Lab Weekly — 10/06/2017
Google’s hardware announcements, IKEA buying TaskRabbit, and more…
News Analysis
Google Refreshes Hardware Lineup With Two New Smart Speakers, New Pixel Phones & More [link]
One common thread throughout the Google hardware event on Wednesday is the deployment of machine learning across various products, be it smart speakers, new Pixel phones, or the wireless earbuds Pixel Buds, all three of which are powered by the AI smarts of Google Assistants. Then there is the “one more thing” of this event, a portable smart camera called Google Clips that uses machine learning to decide when to take pictures. Even the new home security products made by Nest, a Google subsidiary, will be integrated with Google Assistant to provide more smart features across the Google ecosystem. CEO Sundar Pichai remarked that Google is moving from a mobile-first approach to AI-first. Smart brands will soon learn to tag along and start using those AI tools to supercharge their data analysis and offer personalization.
It is also important to note that Google still has fairly limited appeal and customer base in the hardware space. Samsung by and large still has the high-end Android handset market on lock, and the first generation of Pixel phones are reportedly pulling in less-than-expected sales number for Google. For now, Google’s primary competitor in the hardware space is not Apple — although one could argue that the new Google Home Max targets the same market as Apple’s HomePod does — but rather Amazon, as both companies double down on their voice-activated smart home offerings and seem determined to conquer the home spaces. In fact, Google is now giving away free Home Mimi for some Pixel 2 buyers as well as first-gen Google Home to new digital subscribers of New York Times.
As both Google and Amazon continue to aggressively push for their smart speaker lineups, we expect to see an uptick in the user adoption of voice assistant-powered devices at home in the coming months, which presents brands with a growing addressable audience to connect and engage with via conversational voice experiences.
Related News on AI: Insurance startup Lemonade leverage AI to handle “nuisance claims” [link]; Facebook opens an AI research center in Montreal [link]; Google and microsoft are using AI to boost ad revenues by refining personalized targeting [link]
Related News on Smart Speakers: Alexa’s ‘Routines’ will combine smart home control with other actions, like delivering your news and weather [link]; Apple shifts Siri and Spotlight search from Microsoft’s Bing to Google on iOS and macOS [link]; Sonos announces Alexa-powered Sonos One smart speaker, says it will support Google assistant next Year [link]; Alexa will soon connect to Nissans and offer remote control of your car [link]
IKEA Acquires Gig Economy Startup TaskRabbit To Build Out Its After-Sales Service [link]
This is an interesting union that points to the role that on-demand, sharing economy startups may play in the future of retail. One thing that IKEA has done remarkably well so far is selling customers on a DIY culture that turns furniture assembly from a major pain point into an integral part of its brand experience. However, for most people, furniture assembly remains a struggle, and the company has long been running an in-house assembly service with fees proportionally tied to the cost of the furniture. Now by buying TaskRabbit, IKEA should be able to leverage the modularized handyman services to offer customers additional ways to access flexible and affordable service solutions that meet their needs.
In a fast-changing retail space, this kind of budget-friendly customization will be a big service differentiator and provide IKEA with a consistent advantage. For other retailers, this acquisition should come as a wakeup call for reexamining the customer experience throughout the purchase journey and identify the areas that need improvement.
Related: Walmart acquires logistics startup Parcel to help launch same-day delivery in NYC [link]; Mattress startup Casper teams up with American Airlines to offer new in-flight sleeping products [link]; Shopify rolling out Instagram shopping feature to thousands of merchants [link]
Snapchat Launches Sponsored World Lenses With Bud Light & “Blade Runner” [link]
Snapchat first introduced World Lenses in April this year and at the time, it was a first-to-market wonder, released before the debuts of Apple’s ARKit, Facebook’s AR Studio, and Google’s ARCore. Immediately we saw great potential in it as a fun way to brands to engage with Snapchat users. Although some brands already tested World Lenses back in May, it took Snapchat half a year to turn World Lenses into a scalable ad products, and in the past 6 months, the aforementioned AR platforms from Apple, Facebook, and Google has made Snapchat’s AR offering seems restricted in execution (since you have to buy directly from Snap) and limited in audience reach. If your brand is set on reaching the young-skewing Snapchat audience, then by all means, give sponsored World Lenses a try. Otherwise, there are now alternative AR platforms with bigger reach and fewer restrictions for brands to explore.
Related: Snapchat launches augmented reality art platform that pins virtual art installations to specific locations [link]; eMarketer lowers Snapchat’s ad revenue forecast for 2017 [link]; Snapchat debuts surreal Sky Filters that pushes World Lens one step further [link]; New Michael Jackson release includes AR experience via Shazam [link]
Carnival Cruise Launches Branded OTT Streaming Channel [link]
With an increasing amount of viewers cutting the cable cord and shifting from a fixed live programming grid to the freedom provided by time-shifted viewing, brands are realizing that they are losing the media opportunity to reach those viewers, given that most streaming services are subscription-based and not ad-supported. In response, many are launching their own content channels to accommodate the ballooning consumption of streaming content, and Carnival is the latest example in this regard. Content marketing has been around for decades, it has simply started to reach beyond sponsored blog posts and infiltrate the OTT video space as well.
Related: In-flight Netflix will be available on more airlines in 2018 thanks to advanced mobile streaming compression [link]; Nvidia’s Shield TV now sells for $179 to compete with the Apple TV 4K [link]; Comcast goes after college students by offering free ESPN in dorms [link]; Roku rolls out Roku OS 8, refreshes TV hardware with 4K and faster processors [link]
Stats To Know
Interactive video ads are as effective as TV ads. our latest media trial with Magna and Tremor Video found. Our study concluded that interactive video units make ads 32% more memorable than non-interactive ads.
Voice assistants are playing an increasingly important role in making purchase decisions. A new report by Walker Sands says 44% of consumers will make a holiday purchase via a voice controlled device. Similarly, Saleforce’s 2017 Connected Shopper report found that 40% of Millennials are turning to voice assistants to help with purchase research.
Instagram now has 800 million monthly and 500 million daily active users, the company shared during a NYC Ad Week event. This means the social network has added 100 million monthly active users in just 5 months.
Amazon’s first streamed NFL game surpassed Twitter’s viewership last year. The live stream was watched by an average of 372,000 concurrent viewers on Thursday night, beating the average of 266,000 viewers who watched Twitter’s streams in the same slot last season, but still represent only a small fraction of Amazon’s overall subscriber base.
