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Tag: Stefan Bardega

  • CES 2016: Technology is enabling a super-connected consumer journey

    CES 2016: Technology is enabling a super-connected consumer journey

    MUMBAI: Advances in data-driven technology are creating the foundations for a super-connected consumer journey, offering marketers new opportunities to create powerful, seamlessly integrated brand experiences. This is ZenithOptimedia’s key insight from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016.

     

    At this year’s CES, a multitude of new technology was being exhibited, and while there was huge variety in terms of form and function, a common thread was apparent: the sophisticated use of data in order to provide utility or entertainment for consumers. And many of the tech companies developing these new types of technology were taking time to explain to delegates how their products and services took their place in the emerging, highly-connected technological ecosystem.

     

    The Internet of Things promises a wealth of new data connection points, with each technology platform or application playing its part in creating a new highly-connected consumer journey, mapped out with engaging experiences and time-saving functionality.

     

    This new highly-connected consumer journey starts with the mobile consumer, and there was an array of new devices on display at CES to enable mobility and to satisfy the needs of the mobile consumer. Once again, wearable devices – that connect online and are linked to other platforms and devices – where everywhere at CES. Of note, Fossil announced that it is rolling out 100 connected devices this year. Many of the wearables were focused on health and fitness. For example, Huawei’s Honor Band Z1 helps you track your fitness, performing tasks such as counting your steps and keeping a record of how you sleep.

     

    The car will become an increasingly important platform in the new connected consumer journey. Several hi-tech connected cars were unveiled this year. VW unveiled two connected and all-electric concept cars of the future: the e-Golf Touch and the Budd-e microbus, which will perform functions such as letting you know if a visitor is at the front of your house or what’s in your fridge. BMW’s Open Mobility Cloud is a true vision of the car’s rightful place in The Internet of Things. BMW’s new technology shows how the car can be seamlessly integrated into the connected home, enabling the driver to control things such as lighting, heating and appliances from within the car.

     

    Toyota announced at CES that it was stepping up its Toyota Research Institute efforts to develop artificial intelligence that can help cars communicate with each other without human interaction. It also displayed some of its new concept cars that are powered by Hydrogen. And Mercedes-Benz showed off its brand new Touch Pad steering wheel mounted sensors that allow the driver to effortlessly toggle through menu options for two HD screens.

     

    The ‘connected home’ is central to the Internet of Things and will play a key role in the integrated experiences brands can offer consumers. A wealth of new smart and connected household appliances were on display at CES, such as Samsung’s new Family Hub fridge, and Whirlpool’s new Smart Washer and Dryer, which integrates Amazon Dash functionality to enable easy, automatic restocking. The development of the Internet of Things means that the home has been identified as a new battleground, and the data collected by our household purchases and our conversations with our devices will be just as valuable as data collected from the Internet. So, Google’s Nest and its Weave platform is now in direct competition with Amazon and its Alexa platform.

     

    In terms of the ‘connected home’, arguably the most important – and talked about – announcement at CES this year came from Netflix, which is adding 130 countries to its streaming service, making it available all around the world. This is a huge step by Netflix as it looks to become the dominant global internet TV service.

     

    Robotics will play an increasingly important part in the automated home and in connecting consumer experiences. There were more robots on display at CES this year than ever before. There was much hype about Segway’s partnership with Intel to create a hoverboard butler. And Double Robotics has brought out a new version of its telepresence robot – an iPad incorporated into a mobile robot which live streams back to the user.

     

    And, critical to the success for brands in this new highly connected consumer journey will be having the payment facilities that best meet the needs of the mobile consumer. Mobile payment will play a key role in converting seamless consumer experiences into sales. Samsung used CES this year to announce that its Samsung Pay facility, currently available in South Korea and the US, would be launching in Australia, Singapore and Brazil. And Coin announced that it is teaming up with MasterCard to help companies integrate mobile payment into their wearable devices.

     

    ZenithOptimedia chief digital officer Stefan Bardega said, “Many of the exciting technology products and solutions on display at CES this year indicate that we are on the verge of new era of highly connected consumer experiences, fuelled by data and empowered by the Internet of Things. In some instances, companies from different industries are now working collaboratively to develop new technologies and to drive connectivity. All of this is good news for marketers looking to create valuable brand experiences that deliver ROI.”

  • Will Apple’s iOS 9 adblocker kill mobile ads?

    Will Apple’s iOS 9 adblocker kill mobile ads?

    With online privacy becoming a growing global concern, adblocking has risen in popularity among consumers over the past couple of years. To date, adblocking has largely been confined to desktop, but this week it comes to mobile with the release of iOS 9, which will come with integrated options for Content (read ‘advertising’) Blocking built-in.

     

    The issue of online privacy is not just about brands seeing what consumers are up to online; people are also concerned about their family knowing what they are doing online. Predictably, this is largely about pornography. According to Thinkbox research last year in the UK, 16-34s now spend 15 minutes a day watching porn and don’t want to reveal this private browsing behaviour.

     

    But it is the issue of advertising personalisation, targeting and retargeting that concerns our industry, and various desktop tools and systems have emerged to counter these activities. ZenithOptimedia’s recent research with GlobalWebIndex across 34 markets and 200,000 panellists highlights the take-up of privacy products:

     

    1. Almost half the global internet population (46 per cent) has used ‘private browsing’

    2. 40 per cent have deleted cookies so that websites can’t track their behaviour

    3. 27 per cent have used an adblocker so that brands can’t track and serve personalised advertising

    4. 15 per cent have used anti-tracking software that combines all three of the above into one.

     

    So, adblocking is a clear issue for our industry. iOS 9 will enable people to switch on adblocking at the device level. The effect though will be to block ads that appear within the browser. As well as keeping a person’s mobile web activities private, mobile adblocking will have the added twofold benefit of speeding up page-load times (important on mobile) and reducing data charges (even more important).

     

    Understandably there is much consternation among the advertising fraternity, particularly on the publisher side. However the concern is somewhat misplaced, certainly from a marketer’s perspective. The reason for this is that the majority of mobile adblockers will work on mobile browsers but not in-app. And 84 per cent of mobile time spent is in-app (source: Flurry). With that in mind the initial impact of iOS9 will be limited. In the longer term, though, we see the impact of iOS9 Content Blocking being threefold:

     

    1. It will accelerate the demise of the mobile web banner. This no bad thing and it is frankly surprising that the banner (a legacy format of the desktop environment) ever made its way onto mobile devices in the first place.

     

    2. It will accelerate the growth of native in-app mobile advertising (e.g. newsfeed advertising). This advertising is by definition integrated with the user interface and therefore a better experience, generally yielding better results for advertisers too. We have adjusted our spend forecasts based on the Apple announcement: native to represent 25 per cent of display advertising by 2017 globally (source: ZenithOptimedia).

     

    3. As a result of points 1 and 2, the creative/production process will need to adapt to take account of the rise of native formats and the move away from standardised formats.

     

    DISCLAIMER: The author of this article is ZenithOptimedia chief digital officer. The article has been sourced from ZenithOptimedia’s website. The views expressed here are purely personal views of the author and Indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to them.

  • Why Google’s new structure is good news

    Why Google’s new structure is good news

    Google has announced a major overhaul of its corporate structure. The new structure creates a holding company which is called Alphabet. This will comprise a collection of companies, the largest of which will be Google. Within Google will sit key services such as Search, Maps, Chrome, YouTube and Android. Outside of Google will sit projects such as Fiber and Nest. The full announcement can be seen here on the new Alphabet website https://abc.xyz/ . In addition to the restructure there are several key management changes, the most notable being the elevation Sundar Pichai to Google CEO.

     

    Google has long been considered part of the fabric of the internet. In many respects it has been the electricity of the web powering many consumer journeys, driving the largest share of advertising experiences globally, and certainly contributing significantly to the digital economy.

     

    Google Corp itself was constructed like an electrical circuit running in series (rather than in parallel). The challenge with a ‘series’ organisational structure is that if there is a break in one part of the chain, the whole is affected. For example if Google Glass fails it affects Google’s core business (if only in terms of public perception). Similarly, if Google (Search) faces regulatory scrutiny it is likely to negatively impact the development of other areas of the business such as Nest, driverless cars etc.

     

    The move to operate in parallel (through the creation of Alphabet) rather than in series will have a positive impact in several areas:

     

    1.    Innovation: Google can take its moonshots and fail without impacting the core business of advertising. Having this structure should therefore enable it to be more agile.

     

    2.    Regulation: Google has come under significant regulatory scrutiny particularly in Europe where it has already restructured to give a more singular approach to the authorities. The new structure will protect it further from regulatory issues by enabling it to fight one product/company at a time.

     

    3.    Organisation: With the new structure the Google subsidiary will be better able to focus on the reorganisation of its advertising and technology sales operations which require closer integration if the company is to take full advantage of its market-leading integrated advertising stack approach.

     

    4.     FaceOff: Facebook has deliberately kept the majority of its operations (FB, Instagram, Oculus) relatively separate from a B2B and consumer point of view, which has resulted in product innovation, advertising success and much less regulatory scrutiny. Although the Alphabet structure doesn’t exactly replicate that of Facebook, it is certainly an implicit acknowledgement of the successful Facebook corporate strategy.

     

    5.     Investor Relations: Google’s new structure is a clear signal of the arrival of a new finance director. The structural change and the subsequent increase in organisational clarity and transparency will no doubt be a very positive sign to investors.

     

    (The author of this article is ZenithOptimedia chief digital officer. The article has been sourced from ZenithOptimedia’s website. The views expressed here are purely personal views of the author and Indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to them.)