Last week, IBM announced three new marketing products at the start of the Advertising Week in New York. Those products all make use of Watson, the all-knowing computer that was mostly used for medical research in the past. The Watson technology has been used for some time to help pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and doctors to treat diseases like cancer for example.

IBM hopes that the knowledge of Watson could be useful to obtain more profit from marketing budgets, that are usually around 12 percent of the annual turnover of large and small companies. But only a small part of the marketing efforts also actually yields something. According to IBM, with the current explosion of data it will be more difficult to reach the right audience. To bring some more personalisation to marketing campaigns, IBM recruited the help of AI and unveiled three new marketing solutions: IBM Watson Ads Omni, IBM Media Optimizer and Predictive Audiences.

Watson Ads Omni is an AI-powered interactive ad unit that enables marketeers to deploy AI-powered interactive placements on any digital site. Watson Ads Omni is an extension of the Watson Ads platform, which was launched two years ago, but was only used by the Weather Channel. From now on the product is available for every marketing agency. Lego will become the first client that makes use of artificial intelligence during Black Friday. Watson is fed with knowledge about 35 different Lego products and asks questions to users like a kind of chatbot, for example about the age of interest of children.

The IBM Media Optimizer is what the name suggests: a tool developed together with MediaPath to increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and optimize the customer journey. The Intelligent Bidder calculates a user’s bid probability by analysing the channel, time and bid value of a given placement.

With Predictive Audiences models are made to approach the right target group. In this case IBM works together with LiveRamp, which can bring together data such as weather forecasts and location. Integrations with relationship management suppliers are also possible.

In my opinion, all very interesting tools for marketeers to build campaigns, enhance customer experience and improve conversion rates with the use of AI.

Source:

IBM’s new Watson AI marketing suite personalizes ads for individual customers

Ahold Delhaize announced it will use tap to go technology in its Albert Heijn to go stores. The checkout-free stores will allow customers to pay at the shelf itself, using a ‘tap to go’ card or the smartphone app.

Customers see an item that they want on a shelf, tap their cards on the tag under it or use their smartphone, grab the item and continue shopping. The shelf card beeps and lights up in a green colour if it is tapped. Each tag or shelf reader has the price and barcode. If shoppers change their mind and want to return a product, they just have to tap again on the tag and the product will be deleted from their list. In this case there will be no long waiting times, lines and cashiers.

After 10 minutes, the payment is automatically debited from their bank account linked to the app. Currently the app is only available on Android phones, but expectations are that iOS will be added soon. AH is using near-field communication (NFC) tags on the store shelves. NFC tags have small microchips embedded in them that mobile devices can read.

The two AH to go stores in Amsterdam’s Academic Medical Center are the first to get equipped with tap to go, and the store at Amsterdam’s Central Station will follow soon. Eventually, Ahold plans to bring the technology to all its 80 AH to go stores in the Netherlands. General Manager Jan-Willem Dockheer says, ‘We want to offer our customers plenty of choice, quality and convenience anytime and anywhere. With ‘tap to go’, we really bring that convenience to the next level. Who waits in a line for fun?’

What do you guys think, is this the future of our supermarkets?

References
https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/bij-albert-heijn-kun-je-met-de-tap-to-go-pas-in-een-halve-minuut-je-boodschappen-doen~b82f09ff/

AH to go heeft Europese primeur met pin- en kassaloos shoppen