisions and planning next year’s teaching for the department.

 

What does the week have in store for you?