2018 A CARAT PERSPECTIVE

2018 A CARAT PERSPECTIVE

Welcome Nothing stays the same for long in the intersecting worlds of advertising and technology. We are currently in the midst of a major evolution across a number of areas, including retail, media consumption, and business models, that will continue well into 2018 and beyond. The goal of these annual reports is to help focus our minds on the major themes impacting your business, and ours, in the coming year. This year’s themes are grouped into three categories: industry, behaviour, and technology. As in our 2017 edition, some of these themes carry over from last year - voice and machine learning in particular - and that’s no mistake. Both are set to have dramatic repercussions on our industry for years to come. If you have any queries, or would like more information on anything of this year’s themes, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Rob Tilt Head of Innovation, Carat Australia @CaratAUNZ www.carat.com/au/ Contributors: Dan Calladine, Head of Media Futures, Carat Global Tess Murphy, Marketing Manager, Carat Australia

CONTENTS E - C O M M E R C E A N D R E TA I L C O N V E R G E N C E PAGE 03 U N L I K E LY A L L I E S PAGE 04 LOOMING CHINESE INFLUENCE PAGE 05 THE PAYMENT REVOLUTION PAGE 06 E V O L U T I O N O F L O Y A LT Y PAGE 07 SHARED EXPERIENCES PAGE 08 V O I C E D O M I N AT I O N PAGE 09 BLOCKCHAIN PAGE 10 MACHINE-LEARNING MARKETING SERVICES PAGE 11 PEOPLE-BASED MARKETING PAGE 12 2 0 1 7 T R E N D S : A N U P D AT E PAGE 13

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INDUSTRY

E-commerce and Retail Convergence Once vastly different experiences, retail and e-commerce are now converging, with category giants from both sides making moves to set up shop in their opposing territories. Simply covering both bases may not be enough, however – market-leaders like Amazon and Alibaba have gone a step further, blurring the lines between physical and online retail to bring their customers the best of both worlds with every transaction. Amazon has made great strides into the physical retail space in the US, including acquiring upmarket grocery chain, Whole Foods, opening bookstores in major cities, and offering free returns via department store chain, Kohl’s. As a result, it is currently the second largest employer in the US, bested only by Walmart. Amazon’s latest venture is perhaps their most ambitious yet – the futuristic Amazon Go store. A completely cashier-less shopping experience, Amazon Go uses cameras and sensors to track a customer’s chosen items as they shop, then charges for them via the customer’s Amazon account. Walmart, on the other hand, has been busily building its digital footprint, purchasing a number of online retailers including e-commerce startup, Jet.com, which it acquired for US$3bn in 2016. Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, has been hard at work to blend online and physical commerce via their annual ‘retail-tainment’ event, the Singles Day shopping festival. The online sale was supported via thousands of ‘smart stores’ and physical fulfilment centres to help process its 812 million orders, with

sales tripling that of Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. Smaller retailers are also reaping the benefits of a blended approach, including glasses retailer, Cubitts, which reports a spike in online traffic whenever a new physical store is opened, as people become aware of the brand for the first time. IMPLICATIONS Almost every aspect of life is now an opportunity to shop or experience a brand. Brands need to be available to buy wherever their consumers expect them to be. Commerce is increasingly global, where we now think beyond national boundaries. The impact of a physical marketing presence, including experiential activity, should not be overlooked as a power complement to an online presence.

TALK TO US Do you consider Amazon a friend or foe? We can help you adjust to this new retail landscape either way.

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INDUSTRY

Unlikely Allies As the saying goes, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Category disruptors like Uber and AirBnb are finding themselves in bed with some unlikely allies who, rather than rail against the seismic changes brought about by their business models, are finding creative ways to capitalise on them. Some quick-thinking brands are shaking up their partnership plans as a way of coping with the arrival of category disruptors, taking the typically taboo approach of teaming up with their would-be competitors. One such example is Newgard Development Group, who teamed up with their category’s enemynumber-one, Airbnb, to build the first Airbnb-branded apartment building in the US. Tenants will be allowed to rent their units out for up to 180 nights a year, hassle-free and completely legally. This is a smart move on behalf of both brands – Newgard capitalises on the sharing economy and Airbnb’s brand affinity, while Airbnb makes much-needed inroads toward legitimising their site in the eyes of their most vocal critics, developers and property managers. Another unlikely love story is that of McDonald’s and UberEATS, with the latter’s entry into market meaning Maccas is no longer one of the only things on the menu when it came to quick and easy eats. Rather than take the challenge lying down, McDonald’s instead selected UberEATS as its first ever delivery partner, turning what could have been a considerable threat into a new opportunity for their brand.

Also jumping into bed with the devil is online mattress retailer, Tuft & Needle, who partnered with Amazon - widely considered the retail Grim Reaper - to create an offline presence for their brand. The Amazon-powered showrooms increased brand awareness for Tuft & Needle, with Amazon picking up all fulfilment duties. These brands all succeeded by having the foresight to embrace competition and capitalise on it, rather than resist change or look for ways to go head to head with an unbeatable enemy. There are benefits waiting to be reaped by those willing to think outside the box when it comes to potential partners - the line between friend and foe can certainly be one worth blurring. IMPLICATIONS When it comes to partnerships, potential allies are everywhere. The obvious choice isn’t always the right one - get creative. Don’t be afraid to shop within your own category - where there’s a threat, there’s inevitably an opportunity.

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INDUSTRY

Looming Chinese Influence The influence of Chinese brands on the West is undeniably growing, fueled in large by their shrewd investment and acquisition strategies. That said, it’s not only China keeping an eye out for overseas opportunities - there is an increasing appetite from Western companies for the many exciting innovations coming out of the country. In the West, people talk about GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple), or FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google), but in China the big three to watch are BAT: Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent. You may or may not know Tencent, one of China’s largest holding conglomerates, by name, but chances are you’ll recognise some of their investments - they’ve got a stake in some of the world’s biggest brands, including Spotify and Tesla. They recently added Snapchat to their repertoire, purchasing a 12% stake in the app which potentially grants them influence over its future development. Also getting in early on the next big thing is Chinese taxi app, Didi Chuxing - the world’s leading mobile transportation platform and now a major investor in the new ‘Taxify’ app. Headquartered in Estonia and nicknamed the ‘Uber killer’, Taxify is currently taking on the ride-sharing giant all over the world, including Australia. Didi Chuxing, which purchased its only local competitor, Uber China, in 2016, has effectively set itself up as the only competitor with the potential to rival Uber’s dominance globally. Perhaps more importantly, however, is what the West is learning and adopting from China. Facebook has been quick to replicate a number of elements of chat app, WeChat,

within Messenger, including video calling, money transfer, and the integration of Uber into the app. Now in the crosshairs is concepts such Alibaba’s ‘Singles Day’ shopping festival (discussed on page 7), which is officially the world’s biggest shopping event. Tencent and Alibaba are also both currently testing the Chinese Government’s idea of Black Mirror-esque ‘social credits’, a scoring system for users based on social connections and consumption behaviour, which will no doubt tempt Western investors. IMPLICATIONS We will see more Chinese tech investment to come, and don’t be surprised if Alibaba start testing the commerce waters in Western markets. Just like Facebook, monitor the actions of the BAT companies to spot new ideas and trends. As these Chinese brands come to Western markets - or as Chinese visitors use their native platforms while in Australia - look for partnerships opportunities both locally and abroad. TALK TO US Interested in reaching a Chinese audience? We can help you, be it the Epoch Times or WeChat.

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BEHAVIOUR

The Payment Revolution Payment systems have been quietly undergoing a revolution over the last couple of years. The tech-driven transformation of the finance industry is changing the way we pay, giving consumers more control over their money, and putting pressure on financial institutions to prove their worth amid considerable competition. Spending and sending your money has never been easier than it is today. Talk of a cashless society has given way to the prospect of a card-less society, as contactless pay functionality makes its way into our wearables, and payment apps like Venmo increase in both prevalence and sophistication. Even more astonishing is the emergence of an entirely new breed of the consumer, the ‘unbanked’ people who skip the progression of having a bank account entirely, in favour of app-based currency movement. For example, India’s largest mobile e-commerce app, PayTM, allows people to receive their salaries, pay merchants phone-tophone, pay utilities, and even buy gold - all without a bank account.

In the US, PayPal-owned Venmo is dominating person-to-person payments, processing a volume of US$9 Billion in Q3 2017. Numbers of that size don’t go unnoticed by the country’s biggest financial institutions, who have responded in kind with the launch of new payment-app player, Zelle. Zelle is unique in that it is backed by the big banks and integrated into their native apps, offering instant money transfers between all partner financial institutions. In Australia, the launch of New Payment Platform (NPP) is imminent, which is set to revolutionise how Australians send and receive money. All transactions will happen instantly, including cross-bank payments, and can be addressed using a ‘simple ID’ such as an email or phone number.

IMPLICATIONS The NPP will drastically change the way our money flows, opening a vast number of new opportunities in the mobile payment space. Expect to see the big banks release a raft of new products in order to stay competitive, in turn placing pressure on those already in market. Banks, in turn, will face challenges from a loyalty perspective, as reliance on them is reduced by the increasing prevalence of viable alternatives. Their selling point will evolve to be focused on the commerce experience, as consumers increasingly expect a frictionless payment experience wherever they’re spending.

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BEHAVIOUR

Evolution of Loyalty In the US alone, US$48bn in rewards points are issued each year, but over a third languish un-redeemed, either forgotten or discarded by consumers. The good news is the loyalty is now evolving from clunky coupons and cards, to apps that aggregate purchases and reward points, in turn making easier for consumers, and datahungry retailers, to cash in. While previously a consumer’s loyalty points were collected and managed by the individual brand they shopped with, rewards are now able to be aggregated and tied to a consumer’s identity. Apps such as ‘Drop’ exist to do just this for their 500,000 users across the US and Canada. The app links up to a user’s credit and debit cards, scouring their transactions to identify and collect their eligible rewards from retailers all over the world, aggregating them seamlessly into the app for its largely millennial user base. Users also receive personalised offers based on their spending habits and preferred retailers. Mobile wallet, Yoyo, does same thing for European consumers, and can additionally be linked to a user’s bank account. Yoyo is technically available in Australia, but not yet supported by retailers.

The benefit of tech platforms such as these is of course two-fold. Retailers reap the benefits from a data perspective, and don’t have to manage and maintain their own dedicated loyalty programs. The platform itself gets data from across the combined retailer pool, enriching it greatly, and with rights to sell it to third parties. The next stage of the loyalty evolution could well be the widespread creation of branded currencies. Burger King has already done this in Russia with the creation of its own cryptocurrency, the ‘WhopperCoin’ (modelled on the Bitcoin), which diners can collect via a dedicated mobile ‘coin wallet’ app. Messaging app, Kik, has also created its own cryptocurrency called Kin, which can be traded for ‘real’ money, or used for payments on the site. For example, a user might get payment from a brand for creating a branded chatbot, or a popular meme, which can then be redeemed for rewards such as custom emojis.

IMPLICATIONS Loyalty is evolving as technology makes measurement and rewards frictionless. Loyalty apps will aggregate deals, offers, payments, and loyalty. It will unify online and offline and put mobile at the centre. It is also possible that strong brands will try to create their own global currencies.

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BEHAVIOUR

SHARED EXPERIENCES Digital media allows us to read, watch or listen to what we want, when we want it. Live video has increased the emphasis on involvement. When you post a selfie, you’re happy to go back to check how many likes and comments it received; when you go live, you want interaction then and there. New apps and features are making this easier. Game Show app, HQ, broadcasts a live 15 minute quiz show twice a day for people to engage with. When you get a multiple choice question wrong, you drop out of the game but are still able to watch along. Houseparty is a video chat app that lets multiple friends take part in a group chat. Apparently friends use it for watching TV shows together, getting ready for bed together and more. Instagram now lets you invite a friend to join your live video, broadcasting together from your own phones.

for the Halloween weekend, had an estimated 16m fans watching in the first weekend. It’s turning the concept of ‘watching any time’ into ‘watching ASAP’. Tumblr have launched an app called Cabana, where up to five friends can watch a video while also being on a group video call. And to extend on last year’s trends, tech companies like Amazon, Netflix, Snapchat and Facebook are interested in live sports rights, which have a collective experience built-in.

Uptime is a new iOS app from YouTube that lets people create a viewing room for videos to watch simultaneously with friends. Facebook have just launched Watch Party, where Facebook groups can watch video together at the same time as commenting and interacting.

As digital media tries to replicate the collective experiences from analog media and the offline world, think about creating experiences or people part of existing ones. The solitary experience of enjoying music on an iPod led to the resurgence of live music. The rise of on-demand video may well do the same for screened experiences.

Netflix allows its users to watch any content at any time, but is also increasingly trying to create events around its hallmark programming. Season Two of Stranger Things for example, which was released

IMPLICATIONS

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BEHAVIOUR TECHNOLOGY

Voice Domination IMPLICATIONS Last year we saw the rise of digital assistants - small devices in the form of speakers that can link to your Amazon Prime account or your Google Apps. This year we’re seeing them everywhere: in your TVs, your white goods - even controlling your car. Voice recognition has improved significantly in recent years, with error rates currently estimated to be at an all-time low of only 5%. Devices like Amazon Echo are predicted to hit 66% penetration in some markets within five years, and voice is actively disrupting categories like search. Chinese brands like Baidu, Alibaba and Xiaomi have also launched their own versions, with subtle twists – for example, Alibaba is intended to be placed in stores and hotel rooms to act as a voice-activated assistant. Studies show that voice is changing the way people use search. It’s easier to talk than type, so people use longer queries in spoken search than in text. This means that brands need to optimise for a variety of ways of asking a question like ‘how to I make...’ rather than on their brand name. Amazon is also trying to encourage discovery through Echo, with initiatives like ‘Oprah’s Favorite

Things’, where the TV star describes her favourite items of the season, which people can then buy. U2 has created special content on Alexa for fans to find – Say ‘Alexa, play the U2 Experience’. But there is more to ‘voice’ than search. There has also been a rise in audio content and new advertising opportunities. Podcasts continue to rise in popularity, with Edison reporting listening growing at approximately 15% a year. Innovations in content include interactive ‘choose your own adventure’ style dramas. Programmatic advertising has come to audio, both through Spotify and DAX, the digital audio exchange. Dynamic creative is flourishing within audio. For example the company, A Million Ads, enables advertisers to make ads that can be varied according to weather, time of day, location and more.

A strategy for voice is becoming very important. Test search results on devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Consider the new possibilities of audio content and advertising – especially as connected cars will drive listening figures higher. When Alexa and Amazon Prime launch in Australia, your Amazon performance will be very important. That said, until these platforms can meaningfully advertise, performance is your key objective.

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TECHNOLOGY

Blockchain Blockchain as a technology has been around for nearly a decade, but to date has been associated primarily with Bitcoin. But in fact, the technology has many uses, and we’re only now starting to see it leveraged beyond the world of cryptocurrency. Blockchain is a term that has become a misunderstood buzzword, much like ‘AI’ or ‘Big Data’. Blockchain is essentially a ledger system - a way to store data, like a table - that uses cryptography (a complex form of mathematics) to verify each change in data. This verification is done by multiple users, confirming that each record change happens in a verifiable, transparent, and tamper-proof way. This ultimately can create a network of trust that is decentralised, rather than being controlled in a single place. Bitcoin, the best known use of the technology, is a currency where there is no central authority or bank. All transactions are instead backed up by records kept collectively in the community. The popularity of Bitcoin has spawned hundreds of other cryptocurrencies, many using their value as a form of seed funding. In December, the entire market peaked at over US$800bn, before crashing to around US$400bn in January. Blockchain is not just being used to create virtual currencies. Financial markets like the ASX are implementing the technology as a more efficient - and therefore cheaper - method of recording transactions than traditional systems. Due to the ability for blockchain to be transparent, Walmart partnered with IBM to verify the supply chain of pork in China from farm to shelf. Australian startup Power Ledger, which is also uses a cryptocurrency, is currently creating

a decentralised way to market energy (such as home-generated solar), and recently received an AUD$8m grant from the Australian Government to pilot a program in Fremantle. Commercial brands have also been quick to cash in on the blockchain frenzy. Kodak recently saw their value double when they announced they were creating KodakCoin, a new technology for managing photographers’ IP rights. The Long Island Iced Tea Corporation managed to reap the same rewards by simply namedropping blockchain. Having suffered a declining stock price over several years, they changed their name to ‘Long Blockchain Corporation’ as part of a stunt, and saw their stock price double almost immediately. Whilst it has since dropped, it still remains above the levels pre-rebrand. IMPLICATIONS The technology could change the media industry as much in the next five years as programmatic has in the last five. While we’re still at an early stage in application of blockchain, brands should already be working to better understand the technology and the ways in which it can help solve their own issues of trust and transparency. Everyone, including media brands, needs to get acquainted with where they fit within the new ecosystem emerging as a result of blockchain’s increasing prevalence.


TECHNOLOGY

Machine-Learning Marketing Services Marketing automation has been evolving for many years. Brands realised the value in optimisation, and started revising content based on viewer behaviour, starting with A/B testing and evolving to multivariate testing. But no matter how advanced a brands’ automation becomes, it’s still set on rules, designed by humans. It’s only as smart as the human operating it. We’re starting to see an explosion of machine learning (ML) services being directed into marketing services. Previously, we’ve seen the likes of IBM Watson being used to suggest appropriate content, for example, their campaign with Northface featured in last year’s trends, but now we’re seeing it specifically applied to marketing automation. IBM Watson now offers a suite of tools for customer experience, marketing insights, campaign automation and real-time personalisation. Google’s TensorFlow is offering a similar service, which it has implemented on Instacart to auto-optimise the checkout process. Machine learning can be used to optimise - and extrapolate - on your content, too. Expedia are feeding their ML engine their browsing behaviour, and it is learning to automatically display more desirable user photos alongside its customer reviews. There’s no reason this technology can’t be used in the creation process, such as using image-based ML to suggest visually similar products - in

fashion, for example - to users based on their current browsing and dwell times. IMPLICATIONS This form of auto-optimisation has the potential to automate large swathes of our business. Display advertising has been championing mid-campaign optimisation for some time, but what if this was an entirely automated process based on the CTR and visibility of users? As more channels become programmatic, this will extend to media planning overall. ML engines will be able to determine the effectiveness and value of each placement spot-by-spot across multiple channels. TALK TO US Interested in IBM Watson? Dentsu Aegis Network has an exclusive agreement where we can leverage their marketing tools for you.

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TECHNOLOGY

People-Based Marketing The concept of a segment of one has been around for decades. It’s been looked at as the holy grail of marketing, and it’s been just as unattainable. Programmatic buying started to change this, but it has been limited to that channel, and revolves around lookalikes rather than true one to one targeting. Extending on the previous trend, it is only through the evolution of technology that we can now actually achieve true addressable advertising. Late last year, Seven announced that they will be the first Australian network to offer addressable TV. Only available on streaming video, this technology will allow them to show ads based on the household demographic rather than being attached to the show. MCN plans to launch its own solution to addressable TV in 2018. Currently there is too much data, but not enough power to make it meaningful. Programmatic can only be as specific as the data manually fed into its profiles. As a solution, we are starting to see the rise of platforms that can ingest a myriad of data sources and merge them over a core dataset of personally identifiable information. The first platform of this nature in Australia is Dentsu Aegis Network’s M1. This allows media teams to plan, buy and measure against real people, not just proxies such as cookies. IMPLICATIONS The ability to reach your customers on a true 1:1 level enables you to create an unprecedented personalised experience. Addressable media this precise will minimise wastage

and improve ROI. Furthermore, by leveraging all current and past behaviour, one can build up a complex behavioural profile complete with intent, predicting their future behaviour and how that relates to your brand. Once people based marketing is properly established in this market, it will only be a matter of time before it is integrated into all the programmatic platforms in our market. This’ll lead to a new wave of automation, where marketing individuals both sides of the clientagency divide will need to evolve to stay relevant.

TALK TO US We are the only network in Australia to have a truly addressable, people-based marketing solution, M1.

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2017 TRENDS AN UPDATE LIVE VIDEO

VR & AR

Facebook revealed that 20% of its videos were live, and introduced live streaming to Instagram. Several media brands did interesting things, including National Geographic, whose Safari Live had 22om views on Facebook in 3 months. Nike used live video brilliantly in May in their #Breaking2 attempt to break the 2 hour time for the marathon.

Both grew substantially this year. VR became a ‘must have’ for theme parks, including a team ‘Escape Room’ style Star Wars VR game at Disneyland, proving people love the technology but it is yet to reach ‘personal device’ status. There are indications it’s on its way though, with PlayStation selling over one million VR headsets). AR became a major focus for Facebook, Google and Apple, with lots more to come in 2018.

SPORTS RIGHTS Amazon outbid Twitter to win the rights to stream live NFL games, and got a bigger audience. Amazon also bought the rights to the ATP Tennis, and Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat are all apparently keen to get clips for the 2018 World Cup.

PROXIMITY Proximity became an even bigger feature of Snapchat, who launched Maps in June so that people could see where their friends were. Snapchat also bought the locationtracking company, Placed, to betterdemonstrate how brand activity drove footfall. Foursquare introduced Analytics, a new dashboard to help brands analyse footfall.

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DIGITAL ASSISTANTS

TRANSFORMING INCUMBENTS

Google Assistant launched in Australia, and Alexa went from strength to strength, selling ‘tens of millions worldwide over the holiday period’ (Christmas 2017). The Alexa app was the top app for Android and iPhone on Christmas day. Google and Amazon released cheaper devices, and Assistant was pushed to all current Android devices. However, OEM devices were slow to hit the market, and new assistant competitors are diluting the movement instead of strengthening it.

It’s hard to comment on how much transformation actually occurred during 2017, but it is hard to find a large company who hasn’t at least acknowledged their need to undergo a transformation journey. One of the nicest examples globally is Nvidia, once purely a video gaming chipset manufacturer, who diversified into autonomous driving technology. They’re now (literally) at the core of most auto manufacturers’ self-driving initiatives.

ACCESSIBLE AI Thousands of bots were created, many from new start-ups including Lemonade (insurance), and Lola (travel booking). Facebook was a popular platform, with bots from companies as diverse as 7-Eleven and adidas, and many were used as promotional tools for movies and TV shows including Alien Covenant and Suits. 2018 should see bots getting more sophisticated, and more commonplace. THE DILUTION OF PLATFORM OFFERINGS Facebook (and by extension, Instagram) and Snapchat continued their mirroring feature wars. BRANDED CONTENT Brands continued to pay the best producers to make their content, including Match.com who created a dating show with Vice for Snapchat, but Pepsi had a misstep with the film it made featuring Kendall Jenner at a political demo.

THE ALL-ENCOMPASSING FILTER BUBBLE Trump won the election. By admittance from Facebook itself, external forces leveraged the filter bubble to make this happen, with a trifecta of fake news websites, fake users (across Facebook and Twitter) and targeting advertising with political propaganda. Facebook were forced to publicly address this, and have started initiatives to verify ‘truthful’ news sources. Twitter contacted 677,775 Americans who followed, liked or retweeted a fake Russian account during the election period.

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SOURCES E-COMMERCE AND RETAIL CONVERGENCE Amazon is the 2nd largest employer in the US, https://www.inc.com/business-insider/jeff-bezos-amazon-employees-hiring-spree-second-largestcompany-behind-walmart.htmlWalmart bought Jet for over $3bn http://uk.businessinsider.com/jet-walmart-weapon-vs-amazon-2017-9 Walmart bought Bonobos for $3.3bn, https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/16/walmart-to-buy-bonobos-for-310m-in-its-bigger-push-into-fashion-retail Alibaba tested 60 smart stores during Singles Day, https://digiday.com/marketing/alibaba-tests-60-intelligent-pop-stores-first-time-around-singles-day/ UNLIKELY ALLIES Uber & Westfield, https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/02/uber-launching-shopping-mall-lounges-and-pickupdropoff-points-with-westfield/ Airbnb & Newgard Development Group, https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/12/airbnb-plans-five-more-complexes-after-its-first-florida-apartme/ UberEATS & McDonald’s, https://www.eater.com/2017/10/24/16453444/mcdonalds-doubles-down-on-food-delivery-with-ubereats Amazon & Tuft & Needle, https://www.recode.net/2017/7/31/16069424/tuft-needle-seattle-store-amazon-mattresses-echo-alexa-prime-delivery LOOMING CHINESE INFLUENCE Tencent owns 12% of Snapchat, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-snap-tencent-stake/chinas-tencent-takes-12-percent-stake-in-snap-as-sharesplunge-idUSKBN1D81G3 Didi invests in Taxify, https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/01/chinas-didi-invests-in-taxify/ Ant Financial & Moneygram, http://www.scmp.com/news/article/2111492/alibaba-affiliate-ant-financial-will-push-third-time-get-us-approval-moneygram Musical.ly sold, https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/09/chinas-toutiao-is-buying-musical-ly-in-a-deal-worth-800m-1b/ Messenger copies WeChat, https://www.techinasia.com/facebook-messenger-wechat-fintech-features ‘Social Credit’ in China, http://www.wired.co.uk/article/chinese-government-social-credit-score-privacy-invasion Companies mentioned: Plum Guide, https://www.plumguide.com Appear Here, https://www.appearhere.co.uk Storefront, https://www.thestorefront.comCoworkerhttps://www.coworker.com‘Dating for Bulls’http://www.trouverlebontaureau.com/nos-taureaux/ THE PAYMENT REVOLUTION Three Payment Trends That Will Change How We Pay in 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelleevans1/2017/10/27/three-payment-trends-thatwill-change-how-we-pay-in-2018/#38de50816c2c New Payments Platform, https://www.nppa.com.au/ Venmo’s total payment volume from 1st quarter 2017, https://www.statista.com/statistics/763617/venmo-total-payment-volume/ Zelle, https://www.zellepay.com/ EVOLUTION OF LOYALTY $48bn issued in rewards points per year, https://progressivegrocer.com/48-billion-consumer-loyalty-points-dispensed-annually Starbucks has 13m members of its rewards programme, https://www.geekwire.com/2017/starbucks-misses-revenue-expectations-mobile-order-aheadaccounts-10-u-s-transactions/ Drop has more than 500,000 members, https://blog.earnwithdrop.com/drop-1-12-more-ways-to-get-rewarded-a12e16cbb669 Burger King’s Whopper Coin, http://www.adweek.com/creativity/burger-king-just-launched-its-own-cryptocurrency-the-whoppercoin/ Kik’s Kin, https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/26/kik-raises-98-million-in-kin-cryptocurrency-token-sale/ SHARED EXPERIENCES HQ – The quiz show app, http://fortune.com/2017/11/22/hq-trivia-app/ Houseparty, https://netsanity.net/what-is-house-party-app/ Instagram – ask a friend to join you live, https://instagram-press.com/blog/2017/11/21/new-request-to-join-a-friends-live-video/ YouTube Uptime, https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/26/uptime-youtubes-experimental-app-for-watching-videos-with-friends-opens-to-all/ Stranger Things 2’s estimated viewing figures, http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/stranger-things-season-2-ratings-nielsen-1202605585/ VOICE DOMINATION 5% word recognition error rate, https://venturebeat.com/2017/05/17/googles-speech-recognition-technology-now-has-a-4-9-word-error-rate/ Smart speakers in 66% of US homes by 2022 – Forrester, https://www.voicebot.ai/2017/10/31/forrester-smart-speaker-forecast-22-million-amazonecho-sales-2017-66-million-us-households-2022/ iProspect report on voice search – ‘The Future is Voice Activated’, https://www.iprospect.com/en/gb/insights/whitepapers/the-future-is-voice-activated/ Oprah’s Favourite Things on Alexa, https://www.cnet.com/news/alexas-and-oprahs-voice-will-help-holiday-shoppers-this-season/ U2 on Alexa, https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/new-alexa-format-drops-users-into-exclusive-u2-broadcast/512003/ Edison Research – The Podcast Consumer 2017, http://www.edisonresearch.com/the-podcast-consumer-2017/ Choose your own adventure on Alexa, https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/technology/choose-path-alexa-new-bbc-interactive-drama/ Dynamic Audio Ads, https://www.amillionads.com


BLOCKCHAIN A good explainer here – (Blockchain for Dummies), https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?htmlfid=XIM12354USEN >$800m invested in projects in 2017, https://www.cbinsights.com/reports/CB-Insights_Blockchain-Review-Briefing.pdf Food safety in China, https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud-computing/2017/08/blockchain-food-safety/ MACHINE-LEARNING MARKETING SERVICES 15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Marketing Automation, http://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2017/2/16/15-mind-blowing-stats-about-marketingautomation.html#gs.hGvTEOw AI and machine learning get us one step closer to relevance at scale, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/ai-personalized-marketing/ Is machine learning the future of marketing?, https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/11/15/machine-learning-future-marketing/ Machine Learning in Marketing, https://www.optimove.com/learning-center/machine-learning PEOPLE-BASED MARKETING Hyper-personalization: Marketing to a segment of one, https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/18/hyper-personalization-marketing-to-a-segment-of-one-vblive/ Hyper-personalization: Marketing to a segment of one, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/unilever-consumer-marketingsegmentation/ A Segment of One: The Next Generation of Customer Engagement, http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/customer-experience/a-segment-of-one-thenext-generation-of-customer-engagement/4709 Marketers Need Artificial Intelligence to Reach the Segment of One, https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Marketers-Need-Artificial-Intelligence-ReachSegment-of-One/1016840 IMAGES http://www.thinkstockphotos.com.au/image/stock-photo-modern-building-exterior-with-modern/520881658 http://www.thinkstockphotos.com.au/image/stock-photo-top-view-of-mixed-race-business-team/681735120 https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610006/amazons-checkout-free-grocery-store-is-opening-to-the-public/ https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/mcdonalds-canada-and-ubereats-announce-new-delivery-partnership-632428923.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nhU8vDcc48 https://online.citi.com/US/p2ptransfer/p2pmarketing/flow.action https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/24/zelle-p2p-payments-push-to-compete-with-venmo-now-has-19-us-fi-backers/ https://www.earnwithdrop.com/ https://blog.earnwithdrop.com/drop-a-rewards-program-built-for-you-464fcc662414?gi=8f49b4756d40 https://www.imore.com/cool-app-lets-you-compete-live-trivia-gameshow-your-iphone https://9to5google.com/guides/google-home/ http://www.androidguys.com/2017/03/06/next-gen-amazon-alexa-enabled-devices-will-be-able-to-make-phone-calls-act-as-intercoms/ http://www.thinkstockphotos.com.au/image/stock-photo-women-using-a-smartphone-in-the-display/812948018 http://biginja.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/MLseries-1.png http://www.thinkstockphotos.com.au/image/stock-photo-beautiful-african-woman-using-cellphone/638917436 http://www.thinkstockphotos.com.au/ http://www.todayonline.com/sites/default/files/photos/43_images/26526945.JPG http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2016/10/pixel_xl_google_assistant_how_can_i_help-100688030-orig.jpg http://www.webpagefx.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ibm-watson-brain.png http://www.sbs.com.au/news/feature/wechat-new-chinese-empire http://strideheavensent.tumblr.com/, https://d3oo59zdfkvjwq.cloudfront.net/images/3548.jpg

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