Cases involving the latest digital innovations are increasingly appearing in the field of marketing communications. Why is this happening? What digital trends should be used in advertising? Let’s think about it as it is time to keep pace with technology.
In today’s world, thanks to the general penetration of innovative ways to communicate, one interesting thing has emerged: indirect competition in the user experience. This is especially evident in Generation Z. These are people who were born after 2000, they are on a first-name basis with the digital world since infancy: they grew up with a smartphone under their pillow, in which they both write my essay and get to know each other, and a bunch of selfies from in their social media profiles. They are used to comfortable, beautiful and painless interaction with a virtual world that delights in its diversity.
And the more people use services from technology giants every day, the higher demands they place on all players in the market. If a brand doesn’t meet these expectations and criteria, its perception suffers. And for companies to achieve a serious level of interaction and, accordingly, perception in the virtual world, and even more so in the real world, is a difficult and rather strategic task. This is where hi-tech advertising comes in, using which they are ready to get on a par with any leader in the field of high technology, at least in communications.
What’s new in the world of technology?
So is it time to rush to make our own artificial intelligence? No, first we need to figure out what innovations are relevant and how they can help.
The main thing to know: technology lives on in waves of popularity. The last really high wave is the advent of the iPhone. The platform on which the popularity of small companies like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter has grown.
So how do you keep up with the news in the tech-driven communications world? Watch what others are doing and monitor trends, such as with the Gartner Hype Cycle, an annual survey of the popularity of technology.
It’s also important to remember that all emerging systems go through the same stages of innovation adoption; there are five: Innovators, Early adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Leggards. It is always interesting to see where any technological solution is now and whether it makes sense to invest in it. If we’re talking about products, I’ll take the liberty of saying that stages 3 and 4 (Early Majority and Late Majority) are interesting. For communications, on the other hand, 2 and 3 (Early adopters and Early Majority) are best, while 1 (Innovators) is the only case where the only thing you are chasing is PR value.
The main technologies for modern communication
The use of achievements of progress, both specially developed and unusual use of existing ones, is one of the ways to stay up-to-date in communication. We propose to consider several cases of popular technologies with which it is already possible to conduct interesting collaborations.
VR/AR
Augmented and virtual reality are some of the hot topics of recent years. The technology suffers from imperfect platforms, but now that Apple has developed its ARKit, this will soon change.
Audi, for example, created a VR attraction in which visitors could first create their own route in a sandbox and then drive a small Audi around it.
And T-Mobile created their own entertainment channel using chromakey and AR in the mobile app. Whenever the user’s phone camera was pointed at purple-colored objects (the brand’s primary color), the picture changed to a virtual reality from the world of Gorillaz.
Users authentication
Facial recognition, retinal or capillary pattern recognition are all on the cutting edge right now. Brands are actively adopting these technologies: for example, facial recognition technology is now in Apple’s flagship phone models.
AI/Deep Learning
Self-learning algorithms are the hottest topic in the technology community. Their use is completely changing the interactions we’re used to. And they are still perceived by us as magic, while being transparent to most experts for a long time.
The online bot AiMEN was created to promote the Young Pope series, responding to people’s sinful posts with appropriate lines from the Bible.
MIT’s Media Technology Lab worked with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to develop an algorithm that transforms photos of prosperous cities into pictures of war-torn metropolises.
Neural Networks
The use of trained models (neural networks) to create unusual content is the first attempt to make sense of the global paradigm shift we are witnessing. While it seems like hooliganism, the mechanics themselves are a treasure trove of unconventional communications.
Technology as a way to amaze
Now is the best time to start launching interesting high-tech projects. The tipping point is when any brand has a chance to take a profitable place in the minds of consumers. Of course, through the competent use of modern digital innovations in advertising. Using them in communications, you can get on a par with the leading “experience makers”. So the main tip: love and do not ignore technology, and they will reciprocate.