An integral part of 360i’s annual Marketing Leadership Summit, the 360i Innovation Lab provides a hands-on environment for learning about some of the hottest technologies today.
We partnered with several companies to demo their products and showcase the present and future potential for brands looking to create powerful consumer experiences, and connect with their audiences in new and exciting ways.
Below we’ve recapped this year’s featured technologies and ways marketers can best partner with them to push the boundaries of digital – from interactive kiosks and the latest beacon technology to 3D printed food.
Special thanks to all of our partners for their participation.
The Featured Technology
360° Video
ABOUT: Immersive 360-degree video – also known as spherical video – is finally hitting critical mass, allowing users to interact with video on a 360-degree level and shift their experiences as they please.
INGENUITY: Projections about the size and growth of the 360-degree video technology space are bullish – in the next five years, Deutsche Bank expects the space to be worth $7 billion. Major industry players like Facebook, Google, Samsung, HTC and Nokia are throwing their full weight into the space to help create the next generation of content that’s fully immersive, interactive, and increasingly available to consumers around the world.
HOW MARKETERS CAN USE IT BEST: 360-degree video provides an opportunity for marketers to create fully immersive real life event-like activations for their audiences – allowing them to have complete control of what they see and when they see it.
Fuisz Media
ABOUT: Fuisz Media is a powerful technology platform solution for advertisers that transforms any object within a video into an intuitive interactive experience that promotes viewer discovery and action. The Fuisz platform is one-of-a-kind offering of proprietary and patented technology, built to work in any IAB standard format player. With the ability to work across all devices, the platform allows for turnkey production.
INGENUITY: Online video traffic continues to grow and is predicted to account for 79% of consumer Internet traffic by 2018. As video has largely been seen as a black box in the world of online interaction, this development in the space creates unprecedented opportunities for brands to engage consumers and allow them to interact in this format.
HOW MARKETERS CAN USE IT BEST: Videos that are shot specifically for interactivity fare much better in engagement rates and click-through rates versus repurposed video content. Fuisz’s platform has engagement solutions that range from the truly turnkey, to highly customized, depending on the campaign objectives.
Google Eddystone
ABOUT: Google’s Eddystone beacon platform is about marking up the world to make apps and devices work smarter by providing timely, contextual information. Eddystone is an open beacon format that works well with both Android and iOS devices. The platform helps manage beacon deployments and provides new application program interfaces (APIs) for building beacon-aware apps.
INGENUITY: Beacon technology can help brands deliver precise, contextual information to customers and app users – whether it’s within a particular store section, at a specific bus stop, or at a popular point of interest.
HOW MARKETERS CAN USE IT BEST: Relevance is key and marketers can use beacons to effectively determine and address the best audiences for brand messaging or interactive features.
Intersection LinkNYC
ABOUT: Intersection is a technology and media company that’s committed to improving the urban experience. The company is the result of a merger between Control Group and Titan, key members of the team behind LinkNYC – the groundbreaking project that will turn payphones into urban information hubs. The kiosks will provide free gigabit fiber Wi-Fi, phone calls, device charging, a tablet for web browsing, wayfinding, and location-specific city services, and two 55″ digital displays for public service announcements (PSAs) and digital advertising. LinkNYC kiosks will begin to roll out in the next few months, with plans to have over 7,500 blanket the city over the next few years.
INGENUITY: LinkNYC represents a new digital media platform that combines WiFi access points with a widespread outdoor digital advertising platform, reaching mainstream and hyperlocal audiences.
HOW MARKETERS CAN USE IT BEST: LinkNYC is a “people first” project – creating many different benefits for the residents and visitors of New York City. Powerful experiences can be made by connecting a brand to these value propositions or creating new ones based on the unique features of this network – including measurable digital advertising that is responsive to the environment it is in and the audiences around it. Partnering with Intersection, marketers have an opportunity to create never-been-done-before, engaging and valuable brand experiences in major urban spaces.
Microsoft Kinect
ABOUT: Microsoft Kinect is a 3D spatial imaging input device for Windows PC and Xbox multimedia consoles like Xbox Live and Xbox One. It enables up to six users to control and interact with the computer and/or console without the need for any physical hardware, using gestures and spoken commands instead to operate. Its camera technology is so advanced it can even detect a user’s heart rate, facial expression, and position and/or orientation of 25 individual joints.
IGNENUITY: The Kinect is one of the world’s most premium motion capturing devices on the market today. As advertising continues to shift from “making people want things,” towards “making things people want,” the Kinect presents a unique opportunity for marketers looking to create a custom, one-of-a-kind experimental experience.
HOW MARKETERS CAN USE IT BEST: Kinect has seen great success in experiential physical custom builds. Marketers can use it to allow fans to vote, choose their own story, or dive deeper into a video’s products and characters.
The New York Times T Brand Innovation
ABOUT: T Brand Innovation is the New York Times business group dedicated to helping brands tell their stories and engage the right audiences, at the right times, through the most compelling mediums and form factors. By leveraging the same newsroom-led insights and first-party data that drives the newsroom’s world-changing customer experiences, T Brand Innovation can deliver products and services that go beyond advertising, on and off the New York Times platform.
IGNENUITY: From campaign level requests to consultative engagements, T Brand Innovation is born of some of the best story telling insights and tools in the world. It represents an unparalleled understanding of what the New York Times audience likes to read, hear and watch – and represents a host of opportunities for brands.
HOW MARKETERS CAN USE IT BEST: Marketers can use T Brand Innovation storytelling tools to tell more immersive, high-impact brand stories that span objectives.
Vengo Labs
ABOUT: Vengo Labs designs high-tech digital kiosks that combine point-of-purchase and rich interactive media. Vengo’s compact and sleek form factor gives brands access to unique locations and hard-to-reach consumers. The custom-built technology allows brands to retail and/or provide samples of their products in unique environments, while simultaneously collecting actionable data.
INGENUITY: Vengo’s software provides real-time insights on product optimization, customer purchasing patterns, and touch-patterns, and displays the right media at the right time to yield optimal results.
HOW MARKETERS CAN USE IT BEST: Vengo leverages its technology and location portfolio to create engaging campaigns opportunities, and allow brands to test products with their consumers. Vengo’s platform is flexible in that marketers can implement branded surveys, games, sampling initiatives, and social media engagement in exchange for products.
XYZprinting
ABOUT: XYZprinting, a New Kinpo Group company, is dedicated to bringing cost-effective 3D printing to educators and classrooms, consumers and artists, small-to-midsized businesses and households around the world. With proven industry expertise, XYZprinting has broken down the barriers of 3D printer ownership by providing an easy-to-use device that delivers an outstanding user experience while connected to a computer or via a mobile device.
INGENUITY: While we’re living in an era of on-demand product personalization, the food industry has faced multiple challenges standing in the way of 3D printed edible objects. Companies like XYZprinting are trailblazers of food printing technology, expanding the possibilities around edible creations.
HOW MARKETERS CAN USE IT BEST: XYZprinting offers marketers an opportunity to create customizable edible products for various activations such as events, giveaways and more.
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