BRotD - Entry 0263 AI over A/B Testing for Advertising

Best Reading of the Day

I am working to get my head around the impact Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, will have on our world so I'm pulling in any interesting article I see on the subject.

If you've watched even one episode of the landmark television series 'Mad Men' you'll have an appreciation of the work that goes in to creative decision making for advertising.  Now let the machines do a big chunk of the work.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Even though one of the main goals of digital marketing is to serve customers the right message at the right time, we all know what it’s like to be chased around the internet by an ad that’s completely irrelevant or just plain annoying. And that’s because deciding when and where to deliver that message, not to mention the labor that goes into creating the message in the first place, has long involved human guesswork. Granted, those guesses often come after rigorous testing, but those best tests are limited to the often slow-moving process human analysis. Until now.

Artificial intelligence has already transformed everything from the IT department to the customer service experience, and now, machine learning is on track to completely change the ways we think about ad creative.

Here is the full article, another excellent one from ClickZ:

https://www.clickz.com/how-ai-could-make-a-b-testing-a-thing-of-the-past/216302/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0262 Social Media's Growing Pains

Best Reading of the Day

This is a really fine article over on the New York Times.

What has Facebook, and other technologies, done to us?  What has the impact been on humanity?  How did we get here?  What can be done?

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Let me first state that I actually like Mark Zuckerberg and have since the day I met him more than a dozen years ago.

But let me also say that he and Facebook, the huge social network that he started in college, have been working humanity’s last nerve for far too long now.

Every week, it’s something, and that something is never good.

This week, it was the revelation that the Russians — or, more precisely, a group of geek thugs who are acting the exact same way that a group of Russians acted when they messed with the 2016 United States elections on Facebook — are still skulking around the platform and making trouble for the midterms.

Here is the full article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/opinion/the-expensive-education-of-mark-zuckerberg-and-silicon-valley.html

I use Facebook for one thing really.  I have a couple small groups I'm in where we discuss particular topics.  Movies mostly.  I enjoy the folks there.  We are quite collegial and regularly have respectful disagreements.  We stay on topic and share our thoughts and experiences.

Beyond that the platform doesn't do hardly anything for me any more.

Twitter is a great place for instant news, though dangerous as the possibility of inaccurate news is very real.

Troubling times as we've seen our hopes and dreams for technology dashed by bad actors.  As if we've never seen this before in history (oh, yes, we have says Mr. Nobel). 

Happy Disturbing Reading,

J.W. Gant

Update on Mobile Pay and Apple Pay

USA Today has posted a couple stories on mobile payments the last week.  This one is worth a read.

Biggest news is a couple retailers joining Apple Pay, CVS Pharmacy and 7-Eleven, and US Chase adding Apple Pay to its ATMs.

If you know payments you know that last one is hard to do.  ATMs are quite different from other needs.

Here is the full article:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/08/04/mobile-pay-had-great-week-but-apple-google-still-have-long-road-ahead/904569002/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Brands Blazing a Trail in AR or VR

Wait.

What in the world is AR?

For that matter, what is VR.  Wait.  Maybe I know that one.

Augmented Reality or AR and Virtual Reality or VR are becoming hot buzzwords for a reason.  This stuff is really cool.

The folks over at ClickZ who just released a great article challenging brands to bump up their AR/VR game have released another excellent read.  This time they're focusing on brands already doing it well.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been two years since Pokemon Go became a national obsession and made augmented reality (AR) not just a possibility, but a reality, for digital marketers. These days, it seems like everyone is trying to figure out how to make AR work for their brand, but the key to creating an AR experience that gets audiences engaging, according to Jason Yim, CEO of Trigger Global, is to focus on functionality rather than novelty.

Here is the full article:

https://www.clickz.com/ar-isnt-just-fun-and-games-here-are-the-brands-at-the-forefront-of-functional-ar/216076/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0261 Storytelling

The highest achievement in brand management and advertising for a brand is to tell a story that relates the product to the people who might spend money on that product.

The art of storytelling.

As someone who has always loved storytelling in its many forms and has now joined that with my first book I am keenly aware of the power of the form.  Leveraging that for marketing is a masterful achievement.

Here is CMO.com with 6 brands that have done so:

https://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2018/6/29/6-brands-that-have-mastered-the-art-of-storytelling

Here is number 1 on their list:

Grey Goose
When most people think of Grey Goose, they think cocktails. But that’s not the only place where the global spirits connoisseur excels. Its content marketing efforts are vast, but the highlight is the brand’s video strategy, in which it shows that it is also a content creator.

In March, Grey Goose partnered with Academy Award-winning actor Jamie Foxx to launch “Off Script,” a nine-part digital series in which he has one-on-one conversations with Hollywood darlings, such as Jeremy Renner, Vince Vaughn, Denzel Washington, and Gabrielle Union.

I know what you are thinking.  Sure.  That works fine for the big players who can afford to hire an Academy-Award winning actor.  What about me?

Just tell a story and a compelling one that your audience cares about. That's all.  You can do it.  Be creative in the media you use but be consistent for your brand.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Netflix Stocks Slide

How is this for a headline?

Netflix's Garbage Programming Blamed for Stock Falling Off a Cliff

Here is the full story:

https://gizmodo.com/netflixs-garbage-programming-blamed-for-stock-falling-o-1827639926

So Netflix didn't hit their own estimates.

Okay.

They just bumped their budge for original content from $8 billion to $13 billion.

With a "B".

I'm going to go out on a limb here as someone who knows a bit about the lead time associated with the creative process.  Netflix will come storming back as this creative budget creates an explosion of excellent, finely tuned and data driven design, original content.

Stay tuned.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Brand Prep for Augmented Reality Advertising

Just when you thought you worked out your social media strategy and executed on your mobile plan now it is virtual reality or augmented reality.

Are you ready?

The fine folks over at ClickZ (you really should follow their work) have a great little article on the subject hot off the presses (for my younger readers that means they just wrote it).

Read on:

https://www.clickz.com/augmented-reality-ads-are-here-is-your-brand-ready/215659/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Earlier this week, Facebook announced that it’s moving augmented reality (AR) ads out of Messenger and into the News Feed. Early adopters like fashion retailer Michael Kors and beauty brands like Sephora are creating ads that allow Facebook users to virtually test products from the comfort of their couch.

The move means that even brands without huge marketing budgets should start thinking about how AR can fit into upcoming campaigns...

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant