Never be lonely again: Digital humans

Artificial intelligence, Branding, Digital Avatars, Facebook post

I spend a fair amount of time in my book chapter talking about intelligent (AI) bots / artificial humans and how brands can use them to create more meaningful relationships with customers. Fascinating stuff. And as AI and natural language processing improves (eg, real conversation) continues to improve in parallel with improving graphics and streaming, we’ll be able to interact in ways that will be indistinguishable from “real”. This New Zealand based company is one of a handful working on developing that dream. UneeQ (previously FaceMe) has taken in $10 million in funding so

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Going to be a published author!

Appearances & Press, Artificial intelligence, Augmented reality, Branding, Digital Avatars, Focus: AR/VR, Predictions, Virtual reality

So my first professional book chapter’s been officially submitted, “Immersive Media and Branding: How being a brand will change and expand in the age of true immersion” (could still be changed) for all those curious. It is about virtual and augmented reality, and what it will mean for brands. Among other things, I talk a lot about how artificial intelligence and how it will inform digital avatars, which are fully fleshed out 3D interactive brand ambassadors. Fascinating thing to think about; literally fleshing out what your brand is, and what that will mean for

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Announcement time

360 Video, Artificial intelligence, Branding, Digital marketing, Virtual reality

Been kind of quiet here lately…as I’ve been really busy IRL. Two big pieces of news: First: I’ve officially started looking to join a company after 10 years of self employment. Lots of reasons, the biggest being I’ve realized that it’s nearly impossible to drive any sort of advancement in the emerging tech world by yourself – you need to align with a larger team that is doing amazing things. And I would so love to do that…so, for anyone listening: I’d love to be part of your senior team, driving forward advancements in Immersive

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Opportunity Lost: NikeFuel, Gamification & Making a Difference

Apparel, Branding, Causes, Games, Quantified Self, Wearables

Nike+ & NikeFuel are beautiful examples of a brand living their values (Just Do It!) via technology and community. A new campaign by one of the biggest consumer brands in the world brings those elements into sharp focus by combining user’s NikeFuel points with love for their favorite college basketball teams. But they missed an opportunity to create something really special. A good friend posted on Facebook today, requesting his friends who were fellow alumni of his college to “pledge their Nike+ Fuel and get on board!”. As someone who has been working with

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Authentic belongingness: Community, context and culture in a digital world

Artificial intelligence, Best of, Branding, Data & analytics, Social mores

Belongingness: The human emotional need to be an accepted member of a group. Whether it is family, friends, co-workers, or a sports team, humans have an inherent desire to belong and be an important part of something greater than themselves. The motive to belong is the need for “strong, stable relationships with other people.”   Birds flock, fish school, humans….? What do humans do? It’s something I’m always thinking about. What are we hardwired for? It’s relevant to technology opportunities since to tap into them requires understanding what the human animal needs/wants at a primal

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The Borogoves are a’ Mimsying: Marketing in a hyper-connected world

Best of, Branding, Digital marketing, Featured, Personalization, Predictions

I’ve been thinking a lot about the long term impact an ”instantaneous, on demand” life. Imagine that from birth, you never had to wait for anything, and had everything you wanted delivered immediately. News, entertainment, connecting with your “group” – everything.  Never getting lost. The collective knowledge of the human race there for you at all times. How would this shape your assumptions and expectations? Because this is what’s happening to the generation being born. My nephew is almost 2. What struck me is how – without any real language skills yet (my sister

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My way? Branding in a personalized world

Branding, Personalization

I follow comments on articles and posts with not-so-always-as-unattached-as-it-should-be bemusement; quite often the article/post is more of a catalyst than an actual source of information. I’m struck by a thought tonight though, after a particularly vitriolic back-and-forth session on a Daily Show post: what will “authenticity” look like in the future, and how will we recognize it? There used to be “trusted” authoritarian figures – Cronkite, Brokaw, those types. But with the advent of “social media”, our trusted advisers are friends, or others in our community (digital or otherwise). Fine. But as the noise

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