BlackFin360 – Innovation To Reality
Tom Edwards is a professional futurist and keynote marketing technology speaker covering data, digital, artificial intelligence, marketing technology and emerging media trends
Recently, my data design team was featured in Shopper Marketing magazine. We discuss how we leverage artificial intelligence, specifically Machine Learning, to redefine our approach to data analysis and deriving insights.
Here is a link to the full article.
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During SXSW 2018 I had the opportunity to discuss “How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Marketing“.
The session was in partnership with Oculus360 & their CEO, John Dubois. John and I discussed our collaborations with machine learning applied to various categories, including eSports and how to align unstructured & structured data.
Here is a recorded webinar that we recorded February 28th, 2018 that we reprised during SXSW.
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I recently had the opportunity to join Eric Hanes on his Words of Mass Disruption podcast. We discussed artificial intelligence for everyday conversation.
My goal was to help those who may not be familiar with artificial intelligence to develop a perspective on the topic. We talked about AI, Machine Learning, IOT and digital assistants.
Thanks in advance for listening! It was a fun conversation.
Words of Mass Disruption Podcast: EP 119 Tom Edwards on Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
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I had an opportunity to discuss the upcoming release of the iPhone 8 & X with AdExchanger. From machine learning to augmented reality, here is the full commentary.
Is Apple becoming more data-driven with the growing focus on Siri and personalization?
Machine Learning was one of the most prominent topics during the keynote event. Apple conveyed that Siri is evolving and the experience will not only be personal, but more contextual in its interactions.
Where Apple truly shines is the interoperability of its platform. Having deep integration gives new insight into datasets, opening up the door for more predictive and seamless experiences.
And what impact will that have for advertisers? Is Apple becoming a friendlier place for advertisers?
The announcement from Apple today is another signal that advertising will continue to evolve from contextual content to contextual experiences. With ARKit, Apple is enabling advertisers to tap into new effect-based marketing opportunities where it’s more about enabling experiences versus creating them.
Dedicated AI chips are a critical component to off-load processing for advanced AI activities, such as facial recognition and real-time machine learning functions within the handsets.
As marketers, we have to expand beyond desktop and mobile to consider a multimodal approach that includes computer vision, touch, voice and immersive computing such as AR & VR.
Apple technology will continue to evolve to support new canvases for marketers to connect with consumers, and it’s important to stay in front of new opportunities that become available.
For Apple to stay competitive alongside Echo and Google in the voice races, we may see Siri evolve to support more skills and actions that can be driven by marketers.
This past week, over 30,000 digitally centric professionals, including myself and Ian Beacraft, descended on Austin, Texas for SXSW Interactive 2017. Our focus was to meet with key strategic partners, gauge emerging trends, monitor product launches and most importantly create content and POVs.
Content included a comprehensive text based trend recap download, live streaming from the trade show floor as well as a full video recap.
Over the years SXSW was an ideal event to gauge and project consumer centric tech trends. From Twitter empowering consumers in 2007, Foursquare focusing on location in 2009, social proximity with Highlight in 2012 and live streaming via Meerkat in 2015.
2017 focused on the rise of intelligent systems from a content perspective and immersive experiences bridged physical to digital.
Marketing is quickly shifting from disruptive tech to acceleration through intelligent systems. It’s less about the latest app fad, and more about how quickly the combination of data, intelligent systems and smart environments are going to impact consumer behavior in the future.
The technology featured at SXSWi 2017 aligns with my view of the coming intelligence revolution. This revolution will be built on new data types that will simplify complex tasks, predict need states and usher in new forms of computing that will radically alter how we connect with both consumers and intelligent proxies.
The attached event recap highlights trends across our framework of Connection, Cognition, Immersion & Convergence which is building towards enabling the acceleration of the Intelligence Revolution.
Connection – Trends that reimagine how we connect, enable and empower consumers.
Cognition – Trends where machine-based intelligence will disrupt and redefine data assets and how we work.
Immersion – Trends that align technology and presence to evoke emotion, entertain and power commerce
Here is the download for the SXSW 2017 Trend Recap and Full Recap Video.
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I was recently interviewed by Ad Age discussing the efforts of my data design team and our work with Amazon and the Alexa Skills Kit.
When I first joined the Epsilon agency team I wanted to bridge traditional brand planning, strategy and data science to uniquely assess all of our data sources and build recommendations that leverage the right data to assist planning, strategy development and data-driven insights to support strategy and creative.
Now the agency data design group is comprised of 3 core components: 1) Mapping the data landscape 2) Storytelling through data 3) Consulting & training. My goal with this team is align intelligence from the data, regardless of source, that will inform how we communicate and message with consumers as technology and behaviors evolve and most importantly drive performance.
There are three primary areas of focus for the team:
1) Proprietary data sources & methodologies e.g. Leveraging Epsilon’s structured data
2) Unstructured data sources & methodologies e.g. Finding previously invisible insights by applying machine learning & artificial intelligence to unstructured category data
3) New data sources & methodologies e.g. Uncover new types of data sets that we call affective datasets and how it will impact and reshape how we connect across the consumer journey
Unstructured and New Data sources combined with Epsilon’s proprietary data began to accelerate our processing and analysis capabilities to uncover consumer truths with unstructured data to further fuel our agency’s strategic storytelling and data driven creative leading to an evolution of brand planning.
For the past 12 months my data design team has focused on aligning emerging artificial intelligence systems and algorithms with our structured data assets to combine all of the following elements.
Data Design is the bridge between planning and bleeding edge tools like cognitive computing, artificial intelligence and natural language processing. Ad Age highlighted our approach with Amazon and how we leverage machine learning on amazon.com down to the product SKU level to further inform communication and engagement strategy as well as our team being one of the early adopters of the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK).
Here is an example of data design concepts in action.
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This morning my new article 7 ways artificial intelligence will enhance marketing was the cover story for iMedia Connection.
The article reviews seven subsets of artificial intelligence from machine learning, cognitive computing, natural language processing, deep learning, predictive API’s, object recognition and dynamic content generation and how brand marketers can better uncover insights, connect with consumers, and redefine customer experiences using this innovative technology.
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Technology is now essential to our daily lives. Accessibility and empowerment has transformed how we connect and communicate. This has led to new forms of user interaction that will usher in the business models of the future.
2017 will be comprised of new types of conversational experiences to connect with consumers. It will see the continued evolution of artificial intelligence and connected systems as well as the rapid rise of third-party ecosystems supporting virtual, augmented and mixed reality.
The following trend deck outlines the evolution of marketing in 2017 through the consumer centric filters of connection, cognition and immersion and is now available for download.
How we consume and interact via digital channels is about to be absorbed and redefined. We believe that 2017 will begin the convergence of connection, cognition and immersion toward an ambient computing future built on new data types that will simplify complex tasks and predict need states vs reacting.
Download the 2017 Trend Predictions Today!
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Yesterday I had the privilege to speak at the Insight Innovation eXchange or IIeX North America 2016 discussing our approach to getting data driven creative via Machine Learning and artificial intelligence.
This presentation was a joint effort between my Epsilon team and one of our strategic partners Oculus360. I work closely with Raju Kattumenu, the founder of Oculus360 and we have engaged on numerous initiatives over the past year.
This has allowed us to leverage the power and reach across public domains leveraging their technology combined with our proprietary data assets to validate consumer truths or find new connections based on occasions, attributes, perception & demand signals.
The technology is a combination of natural language processing, an artificial intelligence neural network and machine learning systems that combine to unlock various themes & trends associated with demand signals created by consumers.
The key to this approach is that instead of starting macro across all facets of the web or social conversation, this approach looks at specific domains and can go incredibly deep down to the product sku level.
We then take the results from this approach and combine it with our connection planning process and data assets to unlock consumer truths that will define our approach to creative and strategic territories. It truly is an approach where data fuels creativity.
This approach of combining machine learning + AI with Epsilon’s data assets allows us to truly identify contextual moments to create personalized experiences.
Context is key as this informs whether we should use storytelling vs. storymaking moments. We then align moments with personalized elements of the story based on our data findings and use cross device identity to create personalized story delivery at scale.
I also discussed how we have realigned our approach to planning with data science to inform creative territories & strategic themes as well as how this approach supports innovation initiatives by informing and validating consumer readiness when it comes to emerging storytelling mediums.
We then showed an example based on the mini-van category. Traditionally mini-van advertising has stayed very close to the “family” approach to connecting.
We wanted to either validate the approach or find new consumer truths based on all the factors outlined above. What we found was very interesting as key attributes and occasions began to surface that outlined new demand signals that could be used to shift perception.
This also allows us to take a look across brands and see which brands align with specific occasions which can lead to differentiation among competitors.
We can also look at specific features associated with each of the brands to identify new territories or areas to focus on driving awareness, engagement or advocacy.
In order to maximize contextual connections with consumers it is important to not only have qualitative data tied to consumer insights. It is also critical to leverage the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence combined with strong data assets to unlock demand signals that can fuel the creative process.
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This week I had the opportunity to speak at the Modern Marketing Summit Upfront @ Internet Week 2016 discussing the topic of the transformation of storytelling. Below is a recap of my key talking points.
The discussion covered 4 territories tied to how storytelling is being transformed.
1) How do you define storytelling from your company’s perspective? What is a story?
I’d define Epsilon’s approach to storytelling as finding a compelling difference through data that leads to a consumer truth then completing a narrative around that truth. The truth/data will often reveal the correct medium by telling who, what, where and when of the audience. We then use traditional tools of persuasion formatted by channel to reach the audience.
For us a story can be any type of format that creates a connection with a consumer. This can come through brand created, co-created or user created content. We further delineate storytelling and storymaking by working with our brand partners to make them the catalyst for the stories consumers are making for themselves.
2) How does the context of where and when the story is being told affect the way you choose to tell it?
Context is key as this informs whether we should use storytelling vs. storymaking moments. We then align moments with personalized elements of the story based on our data findings and use cross device identity to create personalized story delivery at scale.
We partner with a major sports speciality retailer to generate and optimize 1 million versions of the brand story that aligns with key contextual moments.
This is approach is based on transactional and online click stream data and that in turn continues to drive actionable insights across all of our initiatives to inform and optimize our creative process in near real time.
The key is consistency of message across various formats and having the ideal understanding of cross-device behaviors to deliver a message at the right time.
3) How do you coach your clients to think from the consumers perspective? What do you hope a good story will achieve for your client?
We show them what consumers expect, how they perceive their brand and category and align strategy where there are opportunities to create new points of connection. This includes understanding when to leverage branded content vs. co-created vs. integrated vs. user created content to tell the story for the brand.
We focus a lot on consumer behaviors. This comes in the form of machine learning and artificial intelligence that looks at specific domains and mobile ethnography studies. We also leverage our proprietary assets that highlight key behavioral, transactional and affinity based data that allows us to demonstrate how we find unique ways to tell or make a story.
We not only show them what consumers expect, how they perceive their brand and category we focus on the potential outcomes tied to our storytelling and story making efforts.
Our goal is to start or change a conversation, create advocacy and ultimately drive purchase and business outcomes.
4) How important is data in informing your decisions about your storytelling methods?
Data is the fuel of our creative process. It enhances the creative, it does not replace or stifle creativity.
We realigned our planning with data science to inform creative territories & strategic themes we then use this to map the story as well as deliver audiences all with an eye towards outcomes and building models that show the impact of our storytelling efforts
One of the other great assets is our ability to map to individuals across devices. This makes it easier to deliver highly personalized and dynamic creative. Mapping high level themes through to relevant micro-moments. This allows us to connect with consumers regardless of where they are in a heavily fragmented media landscape.
Data also informs consumer readiness when it comes to emerging storytelling mediums. Whether it’s the shift towards conversational user experiences to immersive experiences such as Virtual, Augmented and mixed reality. data is a foundational element to our approach to creativity and innovation.
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