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2019 Mid-Year Trends

Throughout the first half of 2019, we’ve had our eye on major tech conferences, developer announcements and how these updates have contributed to changes in social movements across generations. 

We’ve been able to compile that information into 12 trends that help analyze the shifting landscape of consumer interactions through technology with a focus on the shift from desktop to mobile, to voice, vision and touch fueled by intelligent systems. 

Our Mid-Year Trend report focuses on everything from Google moving AR to search results to ways that mixed reality is providing more utility for consumers. 

Check out the full report below and feel free to reach out with any questions. 

https://www.slideshare.net/EpsilonAgency/2019-mid-year-trends

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Messenger - A One Stop Shop for Communication, Commerce and Entertainment

For Facebook, F8 is a highly publicized conference that allows the company to lay out their plans for the future while addressing the shortcoming of the past. While the event was highly public, the topic was anything but.

Privacy took the stage, front and center, and was even emphasized within Mark Zuckerberg’s first sentence.

Facebook sees a future in which the public town squares they've so popularly pushed are complimented by 'living rooms', or private interaction spaces. These living room conversations will take place within Messenger, transforming the social network as it lives today.

The plan for Messenger is to push forward a Fast, Private and Interoperable service. A destination for users across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to communicate with others, shop local businesses and hang out in their spare time.

We'll start with Interoperability. Zuckerberg has been clear about his plans to combine the back end infrastructure of his three behemoths and today only reinforced that. A combined service will have access to over 2 Billion users, stretching from all ends of the globe. One of the first major features of this combined network is the revamped Friends tab.

Within Messenger, the revamped Friends tab will show previews of your friends Stories, photos within chats, and personalized content like emoji status's; creating the first feature we've seen that combines Instagram activity with Messenger functionality.

Once you start those conversations, Facebook wants to keep you engaged. While not a new announcement, this is where co-viewing comes into play. Within Messenger, users will be able to initiate the feature, allowing them to watch the same content at the same time. With more and more live events (like their MLB partnership) coming to the platform, co-viewing looks to be a major trend with regards to personal communication and entertainment.

Last but not least, businesses were a major topic of conversation when it came to Messenger. With 20 billion messages sent between people and businesses each month and 40 million active businesses using Messenger, it's an incredibly important use case for the company to push growth and generate new forms of revenue.

New tools include the ability to automate lead generation through chatbot templates, provide customer service to authenticated users and allow users to easily book appointments at solons and masseuses.

Click to Messenger Ads will allow businesses to drive prospective customers to a seamless experience that progressively profiles them in order to effectively follow up or drive to the most efficient channel. In essence, the company has provided a way for businesses to revolutionize their existing CRM.

Implications

Facebook took today to stress the importance of privacy and among other things, laid out its plans to redefine the Messenger experience.

As more and more users adopt Messenger, automated conversations through chatbots will become an expected experience and will be an incredibly important aspect of lead generation and commerce.

However, it doesn't just stop there. Messenger is a place where conversations aim to add value. Brands will have the opportunity to create micro-experiences that bring utility and joy to users, utilizing entertainment vehicles like video content and allowing for creation through AR effects. If the platform takes off like Facebook envisions, a businesses Messenger presence may be one of the most important own-able aspects.

Marketers and brands that experiment with this functionality today will have a leg up on finding the most optimal way to communicate with their target market and drive efficiencies across their line of business.

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Dote taps into Social Screen Sharing

As Generation Z grows to represent a much larger percentage of the overall consumer base, brands are quickly realizing their need to shift to appeal to this groups affinity for seamless shopping experiences, authentic connections and transparency. This group values YouTube reviews, Instagram influencers and digital hangouts more so than a traditional social outing to the mall.

Enter Dote, a 2 year old mobile shopping startup with an initial goal, according to founder and CEO Lauren Farleigh, of creating a truly native mobile experience that makes it "easy to check out across a lot of different stores". Users simply log in, create a profile featuring a minimum of at least 5 of their favorite retailers and can then begin browsing affiliated partner products and deals. Featured stores include Express, The North Face, Under Armour, Forever 21, Claire's and much more.

The biggest difference when it comes to Dote vs a platform like Amazon, is the social aspect. User profiles are designed to draw followers and act almost as an area for direct content creation as one would use their Instagram profile. Users can post polls to determine things like "what outfit goes best with these shoes?", upload videos of product reviews and try-on's, and of course link to product giveaways and favorited items – many of which include brand sponsored features.

If your profile gets big enough or you've built up an influencer status on other platforms, you may qualify to be a Dote Girl. Dote Girls have verified profiles with large audiences that look to them for inspiration in lifestyle & fashion. Many, like Emma Chamberlain (below), have built a following of more than 3.5 million YouTube subscribers and sell their own line of clothing exclusively within Dote.

Recently, the company released a feature that aims to bring the relationship between Dote Girls closer to that of the every-day user. It's called Shopping Parties, and it takes advantage of Apple's ReplayKit 2 framework in order to deliver two live streams at once while also allowing for live chats to occur.

When a Shopping Party goes live, which will happen twice hourly from 6am -10pm PCT, users can join a Dote Girl as she browses items on the app, talks fashion and pop culture, and answers questions from those on the other end. Participants are able to view a live stream of the Dote Girl as well as what she is looking at on her phone, all the while having the ability to interact with this person in real time. Farleigh compared this experience to “game streaming on Twitch, except for shopping”.

The ability to share screens in this manner was first popularized by video chat app, Squad, which discovered that Apple's ReplayKit, announced in 2015, was actually feasible to work with for consumer apps due to updates in 2018's iOS12 release. Squad gave users a reason to hang out, because while they could also see their friends, they could also see their screens, making it very easy to browse social platforms together, share memes, curate text responses to their crush, swipe on dating apps, shop and much more. Given the way that Dote initially shaped its users relationship with their verified Dote Girls, integrating this feature was a natural extension.

The premise is simple, people like spending time with others just as much as they like spending time on their phones, why not allow them to do both at once?

Implications

Screen sharing in this manner will likely become the norm across many of our most used platforms. After the launch of Squad, Facebook and Snap employees were quick to download the app and have since expressed a great deal of interest in the functionality, making an acquisition or copycat product seem immanent. What this means is that users will now be "hanging out" within your brands mobile environment. Generally speaking; experiences, content creation, and commerce will now have to be looked at through the lens of singular browsing as well as browsing with groups.

With regards to Dote, Shopping Parties will help to expand the influence that their Dote Girls have on their followers. Retailers should look to align themselves with influencers that represent the tone and value that their brand represents. The company has indicated that branded Shopping Parties are on the horizon and utilizing these for new product releases, gathering feedback, sampling and creating brand ambassadors will be incredibly valuable for marketers in the fashion space.

Branded Shopping Parties will give marketers an opportunity to craft an experience that can be shared and communicated with many dedicated consumers, at a single place and time. Live streaming while sharing your phone's screen allows people to simultaneously hang out while being alone, a dichotomy that takes the pressure off both parties – creating a relaxing and natural environment. 

Brands that are able to provide experiences for this environment are poised to reach Gen Z in a transparent and trustworthy manner, something that the cohort immensely values.

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Snap’s Creator Summit

Big moves were made by Snap at the companies first ever Creator Summit. 

Updates included multiplayer gaming, cross-compatibility of stories and the launch of a utility platform called Scan.

Multiplayer games start directly within conversations between friends and family. Simply tapping on the gaming icon brings up the option to compete in tons of fun mini games and the key for Snap here is that aspect of competition. 

Users are able to watch 6 second non-skippable ads before gameplay and in return, will receive special items or power-ups. For gamers, those 6 seconds are a no brainer if it means having a better opportunity to take the gold. For Snap, that means a new, profitable, revenue stream. 

Cross-compatibility of stories is one of the more interesting updates that Snap rolled out. The company will allow other platforms like Tinder and Houseparty to integrate users Snap stories directly onto their apps. Users will have the option to share to those platforms as they normally would when posting a picture or video to their own story. 

This type of integration is important as it opens up new revenue streams for Snap and allows them to reach users who are currently not on the app. It also makes Snaps ad offerings more compelling to advertisers as the reach is expanded outside the theoretical walls of Snap itself. 

Scan, Snaps newly released utility platform, takes AR on Snap outside the realm of 'fun & flirty' and into the world of augmented contextual information. Solving a math problem becomes as easy as pointing your camera at it and the same can be said for identifying specific objects.

As the company looks to expand its AR capabilities and compete with Facebook and Instagram, it's looking at ways that will engage users by allowing them to further explore their world.

Implications 

Snaps new updates point to a future of collaboration. The company, which had previously held tight to its own capabilities, is now placing a high importance on expanding the platform and making it easy for developers to create compelling experiences. 

Multi-player gaming will allow brands to reach users when they’re most engaged and cross-compatibility of stories will open Snaps content to users who are currently not on the platform. 

However, the most intriguing update, and one with some of the greatest implications for brands and marketers, is Scan. Brands that can identify opportunities that bring value to their consumers and empower them with the tools to do so, will create highly engaging experiences that truly add value to their lives. Doing so will keep them coming back on a daily basis and position their brand in a positive light. 

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2019 Q1 Trends Report

Don’t be left behind, find out about the new trends emerging NOW

The Pet Industry is being rocked by these new VR opportunities, and food will never be the same with the advances in newly launched Smart Meats. Read about these and 17 other emerging trends in this free report. 

https://agency.epsilon.com/Trends/2019

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Checkout with Instagram  Arrives

It's been a long time coming for Instagram as the company finally unveils its "checkout with Instagram" feature. Users who tap on the now familiar product tags on shopping posts, won't have to leave the app to complete the purchase. Saved payment info for those consumers will allow those purchases to go through seamlessly and efficiently.

As for merchants, it looks like Instagram will charge a small selling fee (undisclosed) to help offset the costs of transaction related expenses. The beta will launch with 20 of the top brands and posts will appear across feeds, stories, and explore content. While this feature is no surprise, it's an important evolutionary step in the maturity of this platform and the implications are long reaching.

After years of experimentation, and work to keep users attention within the app, "checkout with Instagram" looks to be a major piece of the puzzle opening up massive new revenue streams for the social sharing network.

Implications

Right off the bat, for retailers, it will be incredibly important to increase your Instagram presence and outfit your posts with the correct metadata in preparation for shopping tags. While the feature is still in beta, there's quite a lot that you can do today with shopping tags to prepare for the widespread release.

Additionally, Instagram may open up new ad products to take advantage of the shopping functionality, and those could offer compelling returns. As users come to expect the ease and convenience of completing their purchases within the app, they will increasingly become less likely to leave at any point.

Lastly, Zuckerberg has made it public that he plans to converge the backend infrastructure of Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp by the end of this year. This opens up reach to advertisers to over 2 billion users and with the ability to seamlessly checkout within that experience, will make it an incredibly important place for communication.

The bigger story looks to be the many steps being taken to keep users within Facebooks walled gardens. And it's starting to seem like there may not be many reasons to leave them.

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Pinterest – Primed for Success in an Era of Visual Search

Visual Search, or the ability to query a search using your camera or a previously taken image, is a technology that is by no means new, but is quickly changing the paradigm of how people explore the world.

There are plenty of visual search based products out there to choose from. Google Lens, a service native to numerous Android phones and available for download on iOS is a market leader. Snapping an image using Lens reveals related information and also includes Style Match functionality, directing users to similar items which they can seamlessly purchase. The same functionality can be found in Amazon's app, embedded Snap's cameras as well as offered across other major retailers.

However, when it comes to images (and visual search), there's one platform that has a leg up on the others, Pinterest.

As a platform, Pinterest allows users to post interesting pictures and shop for related items, categorizing these images onto their own boards. For example, a user might browse for guacamole recipes, and subsequently pin (or save) a series of those recipes to their own categorized board. Over time, that behavior has led to over 175 billion pins on the platform.

When it comes to visual search, that actionable data is key to Pinterest's future success. The algorithms that power visual search tools are only as good as the data they're trained with, and Pinterest, with its billions of contextually mapped images, has some of the strongest in the industry. The result is a two pronged approach.

Pinterest Lens

Lens was announced in February of 2017 (6 months prior to Google's release of a similarly named product) allowing users to utilize Pinterest's camera to detect objects in the real world and suggest related items on its service. Simply pointing your camera at an ingredient, will discover related recipes and directing it towards a piece of clothing will bring you to related items.  

It's not about visual similarity though. For example, if a user points Lens at an avocado, they aren't returned images of avocados. They're returned images of guacamole based recipes. It's about building a recommendation engine and personalized discovery experience.

As a marketer, that is an incredibly important concept to understand. As visual search becomes a learned behavior, and information is disseminated through image based queries rather than text, mapping image metadata to related experiences is going to be key to controlling user experiences. For example, an energy drink brand will need to determine what experiences to  map to each flavor, just as they would when concepting a pre-roll ad to display the same drink. This idea takes us down a larger path of implementing correct schema markup for your brand.

Shop the Look

The second visual search tool that Pinterest has focused on is called Shop the Look. Essentially, it's an AI based service that helps users purchase products on their site. Instead of starting from the camera, this type of search starts from the image itself. The problem it solves? In any given Pinterest image, there might be 5-6 different products. If a user wanted to dive deeper into that Gucci purse they just came across, the software needs to be able to differentiate that from the other jacket, shoes and watch featured in the same image.

Shop the Look uses clickable white dots to identify specific objects in a larger scene, allowing users to go from discovery to purchase in a seamless fashion. The idea started out as a way to match products with partners that they've partnered with, using a "human in the loop" approach. Meaning that it wasn't entirely a machine learning back end, and instead, Pinterest employees would ensure that those recommendations were on point.

In February of 2019, the company automated the entire approach. Along with automating that function, any organic pin not linked to a business, will be tagged accordingly. Consequently, Pinterest now has a massive database of scene images, that clearly define the relationship between objects. They understand what objects complement each other and which ones go well with a certain style.

Where They're Going & What It Means

By utilizing object occurrence to build a sophisticated object graph for every object in the world, Pinterest will become a personalized stylist for your home, your fashion and more. Visual search is already changing the paradigm of search based behavior, and Pinterest is on the forefront.

Their Lens product is continuously being integrated outside of the Pinterest app, moving into other retailers. Target was one of the first to jump on board in early 2018, utilizing the technology within their suite of apps and websites. Look for other retailers to do the same, as they come to terms with the fact that building their own functionality with the same accuracy is outside the realm of possibility.

As a marketer, it's easy to understand the behavior shift that's coming, but challenging to take the right steps to prepare for it. Start by analyzing image schema and optimizing your images for visual search, and then move into actioning experiences off of that metadata. It's a long road, but the future if visual.

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Domino’s Uses AI Visual Recognition to Drive Loyalty

Domino's Pizza, expressing itself as one of the most forward thinking brands when it comes to mobile and automated technology; has once again pushed the boundary on AI through a new visual identification app. The company hasn't been shy about experimenting with voice ordering and autonomous delivery efforts as of recent, so this new foray isn't surprising, but it is something to keep an eye on.

The new AI functionality presents itself as a reward system. Users can download the Domino's app, take a picture of ANY pizza, that's right, it doesn't have to be a Domino's pizza, and they're rewarded with 10 "Piece of the Pie Points". After obtaining 60 points, users can redeem them for a free Medium pizza from Dominos. Frozen pizza, handmade pizza, higher end pizzas, and even Pizza Hut pizzas can be scanned to earned points.

Implications

While this campaign is simply a promotion, and will run until April. It does accomplish a few things right off the bat. The commercial will run during the Superbowl, hoping to steal thunder from Pizza Hut, which is the official sponsor of the NFL and will aim to drive app downloads from those that may not have necessarily been Dominos customers. Additionally, an AI recognition system like this needs tons of real world training data to work properly. This two month test could be setting up for a more robust application down the line, as the AI is able to learn from unique situations.

Underlying the technological application here, is a much larger category level play. Domino's, already a known and trusted brand in the Pizza industry, is making a play at being the center of conversation at any pizza event. One can image sitting down at a higher end pizza establishment, and pulling out the Domino's application to receive their points, an interaction that previously would have pushed the brand towards the back of anyone's mind.

For marketers, the question you must ask yourself, is how you can use technology to play into what is now commonly referred to as "hackvertising". Over the past few years, many brands have been quite successful at this, including Burger King, which recently allowed users to order a Whopper for one cent, if they were within 600 ft. of a McDonalds.

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2019 OnCon Icon Awards

Epsilon agency was a big winner at the recent OnCon Icon Awards in Orlando, Florida. Epsilon Agency was recognized as the Marketing Solution Icon of the year and our Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, Tom Edwards was recognized as both a Marketing Trailblazer in a highly competitive category and as a Marketing Contributor for thought leadership. Congrats to Tom and the entire agency team for the big wins! Here is the full list of winners

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19 Trends for 2019

Centered around the convergence of experience, our 2019 trends takes a deep dive into technology that’s enabling consumer behavior through empowerment, exponentially improving experience, and enhancing our environment. 

From Web Based AR, Esports, AI Assistants, the Internet of Things and more, our 2019 Trends covers it all. 

Check out TheInnovationLounge.com to see all our trends in one place. 

Don’t hesitate to reach out to learn more. 

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Get Ready to Squad Up

People like to do things with friends. That’s no secret.

Improvements in technology use this premise to guide their products. Whether it's gaming, live streaming, messaging, or video chatting, hanging out with friends is always an underlying utility. Virtual Reality developers have even tried to replicate this through lifelike avatars, bringing people even closer together, virtually.

That's why when something 'new' comes up, that taps into our propensity to communicate and come together, people take notice. That something new is Squad. Squad is a screensharing video chat app, that resembles FaceTime or HouseParty, with a slight twist. Users can share their screens. While screensharing has been around for quite some time in the workplace, Squad is the first app to effectively bring the technology to our mobile phones.

Why is it so important? Well, when a user logs in, they fire up their squad and a typical video chat layout come up. From here, you can either continue sharing your face, or switch to screensharing what's on your phone (The Android app has an option for sharing both with picture in picture). Users can then navigate around the web, shopping together, viewing photos, watching videos, looking up memes, swiping on Tinder, and much more. This interaction takes a lot of the pressure of video chat off of those using it. You no longer have to perform or look directly into the camera at all times. 

Implications

When you first load Squad, a series of options are displayed beneath the video screen, directing users toward the best experiences on their phones. This includes Instagram, TikTok, Bumble, Pictures, and more. For publishers and brands who see good results from their app usage, it's going to become important to tailor some form of messaging around driving Squads to use your app within the chat experience. While that navigation bar may not be open to sponsored placements yet, it very well could be in the future.

Additionally, as consumers begin using apps in new ways thanks to screensharing, app creators will have to rethink their functionality. What experiences can you include that nod to the fact that more than just one person is here? For example, a shopping app might include the ability to simultaneously look at two sizes or options at once, one for you, and one for your friend across the country who's viewing your screen.

While it's still up in the air if Squad itself will stick around, as we're bound to see the major players release some form of the same functionality shortly, what we do know is that screensharing in this format is almost certainly here to stay. It will be interesting to follow how brands innovate to capitalize on this change in consumer behavior.

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Tom Edwards & Ian Beacraft discuss trends & highlights from CES 2019  Time stamps:

Press conference highlights 0:21 AI Everywhere 1:22 Voice Based Ecosystems 2:13 Framing AR 3:01 8K & Shift to Multimodal 4:20 Experiential Design 5:33

Follow Tom Edwards @BlackFin360 & Ian Beacraft @Ianbcraft

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CES 2019 Recap

Tom Edwards, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, and Ian Beacraft, VP, Group Director, had their boots on the ground at this year’s CES and have recapped the highlights from the show. 

Press conference highlights 0:21

AI Everywhere 1:22

Voice Based Ecosystems 2:13

Framing AR 3:01

8K & Shift to Multimodal 4:20

Experiential Design 5:33

Follow Tom Edwards @blackfin360 & Ian Beacraft @Ianbcraft

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TikTok, Brands Want In

The Start 

Vine, a massively popular short-form video sharing app, gained traction among the teen demographic in the early part of this decade. Vine stars were born and users found new ways to creatively express themselves using a 7-second share format. The app empowered users to create with simple video editing tools and filters. Subsequently acquired by Twitter, many thought that the social network had big plans to integrate Vine into its future. Unfortunately, it did not.

The company shut down the app in early 2017, and in its place, few competitors remained. Snapchat and Instagram were different. One was primarily used for ephemeral messaging and the other favored images and longer form video (60-seconds) which creatively didn’t have the same feel as Vine. Overseas, a Chinese company called ByteDance had an app called TikTok that was gaining popularity. Recognizing the need to expand into the US market, ByteDance’s co-founders acquired popular Karaoke-lip-syncing app, Musical.ly and converted its user base over to TikTok. The app soon filled the void that Vine had left and is cruising to massive popularity, specifically among the teen demographic.

What is TikTok?

TikTok combines the best of Vine with improvements over the social networks of Instagram and Twitter. Users are able to create 15-second clips, overlaying songs and utilizing video-editing effects or AR filters. It’s an app that fully embraces the idea of the camera as a platform. The + button, indicating the ability to add new clips, is front and center of the navigation bar and opens directly to the camera. From there, users are able shoot or add video to their post, combining short clips together to enhance creativity.

Similar to other social networks, users then post clips to their profiles that show up on others feeds. The differences come in the nomenclature. There is no following, only fans. There is no liking, only hearts. Those differences lead to somewhat of a different feel when using the app. It’s feels friendlier, more inviting and contributes to an atmosphere that fosters positive interactions. This, along with the creative freedom that the app allows for, explains why TikTok has shot up in popularity in the latter half of 2018, becoming the most downloaded app on the app-store over a period of time.

Brands Want In

Of course, with this popularity, comes interest of large brands. Currently, TikTok does not yet offer any traditional marketing plays, currently focused first and foremost on customer experience. However, being ripe with popular influencers, brands have found ways to drive massive traction on the platform, tapping into users propensity to create. A popular way to do this is through Hashtag challenges. Brands challenge TikTok users to create videos inspired by the brand’s initial video (which is posted from their account and propagated from popular influencers).

According to TikTok’s head of global marketing, Stefan Heinrich, he explains that TikTok drives a new level of engagement for consumers. “If I go as a marketer to another platform I get likes, shares or comments. If I get a video on TikTok, I get 20 to 30 minutes of a person’s time to create and share. I’m turning someone into a brand ambassador to start of a conversation”

And that’s what makes this app so intriguing for marketers. If people are inherently looking for places to create and share, and TikTok currently offers the best tools to do so, being a part of that conversation is incredibly important.

Implications

Marketers that are focused on reaching a younger audience should be keeping a watchful eye on TikTok and should be thinking of ways that enhance users ability to create. Tapping into popular hashtag categories and providing thought starters are easy ways to drive engagement through the app, but it’s also important to stay  genuine. If there’s one thing that will continuously ring true, it’s that teens are incredibly digitally savvy, they can see right through the façade of a fake profile.

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Isolationism - VR’s Blessing and Curse

In flight entertainment has seen tremendous improvements over the past half decade. Seatback monitors, while generally not very big, offer an array of movie and television choices while in-flight WIFI continues to become easier and easier to access. However, Alaska Airlines thinks that they can one up that experience, by using virtual reality.

During a 4-day period at the end of September, 10 flights on the airline will test out their VR offering. Passengers will receive a lightweight headset, made by in-flight entertainment company SkyLights, and have the option to be entertained by a few different VR experiences. Given the stationary nature of the environment, these experiences are limited to watching movies in your own private theatre and exploring virtual worlds through slight head movements.  

Paired up with noise cancelling headphones, those experiencing VR will easily tune out any crying babies or other distractions aboard the flight and may make for an incredibly enjoyable experience. But is VR the future of in-flight entertainment?

Implications

Virtual Reality has long been knocked for some of its glaring fallbacks. It's an isolating experience that’s expensive to set up and doesn't have compelling content offerings to justify it. Those fallbacks, while justified, are tailored to the home – as a replacement or auxiliary option to your family gaming system. On a flight, many people prefer that sense of isolationism, as even the thought of sparking up a conversation with a random neighbor gives them anxiety. And cost issues? Well, those may be an airline value add or an additional fee.

In 2019, we'll likely see VR address its obvious fallbacks and offer more experiences tailored to the environment that individual is already in. Location based VR, like arcades and immersive experiences such as The Void, have become increasingly more popular as they drastically reduce the isolated aspect of the experience. VR during in-flight, and possibly other transportation offerings, will look to capitalize on isolationism in the completely opposite sense.

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Amazon’s TNF Stream points to an Interactive future

Last Thursday night kicked off Amazon's live-streaming deal with the NFL, allowing them to broadcast 11 Thursday Night Football (TNF) games of the 2018/19 season. The feed, which was available for free on Twitch as well as offered to Prime Video customers, set the stage for what the future of interactive live television could be like.

For one, the stream was available just about anywhere someone could imagine watching the game – Amazon's Prime Video app, Fire TV, mobile devices and anywhere with a strong internet connection. The ubiquity of it changes the paradigm of how consumers can take in this content. No longer is it primarily a passive event as the mobile and open nature of streaming platforms allow for more interactivity.

Amazon wasn't shy about moving into this trend. Thursday's broadcast on Prime Video included an 'X-Ray' feature, allowing users to see real-time stats as well as personalize their broadcast to follow Game Leaders and Team Stats as the game progressed. When digging deeper, users were able to discover more information on the history of the teams and players involved.

Another unique feature to Thursdays broadcast, and one that shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone, is the ecommerce aspect that Amazon integrated into the experience. Available within the Fire TV stream, users were able to browse and purchase officially licensed merchandise relating to the teams at hand. Carson Wentz just dropped a dime from 40 yards out in the back corner of the end zone? Cool, you're 2 clicks away from owning his jersey and your eyes never had to leave the screen.

The other choice that Amazon gave users was with regards to the actual broadcasters. Three options were available on Prime Video, including the first ever all female booth, and Twitch highlighted a popular streamer, GoldGlove, to call the game for its viewers.

Within the Twitch platform, live reaction of viewers was a feature that was highlighted. After an exciting play, the Twitch chat was blown up with emotes (Amazon's version of emojis) and the social nature of the platform made for a less isolating experience. Bringing people together for live sporting events is something Facebook and Twitter have been working hard at, but neither of them can reach the level of engagement that Amazon currently has.

Implications

Live sporting events have traditionally been viewed in a passive setting as users were mainly confined to a cable provider and their living room TV. That's slowly but surely changing, and it's a trend that's not going to slow down anytime soon. It's also one that has pretty wide ranging implications.

Niche sports executives should see this as a massive opportunity to get their product in front of a much wider range of audience. FloSports, a leader in partnerships for OTT sports, features rugby, track & field, wrestling, bowling and more. The company will steam 2,500 live events in 2018, increasing live streaming views and event attendance for hundreds of teams across the country. It's all about getting your product in front of as many eyes as possible, and live streaming is doing that at a scale that hasn't been seen before.

With those eyeballs, come brands trying to ride the pigtails of that success. Marketers will be able to closely align their product or service with teams that or events that closely align with their brand values. As the services mature, there will likely be opportunities to personalize these messages to individuals or segments. On top of that, the active nature of the service will continually allow for a reduction in friction to the path to purchase. Live streaming events and the interactivity that comes with them may be the last domino to fall in the fight against cutting the cord.

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Alexa’s Ecosystem Expands

On Thursday, Amazon held its annual hardware event, and the company unleashed a slew of new Alexa related products onto the world. While we were given an upgrade to the companies classic line of Dot, Show, and Plus devices, we were also introduced to a few entirely new product categories. The Echo Sub allows users to pair a high end subwoofer to their existing echo, aiming to compete with likes of Sonos and Apples HomePod.

Amazon also introduced a few auxiliary devices, like the Echo Auto, bringing Alexa into the in-car entertainment space as well as an Echo Input, which will allow users to access the voice assistant through their existing speaker system. We're also given an Echo Smart Plug, used to turn on and off household appliances. Finally, the event included an Alexa Wall Clock, to visualize alarms, and an Alexa Microwave, because why not?

If it wasn't obvious before, it is now. Amazon is dead set on bringing Alexa into your life in as many ways as possible. While different from Apple and Google, who are both increasingly pushing Siri and Assistant respectively, Amazon is similar in the fact that it's building an ecosystem around its voice assistant, starting with the hub.

Implications

For Apple and Google, the hub is the smartphone. It has been for quite some time, and consumers utilize additional products like the HomePod and Home, to tap into that hub. However, most of the interaction with those assistants occur on the mobile device itself, either through Apple's built in Siri integration, or the Google Assistant App. Amazon is building an ecosystem of IOT devices, and sees voice as the primary interface.

Thursdays event greatly expanded this ecosystem, moving beyond the home into the vehicle, as well as expanding the presence throughout the home. Consumers who opt to utilize the hub for all its benefits, will begin to see Alexa learn and adapt towards them. One of the few software upgrades on Thursday was called Hunches, and it will allow the voice assistant to offer occasional suggestions if it thinks you may have forgotten something as part of your daily routine. For example, turning off the outdoor lights before you hit the hay.

Marketers will need to understand that as we move toward a world like this, it will be less about marketing towards consumers, and more about marketing towards assistants. As Alexa, Assistant and Siri begin making more and more of our decisions on their behalf, our mundane decision making, like making sure the fridge is stocked with groceries and Friday night plans are booked, will be handled by our artificially intelligent systems. It's incredibly important to begin laying the building blocks of that future today, before it quickly passes you by when it shows up.