Top 10 Trends Predictions for 2011

Top 10 Trends Predictions for 2011
December 2010

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Table of Contents
Section 01: Mobile Payment for All
Section 02: The Rise of Hands-Free Feedback
Section 03: App Based Hardware Domination
Section 04: Signing in to Your TV
Section 05: Our Heads in the Clouds
Section 06: A Content Crossroads
Section 07: Independence Day for Brands
Section 08: The Social Message is the Medium
Section 09: The Search for Mobile is On
Section 10: Let’s Get Physical
About Moxie

2 Table of Contents

Executive Summary
2010 was a year of accelerated change in technology, entertainment, gaming, business, marketing
and social connectivity. The confluence of smart phone adoption, digital video consumption,
tablet computing and connected devices combined with the launch of the 4G wireless network laid
the foundation for innovation to kick into higher gear in 2011. We conferred with industry experts
and influential business leaders shaping these changes and posed one simple question to them:
“What will be the biggest trend in 2011?” Their opinions and our predictions shaped what we
believe will be the top 10 trends to look for next year.

3 About Moxie

Mobile Payment for All
Section 01

4 Section 01: Mobile Payment for All

M-commerce has been a trend on the horizon for
many years now, just as the last five years have
been deemed “the year of mobile advertising.”

We have been patiently awaiting our cell phones to replace our credit cards,
just as they replaced family pictures in our wallets. In 2010, established players
such as PayPal introduced mobile commerce apps both on smart phones and in
retail environments. 2011 will continue this trend. However, advances in Near
Field Communication and an onslaught of other software-based mobile
solutions will bring the mobile wallet to the masses. Your mobile phone will
enable you to split a bill for a dinner with your friends or pay for that new pair
of jeans in your local mall.


PayPal has paved the way for future mobile commerce developments slated to
be seen in 2011 with such developments as the release of its Mobile Express
Checkout system. This two-click payment system has been integrated into the
apps of such partners as Starbucks. The coffee giant integrated this
functionality to allow customers to reload their Starbucks loyalty cards from
within its existing app.

PayPal is also integrating mobile payment solutions in the retail space. PayPal
Labs in Japan has created a vending machine experiment that lets users scan an
attached QR code with a smart phone, then users can pay for the goods with
funds in their PayPal accounts. The vending machine then tweets the purchase
as a confirmation. Similarly, eBay’s RedLaser mobile app allows users to scan
items in-store to discover lower prices or further information.


Another rising form of m-commerce is Near Field
Communication, or contactless payment.

Making NFC technology possible has been a struggle thus far due to lack of
infrastructure, but will continue to mature in the coming year. National phone
payment network Isis will be a major player in making this speculation come to
fruition. The network includes partners such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-
Mobile and could potentially reach the wireless carriers' combined customer
base of 200 million U.S. customers. When these consumers are enabled with
NFC-capable devices such as Google’s latest flagship smart phone, the Nexus S,
we will see this technology take off, becoming an established payment method.


We will also see more small businesses using
mobile solutions such as the “Swipe It Reader” for
the iPhone to collect payments.

This could eventually trickle down from small business integration to personal
payments as well. According to Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, “there is a good
chance that you will pay your babysitter on next year's New Year's Eve using a
credit card. Many more people will be able to accept credit card payments
using their mobile phones.”


Implications for Brands
With the development and expansion of these existing and emerging
technologies, consumers will have the ability to purchase goods and services
with fewer obstacles and will have a higher level of control over the way they
make these purchases.. This will stimulate e-commerce, m-commerce and in-
store sales. The innovative payment options available in 2011 will foster not
only positive public relations for large corporations and start-ups but will also
provide a way for consumers to select their merchants of choice based on ease
of purchase.


“There is a good chance that you will pay your
babysitter on next year's New Year's Eve using a
credit card. Many more people will be able to
accept credit card payments using their mobile
phones.”
Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter


The Rise of Hands-Free Feedback
Section 02

11 Section 02: The Rise of Hands-Free Feedback

Location services on smart phones have shown
the power of data to open up new services to
consumers.
In 2011, new services will leverage data from the smart phone, like the
accelerometer for tracking physical activity. The Tasker app for Android is an
example of how location can be used to automate a phone’s behavior:
switching to silent when in a meeting, hands-free when driving in a car, and
other automated and location-driven settings. Feedback on user health,
purchasing patterns and even the environment will give businesses the data
needed to further solidify the smart phone’s position as the Swiss Army Knife
of information.


For years, people have been promoting a vision of
the world where upon walking into a location you
are instantly delivered deals and promotions.

That vision is alive today, brought to us by geo-fencing services from
companies like Location Labs and Placecast, which place a digital “fence”
around a location allowing the service to push promotions to smart phones
that enter the area. Some users may be turned off to the idea of instant alerts
that turn their smart phones into mobile pop-up ads. However, a major driver
in location-based service adoption has been mobile couponing. According to
eMarketer, 32 percent of U.S. Internet users are open to accepting automation
for coupons, showing resistance to geo-fencing may be lower than anticipated.


Thinking beyond couponing and location, new
possibilities for mobile feedback loops will
emerge in 2011.

The declining cost of wireless sensors combined with high-speed mobile data
through 4G and WiMAX will encourage more industries to get involved in
mobile. This will introduce devices other than phones and computers that
deliver new services by sheer virtue of linking a sensor to a wireless
connection.

Linking bio-feedback to mobile devices for remote health and fitness
applications will become more widespread and will give users more insight into
their health and the impact of their decisions. The FitBit is a great example of
how an unobtrusive, connected device could change lives. The simple device is
clipped anywhere on a user, such as in a pocket or on a belt loop, and then uses
a simple accelerometer to track physical activity throughout the day. It also
contains WiFi, so this accelerometer data is automatically uploaded to FitBit’s
services to provide real-time feedback on number of steps taken through the
day, length and quality of sleep, and more.


Automated and data-driven services are in a very early stage of development but have
the potential to revolutionize many areas of daily life. The last 10 years were the
decade of social feedback; the next 10 will be the decade of automated data
collection.

The rising sea of sensors is creating a deep well of audience information that
marketers will use to find and connect with their ideal consumers. Additionally,
the interfaces and consumer-facing feedback delivery systems could spawn a
new breed of media placements that are tied to personalized information.


“Next generation services will be made possible
by smart phone-powered feedback
loops. Restaurant reviews and real-time traffic
visibility have been but the opening acts, but auto
detection and user free input will begin an era of
extremely rapid – and high impact – innovation in
the areas of health sciences, commerce,
communications and more. “

Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu


App Based Hardware Domination
Section 03

17 Section 03: App Based Hardware Domination

300,000 apps in the Apple app store.
100,000 apps in the Android Market.
Blackberry App World has 10,000 apps.

In 2011, users will find themselves in a constantly expanding market of mobile
apps that promise to improve their lives through productivity or
entertainment. Experienced smart phone users will be looking for intuitive
apps to extend into other parts of their lives. Major consumer electronic
manufacturers like Ford and Samsung have already considered this shift in user
experience and have begun development on app-enabled products.


The current mobile phone app user is younger,
more educated and more affluent than the
average mobile phone user.
--Pew Internet Survey - September of 2010.

On average, these users have 18 apps that are both free and paid for, the most
popular being games, news/weather, maps/navigation, social networking and
music. Samsung’s “Free the TV Challenge,” where contestants create an app
for use on specialized Samsung TVs and Blu-ray devices, targets these users and
their app-centric expectations. Applications created for this contest include
We-draw, a “Pictionary-esque” game that uses your mobile phone as the
remote, and Guroo TV, which creates a list of the shows most talked about on
Twitter and other social media platforms.


Web browser apps are another area of growth.

Google launched its Chrome Web Store, which houses over 500 applications, in
December, 2010. Partnerships worth noting include Gilt Group, a group
discount membership network, and NPR, where custom views of information
offer a tablet-like experience on your PC. Google’s move to provide apps for
Chrome users further shows that people will be expecting intuitive, specific
experiences not only on mobile devices but on their PCs as well.


The app world has also started to infiltrate the
automotive industry.

Carbonga is a mobile app that tells drivers why the “check engine” light has
come on and is available to any person with an app-enabled device. However,
car manufacturers are seeing this area as a way to differentiate their products
from competitors’ and are building apps directly into their vehicles. Ford is
leading the charge. Their Sync Applink system offers a Web connection and
open platform in their cars, extending the services and value they provide their
customers.


2011 will be the year when apps move beyond the smart phone and tablet into a wider
range of consumer electronics.

Consumer excitement for apps has gotten the attention of developers, and we will
see this enthusiasm lead to app development for as many products as possible.
The development of applications that are optimized for these new environments
will open up new opportunities to reach end users. The companies that are slow to
embrace the app culture will be left behind.

Brands will need to keep in mind that any app they produce, no matter the
channel, needs to be inexpensive, easily accessed and light on the processor load.
Customers won’t take well to brands who kill their battery on a regular basis, no
matter how useful the app. In addition, brands should consider that apps will
break free from mobile phones and tablets and will be more commonly integrated
into such things as refrigerators and cars.


“Consumer usage of smart phone apps will hijack
the development strategy for consumer
electronics and cars. Apps are taking over the
user experience – both as controllers and user
interfaces – of how people interact with and
consume content. Consumer electronic devices
and cars have no choice but to base their strategy
on coping with that phenomenon.”
-Tim Westergren, Founder & CEO of Pandora


Signing in to Your TV
Section 04

24 Section 04: Signing in to Your TV

Family viewing will no longer be the gatekeeper
to television audience measurement as the line
between television and the Internet continues to
blur in 2011.

Cordcutting – consumers abandoning traditional TV access in favor of Internet
alternatives – is now an option that Americans are taking more seriously as
home theater PCs, game consoles, and new Internet TV initiatives like Boxee
and Google TV make it easier for users to access online content from their
sofas.


The foundation of this shift is the appearance of
connected TVs in consumer homes.

Nearly 28 million connected TVs were shipped to stores in 2010 and 148 million
are expected to ship by 2014 according to iSuppli. And those numbers don’t
take into account existing gaming consoles and Blu-ray players that have
Internet connectivity baked in.


The second driving force is the emergence of
connected TV applications that ask users to sign
in.

This will allow content providers to tie viewing habits to consumer profiles,
unveiling a completely new layer of data regarding who is watching what. And
viewers will benefit too. By incorporating user preferences along with qualities
such as geography and viewing habits, television can provide a customized
experience.


2011 will be the year that TV becomes more interactive due to a combination of users
making the switch to new devices and content providers integrating more Internet-based
services into their products. Accessing content through these services will open new
opportunities for audience measurement and will lead to a revolution in the relevance of
television advertising.

In the coming year, addressable advertising on TV will become a
reality. Connected TVs will allow marketers to tailor their message specifically for
the audience at hand while also providing detailed measurement of viewer
interaction. Think in terms of what banner advertising targeting and analytics look
like today. Additionally, the value of advertising space on TV will increase, in part
due to the value added by sophisticated measurement and in part because more
accurate measurement may reveal that space around certain programming has
been underpriced.


“2011 is when Internet and TV will start being
hard to tell apart. Just as we sign into our mobile
devices today, we will be signing into our TVs,
gaming consoles, cable boxes and more next. This
will integrate the best of TV with relevant and
real-time information. Those who watch TV to
lean back will have a new reason to lean
forward.”
Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Innovation Officer of VivaKi


Our Heads in the Clouds
Section 05

30 Section 05: Our Heads in the Clouds

The sky is the limit for cloud-based services in
2011.

Cloud computing is an up-and-coming method of content storage and retrieval
that lets users shift content to and from multiple devices– whether they be
personal computers, servers or otherwise. This is creating a novel notion in the
consumer market that free-range, digital content should have the ability to
move fluidly rather than being tied to one device. We will see this idea
continue to catch on across various industries and in marketing efforts in 2011.

Cloud-based services are not a revolutionary concept. We have been tinkering
with the idea of shared content amongst devices since the 1960s when
computer scientist, John McCarthy, speculated that “computation may
someday be organized as a public utility.” This suggestion has now become a
reality. Overall, the global market for cloud-based services is expected to grow
over 100 percent, from $68 billion in 2010 to nearly $150 billion in 2014. This
increase is a stunning marker of what the future holds.


This trend is unfolding across a number of
industries.

In the entertainment industry, Netflix and Hulu have become popular cloud
alternatives to traditional film and television houses and both are expanding to
mobile devices. Internet-based programming from such services as Apple TV,
Google TV and Boxee are providing similar options. In the music industry, Apple
and Google are facing increased pressure to move their music into the cloud as
competitors like Rdio and MOG offer consumers subscription-based music
available directly on smart phones.

The gaming industry will also be heavily impacted by cloud computing. Services
such as OnLive are expanding internationally and competitors GaiKai and OTOY
are not far behind. At the same time we are seeing a decline in the dominance
of gaming consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation. During the
first six months of 2010, more video games were purchased and downloaded
from the cloud than were bought in actual retail stores, which was an industry
first.


Services provided by such titans as Amazon are
also based on cloud computing.

Popular political news website Wikileaks uses Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud
to easily scale server storage due to traffic spikes from the shocking nature of
the content. Zynga’s FarmVille would not have survived without the same
service, which provided a way for the company to increase server storage space
as the game gained users and became the first to garner a stunning 10 million
daily active users.


Cloud computing will become exponentially more relevant in the marketing
industry in the coming year. Cloud-delivered content will carry seamlessly
blended marketing efforts that consider both the audience and the delivery of
content to multiple devices. Marketing efforts will appear to be more organic
and thus more effective as cloud-based computing continues to flourish with
the onward progress of 2011.


“The continued investments in cloud
infrastructure will truly bring to life seamless
content experiences and consumers will be able
to play and pause content regardless of the
device, whether in their living room, on mobile or
on their PC. In doing so, users will expect
marketing to be relevant and personal based on
the consumption device.”
Carolyn Everson, CVP of Microsoft


A Content Crossroads
Section 06

36 Section 06: A Content Crossroads

Consumers will continue to find themselves
helpless in overcoming information overload in
2010.

The spread of more entertainment to the Web is creating a higher demand for
better search engines and is leading to the rise of Web curators – people who
build large online followings by finding or producing the best content the
Internet has to offer. A combination of these individual curators and
technologies that help to determine and deliver recommendations to end users
will grow in importance. This will lead to a new age of online content that turns
searches into meaningful discoveries.


Search has long been the dominant mode of
discovering content on the Web, but now
algorithm-based recommendation systems have
become the go-to source for discovering new
forms of online content, from Pandora for music
to Netflix for film.

Such companies are reverse engineering the souls of their users by analyzing
users’ content ratings and then matching that profile with similar users. Sites
like Hunch.com are making it easy for users to get recommendations and gift
ideas by building “taste graphs” of the products, media and services they
strongly prefer.


Though privacy concerns will increase as services expect more information for
better recommendations, the trade off for many people will be worth the cost –
highly relevant, engaging content recommended to you in exchange for giving a
computer program some basic information about what you like.

The overwhelming amount of content moving online will make this data exchange a no-
brainer for most consumers. The challenge for brands will be to find content curators that
users trust. Brands will also have to keep their messaging relevant and authentic to
maintain participant engagement. An excellent example of how a brand worked with
content providers to engage users is Intel’s partnership with Vice Magazine for The
Creators Project. The online experience guides users through video profiles of some of the
most creative, unique individuals at the crossroads of art and technology and leveraged
sites like BuzzFeed to promote the campaign.


Curation services are also becoming personalized,
automated content aggregators that are able to
learn user preferences on their own.

My6sense is an RSS reader for mobile devices that simplifies the user
experience. It learns how the app. has been used in the past and makes
adjustments to present content that it knows the user will read. By capturing
information on what interests their users, My6sense has been able to create
one of the more sophisticated curation engines. We can expect more
companies to begin playing in this space in 2011, which will significantly expand
options and specialty services.


2011 will blur the line between user-generated and professional content.
Brands that embrace the opportunity to not only generate but also sponsor
UGC? content will see a big return. Furthermore, the days of the big, easy media buy
are coming to a close. The Internet has already pushed advertisers to arrange
placements in a wider range of media outlets, but the emerging curation model
will further sharpen the attention of audiences and force the marketing world
to work harder to reach their target consumers.


“There will be more consumers looking for good
content than there is good content. Advertisers
will continue to follow consumers down the Long
Tail, as every feature film, and music library will
be made legitimately available online.”
Joanne Bradford, CRO of Demand Media


Independence Day for Brands
Section 07

43 Section 07: Independence Day for Brands

While most websites are looking for ways to
integrate data from services like Facebook, Google
or Twitter more deeply into their content and
services, a growing list of sites are differentiating
themselves by creating an online presence that
gives the users more control over how they are
tracked and profiled.

Online privacy issues gained mainstream exposure in 2010 and will become a
more hotly contested issue in 2011. Users will look for new ways to control the
use of their personal data or simply go to sites where they are in control. This
simple approach of handing control of data back to users will draw unique
audiences that brands will have to reach without help from major online data
brokers and targeting services.


Today, if brands want to engage with online social
media audiences they often push their messaging
through Facebook or Twitter in large fan
acquisition sprees.

Users don't want to feel like some creepy algorithm already knows everything
about them or that they’re simply being “used” for their personal data mine.
Brands will need to link social strategies back to their larger 360-degree
strategies to create a space for participants to get to know their brand. In the
past few years, big brands have been encouraged to “join the conversation” in
social media; in 2011 they are going to need to get cozy and invite participants
back home for drinks.


Brands will also gain more independence from
mobile device fragmentation.

New development tools like Sencha make it easy to optimize rich-media sites
for mobile sites. This allows brands to break free from app stores, create
permanent mobile Web presences that take advantage of technologies like
HTML5 and Flash and put the weak mobile sites of the last decade to shame.
Brands will no longer have to meet the unique demands of a proprietary app
market and instead will be free to create unrestricted mobile experiences that
appeal to mobile users who expect more from their mobile browsing
experience.


Brands should be excited for 2011 since they’ll no longer be as reliant on third-party data or
approval of great ideas.

Marketers will need to work with a larger selection of partners to reach the
consumers that frequent independent websites. However, they will benefit from a
wider range of creative options. Marketers will also benefit from access to the data
“?
that site users provide and will have more flexibility when developing mobile
applications and websites.


“2011 will be the rise of the Independent Web -
that part of the Web that is not dependent on
major platforms like Facebook, Google, Microsoft
or Yahoo. Apps, services and sites which lead the
Independent Web draw unique and powerful
audiences because they are not driven by
dependent-Web business rules and economics.
Brands will learn how to leverage those audiences
at scale in meaningful ways.”
John Battelle, Founder of Federated Media


The Social Message is the Medium
Section 08

49 Section 08: The Social Message is the Medium

Brands will begin looking for new media
placements that leverage social activities and
interactions rather than simply looking for
placements with impressive audience size.

Charting the success of a campaign already involves analyzing social media for
many brands. Now instead of simply tracking buzz about a campaign,
companies will provide analytics on consumer activity and engagement as well.


A good example is the “check-in.” It can be used to measure a campaign’s
overall success and could help to tailor an execution to locations that see high
levels of mobile activity rather than foot traffic. This way of thinking – activity
levels as media buys – will become popular as the spread of social games like
Zynga’s FarmVille and game-like rewards programs open brands’ minds to the
concept of active users instead of impressions.

FarmVille was the toast of the social gaming
world throughout 2010 and was unsurprisingly a
leading platform for innovative social media
advertising.

Earlier this year when players chose seeds for their farm, they were offered
branded seeds by sponsors such as Cascadian Farm, a line of organic foods
from General Mills.


On the mobile front, social brand integration specialists appssavvy designed a
campaign for clothing retailer H&M. They rewarded players of MyTown (a
mobile social game, think real-world Monopoly) with virtual items and in-game
points when they checked in to a retail or female-centric location such as a spa
or hair salon.


Entertainment check-in services such as Get Glue
are another natural fit for advertising.

These services allow users to log and broadcast their consumption of media
content. Benefits include recommendations and rewards based on activity as
well as the opportunity to discuss the content with friends and strangers. In
terms of advertising, television shows and music can be tied to psychographic
profiles much as they are for traditional television advertising. But in this
space, users are engaging in traceable behavior that can be used to trigger
specific messages and experiences.


As we enter 2011, look for opportunities to buy social activities instead of traditional media
space. These new types of placements connect with consumers when they are doing
brand-relevant things. Campaigns that take this approach will be more effective as a result.

This shift will open up several opportunities for marketers. Social activity
placements will be more effective as they are tied to actions rather than
viewership, and these placements facilitate more sophisticated results
reporting. This will allow marketers to be more confident that their money is
being spent effectively. Also enhancing the psychographic audience profiles
marketers build through focus groups and third party research.


“We’re going to see a shift from buying the
medium – content sites like Yahoo! and MSN, and
social sites like Facebook and MySpace – to
buying the activity. [It’s] the quiz app I'm using on
my iPhone, the social game I'm playing, me
checking in to let my friends know where I am, or
talking about the things I care about in an online
community. 2011 will be the year brands learn
how to buy social activity.”
Chris Cunningham, CEO of appssavvy


The Search for Mobile is On
Section 09

56 Section 09: The Search for Mobile is On

Mobile search will become even more important
in 2011 as marketers begin to think of it in ways
beyond the Google query.

In retail, shoppers have turned to barcode scanners as a way of searching for SEARCH
other prices and online deals before checking out. Travelers and locals alike are
turning to location-based services to fuel local discovery of hotspots and
unique locations across the globe. Consumers worldwide are seeing the
definition of “search” expand before their eyes. Search now encompasses a
variety of activities not traditionally associated with the term and advertisers
will need to adjust as well.


Barcode scanning is a habit that consumers are
adopting at a rapid pace.

Barcode technology provider ScanBuy reported that usage of their platform
grew 700 percent between the start of 2010 and the beginning of the fourth
quarter. In addition, a multitude of start-ups have emerged, which put varying
spins on the idea of mobile search via barcode scanning. ShopWell, for
example, collects user information such as health goals, diet approach and
allergies, then provides personalized ratings for products when they are
scanned in-store.


The potential for further innovation in this area is
huge.

“Checking in to get a free coffee at Starbucks is a nice evolution on targeted
coupons, but it's only the beginning of the opportunity in mobile for marketers
looking for performance marketing opportunities,” Daina Middleton, CEO of
search marketing agency Performics, reported.

Geo-location technology offers another fruitful path to innovation in mobile
search. In 2010, Google introduced a “near me now” option in Google Mobile
and Android. This feature allows users to browse nearby locations without
entering any information themselves. Their phone simply uses GPS to figure
out where they are.

And according to Middleton, mobile search will grow quickly by traditional
measures in 2011 as well. “Mobile search clicks will double to 16 percent and
mobile conversion rates will double to 10 percent year over year.”


The growth patterns of traditional and alternative
mobile search share common roots.

Increasing smart phone adoption means that consumers are becoming more
accustomed to the tools, and innovators have more incentive to come up with
game-changing ideas. In 2011, more marketers will begin to recognize the
potential of mobile as a discovery engine that can drive purchases and foot
traffic.


Expect to see continued innovation as well as more enthusiastic
adoption by both marketers and consumers.

These new developments in mobile search have transformed a national market
into a multitude of local ones. Major marketers need to start working from the
grassroots level by adjusting their message and placements to local audiences and
market conditions. Additionally, marketers that aggressively pursue alternative
methods of search will be rewarded by impressive share of voice and exposure in
the affluent early adopter market.


“Mobile search clicks will double to 16 percent
and mobile conversion rates will double to 10
percent year over year. Checking in to get a free
coffee at Starbucks is a nice evolution on targeted
coupons, but it's only the beginning of the
opportunity in mobile for marketers looking for
performance marketing opportunities,”
Daina Middleton, CEO of Performics


Let’s Get Physical
Section 10

63 Section 10: Let’s Get Physical

2011 will bring a revolution in the way
participants will interact with a multitude of in-
home, mobile and out-of-home devices, providing
groundbreaking marketing opportunities.

We have already come a long way. The success of the Nintendo Wii led to a
push in 2010 by Microsoft and Sony to launch their Kinect and Move gesture
controls and companies will continue to develop on these flagship physical
platforms.


Within the first 10 days of sales, one million
Microsoft Kinect devices were sold.

This number is an astonishing signal that consumers not only have a keen

1,000,000 SOLD interest in gesture-based technology, but are also willing to invest in it and
encourage friends to join the fun. PrimeSense, one of the companies behind
the Kinect technology, is planning to launch a gesture-controlled set top box in
the summer of 2011 and has secured at least one cable company partner,
demonstrating the forward progress in this segment. Glove and marker-free
gesture control for multiple users has also been shown to be possible by
Fraunhofer's FIT. Their software can not only detect multiple people, but can
also distinguish details such as users’ finger motions.


Large companies are not alone in developing
gesture-based interfaces.
Students at MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group have developed a Web
browser extension for Kinect that allows users to surf the Internet with gesture
controls. Members of the open-source community are also experimenting with
various ways of “hacking” the Microsoft Kinect. The open-source software that
these developers have created could potentially be beneficial for search and
rescue missions, mental health advancements, 3D modeling, and visual art and
puppetry. This further highlights what is possible with motion tracking beyond
the living room and in gestural-based digital out-of-home.


2011 will also bring a new range of possibilities
for gesture based technology in the mobile field.

Mobile movement-controlled hardware technologies are bringing down the
physical barriers that divide the device from the user. Devices are also
becoming more intelligent with software; the Microsoft Kinect can recognize a
particular user’s voice, face and body movements, and we will only see further
additions to this list with time. Software allowing for facial expression
recognition could also lead to emotion-based gaming that monitors and
responds to a participant’s reactions.


What places the combination of gesture-based
hardware and software at the pinnacle of
innovation is its ability to bestow a feeling of
artificial, super-human control.

The typical perception of how people are able to control hardware is crumbling
with the ability to use biological means – the body – as a “magic wand” to
interact with mechanical devices of all kinds. This philosophy is portrayed in
Arthur C. Clarke’s third “law” of prediction, which states that “any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”


Just as new user interfaces that leverage state-of-the-art gestural technology
will climb to the top of the market, branded executions using this technology
will also garner widespread attention and praise. Xbox has developed ads that
can recognize the age and sex of viewers. This technology has already been
implemented in Japanese billboards. Physically interactive ads are the next step
for visionary brands, and will give their customers something to spread the
word about as we move onward in exploring this digital frontier.


“2011 will be the year that blurs the connection
between the physical and digital world. With the
recent step changes in touch based and tablet
computing and new form factors for mobile
devices and gesture based gaming technology, the
personal nature in which technology extends our
physical interactivity will be game changing.
Exciting software and hardware interfaces with
organic sensory inputs will introduce digital
‘super powers’ we never imagined.”
Joel Lunenfeld, CEO of Moxie Interactive


About Moxie
Moxie Interactive is creating the agency of the future, by fusing media, creative, and technology to
achieve brave, accountable marketing solutions. Its capabilities include communications planning,
media planning and buying, search marketing, branded entertainment, advertising and
development, ECRM, sponsorship services and campaign management. At the heart of the agency
is the Participants Intelligence department, providing Moxie’s clients with details on emerging
trends, insights and analytics, so that clients can spark interesting, unique and fresh conversations
with their customers.
Moxie's award-winning team is focused on connecting people and brands across all screens. Some
of our clients include Coca-Cola, Garnier, Maybelline New York, Puma, Verizon,Wireless, 20th
Century Fox, Cartoon Network and the Art Institutes. Moxie is a division of Zenith Media Services,
a Publicis Groupe Company, with locations in Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles. To learn more
about Moxie, visit www.moxieinteractive.com. You can also follow us on Twitter
@YouveGotMoxie and on Facebook at facebook.com/moxieinteractive.

71 About Moxie

Top 10 Trends for 2011
AUTHORS
Rhiannon Apple, Emerging Trends Supervisor
Emily Knab, Trendspotter
Simeon Spearman, Trendspotter
Greg Steen, Trendspotter

CONTACT
Christine Bensen, SVP, Participant Intelligence
cbensen@moxieinteractive.com
2049 Century Park East
Los Angeles, CA 90067
310-551-3529
©2010 Moxie Interactive. All Rights Reserved

72 About Moxie

Top 10 Trends Predictions for 2011

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