Category: General Content

IBM Partners With Visa To Make Its Waston IoT Platform Commerce-Ready

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
IBM will equip its Watson IoT platform with Visa’s token technology to allow trusted connected devices to complete online orders for users within preconfigured permissions. This partnership will allow IBM to integrate Visa’s token service, which assigns a unique digital identifier to information found on payment cards, with connected devices that are plugged into IBM’s cloud infrastructure. The end result is a lot like Amazon’s Dash Replenishment Service (DRS), only replacing the need for a physical push to trigger the purchases with automation enabled by IBM’s cloud computing and Watson’s A.I. smarts.

What Brands Need To Do
While this partnership hasn’t developed any consumer-facing product yet, both companies see new business models emerging from the inspection of IoT and ecommerce. For example, a retailer can leverage this platform to manage their in-store stocks and optimizing the restocking process. CPG brands, on the other hand, could explore the possibility of leveraging this new platform to bring auto-replenishing packages into consumers’ homes. As A.I.-powered solutions start to percolate into a wide range of devices and platforms, brands will need to pay attention to the new possibility in automation and personalization they are set to unleash across industries.

 

Source: ZDNet

HBO Launches Campaign On Whisper To Turn Secrets Into Branded Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
HBO has launched a hybrid content campaign to generate buzz for its upcoming new series Little Big Lies. Partnering with anonymous secret-sharing social network Whisper, which has since pivoted into a “digital media publisher that helps brands develop content,” HBO will images from “Big Little Lies” will pair with people creating Whisper posts about lies they told.  Whisper employs machine-learning technology to analyze the site’s data and identify the most popular posts. The popular and most interesting ones will then be curated into stories and videos to be posted on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Whisper’s homepage.

What Brands Need To Do
This campaign smartly combines organic user-generated content with branded content (in this case, images from the show) and repackage them into share-worthy content with the help of algorithms powered by machine learning. With subpar mobile ad experience drives many users to use ad-blockers, it is becoming more and more difficult for brands to reach their desired audience via traditional digital ads. In fact, a new study shows that over 40% of millennials now browse the internet on a device that has an ad blocker enabled. Therefore, brands should take a cue from this HBO campaign and be open to exploring new forms of advertising such as sponsored or branded content.

 

Source: AdAge

Jaguar Partners With Shell To Launch In-Car Payment App At U.K. Gas Stations

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Soon, Jaguar drivers in the U.K. will be able to pay for their gas refills without leaving their cars. The British auto maker announced on Wednesday that it is rolling out a “world’s first” in-car payment system that enables drivers to fuel up their vehicles and pay via the integrated Shell app on the car’s touchscreen dashboard.

Based on Shell’s existing “Fill Up & Go” payment app, the new integrated payment app uses location data to determine which gas station you are at and allows for one-tap authorization through a saved payment method. Jaguar will roll out the app via an over-the-air software update to select Jaguar models starting this week.

What Brands Need To Do
This partnership serves as one recent example of auto brands working to enhance driving experiences with connected services. As connected car technologies continue to mature, auto brands will need to seek out suitable technology and brand partners to build out the services enabled by in-car connectivity. For other brands, this represents new opportunities for them to reach customers behind the wheel and in the back seats by establishing an in-car touchpoint and integrating loyalty programs via similar partnerships.

 

Source: Engadget

Wells Fargo Is Developing A Voice Payments Service

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Wells Fargo is working on a voice-based interface that will let customers handle their basic banking needs and transferring funds via speech command. While the San Francisco-based bank says the service is still in development and will be ready in “a shorter time frame than three to five years,” it is also exploring how to further apply artificial intelligence in developing conversational banking abilities, as well as its biometric authentication practices central for mobile voice banking to work.

What Brands Need To Do
Previously, several banks and financial services have dipped their toes into conversational interfaces to better serve their customer. Capital One has created an Alexa skill to let customers check their balances while Bank of America is set to launch a voice assistant service named Erica later this year as a mobile app. Last week, PayPal launched its first Slack bot to allow users to send each other up to $10,000 with one message. With consumers become getting accustomed to voice interfaces, brands will need to explore opportunities in building advanced applications for these emerging platforms with highly engaging user experiences and conversational interactions.

How We Can Help
The Lab has extensive experience in building Alexa Skills and chatbots to reach consumers on conversational interfaces. So much so that we’ve built a dedicated conversational practice called Dialogue. The “Miller Time” Alexa Skill we developed with Drizly for Miller Lite is a good example of how Dialogue can help brands build a conversational customer experience, supercharged by our stack of technology partners with best-in-class solutions and an insights engine that extracts business intelligence from conversational data.

If you’d like to learn more about how to effectively reach consumers on conversational interfaces, or to leverage the Lab’s expertise to take on related client opportunities within the IPG Mediabrands, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: Digiday

 

Taco Bell Rings Wedding Bells For Its Next Live Streaming Event

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
To promote the grand opening of its Las Vegas Strip location, Taco Bell has launched an ambitious social campaign that will culminate with a real wedding in the fast-service restaurant’s new Las Vegas flagship store.

Aiming to stage a spectacle that will drive traffic to the restaurant location, Taco Bells is asking prospective newlyweds to share their love stories on social media with the hashtag #LoveAndTacosContest. The entries will then be able to public votes, and the company will select a winning couple on March 1st for an all-expenses-paid trip to Vegas to get hitched in its restaurant. Taco Bell plans to live stream the ceremony for fans worldwide, and Taco Bell customers who voted in the contest will be invited to attend in person.

What Brands Need To Do
While this is certainly a bit on the side of “out there” as far as branded events go, this campaign is illustrative of brands’ increasing need to come up with bold and creative ways to stage live events so as to grab consumer attention in today’s fragmented media landscape. This campaign cleverly ties the event to a physical store location to drive local traffic while also incorporating live streaming to amplify the reach of the event. As live videos quickly become a crucial component of social media marketing, brand marketers need to think outside the box to come up with share-worthy events that can capture the mobile audience and get them talking.

 

 

Source: GeoMarketing

 

Facebook Announced Free Video App For Apple TV And Amazon Fire TV [Updated]

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
After a week of speculations, Facebook has finally confirmed that it will be soon launching a free video app for OTT streaming devices such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV devices, and Samsung Smart TV,  with more platforms to come. This way, viewers will be able to watch the videos they already see on Facebook on their TV screens. In addition, Facebook also added some tweaks to video playback, including defaulting the autoplay videos to play with the sound on, picture-in-picture video when people want to watch a video while scrolling, as well as a wide rollout of vertical video format.

Update: On March 1st, Facebook officially released new Video app for fourth-gen Apple TV.

What Brands Need To Do
This announcement reaffirms Facebook’s commitment to building out its video offering in order to vy for a bigger piece of the ad dollars pouring into digital video. Earlier this month, the social network announced an expansion of partnerships with third-party ad tech companies, promising to provide advertisers more data and a clear comparison between social ads and TV ads. And these new video initiatives are all about positioning Facebook as a video destination across platforms.

Once launched, the app would offer brand advertisers a valuable new video channel to leverage Facebook’s audience data to reach targeted customers. As Facebook continues its push into the digital video space and challenges YouTube for a piece of the growing video ad budget, brands should carefully consider their video strategies and take into account Facebook’s growing video ad products.

 

Source: Facebook Newsroom

Snuggle Turns To User-Generated Videos For Valentine’s Day Campaign

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Fabric softener brand Snuggle found a lovely way to generate branded content that people want to share – by lending the voice of its mascot Snuggle Bear to people looking to create their own Valentine’s Day video. The company launched a dedicated website that allows people to generate a customized serenading video by select a classic love song and uploading up to four photos of the recipient. The site will then generate a short video with the Snuggle Bear singing the song and the uploaded photos displayed throughout the video. Since the launch of the campaign on Jan. 21, over 50,000 customized videos have been created and the effort has reached an estimated audience of over 140 million.

What Brands Need To Do
A recent study from Marvck shows that user-generated content drives nearly seven times higher engagement than video ads on Facebook. And this new campaign from Snuggle serves as a good example of how crucial it is for brands to inject some customizable options into their branded content to make it more appealing and engaging to consumers. With more and more companies start to explore the vast potential of machine learning and AI-powered solutions, including the capability of transforming customer data into insights for personalization, it is time for brand marketers to start thinking about new ways to engage digital audiences with customizable, dynamic branded content.

 

Source: Marketing Dive

Header image courtesy of Snuggle’s YouTube video

Rebecca Minkoff Debuts Handbags That Unlock Access To Fashion Show

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Ahead of its Fashion Week show taking place in L.A. last weekend, fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff launched 10 limited edition “Midnighter”-style, “connected” handbags at an exclusive pop-up shop at The Grove. Each handbag comes with a scannable tag that unlocks a ticket to the brand’s spring/summer 2017 runway event. This The initiative is one of the first products to come out the brand’s partnership with fashion branding service Avery Dennison and IoT platform EVRYTHNG, as a part of the companies’ #BornDigital concept that aims to digitize 10 billion items of clothing and accessories over the next three years.

What Brands Need To Do
This is the latest example of fashion brands leveraging IoT and wearable technologies to enhance their design and engage with digital-minded customers. Rebecca Minkoff has been consistently tech-forward in its marketing efforts, previously introducing a new line on Snapchat and leveraging VR and AR technologies to attract online shoppers and promote its Fashion Week event. While this “connected handbag” is admittedly very low-tech in comparison, it nevertheless showcases the tech-savvy marketing strategies the brand employs. More fashion and CPG brands can benefit from adopting a similar approach of using connectivity as a marketing hook and unlock added value for customers at a premium.

 

Source: Forbes

Molson Canadian Packs VR Viewers Into Its Beer Cases

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Canadian brewing company Molson is targeting hockey fans with a VR hockey experience that they can unlock with the makeshift VR viewers that Molson is including in some of its beer cases. Lucky customers will be able to use the VR viewer to watch six upcoming NHL games in 360-degree view from a front-row seat. The company partnered with sports media company Sportsnet to distribute the VR content via the latter’s VR compatible mobile app.

What Brands Need To Do
The immersive power of VR makes it a natural match for sports viewing, and Molson is smart to strike the media partnership with Sportsnet to cash in on the growing consumer interests in VR and 360-degree content. With the quickening pace of VR content development and an increasing number of ad platforms testing new formats in VR and 360 video, brands need to start working with content creators today to produce branded 360-degree and VR content.

How We Can Help
Our dedicated team of VR experts is here to guide marketers through the distribution landscape. We work closely with brands to develop sustainable VR content strategies to promote branded VR and 360 video content across various apps and platforms. With our proprietary technology stack powered by a combination of best-in-class VR partners and backed by the media fire-power of IPG Mediabrands, we offer customized solutions for distributing and measuring branded VR content that truly enhance brand messaging and contribute to the campaign objectives.

If you’d like to learn more about how the Lab can help you tap into the immersive power of VR content to engage with customers, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland (s[email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: NHL

Cathay Pacific Gifts Loyalty Members With Personalized Artwork Based On Travel Data

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Cathay Pacific is sending its loyalty program members a unique birthday gift – a piece of contemporary artwork created by a special algorithm based on their travel data. Working with McCann Worldgroup, the airline is presenting members of its Marco Polo club a mini-site that visualizes their travel in the past year into a abstract painting, which also comes with built-in options for people to easily share their personalized “artmaps” via social media.

What Brands Need To Do
This serves as a new example of how brands can find interesting ways to utilize the customer data they collect for marketing purposes other than retargeting. By employing a low-level artificial intelligence – in this case, a computer algorithm that generates artwork based on travel data – Cathay Pacific is able to transform data into something personal and share-worthy to its most valued customers.

As marketers continue to explore the possibility that machine learning and AI bring to marketing by powering conversational services and next-level personalizations. brands need to start identifying the kind of unique dataset that they own and feed it into machine learning services to either learn more about their customers or deliver a more personalized customer experience.

 

Source: Creativity Online