Holiday Mobile Marketing – Opportunity for Brands

September 24, 2010 by

This is one of those rare articles that is on-point on so many items.  It’s worth a full read at MOBILE COMMERCE DAILY.

Best take-aways:

* …allow advertisers to engage in a deeper dialog with mobile users…”

* “There is a new retail audience that can only be reached through mobile and that means it is imperative to invest now in mobile for this holiday season or risk missing out on revenue that can only be gained through mobile…”

* “it is imperative that brands double down with mobile for the 2010 holiday season…”

It is late in the Calendar for new commitments to media buys and campaigns for November/December — As we just launched our WAP conversational mobile marketing channel, we’re introducing our  Virtual Character Holiday themed chat application and can deliver for the Season.  Hope we can get this one in the market this Year…it’s an ideal opportunity to demonstrate the engagement value that conversational marketing can deliver.

Filed Under: AI and Twitter, AI conversation, Brands and Mobile, Conversational AI, holiday mobile marketing, Mobile, mobile marketing, QR TAgs, WAP Chat Tagged With: , , , , , ,

From Twitter, to Tag, to WAP Chat, to mCoupons…#first

September 22, 2010 by

mstag_tweet_1

We’ve been slowly testing and releasing access to our WAP Chat virtual agent (retail) demo.  The idea of attaching a 2D or QR Tag within Twitter, to trigger the mobile web page seemed like something worth trying.

The nice team over at Microsoft Tag sent the above Tweet back to us.

We’re presuming the “OH” is an expression of extreme, all-caps exclamation — not the typical “OH” (overheard)!

Filed Under: AI and Twitter, AI conversation, Brands and Mobile, Conversational AI, Mobile, QR TAgs, WAP Chat Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

QR Codes, 2D Tags and Mobile Text-based Branded Conversations

August 9, 2010 by

We really like QR Tags and 2D codes.  As a visual icon that says “I’m going to give you something interesting on your mobile phone,” they are wonderful.

But, we aren’t seeing a lot of “wonderful” content and experiences offered back to End Users.  It seems like a hodgepodge of online thinking ported to mobile, that fails to address the entirely different engagement experience.

As well, we see the continued decline of mobile phones for voice and the continued increase of mobile phones for text-based conversational messaging:  The WASHINGTON POST had a nice summary based on Nielsen numbers HERE.

If “text” is the COMMUNICATION PREFERENCE of a growing majority – When will Brands start thinking about engaging via “Branded Conversations” that are triggered from QR Codes and 2D Tags?

Intuitive and personalized, branded conversations tap into the “communication preference” of the User.

Filed Under: AI and Twitter

Interactive Narrative and Children’s Content

May 11, 2010 by

This article struck many chords with us: INNOVATIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVE PROJECTS.  It also coincides with just about every on-going discussion re: eBooks and children’s content we’ve had for the past month.

Choice quotes:

“…For a child all narrative is interactive…”

“…a mode of storytelling that puts the user at the heart of the narrative and encourages them to play with characters they love….”

We’re fascinated by the prospect of participating in children’s interactive content where we bring our narrative engine, personalization and contextual features to create memorable experiences.  The notion of an AR Pop Up book (with User Generated elements) sits high on our list for “must do this Year” endeavors.


11 May 2010

Filed Under: AI and Twitter

Do AI Characters Listen?

September 1, 2009 by

Listening is required for a truly interactive conversational exchange to take place.

Yes, AI characters “listen,” in order to understand the End User’s side of the exchange and respond with improvisational/contextual dialogue, or pre-scripted story/character dialogue (or, a combination thereof).

But, how is the End User’s part of the conversation passed along to Brands and Clients to understand and makes sense of the conversation for their own needs?

Through the inclusion of “memory fields” our AI characters achieve two key functions: (a) they relate to each Individual on a personal basis and (b) they provide analytics that breakdown the User’s side of the conversation and engagement. The analytics provide deep insight, not just in terms of engagement, but, in terms of preferences at a detail level not offered through most platforms.

We think about ‘conversational pre-roll” advertising units and other applications where this format becomes valuable for the Brands, as well as the End Users, who want to express themselves and be part of the conversation, because they feel they are being listened to.

1 September 2009

Filed Under: AI and Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Conversational Apps — Bringing Conversation back to the Phone

August 28, 2009 by

Mobile phones were originally http://tinyurl.com/lfhlwy solely for conversation.

Then came “smart phones,” which really meant they could be used for something other than conversation.

contentAI studios is developing  mobile solutions for interactive conversations, with a  focus on
entertainment/advertising/marketing, customer service and relations and eLearning products and solutions.

We’re bringing “conversation” back to mobile phones through the development of “conversational apps” that fulfill the original function of a phone, with a twist…facilitating engaging conversation instantly between End Users and AI characters/representatives/experts, with tie-ins to extended content.

Using a phone for conversation?

How natural is that?

28 August 2009

Filed Under: AI and Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,

Advertising Character Icons, Authenticity, Social Media – Interactive Conversation

August 21, 2009 by

It’s been an interesting week where we’ve seen trending topics in our discussions with partners and clients that all revolve around the issues of authenticity, social media, transparency, “human touch” with a sidebar about advertising character icons in social media spaces.

The down and dirty: Are humans the only characters allowed in social media spaces?

Even then, can an individual’s [human] content be outsourced? What’s authentic and what’s transparent? Can “artificially intelligent characters” fit into the mix?

Our take is that social media platforms are sought after turf for Brands to connect on a more personal level with their audience/customer. And, this is an evolving space and new and diversified formats will all be accepted, provided the Content resonates and provides value (from utilitarian to entertainment) to the End User — “real” or “AI.” We accept that there are individuals who are focused on their “Personal Brand” in social media spaces and they appear less than enthused to compete with AI characters; this raises other issues about how a Personal Brand is (often) a fictional representation of a person, but we won’t go there right now…

In the middle of this we got to thinking about the iconic advertising fictional characters that have worked so successfully for Brands over the years — Michelin Man, Pillsbury Doughboy, Mr. Clean, and on and on…These “characters” are immune from the dictate of human conversation, since, well, they aren’t human to begin with. What a perfect opportunity for iconic fictional characters to reach out and engage in conversation, customer relations/service and engaging campaigns through the interactive writing and artificial intelligence platforms we provide at contentAI studios

Here’s a great list of iconic “characters” — wouldn’t it be great to chat with them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_advertising_characters

21 August 2009

Filed Under: AI and Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,

Customer Service — “If I could only clone her/him”

August 12, 2009 by

You have a brilliant Customer Service employee or Brand representative and you find yourself saying to yourself, “if I could only clone him/her?” Or you have an exceptional Team, who together, create a unified Voice, and you want that consistent quality delivered to all of your Customers, all of the time?

We can do this.

We can create an AI character for you that is specifically based off of that person or team you’ve wanted to clone.

Our “content shaping” with Artificial Intelligence requires the “human touch” both in terms of writing, tone and information — collectively, the “substance.”   We can create AI “characters” that incorporate the best qualities of a “real” person (or Team), and provide that same experience to all Customers.

We add the perk of “memory fields” so that our “character” relates to each Individual customer on a personal and intimate level.  They can be set to remember each User’s name and even preferences.

So, next time you’re thinking, “if I could only clone…” — Well, get in touch with us.

12 August 2009

Filed Under: AI and Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , ,

AI Twitter Character – Unintended Viral Kick

August 10, 2009 by

It was a bit surprising to see how our Beta Twitter AI Character has made it into what seems like the Sacramento Bee’s Twitter stream for “Emergency Room” Tweets:

saruhAI_sacbee_ER_01

10 August 2009

Filed Under: AI and Twitter Tagged With: , ,

Twitter Character Launch – 50-75% Unscripted Conversation

August 7, 2009 by

AI Conversation:

50% is easy, it’s User Generated.

On average, a “character/story” will be 25%  scripted to “shape” the conversational experience.

The balance of 25% is AI-powered and unscripted.

Therefore, 50-75% of a simply structured Twitter Conversation will be unscripted between the AI engine and User Content.

In testing and developing structures for AI Interactive Conversations within Twitter, we decided to test a fairly simple structure, where we “push” storyline at pre-determined intervals, though less structured (both random and intuitive) features can be integrated readily.

We think of this as a “conversational JibJab-ish” experiment toward engaging Users.  We see a lot of “branded conversational” Content on the horizon.   We think this can be an entertaining “experiential ad unit” that Users will look forward to.  How often do you get a personalized @ reply within :90 seconds?

Launching Character #1 on TWITTER — because we missed her “real” Tweets so much…

contentAI studios is pleased to present:

@saruhAI (send “her” an @saruhAI message and she will reply!)

Enjoy.

7 August 2009

Filed Under: AI and Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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