Page 107 - The EDIT | Q2 2017

Thoughtleader
strategies and planning that drives successful subscription solutions for clients. This will be the role of the Subscription Optimiser.
Because the way we buy will change, once we’ve
bought into a brand the chance is that we’ll stay ‘locked’ into it until we decide to change. FMCG
brands will become like bank accounts ... the hassle of changing them isn’t worth the benefit of getting a different brand. Subscription Optimisers will therefore throw significant resource and getting people to ‘subscribe’ to a brand in their regular shopping delivery — and once it’s there, keep it there.
This will apply to FMCG but of course will also apply to cars (which brand fleet to subscribe to access when you need a car), or clothes (you’ll get your regular new items from your favourite brands sent to your home when the old ones need recycling), or electronics etc.
Interestingly this points to the direction that more broadcast mass media will take; there will be campaigns that prompt people to ask their VPAs to trial a new brand ... and may ever offer VPAs free trails to incentivise them to put new brands into their user’s homes. Speaking of which.
The VPAOs and RAMs
The key challenge for marketers and media agencies is that in many instances when a user asks a VPA to buy something they don’t ask for a brand but rather for the category. For example, a request may be
“add washing powder to this week’s delivery please, we’re almost out” — in which case it’s the VPA (not the human) who needs to make the decision about which brand to add.
Who influences which brands the VPAs choose? The Virtual Personal Assistant Optimiser team of course! VPAOs will use algorithms to serve thousands of requests a second for information about the quality and relevance of products and services. Think of it like SEM, but where you’re not influencing a brand’s position on a search results list — but rather you’re influencing a brand to be #1 on a VPAs choice for its user.
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which takes into account the short and long term effect and value of investment, and (3) work with reinforcement learning algorithms to vastly improve the speed and sophistication of our understanding of what and how media and communications
are working.
The Layer-Architect
Mixed-reality will unleash a whole new wave of capabilities in how we layer data onto the world. People will want to know which café in the area around them makes the best coffee, or explore the history of a place they are visiting. To do this we’ll need to layer information over the physical world to augment it.
Which data do you use? What are the best platforms to leverage as you map and display that data? How do you make it available to users across the devices they are using?
Which data do you use? What are the best platforms to leverage as you map and display that data? How do you make it available to users across the devices they are using? These questions and more will be answered by a Layer-Architect — their role will be to understand how data can be layered and build the platforms to make it available to users.
This will be a fascinating role which combines
data, real-world physical geography, as well as an understanding of marketing and business objectives. They will be analytical but they will also have to be hugely creative with their use of data ... they will be painting data onto the physical world.
The Subscription Optimiser
We’ve seen how retail will be disrupted in significant ways in the next few years. Helping clients understand how they can win in an ever-changing eCommerce space will be the role of every planner. We’ll think about and plan eCommerce just as we think about and plan search now.
But as consumers increasingly opt for access over ownership, agencies will be tasked with developing
THE EDIT ISSUE 06 | Q2 2017