Nuzzle: The New Smart Collar Tag for Pets

The CEO of a new company called Nuzzle, Anthony Dubbaneh has created a smart collar tag for dogs and cats. The device allows owners to monitor their pet’s location, activity levels, temperature, and any impact events via their smartphone. Part of the reason the collars were created was to encourage pet owners to purchase pet health insurance (which can be done through the app).

Nuzzle app user interface.

Nuzzle is water-resistant, batteries are easily changed, and it can be attached to any pet collar. Nuzzle uses cellular GPS radio signals and has some internal sensors to monitor the animal. It is even capable of alerting an owner if their animal leaves their property or house. Nuzzle will record and track pet activity levels and alert the owner if the animal’s activity level decreases. The smart collar tag may be purchased for $149 USD.

Nuzzle encourages pet owners to purchase pet health insurance. Dubbaneh said, "The biggest reason why so few people have pet insurance is awareness. Fundamentally, pet insurance is marketed through direct mail, so it looks like just another piece of junk mail when it shows up in people's lives." Dubbaneh is looking for a successful way to market pet insurance through creating a useful product designed to start conversations about pet insurance. Ammunition’s design partner for Nuzzle, Matt Rolandson said, "There's plenty of wearables, trackers, and IoT devices out there searching for a recurring revenue relationship, without a lot of success. It's just absolutely genius to use a beautiful physical object as a way to attract people to an ongoing customer relationship."

Regarding the pet insurance push, Dubbaneh said, "At the end of the day, the relationship between a person and their pet is one of the strongest ones they have in life. It breaks my heart that so many people feel they can't afford to preserve that relationship in an emergency, just because they don't have enough money in their bank account."

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Key Findings of a Consumer Survey Focusing on Technology and Its Impact

Blackhawk Engagement Solutions surveyed approximately 2,500 people to examine how they pre-shop, filter information, their path-to-purchase influencers, and how marketers can impact these paths. Blackhawk’s GVP of Marketing, Rodney Mason said, “Today, the key to winning at retail is keeping up with your customers. By charting where shoppers are landing as they explore new shopping territories, retail marketers can position their businesses in front of the competition and closer to targeted and underserved customers.”

The main trends from the survey are:

• 71% of people use a smartphone daily. Internet shopping and TV watching are positively correlated.
• 19% will purchase a competitor’s product on their smartphone while in a store. 38% of people compare prices using Amazon, Google, and retail websites.
• 63% would allow retailers to send offers to their smartphone and 59% would allow retailers to know their personal location and identity for financial savings.
• Financial savings are the main reason people follow brands on social media. 89% of people that follow brands want special offers.
• The main digital promotion media is email.
• A price difference of 10% makes online sales more favourable. Most people prefer to purchase items at a physical location that price matches.
• Mobile wallets are increasing in popularity. 54% of people would use a mobile wallet versus a traditional wallet if a mobile wallet was wides accepted.

Blackhawk’s full report may be found here.

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GOOGLE RELEASES “OUR MOBILE PLANET”

Our Mobile Planet provides research about smartphone adoption and usage across 40 countries. Commissioned by Google and conducted by Ipsos MediaCT in partnership with the Mobile Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Our Mobile Planet offers access to the full set of data from the research through a chart creation tool or the direct download of full country-level data files. 


Access the full Canadian report

CRTC says Canadians becoming more attached to Internet, smartphones.

Canadians are turning off their televisions and cutting their land lines in favour of online streaming and smartphones in record numbers, Canada's telecommunications regulator flags in a recent report.

The number of mobile phone subscribers is expected to reach 29.5 million by 2014, representing a penetration rate of 85 per cent. By then, smartphones will account for half of all mobile handsets in Canada, up from 31 per cent in 2009.

And by next spring, the percentage of Canadians with tablets is expected to double in a single year, to 10 per cent, according to consumer trends...

Read the complete article in the Calgary Herald

SMARTPHONE MARKET GROWS 79.7%

IDC SAYS SMARTPHONE MARKET GROWS 79.7% YEAR-OVER-YEAR IN Q1


According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the worldwide smartphone market grew 79.7% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2011. Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 99.6 million units in Q1 of this year, nearly double the 55.4 million units in the first quarter of 2010. IDC attributes the growth to a combination of vendors releasing highly anticipated models, widespread availability of older smartphones at lower prices, and sustained end-user demand.

More information is available