Tag: Best of

Best Of The Lab 2015: Get Ready To Step Into Virtual Reality

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Welcome to the Lab’s year-end review, looking back at some of our best and most popular posts from 2015.

In the past year, virtual reality technology has garnered great momentum in its development, and we have seen a number of brands and media owners, including Marriott Hotels, Birchbox, JCPenney, and The New York Times, experiment with VR content to entertain and connect with their audiences. Throughout 2015, the Lab team has always kept our finger on the pulse of VR development. In September, we attended the Oculus Connect 2 event to learn more about VR’s imminent future, and we organized a VR-themed Fast Forward event for our fellow agencies and industry insiders earlier this month. With VR technology poised to break into the consumer market in the next few years, is your brand getting ready to engage consumers with immersive VR experiences?

Fast Forward: What You Need To Know From Oculus Connect 2 Event
Get Ready For Consumer VR: Oculus Headset To Ship In Early 2016
InStyle Magazine To Launch A VR-Enhanced Issue

 

Best Of The Lab 2015: Improving Physical Retail With A Digital Touch

Posted on by Lab Team

Welcome to the Lab’s year-end review, looking back at some of our best and most popular posts from 2015.

2015 saw tremendous growth for ecommerce, so much that it has seriously eroded Black Friday sales. But that doesn’t mean it’s all over for the brick-and-mortar retailers. In fact, traditional retailers have been actively incorporating digital components such as beacon technology, mobile payments, and in-store display of social media activities to build out rewarding interactive retail experiences that connect with shoppers. Here are some highlights on how they are improving physical retail with a digital touch.

Fast Forward: How Yext’s Xone Can Reach Black Friday Shoppers On Cyber Monday
JCPenney and Shopkick Inspire Cinderella Moments for Consumers
How Elle Used Proximity And Beacon Tech To Drive 500,000 Retail Store Visits
Ralph Lauren And Sephora Testing Interactive Retail Experiences

 

Best Of The Lab 2015: How To Create Branded Content That Works

Posted on by Lab Team

Welcome to the Lab’s year-end review, looking back at some of our best and most popular posts from 2015.

With the rise of ad-blockers, brand advertisers are increasingly turning away from online banners and looking into new ways to reach consumers. One great way to do so is through branded content. Throughout 2015, the Lab’s research team partnered up with Google and Yahoo to study the effectiveness of branded content on a global scale, to better understand consumer perceptions of branded video content, as well as how to use personalization to find the right audience for your brand content. Take a look at our findings:

IPG Lab + Google Release Deconstructing Branded Content: The Global Guide To What Works
IPG Lab + Google Present Blurred Lines: Creating Content That Works
IPG Lab + Yahoo: Giving Consumers The Personalization They Want

 

Best Of The Lab 2015: How To Cope With The Rise Of Ad-Blockers

Posted on by Lab Team

Welcome to the Lab’s year-end review, looking back at some of our best and most popular posts from 2015.

Ever since Apple added support for content-blocking Safari extensions to iOS 9, ad-blockers rocketed to the front pages and become a hot topic among advertisers and online publishers. While the scope of its impact may still be up for debate, one thing is undeniable: today’s tech-savvy consumers are starting to realize they can avoid ads by using ad-blockers. How will your brand cope? Here are some actionable suggestions from the Lab.

Fast Forward: Ad Blocking in iOS 9 Safari & What You Need to Do
Popular Ad-blocking Extension Adblock Now Allows Whitelisting
Why Ad-Blockers On iOS 9 Might Not Be What You Think
How Adblockers Are Messing Up Retailers’ Websites

 

Best Of The Lab 2015: Social Commerce Is Heating Up

Posted on by Lab Team

Welcome to the Lab’s year-end review, looking back at some of our best and most popular posts from 2015.

One of the key trends from this year was the surge of social commerce, i.e. ecommerce on social media channels. All big social channels came out with some variations of “buy buttons” and made a play for ecommerce dollars. Besides, brands have also been experimenting with new ways to engage with consumers on social channels, either through custom emojis or messaging apps. Is your brand ready to sell on social channels?

On Trend: Social Commerce Heats Up Again With “Buy Buttons”

ABC Uses Custom Hashtag-Emoji Combo To Unlock Previews On Twitter

Chinese Jewelry Retailer Deploys In-Store Beacons Via WeChat

 

Best Of The Lab 2014: The Two New Media Platforms

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 The past year has witnessed the rise of several new media platforms, with connected car and wearables as the top two standouts that we expect to shine even brighter in the coming year. Head over to our auto trend report to learn the full potential of connected cars, then cap it off with our coverage of the crazy fun Minuum keyboard for smart watches.

Outlook 2014: Automotive Trends

Now You Can Text On A Smartwatch, If You Want To

Thus concludes our Best of 2014 reviews. Happy Holidays! We’ll see you again soon with our upcoming CES coverage in 2 weeks.

 

Best Of The Lab 2014: Mobile Payment Has Arrived

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With the arrival of Apple Pay, 2014 is without doubt a watershed year for mobile payment. Boosting convenience and security, it is set to transform the very way we buy things in coming years. You can reacquaint yourself with everything you need to know about Apple Pay, before diving into our in-depth mobile payment POV to learn more about the future of payment and commerce.

6 Things You Need To Know About The New “Apple Pay”

Paying with Your Phone: The Present & Future of Mobile Payment

Street Flight’s Top-10 Hyperlocal Marketing Campaign Of 2014

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Street Flight just presented the best location-based marketing campaigns of 2014. Here’s a one-sentence-each breakdown of their Top 10 pick.

In-store Retail

  1. Goodwill used location marketplace xAd’s SmartAudience and SmartFencing products to boost direct contributions at the community non-profit’s national donation center.
  2. American Eagle gave Shopkick’s iBeacon in-store marketing program a shot in October, to some encouraging results.
  3. Thanks to its Swirl-powered in-store beacon program, Lord & Taylor pointed to a 60 percent engagement rate and a 30 percent redemption rate for beacon-triggered offers since July.
  4. GameStop stores fought back against showrooming by working with Shelfbucks’ beacon system.
  5. Packaged foods marketer Hillshire Brands crafted a national in-store mobile campaign that used beacons and geo-fences to drive sales this past spring.

Local Digitals

  1. Pandora layered geo- and demographic targeting that drove an 18 percent year-over-year rise in the number of Lasik evaluations to capture local radio ad dollars.
  2. Taylor Guitars’ Road Show 2014 Campaign relied on Verve’s geo-fencing and “geo-aware” banner ads to attract audiences to events.
  3. The Weather Channel teamed with location analytics company Placed to decide on what ads to run in certain hyperlocal areas.
  4. Spark brought geo-data specialist PlaceIQ to help deliver skiers to the Montana resorts.
  5. ReachLocal presented its ReachEdge software system, the company’s online presence management program, to Cupertino Plumbing.

 

Head over to StreetFight for more information on each campaign.

Best Of The Lab 2014: OTT Flourishes As Big Data Gets Personal

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The past year saw monumental growth for the over-the-top (OTT) market, as more brands and content providers jumped in this flourishing market. You can read our extensively researched white paper to learn about the OTT revolution happening in our living room.

Meanwhile, everything you do online is duly noted as part of your personal big data. Check out our joint study with 140 Proof on how and why people manage social profiles across multiple platforms.

What the Living Room Revolution Means to Brands

140 Proof and IPG Lab Present A Network For Every Interest

Best Of The Lab 2014: Seize The Moments That Matter

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 Here at the Lab, we are always looking for emerging technologies that capture the attention of audiences at the most effective moments. Kicking off 2014, we experimented with incorporating micro-games at point-of-sale using Vengo’s vendor machines, which produced some quite promising findings.

Fast forward to June, we teamed up with Kiip and conducted a mobile engagement study that reveals that moments-based advertising increases purchase intent. We then joined forces with YuMe to explore measures of receptivity and attentiveness, with the findings neatly presented in a short video.

IPG Lab + Kiip Release Moments That Matter Study

Experimental Ad Product: Sponsored Micro-games At Point-Of-Sale

Bonus Video: IPG Media Lab And YuMe Present: Pursuit of Audience Attention