This document discusses digital trends moving into 2017. It notes that consumers have shifted from valuing products to valuing experiences. In 2017, brands will focus on enhancing consumer experiences through artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and more intuitive interfaces. Artificial intelligence is growing through increased data and machine learning but still needs human interpretation. Virtual and augmented reality are being applied in entertainment, education, and self-improvement. New interface technologies are thinking beyond the touchscreen to enhance human experiences.
2. 2014 - 2016 CONSUMER SHIFT
From products to experience
3. 78% of Millennials said they would rather
spend their money on experiences not
“things”
PWC 2014
4. Placing the consumer at the heart of everything they do & designed
simple customer centric experiences around their needs
Alibaba, the most
valuable retailer has no
inventory
Uber, the worlds
largest taxi company
owns no fleet
AirBnb, the largest
accommodation
provider owns no real
estate
5. A VIEW ON 2017
More of the same
But with greater tools
6. 2017 – ENHANCING THE EXPERIENCE
The focus still remains on brands creating an experience
1. Artificial Intelligence; the rise of the machines?
2. Virtual; replacing and enhancing reality
3. Intuitive interfaces; thinking beyond the swipe
8. DEFINITION
‘The science of making computers do things that require
intelligence when done by humans’ (Minskey 1968)
Learning. Reasoning. Problem solving.
Perception. Language understanding. (Turing 1950)
12. – Under Armour want to own a complete picture of your health
– $700m+ investment in platforms (incl. My Fitness Pal)
– Attempting to own the biggest pool of health data
– World’s first social network for athletes and fitness enthusiasts
Data
13. IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO CRITIQUE AS
WELL...
MESSAGING BOTS
– Developed as standalone products or using one of many
messaging platforms i.e. Facebook
– 89% of customers would prefer to use an AI driven messaging bot
to speed up finding information (Nuance research 2016)
Human interpretation
14. – Google Assistant, Microsoft (Cortana), Apple (Siri) and Amazon
(Alexa)
– Siri handles 1 billion+ spoken requests per week
– Gartner estimating that by end of 2016 two-thirds of consumers
in developed markets will use them daily
– Customers likely to be heavily influenced by their VPA of choice
Human interpretation
15. Human enhancement
– Developed as standalone products or using one of many
messaging platforms i.e. Facebook
– 89% of customers would prefer to use an AI driven messaging bot
to speed up finding information (Nuance research 2016)
16. It's likely to be either the best or
worst thing ever to happen to
humanity, so there's huge value
in getting it right
Stephen Hawking
“
“
18. Goldman Sachs, The real deal with virtual and augmented reality, Feb 2016
““It is estimated that the AR/VR
market will reach $80 billion by
2025 – roughly the size of the
Desktop PC market today (2016)
Virtual and augmented reality have the
potential to transform how we interact
with almost every industry today, and will
be equally transformative both from a
consumer and an enterprise perspective.
““
19. ON THE MARKET IN 2016
Virtual Augmented
Overlays the real worldImmerses you in a virtual world
21. – Pokémon Go launched in July 2016 truly made AR accessible
– 500 million downloads to date, across 100 countries
– 26 mins spent per user, daily on the app
Source: DMR, Oct 2016
Entertainment
22. – ‘World first’ VR rollercoaster
– Taking participants to places that they’ve never been to before
– 189 seconds, flying through space
– Alleviating safety concerns
Entertainment
23. – A picture is worth a 1000 words”
– New York Time embraced VR as one of many digital initiatives
– November 2016 committed to at least one 360 story in every
edition
– Charities also using immersive story telling to huge effect
Education
24. – Relaxation and mediation wherever you are
– Tailored experiences based on an individual’s preferences
– World’s first VR app to measure heart rate in virtual reality to
effect the VR experience
– Marriott hotels using to transport tired travellers
– Treatment of fears and phobias
Betterment
27. – XXXXXXX
Human enhancement
– Neural Lace - ultimate enhancement
– Symbiotically allows you to interact with your digital
environment
– Chinese scientists have mastered getting into our brains – just
need to programme
33. IN SUMMARY
1. Experience remains the macro trend
2. In 2017 an experience is more in-depth, immersive and specific
and needs to move beyond ‘traditional’ digital channels
3. New relationships are establishing themselves – it’s a brave new
world for brands and marketeers
4. Data will be key to driving experience
Every 6 months or so we’ll look at the shifting digital trends
The areas that we are looking into with clients
The kind of activity that we feel should shape our client’s ambition
Here is a cut down version of that deck
First a little context
Big things is that everyone seems to talk about millennials
78% of Millennials said they would rather spend their money on Experiences not “things” (source PWC 2014).
57% of Millennials said “Access is the new Ownership”
Brands are being pushed to provide us with an experience that is … more relevant, more personalised, when ‘I want it’.
The perception of what is valuable has shifted. It’s the experience that exists around a product or brand that makes it increasingly desirable, or at the very least preferable.
With increasing experience in the digital space, expectations are set by the best digital players rather than the best of your comeptitors
Epitomised in this shift in someone like nike’s advertising a brand that was early adopting in moving beyond the product to the experience..
That trends isn’t going to change – in fact we’re going to see the importance of ‘experience’ grow in 2017.
Today going to talk to you about 3 ways we’re going to see brands use technology to create that elusive experience with consumers.
TRENDWATCHING: The lives of many consumers are already touched by intelligent, automated infrastructure. But now, rising numbers will expect that brands use machine learning and artificial intelligence to put truly smart products and services into their pockets, homes, inboxes, and more.
There are literally 100’s of definitions of AI – I’ve chosen this one by as it sums it up simply.
Turing was working in AI in the 50’s and he believed in order to be considered ‘true AI’ – an artificial intelligence system should demonstrate. – learning, reasoning, problem solving, perception and language understanding if it is to be mistaken for a human
There are literally 100’s of definitions of AI – I’ve chosen this one by as it sums it up simply.
Turing was working in AI in the 50’s and he believed in order to be considered ‘true AI’ – an artificial intelligence system should demonstrate. – learning, reasoning, problem solving, perception and language understanding if it is to be mistaken for a human
Offering has been productised – IBM in particular
Human acceptance – think Siri and Cortana
Raw processing power
Increasing importance of the digital experience
Because it is expensive
Current artificial intelligence application is broad. But can be roughly categorised into the following areas:
DATA INTELLIGENCE: By far the most significant examples of AI sit in the category of data intelligence. Great example of using algorithms and machine learning to create amazing user experiences from big data. Obvious ones are programmatic advertising and amzon’s pricing algorithms
HUMAN INTERPRETATION: In the last 5 years – there has been substantial growth in our abilities to create machines that start to ‘act’ like humans – in regards to visual perception, speech recognition, and decisions. Giving computers the ability to interact like human
ENHANCING HUMANS: The ultimate step. Adding AI directly into your brain (relatively unobtrusively) to connect your mind to the world
DATA INTELLIGENCE – joined up health data
Under Armour
One area where there have been some significant advances are in health and fitness data. Underarmour have made strategic decisions to try and own a complete picture of you’re health and fitness by investing over $700m in digital platforms:
My fitness pal
Map my fitness
Record
Believe they will own the biggest pool of joined up data (anyone heard Kevin Plank talk- CEO- he’s got the ego to deliver on it)
This is being amalgamated through the Record app. UA Record is a personalised health & fitness platform that provides tailored instruction, information & inspiration based on your data. Track, analyse, and share your fitness activity with the world's first social network for athletes and fitness enthusiasts.
Other examples:
Randal Olson’s ‘Ultimate US Road Trip
Amazon’s use of algorithms – illustrated through recommendations
Same intelligence employed for virtual assistance – increasing being used in a commercial sense of customer services in the form of messaging bots.
These are either being developed as standalone platforms, eg:
- In the UK RBS and Natwest launched their Watson powered Luvo chatbot to assist users in completing basic admin tasks like reordering cards.
- we’re working on one with ARUK….
Or Integrated into existing messaging platforms – FB or twitter such as:
Amex are now using Messenger to notify users of activity on their accounts, provide information on purchases and also offer wider advice and recommendation based on those purchases e.g. if you purchase airline tickets, they’ may send you a message reflecting the purchase of the tickets and then, before you leave for your trip, may also offer you the option to receive dining recommendations at your destination.
Recent research shows that the overwhelming majority of customers (89%) would prefer to engage with AI-driven virtual assistants to speed up finding information from companies, according to new research. from Nuance April 2016.
“By 2020, the average person will have more conversations with bots than with their spouse” according to Gartner.
And as a result the development and use of messaging bots are set to rocket in 2017
One area that has seen significant development has been in the development of the virtual personal assistant - Google assistance, Cortana, Siri, Amazon Alexa available on the Echo
Each have subtle difference – but all ‘curate’ information for us based on an understanding of our needs through natural language interactions. Google’s Assistant though is a level above the rest. It builds up knowledge of the user through previous interactions – much like search – to make responses much more useful. It also uses context to make solutions more nuanced (see example in the image or talk about what’s on at the cinema + we’d like to take the children)
With Gartner estimating that by the end of 2016 an approx. two-thirds of consumers in developed markets will use them daily.
As consumer its likely that we will be 100% influenced by our virtual personal assistance – may get to a point where we may choose not to look outside the recommendations they make for us.
For brands this raises and interesting conundrum – do you market to the end user or their virtual assist?
Also within the human interpretation category
Messaging bots – Swedbank’s Nina, 1-800-flowers
Robo-journalists – Fox and Yahoo! Use AI to write simple stories like financial summaries, sports recaps and fantasy sports reports
Natural language interrogation – Watson, Kensho product Warren – a trading version of Watson
Cognitoys – Significant growth in ‘intelligent toy’ or companions - that interact with you child – learning. How ethical is it for a child to forge an early relationship with a robot?
There’s also been huge advancement in visual recognition with API’s like Googles vision being able to identify and tag almost any image
Really interesting application of this technology is Aipoly which has been developed to specifically help the visually impaired.
Beta-launched in Q1 2016, Aipoly is a free mobile app using artificial intelligence to offer visual recognition for blind or visually-impaired individuals. Developed in the US, the app uses a phone’s camera to identify objects and offer an audio dictation of what they are. Aipoly functions without an internet connection, and can identify up to three objects a second, as well as differentiating between colours.
Other examples
I.AM.Here – Russian app for paralysed – attempts to interpret brain activity in to feelings/emotion via app
Neural Lace – Elon Musk project - essentially a wireless brain-computer system
Obviously there is a lot of discussion about the Power of AI in the long term and what that means
In the meantime – brands need to harness the potential of AI to really think about how they enhance their brand expeirence to deliver against those increasingly demanding consumer needs
The virtual world is something that tech companies have been keeping an eye on for a while, with heavy investment being secured over the past 5 years of so. Brands are starting to realise how it can help them develop the experience
This year much of the consumer interest has centred on VR, but AR seems to be drawing the interest of investors. Magic Leap, a U.S., has received the largest piece of the pie in the last 14 months (2015/16) when Google and Alibaba, among others, have invested $1.39 billion in the company. Al of the major plays have invested heavily in this area (Facebook, Sony, HTC, Microsoft, Google, and Samsung)
AR likely has a leg up because it offers more future use cases than VR. VR completely engages users in a virtual world, but AR projects images and information onto the real world.
Greenlight research vr – 2016. 535 of respondants to a survey said thet’d be more likely to buy from a brand htat used VR to engage them
Billions invested in both the content and the headset – starting to become very mainstream – particularly with the advancements of phones which are often the enabler
Latest is ‘affordable VR’ Google launched with the new Pixel Phone in October the Daydream view $79 headset
This year VR/AR experiences have become much more affordable, with more promised next year
Virtual Reality
Oculus Rift VR – Facebook
Vive VR – HTC and Valve
Samsung Gear VR – Samsung (powered by Oculus)
Sony PlayStation
Augmented reality
Microsoft – HoloLens
Google – Glass – keep talking about a V2 but apparently nothing will now be released until it’s absolutely ready
Magic Leap – invested in by Google
What is it being used for – VR and AR?
Entertainment: gaming, theme parks,
Education, training and purpose: helping make better drivers, UN used VR, healthcare
Betterment: phobias, meditation relaxation, cognitive therapy
Mass adoption occurs when we stop talking about technology as technology and instead start participating – or in this case, playing Pokémon GO
Pokémon GO's appeal is premised on a blend of fun, competition and relevance wherever a player happens to be in a given moment. Its contribution to the growth of AR, includes introducing millions of people to augmented reality even though most are unfamiliar with the phrase and the technology behind it.
",
ENTERTAINMENT – VR – Launched Feb 2016 (in Sweden)
McDonalds want to treat children of today with the latest gaming experience – going beyond the crayons and colouring books of yesteryear
Happy Goggles, a Happy Meal box designed to transform into a virtual reality viewer. McDonald's in Sweden will provide a 360-degree downhill skiing game called Slope Stars that involves collecting, well, stars while avoiding obstacles and other skiers.
The bigger idea at play here? McDonald's is showing that, with a little ingenuity, virtual reality can ease into our routine as easily as French fries.
VIDEO: http://happygoggles.se/en/
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnYg752URcE
Seen VR being used to enhance a physical experience – increasingly seeing the 2 worlds collide in 2017 with elements such as haptic feedback gloves for gamers etc
Earlier in 2016 Alton Towers introduced a roller coaster where you wear a VR headset – combining the physical thrill of the g-force combined with the immersive experience of travelling to space
One of the most successful uses of VR is around storytelling
We’ve seen huge success in areas such charity fundraising – where immersing users in ‘real life’ war torn Allepo has been hugely success
Equally the NEW York times – hugely forward thinking in the way they have embraced digital – most recently through the use of VR
November last year – launched a VR edition of the Sunday times in partnership with GE. Looking at how they could create immersive storytelling. including a film, focusing on the ways nature inspires innovation in aviation, energy, and communication to really connect people ot content
Subscribers were sent a phycisal copy of the magazine with a google cardboard. All the had to do is download the VR app from NYT and enjoy
Hugely successful for them - Overall, 1.3 million subscribers received GE-branded Google Cardboard headsets, and an additional 500K readers requested the headsets online for free. GE enjoyed 40K social mentions, with over 99 per cent positive sentiment from its display and mobile activations across channels
SNOvember this yeatr they have committed to at least 1 360 VR story in every edition
This program allows a Hololens wearer to see not just virtual cadavers, but to dive much farther and deeper into the human body
http://case.edu/hololens
http://www.imedicalapps.com/2016/06/case-western-cleveland-clinic-augmented-reality-medical-education/
/
Earlier in 2016 we saw Hyundai introduce AR guide - Designed to focus on the key elements of maintaining a car to reduce cost of ownership
Simple/elegant. Not whizzy. Certainly not rocket science – great way to educate users
Focused on initial model
Hyundai Virtual Guide is compatible with the 2015 Sonata model, and soon after it will become available for additional models. The guide recognizes more than 45 major features of the Sonata and contains 82 how-to videos, six 3D overlay images that appear once users scan different areas of their vehicle, and more than 50 informational guides.
automaker will soon be launching an augmented reality guide to help users with repairs, maintenance and vehicle feature information.
BETTERMENT – VR
Guided Meditation VR is a virtual reality meditation experience that runs on Oculus Rift. Users can customize meditations to be between five and 25 minutes, and can explore a range of relaxing locations, including a tropical beach, a private forest at sunset or a koi pond. The world’s first VR app to measure heart rate in virtual reality– this means the person’s heart rate is used to effect what happens in the VR environment. Launches mid 2016
Link: http://guidedmeditationvr.com/
Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY-61ufmsx4
Also seeing brands look to create experiences through interesting and effective interface design. Looking beyond a mobile/ tablet/ computer interface
THIS isn’t IOT – IOT is still largely controlled by a standard interface.
Amazon echo and now the google home are no longer for the early adopter - estimated 5.1 million Amazon Echo units have been sold since its release in November 2014 -- including about 2 million so far this year -- according to a recent report from the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).
Skips interface and allows connection to digital services through voice alone. No backup interface for when it goes wrong.
More they are adopted more power the Virtual assistants have…
Elon musk is currently working on the ultimate enhancement. Adding AI directly into your brain (relatively unobtrusively) to connect your brain to the world. Essentially creating a digital layer in your brain that works symbiotically with the rest of your body and digital technology
For example – you think I need to ring my mum to wish her happy birthday. My phone will dial the number
Chinese scientists * announced earlier in 2016 that they had developed syringe-injectable mesh electronics to allow these type of computer interfaces to be seamlessly integrated into the brain. Now we just need to work out how to programme it.
https://www.inverse.com/article/20322-elon-musk-neural-lace-progress
Now wearable tech hasn’t quite taken off in the magnitude people expected. Initial purchase/interest high but may people loose interest (how many people still wear the v expensive iphone watch) largely because they don’t offer a lot of value in regards to experience above your phone – in fact often quicker just to use that.
However project jacquard may well crack that obstacle.
Project Jacquard is a partnership between Levi Strauss and Google, focusing on creating apparel from fabrics with touchscreen capabilities. Announced in June 2015, the project’s aim is to allow wearers to control their cellphone via gestures made on the woven fabric of their apparel. Swipes or taps are mapped to cellphone functionality, allowing wearers to carry out actions such as silencing calls and controlling music, as well as altering cellphone settings and apps. With the announcement, both companies committed to manufacturing and integrating Project Jacquard technology during 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ-lcdMfziw
https://atap.google.com/jacquard/
The use of haptic technology is set to grow substantially in 2017 - reaching an estimated $51.4 billion by 2018 (41% growth this year alone)
Fuelled largely by growth in VR – using apparatus and elements such as gloves to provided the ultimate in immersion
Starting to see it being used commercially to great success too…
Haptic Break Pedal
Mercedes-Benz S550 Hybrid
The accelerator pedal in the Mercedes-Benz S550 Hybrid vibrates when driving mode is about to switch from battery to petrol
Vibrating accelerator pedal provides information on driving mode
Announced in September 2014, the S550 Plug-In Hybrid is the first hybrid sedan from Mercedes-Benz. The vehicle includes a haptic accelerator pedal, which uses a series of vibrating pulses to alert the driver when the car is about to shift from battery power to gas. Drivers can then take their foot off the accelerator to remain on battery power.
Huge growth in in the med tech arena - Erik Weihenmayer's BrainPort - medtech
All feel pretty shallow on weds morning with what we’ve managed to achieve with our lives
Erik is pretty inspirational. At 13 he became blind. Working in partnership with technology companies to enable more blind people to live the type sof lives they want.
As a result he was the first and only man to climb to the top of Everest.
He did this through using haptic technology - which effectively allowed him to see!
Staggering the uses of technology – enabling experiences.
Experience is the macro trend
In 2017 an experience is more in-depth, immersive and nuanced
New relationships are establishing themselves
Bot/VPA and customer vs. VPA and brands
How do you advertise in VR?
You cannot simply apply the same as you are doing elsewhere
The control is increasingly with the user