Peer to peer payments have been tried before with some success. Companies like Venmo and PayPal have been doing it for years so what is the impact of a company like Facebook entering the market? Chuck puts Facebook's move into perspective using the evolution and adoption rate of some of the other pioneering mobile payments companies and what this means for the industry as a whole.
How can NFC help sell Adidas shoes? At an OMMA conference at SXSW Jon Werner of Adidas explained the use of NFC embedded inside of their shoes and how it helps consumers find useful information before, during and after the sale. Chuck highlights the key points from his presentation here.
At the recent OMMA conference at SXSW a distinct trend emerged from the leading thinkers and practitioners of mobile tech in retail - the experience of their customers trumps the use of technology. This is welcome news as most are leading with technology and then figuring out a way for it to fit in their customer's lives. Chuck highlights what Lowe's and Alex & Ani are doing to use mobile to connect with their customers. These are great lessons as both companies are on the forefront of mobil...
Welcome to episode #226. On the show: Spayce App; Cold Savings from Mark's Work Wearhouse; Ambygear smart watch for kids; Glympse for cars; Pay with a smile from Alibaba; Ocean Outdoor partners to help bring awareness to spousal abuse; Tag Heuer says they want to launch a smart watch (but Rob doesn't believe them); Virtual Beacons from SmartFocus (and Asif doesn't believe them); OneVisage's SelfieLogin (really); Popeye's Red Stick Staredown. Full show notes can be found here ....
Welcome to episode #225. This episode was recorded the morning after RetailLoco at SXSW in Austin - the twice annual Location Based Marketing conference. Asif and Rob highlight some of the key points that emerged from the conference as well as offer their take on what this means to businesses - both retail and technology. The episode also features video vignettes from some of the delegates and speakers about their take on the event and the industry. Live from SXSW, it's RetailLoco...
A recent comScore study done on behalf of UPS dove deep into the global habits of mobile shoppers. The study surveyed over 19,000 people around the world and the main points that focused on mobile commerce are highlighted here by Chuck.
Here's a first after 561 previous episodes: I've never interviewed anyone that has replaced a startup founder within the same company. I have had a few repeat guests but they are still the guys running the show or, in some cases, running a new show. This time around that isn't the case. The company is the same but the guy running it isn't. The "guy" in question is Loren Hillberg and the company in question is Thinknear - the company previously started, run and sold to Telenav by Eli Portnoy (now...
In case you hadn't noticed, there is a serious focus these days on mobile payments. It has become, in relative terms, much easier to add payments to an app today than ever before and companies are doing just that. There are some clear leaders emerging in Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Samsung but the fight is far from over. Chuck highlights the state of mobile payments and what the future holds for the industry. Well, the near future anyway, the rest is too hard to predict....
Welcome to episode #224. We live-streamed on Meerkat so you don't have to wait for the actual edited version...On the show: Uber acquired deCarta; Subway Canada partners with Turnstyle; Amazon will print your product on delivery; Vistarmedia partners with Instantly; PayPal buys Paydiant; Roadie and Waffle House team on deliveries; AdShel drops 3000 beacons across Australia; Facesin lets you stalk your sales targets; Visa, Accenture and Pizza Hut team to order pizza from your car; Magic lets you ...
When location based marketing emerged on the radar for marketers it changed the game. Bringing contextual, localized ads to a person within proximity to the business who's ad they were staring at - and not the person 5 miles away - was revolutionary. This ushered in the world of mass one-to-one mobile marketing. Right in the middle of this revolution was Eli Portnoy. You may recognize him as the founder of Thinknear (and 4-time UNTETHER.tv guest) and he is back on the show, this time talking abo...
With all the focus on physical product sales from mobile, we should not forget the digital side of mobile sales - which is still growing at an incredible pace. Books, music, movies and apps are driving billions of dollars in mobile sales and are the gateway to more mobile commerce growth. Chuck highlights a recent eMarketer study that shows this growth.
Welcome to episode #223. On the show: Subscribe to the Cow & Quince; Drones in LA scraping cell signals; Johnnie Walker's smart label from Thinfilm; Domino's knows...what your tummy is telling you; Beam Wallet brings beacon-based payments to the UAE; Google Wallet to roll out on all carriers - thanks to Softcard acquisition; Edible wearables from Dole; Heather Shaw's Circuitry of Life; AT&T sells you your privacy; Gyroscope Innovations vies for being your life's dashboard. Full show note...
Every once in a while a company comes along that stitches a few of my favourite things together to form a cool business and this just happens to be one. What happens when you take the gym (fitness), the quantified self (data) and the Internet of Things and jam them together? Gymtrack, that's what. Lee Silverstone is the co-founder and co-CEO of this Ottawa-based startup that is approaching the whole gym tracking industry from a different angle. Instead of equipping the body with cyborg-like wear...
According to a new PWC study, almost half of us have made a purchase from our phones - that is up from 30% just 2 short years ago. The study examines how often we buy from our phones and what we actually do with them during the purchase process. Chuck summarizes the key finding in under 2 minutes here. Plus, we discuss what to do about the #1 concern from consumers about using their phones to purchase product....
Welcome to episode #222. On the show: Beijing Municipal Administration launching wearable transit passes; Samsung buys LoopPay; Smartstones touch; Branch Out launches digital detox movement; Skoda uses augmented reality to sell cars; Travel by helicopter with Gotham Air; Urgent.ly trying to be the Uber for tow trucks; FCC adopts new rules for indoor location accuracy for 911 calls; Word Map brings language origin; Mattel and Google are bringing back the Viewmaster. Full show notes can be found h...
It may seem odd that we think that mobile broke marketing but it did. Honestly. The reasons are plentiful but this is a natural occurrence in the evolution of the craft of marketing. Each new shift brings with it this type of creative destruction - think about the shifts that have occurred as we moved from print to radio to television to the web to mobile. Each step along this path has been met with a total change in the way we market - mobile is no different yet it is the most disruptive becaus...
Has retail turned a corner in the last 2 years? Have retailers been able to really understand the many threats that they are facing and begin to address them the best they can? Is software really eating retail? Why are malls getting bigger and retailers spending more money in physical space? Do they stand a chance against their digital brethren? Is retail as we know it doomed? To answer these questions - and many others - is author and retail futurist Doug Stephens (also known as the Retail Prop...
Bonnaroo has long been a destination for music lovers and musicians alike. Over 80,000 people descend in Manchester, Tennessee in early summer for 4 days to watch some of the biggest names in music. It is also a haven for the early adoption of technology that we talk about here - RFID and beacons included. While the veneer of the event holds true to a traditional music festival, the way they use the technology is a great lesson for everyone. You see, they aren't pushing product, they are enhanci...
Welcome to episode #221. On the show: ScreenPop adds messages to your lock screen; Knorr soup beacons you; ESRI launches ArcGIS Open Data website; Rockbot Anthem; Guidekick; Fans on Foot. Chuck Martin stops by to discuss Groupon getting into beacons and our special guest is RJ Talyor of Geofeedia. Full show notes can be found here ....
The privacy issue has been slowly bludgeoned to death since we first set foot on digital soil yet slowly but surely we have all given up parts of it for different reasons. The fact is that we all have a price in mind when someone asks us for our personal information - it could be a latte or a discount or a new car - there is a threshold where "no" becomes "yes" and the price is our privacy. Perhaps we have come to accept the truth that privacy as we knew it is dead but why should we accept the c...
I'm old enough to remember Marathon - one of the first (and best) multiplayer shoot 'em up games for the Mac back in the 90's. The company I was a partner at would stay late after work and even show up on weekends to play against each other. This left a lasting impression on me as I set out from that company and it is a premise that our guest, Alan Price, used as the basis for his new company, Fuel. Fuel helps bring the multiplayer to games because, as I found out all those years ago and countle...
Beacons have emerged as the hope of retailers across the land but the true mark of a lasting technology is how quickly it morphs and adapts to new industry. Chuck features the work of a beacon startup, Gelo, and how they are using beacons to help their clients in the industrial commercial markets. From trucking and bus transportation to museum tours - beacons are taking on new roles and proving to be tremendously useful beyond retail....
Welcome to episode #220. On the show: Indoo.rs partners with KLM; Factual and Metadata partner; Capital Radio + Outdoor Plus bring music to billboards in real time; Alibaba tests drone delivery; Wheely's Cafe sells modern coffee carts; Carlsberg BarBandit tap lottery; Starbucks + Match.com = Valentine's date; Sportsman Tracker is funded; Yahoo! + Flickr = Wetter; TripAdvisor buys ZeTrip; PayPal invests in Pulsate. Special guest Loren Hillberg of Thinknear on their latest Location Score Index res...
Don't get confused by the title here. We still love mobile. We still think it has changed the world we live in more than many of us realize yet. We still think we are in the soft foam of the real mobile wave that is yet to come. BUT what has happened in the last 18 months is that mobile has gotten more complex as more and more people make it a central part of their business. The reality is that doing mobile properly today is very difficult. We have systems that have been in place inside of compa...
There is a goal of good advertising: To reach the right consumer at the right time to drive action. This really hasn't changed much since the first ad was created, it has just gotten a whole lot more complex. The technology, the screens, the sheer volume of miles we travel, the options and, of course, the tools consumers use to decide and sellers use to broadcast on. Welcome to an ecosystem of choice, confusion and massive opportunity. Mobile has introduced us to interactive, contextual advertis...
Beacons have spent their short existence in the push business. They are installed on walls, API'd in apps and notifications start rolling out. Could those same beacons be used to help understand our needs more ahead of time and be triggered just when the thing we REALLY want is within reach? One company, Taonii, things so. Here's their story on how they are turning the beacon into a personal concierge....
Welcome to episode #219. On the show: Samsung moves into mobile payments; Adobe's Target and Campaign services; Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act; Drones for Good; Maponics Communities; Unacast & TCS partner; Merrell moves into virtual reality; American Express + HUSH; Facebook Place Tips; Dallas Mavericks partner with Tixsee + Adarsh Pallian of Trippeo Full show notes can be found here ....
Over 4 years have passed since Adarsh Pallian did his first episode on UNTETHER.tv. At that point, in December of 2010, he was six months into his first startup Geotoko. By the fall of 2011 he had sold his company to another startup - Hootsuite - and settled in for a couple of years of one of the wildest startup rides you can experience in Canada. Oh, by the way, he basically sold his company by text message. Today Adarsh is embarking on his latest startup, Trippeo - an automated travel expense ...
There are now 3 ways to interact with beacons today: Passive, active and requested. Chuck gives us some examples of each and helps us understand the difference between them all.
Welcome to episode #218. On the show: Microsoft HoloLens and Inconspicuous Mode; ShopX gives away 1 million beacons for free; SpaceBillboard; Bud Light's beer delivery app; Google Translate in real time; Sense360 launches and raises $2.5 million; Bluebite partners with Lamar to make LaBite; Skin & Bones from the Smithsonian; Is Google buying SoftCard?; Shazam can beacon now. Our special guest is Eli Portnoy of Sense360. Full show notes can be found here ....
