Who do you work with? What do they do? Well I’m here today representing Clickboards. Clickboards is a new type of Internet advertising that connects the web to feed to mobile.  The reason it is called Clickboards is because they are like banners but you can click on them more than once (making a clicking motion with my hand) and you can enter information into them like your phone number.  Then without leaving the site you are on, the information is sent to your personal coupon feed.  Then those discounts on the feed can be accessed at the point of purchase with your mobile.  The discount is then verified for the vendor and is erased from your feed.

I told a lot of people I was based in Tianjin and why Tianjin was such a perfect test market for the fact that most retailers have no register or computer in the stores and that I was at a point where I just need to start spending money to get it started.  Most people were a little shocked I was from Tianjin.

So…………………. I met a lot of great people from really cool companies. I guess the conclusion is that I am successfully beginning to brand the term Clickboards and I’m still number one when you Google Clickboards.

I did get to thinking if some of these guys wanted to start this in more developed markets, and I tend to believe that having oversimplified Clickboards to get to this point, that it wouldn’t work.  So I am in the clear as far as broadcasting my message.

Next post is about Smart Kiosks and how they are already being installed, and in the beginning of creating Clickboards this was part of the conclusion to the future development of Clickboards.  So now how do I leap frog?

Searching for ’social shopping’ I found several sites listed here.   They basically use words like Rave, Impartial Advice, Recommend, Community, Wish list, where people in the community act as promoters for products they bought.

Searching for ‘networking discounts’ and ‘network savings’ I found that networking basically means on the web or saving on getting your computer onto the network online.

All have nothing to do with a Social Savings Networked Utility.  The second search I did was the most relevant.  However it requires user interaction after the sale, which I would have to argue is a weak platform.  Even Wikipedia defines ’social shopping’ as making informed decisions from information about products posted by the community.  However, coupons and deals are usually researched or collected prior to the sale, so this system relies on people finding the deals and then becoming self promoters of the products they bought.  And none have anything to do with creating a network where you begin to save more with the more people in your network and the common characteristics in shopping behavior you all share regardless of whether or not you actively promote your shopping behavior.  Network here still just means a group of people not actually webbed together.

One site had the ability to pass coupons to friends where you gain commission from the sale if your friends buy the product.  There was also a site that rewarded you for using the coupons with bigger coupons that you can cash in your points for.  There is still only one degree of separation in these methods.

None of these integrated mobile possibilities.  In the mobile media playground here in Beijing, China, there a system where you buy a card and get access to the discounts around the city as well as 1200 points.  Each time you buy the card you get 1200 more points. These can be used at some locations like cash.  The discounts you recieve are obtained by texting the store code and price of purchase to the number.  A confirmaion text is sent back and you show that to the teller.  There are several similar services.  Again no mobile media has anything to do with a network.

* Call-to-action via SMS, votes, polls, sweepstakes, contests, promotions, coupons, call-back request, text4info, surveys
* The ability to redeem mobile coupons (bar codes), unique PIN numbers (drive2web), ticketing
* Rich content, ringtones, wall papers, games, videos
* Mobile applications such as mobile Internet sites (WAP)
* Smart phone applications

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=103974

*Well the first point is all fun and games.  Very little commitment required from the user to say,  ‘yea you can give me that’ or, ‘yea I think I would vote for that person’ or, ‘put my name on the list so I can possibly win that’ etc.  However, I would find these little games completely annoying if I was notified ten times a day of some new crazy contest that I needed to enter.  I would opt out completely for any of those services.  However a lonely teenager might find this pretty amusing.

*Redeemable coupons with barcodes is excellent.  I’m totally on board to see how they pull that off.  My theory is that most of the coupons will be wasted efforts no matter how they manipulate their targeting.  But using PIN numbers and driving people back to the web is also not what you want.  You actually want to drive people off the web and to the stores.  Brick and mortar establishments aren’t just big fitting rooms where you try stuff on and then go back to the web to buy it.  Stores need traffic, and giving them a coupon when they pass the store on their phone so they can go home and get a discount is counter productive.  I do like having mobile tickets, very functional.

*Rich content, ringtones, wall papers, games, videos: a bunch of junk to me.

*WAP: anything new here?

*Applications: good can’t get enough good ones.  If they keep trying they are bound to come up with a few I like.

So if a site is using their own measuring tools like Google AdSense or their host providers numbers, and these all vary based on the tools used to measure, then where are you going to get numbers that are actually relevant to your product and people’s response.

Clickboards.net acts a second party seller.  Although you do not buy anything on the site, you can acquire information and promotions used to buy the products as well as package deals and rebates for products.  Then when you decide to buy, either directed to the advertisers site, or by going to the brick and mortar store, that is when the first interaction between buyer and seller takes place.  So really the advertiser takes themselves completely out of the picture except for the sale, which is really the way it is supposed to be.

This is really where the Clickboard comes in.  The first criteria remains the same, click through.  However, a Clickboard is not clicked on once, actually maybe three of four times.  The sales message is broken down into segments, each displayed after each click.  This puts the ball back on the hands of the advertiser, demonstrating their ineffectiveness or effectiveness of the ads they create.  By taking away the fear of opening a new window, tab, or replacing the window you are in, the Clickboard allows you to remain idle on the page you are viewing.  But the message from the ad is strengthened after each click.  So now an ad can be measured by how far the viewer followed the ad through the three or four clicks.

A Clickboard registered with Clickboards.net will also not take them to the advertisers site in the end.  Clickboards not registered can take them to any desired site on the final click.  Since this is not of concern to me, I will only discuss the effectiveness of those Clickboards that are registered.

The final click on the Clickboard will not take you to the advertisers site and promotion, rather it will take you to Clickboards.net.  Once there, in relation to the ad that brought you there, more details of the promotion and other ways to save on this or similar products will be displayed.  Again, the effectiveness is measured by how far the user follows this and similar promotions.  But it doesn’t stop there…

Even without going to Clickboards.net, the savings from the promotion displayed on the Clickboard are automatically added to the users profile.  So next time they use the Clickcard, these promotions can be obtained upon checkout.  With the use of mobile Clickboards and Clickboards.net Kiosks, users can be reminded of their collection of coupons.  A click there, a click here, these all add up and can be used to show the advertiser that there ads are being seen.

Upon check out, coupons stored will be automatically deducted.  On the receipt will show the discounts received next to the product purchased.  These deductions are further reinforcement to use the Clickcard and to continue using Clickboards.net and to continue clicking on Clickboards.

This three tier level of measuring performance is really the next step to bringing back an industry that has set its sites on hyper-inflation and non-concrete performance criteria.

Advertisers should not be responsible for their own ads.  If someone was to really learn from this, they would see that their performance should be outsourced.  This would allow them more flexibility, and with results as positive as those that can be constructed through the use of Clickboards, advertisers would more than welcome the positive impact.

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As a user and customer, I don’t want everything I do stored in some database for the use by a third party or even Google for that matter.  Why? I have no authority over my own habits and what everyone else can know about me.  There really is no upside to me giving my information away, either knowingly or unknowingly.  Where is my privacy, where are my filters, where is my say over what I want to see?  Basically advertisers these days regurgitate exactly what I’m doing now.  Adwords, Ha!

What I really want is something that is intuitive.  And this is only possible through my own making.  Yes I actually want something to track my habits, but I want the ability to maintain and fine tune my own personal shopping history to my liking.  I may not buy a computer every day or even a phone, but I am really into them and I want to know what is on sale every week.  Who is going to know this through a shopping history.

The only thing the Google phone can do is tell you all about your perishable items.  Things you buy constantly or the places you go constantly.  Is there really a benefit to this? Not really.  How much information can you get out of me knowing that I buy deli meats every time I go to the grocery store.  What I really want to know is when the ready made pizza dough is on sale because I love to make pizza.  Or maybe I’m waiting to find a deal on a nice wallet from Banana Banana.  And online I may not look everyday but I need to know when JC Nickel is going to have a leather jacket at a discount.

Google is really coming to an end in terms of ad sales.  Have you ever looked into SEO?  It is pretty bogus.  If I design my site to have the best key words, I will get to the top of the list.  Am I talking about what is really important, probably not.

Shopping history is designed by a user.  Yes the Clickcard stats are important, but the profile must be tweaked by the user to add the most impact from the actual information gathered.

What I would like to see is major advertising agencies bringing their clients to the table, the main table. Basically Clickboards.net is advertising space.  Clickboards.net Kiosks are advertising space.  In the future the personalization of magazines, newspapers, television, and even the Internet will be space for Clickboard spawned ads.

The information from the Clickcard is advertising statistics which is for sale.

The Clickboard however is free.  But, the Clickboards that I link to Clickboards.net will be allowed to put a small icon at the bottom right hand corner of the online ad to denote that it is a Clickboard and not a banner.   Right now I am thinking a star with a mouse pointer on it.

Linking the condoned Clickboard to Clickboards.net and all the other services is fee based.  This is determined individually upon client based on their requests and depth of use on this site.

So everyone is a player, everyone can make a Clickboard and make it link to anything.  You can free of charge make Clickboards work with your own site.  But you can’t use the icon and you can’t make it link to this network.

The stakeholders are the the same people.  As an advertiser you have just as much say as to how much you are involved within the Clickboards.net network.  Advertisers are the overhead.

The iClickcard is one piece in the puzzle for creating a shopping history everytime you shop to save money.  Your personal Clickcard can be used online or at brick and mortar stores, the phone can actually become the Clickcard, thus ‘iClickcard.’  Savings based on your shopping history will be automatically added to your account to further enhance your experience.

With all your discounts stored in one database online (available to be viewed and updated while shopping using your phone), your iClickcard gives you every discount in the city and online for any product that you are interested in.  Any coupons available for the product like two for one deals, discount on alternative flavors, additional discounts on relating products, rebates, and additional freebies, can be found by entering the UPC code, or in some cases scanning the barcode with the phone, helping you better manage your selection of products.

Using the Bluetooth feature when you check out, the register can be signaled of your online database and any discounts you will gain upon check out from your pre-shopping experience.  Another way is the iClickcard could display your personalized database barcode that would then relay any information for anything you are purchasing and that could be scanned.

So what is a social network looking for? A bridge between all of these.  Although many of these allow you to cross reference your contacts along all these networks, that is not what people are looking for.  People don’t want to be pigeon holed by their boss about what they did on the Fourth of July, and they don’t want there friends to be out of their loop because their professor wants to keep in touch in a marginally sensitive way.

So what can people do to stay connected to everyone.  That is a very tough question.  People have to be rewarded for being in touch with one another.  If I am connected to someone on the fringe, well that should benefit me right?  Shouldn’t I be able to invite every single person in my gmail contacts to join some network of mine, one without boundaries?

The answer is yes.  How?  Well believe it or not we all have a lot in common.  I think the most important thing we do is purchase items.  This requires most of our concentration and effort when designing who we are.  The second most important thing we do is design our resume and profile.  I say resume because that used to be the old way of telling someone who you are.  Now you can have online resumes that link to all your other profiles, and if you really believe in your blog that too.

So what platform can bring these two together.  I believe it is Clickboards.net.  First and most important, you once again create a basic profile and that is it.  Second you use your Clickcard.  Like some credit cards, your shopping history will be cataloged.  You can then be rewarded for sharing the same interests as those in your network.  So the more people in your network the more likely it is you will be rewarded for having a common interest.

This could be the movie you go see, the theater you see movies, the restaurants you visit, the happy hour bar you go to, the office supplies you buy, the advertising you buy, the websites you visit, the clothes you buy, the ingredients for food you cook at home.

The more you interlink yourself with your community the more you save.  Thus you are rewarded for anyone that is in your network.  There fore even connecting to those strangers brings you rewards.  But remember it is up to you to set your privacy and filters.  But the rewards are yours.

Yes this is still a card, but what I am saying is that there may be no need for a Clickcard in the future.  All this could be stored on your car key or mobile phone.  So the card is actually becoming outdated.

The point here is that most of these universal cards, keys, and phones will have a display on them for management purposes and probably GPS location so you will never worry about losing them and probably automatic locking features.  The beauty here is that the Clickboards can be sent to these devices.

I’m not saying you will be harassed every time you walk by a McDonald’s for a cheeseburger.  Actually only things that you have already stored at your Clickboards.net profile will be sent to you.  So if you are out shopping and you are at the Galleria, you could get reminded that you acquired a $50 gift certificate at Banana Republic.  Well then, it is now worth my time to go look around there.

Oh and when you check out, you’ll just pass your pager sized key over the register to pay and save.