Category: General Content

Snapchat Introduces Sequential Advertising Package

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snapchat has reportedly started pitching brands on Sequential Messaging, its newest video ad product that allows brands to show a number of 10-second video ads in succession within a Discover channel. The company says that sequenced messaging is open to all advertisers, but it is only sold directly through Snapchat at premium prices and not available through its API. Sony Pictures and Universal Pictures have both bought sequenced messaging to promote their respective new releases.

What Brands Need To Do
Sequential messaging is nothing new to TV advertisers. With each new video ad product, Snapchat is looking more and more like a TV disrupter as it funnels the global user attention into a dozen or so publisher content channels and countless user-generated Stories. As Snapchat’s ad business start to catch up to its rapid growth, the company is getting ready to compete for more ad dollars with not just from leading sellers of digital ads like Facebook and Google, but from TV advertisers as well. Therefore, it is time for brands to reconsider their media mix and consider adjust the ad budget to include emerging global channels like Snapchat so as to reach customers at scale.

 

Source: AdWeek

Google Assistant May Soon Handle Your Payments

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google is reportedly readying its voice-activated Assistant to store your credit card information and handle payment, opening up Google Assistant to a variety of ecommerce opportunities. In the latest update to the Google app, the company included a string of code that paves the way for payment integration. In comparison, Amazon’s Alexa can handle online purchases from the start as it is linked to user’s Amazon account and can access stored payment information.

What Brands Need To Do
As Google Assistant play catch up with Alexa in terms of functionality, Amazon still handily leads the voice assistant market, with an estimated 9 million Echo devices sold worldwide over this holiday season, bringing the total number of Echo devices in market to about 14 million. A new survey reports that 32% of Echo owners used Alexa to make purchases on Amazon. For brands, the popularization of digital assistant devices like Echo or Google Home opens up a new channel to reach customers in their living rooms via voice.

The Lab has extensive experience with building Alexa skills and helping brands navigate the new realities that conversational interfaces are set to bring. If you’re interested in learning more about our take on this topic, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: 9to5Google

 

Realtor.com Previews New App Feature Powered By Augmented Reality

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Realtor.com is developing an AR-powered new function for its mobile app. Aiming to make it easier for users to access details about the real estates available on the site, the company has created a new Street Peek feature, which allows users to point their camera at a house to see information such as listing or rental price, recently sold price, and the number of bedrooms from the real estate website’s database. Additionally, Street Peek would also display a map of the houses nearby when you tilt the screen. Realtor.com is set to officially launch this feature first in Android app later this spring, with the iOS version to follow.

What Brands Need To Do
This upcoming feature showcases how augmented reality technology can help brands bridge the physical world and their digital assets. French department store chain Galeries Lafayette is using mobile-powered AR to create a unique in-store narrative to lure in holiday shoppers. Beyond retail and real estate, AR can be a great way for customers to envision your products in their lives and to launch interactive digital experiences from signage or product packaging. With more and more consumers become accustomed to AR-powered app features thanks to the popularity of Pokemon Go, brands need to start exploring ways to use augmented reality to deliver a next-level user experience.

Source: Engadget

Swedish Pharma Company Debuts Billboard That Coughs When Smokers Walk By

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
In an interesting case of digital out-of-home campaigns, Apotek Hjärtat, a Swedish pharmaceutical company, commissioned an anti-smoking billboard at a popular smoking spot in Stockholm. Equipped with hidden smoke detectors, the man featured on the billboard screen would start coughing loudly when the billboard detects cigarette smoke.

What Brands Need To Do
While it is debatable whether it is ethical or effective to encourage people to quit smoking by publicly shaming them, this digital billboard serves as the latest example of how sensor-laden billboards may transform the OOH ads. Similarly, a company in Japan has started testing camera-equipped billboards that can recognize the car models driving by and serve up targeted ads accordingly. According to a recent research from PQ Media, global OOH advertising revenue grew 6.2% in 2016 to $49.23 billion, with DOOH claiming most of the revenue growth. More brands should look for new ways to bring some interactivity and customizations to digital outdoor ads.

 

Source: PSFK

Header image courtesy of Apotek’s YouTube video

Expedia’s Latest VR Content Taps Into The “Slow TV” Trend

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Expedia’s latest VR effort is a 44-minute-long VR experience that will take you on a scenic railroad trip in Norway. The popular travel booking site’s Norwegian branch partnered with local tourism organizations Visit Flåm, Flåm Railway, as well as London-based agency Verve Search to launch its first VR content, which includes gorgeous sights such as fjords, glaciers, the midnight sun, the northern lights, and national parks. The video can be accessible on major-brand VR headsets, and it can also be viewed online via a supported browser.

The calming, slow nature of this railroad VR experience sets itself apart from most branded VR content in market today, which usually tend to be much shorter, faster-paced, and more adrenaline-driven. This coincides with the so-called “Slow TV” development, where broadcasts of mundane events filmed from start to finish, such as a long train ride or a knitting marathon, has captivated millions of European viewers. It’s become such a phenomenon in Europe that Netflix imported 11 Slow TV programs this summer.

What Brands Need To Do
This is the latest example of the diversification of VR content as virtual reality gadgets start to percolate into the consumer market. VR’s immersive power makes it a powerful tool for travel and hospitality brands to sell prospective customers on the experience they offer. As mainstream adoption picks up, VR and 360-degree content is emerging as a medium that brand marketers can capitalize on to attract consumer attention with innovative storytelling.

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 ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: AdWeek

 

Snapchat Adds Universal Search Bar & Global Live Story

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snapchat has revamped its iOS and Android app to add a few new tweaks that should help improve user experience and push its global reach. To begin with, the updated apps now feature a universal search bar on top of the interface, enabling users to easily search for people, brands, and publishers from Discover to follow. In addition, users can also find specific Live Stories when searching by keywords. Besides the search bar, Snapchat is also adding a few shortcuts for in-app navigation and a global live story called “Our Story” that will feature snaps from all over the world.

What Brands Need To Do
Brands have long been complaining about Snapchat’s limited and hard-to-access search functions, and this introduction of a universal search bar should make it easier for users to discover publishers and brands on Snapchat. A Recent report by digital marketing firm L2 found 64% brands now have established a presence on the hot messaging app, and with each brand-friendly updates, Snapchat is sure to lure more brands to join. As Snapchat continues to improve its ad products to match its rapid growth, brands, especially those going after a young-skewing global audience, need to start integrating Snapchat into your social and content strategies.

 

Source: Mashable

Pinterest To Optimize Recommended Pins With Deep Learning

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Pinterest has started using deep learning to improve the relevance of its Recommended Pins, which shows up when a Pinterest user pins an image to their boards to suggest visually similar posts that they may be interested in as well. This is built upon Pinterest’s existing use of machine learning in visual search, a feature the site first started testing in 2015 and later expanded to more users last summer.

What Brands Need To Do
The use of deep learning — which generally means training artificial neural networks on existing data and teaching them to interpret new data — is something that is emerging as a key industry trend in consumer tech. From the fast development in autonomous cars to AI-powered home gadgets like Amazon’s Echo lineup, artificial intelligence of varying degrees is being integrated to a wide range of products to enable smart automation and personalization solutions. For brands, this means it is time to identify the customer data you leverage to create or partner with tech provider to develop AI-powered, personalized customer experiences.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Snapchat Teases Secret Filters, Hints At The Future Of AR Marketing

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snap Inc. has started testing a new hidden feature that let users unlock secret filters when they point the camera to the charging case of Spectacles, the camera-embedded sunglasses the company introduced last year. As the twitter video below demonstrates, when one opens Snapchat and points the camera to the “Spectacles” printed on the charging case, the app unlocks a special filter that shows floating bubbles of snaps, similar to the circular videos captured by Spectacles.


What Brands Need To Do
Fun and innocuous as this new feature may seem at first glance, it might just be hinting at the next big ad product for Snap. It is easy to imagine how Snap Inc. would soon follow the roadmap set by its branded Geofilters and come out with “sponsored secret filters” for brands to buy. Looking beyond that, however, a bigger opportunity lies in the fact that this feature can transform ordinary objects, and by extension, the physical space they reside in, into an AR-enhanced branding opportunity. For example, an auto brand can use this feature to drive car enthusiasts to dealerships to unlock special themed filters while a retailer may work with Snap Inc. to turn an in-store installation into a trigger for unlocking secret filters that contain special offers or branded content. 

With the launch of Spectacles, Snapchat changed its name to Snap Inc. and rebranded itself as a “camera company,” aiming to liberate cameras from smartphones and integrate them into other wearable products for a more frictionless user experience. As it continues to improve its existing ad products, more and more brands are joining Snapchat to reach mobile consumers. In fact, a new report by digital marketing firm L2 found that Snapchat’s brand adoption rate grew 50% from January to October last year, with 64% of brands now established a presence on the app. As Snap continues to bring augmented reality technology to the mass market with its camera-centric products, brands will need to start to think about how AR may add value to their products, services, and marketing efforts.

 

Source: Twitter @MosheIsaacian & AdExchanger

 

P&G Tests AI-Powered Shelf Displays That Track And Analyze Customers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Procter & Gamble has started testing a new in-store retail technology named shelfPoint to monitor and gather information about customers. Developed by San Diego-based tech startup Cloverleaf, the shelfPoint is a strip of digital display that wrap around retail shelves. Equipped with optical sensors and powered by an AI-powered algorithm, the displays are able to track the facial expressions of customers at shelf and pick up anonymous information about shoppers such as age and gender. Cloverleaf says it is working to add later this year the capability of tracking what customers picked up from the shelf. Besides P&G, Dell is currently testing this product in a Micro Center store in Houston, Texas.

What Brands Need To Do
This is an exciting new product for brick-and-mortar retailers because it combines AI and facial tracking to offer marketers insights about the customers standing in front of their store displays and checking out the products on shelves. If Cloverleaf can find a way to dynamically link the content displayed on shelfPoint screens to the customer data they gathered, this would become a powerful tool for real-time, personalized in-store targeting. As retail tech continues to evolve, retailers and CPG brands need to pay attention to the innovations happening in this space and be willing to try new products that enhance in-store experiences.

How We Can Help
The Lab has extensive experience working with retail, beauty, and CPG clients to create and implement digitally-enhanced experiences for their stores. The recently-opened NYX Cosmetics store at Union Square is a proud showcase of our team’s work in crafting a digitally enhanced, innovative retail experience. If you’d like to learn more about how your brand can develop an updated retail strategy and implement digital-driven retail solutions to transform your in-store experience, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: AdWeek

Header image courtesy of Cloverleaf’s site

Toyota Connects Addressable TV Ads To Dealership Visits

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Toyota marketers for the Gulf States region ran an addressable TV ad campaign last year that connected TV ads to dealership visits. In June and July, Gulf States Toyota targeted 652,000 households in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas based on data showing they were in-market car shoppers.

Working with partners such as audience data provider Experian, addressable TV ad seller AT&T AdWorks, and mobile location data firm NinthDecimal, the regional Toyota marketers were able to measure whether the TV ads led to an increase in foot traffic to dealerships by monitoring how many anonymized mobile devices associated with the targeted households showed up in stores. Pleased with the results, the regional Toyota marketer is planning to launch a similarly hyper-targeted campaign this summer.

What Brands Need To Do
This is the latest example of how brands can leverage the latest ad tech development in offline attribution to better measure their campaign performances. As more and more brands come to realize the importance of location data in measuring the full impact of digital campaigns, more and more ad platforms such as the ones from Google, Facebook, and Snapchat have all made efforts to team up with location data providers and improve their capability in tracking offline attributions. More brands may benefit from this trend and work with ad tech partners and consumer data providers to more accurately measure the real-world impact of their TV and digital campaigns.

 

Source: AdAge