Lotto explained therein lies the problem with technology, and he posed the question: "How can technology-based experiences be meaningful?"
He provided three tips for facilitating meaningful technology experiences:
1. Understand your audience – create a space for good questions.
2. Don’t ask who, what and where questions, ask why questions – why do we do what we do?
3. Create technology that lives ‘in the space between’
Lotto explained how this notion of meaningful technology experiences and the concept of ‘in the space between’ led him to develop the smartphone app, Traces. The app does not completely remove people from the real world because it plays in the augmented reality space rather than that of virtual reality."The content exists not in your phone but in the real world," said Lotto.
How it works:
- Smartphone users download the app.
- Brands, event organisers and more create a message, which they can 'hide' wherever they please. This could be a particular space within a venue, a retail store, or in the case of experiential, the location where the brand activation is set to take place.
- People must visit a particular location to unlock the Trace.
- When they reach the location, they will see a drop of water floating in the distance, which can be seen through a smartphone screen.
- Only once they catch the Trace with their smartphone will people be able to unlock and view the content inside.
"Brands can benefit from this because it rewards people who go into a location. A lot of people are using it not for digital content but the space itself," said Lotto. "A lot of brands are also using Traces for mobile web pages."
Traces can hold various different types of content including video, pictures, sound and music.
More:
Event Awards 2015
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