Posts

Laura Kavanagh

Generative AI: What Marketers Should Know

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What robotics did for manufacturing in the early 20th century, AI is set to do for the knowledge economy in the 21st.

In November 2022, we saw the launch of of ChatGPT, the conversational AI chatbot from OpenAI. The chatbot garnered 1 million users in just 5 days – faster than any social platform to date – bringing AI directly to consumers in It’s meteoric rise in popularity is likely to eclipse even that of TikTok (Prof. Scott Galloway, NYU).

While AI technology has been around for many years, it is on the precipice of becoming mainstream for both consumers and in industry, particularly advertising. Bots like ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 have exploded in recent months, and industry watchers are predicting the tech will soon disrupt nearly every aspect of marketing, from creative ideation and copywriting to targeting ads. But there’s a lot more to explore about this new tech, including its current use cases, its shortcomings, and its dangers.

What is Generative AI?

In essence, the dialogue-based chatbot has been described as a super-capable search engine that can provide clear, instant and humanlike responses for a wide range of queries. Generative AI is an umbrella term that covers the kinds of models that have gotten a lot of attention recently: those that go beyond information processing and instead move into novel content creation like essays, blogs, music, poetry, computer code, images and more. You may have heard of some of the more popular generative AI platforms like DALL-E 2, Jasper, Midjourney, Lensa, and of course ChatGPT. All of them have slightly different functionality, but all achieve novel and intelligent content generation.

Why does it matter to me?

Marketers are already experimenting with generative AI platforms to see how it might be able to benefit their business. Perhaps the most common use case thus far has been creative ideation, and at a much faster clip than it would normally take a team of creatives. For example, if an agency is in the brainstorming stage for a new campaign, it can plug relevant queries into DALL-E 2 and have hudnreds of ideas in seconds. The same goes for ChatGPT, which can produce polished ad copy for any concept.

Some marketers are already using these models to create ready-to-go advertisements. Canadian agency Rethink ran a campaign last year featuring hero images of Ketchup that had been genenrated by DALL-E 2.

Earlier this month, Ryan Reynolds debuted an ad for his wireless brand Mint Mobile that was partially penned by ChatGPT. Going forward, marketers expect new and increasingly concrete applications to become available as generative AI develops.

Any Concerns?

There are a few. The most pressing concern of generative AI is with misinformation. Since these models are only as good as the data they are trained on, if that data is false or biased or somehow corrupted, then their generated content will be so as well. AI platforms are also not necessarily up to date on the facts. ChatGPT, for example, is limited to knowledge of 2021 data. When queried about crypto firm FTX—which collapsed last fall—the model still describes it as one of the most popular exchanges, as well as having high liquidity.

Issues of plagiarism are another concern, especially with regard to image generators. All of the data the models have been trained on comes from somewhere and someone, and without knowing it, an agency could create images that directly crib the style of an artist. This is why copyright will likely play a sizable role in the future of AI technologies.

Finally, and with special significance to marketers, generative AI could open new questions of data privacy. Technologists are already proclaiming how AI will disrupt targeted advertising once companies can upload their data to a model’s neural network. But how will consumers feel that a highly intelligent computer knows all kinds of information about them and can create an unlimited amount of novel content from that information, some of which may very likely be manipulative? These questions and more will be explored as AI develops.

The big picture: Marketers will need to take advantage of AI and keep an open mind to its changes. But taking advantage of AI doesn’t mean sinking creative teams. Rather, AI will foster an era of human use of machines to optimize outcomes, just like digital art did before it. 

In our view, the places of immediate implication are AI in Search, AI for Content creation and AI in E-Commerce.

AI in Search: The generative AI capability could prove disruptive for engines like Google.  Not because it can out-Google Google but because its answer, and the simple uncluttered way it delivers them, might sometimes be preferable to search results.  And that could dent search engine usage.  We don’t think Google is going away, but we do think this will impact Search behavior.

AI in Content: The benefit here is through automated content generation, improved content quality, increased content variety and personalized content.  Overall leading to more relevant content for the customer and higher engagement with the brand.

AI in E-commerce: There are 4 main ways AI will affect this.  1st, in Copywriting, AI can generate Ad copy in seconds, which can make content on sites and social media more relevant to the user.  2nd, it will allow retailers to provide immediate assistance through chatbots and virtual assistants to help consumers navigate the purchase.  3rd, through personalization.  Think accurate product recommendations based on the customer behavior and shopping history.  And finally with inventory management, using the technology to predict customer demand.

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Serviceplan Group

A Future Role of Technology in Customer Experience

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Organisations have come to realise that, in an age where everything is available to everyone, customer centricity is key and experience has become the X factor. The focus is on technology, with artificially intelligent algorithms and new interfaces to meet the needs of the customer. But how can we ensure that we don’t “just digitise” and that people and their needs remain in the foreground? An analysis by customer centricity and artificial intelligence expert Nancy Rademaker.

In our current digital world, keeping the human at the centre of everything is a big challenge for most organisations. Living up to the ever-increasing expectations of the customer is not always easy to do and will require continuous investments and adaptations. Even though technology can act as a huge enabler to deliver the utmost convenience, transparency and personalisation, how can we make sure we don’t “just digitalise”, but keep the true human connection as a priority?

Emotional Data

AI Technology that can recognise our human emotions and tailor the response accordingly.

The Ambiguity of Human Connection

There are two sides to this problem and they are related to the ambiguity within the notion of ‘human connection’. One aspect that defines us is that we always long for a strong connection with our fellow humans. We literally want to get in touch with others. We want to have physical conversations. The pandemic has of course reinforced this in a dramatic way. I like to refer to this as the ‘connection of the FEW’, the dialogues we have (mostly between two people) in which empathy, emotions and non-verbal signals play a crucial role. Next to this, we also long for connection in a broader sense. As humans, we have an intrinsic need for a sense of belonging. In the past this used to be local – our family, friends and peers – but with technology playing a much bigger role, it has evolved to a more regional, national or even global setting. One in which we are constantly looking for communities we can connect to and where we can converse with like-minded people. The nature of this ‘connection of the MANY’ is much more remote and its dynamics are very different from the first meaning.

Technology Enabling Human Connection?

How to deal with these two faces of connection as a retailer? How can technology help – if it can help at all? If we look at the connections of the many, these have of course been massively enabled through the social media platforms that have been on the rise for the past decade. According to Hootsuite, internet users worldwide spend around 2.5 hours on these social media (by the way, the West is lagging behind here!), and this number is rising every single month. Technology has enabled us all to influence and be influenced 24/7. We share our adventures, our purchases and our personal emotions with whomever wants to read them. Our social ‘status’ is determined by the number of views, shares and likes. The big platforms got us ‘hooked’ on this sense of belonging and brands are using it to the max to create tribes of followers to increase their brand reputation.

But will we settle JUST for the connection of the many? Of course not. We want to interact with individuals, and we want to be treated as individuals as well. As customers, whether it be in B2C or B2B, we value highly personalised interactions. In fact, we EXPECT highly personalised interactions. We no longer settle for some generic recommendation; we want it to be tailored to our exact personal needs and preferences. For most companies, this turned out to be quite a challenge, and fortunately technology has come to the rescue. Once all the relevant data – the absurdly BIG data – are collected, smart algorithms powered by artificial intelligence can accurately predict what we as customers want (even if we may not consciously be aware of it ourselves!). Knowing what your customer’s favourite channel is truly matters. Delivering seamless experiences ACROSS channels will soon matter even more.

Now the question arises, is all this ENOUGH to deliver a great customer experience? Is it enough to make it easy for me to buy stuff or make reservations online? Is it enough if the recommendations consider all my personal data and behaviours? Isn’t the essence of our human ‘being’ that we are emotional beings? Could it be that technology can NOT personalise our experiences enough, because it is unable to take our current emotions into account as well?

The Next Frontier

This is where emotional AI comes in: AI technology that can recognise our human emotions and tailor the response accordingly. Leveraging our ‘emotional data’ will have increasing priority for many companies. Amazon, for instance, introduced the Halo, a new wearable device that constantly monitors your tone of voice to detect your emotional state. Amazon claims this is to track your health and wellness, but just imagine the wealth of data they acquire in this way.

But there are more elements than just our voice. Parallel Dots has developed technology to help detect sentiment or emotion in written text, which can be used to make written responses more accurate. Companies like Intraface and Affectiva can analyse facial expressions to detect people’s emotional reactions in real time, which can for instance help to determine how they react to specific scenes in movies or TV shows and where to put certain ads. The Affectiva technology is also being used in cars, with numerous applications to augment in-vehicle experiences. Just imagine the climate, scent, light or music in your car being adapted to your mood…

Many hurdles will have to be overcome for emotional data to be handled correctly. Not only are they more intangible and sensitive than our ‘regular’ personal data, but we will also need to consider cultural differences in expressing emotions, multiple reactions at once (e.g. with several passengers in a car), and external elements influencing people’s voices or face muscles. Until technology can solve the problem of human connection completely, especially in a one-on-one setting, we will remain in great need of human employees to take care of this. And to be truly honest, as a customer I am still very happy doing business with actual PEOPLE!

This artice first appeared in TWELVE, Serviceplan Group’s magazine for brands, media and communication. In the eighth issue, you will find further inspiring articles, essays and interviews by and with prominent guest authors and renowned experts centred around the magazine’s theme “A human-driven future: How humans are shaping the digital world of tomorrow”. The e-paper is available here.

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Klaus Schwab

Painting by numbers: Why AI can do creative too

There’s no longer any doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) can be creative. The question now is exactly what role AI is capable of playing in the creative process. Will this role be limited to that of any other tool, like a paintbrush or a camera? Or could AI become the muse, or even the independent originator of new creations? Could it even be responsible for the extinction of artistic directors as a species? If so, when?

For the time being at least, I can reassure my colleagues that their jobs are safe. Nonetheless, it might be wise for them to start getting on the right side of this new co-worker. Even though the beginnings of AI development go all the way back to the 1950s, it’s only today that exponential development of the three “ABC factors” is enabling it to really gather pace (for the uninitiated: A is for algorithms, B is for big data, and C is for computer chips). That’s why the time has now come for every sector and every company to ask itself how artificial intelligence should be transposed and integrated into its everyday activities.

Within marketing, applications for AI have so far been concentrated primarily in the areas of predictive analytics (for example, for providing recommendations in online shops), personalisation (for example, for individually-tailored newsletters), linguistic assistance, and automation (for example, in media planning). Another important area of marketing, which has so far been almost entirely ignored, is creativity. This is often entrusted only to human hands, and portrayed as an unassailable fortress. With sophisticated puns, poetry, sentimental melodies, magnificent graphics, and everything else that stirs our emotions, there’s surely no way that the processors of a cold machine could ever dream up creative content – is there?

Perhaps we shouldn’t be so sure. For there are already numerous examples today of how artificial intelligence can support, expand, or even imitate human creativity – and the numbers keep growing.

AI can write

How many journalists relish the prospect of laboriously scrolling through the same stock market updates, sporting results, and weather forecasts every day? No problem: the responsibility for texts like these that follow a fixed format can now be shouldered by AI – and without the reader being able to tell the difference. Who knows when robo-journalism will lead to the first advertising texts written by machines, or copy-CADs, as they’ve already been dubbed?

AI can speak

Adobe hasn’t only created the world’s most important program for image editing in the form of Photoshop, but has been hard at work on human speech as well: Adobe VoCo is Photoshop for voice files. After only 20 minutes of listening to a person talk, the program’s AI is capable of fully imitating their voice. VoCo doesn’t simply stitch together snippets of words already spoken by its human subject either, but is instead capable of pronouncing entirely new words as they are typed in.

KI can compose

A team from the University of Toronto has succeeded in programming AI to be able to compose and write catchy and memorable songs. The program, Neural Karaoke, was fed on more than 100 hours of music, based on which it produced an entire Christmas song complete with lyrics and cover graphics.

KI can construct images and grafics

So-called generative adversarial networks are capable of producing astonishingly realistic images from descriptions written by people. Simply put, they function by using a “generator” to randomly create pictures which are then evaluated by a “discriminator” that has learned to recognise objects with the help of real images. This process can turn the words “a small bird with a short, pointy, orange beak” into a photorealistic image.

KI can paint

AI program Vincent from product design specialists Cambridge Consultants, which is also based on generative adversarial networks, has extensively studied the style of the most important painters of the 19th and 20th centuries, and can now make any sketch drawn on a tablet resemble the work of a specific Renaissance artist.

KI can do product design

Intelligent CAD system Dreamcatcher from Autodesk can generate thousands of design options for metal, plastic, and other components, all of which provide the same specified functionality. The designs also have an astonishingly organic look which couldn’t be described as “mechanical” or “logical” at all.

KI can produce videos

Working together with MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Canadian company Nvidia has developed a technology that can synthetically produce entire high-resolution video sequences. The videos, which have a 2K resolution, are up to 30 seconds long and can be made to include complete street scenes with cars, houses, trees, and other features.

KI as the Art Director

Advertising agency McCann Japan has already been “employing” AI in the role of Creative Director for some time. AI-CD ß has been fed a diet of award-winning advertising for the last 10 years, and has already produced its own TV ad based on these data.

Big changes begin with small steps

What does all of this mean for us? Although we may still chuckle at the shortcomings of such AI applications today, development is now moving at an exponential rate – and the progress being made is impressive. This is why now is the time to start getting over the prejudices and fears, and to give proper thought to how we will construct creative processes in the future, together with the role that we want artificial intelligence to play in them. Big changes can’t be made at a single stroke, and are instead better implemented in many small steps. Barriers are best removed by being prepared to play around with new technologies in order to test them out and gather experience. True, doing this takes up a certain amount of a company’s time and resources. But those of us who begin with a small project and then slowly feel our way forward have much higher chances of achieving long-term success, and maybe even of helping to shape a new development in the AI world.

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Joanna Czekaj

2018 is going to be the year of machine learning

2018 is going to be the year of machine learning, especially in the field of consumer segmentation and improvement of automated message personalization processes. Thanks to marketing leaders from Silicon Valley, learning algorithms are already in widespread use. However, we are entering a new stage in the application of these mechanisms beyond advertising systems like Adwords, Doubleclick and Facebook.

Marketers are getting better at gathering and integrating user information all the time. Their allies include global giants like Google. A good example of this is Google’s partnership with Salesforce, announced in November of this year, which, in addition to its positive impact on the amount of information collected, will also affect its quality.

The challenge for agencies and marketers alike is to put their own analytical capabilities up against those of machines—we are, in the end, susceptible to errors, and with such a large amount of data and variables, as well as the complexity of users’ paths to purchase, the risk of mistakes increases. In order to draw conclusions quickly enough and then apply them in the real optimization of user experience, we need to put more emphasis on technology and especially on the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence.

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Stephan Kopp

The most relevant SEO News for November 2017

It’s all about speed when it comes to online marketing. Therefore, in November, we are already looking at the new year and thinking about everything that will change in 2018. Will SEO be dead and gone and robots take over the world? It won’t be that bad, but there is a hint of truth behind this. You can find out more in the current SEO news.

1) Google launches its Mobile-First-Index (a little)

The launch of the Mobile-First-Index will be the dominating topic for SEOs in 2018. A year ago, the search engine, based in Mountain View, had already announced that it will realise mobile versions of websites in the future instead of using the desktop version as a reference for contents and rankings. However, it is not all going to happen on one specific day, the change will be quite gradual and accompanied by extensive tests, according to Google. Google spokesperson, John Mueller, has now announced that work has begun on converting the first websites to the Mobile Index in trial operation. Although it is still too early to talk about the official launch of regular operation, it is more of an initial testing phase. However, the changes in rankings that were observed by web masters in the middle of October are not related to these tests, according to Mueller.

2) 2018 SEO expert oracle

A glimpse into the SEO crystal ball fascinates the search industry again every year. Renowned experts have made predictions for 2018, on what the dominating trends will be in the coming 12 months. They all agree that Google’s transition to the Mobile-First-Index, the rapidly increasing use of language assistants and the triumph of artificial intelligence will bring about serious changes to the technological side of search marketing. Companies and web masters should watch these changes closely. The fight for organic traffic will quickly intensify. Since Google increasingly appears as a publisher and already provides a lot of information on its own search results using the so-called Featured Snippets, the use of structured data, in-depth analysis of contents and user behaviour as well as the focus on a good user experience all remain the most important areas of activity. Aaron Wall from SEO Book even speculated that Google’s dominance in the search sector will decline and that users will increasingly resort to specialised search systems. In summary, SEO expert John Lincoln easily adapts an old classic: “The old SEO is dead and gone – welcome to a new era. It’s 100 times better and much more exciting.”

3) Microsoft and Google rely on human support

Barely a day goes by when there isn’t something written about the unstoppable spread of artificial intelligence and its effects on online marketing. Search provider giants, Google and Microsoft, rely on the use of learning machines. However, if you look closely, there is also an opposite trend: Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, first announced in August that it wants to rely more on its collaboration with users in the “Bing Distill” community in order to improve the quality of its direct answers in the future (we reported). At the start of October, Google invited its “Local Guide” community to the second conference in San Francisco. According to the company, the organised user community already has around fifty million participants worldwide, who primarily check and correct entries in Google Maps. In addition, almost 700,000 new entries are composed by local guides on a daily basis. Google said that this is a great help, especially in developing countries, because information from local businesses and services in these countries is difficult to automatically record and check. It remains to be seen whether this trend is taking hold or whether humans are just a bridge technology until artificial intelligence has acquired the same skill set.

4) How artificial intelligence will change search engine optimisation

Search Marketing faces great changes and, at the core, it’s all about the effects of integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into the technology of major platforms. In terms of the organic search, according to SEO veteran and expert, Kristopher Jones, this means that keyword rankings will no longer be subject to dramatic changes in the future and that there will be no superior, universal algorithm. In fact, specialised and dynamic algorithms in a variety of versions will be used for various search requests. Ultimately, the search provider’s aim is to accurately grasp the exact intention of the user using technological aids and to be able to deliver better results, according to Jones. The search expert believes that the classic keyword analysis and technical SEO would therefore be obsolete. In response to the challenges of artificial intelligence, Jones suggests a combination of user experience optimisation, strictly tailoring the contents to user intentions and using more natural speech patterns for voice search. He went on to say that search engine optimisers will not be able to develop their own analysis tools based on artificial intelligence and that agencies and advertisers will have to develop strong responses to the technological challenges in order to not be overwhelmed by the progress.

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Klaus Schwab

Artificial Intelligence: Who is responsible?

Auf dem Innovationstag von Serviceplan diskutierten der renommierte Münchner Philosoph und Kulturstaatsminister a. D. Julian Nida-Rümelin und Martina Koederitz, Vorsitzende der Geschäftsführung IBM Deutschland, gemeinsam mit Klaus Schwab, Geschäftsführer der Plan.Net Gruppe, über neue ethische Standards.

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Joana-Marie Stolz

SXSW 2017 – The New Digital Work Economy Needs More Real Brains

Life is full of choices. Where should I live? Should I get married? Which campaign do I choose for the client pitch? How many people should I hire or fire? Behavioural scientists discovered that everybody more or less makes 20,000 decisions every day. It reflects who we are, what we believe and how we behave.

But imagine if machines took all of this away? We will no doubt lose our identity. Now, we’re not saying that all decisions in the future could and should be made by machines! Artificial Intelligence already solves lots of problems and challenges now, and will probably solve even more in the future. And that’s brilliant, and is going to lead us to a whole new era. Every organisation must invest in future knowledge and new ways of working.

But in the long run it only pays off if, at the same time, they don’t stop developing the people that have to implement these new technologies. As our colleague Alexander Turtschan, Head of Media Insights & Innovation at Plan.Net outlines it so precisely: “My key takeaway from this year’s SXSW is that we now have fully entered the post-platform era of digitisation. AI, robotics and machine learning will transform every aspect of our lives, from the workplace to the home. While the technological side is moving rapidly, we are lagging far behind on the social aspects of this revolution, from legal frameworks to moral implications.“

SXSW in other words is sharing, exploring and inspiring every human centred aspect. There’s been a lot of press and interviews on the outcome of SXSW 2017, as well as a lot of sentiment over whether it is a good or bad event to attend.

From our experience this is not a black or white event. SXSW is what you make of it – hence everyone has a different SXSW experience. It’s such a large event, that covers a multitude of different topics. Within the official SXSW program and all around Austin at other branded open sessions, RSVP sessions and even hidden events – everyone rides the SXSW-wave.

For Nicolas Roemer, Head of Business Development International at Serviceplan, it is the strongest digital event in the US; in regards to mixing technology with socio-political and cultural ideological topics, probably the strongest event in the world. “As Virginia Rometty (President & CEO, IBM) put it, one doesn’t have one mentor, one learns and grows from everyone that inspires you. This can be across all kinds of areas. The people I meet at SXSW excite me and help develop and structure my approach every time I attend SXSW.”

He continues: “As I am heavily involved in building out Serviceplan North America’s presence this year, SXSW has been vital to see how other US agencies and brands sell themselves successfully at such events. Agencies and brands definitely promote themselves differently in the US. One can also tell that the high-risk tolerance level of brands for new technology has significantly grown. Brands are employing and enabling work forces e.g. Innovation Disruptors at HP to experiment with new technologies: Be it blockchain, experimenting with the different AI API’s, VR/AR etc. Especially in the AI field we will see a lot of change, even for the advertising industry with IBM Watson banner solutions, for example.”

So most people that attend SXSW Interactive already have a very strong background in digital, UX, technology, out-of-the-box-thinking…you name it. They have all heard of Watson, Nio and Drones before. Besides networking and experiencing the newest trends, what makes the SXSW experience so valuable? One of my observations this year was that many organisations are focusing on the workplace environment. For example, Fjord’s 2017 Trends report examines not only trends that will impact consumers, but also those set to impact design, business, organisation, culture and society in the next 12-18 months. IDEO spoke about innovation talents and how to keep innovators feeling creative, fulfilled, and committed as they grow in their careers. And Piera Gelardi, Founder of Refinery29, passionately spoke about ‘Courageous Creativity’ and how you sustain a childlike wonder and exuberant creativity as you grow a multi-million dollar, global business.

Moreover Meredith Haberfeld expressed her thoughts on employee engagement in relation to the economic advantage of a company: “From startups to mega-corporations, companies are wasting billions of dollars in the quest for employee engagement. But the only starting point for a fulfilled, optimally productive workplace is getting real about your CEO’s human intelligence. Leaders need basic human skills that aren’t taught in business school. Without them, engagement efforts are an embarrassingly shiny façade failing to mask underlying issues.”

Technology, work environment, tools and culture will massively shape the future of work experience and company success. These conditions will impact how adaptable organisations will be to change and upcoming trends. The human experience cannot be taken away by technology. Certainly people also have to adapt to the speed of technology. Learn how to fail and push creativity and innovation to the limit. Because, as Simon Steiner, Senior Consultant & Planner at Mediaplus described it, “In the digital age speed trumps perfection.”

This is the reason Serviceplan sent experts from the media, digital research, cultural strategy, and business development teams to distribute this knowledge across the group and into our 25 offices worldwide. Following on from the amazing networking opportunities from SXSW – as we did in 2016 with our educational VR-sessions – we will be hosting educational sessions for our clients and colleagues, on trends and topics we were able to take home from Austin.

While talking to IBM Watson in Austin I found out on ibmpersonalitee.com that with my skillset I should be a Mentor. The Mentor is an “old soul”, relying on their past experiences to provide insight on what is coming next. They can answer all sorts of different questions with surprising accuracy, and have a healthy attitude about life. “Well, Watson – I don’t know about this! But thanks for the compliment anyway. ;-)” Lucky me that in the end I can decide weather I will make the Watson artificial intelligence my reality or not.

Howdy and see you next year in Austin!

This article was published on lbbonline.com.

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Karin De Bruyn

Trends 2017: Belgium

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To achieve the best results possible for the brands that we serve, and as part of our quest to embrace emerging marketing and communication movements, we need to take a closer look at some social trends.

Looking forward, the thing that strikes us in particular is a general sense of “harmonious contradiction”. There are two intriguing, big and bold contradictions going on which brands should try to understand and appropriate.

Tactile vs virtual & artificial

At the beginning of December, for the first time in history, the amount of money spent on vinyl records in the UK overtook the amount spent on digital downloads.

“We have a new generation buying vinyl, lots of teenagers and lots of people under 25, who now want to buy their favourite artists on vinyl and have something a bit more tangible, a bit more collectible. People have become keen to support their favourite artists by buying into that ownership concept. It’s very difficult to demonstrate your love of an artist if you don’t have something to hold on to,” said Kim Bayley, chief executive of the Entertainment Retailers Association recently.

In a digital world, consumer preference can indeed be influenced by sensory marketing tactics: think about the combined potential of sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell.

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Even while anxieties are expressed about the impact of robots on the way we work, and the kinds of jobs that exist, millions of people have already adopted home robots. Take the Echo: it has already captured imaginations and hooked its owners on how easy it makes ordering a takeaway, or never running low on washing powder.

Brands needs to ensure that their technology/services can be linked in some way to this new kind of central domestic technology.

Local vs. e-tailing on the doorstep

It’s becoming increasingly clear that living a healthy life and thriving means putting as much care and thought into our relationship with food, as we do into our personal relationships. The best place to start working on a closer relationship with the food we eat is at local farmers’ markets and by buying from local food producers – and of course this is also true in fashion, furniture etc. Brands can tap into the trend towards these lifestyle choices by playing a facilitating role starting to allocate areas for community gardens, urban farms and local entrepreneurship.

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Every day, a new “kit on your doorstep” initiative is launched, whether it be a meal in a kit, an outfit in a kit, or the myriad other options available. Thousands of cardboard boxes land on urban and rural doorsteps every month, containing all the elements needed to create a home-cooked dinner. Like frozen food or the microwave oven, meal kits may be a kitchen innovation that fundamentally changes how people cook at home. The cookbook author Mark Bittman told the New York Times: “It’s cooking. It’s not shopping and it’s not planning and in a way it’s not thinking, but it is cooking.”

While many question the ecological footprint of these services, brands can play a vital role in logistics and packaging innovation, offering smart recycling. Brands can help kitchens and their appliances to become smarter, and make cooking more intuitive and complex meals more accessible.

Generation Z

The first members of Generation Z will turn 21 in 2017, marking their transition from society’s teenagers to fully fledged consumers, and as such their influence will mark a tipping point for retailers. The way most retailers do business nowadays will be turned on its head, as this generation is made up of free thinkers, and sceptical when it comes to brands. They interact primarily on social media channels, simultaneously across several of them, and spend little to no time on brand platforms.

As more and more social channels integrate social shopping, brands should design even more specific content to entice this emerging group of consumers, who will be drawn to social selling storytelling. Instagram’s shoppable photo strategy is only a faint indicator of what is to come, and what will be easily adopted by these mobile natives.

Whereas platformless retail may still be considered a trend, conversational commerce will fully blossom in 2017. Chatbots and apps are now a retail tool that can boost business and increase customer service in a way that is satisfying for Generation Z.

The daily use of technology comprising chat, messaging or other natural language interfaces, short circuits the brand-to-consumer loop, facilitating “conversations” between people, brands or services, and making it possible to use a device – notably a smartphone – to ask questions, place orders and get advice.

Brands that are early adopters of this kind of commerce will certainly appeal to Generation Z, and are likely to see these consumers spending their first salaries with them rather than with traditional e-tailers. Tangible benefits of WhatsApp social commerce:

  • Instant notification of messages being read.
  • No queuing – 30-minute response time.
  • No precious time wasted on explaining a fault or your specific need; a simple picture will do.

By linking to a CRM system, not only can brands facilitate direct sales, but track customer lifecycle too. We all remember SuitSupply in the Netherlands – the cool initiative and pilot case that resulted in an additional channel for commerce.

H&M’s bot suggests various outfits to users and provides the opportunity to purchase through the bot’s messaging platform. Sephora is using a bot to provide beauty tips and enable direct shopping.

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Manfred Klaus

Facebook Messenger chatbots: a communication channel for brands?

For six months, chatbots have existed in Facebook Messenger and there are now more than 30,000 available for users. The initial hype has calmed down and now companies are wondering if bots actually have the potential to become relevant communication and distribution channels for their content.

All chatbots essentially work in the same way. Users ask the bot a question and the bot searches through its stored database in accordance with certain rules, in order to respond with a suitable answer. The greater the database, the greater the knowledge which the chatbot can revert back to.

Mobile driven user behaviour and technical developments smooth the way

The requirements needed for the success of chatbots certainly exist: On one hand, internet usage is extending increasingly to mobile devices and here communication occurs primarily through instant messengers. The approach to text messaging has finally become seen as an everyday matter and the users have got accustomed to this reduced communication form.

On the other hand, all major tech companies are investing massively in the development of artificial intelligence, machine learning and in the understanding and processing of natural language through algorithms. Bot providers can relatively easily incorporate offers and services of interested companies into chatbots via standardised interfaces.

Unpredictable human communication

It will remain some time before a conversation with a chatbot is indistinguishable from a talk with a real person, as many chatbots currently reach the limits of their communication rather quickly. Either they fail in the correct processing of human communication, including all unpredictable factors such as slang, dialect or typos, or their repertoire of responses is rapidly used up. Initial reactions of early adopters were sobering. Among other factors, this was due to the fact that Facebook opened the chatbot platform for developers only a few weeks before the official launch.

Facebooks vice president of messaging products, Davis Marcus, admitted that this time frame was possibly too short to develop a good chatbot. Since the launch, Facebook has made many APIs and much guidance available to developers. We can therefore look forward to seeing how the second generation of bots will turn out.

For long term success, however, two central requirements must be fulfilled, above all:

Discovery: There is currently no easy way to find chatbots for Facebook Messenger, as we are still waiting for the launch of the announced bot store. The user must therefore know the name of the bot and integrate it via the search function of Messenger. Other messengers like Kik, Telegram or Skype already offer overview catalogues.

Added value: So that users don’t delete a chatbot after trying it out just once, from the first use on, the bot must offer real added value. This can include various aspects:

  • Reducing complexity and information: shopping bots, such as Tommy Hilfiger’s chatbot, help users when looking for suitable products, by giving them a pre-selection of products through targeted questions. The added value of news bots like the one of CNN also depends upon a reduction in information. Users indicate which content they are interested in and then receive suitable contributions in return through push messages.
  • Time efficiency and problem solving: The airline KLM emphasises special service for their customers: if you want to change your seating place, for example, you don’t need to open the app. You can simply send a quick message to the KLM bot.
  • Additional offers: In several US cities, through the Absolut Vodka chatbot, users can find bars in which the product is available. The added value here is that the user receives a voucher for a free drink as well.

If these points are further optimised in the new generation of chatbots and the problem of discovering bots is resolved, there is much to suggest that these services will establish themselves as communication channels for brands. With a sufficient amount of offers, in Europe and in North America Facebook Messeger could become a mobile central service point for users, just as weChat, LINE and Kik have done in many Asian markets.

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Stephan Enders

A view into the future. The Sample City Lab 2016.

The Sample City Lab shows us where we’re headed

Organised by Trend One, the Sample City Lab shows us the upcoming trends that will keep us busy next year. The event is focused on topics such as virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics and the internet of things in particular. The Plan.Net Mobile team were there in Innsbruck, where they weren’t just thrilled by the view from the ski jump (Bergiselschanze), but also by the content there.

Sample City Lab 1

Nils Müller, co-organiser of City Labs and founder of Trend One, introduced the innovations that would be shown at the exhibition. One of the exhibits at the show was the NAO robot. A completely programmable, autonomously acting humanoid robot that can supposedly help with issues such as programming, robotics and steering and control technology, as well as creativity, problem solving and working as a team.

Sample City Lab 2

The scanning robot NavVis measures room interiors quickly and cost-effectively. 3-dimensional diagrams of interior spaces can be called up via a browser based app to realise virtual tours.

Sample City Lab 3

The highlight of the show was the Microsoft HoloLens. The augmented reality glasses allow to display the user information and interactive 3D projections on the direct environment. The HoloLens works without a computer or smartphone, and can be used independently.

Sample City Lab 4

A few people at the Sample City Lab were allowed to test the HoloLens themselves. Games and videos right up to Office Programs can be controlled with hand gestures.

Sample City Lab 5

The fitness device ICAROS connects workouts with virtual reality. A virtual reality flight simulation is shown while you balance on the device, creating the believable illusion that you’re actually flying through a VR world. The positive side effect: training is fun this way.

Sample City Lab 6

An additional controller on the fitness device ensures that every movement of the device is measured precisely. Furthermore, it can control the virtual reality glasses and trigger specific actions.

Sample City Lab 7

Barbie has also arrived in the digital age. With artificial intelligence, she patiently answers all questions, and will gladly get into conversations. Sometimes, Barbie herself asks for advice, or wants to know more about her counterpart. The answers are surprisingly complicated, and some conversations take a rather interesting course. Childhood dreams come true here.

Sample City Lab 8

A holographic display was an eye-catching highlight. Video projections are reflected in a glass pyramid that conveys a 3-dimensional feeling, and brings the content to life. Additionally, the projections can be examined from three sides, and the scenery can be perceived from various angles.

Sample City Lab 9

The Sample City Lab shows us where we’re headed: virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics and the internet of things. These are the themes that drive us, and determine what our world will look like in the future.
Almost everything is fitted out with intelligence, is mobile networked and can react to environmental stimulus. With virtual reality, anyone can quickly immerse themselves in a unknown world, and experience new things. Mobile internet connects (almost) everything, and robots undertake tasks that previously only humans could do. The development is faster than ever before, and one thing’s for sure: it remains exciting!

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