Tag: google

Google Created A Video Intelligence API That Analyzes And Logs Video Content For Search

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google has added a new powerful AI-powered cloud service to its growing arsenal. The search giant unveiled a Video Intelligence API at its Cloud Next conference, which uses machine learning technology to analyze video content, down to the objects or actions shown in a scene, logs those data, and makes that information searchable for users. This API should be particularly useful for media companies and brands looking to leverage digital video to deliver their messaging, as it allows them to easily categorize and manage their video content for targeting and personalization purposes.

What Brands Need To Do
While similar technologies exist for both image and speech recognition, this API from Google is the first of its kind to bring AI-powered cognitive analytics to videos. 87% of online marketers now rely on video content to reach their audience, and people are watching over 500 million hours of videos on YouTube alone every day. In order to stand out from the crowd, brands should work with content creators and media companies to figure out what kind of video content is resonating with their target audience, and learn to leverage the AI-powered solution to supercharge the process and deliver more personalized content.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Google Taps NBA For Original VR Show, Debuts Its First VR Series

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google is coming out with more VR content initiatives as it continues to build out its content offering on its Daydream VR platform. Last week, the company announced it is working the NBA to launch a virtual reality app for Daydream. The main content that this new VR app serves will be an original talk show series called House of Legends featuring former NBA players. Additionally, Google also debuted its first episode of its VR series created in-house. Dubbed Google Immerse VR, the series set to leverage the empathizing power of virtual reality to explore the nuances of race, diversity, and identity.

What Brands Need To Do
As Google continues to build out Daydream’s content library to attract VR content creators and consumers to its VR platform, brands can also leverage this initiative to make their VR content stand out on Daydream VR. A month ago, Google opened up Daydream to allow all developers to create and publish Daydream VR apps via the Play Store, giving brands a way in to get on the platform. Early-adopting brands, such as Marriott and Mountain Dew, have been leveraging VR and 360-degree content to offer customers a powerfully immersive experience, and more brands can benefit from exploring this emerging medium to keep consumers engaged and entertained.

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: Engadget & The Verge

Google And Ivyrevel Developing App That Design Dresses Based On Personal Data

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google is teaming up with Ivyrevel, an online-only women’s fashion brand backed by H&M, to develop an Android app that can design a dress for you based on your contextual and activity data, such as location, weather, and physical activity.

Dubbed “Data Dress,” the app will analyze the personal data input, including their activity data once the users opt in. Specifically, the app will use the Google’s Snapshot API to monitor the person’s daily activities, including things like where they went, where they eat dinner or hang out, how often they work out, and so on, for a week and come up with a dress design that best fits their lifestyle. Users will be able to buy the personalized dress directly from the app if they like what they see.

What Brands Need To Do
This app presents an interesting case of how brands can leverage machine learning to offer personalized products and services. For brands, especially those in fashion and retail, it is important to recognize the possibility that AI-powered solutions unleash, which very much relies on the kind of customer data that brands can supply. Therefore, brands should start thinking about what kind of customer data they can feed into machine learning services to gain consumer insights and supplement their targeting and personalization effort, as well as coming up with a clear value exchange they can offer consumers for that data.

 

Source: TechCrunch

 

Header image courtesy of Ivyrevel

Brands Can Now Develop VR Apps For Google Daydream

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Starting this week, Google is allowing all developers to create and publish Daydream VR apps via the Play Store, just like they would with regular Android apps. Daydream is Google’s mobile-powered VR platform that the company introduced at its 2016 Google I/O event last May. Prior to this week’s announcement, creating Daydream VR apps has been limited to a select group of partners. To ensure the quality of its VR apps, Google has also published a page of Daydream app quality requirements that all developers will need to meet.

What Brands Need To Do
While the Daydream VR platform is currently only supported by a handful of new Android handsets, Google appears to be determined to push it further, and opening up the platform for all developers is an important step towards that. (Google is also putting Daydream VR headsets on sale as part of this push.) With Daydream opening its gate, brands gain a new VR platform to consider when it comes to developing and distributing branded VR and 360-degree content, which a number of early-adopting brands, such as Marriott and Mountain Dew, have been doing to offer customers a powerfully immersive experience.

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: TechCrunch

 

Google Starts Public Testing Of “Instant Apps”

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google has started the initial live test of its “Instant Apps” product, which allows users to use an app without downloading it. This cloud-based product was first introduced last May at Google’s 2016 I/O event, and allows fast, temporary access to Android apps with just one click. Google says it is working with developers for a number of popular apps, including BuzzFeed, Periscope, fast-growing ecommerce app Wish, and Asian drama streaming app Viki, for this limited public test.

What Brands Need To Do
Google Instant Apps gives users the power of native apps with instant loading and without the usual commitment of download time and storage space, which could benefit many brands seeking to overcome the app-download hurdle and reach customers on mobile.

For example, an auto brand could use this product to drive potential buyers to a build-your-own feature that works better natively than as a website, and an entertainment brand could leverage this feature to reach more users with their in-app content. Since Instant Apps works with Android Pay, it supports frictionless payments and checkouts that will help retailers boost conversions.

Therefore, brands need to work with developers to break their branded apps into appropriate modules in order to enable this feature, as well as look for ways to convert Instant Apps users into habitual app users.

 

Source: TechCrunch

 

Google Updates Android Auto With “OK Google” Voice Command

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Android users will soon be able to activate their in-car infotainment system by saying “OK Google,” the same hot-word command used for Google Home and Pixel phones, as the search giant start rolling out voice command to Android Auto. With supported models, drivers will be able to get directions, check the weather, or change their music hands-free, which makes for a safer, more convenient driving experience. In addition, the updated Android Auto app also comes with a streamlined interface for driving and the options to have your incoming text messages read aloud and to respond to them using voice.

Why Brands Should Care
Compared to Apple, which added Siri support to its CarPlay in August 2015 and updated in-car Siri features this June, Google may seem a bit behind in introducing its digital assistant service into cars. Nevertheless, now with this Android Auto update, more car owners will get to interact with their in-car infotainment system in a conversational manner.

Besides Google and Apple, auto brands are also actively pursuing the potential of in-car conversational interfaces. For instance, Hyundai became the first auto brand to integrate with Amazon’s voice-based digital assistant service Alexa this summer. As more and more consumers become familiarized with the type of voice-based interfaces, brands will need to seize the initiative to navigate the emerging opportunities and challenges of the changing forms of digital interaction.

 

Source: The Verge

Google AMP Adds Support For Native Video Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google is expanding Accelerated Mobile Pages, its open-source effort to speed up the mobile web, to support native video ads. This enables publishers to serve their premium video ads in a speedy manner on mobile through Google’s ad platform DoubleClick. Google recently reported quick growth of its video ads business, with monthly video ad impressions doubling across platforms since January.

Why Brands Should Care
This addition marks the latest development in Google’s continuous efforts to make nice with publishers by offering monetization options in AMP. By extending the AMP ads to include native video ads, Google is giving advertisers a valuable tool to deliver a faster, leaner mobile ad experience to consumers without losing an important part of their ad revenue. With more and more people consuming content on their smartphones, marketers need to be conscious of the choices they have when it comes to mobile ads.

 

Source: Digiday

NFL Teams Up With Google For Original VR Series

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Continuing its experiments with VR content, the NFL announced it is expanding its partnership with Google to develop a nine-part VR series that will offer viewers a 360-degree perspective of life in and around the NFL. This marks the league’s first foray into producing content in virtual reality. The series will be available to watch via the NFL channel on YouTube, with the first episode scheduled to debut on Thanksgiving Day, as well as via the NFL VR app for Daydream, Google’s upcoming affordable mobile-powered VR headset.

What Brands Should Do
As more and more brand marketers rush into VR to capitalize on the booming popularity of the emerging medium, many fail to come up with a sustainable, long-term VR strategy that fits their brand. The NFL, however, avoid this rather short-sighted approach by developing this multi-episode VR series, which could attract more football fans to try out VR viewing. Brands should take a cue and start developing VR content that truly enhances brand messaging and contributes to the campaign objectives.

The Lab currently has four VR headsets — an Oculus Rift, an HTC Vive, and two Samsung Gear VRs — ready for demos. Virtual reality is something that has to be experienced to be understood, so come by the Lab and ask for a VR demo to get a hands-on experience and figure out how your brand can use it to excite and engage with consumers.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Google To Set Up And Prioritize A Mobile Search Index

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
In response to the fact that over half of Google searches now come from a mobile device, Google is set to create a mobile index separate from its existing search index within months. The new mobile index will become the primary index that responds to search queries. A desktop index will be maintained, but not as up-to-date as the mobile index.

Why Brands Should Care
For now, it is unclear how the mobile index will be set up as Google has yet to announce any details on the matter. But it seems safe to assume that mobile-friendly sites will receive preferred rankings in the search results. As Google’s plan for the mobile search index unfolds in the following months, brands will need to keep a close eye on this development and adjust their SEO campaigns accordingly.

 

Source: Search Engine Land

Google Launches Conversions API For DoubleClick To Improve Offline Attribution

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google has introduced a Conversions API for its display ad network DoubleClick, allowing advertisers to connect offline activities like in-store purchases and phone bookings to their online campaigns. Advertisers can integrate offline customer data through Google-approved third-party partners, which include Oracle Data Cloud, Neustar, and LiveRamp.

What Brands Should Do
Taking advantage of this new API, DoubleClick advertisers can leverage attribution insights to adjust their campaigns, such as excluding existing customers from a campaign focusing on acquiring new customers, retarget customers who have placed a call but didn’t make a purchase, or offer discounts to frequent store visitors.

While still a relatively novel practice, offline attribution has quickly become a crucial part of digital ad measurement, with major players in digital advertising such as Facebook and Snapchat recently launching their own offline attribution tools to court advertisers. Brands should take a data-driven approach toward their digital marketing efforts and take note of new tools as they become available.

 

Source: DoubleClick Advertiser Blog