DIGITAL MEDIA DIGEST: JUL‘18
A monthly look at the world of digital from NORTH’s point of view
Digital Tech Advances Across the Food Industry
By Izzy Kramer, Media Planner
A topic that fascinates me is tech advancements in the food industry, both in restaurants and in grocery stores. It seems a week doesn’t go by without a flashy headline proclaiming the latest innovations that will change the way we shop and order food. These digital revelations consume the category and provide insight into our relationship with food.
First off, let’s begin with restaurants. Spyce may at first look like your usual casual dining spot but look closer and you’ll see that those are not people running the kitchen, they’re robots! That’s right, I’m talking about robot chefs. The future is here; we have arrived! The focal point of Spyce is the seven pot-turning, ingredient-wielding bots at the back of the restaurant. Customers place their order and pay via touch-screen tablets and then watch as their to-go bowls are tossed and spun into delicious delight.
As expected, Spyce received a lot of press as it is a prime example of the type of roles that can be replaced with robots to increase efficiency; Spyce’s robot chefs can make one bowl in less than 3 minutes. However, the experience isn’t completely android-based; the all important job of sauce distribution and adding in extras are left to human employees.
Spyce is by far not the first application of robot chefs. Let us not forget Flippy the burger flipping robot, Café X robotic coffee bars, or Bruno the pizza making robot. These are all important advancements in food preparation technology, but the difference is Spyce bills itself as ‘the world’s first restaurant featuring a robotic kitchen that cooks complex meals.’”
Tech advances are also sweeping the grocery aisle. Amazon Go which is home to the “world’s most advanced shopping technology” that removed all checkouts and lines, is old news. But now we are beginning to see other groceries following suit across the country, such as stores owned by Kroger. Using hand held scanners, shoppers scan the items themselves as they move around the store and use a self-checkout stall to pay. It is basically like registering for a wedding, but in this case it is for dinner and you have to pay. Kroger is leading the charge in their stores across country with accounts of self-scanning shopping in Richmond, VA and Omaha, NB. This is relatively archaic technology, especially compared to Amazon, but scan-and-go is both the way of the future and the in-store answer for the mega-trend of grocery delivery.
Grocery pick-up and delivery is also old news with Costco having jumped on the bandwagon, but now the ultra-convenience is getting even easier. Introducing Robomart, the self-driving grocery store on wheels that aims to bring “groceries, baked goods, and prepared foods to customers’ doorsteps.” Through a mobile app, consumers can request the closest Robomart to come to their home. Once it arrives, shoppers are able to simply grab-and-go and are charged via the app. It’s like the neighborhood ice cream truck but with fresh broccoli and carrots. And it is the delivery of fresh, non-packaged goods that will set delivery services like Robomart apart from the current delivery services which only deliver dry goods.
Similar to the self-scanning technology mentioned above, Kroger is quick to hop on the trend and has launched their own version of Robomart by partnering with startup Nuro to test delivering milk, bread, and eggs. Ever since Amazon acquired Whole Foods at the end of 2017, it seems Kroger is trying to quickly catch up to Amazon and other tech startups in a space they believed they already own. However, it is going to be difficult for Kroger to go toe-to-toe with Amazon’s Prime shopper following who are beginning to receive major benefits at Whole Foods.
I believe the biggest change in the food industry will be caused by self-driving vehicles. This is both based on the grocery delivery examples above but also food chains such as Pizza Hut and Domino’s that are jumping on the driverless vehicle trend. Delivery via autonomous cars is a way to test safety while providing a service without risking harm.
So what is it about food that encourages digital innovation? Major driving factors are the consistent redundancy, frequency, and necessity of gathering and cooking food; we all have to eat and we all take at least three times a day to do so. The vital obligation of consuming food in a culture of busy can make it seem like a burden, which is relieved by the increasing speed and efficiency contributed by emerging technology that opens the door for a class of food innovators.
This article was inspired by The Four Top, a Portland-based food and beverage podcast recorded at OPB studios. Their latest episode released earlier this month dives into these trends in a round-table discussion with Chase McPeak, Sam Slaughter, and Drew Prindle from Digital Trends and The Manual. Check it out for more on this topic.
Dynamic Instagram Story Ads
By Caroline Desmond, Director of Media Strategy
The popularity of Instagram Stories continues to grow. In 2017, it surpassed Snapchat in daily active users, and a recent report revealed that more influencers prefer Instagram Stories noting that North American influencers reported “using Snapchat 33% less and posting 25% more on Instagram Stories.”
Furthermore, Facebook is investing in encouraging even greater content consumption within Instagram Stories. During its F8 developer conference, Facebook announced it would begin allowing people to share content from other apps to Instagram Stories on both Facebook and Instagram. AdWeek reports that some apps with sharing functionality could include Spotify, SoundCloud, and GoPro.
However, despite the popularity of Instagram Stories among users, brands have been slow to embrace advertising within this feature. Smartly.io, a social ad tech solution, recently reported that of brand spend on Instagram through their platform, only 16% was within Instagram Stories.
One reason for low adoption of Instagram Stories ads could be that there is a high risk of annoyance for a full screen ad format that interrupts highly personalized stories from friends. It is even more important, therefore, that ads in Instagram Stories deliver a message that is especially relevant and/or useful to the viewer — a level of personalization now available through dynamic video formats.
Clinch, a company that partners with agencies and brands to develop dynamic ad formats, recently unveiled a new tool that lets advertisers dynamically create a variety of video/carousel ads for Instagram Stories. (This builds on Clinch’s existing tool that allows advertisers to dynamically create video/carousel ads for Facebook.)
So how does it work? First, Clinch works with the advertiser to develop an interactive template for a 6-to-15-second Instagram Story ad. Sources for additional content assets (photos, videos or previously created graphics) are then attached to the template. This allows the tool to generate up to hundreds of different combinations of ads tailored to different audience demos, locations, or purchase behavior. The tool then reports back which variants were most effective at driving viewer responses.
So far, Mediapost reports that one of the brands that used Clinch’s dynamic Instagram Stories tool, Despegar, saw a 28X return on ad spend compared to prior solutions.
This is a good indicator for brands interested in identifying ways to integrate into Instagram Stories without annoying viewers. And given the growth in daily active Instagram Story users and Facebook’s continued investment in this product, the time is right to consider this new dynamic technology as part of your paid social content mix.
Google Rebrands Its Ad Lineup
By Devon Brown, Performance Marketing Manager
Google’s ad products are confusing.
AdWords, which started as text ads for search, now encompasses video, display, and shopping ads. DoubleClick for Advertisers, Google’s trafficking and reporting tool for brands, also has search, display, and video ads for managed buys on publisher sites. Then DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Campaign Manager allow publishers to serve ads and manage inventory. All of these products, along with a hodgepodge of reporting and analytics tools, are being funneled into three core product groups: Google Ads, The Google Marketing Platform, and Google Ad Manager.
Google AdWords Will Become Google Ads
Google AdWords will become Google Ads in order to better encapsulate the video, shopping, and display products that now fall under its umbrella. The change will happen “soon”, according to the AdWords interface notifications. The shift is being marketed as only a name change, however they are adding a new product called Smart Campaigns, which has the potential to change the fundamentals of optimization and make Google Ads unrecognizable from Google AdWords.
The new feature uses machine learning to automate the creative optimization process and develop strategies. So for the first time, AdWords will actually be re-writing ads for you, and they will automatically deploy them if you don’t change your settings (change your settings). I’ve had the opportunity to view some of the automated creative suggestions through their beta program, and directionally some were good, but poorly executed. Luckily you can edit the ads right in the suggestion notification, so if they miss the mark you can course correct.
DoubleClick For Advertisers Will Change To The Google Marketing Platform
On the publisher side, most tools will merge into one platform, called the The Google Marketing Platform. Under this umbrella there will be the following products:
- Display and Video Ads 360 — managed display and video ads
- Search Ads 360 — managed search buys
- Google Analytics 360 — enterprise level Google Analytics
- Optimize 360 — landing page testing and experimentation
- Data Studio (Reporting)—it appears to be staying the same, thank goodness
- Surveys 360 — Enterprise level survey and ethnography tool
- Tag Manager 360 — Enterprise level version of Google Tag Manager
Historically, tools like Double Click have had some serious shortcomings, like only being able to track impressions and clicks. Eventually, DoubleClick rolled out view-through and click-through conversion tracking. Hopefully, the merge will combine the forces of all tools to create an even more robust and cohesive offering for advertisers.
DoubleClick For Publishers Will Change to Google Ad Manager
Lastly, DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange, Google’s offering for publishers to serve ads and manage inventory, will be combined and rebranded as Google Ad Manager. Again, the hope is that combining the two will create one all holy tool to rule them all, mitigating each others shortcomings.
So, is all of this now less complex? I suppose a little. The real question is whether all of these mergers will bridge some of the gaps and deficiencies between some of the products. Fingers crossed.
