Amazing memories from Lappi, back to work with Meini VR & Vid Octopus!
- Dec 8, 2017
- 5 min read
Week 48 & 49 (27/11 – 10/12)
Hello everyone!
Welcome again to my blog! Let me give you some feedback about the two past weeks. I came back from Lappi on Wednesday 29 at 7 am. We were all very exhausted from the trip, but we all came back with amazing memories! We did crazy activities in Lapland like husky & reindeer safari, a short trip to Norway to swim in the arctic sea after the sauna, a night walk with snowshoes in savage conditions, a visit to Santa Claus village & the Ranua Zoo, a full day of ski and of course big parties almost every night. Obviously, I couldn’t attend Monday’s class the 27 November.
The next lecture on Thursday was cancelled because the teachers chose to give us more time to prepare our presentations. It might look like we had no lectures that week, but I can assure you that we worked on our presentation we had to give next week for VidOctopus. On Friday, we had a skype call with Faheem to receive feedback on the report we made. Globally, it was very good feedback. The meeting was quickly over, we only got two parts to work on, and to improve.
On Monday 4 December, we did our final VidOctopus presentation. I was very happy about the result. I think we did a great job. Our presentation was clear, there were no questions after it, and we made our point.
Group 1 started with the presentations for Oliver. Their idea was to make a whole new website, and to change Oliver’s point of view. I think it’s a good idea, but it will change a lot for Oliver. The next presentation was also for him. Given by group 5, they told him to see himself as a person, that he had to work on the website, and that he had an advantage about not being a Fin that he could use to make his work unique.
The third group, number 7, was the last presentation for Oliver. They made a very nice customer’s journey for Oliver, and gave him some nice ideas about partnerships with big brands. Then, we moved on to OneStream with group 3. They told the company to keep up their search engines, and to use SEO. In my opinion, the hashtag idea could also work.
My group’s presentation was for VidOctopus. After us came the 3 groups with their own business ideas. Group 8 explained us their own “Malla” clothes business. They focus on the ecological side of it, on web design, and they want to have a really good video marketing around their brand. I really like their style actually.
The next group had an idea about kindergarten services. He wanted to use Pandas as brand logo. He explained us his Christmas theme launching event, a few planned promotions & how he wanted to use bloggers. The last project is called Memorator. It’s from group 1 and it is around books. The main purpose is to receive, and sell books that have already been used.
After those presentations, we receive one last assignment from a new company. Meini owns a platform that helps educators to use Augmented and Virtual Reality technologies to make their lessons better. One quick example of augmented reality is Pokemon Go. I guess, no need to explain what that is. They are active in Finland, the UK, and India. Our job was to find out which of the 5 main social media they should prioritize on, and what social media marketing plan they should prepare. We had to ask teachers and students which platforms they used, how did they find lessons content and how they used it.
Can you imagine that nowadays, 200 billion dollars is implemented in VR, but only 10% used in classrooms? Meini told us that the gap between makes and users is still way too big.
I have to mention that Wednesday was Independence Day! 6 December 2017 was the 100 years of Finland's independence! We saw an amazing firework, and the whole city was illuminated with blue lights.
On Thursday 7 December, we presented our task to figure out a social media strategy on different platforms, and to build awareness around VR & AR.
I presented with Jyri from my group, and we did a perfect first presentation. It was short, but intensive. Every information we gave could be used by the company. They asked us a few questions, and we answered them very well. I’m very satisfied about my performance.
Presentation 2 by group 1 made the following point: the VR trend is still starting, and it has not good visibility yet. It’s still hard for us to use. They advised to focus on Facebook.
The next group also focused on Facebook. They gave very interesting statistics, but they had their doubts about VR in our classes. They saw it more as a toy than a tool.
Group 4 focused on the marketing bigger picture. They want Meini to offer educational content, not only sell the idea. They focus on one educational tool first, and they advise to focus on Aalto University that has its own VR sector. A partnership would give good image for the platform launch. Meini also has to simplify the product on distant learning, to make it easier to understand. Their group focused on LinkedIn because it’s the first for business, even though Facebook is really good for teachers & students.
Next group was number five. They had one slide with content. YouTube was their choice and they showed a quick example of an animated video that explained how to promote VR with YouTube tools (PownTool).
Group 6 wanted the wow-factor to be the focus. They asked a video approach with teaching, and 360 degrees content. YouTube should be the first, then shared on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. They also advised to contact social media’s active teachers to promote the product or influencers to make a trend. A TED speech was also one of their good ideas.
The next presentation by group 7 used stars or known people that are involved in education. They made a point that VR gives 95% of information compared to 10% while reading, which, in my opinion, is a very strong argument. VR uses most of the brain’s parts for memorization. That group also wanted to involve governments because they rule education, and Finland has the best education system so they have to be the first innovating. They chose Instagram because a picture is worth a thousand words. I really liked their idea to use AR Instagram filters focused for students.
The last group chose YouTube. They want Meini to stay close to the product. SEO is an important tool. One of their idea was to choose a school, and let them use the service for free as a campaign that would be streamed live.
I think all those presentations were very interesting. We all had completely different point of views, and we all gave strong arguments about our choices. I hope Meini now has a lot of ideas, and things to focus on. Their choice won’t be easy to make, but they have strong reasons for every choice they could make. This blog post summarizes the two past weeks because we didn’t have any lecture during one of those weeks. It was more interesting to write both together so you would get more content. It was also my last blog post! I’m leaving Finland to go back to Belgium next week. I had an amazing, unforgettable time here during my Erasmus. It was one of my greatest experiences in my life. So, I would like to thank you all for supporting me, reading me, teaching me, working with me, advising me and to everyone I met during those 4 crazy months. Thank you very much! I hope I will come back one day! If any of you come to Belgium, let me know, I can give some nice tips ;)
Bye & thanks again!
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