M-football: The Utility Goal
Have you ever been to a major football match?
It’s like going to a stadium rock concert. For those without either experience, here is an overview that sets the scene:
If you are foolish enough to drive, you park miles away and set off for a long walk. If you have figured out the train journey, you realise quickly you are very much not alone, and pack onto a small carriage with hundreds of others.
It’s only when you arrive at the complex that you fully appreciate the sheer volume of people, all obediently following signposts in various directions – all seeming to lead to queues for diluted ‘lager’ and questionable ‘hotdogs’. You look at the thousands of people around and wonder whether anyone else you know is amongst the masses….along with wondering whether around one more corner is a counter selling real food..
You buy a programme which contains 10% useful information and 90% glossy pictures for an extortionate fee that only seems reasonable in comparison to the price tag for the other merchandise.
After another maze-like navigation, you finally arrive at your seat, only to realise that your view is nothing like as clear as it seems on TV. The people on the stage/pitch are tiny and following the action 400 metres away is virtually impossible unless you watch the big screen (which you resent doing as you didn’t intend to come all the way here to watch TV did you?)
Pulling the short straw you are nominated to go and get the beers. Great. Let’s hope nothing happens when you’re away…
Standing in the beer queue you hear a massive cheer erupt from the crowd. Sod the beer. Rushing back to your seat you peer at the large screen hoping there is a replay but you’re too late, the moment has passed, and now you have 3 different versions of what happened from 3 (thirsty) friends…of you go back to the beer queue, hoping nothing happens when you’re away.
The gig/match finishes and you stand in another queue to join a queue that leads to a queue for the tube or the hike to the car park in what seems like an adjacent town. Not being a local resident you have no idea where the best bars or clubs are – someone remembers coming here 4 years ago but can’t recollect where they ended up, but it was surely “that direction…”
Eventually, after walking around aimlessly for ages, you part ways with your fellow travellers and head home, assessing the day.
Enjoyable experience segment: 2 hours
Nightmare/crowded/queue/confusion segment: 5 hours
Was it worth it? Hell yeah. Just not something you would choose to do everyday necessarily, but the pictures should rock on Facebook (or whatever other ‘social network’ platform you choose to use).
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Look again at the above story, there appears to be several instances where some extra assistance may have been useful, but the problem is that you are, by nature, in different places at different times and quite literally disconnected from the common sources of information, presented to us mostly in analogue form.
We need to consider a channel that is with us the whole time, that morphs; changing dependant on our circumstance. We need to consider a device that is connected to the stuff we need to know, when we are not. We need to consider something that can show usable knowledge in real-time and something that can educate us, entertain us, enlighten us and guide us.
This is mobile.
If you are a brand, or for that matter, any organisation wishing to add value to people’s lives, the canvas is almost entirely blank and significantly expansive. Go on – read the story again and think about what type of tool or functionality could be provided that would be of assistance… Forget the technology for a bit – think about the value it could bring.
Once you view experiences through the eyes of citizens, the answers and opportunities become tremendously apparent. Or at least they should be..
I look forward to discussing these considerations, alongside a range of brilliant thinkers (such as my good friends Tomi Ahonen and David Cushman), at the M-Football event held at the Emirates Stadium on the 21st of this month (January 2010). Click here or below for info and registration…oh, and of course I blagged a discount for you (a whopping 40% at that) – just enter the code ‘jmac4fr0′ when you register 
See ya there!
http://www.camerjam.com/events/m-football/register
