The document discusses emerging technologies and how they can impact businesses. It presents the Dentsu Aegis Tech Matrix, which evaluates 11 key technologies based on their potential business impact and riskiness. Technologies like 360 video, augmented reality, voice AI and wearables are positioned as having potential for businesses to act on now, while artificial intelligence, facial recognition and self-driving cars are viewed as longer term "future bets" that require more groundwork. The document provides perspectives on each technology and how businesses can explore opportunities while also managing risks.

1. DENTSU AEGIS TECH MATRIX
H OW T ECH NOLOGY CAN M OVE YOU R
B USI NESS I N T H E DI GI TAL ECONOM Y

2. Driven by the dual forces of
globalization and convergence, the
exponential explosion of
technology in the last 10 years has
created a pace of change we’ve
never seen before. With many
technologies’ “15 minutes” burning
bright but fizzling quickly, it can be
challenging for brands to determine
where to place their bets to drive
their businesses forward.
To help marketers make smarter,
better bets, we’ve distilled the
complexity and general chaos of
the CES show floors into 11 key
categories that have broken
through this year. We’ve then
plotted these on a matrix to lay out
each technology’s potential to
move your business. Our
proprietary methodology takes into
account the tech’s inherent
riskiness, readiness to go to market,
potential business impact, and
other considerations. The resulting
Dentsu Aegis Tech Matrix is a
helicopter view of where we advise
marketers to make their technology
and innovation investments over
the next 12 months.
From VR, to AI, to Drones and
more, we’re excited about the
potential for brands to find
meaningful transformation through
the groundbreaking technology first
seen each year at CES.
INTRODUCTION
2
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X

3. D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X S E C T I O N S
3
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
3 6 0 V I D E O
A I
A U G M E N T E D R E A L I T Y
C O N N E C T E D H O M E S
D E S K T O P M A N U F A C T U R I N G
D R O N E S
F A C I A L R E C O G N I T I O N
S E L F D R I V I N G C A R S
V O I C E A I
V R
W E A R A B L E S

4. T E C H M AT R I X : M E A S U R I N G T E C H N O L O G I E S ’
P O T E N T I A L T O M O V E YO U R B U S I N E S S
4
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
H I G H R I S K
A C T N O W
( < 1 Y E A R )
L O W R I S K
F U T U R E B E T ( 1 - 5 Y E A R S )
LOW RISK
• Minor investment
• Easy distribution
• Built on existing platform
• Credible company
HIGH RISK
• High investment
• Dependent on outside
forces aligning
• In a highly regulated field
• Unknown
company/leadership
FUTURE BET (1-5 years)
• Little to no existing
infrastructure
• Limited hardware
availability
• No established distribution
channels
ACT NOW (<1 year)
• Existing infrastructure to
tap into
• Broad hardware
availability
• Established distribution
channels

5. Thousands of technologies and
innovations are featured across
nearly 2.5 million net square feet of
exhibition space at CES each year.
To help marketers make these as
actionable as possible, we created
the Dentsu Aegis Tech Matrix to
provide a snapshot of our view on
the feasibility and potential ROI of
the major categories seen on the
CES show floor this year.
As marketers survey the innovation
and technology landscape, we
found that three factors are most
critical for decision-making when
making a significant innovation
investment: the speed of results,
the inherent risk factors of the
technology, and the technology’s
maturity.
With that in mind, we used
timeliness and riskiness as our axes
and consolidated the opinions of
six agencies across our group
steeped in innovation to evaluate
which categories of innovation we
think marketers should pay
attention to now, and which
categories have great potential but
may take years of groundwork to
come to fruition.
The left two quadrants in the matrix
represent the areas we see having
the most potential now: 360 Video,
Voice AI, Augmented Reality, VR,
the Connected Home, Wearables
and Desktop Manufacturing.
The quadrants on the right side are
the technologies we see as future
bets: Artificial Intelligence, Facial
Recognition, Drones and Self-
Driving Cars. While each of these
areas of innovation show great
promise in its own right, based on
our criteria, we believe they are not
quite ready for prime-time. These
factors are explored in greater
detail in each technology’s
respective section.
Deeper in this report you will find
perspectives from our leaders
across Dentsu Aegis Network
exploring in more detail what
opportunities and roadblocks
marketers may face while
incorporating these technologies
into their long- and short-term
strategies. The final pages of this
report include contact information
for all of our contributors. They
would be happy to speak with you
if you have questions or would like
to discuss any of the findings or
technologies in more detail, and we
encourage you to drop them a line.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X

6. You’ll see more mainstream uses of
360 video in 2017. As more
headsets aimed at phones are
released (Daydream, Gear) more
content will be released for these
platforms. Entertainment (gaming,
movies) will be the primary
content-driver here, as well as
publishing.
Gabe Garner
Facebook continues to lead the
normalization of 360,
democratizing it and enabling all
users who upload a panoramic
image to feel the lack of constraints
enabled with 360 imagery. Expect
to see a swathe of consumer-
friendly 360 video capture devices
at CES this year, which will
democratize and normalize 360
video further across the social web.
This will gradually open UGC
opportunities for brands who want
to experiment with co-creation of
360 Video. 360 Facebook and
YouTube desktop is still a sub-
optimal experience, so advertisers
deploying 360 would do well to
consider only targeting content to
mobile, where the experience is
more intuitive.
Justine Bloome
6
360
VIDEO
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
ACT NOW

7. After much talk over many years,
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now
ready for prime time and is widely
predicted to be the top technology
disruptor of the next decade.
Executives are scrambling to
establish AI strategies.
Big Data and virtually unlimited
computing power have converged
and enabled sophisticated
algorithms to achieve results never
before possible. AI has applications
in everything from digital assistants
to autonomous vehicles and smart,
voice-enabled devices and phones.
Subsets of AI, Machine Learning
(ML) and Deep Learning, are being
used to translate languages better,
identify objects in photographs,
predict customer behavior, analyze
the genome, reveal insights buried
in Big Data, and aid in legal
discovery and other routine work.
Google, IBM, Microsoft, Amazon,
and Apple are all heavily invested in
AI and have been for years. Only
recently have their investments
become visible to the general
public in the form of more
intelligent devices and services.
Many leading companies – Uber,
Airbnb, Netflix, and Salesforce – are
using AI as a competitive
advantage. Fintech and Lawtech
startups are overturning traditional
industry giants by being smarter,
faster, and better through the use
of ML.
(Continued)
7
AI
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
FUTURE BET

8. A recent trend is the democratization
of AI/ML technology, putting
powerful algorithms into the hands
of just about anyone through widely
available software APIs, toolkits and
services. This accelerates disruption,
empowering companies small and
large to add intelligence to their
offerings and widen the gap with
their competition.
The pattern matching and predictive
power of AI/ML make it ideal for
data-intensive industries such as
Finance and Insurance, Retail,
Professional Services, Media and
Telecom, Government, Healthcare,
Education and Manufacturing. AI/ML
can be used to develop new products
and services, to discover insights, to
increase efficiency and automation,
and to add intelligence to customer
experiences.
It’s not hyperbole: AI will impact
every industry much like the
Internet has, but much more
quickly and broadly since it is a
general purpose force multiplier.
When AI is combined with IoT,
drones, AR/VR, bots, blockchain,
robotics, 3D printing and cloud
computing, we have the tools to
achieve what was previously the
domain of science fiction.
Colin Angel
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D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
AI
FUTURE BET

9. There’s significant excitement
around AR following a buzzy 2016
year, driven by the likes of
Microsoft’s Hololens, Ninantic’s
Pokémon Go, and Magic Leap.
Despite all of that, we still feel it’s
a bit early to encourage brands to
make any major investments in
the AR space. Limited adoption
and predominantly shallow AR
experiences lead us to believe
the medium isn’t quite ready for
the types of rich storytelling
experiences that we expect from
major brands.
Layne Harris and Fitz Maro
It's shocking how little augmented
reality we see from brands today.
Augmented reality has a bigger
upside and more utility than virtual
reality, but it's yet to mature into a
go-to option for brands to connect
with their customers. We believe
this will change in 2017
and continue for years to come.
Augmented reality is very
implementable and easy to scale so
the upside for brands is massive.
Philip Gaughran
9
AUGMENTED
REALITY
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
ACT NOW

10. Microsoft has dominated the AR
conversation with Hololens, but
smaller and more industrial-use AR
is coming up on their flank.
Companies like Daqri are creating
new opportunities with B2B utility
that could mainstream AR faster
than B2C. Expect to see more buzz
around Magic Leap, although a
product launch before CES 2018 is
unlikely. In the meantime, look for
more executions in retail locations
where brands are using AR to bring
their customers exciting in-store
experiences.
Gabe Garner
Many seem to forget that AR isn’t
reliant on a head mounted device
(HMD) like Hololens or Magic Leap.
It’s in the pockets of every person
with a smartphone. With Blippar
now offering programmatic display
AR advertising formats that do not
require the Blippar app to be
installed, leveraging AR to enhance
every day brand experiences will
become more ubiquitous. In 2017,
apps like Traces.io will make
Pokémon Go style experiences
open-source to brands and people
alike. We will see retailer apps
leverage AR to add a digital layer to
instore browsing experiences.
Justine Bloome
1 0
AUGMENTED
REALITY
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
ACT NOW

11. Augment Reality or Mixed Reality
superimposes objects, action,
controls and sound into the real
world you around you. When done
well, the effect is a mixed reality
composed of the physical world you
are in and a virtual world that has
awareness of your environment and
objects in it such that it feels as if
both are real at the same time.
The Microsoft Hololens is remarkably
good at this right now. The Magic
Leap promises to take things even
further when it becomes available.
Mixed Reality creates incredible
opportunities for entertainment,
education and gaming. But perhaps
most powerfully, can augment work in
fields such as manufacturing,
maintenance, healthcare, architecture
and construction.
Imagine if a doctor could overlay a
patient’s MRI while observing the
actual patient to better understand
an ailment – or leverage Mixed Reality
to more clearly see a tumor during
surgery and highlight the arteries and
nerves they need to avoid. Imagine if
a construction worker could look at a
building or the ground and see the
electrical and gas lines to easily avoid
potential issues. Imagine if a teacher
could float atoms and molecules in
front of a classroom and demonstrate
how they interact. And just for fun,
imagine a zombie game with zombies
hiding in your closet or chasing you
down your hall.
The technologies required to create
these experiences are very similar to
those required for Virtual Reality.
Mixed Reality will advance as Virtual
Reality does. We will see it in a
factory or a hospital before we can
buy it as a holiday gift for the kids –
but within a couple years, mind-
bending zombie games will be here.
Geoff Cubitt
1 1
AUGMENTED
REALITY
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
ACT NOW

12. The rush to consolidate content and
home automation will continue into
2017 and beyond. OTT services will
continue to battle with traditional
cable and internet providers
(though consolidation of these two
businesses into one will continue)
to own the home and as a result,
own many of the rich data points
that help brands understand
preferences and behavior, allowing
brands to sell to them accordingly.
The home will continue to undergo
an explosion of entertainment and
smart utility transformations which
will be good for brands looking to
connect in a deeper way with their
customer. Assuming they have
access to the data that is being
generated by the homeowner.
Philip Gaughran
1 2
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
CONNECTED
HOMES
ACT NOW

13. It seems that every day in 2016
there was a new type of desktop
manufacturing innovation
popping up in the tech
community – from augmented-
reality woodworking and laser
sintering to precision hydro-
cutting. Technology that was once
reserved for large, high-output
factories is increasingly available
to the everyday DIY maker. These
technologies will provide brands
the opportunity to create unique,
limited, low-run products and
real-life experiences.
Layne Harris and Fitz Maro
1 3
DESKTOP
MANUFACTURING
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
ACT NOW

14. DRONES
The prolific growth that drone
technology has seen in past years –
particularly in 2015/16 – has
tapered off a bit. While incremental
innovation in the space will
continue to happen, some of which
is being driven by brands like
Amazon in their first drone-flight
delivery or Disney’s drone light
show, the majority of brands will
have limited opportunity to find
real value in the category.
Additionally, significant financial
investment is required to create
truly unique and standout
experiences.
Layne Harris and Fitz Maro
1 4
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
FUTURE BET

15. For several years now, the consumer
market has been saturated with low-
cost flying machines, targeted at both
kids and adults that want to experience
the thrill of remote controlled
flight. Often hard to control with buggy
software, many of these are
(and should be) viewed as toys, so to
speak. These low-end devices have
caused a bit of confusion in the
marketplace as higher-end devices do
exist and are maturing at an incredible
pace. The higher end devices (500.00
USD+) include longer range flights,
sophisticated remote controls and
cameras that are as good or better than
the average consumer smartphone. At
about the 1k price point, the market
changes considerably. Truly marvelous,
autonomous flying machines are
available. With ranges up to several
miles and cameras capable of cinema-
quality resolution, leaders like DJI are
offering drones that have caused
considerable disruption in the content
creation hardware space, and have
created significant enough competition
to force competitors like GoPro to get
into the drone game.
While there has been a lot of movement
over the last several years, expect the
trend to continue. As costs come down,
low-end and poorly performing
hobbyist devices will disappear,
displaced as the technology in higher-
end machines trickles down via
commoditization. Commercial uses of
drones continues to expand and
eventually personal cameras/3D
scanning devices become capable of
flight, using computer vision to follow
their owners – taking photos, video and
capturing other data (like 3D spacial
info) will be used for entertainment,
productivity and other uses.
Dave Meeker
1 5
DRONES
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
FUTURE BET

16. We’ll soon see an increased adoption rate
of Facial Recognition by marketers. The
technology has existed for years, but has
been held back from the mainstream by
public discomfort and lack of willingness
by brands to take the leap. Facial
recognition can help address the problem
of declining retail store visits by offering
personalized, targeted content to
consumers as they shop.
Several brands have started trialing the
technology including Mastercard with selfie
payments, and General Motors who
pioneered a responsive facial recognition
campaign that tailored content based on
passing shoppers’ age, gender, composition
and facial expression. We predict that
consumers will eventually be accustomed to
the idea of personalized services based on
facial recognition; Facebook’s widely
accepted DeepFace facial-tagging algorithm
already has a higher accuracy rate than the
FBI’s facial recognition system.
Jeff Tan
1 6
FACIAL
RECOGNITION
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
FUTURE BET

17. Self-driving cars present a unique
opportunity to product designers
and marketers as they will give
drivers back time in their day. That
time is likely to be occupied by
digital devices and content either
built into vehicles or designed to
dock with vehicle services. The
brands that make the most of this
will understand that new, in-vehicle
experiences have the power to
transform behavior.
Chad Vavra
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
1 7
FUTURE BET
SELF
DRIVING
CAR

18. It has been a groundbreaking past
couple of years for voice
interfaces. Siri, Google Now, Alexa,
and Google Home are the clear
leaders in this category but you
don’t have to be one of the tech
giants to add voice capabilities to
your applications. Voice-to-machine
processing algorithms are available
for most platforms and can be
implemented by experienced
developers. But keep in mind that
while the barrier to technical entry
has lowered, adding voice to an
application significantly changes the
experience design.
Chad Vavra
Perhaps the biggest news in this
category in 2016 went relatively
under the radar: Samsung acquired
Viv.ai. From the original developers
of Siri, which promises to shepherd
in the “Era of the Do Engine,” Viv is
an intelligent digital assistant that is
able to perform simple tasks within
seconds, such as ordering flowers,
booking hotel rooms, arranging an
Uber or making a reservation at the
best French restaurant nearby. This
will inherently and dramatically
disrupt consumer use of traditional
search. With any luck, we will see
the first Samsung devices with Viv
as a voice-centric interface at this
year’s CES. Between Samsung’s Viv
and Amazon Echo’s continued
dominance with Alexa, intelligent
digital assistants will shape the
future of how consumers make
purchase decisions, select brands
and form brand preferences.
Justine Bloome
1 8
VOICE AI
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
ACT NOW

19. While 2016 saw significant
investments from brands in the VR
space, we expect those investments
to only grow in 2017. Major
advancements in distribution,
peripherals, and features all point
towards that continuing growth. As
toolsets become more powerful and
easier to use more brands will enter
the game and branded VR content
will become prolific across
mediums. Now is a good time for
brands to begin investigating what
their VR strategy is and
implementing them – even in
smaller test-and-learn activations.
Layne Harris and Fitz Maro
In 2017, expect hardware costs to
come down as more devices hit the
market like the Windows 10 VR
headset. Content is also in short
supply so expect more distribution
platforms and creators to enter
the landscape. This will be
especially interesting with
platforms like Playstation for which
big successful titles are most likely
to drive hardware purchases. VR is
still working toward mass adoption
and it’s not looking likely that it will
get there in 2017. But it’s still an
incredibly rich platform for
experiential marketing. If a brand
can use existing owned channels for
distribution, they can then make the
experience live beyond the goggles.
Gabe Garner
1 9
VIRTUAL
REALITY
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
ACT NOW

20. Virtual Reality (VR) has arrived.
The technology is good enough
right now for entirely immersive
experiences that fool the senses
and transport users to places they
have never been or that don’t even
exist.
Great VR requires storytelling,
creative design, and the technical
skills to enable high performance
across platforms. Environments in
VR experiences can be completely
imagined, photo realistic 3D
renderings of actual locations,
augmented by 360 video, or some
combination of all of these.
Thinking of jumping in? Here are
the key considerations.
First, different platforms support
different levels of experiences.
There are passive experiences that
take a user on a ride with 360
degree views; moderate
experiences with sleek mobile
integration, and the consumer
controls aspects of it; fully
immersive experiences with live-
rendered interactive environments,
where the user is in full control and
even able to walk around and grab
virtual objects.
As you move up from passive to
immersive VR, more effort, skill
and sophistication is required to
create the content. The range of
possible experiences line up with a
range of VR products such as
passive: Google Cardboard,
moderate: Samsung Gear/Google
Daydream, fully immersive: Oculus
Rift/Playstation VR/HTC Vive.
Geoff Cubitt
2 0
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
VIRTUAL
REALITY
ACT NOW

21. Though the wearables industry has
gone through a massive explosion
in brands, and now a consolidation
to a few major players that are
dominating the category, there is
still some potential for the right
brands to play here at the right
time. Luxury wearables are still on
the rise and more advanced design
that has led to more smart devices
in clothing and accessories which
will continue to see strength in 2017
and beyond. The days of sporting a
wearable to say "hey, look at me,
I'm tracking my steps" are going by
the way side, however. Discreet and
premium are the name of the game.
Philip Gaughran
2 1
WEARABLES
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
ACT NOW

22. D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X C O N TA C T S
2 2
FITZ MARO
Senior Innovation Strategist
360i
Fitz.Maro@360i.com
LAYNE HARRIS
VP, Head of Innovation Technology
360i
Layne.Harris@360i.com
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
JUSTINE BLOOME
EVP, Head of Strategy and Innovation
Carat USA
Justine.Bloome@carat.com
GABE GARNER
SVP, Business Planning
Firstborn
Gabe.Garner@firstborn.com
COLIN ANGEL
Technical Director
Isobar US
colin.angel@isobar.com
GEOFF CUBITT
co-CEO
Isobar US
geoff.cubitt@isobar.com

23. 2 3
CHAD VAVRA
Director, Experience Strategy & Design
Isobar US
chad.vavra@isobar.com
DAVE MEEKER
VP of Innovation
Isobar US
dave.meeker@isobar.com
JEFF TAN
VP Strategy
Posterscope
Jeff.Tan@posterscope.com
D E N T S U A E G I S T E C H M AT R I X
PHIL GAUGHRAN
US Chief Integration Officer
mcgarrybowen
philip.gaughran@mcgarrybowen.com