Want to hear a joke? What’s the one thing you need at an electronics show? Electricity. And the joke is that’s exactly what they didn’t have for almost three hours at CES as the event was plunged into darkness following a power outage.
I was wandering through the impressive dedicated Samsung area admiring their 8k behemoth TV called The Wall when someone pulled the plug and the whole of CES was brought to a juddering halt for the first time in its 51-year history. It was actually quite eerie stumbling through the darkened auditorium with all the shiny new electronic kit now dormant and people using the lights from their smartphones to guide them to the nearest exit.
The heaviest January downpour in the desert City, since records began, washed out the event’s main auditorium and also resulted in Google’s flagship exhibition site to be temporarily closed. Twitter had a field day…
All this got me thinking that the gloom of the conference center following the failure of Nevada Power to get the power back on was kind of an allegory for this year’s show. Compared to recent years where we have seen the introduction of ground-breaking technology such as autonomous vehicles, virtual reality glasses, drones and the connected home, the 2018 event didn’t witness anything truly revolutionary. Yes, we did see much more connectivity than ever before and voice activation took a huge leap forward but there wasn’t any startling new tech to get the geeks salivating. In essence, much more a year of evolution than revolution.
That isn’t to say that there wasn’t anything to admire, so I have provided a run-down of the most interesting stuff that was on offer this year:
Automotive
Another year dominated by the car manufacturers with around 25% of the 3.2 million square feet of CES taken up by the auto giants. Many more examples of autonomous vehicles including a new bus called Olli presented by IBM Watson and a very similar looking product with added retail e-commerce opportunities showcased by Toyota’s e-Palette offering. But by far the most interesting concept was offered by Nissan who demonstrated their ‘Brain To Vehicle’ (B2V) technology which essentially allows your car to read your mind so improve your driving experience.
Over at the Sands convention center (kind of an off-Broadway tech experience of smaller players and start-ups) was a fascinating kick starter idea out of Italy which introduced the notion of ‘carbitrage’ for electric vehicle owners. The Charge Me concept is simple: if you have an EV with a full charge and another EV driver is nearby who is running low on energy, you can sell some of your ‘juice’ to them by connecting them via a dedicated cable.
Virtual Reality
The whole area of AR and VR was massive again this year at CES with Google in particular pushing their new Daydream product at every opportunity. Their presence at CES and on the Las Vegas strip was impossible to avoid which is interesting given their relative anonymity over the past decade.
But the most fascinating VR launch was from none other than iconic boxing legend Floyd Mayweather who held a press conference to announce the arrival of his new ‘bricks and mortar’ Mayweather boxing oriented gyms and virtual reality app. Ever wondered what it’s like to fight against the best pound-for-pound boxer who has ever lived? Well with the new VR app you can pit your wits, brawn and dexterity with the (virtual) man himself. Mayweather demonstrated the app himself and despite some nifty footwork and punishing blows from the man himself, the virtual version took the bout.
Voice
Alexa, Cortana, Siri, Assistant, Bixby etc. were all to be found controlling anything from your car to your washing machine. The battle for dominance clearly seems to be between Amazon and Google as they try to establish their voice activation variants as the dominant player.
Gadgets
ForwardX Robotics rolled out a four-wheeled travel bag that will follow its owner around the airport without the need to drag it. The ‘smart bag’ has several onboard cameras to detect its user and also uses AI to avoid banging into other people and their carry-on luggage. It also has the capability to send a message to its owner if they stray too far from it in Duty Free or when the battery pack is getting low.
And finally my favourite gadget of the event has to be the super cute Sony Aibo puppy. This robot dog was the star of the show with its AI controlled actions and ability to react to commands.
Want more round-ups from CES? Click here for Tech East and West round-ups by OMD’s Chrissie Hanson.
Want to hear a joke? What’s the one thing you need at an electronics show? Electricity. And the joke is that’s exactly what they didn’t have for almost three hours at CES as the event was plunged into darkness following a power outage.
I was wandering through the impressive dedicated Samsung area admiring their 8k behemoth TV called The Wall when someone pulled the plug and the whole of CES was brought to a juddering halt for the first time in its 51-year history. It was actually quite eerie stumbling through the darkened auditorium with all the shiny new electronic kit now dormant and people using the lights from their smartphones to guide them to the nearest exit.
The heaviest January downpour in the desert City, since records began, washed out the event’s main auditorium and also resulted in Google’s flagship exhibition site to be temporarily closed. Twitter had a field day…
All this got me thinking that the gloom of the conference center following the failure of Nevada Power to get the power back on was kind of an allegory for this year’s show. Compared to recent years where we have seen the introduction of ground-breaking technology such as autonomous vehicles, virtual reality glasses, drones and the connected home, the 2018 event didn’t witness anything truly revolutionary. Yes, we did see much more connectivity than ever before and voice activation took a huge leap forward but there wasn’t any startling new tech to get the geeks salivating. In essence, much more a year of evolution than revolution.
That isn’t to say that there wasn’t anything to admire, so I have provided a run-down of the most interesting stuff that was on offer this year:
Automotive
Another year dominated by the car manufacturers with around 25% of the 3.2 million square feet of CES taken up by the auto giants. Many more examples of autonomous vehicles including a new bus called Olli presented by IBM Watson and a very similar looking product with added retail e-commerce opportunities showcased by Toyota’s e-Palette offering. But by far the most interesting concept was offered by Nissan who demonstrated their ‘Brain To Vehicle’ (B2V) technology which essentially allows your car to read your mind so improve your driving experience.
Over at the Sands convention center (kind of an off-Broadway tech experience of smaller players and start-ups) was a fascinating kick starter idea out of Italy which introduced the notion of ‘carbitrage’ for electric vehicle owners. The Charge Me concept is simple: if you have an EV with a full charge and another EV driver is nearby who is running low on energy, you can sell some of your ‘juice’ to them by connecting them via a dedicated cable.
Virtual Reality
The whole area of AR and VR was massive again this year at CES with Google in particular pushing their new Daydream product at every opportunity. Their presence at CES and on the Las Vegas strip was impossible to avoid which is interesting given their relative anonymity over the past decade.
But the most fascinating VR launch was from none other than iconic boxing legend Floyd Mayweather who held a press conference to announce the arrival of his new ‘bricks and mortar’ Mayweather boxing oriented gyms and virtual reality app. Ever wondered what it’s like to fight against the best pound-for-pound boxer who has ever lived? Well with the new VR app you can pit your wits, brawn and dexterity with the (virtual) man himself. Mayweather demonstrated the app himself and despite some nifty footwork and punishing blows from the man himself, the virtual version took the bout.
Voice
Alexa, Cortana, Siri, Assistant, Bixby etc. were all to be found controlling anything from your car to your washing machine. The battle for dominance clearly seems to be between Amazon and Google as they try to establish their voice activation variants as the dominant player.
Gadgets
ForwardX Robotics rolled out a four-wheeled travel bag that will follow its owner around the airport without the need to drag it. The ‘smart bag’ has several onboard cameras to detect its user and also uses AI to avoid banging into other people and their carry-on luggage. It also has the capability to send a message to its owner if they stray too far from it in Duty Free or when the battery pack is getting low.
And finally my favourite gadget of the event has to be the super cute Sony Aibo puppy. This robot dog was the star of the show with its AI controlled actions and ability to react to commands.
Want more round-ups from CES? Click here for Tech East and West round-ups by OMD’s Chrissie Hanson.
The Superbowl has also dominated recent headlines with Lady Gaga using 300 Intel-powered drones during halftime. With so much hype and exposure, it’s no wonder brands want to get a slice of the action, despite the $5M price tag! Don’t miss the best and worst from Superbowl TV ads in 2017.
HEADLINES
Tech giants including Google, Microsoft and Facebook rally against Trump’s Muslim ban amidst fears for existing employees as well as the future of progressive thinking in the USA
Instagram launches Snapchat-esque ‘disappearing’ photo and video functionality
Dove UK brilliantly trolls the Trump administration’s attitude towards suspect information with their #AlternativeFacts campaign
INSIGHTS
Superbowl TV ads cost $5m for a 30-second spot. Here’s why they’re worth every penny due to online searches
More so than any other trend this feels like an area where the groundwork has been laid for creators – whether that’s publishers, brands, or the creative community – to experiment with what is now available to them. Last year saw VR hardware releases from significant players such as Oculus, HTC and PlayStation. Of course, technical improvements will continue at a pace – in particular, the pursuit of untethered headsets and remote positional tracking. But, the technology is already available to create powerful VR experiences where users can move and interact in a manner that is impossible in any other medium. HTC have quashed rumours of a ‘Vive 2’ being released this year – though plenty of new accessories are on the horizon. So it’s over to the many creatives already in this space, and those getting on board, to develop content that makes use of VR’s unique properties as a medium.
It seems that VR entered, or perhaps re-entered, the public consciousness last year on some level. In terms of how many people own a VR headset of any kind, estimates suggest there are around 500,000 people with a high-end HTC Vive and 400,000 with an Oculus Rift. Sony say that “hundreds of thousands” of PlayStation owners have already bought PlayStation VR. Earlier last year, Samsung reported it had reached one million users for its Samsung Gear headsets. These figures were shared well before Samsung heavily promoted the headsets in the run-up to Christmas. We are still waiting for the numbers of the newest smartphone-accessory headsets in the market, Google’s Daydream.However, some reports suggest the reach of Google’s basic Cardboard headset has been as high as 80 million. Of course, unlike the other headsets, it is hard to know how many have kept these rather than used them once.
Staying at the ‘low-end’ of the headset market, but made of plastic rather than card, I saw a number of headsets retailing at less than £10 in-stores and online in the run up to Christmas for users to pop their phone into. I also noticed a heavy presence of ‘vr’ amongst the Apple Stores trending apps in the days after Christmas. So it feels like there is some appetite and recognition amongst the public of what VR is (even if they haven’t tried it yet). Brands should consider taking advantage of this willingness by creating a VR experience. The right VR experience could be more practical, like Jaguar’s I-PACE launch, or simply mindblowing, like Google Earth.
The question of ‘how many people have a headset?’ from brands considering VR, is perhaps misjudged. There are certainly only a finite number of people who will own a VR headset ever, even when the VR content available improves. This is an immersive and intense medium to be dipped into for ‘one-off’ experiences, analogous perhaps to cinema (how many people have one of those at home?). It fits for VR to be found in a store to aid a magical retail experience or indeed in cinemas to view entertainment content in a new form, and these site-specific VR experiences provide a rich opportunity for many brands. In London, we have already seen a VR Zombie chase, Björk’s VR-only exhibition and more recently the Royal Academy’s VR pop-up – all of which were ticketed events that sold out.
Beyond VR, the narrative from some publishers is that 2016 was actually the breakout year for Augmented Reality, because of the mega-hit that was Pokemon Go. This doesn’t ring true for me to the extent that it is touted as AR’s breakthrough moment. On a basic level because some research showed that ‘only’ 33% of users had the AR functionality turned on ‘most of the time’ or ‘always’ whilst playing the game. More significantly the success of Pokemon Go wasn’t down to the AR, but a multitude of factors (many of which were cultural) that I will spare you from debating here.
For me, Snapchat Lenses remain a far stronger example for AR. This technology is used by millions daily, even if the users don’t know or care to know that this tech is part of something called Augmented Reality. Facial overlays seem to be the most prevalent successful use of AR technology. This type of AR experience is neat for makeup brands or spectacle sellers but, obviously, has limited uses.
It’s the augmentation of objects into the real world in front of you that feels like the opportunity for a broader array of uses, but one that has been touted for some time. Maybe this year we’ll see brands really crack this opportunity through some hit applications. Markerless technology (a potential barrier to a slick experience) continues to improve and the digital recreation of assets for an AR world (perhaps the biggest cost here) may be something that a brand bites the bullet on or finds a more efficient way of doing, which could lead to a significant AR success story with business-changing returns.
Microsoft’s HoloLens exists as a unique outlier. Currently, it is available for developers but not for the public (which isn’t necessarily a problem – see my point on VR adoption). AR via a headset rather than through a phone, combined with the possibility of interaction and scalability of augmented objects that pushes this into the realm of ‘Mixed Reality’. This is ‘where it’s all going’. As future-gazers like to say, Mixed Reality experiences, like AR experiences, point to a potential for mass adoption far beyond VR because of the nature of the experience. The availability of the HoloLens platform, perhaps years before this technology truly develops on a larger scale, stands out as an obvious opportunity for brands to gain first-mover advantage and take a leadership position with a tech-powered experience for their customers.
What should brands do this year?
Suspend disbelief and imagine the ultimate experience your brand could deliver, whether that’s practical or fantastical. Can this technology be used to bring this to life?
Work with VR/AR experts who have made the easy mistakes in the medium already and are pushing the boundaries with what is possible. Also look out for select content publishers with compelling, well-supported VR offerings.
Look at building platforms for VR or AR experiences that allow for updating and repeat usage over time, rather than one-off short-lived ideas.
Have a question or want to discuss something more? Send us an email at [email protected]
More so than any other trend this feels like an area where the groundwork has been laid for creators – whether that’s publishers, brands, or the creative community – to experiment with what is now available to them. Last year saw VR hardware releases from significant players such as Oculus, HTC and PlayStation. Of course, technical improvements will continue at a pace – in particular, the pursuit of untethered headsets and remote positional tracking. But, the technology is already available to create powerful VR experiences where users can move and interact in a manner that is impossible in any other medium. HTC have quashed rumours of a ‘Vive 2’ being released this year – though plenty of new accessories are on the horizon. So it’s over to the many creatives already in this space, and those getting on board, to develop content that makes use of VR’s unique properties as a medium.
It seems that VR entered, or perhaps re-entered, the public consciousness last year on some level. In terms of how many people own a VR headset of any kind, estimates suggest there are around 500,000 people with a high-end HTC Vive and 400,000 with an Oculus Rift. Sony say that “hundreds of thousands” of PlayStation owners have already bought PlayStation VR. Earlier last year, Samsung reported it had reached one million users for its Samsung Gear headsets. These figures were shared well before Samsung heavily promoted the headsets in the run-up to Christmas. We are still waiting for the numbers of the newest smartphone-accessory headsets in the market, Google’s Daydream.However, some reports suggest the reach of Google’s basic Cardboard headset has been as high as 80 million. Of course, unlike the other headsets, it is hard to know how many have kept these rather than used them once.
Staying at the ‘low-end’ of the headset market, but made of plastic rather than card, I saw a number of headsets retailing at less than £10 in-stores and online in the run up to Christmas for users to pop their phone into. I also noticed a heavy presence of ‘vr’ amongst the Apple Stores trending apps in the days after Christmas. So it feels like there is some appetite and recognition amongst the public of what VR is (even if they haven’t tried it yet). Brands should consider taking advantage of this willingness by creating a VR experience. The right VR experience could be more practical, like Jaguar’s I-PACE launch, or simply mindblowing, like Google Earth.
The question of ‘how many people have a headset?’ from brands considering VR, is perhaps misjudged. There are certainly only a finite number of people who will own a VR headset ever, even when the VR content available improves. This is an immersive and intense medium to be dipped into for ‘one-off’ experiences, analogous perhaps to cinema (how many people have one of those at home?). It fits for VR to be found in a store to aid a magical retail experience or indeed in cinemas to view entertainment content in a new form, and these site-specific VR experiences provide a rich opportunity for many brands. In London, we have already seen a VR Zombie chase, Björk’s VR-only exhibition and more recently the Royal Academy’s VR pop-up – all of which were ticketed events that sold out.
Beyond VR, the narrative from some publishers is that 2016 was actually the breakout year for Augmented Reality, because of the mega-hit that was Pokemon Go. This doesn’t ring true for me to the extent that it is touted as AR’s breakthrough moment. On a basic level because some research showed that ‘only’ 33% of users had the AR functionality turned on ‘most of the time’ or ‘always’ whilst playing the game. More significantly the success of Pokemon Go wasn’t down to the AR, but a multitude of factors (many of which were cultural) that I will spare you from debating here.
For me, Snapchat Lenses remain a far stronger example for AR. This technology is used by millions daily, even if the users don’t know or care to know that this tech is part of something called Augmented Reality. Facial overlays seem to be the most prevalent successful use of AR technology. This type of AR experience is neat for makeup brands or spectacle sellers but, obviously, has limited uses.
It’s the augmentation of objects into the real world in front of you that feels like the opportunity for a broader array of uses, but one that has been touted for some time. Maybe this year we’ll see brands really crack this opportunity through some hit applications. Markerless technology (a potential barrier to a slick experience) continues to improve and the digital recreation of assets for an AR world (perhaps the biggest cost here) may be something that a brand bites the bullet on or finds a more efficient way of doing, which could lead to a significant AR success story with business-changing returns.
Microsoft’s HoloLens exists as a unique outlier. Currently, it is available for developers but not for the public (which isn’t necessarily a problem – see my point on VR adoption). AR via a headset rather than through a phone, combined with the possibility of interaction and scalability of augmented objects that pushes this into the realm of ‘Mixed Reality’. This is ‘where it’s all going’. As future-gazers like to say, Mixed Reality experiences, like AR experiences, point to a potential for mass adoption far beyond VR because of the nature of the experience. The availability of the HoloLens platform, perhaps years before this technology truly develops on a larger scale, stands out as an obvious opportunity for brands to gain first-mover advantage and take a leadership position with a tech-powered experience for their customers.
What should brands do this year?
Suspend disbelief and imagine the ultimate experience your brand could deliver, whether that’s practical or fantastical. Can this technology be used to bring this to life?
Work with VR/AR experts who have made the easy mistakes in the medium already and are pushing the boundaries with what is possible. Also look out for select content publishers with compelling, well-supported VR offerings.
Look at building platforms for VR or AR experiences that allow for updating and repeat usage over time, rather than one-off short-lived ideas.
Have a question or want to discuss something more? Send us an email at [email protected]
Hello and welcome to another weekly dose of FWD where recent studies have proven ‘Generation X’ are more addicted to Social Media than ‘Millennials’. This might come as a surprise to some of you, however, this demonstrates how the younger generation is moving away from traditional social platforms.
That said, Facebook is still the most popular network on our smartphones, followed by Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest according to Nielsen’s latest report. This, in turn, explains how Facebook had more conversations via mobile than desktop for the first time, particularly around Black Friday, with transactions growing by 55% year on year. This is a 10% increase on the same time in 2015.
In further developments, Facebook is now testing ads within their mobile messaging interface, which could be the start of something big if successful in both Australia and Thailand, watch this space!
Amazon Go is a bricks-and-mortar grocery shop due to open to the public in 2017. The Seattle-based store will enable people with an Amazon Go app ‘just to walk’ out of the store without the need to wait in line to pay or check out. Amazon said that it started working on the concept four years ago by bringing together technologies found in self-driving cars (such as computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning) to create a store. The technology used in-store is able to detect when products are taken or returned to the shelves, keeping a track of them in your virtual cart. After picking up what you want in the store, your Amazon account will automatically be charged and receive a receipt. Powered by artificial intelligence this is a huge development for the future of retail and in-store experiences, which have been struggling to compete with e-commerce. It will be interesting to see how other high street brands react to this development in 2017.
HEADLINES
Amazon launches the Amazon Go Store as “a new kind of store with no checkout required”
From starting his own business at university to working on the HTC Vive Virtually Dead activation, we caught up with Rob Wigman to find out more about his career path so far.
1. How did you first hear about OMD Fuse and what attracted you to the role?
A friend of mine within the OMD network introduced me to Fuse. I would not call myself a sports fan, but Fuse is more than just sports focused. The role was for the Fuse brand partnerships team working with clients like Disney and Bentley. This sounded perfect as I had a good level of skills from running my own company, which could be applied to the world of marketing.
2. How did your previous experience help you secure a job at OMD Fuse?
My photography degree probably didn’t have the biggest effect on securing my role at Fuse, but founding and running Pholio, an agency for emerging photographers, for six years definitely put me in a good place. When starting a business and running it, you have to understand all elements from client relationships, new business/pitching, strategy and finance to working as a team to reach your goals. These skills led me to secure the role at Fuse and have proved integral to my growth within OMD Fuse since I started a year and a half ago.
3. Could you explain a typical day, if there’s such a thing?
This might be a bit cliché, but there is no typical day! One day you could be pitching creative ideas to a client/CMO and the next running a brand partnerships workshop with two clients to come up with activation ideas – it really depends. What I love about working at OMD Fuse is that we are all one big team and everyone who works here comes from different backgrounds and specialties. When a pitch lands or retained client work comes in, you work with different people to do the job. Personally, this has meant getting involved with anything from football and motorsports briefs to VR and high-end luxury brands.
4. What are your career highlights so far?
Getting to work at OMD Fuse is first and foremost! Secondly, it would be a project I helped create and activate for HTC Vive, HTC’s VR offering. They came to us with a challenge of how to launch their VR headset Vive in the UK and Paris with very little budget targeting millennials, which are hard to engage through traditional media. We created and activated ‘Virtually Dead’, in partnership with millennial app Dojo. The activation is a world first in immersive theatre with VR at its heart showcasing a zombie shoot’em up game. 10,000 millennials participated in the experience and we smashed our KPIs by 91%. We have been shortlisted for quite a few awards, winning best partnership at the 2016 M&M Global Awards. Seeing it from conception to completion and now winning industry awards has been a great highlight for me.
5. What challenges have you faced?
Coming from a company where we had five or six employees and numerous freelancers, the scale of OMD was a challenge at first. I needed to figure out who best to speak to and work with on projects and briefs. This challenge was made easier when I joined the Grand Tour, a 10-week course setup to learn and become familiar with all the different OMD agencies and offerings. I am now working on a number of projects with client, insight and data teams to ensure a 360 response. This has turned my initial challenge into a huge advantage when creating data-driven projects and work for our clients.
6. What tips would you give people who would like to follow in your footsteps?
Don’t just apply for roles based only on your experiences in an industry. OMD Fuse looks for talent and the right person, not just a wealth of specific experience. The second tip is to be passionate and go above and beyond! You can really create a role for yourself if you have these qualities.
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.
It has been a significant couple of weeks for our understanding of the developing TV landscape. The convergence of TV and Internet technologies has been spoken of as some kind of future event for the past 15 years or so. Now, more than ever, we can understand it as something that has happened and will continue to develop.
The over the top global TV platforms continue to scale.
Netflix announced a global partnership with Liberty Global giving access to a further 30m homes worldwide driving growth beyond the current 29m subscriptions outside the USA. Additionally, RBC Capital Markets reported that 42% of UK internet users used Netflix to watch TV/Movie content in the past 12 months, compared to 54% for YouTube and 62% for the BBC iPlayer.
In terms of high-profile content, Amazon announced a launch date of November 18 for ‘The Grand Tour’ maybe the most prominent global reach show to date for an OTT platform. Twitter streamed their first live NFL Thursday night football match between the NY Jets and Buffalo Bills. In the VR space, the first VR Emmy went to the Oculus Story Studio. We are now witnessing premium content propositions, in virtually every genre, being made available through these new platforms being launched every few weeks.
On the other side of the convergence coin, the traditional broadcasters and platforms have been taking advantage of new technology led opportunities. At IBC in Amsterdam, Sky recently discussed the launch of Sky Go UK inventory sold via the Videology platform on a programmatic basis enabling brands to access content such as live English Premier League outside of traditional broadcast.
At IBC a range of new TV screens were launched that go beyond 4K into High Dynamic Range, Wide Colour Gamut and Ultra HD. Content in these cutting edge formats is more likely to be initially delivered over IP rather than broadcast.
It is not just a zero-sum game, these platforms drive each other.
Nielsen in the US report that increased viewing of related content on YouTube drives viewing of a TV show. Consumers are happy to bounce between platforms, especially on the same device, to create a more personalised experience. Measurement of this behaviour is now a global scale challenge requiring new methodologies for TV measurement, in-store attribution and cross-device targeting.
We can now see a path to better monetisation of video impacts delivered over IP. No longer are they something that is hard to measure, scale and trade. Consumers have taken to new platforms and formats, especially younger and more affluent consumers. Global platforms are creating and distributing some of the most high profile and sought after inventory. Brands can now also access that high-quality content through a range of new buying mechanisms.
Convergence has positive impacts on TV, we just need to frame the opportunity a little differently.
This was very much the focus of discussion amongst the media and advertising community at IBC. It is now especially relevant to have a deep understanding of many audience segments. Through conditional insight, testing different hypotheses and experimental design, we can recognise brand differentiators through value creation mechanisms. A clear measurement framework that operates across devices, platforms and approaches is now the most critical challenge to deliver on the opportunity of the post convergence TV/AV landscape.
