Example offerings for the planned moments: Wow and Flow

Moments of hope, desire, or unease make people's willingness to pay suddenly skyrocket, these moments represent an untapped market opportunity for the telecom industry. In part 2 we looked at the drivers behind our four different types of moments – Wow, Flow, Done and Win – to show you how they work, and what makes them different from each other. But how do you turn them into offerings you can sell?

Here, in part 3, we will zoom in on the planned moments – Wow and Flow – and show you examples of market offerings that can help you target these moments. How do they deliver value, how are they different, and how do you get them to market? Let’s see.

Planned moment offerings are bought in advance – well before they are needed – and are easier to predict in time, place, and requirements. The fact that you can control more variables and have time to plan makes these moments the easiest to get started with.

Many Wow moments happen at events. They are usually known about months in advance and take place in a specific venue, giving you time to plan, set-up, and test your offering well before going live. You can start with one arena and then take it to others.

Flow offerings are bought preemptively and should offer a very specific guarantee. The known, narrow scope helps you set clear requirements. In the beginning, you can limit your Flow offerings to specific areas and then bring it to new locations over time.

Wow moments are all about using differentiated connectivity to enhance, even transform other experiences. Let’s look at how we can use this idea to create an offering that makes aspiring influencers – and their followers – go “wow!” at a concert:

“The competition is fierce for aspiring influencers, like me. This upcoming concert is the hottest thing going. It’s my opportunity to share something amazing and unique with my followers – make a splash. With so much riding on the event, everything has to be perfect.”

The influencer Wow prop

This influencer Wow package is straightforward. Even at the crowded arena, influencers will be able to share posts and live stream a great show to their followers, in high def, without any glitches, thanks to the network priority and streaming QoS guarantee you provide. The VIP concert ticket also makes sure they have exciting things to share with their fans.

What makes this offering different?

This is not just connectivity; it’s a lifestyle accessory for influencers. Sharing and streaming is their lifeblood. With your wow offering, they know that it’s going to work for them. It’s this certainty that they’re paying for. Here, it’s important to find a simple way to convey that the 5G they’re getting at the arena is different from their regular connection. This is what builds the extra willingness to pay. In this example, we called the offering “A 5G VIP pass”, to build on something familiar, and tie it in with the context. But a quick look at other premium offerings will help you find your own way to differentiate your offerings.

How do I bring it to market?

The easiest way to create an influencer Wow package like this one is to partner with a concert promoter. Add your differentiated connectivity offering to their existing VIP concert packages – and voìla: you’ve transformed it into an influencer package. The concert promoters know how to create VIP packages and solve any contractual questions with streaming rights. You get time to plan and set up your part of the offering. Sell the offering to your subscribers via your own channels. Pricing? A VIP concert ticket can cost €200 or even more. How much do you think it’s worth to an influencer? Is it 10% extra, or 25%?

What else could I do?

This is just one example of how you could create a Wow moment offering. With some adaptation, the same idea can be applied to other types of events. For sports, you could use differentiated connectivity to deliver multi-view video with reruns and zoom ins of dramatic events to create a Wow moment. But you could also use it to provide priority connectivity for airport lounge visitors. Almost any situation where people anticipate and expect a great experience, can also be turned into a Wow moment.

In Flow moments we use differentiated connectivity to give the user the best possible assurance that something will work, when they really need it. Let’s see how this could help small vendors, at markets and events, make the most out of their important moment:

“A three-day festival with tens of thousands of visitors. I’m prepped to the teeth. I’ve got enough food to feed an army. This is my chance to make some serious money. Maybe even enough to start doing this for a living. If the payment terminal doesn’t act up – again”

The market and event vendor Flow prop

There are two pieces to this vendor flow offering: The first is a smartphone app that uses NFC to read all sorts of contactless payment types and then software-based payment processing. The second is a differentiated connectivity connection connection that ensures that payment transactions get network priority and get processed as fast as possible.

What makes this offering different?

App-based payment processing over differentiated 5G is as fast, easy, and secure as it gets. There are already lots of payment providers, but nearly all payment terminals still use Wi-Fi and 2G-4G. Even regular 5G gives an advantage over them. It handles congestion at markets, events, and other crowded places much better. Differentiated connectivity takes it further still. Give the transactions priority, set the latency and performance they need, then route them straight to clearing. Now, you’re delivering the fastest and most reliable payment processing around, an offering that makes a direct difference for the vendor’s bottom line.

How do I bring it to market?

There are payment processing apps that you can get off the shelf that will help you get started quickly. Competing offerings usually charge a low monthly fee for the payment terminal. The big cost is hidden in the transaction fees, ranging from about 1.0-3.5%. Use your company size to negotiate an attractive deal for your customers, to make your offering more competitive. Any savings there, quickly give you room to charge a higher fixed rate for your offering. Target local events and use your own channels to find customers in your existing subscriber base. Charge a daily rate or offer event packages.

What else could I do?

There are, of course, lots of other situations and users you could target with Flow offerings, but let’s stick with payments for now. If you add dedicated 5G payment terminals to the flow offering, you could target a wider range of businesses. Add-ons, like receipt printers, cloud-based reporting (or API integration), varying transaction fees, and levels of support let you create offering tiers. Alternately, you can approach existing payment providers with a flow offering, that lets them differentiate from competitors.