Customers and brands are not on the same page about tech

“The Sci-Fi Shopper: How to Future-Proof Your Brand for the New Consumer” is the title of the ebook they published on the subject. Darin Archer, Elastic Path’s Chief Strategy Officer, spoke to me about the difference between assumptions about the appeal of technology and how it actually can be useful in building better relationships between brands and consumers.

Their initial premise was that the “Jetsons” style tech that can be done today is what consumers want. But as it turns out, consumers don’t care about the wow factor of experiencing “sci-fi” style technology. What they really care most about is convenience.

The advanced tech that they found attractive was not “the super flashy,” Archer said, but “what makes my life easier.” As the report tells marketers, today’s consumer “expects streamlined, easy and frictionless” purchase processes. The brands that will win customers are the ones that will deliver it to them.

That means that brands should look into anything that can make it easier for customers to finalize the purchase. That’s where voice activation can be helpful. But as for the tricks of AR and VR, customers, they’re only of interest if they are perceived to be useful. Archer observed that they found that 56 percent of shoppers said VR was over-hyped, but only 38 percent said that of AR.

He suggested that this could be due to the fact that at present there are more practical use cases for AR than for VR. He offered examples like showing what a kitchen appliance would actually look like, in its place in your kitchen, or how a rug not just fills your living room but how it looks under your furniture.

Brands and customers not on the same page

What’s really interesting is how the brands are so far off in identifying the primary concerns of their customers. For example, the top item on a customer’s wishlist (67 percent) is checkout-less payment options.

Only 18 percent of brand representatives identified that as what their customers would like to have. They failed to perceive that customers really wish “to solve pain points like long lines,” Archer pointed out. 

The second technological convenience customers would like is smart devices. More than half (58 percent) identified that, but only a quarter of brand representatives understood that to be desirable for customers. There was a similar gap for voice-enabled commerce, which 57 percent of customers said they wanted, and only 23 percent of brand representatives anticipated that.

Read more in Convenience Drives Consumers’ Tech Demands

Related: When doing business with humans

One app to rule them all for IKEA

You may have come across the comic showing the interviewer saying “Take a seat” to a the man entering. In the place of the chair is a collection of chair parts. That’s because it’s identified as an interview for IKEA, the brand associated with furniture that comes in pieces to be put together by the customer.

Until now that’s rather the way it’s been for the online IKEA shopper, as well. They had to put the pieces together themselves. The problem was not that IKEA didn’t have an app; it’s that it had three separate ones that do not integrate and allow the customer to do everything on a mobile device. 

The catalog app allows you to view hundreds of pages of merchandise on your phone, but not to place an order, which can only be done on the IKEA site. The virtual reality app called “Place” allows you to visualize its products in your home. While the tech, which was introduced in 2017, is both useful and cool, it doesn’t deliver with a buy option.

Read more in 

IKEA Rolls Out a Shoppable App

IFTF's Forecast for 2030

Key changes to result from the rise of machines in the workplace that we can anticipate over the next 13 years include:

• Cloud computing would become the norm.
• While some jobs will be handled by machines, new jobs that don't exist yet will make up the majority of positions in 2030.
• The machine and human interaction will yield greater efficiency in finding talent, managing teams, delivering products and services.
• Workers will learn what they need to do 'in-the-moment,' while on the job to keep up with the skills in demand for the rise of machines in the workplace.

The whole nature of individual careers is expected to change. "By 2030, expectations of work will reset and the landscape for organizations will be redrawn, as the process of finding work gets flipped on its head." The trend currently observed of people working in a "gig economy" is expected to grow to the extent that people would find that they are hired for tasks rather than permanent positions.

The report also envisions a future in which people would not be seeking jobs as much as the jobs will be looking for them: "Reputation engines, data visualization, and smart analytics will make individuals' skills and competencies searchable, and organizations will pursue the best talent for discrete work tasks." As organizations hire people exactly where and when they are needed, they will gain the advantage of becoming "leaner and more competitive," as well as "more agile and profitable," thanks to the reduction in "costs and overheads."

Workers would gain a kind of agility, as well as get trained "in-the-moment" for the tasks required by the organization. Maguire explained that thanks to immersive technologies like AR and VR, workers would not "have to leave the job to complete a curriculum" for retraining. Instead, they'd be able to apply "a digital layer over work stations" that could guide them in new skills and applications right in the workplace.

from 

Preparing for Our Future: The Human Partnership with Machines

Holograms Enable 3D Marketing

With every brand vying for people's attention, messages on a screen no longer stand out. That's why some brands are turning to augmented reality, and the possibilities opened up by holograms of famous personalities. Augmented Reality hologram company, VNTANA, has been used by brands like Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz and Pepsi to engage and collect data on potential customers.

We spoke with Ashley Crowder, VNTANA's CEO and Co-Founder about how brands make themselves stand out – literally – with holograms. It's effective for “any public face where brands trying to engage with consumers in the moment,” she said VNTANA partnered with multiple brands this year at Comic-Con 2017 to bring fans one-of-a-kind hologram experiences.

The holograms are so effective at drawing people in because they are “wowed” by the 3D images of familiar figures, Crowder explained. The interactivity it invites make it “seems like a game” or a “futuristic photo booth.” Those who use it don't perceive it as an advertisement or a way of collecting their data via facial recognition that picks up on age, gender, and emotions.

Read more in 

3D Marketing with Holograms

Mixed Reality to Become Mainstream

For all of its impressive effects, marketers have been holding back to some extent from applying mixed reality to their campaigns. That made sense in light of the fact that most people were not equipped to view it properly. But that's set to change by the end of this year.

At the end of August, Microsoft announced a lineup of mixed reality equipment for the holiday season that is expected to put it in the hands of a lot more people, thanks to the triple appeal of an affordable price, easy setup, and portability...

Google just released  a preview of its new software development kit (SDK) called ARCore for Android devices. Here's a video showing some Wizard of Oz inspired effects:

Popular characters also be adapted to marketing in a mixed reality environment, for example letting people interact with personae linked to brands, like Tony the Tiger, or Mr. Clean. That would mean that anyone could have the experience shown in cleaner's Super Bowl ad last year (except for getting the actual cleaning done, of course).

Read more in Mainstreaming Mixed Reality

Healthcare Tech Marketing

Telling Effective Stories About Healthcare Tech

New technologies are transforming operations in all industries, including healthcare. But we tend not to hear very much about it from healthcare brands. Melissa Baratta, Senior VP and healthcare practice lead at marketing, social media, and PR firm Affect spoke with DMN tech about innovations in that space and why they should be featured in marketing efforts.

The question is: What accounts for the hesitation to discuss emerging tech applications in healthcare? Barratta believes organizations may be concerned about how to make it fit with their brand image, and with fears that automation will displace human doctors. She referred to a journal article that suggested that radiologists and pathologist will be out of a job in the next five years when AI takes over. “A lot of media picked up on that,” and that may have made some wary of appearing “to promote tech that would eliminate jobs or raise concerns about trust.”

However, Baratta believes that these concerns should not hold brands back from investing in tech and using it for better patient outcomes. The way to go about it is to  “create educational stories, with perspective, that acknowledge challenges” while exploring how the tech “will help patients and help doctors” That includes applying AI to getting a handle on “data overload” and “more effectively mine data,” so that doctors are making better informed decisions for their patients.

The advantage for the brands that discuss their uses of emerging technologies now, she said, is that they “position themselves as thought leaders and innovaters.” It's an advantage “to talk about it when people are trying to understand what it means” and trying to grasp how it is can be used. That's why “now is the time to have a voice for thought leadership.”

Read more in Telling Effective Stories About Healthcare Tech

Hitching a brand to an eclipse

An eclipse is not the word people usually think of in connection with marketing on August 21 this year, it makes sense to seek out some brand association with a nearly universally trending topic.

goals, as it seems to be the antithesis of gaining the spotlight. But when an eclipse is a highly anticipated event, as the one taking place

Eclipse of the Century is the somewhat pretentious name given to the event, and to the site dedicated to its coverage that is brought to you by CNN and Volvo. At the end of July the car maker announced the partnership for “a unique editorial and branded content campaign.”

The content will be delivered through CNN channels, including its app for IOS and the designated site. The content currently posted on the site includes a countdown clock to the eclipse, and a map of its anticipated journey east and south across the country, from Oregon to South Carolina. One can also find eclipse information, links to an article with directions of where and how to view the eclipse, and an introduction to “eclipse chasers.”

Those of us who are not in that category still don't have to miss out on this particular event "of the century." We can also marvel at the eclipse in real time, thanks to advanced capture technology, including 4K VR and 360° cameras strategically placed around the country to capture the eclipse's journey that CNNVR will broadcast live.  Showcasing what the technology allows us to do is the idea behind the partnership.

Read more in Eclipse of the Century is a Co-Branding Opportunity

VR building blocks from Google

Ariella Brown, Freelance Contributor

July 10, 2017

Google Gives Marketers VR Building Blocks

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Google Gives Marketers VR Building Blocks

Google wants you to experience and build up VR. To that end, it has not only introduced a program and tool for YouTube but come up with new formats for it to make it particularly attractive to marketers. It also reveals how VR can be an effective tool for engagement geared toward persuasion, which is nothing less than  the essence of marketing.

In a blog entitled Experimenting with VR Ad formats at Area 120, Google explained that in that inhouse startup incubator, which is designated for innovative exploration, they've turned their attention to “experimenting with what a native, mobile VR ad format might look like.”

Bearing in mind that users want their VR experiences to be simple to set up, they came up with the idea of a cube that gives users the ability to choose if they want “to engage with it and then see a video ad.” The video would play either in response to a touch or even a look and can then be closed.

The explanation of how it works is packed into this gif:

Read more in 

Google Gives Marketers VR Building Blocks

VR heats up at YouTube

n June 22, the New York Times reported that, with the exception of the gaming industry, VR has proven a disappointment. It cites weak sales for VR headsets and the fact that all the “dabbling” in VR ventures has not amounted to serious strides.

But that may change with a boost from YouTube. The Google-owned video site is promoting the development of VR videos with new resources and tools that help developers and may make VR videos more attractive for marketing.

Which VR elements in a video get the most attention? That's something that creators are able to track with Heatmaps, a feature that YouTube rolled “for 360-degree and VR videos with over 1,000 views” on June 16.

You can see an example of a heatmap applied to a music video here: 

Read more in YouTube Heats Up VR Market