COLOGNE-As more brands strive to harness technology to create end-to-end solutions for reaching their prospects, the issue of trust looms large. Digital ecosystem realities like ad blocking are “absolutely a wakeup call that you need to be responding to as a client,” said the CEO of the EMEA region for Publicis Media.
As he attended the annual DMEXCO business exposition earlier this month, Iain Jacob noted in an interview with Beet.TV that “The big thing really is the convergence of the digital world with the physical world.”
The industry is continually exploring technologies that allow that convergence to happen smoothly and in an integrated fashion. Like other agency networks, Publicis is using artificial intelligence, mainly for performance clients, seeking to establish business use cases proving the technology’s contribution to the bottom line.
Meanwhile, virtual reality is an “absolute place where there’s an interface between the physical and digital world,” Jacob said. Publicis client Samsung is a big VR player with its Samsung Gear VR, while client Mercedes-Benz has used 360° technology to preview new models. FORTUNE reports that one video places users in the passenger seat of a Cabrio driving through Miami with street dancers and other experiences happening around them, which they view through the vehicle’s open roof.
Then there is the task of winning peoples’ faith. “One of the big things also is emerging is trust and do consumers trust the ecosystem they’re dealing with,” whether it’s a chat bot or Amazon’s Alexa interface, Jacob said. “We’ve developed a program around looking at how consumers trust the digital ecosystem. It starts to pull out things that we need to address such as ad blocking and safe content.”
The use of ad-blocking technology tests every brand that wants to engage with consumers within that ecosystem. “I think it puts a real emphasis on the creativity, the experiences you’re bringing to people,” said Jacob. “You will be blocked if you’re creating boring, irrelevant, interruptive stuff.”
This interview was taped at DMEXCO ’16. It is part of a video series of industry leaders. The series is sponsored by Videology. For more Beet.TV coverage of DMEXCO, please visit this page.
