It's not just about self-driving cars

Robert Bosch GmbH made headlines this past month as various newsoutlets echoed Bloomberg’s headline: “Bosch to Build $1.1 Billion Chip Plant for Self-Driving Cars.” While it may not quite stray into alternative fact territory, the headlines is somewhat misleading because the chips are not reserved for self-driving cars. Buried within the article is the acknowledgement that Bosch says they will also be used for “smart homes and Internet-linked city infrastructure.” By all measures, it's clear the company intends to be a major player in the global supply chain for connected electronics. 

It’s true that the company is invested in the development of autonomous cars. In March of this year, it GmbH  announced a partnership with the American company NVIDA, which produces artificial intelligence (AI) systems for self-driving vehicles” in which it would  build  an “artificial intelligence self-driving systems for mass market cars” based on NVIDA Drive PX line with Xavier architecture.

So it does make sense that it would be considering the automotive customer, especially if it is true that, as the Bloomberg article states, each car purchased last year “contained an average of nine chips made by Bosch.”

However, the story that Bosch itself  tells about its plans for the factory it is building in Dresden, Germany are not that narrowly focused, as revealed by its press release. 

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Beyond the Headlines: Bosch’s $1.1 Billion Investment

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:

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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

If you're wondering about Bitcoin

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Bitcoin_logo.svg/1024px-Bitcoin_logo.svg.png

I've written quite a number of articles about the potential of digital currency, most of them for CoinDesk, but also for CFO. EETimes, and  EBN.

Find out why alpacas became an official mascot for Bitcoin and how the the “Casascius” got its name. You can even learn about the history of currency in real life and why metal and paper currency isn't practical on the final frontier.

Marketing B2B

B2B: Targeting Companies and Contacts

When it comes to B2B marketing, whom do you target? Do you go after the company or a particular individual? Whichever choice you make, there are, of course, solutions available to help you achieve your goal....

Just as it does for B2C, the strategy for B2B marketing starts with knowing who your target market is and reaching them with compelling content. 

read more in B2B: Targeting Companies and Contacts

STEM for women not happening in Star Wars

In November 2016, NASA shared this short video as a tribute from cast from Star Wars to honor the women at NASA who serve as “engineers, aviators, research scientists, astronauts and more are making a future possible for humanity in a galaxy far far away.” This is somewhat ironic in light of what followed in the Star Wars franchise.

In December 2016, the Star Wars film Rogue One was released with a female hero at the center of the film, and there were a couple of female fliers to be seen among the rebels. But the role of scientists and engineers were all held by men. The protagonist’s father was the chief scientist leading whose team of engineers were all men. Even if the film makers didn’t want to go so far as making the protagonist’s mother the scientist, they could have at least allowed for some female representation on the Empirical engineering department, but no.

So progressiveness in representation on film still has a long way to go. But the good news is that in real life and in our own galaxy women are doing better than they are in the Empire with respect to such positions.
Read more in Star Wars: Not Yet a Galaxy of Equal Opportunity

Twitter tools, now with more buttons!

Marketers have recognized the great potential for spreading their messages through shared content on social media. Now Twitter is bringing out new tools for tapping into that potential alongside the new chatbots designed to increase user engagement.

On May 23, Twitter announced that “a new, customizable Direct Message Card” was available to “in limited beta to Twitter advertisers.”  Combining eye-catching pictures or videos with :fully customizable call-to-action buttons,” the card gives marketers a way to reach new customers and further engage existing ones, as well as foster shares of branded interactive experiences, particularly for brands that use chatbots.

On June 13, Twitter further expanded the options for businesses to connect with customers through Direct Messaging with new buttons. As the Twitter blog put it, “ Now, businesses can attach buttons to messages to make it easy for people to take actions outside of the Direct Message conversation – like composing a Tweet, following an account, or opening a website within the Twitter app.”

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Cards, Buttons, and Bots (Tweet, Tweet!)