Hello and welcome to the latest edition of OMD FWD. As Twitter numbers soar, Google spares your blushes by helping you find your parked car, whilst Amazon Echo tells you what it really thinks of your outfit. You can even chew the fat with Albert Einstein on Messenger and once you’re done, learn how to give your brain a much-needed digital detox.
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of OMD FWD. As Twitter numbers soar, Google spares your blushes by helping you find your parked car, whilst Amazon Echo tells you what it really thinks of your outfit. You can even chew the fat with Albert Einstein on Messenger and once you’re done, learn how to give your brain a much-needed digital detox.
Last week, over 50,000 people from 166 countries made their way to Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. With 21 stages dedicated to different topics and sectors, there was never a lack of choice; however, despite the huge variety of talks, several themes repeatedly emerged.
EMERGING AI TECHNOLOGIES
At Web Summit, the narrative was less around what is currently possible and more around managing our expectations for the near future. Yes, artificial intelligence has huge possibilities, but we are still decades from having an emotional AI, said Gary Marcus, CEO at Geometric Intelligence, during the Future of the Worker panel.
Rana el Kallouby, CEO of Affectiva, echoed Marcus’ sentiment and reminded us to think of the inputs as we build AI solutions. She knows this first-hand as Affectiva, a MIT Media Lab spin-off, analyses facial expressions and emotion.
Her example is if we were to only teach an AI about white male facial expressions, the technology would not necessarily be able to recognise another ethnic or gender group’s expressions. She warns that human guidance is still very much needed.
RETHINKING PROCESSES AND REGULATIONS
With the US election taking place during the conference, another topic that was on many people’s minds was the ‘filter bubble’, the internet’s ability to shows people information that they already agree or believe with.
The discussion was less on the consequences of the filter bubble and more focused around how we can implement ways of regulating the lack of relevance that some of our current processes have in today’s world.
Sean Rad felt like he had a social responsibility to use Tinder in a meaningful way: the company launched #SwipeTheVote to educate and engage the platform’s users by allowing them to swipe left or right on issues discussed before matching them with an appropriate candidate.
Another approach is to involve people directly with the issues. George Papandreou, former prime minister of Greece, shared his vision of creating a true democracy through crowd-sourcing. “I think what politicians and leaders need to always take into account is that first of all we need to have continual feedback and empower our citizens to feel that they own solutions,” he said.
CREATING SOCIAL EXPERIENCES
Time spent as a metric has created a race for attention that doesn’t have the user in mind, explained Tristan Harris, co-founder of Time Well Spent.
Our digital experiences are becoming more real and personal. As advertisers, our job is to ensure that we are building meaningful experiences that put consumers at the centre.
Virgin Active Spin Class does this by using technology to create a competitive environment with #ThePack, dividing the class into three teams, encouraging participants to push themselves based on real-time information on how their team is performing.
The field trip to Mars transforms an ordinary school bus trip into an incredible space journey through VR technology, making the once solitary VR a shared learning experience for students.
Both these examples use technology to build on the consumers’ actual surroundings immersing them into the story and acting on our desire to have shared social interactions.
LOOKING TO THE BRIGHT SIDE
The pace of change has been relentless, which brings both education challenges as well as new opportunities. Jim Hunter from Greenwave Systems suggested that we should start viewing technology less as a tool and more as an employee, which involves trusting it and fitting it into an established environment in order to complete outlined tasks.
To take AI as an example – it is at the cusp of being able to interact with humans in a natural linguistic state, allowing technology to become even more accessible. Although the future is full of uncertainty, Web Summit was inherently optimistic about what lies ahead.
Almost overnight Nintendo’s Pokémon GO (PoGO) has taken augmented reality, a viable technology to create immersive and incredibly desirable customer experiences, from a niche market to a mass.
Pokémon GO is already outstripping Tinder on app installs. It has more daily active users than Twitter with people spending 43 minutes a day on average playing it, having a higher dwell time than WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat. Pokémon Go is seeing more than double the industry average retention rate with 7 out of 10 people who downloaded the app returning the next day.
It has already been dubbed ‘a cultural phenomenon’ and a saviour for Nintendo. The demand for Pokémon GO saw Nintendo’s shares surge by a quarter in value on Monday.
The tidal wave of participation has already inspired other businesses to become part of the show.
Entrepreneurs are building new revenue streams. Gamers are offering 1-4 hour ($20 per hour) shifts so the gameplay doesn’t have to stop while you are at work. If you are pressed for time, Pokémon Taxi services are at hand to take you to Pokémon stops and locations. Maybe we will see a UBER-Pokémon Go partnership.
Huge Cafe in Atlanta is across the street from two Pokémon Go ‘PokéStops’. They have paid $49 to buy in-game “coins” that can be traded in for 40 in-game “lures”. These can be ‘attached’ to PokéStops and work as smoke-signals to attract Pokémon and users. Each ‘lure’ works for 30 minutes and attracts rarer and more powerful Pokémon to the area, and in turn gamers.
Here are five reasons why you should start thinking about Pokémon Go brand opportunities:
[ctt template=”1″ link=”39g_7″ via=”yes” ]Total shares of ‘Pokemon Go’ online content rose by 535% in a 4 day period @OMD_EMEA[/ctt]
That means publishers and clients with relevant content have already captured some of the 11 million+ shares from consumers. Considering this looks set to be a consistent source of ongoing traffic, there is a massive opportunity that exists for brands!
[ctt template=”1″ link=”fT8Zr” via=”no” ]#PokémonGo on Facebook shows continuous growth– 21K players have shown interest in events & page likes have increased +131% over the weekend[/ctt]
Have you considered Facebook content around Pokémon to put your brand into the conversation?
[ctt template=”1″ link=”3DiRF” via=”no” ]#PokémonGo opens up a new world of location-based marketing – did you know 10,000+ people are interested in the ‘London massive lure party’? [/ctt]
A quick search on Eventbrite also shows everything from a Pokémon 5k run to bar crawls. The creative potential seems only constrained by our imagination and the time to start thinking about it is now.
[ctt template=”1″ link=”HB6UT” via=”yes” ]#PokémonGo appears to lend itself (if done well) to non-gaming topics like travel, dining and fashion @OMD_EMEA[/ctt]
[ctt template=”1″ link=”9qOAb” via=”no” ]Google Trends monitors a breakout of search queries for ‘Pokemon Go Tips’ rising 140% in the first 24 hours to over 5,000% by the 5th day[/ctt] Could your brand fill the demand / supply content gap with something that speaks to your audience?
There’s plenty of traffic and social shares going on – #gottacatchemall!
What does this cultural phenomenon mean for your brand? Need more information or interested in exploring Pokémon branded opportunities – contact us at [email protected]
[ctt template=”1″ link=”39g_7″ via=”yes” ]Total shares of ‘Pokemon Go’ online content rose by 535% in a 4 day period @OMD_EMEA[/ctt]
[ctt template=”1″ link=”fT8Zr” via=”no” ]#PokémonGo on Facebook shows continuous growth– 21K players have shown interest in events & page likes have increased +131% over the weekend[/ctt]
[ctt template=”1″ link=”3DiRF” via=”no” ]#PokémonGo opens up a new world of location-based marketing – did you know 10,000+ people are interested in the ‘London massive lure party’? [/ctt]
[ctt template=”1″ link=”HB6UT” via=”yes” ]#PokémonGo appears to lend itself (if done well) to non-gaming topics like travel, dining and fashion @OMD_EMEA[/ctt]
[ctt template=”1″ link=”9qOAb” via=”no” ]Google Trends monitors a breakout of search queries for ‘Pokemon Go Tips’ rising 140% in the first 24 hours to over 5,000% by the 5th day[/ctt] Could your brand fill the demand / supply content gap with something that speaks to your audience?