With the recent launch of their new Superphones lineup, we helped Bell Mobility develop a campaign that not only introduced Superphones but also showed customers just how super they really are.
As the capabilities of smartphones continue to escalate, it’s become clear that premium handsets needed to be better positioned for customers to fully understand their superior attributes. Dual-core processors, large vibrant screens and high-speed network connectivity are just a few characteristics that define a superphone. But really, how much better are these devices that an average smartphone? Our initial research showed that most smartphones owners overestimated the capabilities of their current handset.
For instance, every iPhone 4 owner we spoke with considered it a “superphone” (myself included). But with its single-core processor, comparatively-small 3.5″ screen and download speeds of 7.2 Mbps, it actually pales in comparison to the latest superphone handsets. With that insight, we created Superphone Stack Up; a mobile advertising experience that showcases the superiority of Bell’s latest superphones by comparing them to your actual smartphone.
There are a number of ways we could have technically accomplished this, however we wanted to maintain as much simplicity as possible. We didn’t want to force the customers to manually input their handset make & model, nor did we want to rely on any technology that isn’t generally accessible. Because our target was existing smartphone owners, we knew they all had something in common. A phone equipped with a camera and email.
Supported by a variety of print media (created by our friends at Zulu Alpha Kilo), potential customers were encouraged to take a photo using their smartphone and email it to superphones@bell.ca. That’s it. Immediately, they receive a response that highlights the feature differences between their specific smartphone model and the various Bell superphones. With that context, they could easily see just how outdated their current handset really is.
From a technology standpoint, our system simply relied on a the metadata contained in every photo taken with a digital camera. This metadata contains a number of things about the photo, including the camera’s make & model, and in some cases, its location as well. We used this metadata to determine the handset model so we could accurately compare its industry-published features and functionality. Simple yet effective.
Try It Yourself
Go on, give it a try. Take a picture with your smartphone and email it to superphones@bell.ca to see how your phone stacks ups.
written by Jeremy Bell
Out of curiosity, wouldn’t this work as effectively with user-agent detection on a webpage, which could be triggered by a URL, slightly easier to use than emailing a picture? I’m assuming you rejected this approach, so I’m curious to know why using the image metadata was more effective.
I believe user agent detection only gives you the browser’s information (android, safari, IE). Not the make and model of your device.
I thought that was a possibility, so I did a quick check before posting the question, and it seems like for a lot of devices, User-Agent detection gives you make and model. By way of example:
http://www.zytrax.com/tech/web/mobile_ids.html
I’ve only done a quick check. It may be true that while user-agent strings work in a number of cases, there are large gaps, and that image metadata has fewer gaps, and is more reliable as a source for phone models. If that’s true, I’d be happy to hear more details about where the gaps are and how much more reliable image metadata is. If it’s not, then I’m curious why this approach.
@Geoffrey Wiseman: It must be an advertising strategy, this way they get your e-mail address, so that later they can send you another e-mail with other offers.
Jeremy, if the hardware would be the differentiator between these phones, than it would really be a fair comparison. Since we all know that software is the most important asset of any of these devices, it’s obvious who the winner is, the iPhone.
We all know the headaches that PC computers produce. Even if you power them up with more RAM, processor speed or anything that beats a MAC, the MAC will still be superior in software. This applies to mobile devices as well.
And this applied to the iPod as well – there were more powerful devices, but it still won the fight. Apple has learned this lesson, nobody else seems to.
@Andrei Potorac – I definitely agree, however the issue with software is that it’s a subjective comparison. We originally had Operating System as part of the comparison set, however it’s not really possible to compare apples to apples (ya, ya, bad pun). iOS is superior in a number of ways, but Android has its merits as well. How does one weight the differences between the two?
In the end, we decided to only include what we could accurately and fairly compare, which is the hardware.
While user agent detection does cover a number of mobile devices, we found that reading the EXIF metadata had a higher success rate (although not foolproof). However, the bigger issue was building the database of comparison devices. This database needed to include the comparison specs, but also a unique identifier for each handset. The challenge was that OEMs publish the handset specifications, but none of them list the EXIF or user agent info. We simply couldn’t find enough device-specific user agent strings listed online. Instead, we relied on the various blogs that publish “test photos” as part of their handset reviews… it was the only way we could acquire the data needed to accurate identify each unique device.
As for collecting email addresses for marketing purposes, we definitely wouldn’t do that without prior user consent. We simply receive the message, analyze the attached photo and send a reply.
I can’t believe you guys are responsible for this… Bell’s ad campaigns for their Android phones irritate me to no end. You do know that the sales persons are actually paid a higher commission to sell these devices, right? The funny thing is, go into any Rogers or Bell store and they will desperately push the new Samsung Epic Touch master 4G++ on you, meanwhile they all use iPhones personally.
I’m so disappointed… These dual-core “super” phones have all been released in the last 6 months, meanwhile the iPhone 4 is over 14 months old. It’s like comparing the iPhone 4 to a Nexus One or an original Droid.
@Sam: We’re not actually responsible for the ads themselves —they were created by our friends at Zulu Alpha Kilo—however, the concept and digital elements was us. Also, the purpose of this program isn’t to deceive people into thinking these new devices are something they’re not (or start an iOS vs Android debate). Quite the opposite in fact. We wanted to present a transparent hardware comparison between the superphones and whatever handset you happen to be using. Of course the 14+ month-old iPhone 4 is going to have aging spec’s, but that’s not the point. The intent was to use the visitors handset (however old it happens to be) as context to better understand the hardware spec’s of these new devices.
Every time there is a debate and an iPhone involved it’s always about the specs and not about the real deal. Folks, it’s obvious the device is just a small piece of the puzzle. The people that are choosing iPhones are not doing this just for the device but for the whole ecosystem throughout Apple is delivering the EXPERIENCE.
That’s all about it, and Steve really said it couple of times but no one seem to get it. Every company tries to copy a bit of design, a bit of software but no one tries to understand the reason behind the whole picture.
Here it is: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/steve_jobss_ultimate_lesson_fo.html
And, even if you like to compare devices, let’s not forget to do this when iPhone5 is coming out, because these 4G Superphones are all post-iPhone4 era. Somehow is natural to have better specs, but wait for it…
PS Jeremy, it would be nice to have a “add comment” button down to bottom after all comments are displayed. Right now after you read all the comments you must scroll up to add one.