Home Tags Posts tagged with "The"
Tag:

The

Gadgets NewsTech Update

Android 9 Pie beta is now out for the Nokia 6.1 Plus

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Today Nokia has made the first beta of Android 9 Pie available for the 6.1 Plus. This has been officially announced on Twitter by Juho Sarvikas, HMD Global’s Chief Product Officer.

If you want to give it a try, you’ll need to head to Nokia Beta Labs and grab the update from there. Obviously since this is a beta you should expect to see bugs, things may not run very smoothly at this stage. So it usually isn’t advisable to install such a release on your main phone, but in the end it all depends on how patient you are and how much of a tolerance to issues you have.

Either way, the finalized Android 9 Pie update for the Nokia 6.1 Plus should be out in a few weeks, and become available to all of the units ever sold.

[“source=gsmarena”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Gadgets News

AMD’s 24-core and 12-core 2nd-gen Threadripper CPU are set to hit the streets soon

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

threadripper 2

AMD’s 24-core and 12-core 2nd-generation Threadripper CPUs will officially hit the streets on October 29, the company said.

AMD announced a quartet of 2nd-gen Threadrippers, with only the 32-core and 16-core versions shipping so far. By the end of the month, the company said, the final two will arrive, putting all of AMD’s cards on the table for the year.

threadripper parts

AMD

AMD’s last two Threadrippers will hit the streets on Oct. 29, the company said.

The 32-core CPU Threadripper stunned the computing world when first announced at Computex in June, and has generally been greeted with glowing reviews. The latest two Threadrippers just ladle on the performance and value AMD has been serving.

An analysis of pricing per thread from our original review of the 32-core 2nd-gen Threadripper shows you the mouth-dropping value the company has been offering compared to Intel.

21 bucks per thread

IDG

When you look at how much you’re paying per thread for a CPU, AMD’s the big winner. Perhaps worse, how does Intel sell a consumer 28-core CPU at a competing price, when the server version is almost $9,000?

With a list price of $1,299, AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 2950X will pack 24 cores, yet still be far below Intel’s $1,999 price for its Core i9-7980XE. For the $649 AMD is asking for its upcoming 12-core Ryzen Threadripper 2920X, you can expect an 8-core, 16-thread Core i7-7820X. And that’s if you’re lucky to find a Core i7-7820X at its list price of $589. With Intel’s well-publicized chip shortage, prices of its CPUs have spiked. For example, we found the 8-core Core i7-7820X fetching as much as $918 on Amazon.com.

[“source=gsmarena”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Internet

Facebook Goes Back to Old Technologies to Connect the Next Billion

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Facebook Goes Back to Old Technologies to Connect the Next Billion

After abandoning its plan to develop a solar-powered drone called Aquila and grounding a helicopter drone project to connect people in remote areas, Facebookhas gone back to the basics, working on technologies like mesh Wi-Fi and Express Wi-Fi in partnership with equipment manufacturers and operators.

“Our team has been developing software that simplifies network management for operators and enables them to deploy mesh Wi-Fi networks along with working on new routing framework, optimised to manage 50 or potentially even more access points,” Vish Ponnampalam, Wireless Systems Engineer at Facebook wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

A wireless mesh network (WMN) is a communications network made up of radio nodes. A mesh refers to rich interconnection among devices or nodes.

The social networking giant is running a pilot programme for mesh Wi-Fi networking in Tanzania and has also put teams to expand its Express Wi-Fi programme in Dubai, Israel and Ireland.

“The technology we are developing is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for Wi-Fi networks,” Ponnampalam added.

The Express Wi-Fi initiative, that offers Internet facility through public hotspots, was first launched in five countries – India, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Indonesia.

“We’re excited to continue improving the technology with the goal of sharing it with more partners around the world,” said Ponnampalam.

The Express Wi-fi initiative reached India last year in partnership with telecom operator Bharti Airtel, local ISPs and over 500 local entrepreneurs.

In June this year, Facebook announced it has decided to abandon the Aquila project that was aimed to deliver Internet to nearly four billion people in remote parts of the world.

Facebook also discontinued a small helicopter drone project that could temporarily replace cellular services in emergency situations.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Blogging

Write.as is the social media hater’s blogging platform

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Write.as: a good place to anonymously vent or think aloud

Write.as: a good place to anonymously vent or think aloud

We go to Facebook to talk to family, Instagram to brag, Twitter to complain, Tumblr to fanboy over Doctor Who and Medium to proselytise. But where do you go if you just want somewhere not necessarily designed for going public, somewhere to write without being disturbed?

Write.as is a distraction-free, no-frills platform where the idea is to just have somewhere to get your words down without necessarily having an audience in mind like, say, WordPress, where tags and SEO are a part of the process. The social media part is essentially removed: no one can “like” or follow your blog or posts.

By default, nothing you publish on Write.as is publicly visible so people can only read your article or blog if you specifically share a link to it. You can create an anonymous blog, start writing and it is saved automatically as you go.

If you’re curious about who writes on Write.as, there is a separate “read stream” (https://read.write.as/) where you can peruse content ranging from the confessions of an ex-employee in the beauty business to rants on UX design and food diaries. A good place to anonymously vent or think aloud.

[“Source-irishtimes”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Online Marketing

The impact of blockchain technology in digital marketing

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Digital marketing is a very important part of any business. To make a brand more visible in this diverse society, a business must be able to use various online platforms effectively to advertise. One of these online platforms is social media. Nowadays digital marketing is growing rapidly. But another technology that is advancing rapidly is blockchain, which is set to change the world of digital marketing in a new way.

Image: Shutterstock

Understanding blockchain technology

The blockchain is a digital, decentralized technology that is growing and making a mark in different industries such as digital marketing. Blockchain keeps a record of the transactions that take place on the peer-to-peer networks. The list of records continuously grows. These records are stored securely in numerous decentralized systems that are interconnected. As the blockchain doesn’t have a centralized point, it doesn’t have a single point of vulnerability, and hence is less vulnerable.

Now it is also growing in the digital marketing industry, adding a new revolution to the relationship between consumers and businesses. Blockchain aims to increase transparency in all sectors of a business as the information is stored digitally. This information can’t be tampered or deleted. This enables the companies to see the exact use of the funds and if the audience receives them or not. To get more idea about blockchain, one can always refer to several online blockchain tutorials to get a good grip in this area.

Affecting data privacy

Blockchain can affect digital marketing in many ways, and one of the predicted changes is in the sharing of consumer’s data. One of the most serious issues in online activities is privacy. Companies have profiles for every customer based on visited sites, searches made, products purchased, and various other things.

Hacking and leakage of personal data online are commonplace. But these could all be prevented through the use of blockchain technology. When a person uses an app or visits a site, then the company can no longer access the data, and all the personal information remains with the consumer. Due to blockchain technology, all the personal data of consumers remain safe.

Through this, the users will have control over the data and can determine how much data to share. This also means companies will also have to rely on different ways to collect data from consumers. Previously they automatically received data from consumers – now they will have to rely on consumers for receiving their data.

Changes in digital advertising

Digital marketing is a type of marketing that still has a ways to go. Consumers always have one irritating issue faced by them – ad overloads. Companies always show and send users a load of advertisements instead of sending fewer advertisements. The main reason behind this is the lack of understanding of companies about their audience.

As they don’t know the taste of their audience, they just send numerous ads hoping one will catch their interest. Most of the time, these companies annoy users by popping ads on a page that consumers visit which takes up most of the screen, which can be extremely frustrating and intrusive for the consumers.

Not only are they annoying but these large ads can also drain the battery life of devices and take up bandwidth. Blockchain-based companies are introducing apps such as Basic Attention Token (BAT) that bring changes to the interaction between advertisers, users, and publishers. The steps involved in this are:

  • Advertisers can buy advertisements using the app on the brave platform.
  • Users will be able to decide the type of ads they want to see. Rather than dealing with an unwanted and unnecessary number of ads, they will be able to see the ads that peak their interest most. If a user sees an ad, then they will be paid with a certain small portion of what was paid to buy the ad by the advertiser.
  • As consumers receive a commission from BAT, the publishers are also paid, but the amount they receive is larger than what consumers receive.

As blockchain is a decentralized technology, it assures the digital marketers that their transactions are secure by improving cybersecurity. Also, it is not controlled centrally – in simple words, nobody owns or controls the blockchain. With this, companies or businesses will be able to avail of the numerous advantages provided by blockchain.

What about using cryptocurrencies? These are the new digital currencies that work based on blockchain technology. These are not physical or actual coins or cash but are used in the digital world, where these are stored in a digital wallet a person as coins. Just like in the real world, the values of these digital currencies are also affected by supply and demand and many other things.

No intermediaries

Beyond cryptocurrencies, blockchain offers a world of opportunities. It can affect the digital marketing industry greatly. One of this is the elimination of depending upon a middleman or intermediary in digital marketing, such as social media sites or Google. This can add more value to the ad campaigns of the companies.

Traditionally, marketers depend on these middlemen for the transactions made and also for the launch of ad campaigns, but with blockchain, there is no need to depend upon them. Blockchain eliminates the need for companies to communicate with website owners through a medium whenever an ad is going to be published.

Previously this job was done by sites like Facebook or Google to make the communication between site owners and digital marketers. But with blockchain, there is no need for intermediaries when users sign a contract related to advertising. This ensures a significant increase in the income of digital marketers due to the cutting of cost that went to intermediaries previously.

Transparency

Previously advertisers knew very fewer details about the use of ads by publishers, which led to high expenses for publishing ads and also in some cases ad fraud. But, with blockchain, the process is more transparent – also they can learn who is seeing their ads and know if it is marketed to the right audience or not.

Clearly, blockchain is a very useful technology that is revolutionizing various industries, and it can also have a great positive impact on the digital marketing industry.

Saurabh Hooda is the Co-founder of Hackr.

[“Source-yourstory”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Online Marketing

The impact of Artificial Intelligence on digital marketing

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Chatbots, Alexa, androids, and tablets — even as little as 10 years ago, these innovations were just figments of our imagination. But in 2018, there’s very little that can surprise us. Now cars can drive themselves, watches can track calories, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can predict a consumer’s every move – almost like it’s reading minds! But for the most part, AI’s remarkably helpful. It’s used to personalize our binge-watching sessions (Netflix and Hotstar recommendations, anyone?), make video games more immersive, and make our shopping experiences smoother!

While these examples focus more on the personal than the professional front, it’s in the arena of business that AI truly shines. Every customer wants to feel like they are important, so personalization becomes key to taking customer experience to the next level – which can be achieved via analysis of reams of user data. It is this data that helps businesses gather insights that allow them to deliver enhanced service and narrow their focus. A business sector that is truly benefitting from this fascinating technology is digital marketing! Now, let’s take a look at how:

 

Enables targeted marketing

Thanks to AI, advertising today is based on intuition backed by intelligence. Marketers can leverage cutting-edge technology to collect and analyze huge amounts of customer data to come up with a set of predictive strategies. These strategies can, in turn, be employed at every step of a marketing campaign, creating ‘smart ads’ that are tailored to search queries. Compared to pre-AI strategies that were built on IP-address-based assumptions, this strategy is miles ahead in predicting what consumers want.

Increases Return On Investment (ROI)

The use of analytics, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and social data lead to higher ROIs on marketing campaigns – but these have always been complex tasks to accomplish. A current application of AI, Machine Learning, is now making it easier for marketers to identify commonalities and trends in behaviour. The intersection of AI and marketing enables multi-layered strategies that automatically produce messages customized to each user. This ensures that customers receive the right triggers at the right time, seamlessly leading them to the next stage of the buying journey.

Ensures smooth search sessions

Search engines and the search process have become smarter and more hassle-free with AI-infused digital marketing. AI can effectively track search queries, online behaviour, purchase patterns, and navigation processes, generating highly accurate results for any search query. In fact, it helps predict keywords, and enables Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), i.e., generating keywords that are semantically related to your main keyword, making for more relevant search results. One example of LSI would be ‘Apple’ and ‘iTunes’ – note that these are not synonyms, but words that are frequently used in the same context.

Personalizes User Experience (UX)

Most websites now provide a chat interface that allows customers to chat directly with an agent. Sure, it adds a touch of personalization, but it’s time to upgrade these traditional interactions to AI-powered chatbots. Why? Because unlike chatting with actual human beings, bots never lose patience. Your customers may be a nightmare, but bots will treat them with the utmost courtesy. Just as important is the fact that they are available 24×7 and can handle several requests simultaneously, all while retaining user details. But remember, a truly intelligent chatbot must understand the nuances of a language in order to give convincing responses.

After all, these chatbots are based on the human capability of self-learning and storing information. Thus, it helps to use tools like IBM Watson, Api.ai, and Wit.ai to incorporate natural language processing and learning faculties into a chatbot.

The list could go on and on – the possibilities of AI in digital marketing are endless. That being said, icons like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have warned that AI could soon turn into a major threat to humanity. Supercomputers could take over the human race, leading to the kind of dystopian future we’ve only seen in movies. But as we’ve seen time and again, any change to the status quo has its fair share of detractors – at least in the beginning – and AI is no exception. For now, however, marketers still have the power to leverage this new wave of intelligence and make hay while the sun shines!

Tina Garg is the Founder and CEO of Pink Lemonade, a creative agency specializing in communication, content, and design.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

[“Source-yourstory”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Online Marketing

The Internal Processes Marketing Teams Should Automate Now

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Automation can still only go so far
EtiAmmos/iStock

There are a number of misconceptions surrounding marketing automation. For instance, many marketers think that using automation technology involves a lengthy implementation process along every step of their workflow. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

According to this definition of marketing automation from Neil Patel, “Marketing automation is the process of using software and technology to optimize, automate and measure repetitive online marketing tasks.”

The reality is that it’s now possible for marketers to automate repetitive day-to-day tasks. But this doesn’t have to mean automating everything to the point of losing the human touch. Automation is simply a good way for marketers to free up more time to spend on more important tasks, such as the creative aspects of a campaign or managing client relationships.

There are many aspects of a marketing campaign that can be automated, but automation can still only go so far. For now, marketers shouldn’t worry too much about automation taking over their jobs any time soon, especially because a majority of marketing teams have yet to automate the most basic marketing tasks.

For the marketing teams that are interested in exploring automation, here’s a brief overview of the opportunities and how to get started.

Automating workflows internally and with clients

The pressure on marketing teams to produce content, engage audiences and monitor their results has never been greater. However, legacy team communication and collaboration tools, such as email and spreadsheets, have failed to keep up with today’s demands. As a result, 2017 State of Marketing Work Report revealed that marketers spend just 38 percent of their time on their primary job duties. The rest of their time (a whopping 62 percent) is devoted to email, meetings, administrative tasks and interruptions.

Using automation technology is one way that marketers can free up some of the time spent on more mundane tasks. Teams should look for software or tools that allow them to customize their workflows or projects and automate where needed. Then, it should be easy for them to replicate their automated processes for future projects. Other team members or clients can also be brought in as needed automatically and without the need to send reminders.

In sum, automation technology can help marketing teams streamline their workflows from the brainstorming and draft stage of a campaign to the review and final publishing stage with as little manual effort and emailing back-and-forth as possible.

Automating data and document management

Marketers often need to pull past projects, reports or data for a variety of reasons. Harboring inaccurate or out-of-date information in a complicated system can hinder productivity for the entire team.

With automated data-management platforms, teams can have every piece of content they are creating added to one place automatically and make it visible to anyone with the appropriate permissions. With real-time updates and 24/7 access, marketers can easily find materials they’ve created in the past to review, repurpose or send to clients.

In order to ensure that teams get the most benefit out of automating their data management, establishing a document-retention policy is a practical first step. How long should team members be required to hold onto their files? How long after materials are sent to clients should they remain in your system? These are all points to consider before the data-management process can be automated.

After establishing timelines, automation can also be used to alert project owners at specific times throughout the year to review, update or remove any files.

Automating the outcomes of team meetings or brainstorming sessions

Typically, during a team meeting, one team member is assigned the task of taking notes and relaying all information that was discussed with all parties involved. However, as this step is usually done manually, ideas and discussion points can easily slip through the cracks.

Automated collaboration tools can help everyone involved view and contribute materials during a session in real-time and keep a permanent record of them. These tools can also automatically save information that was worked on during a brainstorming session and send collaborators a link to access that information right after a session. Teams can then automatically set due dates or divide up and tag project responsibilities within the automation platforms, eliminating further follow-ups or emailing.

Automating all internal workings of a marketing team isn’t possible yet, but there are plenty of automation tactics that can be implemented quickly and painlessly. There’s plenty of proof that automation helps marketing teams work faster, as well as be more organized and efficient.

With the right preparation and consideration of the above points, marketers should have no problem automating some of their most time-consuming tasks and seeing positive results.

Albizu Garcia is co-founder and CEO of Gain, which automates the collaboration process around creative and social content for major agencies and brands. Follow him on Twitter: @albizu.

[“Source-adweek”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Online Marketing

Learn The New Rules of Digital Marketing

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for Learn The New Rules of Digital Marketing

Learn to create, analyse and optimise a digital content strategy today, with BoF’s Digital Marketing course. Click here, to view the full online course and watch the trailer.

NEW YORK, United States — Digital communication channels have changed marketing beyond recognition over the last 10 years. Yet fashion continues to be a laggard in adopting new and innovative ways of reaching its consumer. That’s why BoF has partnered with Paper Communications’ Drew Elliott to create an exclusive online BoF Education course.

In this self-directed course, Elliott and BoF created a playbook for success in digital marketing today, sharing best practices for paid and organic marketing strategies — as well as how to work with influencers and create or commission content that will engage and excite audiences.

“This course is for everyone who wants to get ahead in communications and marketing… whether you need a brush up, or you are just starting your career in digital. Nothing is more important to my business, and anyone’s business for that matter, than having new talent who are digital thinkers and there is no better thing to inform you about the internet than the internet itself. Today, you have to know what’s happening in the ecosystem of the internet,” explains Elliott.

Elliott’s career at Paper Communications has seen him transition from intern to co-owner and creative director of the renowned New York publishing and marketing company. Perhaps best known for his ability to #BreakTheInternet, initially with a cover concept featuring a naked Kim Kardashian shot by Jean-Paul Goude, which drove over 14 million users to PAPER’s online channels in 2 days, Elliott is increasingly the man the fashion industry looks to for inspiration and innovation in digital marketing.

Having honed his craft through career stints at Ketchum Agency and theAudience, Elliott brings a unique blend of experiential, editorial and digital experience to his work. Drawing on his broad range of experience, Elliott shares his formula of “math plus magic”: combining creativity and analytics to create audience engagement and potential virality, as well as deep dives into social media, video strategies, working with influencers and live-streaming. Finally, Elliot will also share exclusive insights from his #BreakTheInternet campaign with Kim Kardashian in a case study explaining his four-step model to manage content production, “SPAM”: Strategy, Production, Amplification and Measurement.

Learn the market-leading formulas that could transform your business’ marketing strategy through access to over 10 hours of exclusive video content and interactive learning materials which can be completed at any time.

Learn to create, analyse and optimise a digital content strategy today, including social media, video, influencers and live streaming strategies. Click here, to view the full online course.

What you will learn when taking the course?

In this course, you’re going to learn so many different things about the tools, the platforms, the teams and the talent that make up a successful digital marketing strategy. I want to focus on the three main topics that we’re covering. The first is that digital is everything. It’s replacing traditional ways and modes that we use to talk to people and is becoming the main conversation and main vehicle for consuming content, for promotion and getting your brand out there.

The second is that I’m going to let you in on a little bit of the secret sauce behind #BreakTheInternet. That’s starts with the recipe that I call math plus magic. The math side is the analytics, the audience segmentation and all the science that really helps on the distribution side of things. Whereas the magic is the content, the creation of amazing images, videos, and the things that are going to excite the audience.

The third piece is that as an industry and as audiences, we are moving into the age of entertainment. Instead of becoming publishing companies, instead of becoming content creators, I am going to explain why I believe brands need to become more like entertainment companies to succeed today.

What defines your approach to marketing today?

I see content like tofu. It can be anything you want it to be. It just depends on what spices that you put into it and how you serve it. It can replace advertising. It can turn editorial into something that’s exciting, popularise a fashion show… anything.

My approach began when I wanted to start putting all the things that I knew together. The publishing: the full fantasy, the editorial, the brilliant pictures. I wanted to add in all of the nightclub work. How can I popularise and turn things into events? I wanted to include the agency work, and really understand how can I work with big brands to bring the company scale and bring in the sponsorship dollars that I need. And then on the social media and digital side, how can I take all of those amazing pieces and turn them into popular content that could reach large audiences for zero dollars. Being a content creator is like being a venture capitalist. You put out 10 pieces for one to be a success, but that one success — it can be a huge.

[“Source-businessoffashion”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Online Marketing

GST refund to foreign tourists at airports on the cards

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for GST refund to foreign tourists at airports on the cards

New Delhi, Jun 10 (PTI) Foreign tourists may soon get to claim GST refunds at airports at the time of exit as the revenue department is working on a mechanism to refund taxes paid by them on local purchases.

Initially, only purchases made by tourists from big retailers would be eligible for Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds at the airports when the tourist is leaving the country, an official said.

In several countries VAT or GST are refunded to the tourists for purchases made beyond a prescribed threshold.

The department is working out a mechanism which will ensure refund of GST to foreign tourists and for that the field offices have to be sensitised, the official said.

“It has to be ensured that refunds are not claimed on the basis of fake invoices. The refund mechanism could start on the basis of invoices issued by big retailers,” the official told PTI.

A provision for GST refund to tourists have been made in the GST law, but it is yet to be operational.

The law has defined the term tourist as a person not normally resident in India, who enters India for a stay of not more than six months for legitimate non-immigrant purposes.

AMRG & Associates Partner Rajat Mohan said tourist refund claims are a great inbound tourism marketing technique with a low cost to the exchequer.

“Internationally, countries like Singapore and Australia have an online robust system connecting multiple refund agencies and retailers on a single platform, offering tourists a seamless and hassle-free experience while verifying, processing and disbursing the tax refunds. Matching such state-of-the-art systems could be a technological nightmare for Indian counterparts,” Mohan said.

Countries like Australia, Germany, France, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Switzerland offer VAT or GST refund to international tourists subject to certain conditions. These countries also have a threshold of the minimum amount spent for availing these tax refund advantage.

In Australia, to avail the tax benefit the minimum spend should be 300 Australian dollars (around Rs 15,000). Also, the goods have to be purchased from a single business with same Australian business number.

In case of Singapore, the norms are more relaxed and the minimum purchase amount fixed is SGD 100 (around Rs 5,000), while for Japan and Switzerland the threshold has been fixed at 5,401 yen (around Rs 3,000) and 300 Swiss francs (around Rs 20,000), respectively. PTI JD MKJ

[“Source-businesstoday”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Online Marketing

Is Virtual Currency The Future Of Online Marketing?

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Virtual currency holds lots of promise. Is it the future of online marketing though?

In 2006, TIME Magazine awarded the coveted “Person Of the Year” cover to us, the consumer of information on the Internet.  The cover read, “You control the information age. Welcome to your world.”

The thought was nice but over the past decade plus not much has changed about the way content is created, distributed and monetized online. One man says that consumers are actually not in control at all. In fact he feels, and many might agree, that when it comes to consuming content on the Internet, the audiences are getting more than just short changed, they are getting completely taken advantage of.

Audiences hold all the value to content publishers online. They are the magnets that attract advertising revenue, which makes content creation possible. And most importantly, audiences purchase the products and services online that make advertisers profitable. Everyone is financially benefiting from audiences, except the audience.

All’s Not Fair In Online Marketing

Ivan Jiang is one man who believes this is not the most fair of conditions shall we say so he created the platform Merculet, which is a combination of content distribution network, advertising platform, and payment platform.  It uses Blockchain technology to transform the way merchants, advertisers, producers, and consumers interact and benefit from their co-existence.  Merchants are essentially any enterprise looking to increase sales or engagement.

By acquiring virtual currency from the platform, they can then invest that currency into advertising. The advertisers can they strategically align themselves with content creators to generate the most effective and targeted visibility for the merchants they represent.

Various metrics can be used by advertisers to optimize the placements of their ads and also help choose the content producers they partner with. Most importantly, content consumers, based on various actions that can range from watching a show, to sitting through an entire commercial without skipping ahead, to filling out a lead form, are rewarded using virtual currency that allows them to purchase products and services from merchants on the platform.

Merchants and content creators benefit the most from understanding and monetizing the behaviors of the consumers of the content they are creating or sponsoring. According to Jiang, it will not be long into the future before consumers, realizing the value of their views, are going to begin expecting to be treated as members of a community, and rewarded for their participation in the process. This is a pretty unprecedented concept that could someday make rewarding audiences with virtual currency the expectation and standard in entertainment.

Consumers Like It But What About Advertisers?

This all seems great for the consumer, but will merchants and advertisers get on board? According to Jiang, who has secured deals with content exchanges that could potentially garner hundreds of millions of views, the benefits to advertisers is in the detailed ability to track and learn about audiences. Merculet has created a measurement system that can scientifically identify the value of each user and their attention that they refer to as the User Attention Value Assessment System.

After determining each user’s score based on their actions, engagement, and historical behavior, advertisers will issue virtual currency rewards in proportion to that consumer’s level of benefit to the overall eco-system.

Modern innovations in Blockchain technology have expedited the possibility of bringing these types of platforms to life.  Every transaction can be recorded and verified with complete transparency to every party involved from merchant to end viewer.

Rewarding Experiences

Users’ rewards are determined and awarded based on a logical and transparent system. Content creators are rewarded or creating content that generated profitable audiences.

Advertisers can transparently show merchants how successful their advertising placements were with audiences and optimize advertising placements to improve outcomes. Merchants profits because everyone is incentivized and compensated for their engagement.

Jiang says that although other similar projects of this magnitude typically have project cycles that could take five or even as much as ten years to implement, Mercult is prepared to deliver a sizable impact on the content industry in the coming year. He credits his leadership team, comprised of former members of leading tech companies like SAP and HP, and relationships with content distribution networks that reach nearly one billion consumers.

Being someone who’s lifestyle encompasses spending nearly all waking hours connected to a device with a screen interacting with businesses online, it does sound pretty nice to finally be compensated for my time. Most audiences might agree.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
error: Content is protected !!