Cross roads of content and commerce

Subrata Mukherjee
Vice President, Product Management, The Economist
(Latest hobby - Founder & CEO, Dsrptt business transformation)
business transformation
Cross Roads of Content & Commerce
Ez Conference 2015
Business track
November 5th 2015, 10 am, Brooklyn, NY

If your business is into content and commerce you
probably are in a “dual site” mode
Brand Marketing
Or Editorial
eBusiness team
Or Sales army
Reality check!

To the consumer these are two different sites with
totally different experiences
Glossy magazine like
Romantic experience
Structured business like
Conversion led forceful experience
Reality check!

End game is both sites fight with each other unknowingly ,
introduce complexity, customers get confused
Success is defined as
more eyeballs
Success is defined by more
sales / conversions
Reality check!

Introduce seamless multi channel experience focused on
the needs of the consumer
Seamless experience causing delight
Strategic partnerships across departments
Holy grail of convergence

Inspiration 1 – MR PORTER

Inspiration 2 – TORY BURCH

Inspiration 3 – REFINERY29

You probably knew all about this..
You are thinking what a waste of time…
Wait!!

Lets make it interesting
Hmmmm….

Meet Nicholas Negroponte Professor MIT Media Lab
Voila!

1995, Negroponte was called crazy for predicting “that we’ll
soon buy books &newspapers straight over the internet
Aha!

His latest prediction is - we are going to ingest information
“we’re going to swallow a pill and know English”
English in a
minute pill
Wow!

His latest prediction is - we are going to ingest information
“we’re going to swallow a pill and know Shakespeare”
Pill classics
Accent not included
Wow!

“It will go through the bloodstream and it will know when
it’s in the brain and, in the right places, it deposits the
information.”
Amazing!

Who is more mesmerizing?
Story teller? Fortune teller?
or
Million dollar question!

Prediction is always more fun than reality
You knew it!

The current state of affairs as a reminder
Most companies who are trying to innovate
are just tinkering around the edges

Current reality – Content & Commerce
Free Content everywhere
Ad blocking technology popularity
Diminishing Ad revenue
More eyeballs on digital than print
Premium niche paid content doing well
Lots & lots of commerce sites
Tough demands on shipping / distribution
Diminishing margins on each sale
Tax laws have not evolved as much
Shoppers price sensitive looking for deals
Content Commerce

5 year strategy plan of a typical Content company
Year 1 Consolidation of CMS platforms Modern scalable ecommerce platform
Year 4 Personalized content verticals Advanced social commerce / mining
Year 3 Ad free premium experience Content partnerships to up engagement
Year 2 Content as a service Personalized cross-sell / up-sell
Year 5 Content syndication & licensing Utilize Big data for growth / value
Year Content Commerce

The world in 50 years
All about selling intellectual property
rather than the commodity

Content – Inspiration for our 50 year prediction
Nano-robotics
In 2014, an engineered scallop nano-robot
developed by researchers at the Max Planck
Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart,
Germany (only a fraction of a millimeter in size) is
capable of swimming in body fluids
This particular version is powered by an external
magnetic field, but it’s just providing energy input,
not dragging the robot around directly as other
micro bots do.Image: http://spectrum.ieee.org/

Content - Year 2065 (50 years)
Swimming robotic media
scallops entering through fluid
Entering thru eyeball &
entering blood stream
Fresh content injected
remotely to the brain
We feel nanorobots would be so mainstream in 50 years that applications would
move beyond medical applications. Media companies could deliver content this way
+ =
Image: http://salute24.ilsole24ore.com/Image: http://spectrum.ieee.org/ Image: space.dawsoncollege.qc.ca

3D printing hits food industry too
In 2015, Hod’s team showed a basic prototype of a 3D
printer which would be the future of sci-fi food and
other mass scale manufacturing.
Image: futurefood2050.com
Hod Lipson
Director,
Creative Machine Labs
Cornell University
ChefJet Pro (costs about $ 5K) is the
world’s first professional dessert
printer, utilizing a variety of
confectionary recipes including sugar,
fondant and sweet and sour candy in a
variety of flavors

Commerce- Year 2065 (50 years)
Wide variety of ingredients for
all your 3D printing needs
Sell Intellectual property
to download & print
On demand production
on a whole new level
We feel that we would be far from solving global hunger, but the indulgent capitalist
can just decide to print everything at home including his chicken tikka masala
+ =
Image: 3dprint.com, Star Trek food synthesizerImage: solidsmack.com Image: blog.ceb.com

Artificial intelligence and bio technology
becomes mainstream

Brain computer interface (BCI)
A brain-computer interface (BCI), also known as a brain-
machine interface, is a system that allows a person to
control a computer or other electronic device using only
his or her brainwaves, with no movement required.
In 2015, Adam Fritz – whose legs are both completely
paralyzed – recently employed novel brain-computer
interface technology created by University of California,
Irvine researchers to do what no paraplegic had ever
done before: use the strength of his mind alone to take
those historic steps.Image: http://news.uci.edu/

Eyeball tracking F-35 helmet
After $60 billion dropped on development, the F-35 jet is
ready. It features a brand new helmet that will let the
pilot see through the plane, aim missiles with his
eyeballs , and keep an eye on key data no matter where
he turns his head. It can recognize the pilot with a 3D
head scan and can even aim weapons with no more than
a glance.
I believe this technology will go very mainstream in 30
years
Images: www.wired.com

Eye & Brain sensors will
drive commands
Sensors control
navigation on devices
Total hands / voice free
access to your content
Content navigation and search would be controlled by eye and brain signals and not
by navigation devices or fingers. Think and click your video or browser back button..
+ =
Image : http://weandthecolor.com/Image: http://news.uci.edu/Image: http://mindz.net.au/mind-art/

Commerce – Inspiration for our 30 year prediction
Self adaptive ioT
In 2015, Internet of things is
just getting started. We can
trigger or schedule events
with our smartphones, but it
would take at least a decade
for self learning and all
appliances to talk to each
other and not wait for human
intervention.
Image: http://spectrum.ieee.org/
Image: lgnewsroom.com

Commerce - Year 2045 (30 years)
Advanced Internet of Things does
automated shopping
Home robots arranges the
things where they belong
A real life emergence
of the world of Jetsons!
We will not shop but shopping will get done auto-magically with extensive Internet
of Things algorithms and advanced robotics. All you do is consume 
+ =
Image: dtelepathy.comImage: http:ijpr.org Image: activerain.com

Super computing meets luxurious brand
experience

Master algorithm & supercomputing
“The master algorithm is the ultimate learning algorithm.
It's an algorithm that can learn anything from data and it's
the holy grail of machine learning… finance was indeed
one of the early very successful applications of machine
learning. Things like applying it to the stock market”
“..There's having enough data; the more data we have,
the better, so big data is all great fuel for machine
learning. And then there's having powerful enough
computers to apply those algorithms for all that data”
- Interview on Popular mechanics
Image: amazon.com/

Sophisticated algorithm to
predict next month’s news
Power of supercomputers
to process huge data
Paid premium content
predicting future news
We feel current affairs and analysis will become free / cheap. Premium expensive
content need to predict future stories and better predictions will be more pricey
+ =
Image: http://beforeitsnews.com/Image: http://thefix.com/ Image: itp.net

Commerce – Inspiration for our 15 year prediction
Retail stores becoming guide shops
Bonobos – an online men’s clothing retailer opened
guide shops to experience products, try sizes,
choose patterns & colors, drink from a bar. Stores
will be less transactional and more experiential,
furthering brand loyalty. This is followed by online
order. Popup shops are also helping the cause
Luxury brands will be first to catch on and then will
be big box stores catch on. Big box stores like Macy’s
which is already clustered inside by brands will be
the first to catch on….Sadly, grumpy cashiers will
need to find other job opportunities Image: bonobos.com

Robots delivers selections to
fitting room / checkout bag
(even in food / FMCG stores where you point & select)
Smaller brand experience
store fronts / popups
(even in department stores like Macy’s)
Hi-touch, less time and
more fun shopping
(even home deliver if you want hands free )
+ =
Image: listsurge.comImage: retail-innovation.com, Retail robot at Hointer, in SeattleImage: usatoday.com, Guide shop at Bonobos
Malls / stores will evolve to brand experience centers with robot controlled trial and
checkout processes. No more grumpy cashier, only deal with experience managers

Personalization and portability hits new
high with ability to drastically cut fraud

News and information eButlers
Sites like Google news & Feedly are gaining steam and news &
media organizations are merely becoming sources. Instead of
going to NYT, readers will consume content in these eButlers
Image: news.google.com
Images: feedly.com

Consolidators gaining traction
News sites growing fast
Separate subscriptions for
just portable content
Consume paid content on
other consolidators
Portable premium content would be a reality in which reader just buys content and
then consumes in a reader of their choice where they can consolidate content
+ =
Image: feedly.comRepurposed Image: nytimes.comImages: lifehacker.com

Fraud reduction with nano sensors
Economies and brands loose billions of dollars for unregulated
counterfeit goods and currencies. Nano sensors cant be
detected and hence cant be easily duplicated
Image: wired.com Image: bejsment.comImage: thedrum.com

Basic essentials
Food, FMCG, Clothing, Housing
Edible Nano sensors for monitoring food
safety, quality and expiry
Discretional shopping
Home, Tech, Auto
TruTag micro particle as security devices
readable with special equipment
Luxury shopping
Escapes, Designer goods
Invisible nano QR codes help
fight battle against forgery
Retailers upgrading infrastructure to reach Nanosensors and invisible nano QR codes
Image: lovethispic.com
Image: University of California
Image: trutags.com

Disruption planning helps… See 5 year plan
Year 5 Content syndication & licensing Utilize Big data for growth / value
Bottoms up by 5 year strategy planning will just allow you to merely survive
Top down 50 year disruption planning will bring you out of your comfort zone
Year 5 Portable premium content Nano sensors for tracking & fraud check
Year 4
Year 3
Year 2
Year 1
Year 50
Year 30
Year 15

…before someone else does…
So that you can keep it running for decades to come !
Plan to bring down your own company….

Probably donuts waiting for you during break..
Stop by and say “Hi!”.. I help companies disrupt
Follow me on Twitter @sumutech
Find me on Linked in https://www.linkedin.com/in/sm360
Visit my new disruption hobby at www.dsrptt.com
What's next ?

Cross roads of content and commerce

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (15)

Similar to Cross roads of content and commerce

Similar to Cross roads of content and commerce (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Cross roads of content and commerce