🕵️Your Own AI Marketing Analyst
Issue 4: CognitionX — The Future of Marketing — a weekly briefing on AI and emerging tech
Read on for…
- 📈 1.7x…I’ll take the tube. Surge pricing brought to you by PredictHQ
- 📊 ‘Context is Everything’ according to Adobe. Preview their research report.
- 🕵 The dark(er) underbelly of US political communications
- 💡 How is the value of a TV advert measured?
Don’t forget to check out cognitionx.com for more articles, research papers, and insights.
Don’t forget to check out cognitionx.com for more articles, research papers, and insights.
Product News
PredictHQ exits stealth to help Uber and others forecast demand surges
Surge pricing is something we experience on a weekly, if not daily basis (depending on your habits) — Uber, Booking.com, Amazon and Domino’s all dynamically adjust price based on demand.
New Zealand-based PredictHQ aggregates datasets from a range of sources related to events covering public holidays, observances, concerts, festivals, and more. The company then throws in other “hard to find data” that it manually curates itself, as well as its own proprietary data, and bundles all of this into a single API which it licenses to companies. Smart.
We empower businesses to know the catalysts of demand before they happen, so they’re not left scrambling to keep up with demand when the crowds hit. / Campell Brown, CEO
Funding
Aiden.ai raises a $1.6M seed round for its AI marketing analyst
Marie Outtier and PJ Camillieri’s new tool for marketers aims to streamline spending on paid acquisition campaigns — notoriously difficult to keep in check.
Aiden’s software analyses campaign results on e.g. Google or Facebook and proactively makes changes to improve ROI. The time-saving aspect of the one click.
Meanwhile, Israeli personalisation powerhouse Dynamic Yield closed a $38m series D. It’s tech now reaches 600m unique users per month.
Targeting
Koch brothers are watching you: And new documents reveal just how much they know
Calvin Sloan (Center for Media and Democracy) explains how the Koch brothers, of American behemoth Koch Industries and collectively worth $120 billion, stand at the forefront of the big data and microtargeting based political communications revolution — investing billions in data aggregation, machine learning, software engineering and Artificial Intelligence optimization. It’s a sizzling piece.
In short, a Koch subsidized data analytics company (i360) has profiles on more than 199 million active voters and 290 million U.S. consumers, and provides its users with up to 1,800 unique data points on each identified individual. 😦
Research
European advertising trends: AI adoption set to boom as brands look to get personal
Adobe are set to release a report titled ‘Context is Everything’, based on interviews with 600 ‘senior European business decision-makers’. Key takeaways:
- 89% of businesses see personalisation as important for success, yet only 31% are currently delivering the level they deem necessary.
- 88% of businesses expect to be using AI for increased personalisation by 2020.
Engagement and Activation
Analytics startup EDO teases consumer behavior from TV ads with machine learning
EDO has made a business of watching television feeds in a giant DVR farm and figuring out how ads correlate — and perhaps cause — consumer buying behavior online.
Data Scientists use Random Forest algorithms to prove the value of an ad. Standard attribution is limited to ratings and viewing stats. According to Manga, total ad spend on TV was $178B in 2017 — if EDO delivers as billed the opportunity is enormous.
Trends
The Renaissance of Contextual Advertising
The triple whammy of brand safety controversies, the millions of dollars siphoned off in the ad tech digital supply chain, and the move to increased consumer privacy via legislation means digital marketers are looking at their toolbox anew. Developments in ML and NLP make Contextual Advertising a desirable alternate strategy to ever more personalisation.
The article goes into detail, with case studies, on why successfully deployed contextual ads (not Apple ads next to fruit growers) bring value. Tl;dr — Value, Relevance, User Experience, Trust.
Do you know a lot about this subject?
Company Announcements
Henkel launches app for point of sale: Choicify
Henkel, parent company of hair care player Schwarzkopf, has announced the launch of a new app designed to assist consumers in looking for the right shae of hair colour. Choicify’s personalisation tech taps into the ongoing rising consumer interest in bespoke products.
As Founders Forum meets in Dusseldorf, Henkel’s headquarter city, CognitionX is proud to announce a partnership with Henkel.
Henkel X, Henkel’s digital innovation platform will syndicate curated AI news from our newsfeed, and start to roll out the Enterprise Edition of the AI Advice Platform.
Brand Safety
Social Media Monitoring Tools for Reputation Management
A useful rundown of the tools available for brands and agencies to monitor their online presence, engage new leads and find suitable influencers.
