Combining the digital and physical worlds enhances both.
Let’s get phygital is not a song by Olivia Newton-John. It is about how your organization can leverage the blending of the physical and digital worlds.
For most of history, we were a physical society. We met in person and all interactions occurred with physical products. Then, as technology became more accessible to the masses, we moved to a digital world. People became increasingly disconnected from the real world as they spent their time on their phones, tablets, and computers.
During the pandemic, the pendulum swung even further towards digital, as meeting in person became more difficult.
But the real opportunity is in the blending of technology and the real world. As we become increasingly detached from the physical world, people are now craving in-person face-to-face human interaction – combined with digital technologies.
One simple, fun, and older example of this is the “Twizzard.” During Black Friday weekend in 2014, Mall of America, used Twitter to power a snowstorm inside the Minneapolis-area retail complex. The more people tweeted with the #twizzard hashtag that weekend, the lower the temperature got on a digital thermometer in the center of the mall. When there were enough tweets and the temperature hit freezing, the skies opened and it started to snow INSIDE the mall. Continue reading >>
Yesterday I submitted the manuscript for my next book to early readers. Although this is book number seven, I am using a different strategy than I have in the past.
