THE LATEST IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING
The Future of AI Is Here: Reflections on IBM Think (Street Fight)
Damian Rollison: Among hundreds of sessions, exhibits, and demos, one theme came through clearly at IBM Think this month in San Francisco: for large enterprises especially, the AI-driven future for which we’ve been told to prepare is already here. In fact, enterprise companies are using IBM's Watson technologies today to address a myriad of challenges inherent in the scale of those businesses.
5 Platforms Using AI to Analyze Customer Reviews (Street Fight)
Beyond the star ratings lies a wealth of information. Sentiment and opinions can be used to shape the way brands develop their highest-selling products. Given the volume of reviews posted each day, however, it would be impossible for most major brands to analyze every customer reaction individually. Instead, a growing number of brands are utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technology to extract and analyze the sentiment from product reviews. Here are five examples of platforms that offer this type of AI technology for analyzing customer feedback posted online.
Third-Party Data Is a Bad Habit We Need to Kick (AdExchanger)
Kendell Timmers: The accuracy of third-party data is overrated, and we have passed the point of diminishing returns on further modeling. Third-party segments can, over time, approximate an audience that might be more interested in an advertisement, but it is not a truth set, and there are limits to how targeted marketers can get.
With Target+, Target Gets an Amazon-Like Marketplace (Digiday)
Target, which has invested in equipping its big box stores to become online fulfillment hubs, is looking to grow online revenue through a third-party marketplace on its website. The program, called Target+, will let the retailer compete with Amazon and other retailers’ e-commerce platforms, generate service revenue from third-party sales, and drive traffic back to stores through product return drop-off points.
Digital Advertising in the US Is Finally Bigger than Print and Television (Recode)
New estimates from eMarketer show that US advertisers will spend more than $129 billion on digital advertising in 2019 — more than the $109 billion they plan to spend on “traditional” advertising.
Facebook Pledges to Improve Oversight of Contractor Firms (The Verge)
Facebook says it’s working on an improved compliance and audit process for the third-party contractors it hires to perform content moderation, following an exposé by The Verge detailing harrowing work conditions at the Phoenix, Arizona facility of a Facebook contractor called Cognizant.
YouTube Removes Tens of Millions of Comments in Crackdown on Child Sexual Exploitation (Washington Post)
A video blogger this week published a report on YouTube documenting how comments and recommendations on the platform direct users to potentially sexual videos of children, allowing them to participate in a “soft-core pedophile ring,” according to the report. YouTube terminated more than 400 channels on Thursday that posted the comments on videos featuring children.
Controversy Over Google Featured Snippets Stealing Publisher Traffic Returns (SEL)
This weekend, Google responded to complaints about a form of featured snippet that does not immediately show the source of the content. Instead, it requires a searcher to click to expand the featured snippet and then scroll through various sources to see the publisher sources. The controversy around featured snippets and publishers is not new but it reignited with this result format.
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