The Sense of Place: Brain Science Breakthrough and Marketing Revolution

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brain-map

Among the amazing scientific breakthroughs Nobel Prize winners have brought us in the last few years, few hold such promise in the movement towards Biological Intelligence away from all things Artificial.

The 2014 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to John O’Keefe, Edvard Moser and May-Britt Moser for the discovery on how the brain considers location and functions as a natural GPS.

O’Keefe first described what he called ‘Place Cells’ back in 1971, but their characteristics and function seemed, well, too good to be true. But with today’s science and forward thinking, and the help of the husband and wife Moser team’s 2005 grid-cell discoveries, he was able to gain worldwide acclaim for his discovery of the truly remarkable capacity of the brain to physically identify ‘place’ with an explanation for the neural mechanisms driving spatial memory.

In their press release about the award, the Nobel Foundation described the discovery as solving for one of humanity’s most complex challenges:

“How does the brain create a map of the space surrounding us and how can we navigate our way through a complex environment?”

While some of the more ‘directionally-challenged’ of us must have this area of the hippocampus less prominently developed, we can all agree that this is a fantastic discovery from the perspective of science, with potentially far-reaching impact to include Alzheimer’s and dementia research – diseases that affect the same area of the brain.

And with discovery of the brain’s remarkable capabilities comes new opportunity to leverage our learning’s for the greater good. Perhaps nowhere greater than in efficient messaging, where today we inefficiently receive 360 interruptive marketing messages per day. With Biological Intelligence defining consumer behavior by ‘place’, and our now improved understanding of its neuro-structure, we can combine the science to further move away from 1’s and 0’s in our pursuit of commerce and communication. It’s the nuanced, biological behavior that predicts human patterns – increasingly driven by time and place. Shailendra Rathore, studying the Subiculum (part of the Hippocampus) in the lab of Dr. Francesca Cacucci, a former PHD student of O’Keefe says “The way people behave in different environments does indeed seem to have influence on spatial representation, I believe that studying what people do in particularly novel and rewarding settings and machine learning these situations from behavioral parameters may reveal interesting information for targeting purposes.“

Biological Intelligence in marketing is built on the idea that collectively, crowds of people move through their days with a singular intelligence – the sum of all intent. With millions of individuals making up the collective intelligence as a ‘system’, we can isolate sub-systems and better understand human behavior by location.

BI first-mover, Locomizer is the only audience platform that is leveraging the identity of place and it’s meaning for the characteristics of frequenting individuals to help brands improve their predictive marketing. With the marketing industry’s dearth of accurate demographic and psychographic data, Locomizer enables a third dimension for brands to better understand their customers. Academia is striving for some of the same learnings. Rathore continues, “Fundamentally we are trying to understand how the brain represents space and memory. Perhaps our conscious experience is explicitly structured spatially. We reconstruct a spatial scene and then move within it when we perform autobiographical recall. Trying to ascertain what is memory and how it is structured in the brain is a key stepping stone towards understanding conscious experience and also building the next generation of Artificial Intelligence.” In the case of Locomizer, AI takes on a ‘BI’ scientific approach.

Biological Intelligence is not only defined by human behavior, but it can be the collective intelligence of systems as seemingly chaotic as, say, ‘cells’. And until now, one could better argue that the daily movement by humans through time and place had equal elements of chaos, driven less by collective intelligence and more by unpredictable causation, aka the randomness of our daily lives.

But with the brilliance of O’Keefe, Moser and Moser, and their discovery that our ability to navigate complex environments is a lot more sophisticated – and therefore intentional – than previously assumed, we can leverage Biological Intelligence for predictive marketing with even more confidence. Whether it’s our navigation through shopping malls – indoor or outdoor – city streets, neighborhoods and suburbs, the chaos driving our patterns and therefore our commerce, is quickly rationalizing. And Biological Intelligence has the formula.

photo credit: Brain diagram via photopin (license)

Locomizer in press: Digiday article

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digiday's press coverage of locomizer

‘We’re looking for the lads’: Inside Jameson’s targeting strategy

OCTOBER 12, 2015

Jameson Irish whiskey, part of France’s Pernod Ricard, is targeting an unlikely demo with its latest U.K. outdoor ad campaign: beer-swilling lads. The whiskey brand used an audience-discovery engine called Locomizer. The platform’s algorithm analyzed Twitter data that was geographically close to the 4,500 bars or pubs that sell Jameson whiskey. (Link).

Locomizer powers up Posterscope’s first campaign of its type in UK for Jameson Irish Whiskey

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Locomizer has provided Posterscope with unique, non-personal, and anonymised behavioural insights about foot traffic to select non-obvious out-of-home ad spots for reaching out to the Jameson Irish Whiskey target audience.

Based on the understanding that the target audience is not always found in close proximity to hot spots like bars and pubs Locomizer applied its Biological Intelligence (BI) know-how to pin-points areas with consumers being highly receptive to Jameson’s campaign, allowing Jameson to “reach their audience at multiple touchpoints throughout their day, increasing frequency of message.”

The campaign is a result of joint collaboration between Posterscope, Havas Media, xAd and Locomizer. It launched on the 18th September and will run in bursts across a total of 7 months.

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Posterscope launches ‘UK first’ campaign for Jameson Irish Whiskey

  • Posterscope develops unique campaign for Jameson to target consumers outside of traditional locations and times
  • This is the first campaign of its type in the UK, using Locomizer to enable hyper-targeted advertising
  • Campaign kicked off in conjunction with the Rugby World Cup this month

21 September 2015, London. Posterscope has developed a unique Out of Home (OOH) advertising campaign for Jameson Irish Whiskey that launches today in time for the Rugby World Cup.

The campaign is the first of its kind in the UK and will enable Jameson to branch out from focusing simply on physical proximity to bars to ensuring advertising is in the most relevant locations, right across consumers’ lives.

Posterscope will be using Locomizer, an audience discovery engine based on geo-behavioural user interest profiling technology, to enable hyper-targeted advertising – a first for the UK.

Jameson’s campaign will target drinkers throughout their week by looking at places and surroundings where customers tend to spend their time using a new technique of audience discovery and segmentation. This targeting strategy will allow Jameson to reach their audience at multiple touchpoints throughout their day, increasing frequency of message.

Ryan Hedditch, Business Director at Posterscope said: “This is a fantastic evolution of targeted advertising and we, in partnership with Havas Media, are excited to be putting it into action for Jameson. We have analysed modelled and historic data on all of those customers we want to be able to reach. Understanding location behaviour of consumers allows us to identify geographical hotspots where our audiences are likely to congregate at, when they are not at the interest affinity locations.”

Vicky Hoey, Head of Marketing at Jameson said: “We are very excited about this unique campaign, which will enable us to gain increased cut-through and resonance with our audience. This is particularly important during these upcoming sporting occasions where consumers will be inundated with advertising.”

Toby Hawkins, Account Director at Havas Media, said: “This campaign will enable us to target Jameson consumers throughout their week and not just when they are headed to the pub for a drink. Locations and format have been chosen with this in mind.”

Posterscope’s data has also allowed them to improve format targeting. The campaign will utilise location-based digital advertising in partnership with mobile media partner xAd, as well as digital roadside screens in high footfall locations, large format digital screens powered with Dynamic Digital OOH and Underground LCDs.

The campaign launched on the 18th September and will run in bursts across a total of 7 months.

 

– ENDS –

 

For more information on Posterscope, please contact:

Richard Bell – e: Richard.Bell@mcsaatchi.com, t: 020 7544 3758

Gill Huber – e: Gill.Huber@posterscope.com, t: 020 7863 2075

About Posterscope:

Posterscope is the world’s leading out-of-home communications agency. It knows more about how consumers behave when they are out of home than anyone else. Posterscope understands the connection between out-of-home, mobile and digital, and pioneers trials to understand how consumers will use emerging technologies. Posterscope has 49 offices around the world, buying over $3bn of out-of-home advertising space each year.

SOURCE: Posterscope

It’s the Data, Stupid!

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geo-behavioral-data

As the 2016 American election season starts to heat up, and primary candidates fight for position in their party, it isn’t unusual to hear the oft-remarked James Carville quote “It’s the economy, stupid.”  It came during Carville’s strategizing for Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 campaign against George H. W. Bush.  It may not be the most eloquent quote, but it’s one of the most memorable.  In today’s programmatic ecosystem, vendors are lining up for agencies, brands and, well, other vendors.  They’re lobbying for position just like a political candidate.  Some add this, others add that, but far too many forget what could also be defined so aptly:  “It’s the Data, Stupid!”

We’re now up to 2000+ marketing technology vendors in the industry.  There are E-Mail platforms, Display Platforms, Marketing Automation Platforms – platforms for just about everything.  And while each facet of the landscape has a unique pitch, they all require targeted data to execute.  Content without an audience calls to mind another famous quip:  “If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”  With poor data, that’s the question many campaigns have to answer.

Programmatic currently solves the data challenge with complexity.  Where there is poor data, there is optimization.  Where there is no data, there is prediction.  Where there is great data, there is personalization.  This is a good effort.  However, with mixed results, and a lack of demonstrable success in programmatic, many brands are still steering clear of pouring budget into the space.  And many marketers are yet to understand it.  If the complexity, and blurred ROI comes from compensating for poor data, better data should surely solve everything.

So what constitutes better data?  Programmatic essentially has two categories of data.  First, segment data.  This is data typically associated with a demographic.  It’s largely B2C.  Next, is behavioral data.  This is data associated with an action, such as a search query or abandoned shopping cart.  It’s much better but too scarce on which to build a multi-billion dollar industry.  Individual brands can pay a premium for behavioral data and find success, but the industry at large must find another answer.

Quietly building steam is another category of data.  In fact, it’s so smoothly entered out vocabulary that we hardly realize it’s the first data source that’s actually native to programmatic – behavioral and segment data have existed since the beginning of digital marketing.  The new category is geo-data, or even geo-behavioral data, the amassed non-PII information generated through mobile, social, beacons and other local pings. Geo-behavioral data gives programmatic it’s best opportunity yet to solve its challenges.

Most readers will say “geo data is simple.”  “I can use geo.”  But that’s exactly the problem.  Early usage of geo-data has been just as it sounds – data about where someone is or was.  It might try to push a coupon if you’re in the mall, or some similar gimmick.  In a worst use case, it might utilize segment data to determine user demographics by where they are.  Because geo-data is native to programmatic, it needs another dimension to be activated.  It’s not just about where someone is.  It’s about what that place represents, when they are there, who else is there and how they are moving through that space which ultimately solves for ‘why they are there’.  In assessing geo-data, programmatic should realize two concepts:

  1. Each place has it’s own identity, which can change at different times of day
  2. A consumer’s geo-behavioral characteristics are defined not just by the place identity, but by other consumers there at the time. We are a product of who we hang out with.

If these facets are important to the simple, successful processing of geo-data, to augment the poor segment data and scarce behavioral data for programmatic, then why aren’t they more widely used?  Because analyzing this data contradicts a lot of the traditional AI/Machine Learning algorithms on which programmatic was built.  Traditional binary computing struggles to identify such human nuances as passage through time and space with a crowd.  So how can programmatic improve its process to activate this data and make profitable use of it?

Biological Intelligence is the simplest solution to enabling marketing tech to digest, make sense of and scale geo-behavioral data, the missing component in programmatic.  BI, considers human behavior and the power of association and affinity as a native computation.  Biological Intelligence has a major advantage at it’s core:  It understands that systems have intelligence and a collective behavior, even without a brain (no group has one brain).  Therefore, instead of trying too hard to predict one consumer’s behavior in isolation, BI can effectively crowd source behavior, and save a big computational headache.

With programmatic iterating into the future, the complexity and dubious results many marketers are experiencing can be traced back to one thing:  poor data.  However, trying to solve the data conundrum with the two standard data types will prove difficult – especially as programmatic scales to demand even more scarce data.  The only solution is to improve the use of geo-behavioral data, and in doing so leverage new ways of analyzing that data.   In an industry that uses “Intelligence” all too often, it’s an interesting contrast to see the word ‘stupid’ in a post about data.  But until we realize the potential of new data sources, our technology will be just that.  Because of it’s superior methodology for unlocking our richest data set yet, Biological Intelligence, and the easy interpretation of geo-data should get everyone’s vote as programmatic seeks new ways to drive and prove ROI for a simpler, more marketable future.

photo credit: Sunny Pubs in Google Earth via photopin (license)

Geo Data is the new Yelp

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geo-data-is-a-new-yelp

At the end of his early 2014 article in ‘StreetFight’, which focuses on the business of ‘Hyperlocal’,  Steven Jacobs made this point:

Social recommendation products from Facebook and Twitter could threaten Yelp’s position in the market, but the longer-term threat to Yelp comes from a more data-driven approach. As mobile positioning and battery-life improves, and devices can persistently track consumer movements, there’s an opportunity over the next decade for companies to use those data to facilitate discovery similar to Amazon recommendations. Content isn’t going anywhere soon; but data will have its day.

The larger premise was a discussion of ‘Perfect Information’, which in economics is ideal for the educated decision-making of consumers.  In business, it can lead to commodization, as brands struggle to differentiate and often mimick the services of competitors.  Take, for example, the airline industry.  Near-perfect information about the features customers cared about, led to lots of price-comparing platforms, and the eventual commodiziation of the travel offering.  But in the local retail market, better information will drive more commerce and enable upstarts to thrive, which is a step in the right direction.

Jacobs’ point really speaks to an evolution in information the mobile web will enable, as non-social data begins to match social data in terms of relevancy, accuracy and supply.  Social and publisher content has been essential in filling the gaps that business and location data leave because without updated data points in local such as store hours, offerings, sentiment, location and more, social content is a useful substitute.

Before the internet, and throughout the early internet, the Yellow Pages were the resource for such data.  Whether in the book, on their website, or via phone, this old-fashioned approach sought to provide consumers with the information they needed to make decisions.  It was updated once or twice a year, and unless they bought nice advertisement, did little to drive demand.  As Jacobs pointed out, this culture of information led consumers to trust primarily large brands, such as “Hilton” for their known quality – the information to advocate for smaller brands just didn’t exist.

Enter social.  Social content and sites such as Yelp, Trip Advisor and many more empowered people to curate the information, data and content of businesses in their locale and those they visit.  With a social sense of community, and hopefully enough iterations, these platforms could produce a reliable proxy for verified data, on all things important to retail.  And not only does this content illuminate where the business is, when they are open and what’s on the menu, but it goes a step further, to depict the kind of traffic a business or commercial center was seeing.  With high review volume a reader can be more confident that the business in question is worthwhile.

Non-social, Geo-Behavioral data has the ability to do the same thing, at scale, with less reliance on the nuances of social authorship.  By tracking non-PII consumer movements locally, including time spent, and affinity with other known data points like sporting events, concerts and more, geo-profiling at scale will fill our local information sources with automatically curated data – which in many cases will prove to be more reliable.

The reliability challenge with social content is that it often requires a polarizing subject to receive volume.  Therefore, people must be passionate about it – whether or not it’s role in the community is truly superior.  For example, a fun Frozen Yogurt shop will receive more content than a reliable breakfast joint that serves an older demographic and certainly more than a local oil-change garage which has served the community for decades.  With improved data automation through geo-locational aggregation, non-polarizing yet high quality businesses will regain equal footing with the trendy places.  Social content does a great job of communicating what we love and what we hate, but a poor job of communicating what we need.

With more iterations, driven by the world-wide proliferation of mobile devices, more instances of mobile ‘check-in’ and interaction and better data capture from both structured and unstructured sources, real-life ‘data’ will start to communicate as much about local businesses as real-life sentiment through social.  And through automation, local behavioral data will paint a very accurate picture of both essential business information and the more nuanced as algorithmic modeling depicts interesting facts about a place such as ‘Best for Sporting Events’ driven by unbiased, non-polarized real-life data.   Many small businesses post the sticker “Think Global, Act Local” on their windows.  The data ecosystem is enabling just that as local actions will drive more data and insights globally for a new level of near-perfect information for retail.

photo credit: Tokyo : 9 Mar 2012 via photopin (license)