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“As consumers, we need to make decisions – do we really
believe in that brand, the way they are participating in it? It doesn’t make me feel any better or worse about them but I give them credit by participating in it because they got my attention. “Now will I see that brand differently? I don’t know, but
maybe I will when it breaks next. What they’re doing is getting better for being set up for it but they’ve still got a way to go, that’s a good thing if they’ve fi gured it out. When things become contagious how do I embed that, amplify it in a different way than today?” I asked Shing if AOL’s decision to expand its content empire
with the acquisitions of brands like The Huffi ngton Post and TechCrunch were driven by that contagiousness of content, the need to be part of the conversation. “Yes, 1,000pc. The Huffi ngton Post, for example, has amazing
social currency. Compared with the hundreds of comments a newspaper may attract online, if I go over to The Huffi ngton Post, it has attracted thousands on a similar story. It has a totally different kind of social currency. “One of the other things we are building on is video. We are
second in the world after YouTube for video and we are the No 1 destination for premium video content. “We put video in the context of where the consumer is – if
you’re reading content about fashion and you come across a video, there’s a good chance the video came from us. “It’s got to be premium. We’re not talking about cats on
skateboards, we’re talking about video that is really brand-led and story-led. “We’re funding a lot of original video content. At the other
side of the table is our investment in amazing technology, and a lot of that happens here in Dublin. We’re building technology that allows us to make safer bets on how marketing will perform. “Dublin is doing all the smart stuff and they are building
out some really interesting algorithms in the back end that creates amazing revenue cachet for AOL. We look to Dublin as a major tech hub, only they themselves don’t brag about it enough.”
MOVING INTO THE AGE OF CONTEXT In the Age of Context, consumers’ habits via social networks and through wearable technology will create mountains of
data for data scientists to wade through. “Everywhere I go will be really important. If I have a device
on my wrist that will only display some of the information I can see on my phone, that will create interesting challenges for brands to participate by coming up with something that is contextually relevant to what I’m doing.” Shing said he has started shying away from the big public
social networks, retreating to places online that are private for him and his friends; a movement he also believes will create challenges for brands. “I see the big social networks as big contact books now.
Where I’m spending more and more of my time where I know my real friends are is in closed private networks, where I feel safe and engage in subject matter I really care about.” Shing says technology will retreat into the background but
will be harnessed to meet our “needs states” with relevant information and entertainment based on time and place. “At different times of the day we feel motivated to work,
be entertained, seek downtime. Marketers will need to programme in terms of needs state and context. It’s not going to be about screen sizes, it’s going to be about human behaviour.” At the Digital Ireland Forum: Global 2.0 event Shing played
a video of Facedeals, a service that sends deals to users based on where they were using facial recognition from their Facebook profi les. “That’s going to be more a novelty because the Age of Context
will amplify trust and privacy issues. We as consumers will have to opt in and some will more than others. Privacy and trust will be big issues for a particular generation. If a brand tries to sell me a jumper just because I walked by a certain window and it was able to read my temperature, that would be just creepy. “But the context opportunity lies in how brands will harness
big data to make people feel like VIPs based on where they are and what they are doing at a certain time – it’s about creating a one-to-one relationship rather than a one-to-many relationship. “This is where it is going to be a movement rather than a moment.”
This article is reproduced courtesy of
Siliconrepublic.com
Issue 7 Autumn/Winter 2013 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 47
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