The LAQO Metaverse Insurance Museum is the first of a kind in the world, located on the Decentraland metaverse platform. The visitors can go through the old-fashioned insurance experience, such as filling out endless forms or forever waiting in line at the counter for insurance officers to come back from lunch break. Nope, this is no joke, the museum really exists, but as a practical joke about the outdated, and annoying, insurance practices. The museum’s founder is LAQO by Croatia Insurance. In contrast to insurance practices displayed in this museum, LAQO is the first in Croatia to offer its clients 100% digital insurance service.

“LAQO by Croatia Insurance is focused on the users and maximizing the value from digital technologies. We were the first to offer cryptocurrency payments. In the same vein, we also decided to be the first mover in the metaverse. Given a small metaverse user base, we resolved to use this platform, for the time being, as a prank to establish the LAQO brand as a digital innovation leader. We were also the first among the insurance brands in Europe to start using GPT for interactions with our clients,” said Ana Zovko, director of the Digital Development Sector at Croatia Insurance, the LAQO brand owner.

The idea for the museum came from the creative agency Bruketa&Žinić&Grey, with Rezolut as a technology partner. “To date we have witnessed a colorful array of brand activations in the metaverse. That’s why we came up with the prank idea, wanting to underline the benefits of the LAQO brand as well. This is only a museum for now, but with changing customer demands it might evolve into something bigger. Nevertheless, as far as I know, this is the very first insurance you can buy in the metaverse” said Davor Bruketa, creative director at Bruketa&Žinić&Grey Agency.

The first two floors of the museum show the users “good time” whilst they fill out the forms and wait in line, while the top floor is the “gateway” to the LAQO webshop where in a jiffy the users can buy insurance completely digitally. Cryptocurrency payments are also available, as well as extra benefits such as 20 percent CASCO discount with mandatory insurance. The webshop also offers an estimate of average CO2 emission savings as a result of website visits in the previous month. 

LAQO by Croatia Insurance is the first Croatian 100% digital insurance brand. The brand name was inspired by the Croatian word lako, which means easy. The brand has an easygoing communication: two cute spiders, brand characters, hang out on the web all day long, and educate the public about the benefits of digital insurance. The LAQO spiders, Pavle and Pero, can also be found in the metaverse insurance museum. And as of recently, Pavle is online on Whatsapp too, available for one-on-one chats powered by GPT technology.

Source: Bruketa&Žinić&Grey

InMobi, a leading provider of content, monetisation, and marketing technologies that help businesses fuel growth, released insights from its 2023 survey about streaming subscription behaviour and found that younger consumers’ content preferences show a significant shift in the types of content they gravitate toward. The survey shows that while Millennials (ages 35-44) prefer streaming, Gen Z (ages 18-24) significantly leans toward user-generated content (UGC) over other content types. Younger Millennials (ages 25-34) engage in all content consumption equally.

InMobi‘s survey, which includes responses from more than 1,000 US consumers, demonstrates that expectations of engaging content will likely continue to shift as these generations continue to age. The findings include:

• Gen Z enjoys UGC significantly more than other content types. 61% of Gen Z prefer UGC over other content formats. UGC is followed by Music/Podcasts, then Gaming, with TV coming in fourth.
• Younger Millennials do not have a clear content preference. Gaming, UGC, and TV ranked closely. UGC tops the list followed by TV.
• Older Millennials enjoy TV the most. TV was the most popular content choice with a 19% gain above the second choice, UGC. 67% of older Millennials chose TV as their top form of digital entertainment.

“The clear generational divide shows how the content vehicle of the time creates lasting habits and familiarity. To win over Gen Z as they come into purchasing power and boardroom and political influence, UGC will be the critical lever across the content ecosystem. You can see this with the NFL’s Sunday Ticket deal with YouTube that starts this year as they move away from a long-standing partnership with Dish TV to court Gen Z fans to the sport,” says Justin Sparks, Director of Vertical Strategy, North America at InMobi.

InMobi Insights, Powered by Pulse conducts survey-based research to validate and uncover trends for brand and agency clients. For more information on InMobi Pulse, visit: https://www.inmobi.com/pulse.

Source: InMobi

Customer acquisition specialist esbconnect has successfully completed a management buyout. CEO and co-founder Suzanna Chaplin takes the reins and will steer the company’s first-party services into the cookieless ecosystem, at a time when email is finding fresh relevance as a vital ID solution.

UK-based esbconnect, which has nine years of industry expertise, can now introduce a suite of products – including Data-Driven Email, First-Party Data Builds and Inbox Extend – to help reach a brand’s KPIs across social and programmatic environments.

The MBO also sees esbconnect add an experienced advisory board made up of serial tech investor Lee Cory, Ometria CFO Xenia Ilyasova and digital specialist and entrepreneur Ray Jenkin.

esbconnect’s new beginning comes amid a surge in demand for first-party data solutions, with email in particular gaining traction as an increasingly valuable post-cookie ID.

Chaplin explains: “We really believe in email as the most powerful customer acquisition tool. With the disappearance of the cookie edging ever closer, marketers are more reliant than ever on email as an identifier. As online marketing changes almost beyond recognition, brands need to ensure they have a first-party data strategy that is fit for the modern age.”

esbconnect helps brands acquire and retain more customers through its proprietary email database of millions of UK consumers. Offering more than 150 targeting variables, the company has set up, managed and run email campaigns for more than 600 brands, driving performance and allowing them to leverage valuable first-party data in the social and programmatic spaces. 

esbconnect’s services deliver rich insights for brands. Its customer acquisition platform reaches some 17m consumers across the UK, and it tracks opens and click-rates of 50m emails each month, helping brands to monetise data, find new customers and grow their databases.

“Following the successful completion of the management buy-out, we are so excited to be able to double down on growth, with a newly refreshed vision and a number of key product developments in the pipeline for the rest of 2023 and beyond,” says Chaplin.

“With such significant changes in the marketing landscape, the buyout felt like perfect timing. We are laser-focused on our plans to help brands deliver effective marketing in this cost of living crisis. This year will see us scale up as we support increasing numbers of advertisers and publishers with our technology – enabling their teams to develop future facing marketing strategies fit for the modern age. Through people-based marketing, and despite the death of the cookie, a bright future awaits.”

esbconnect’s platform enables clients such as Hello Fresh, Clarks and Ted Baker to engage new customers on any device and channel, using email as a trusted digital ID. Its platform puts brands in front of millions of consumers whilst building a multi dimensional picture of an individual across channels and devices. It delivers precision targeting at scale; connecting email, cookie and mobile data to track customer journeys live from platform to platform. Its GDPR-compliant proprietary database of 15 million UK consumers is rigorously cleaned, verified, opted in, and overlaid with rich data on demographics and behaviours, thereby allowing advertisers to unlock the value of email data and deliver a reliable picture of customer intent.

Source: esbconnect

SeenThis, the adaptive streaming technology specialist, is thrilled to announce a strategic partnership with Carbon1 in South Africa. This collaboration aims to empower South African brands by delivering faster, high-quality digital advertising while significantly minimising carbon emissions.

Together, Carbon1 and SeenThis are paving the way for more sustainable media practices, prioritising both the user experience and overall advertising performance. 

SeenThis’ proprietary streaming technology allows advertisers to stream high-resolution, bandwidth-friendly video content replacing the traditional, more cumbersome ad serving methods. This results in reduced data usage and energy consumption, leading to a smaller carbon footprint when compared to the use of conventional advertising technology. As a result, a growing number of advertisers are seeing the benefits of more carbon-efficient campaigns at a time when there is increasing focus on the need to deliver digital experiences in more sustainable and efficient ways. 

SeenThis is also fully compatible with all of the existing ad serving and programmatic platforms and supply sources in South Africa, so it can be instantly deployed by agencies and advertisers currently buying and serving digital media.

Joe Steyn-Begley, Managing Director of Carbon1 expresses his enthusiasm about the partnership: “We are extremely excited to collaborate with SeenThis and leverage its ground-breaking creative technology. Not only does it provide brands and agencies with a remarkable solution to minimise their carbon footprint from digital advertising and become more sustainable, but it also increases campaign performance and audience attention.”

Energy efficiency and the rapid loading of data are particularly relevant in South Africa, where an ongoing energy crisis, known as ‘load shedding’, regularly results in widespread national blackouts. Alongside this, the high cost of data for users is also a challenge which SeenThis technology helps to address through bandwidth-efficient streaming.

Nick Titmus, GM UK at SeenThis adds: “Together with Carbon1, we aspire to create a brighter digital future in South Africa where creativity, performance and sustainability walk hand-in-hand. By combining SeenThis streaming technology with Carbon1’s in-market expertise, we can inspire, change and revolutionise the way brands and media agencies deliver digital advertising, whilst championing performance and digital sustainability.”

This partnership represents a significant step forward in the digital advertising landscape, emphasising the importance of sustainability and a more environmentally-conscious industry. By partnering with SeenThis, Carbon1 is at the forefront of driving positive change; demonstrating that brands can achieve outstanding results and minimise their environmental impact.

Source: SeenThis

Playground xyz’s AIP technology fuses eye tracking panel data with an advanced AI to optimise Attention Time – how long in seconds an ad is actually looked at – across both creative and media in real time. Advertisers using PubMatic will now be able to bolster their campaigns and adjust ad spend towards the inventory that is securing the highest levels of attention. 

“Advertisers are starting to harness the power of measuring and optimising their campaigns on a quality metric like attention, rather than proxy metrics like viewability. Making this revolutionary metric accessible to customers is a key step to adoption and we are excited to partner with PubMatic, one of the world’s leading ad tech companies, to provide this scalable solution to their clients,” said Rob Hall, CEO, Playground xyz.

Attention Time is highly predictive of brand and performance outcomes, making it a revolutionary barometer for advertisers to improve campaign effectiveness. Playground xyz’s AIP solution makes attention insights actionable for advertisers by not only offering attention measurement but the ability to optimise their campaigns towards attention while the campaign is running. 

“We are seeing the demand for attention-based solutions continue to surge and are excited to offer advertisers the ability to choose Playground xyz’s industry-leading high-attention marketplaces within our platform. Integrating AIP’s Attention Time capabilities is an exciting step forward in allowing the world’s biggest brands to take action on attention,” said Peter Barry, Vice President, Addressability and Commerce Media, PubMatic.

Playground xyz AIP’s high-attention marketplaces are available to all global PubMatic customers starting today. 

Source: Playground xyz

impact.com, the world’s leading partnership management platform, today announced the launch of impact.com / creator, an influencer marketing platform that allows advertisers to discover, create, manage, and scale full-funnel influencer marketing programmes from a single interface. The new technology simplifies and improves the user experience for both brands and creators.

The creator economy is estimated to be a more than $100 billion market. Given the sizable creator landscape, marketers say that finding the right partners, and evaluating creators against their needs, are among their biggest challenges today. And according to impact.com research also announced today, that same pain point exists for creators. 86% of creators say that while they want to expand brand partnerships, with selective criteria, it’s challenging to identify quality prospective brand partners that will work long-term. 

impact.com / creator’s all-in-one platform houses all partnerships – including affiliate and influencer partners. Here, brands and creators can discover new partnerships, contract, manage, pay and optimise their partnerships based on comprehensive performance insights.

The technology provides a marketplace for brands to find new partners based on filters such as geographical location, social platform, follower size, vertical, and soon, AI-based recommendations, and more. The two-sided nature of the platform also allows creators to seek out brand collaborations. This empowers brands and creators to collaborate efficiently and view performance in one, easy-to-use platform. Now everyone, from CMOs and VPs to managers and coordinators, can better understand the incremental awareness and revenue that their partnerships are driving. 

“We recognise that marketers require innovative technology to stay ahead of developments within the fast-paced creator economy, which is why we’ve created an industry-first creator partnerships management platform, ” said David A. Yovanno, CEO at impact.com. “Creators are a critical and expanding part of our industry and with impact.com / creator, we are enabling clients not only to scale these partnerships, which is notoriously difficult, but also to help establish longer-term relationships. But first, brands must know what’s working, and tracking and performance insights are where impact.com has been leading the market for some time.”

Now, with a single login and integrated interface, brands can drive optimal customer journeys from the awareness stage through to conversion. Brands can also diversify their partner mix and compensate them with a variety of models, from CPA and commission to flat fees or combinations of both. According to impact.com’s new research conducted in partnership with AdWeek, the majority of creators prefer to be paid with a combination of flat fee and performance bonus, known as a PostPlus compensation model; until now, the industry hasn’t offered flexible, scalable payment options in one interface.

With impact.com’s new offering, brands and creators will:

• Discover best-fit partners: Brands can recruit qualified influencers to promote their products by searching and filtering through an opt-in marketplace of highly vetted creators, or with the support of an Influencer Growth Manager, a dedicated resource for sourcing, vetting and enabling creators for brand campaigns. Clients can view performance metrics across all social platforms and manage influencer collaborations in one place. Creators can start working with brands and earning income immediately by searching for campaigns that align with their interests and values.
• Payout faster with more flexibility: With automated contracting, brands and creators can choose between flexible and diverse payout models such as commission or other performance-based payment model, flat fee, or any combination of both, based on contract terms that are put in place. Creators also receive the fastest payouts in the industry, processed as fast as the next day.
• Manage end-to-end campaigns with full transparency: Brands and creators can negotiate flexible contract terms, automate task reminders and payouts, usage rights, and more. The user-friendly interface and intuitive tools also make it easy to manage and scale partnerships efficiently. 
• Track, analyse and attribute performance accurately: Brands and creators gain best in class performance tracking and reporting, get access to first-party creator data, and view detailed performance insights including engagement, demographics, conversions and attribution. Users can see how their content is performing, and which posts or videos drive the biggest impact so they know where to focus their efforts.
• Access to more dynamic content management: Brands and agencies can store, review, share and amplify influencer content directly from their impact.com account. Creators can easily share and store content deliverables, such as user-generated content assets for later use by the brand with partners and get feedback to optimise.

“Now with impact.com’s new influencer and creator platform, content creators like me will have access to not only brand relationships, but also the ability to get eyes on more detailed analytics. This makes it easier to see how partnerships perform and provides the data to help approach other brands moving forward,” said Chloe Wen, Nashville lifestyle influencer and YouTuber. “I’m also really excited for the marketplace to be open to creators, letting them directly submit applications to partners and also have the opportunity to change the scope of work like post dates, usage terms, and deliverables. All of these features will be of great value to both creators and brands, making what we hope to be, intentional and seamless partnerships.”

These new capabilities cement impact.com’s position as the most comprehensive partnership suite in the market – one that drives efficient workflows, removes manual processes, and allows teams to track and report on progress and KPIs across all partnership types.

“As someone who has been in the creator management business for the last 10 years, I’ve worked with countless creator partnership platforms and impact.com / creator takes into consideration what is and isn’t working,” said Becca Bahrke, CEO of Iluminate Social, a creator management and brand partnerships company that has partnered with impact.com for more than 6 years. “I’m thrilled to see the negotiation options from creator fee to usage, as this is the most important part of my job as a manager and bringing fruitful partnerships to our roster of creators. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ package and while that would be easier if every creator agreed to the same terms and rates, it’s not realistic. impact.com / creator takes that into account while still providing the best data and metrics for a brand to evaluate if a partnership was impactful. The future of influencer marketing is where influencer and affiliate merge and this platform truly brings the two together.” 

To learn more about impact.com / creator, please visit www.impact.com/creator.

Source: impact.com

The beautiful and exclusive Hurlingham Club in London was swapped for a “virtual” Awards Presentation streamed exclusively on YouTube in honour of the Finalists and Winners of The 25th FAB Awards! FAB extended an open invitation to the entire Marketing Communications Industry globally to view the show.

Claire Robertshaw, Jury Chair – Packaging Design & Branding at The 25th FAB Awards

Successful design, creative and effective work was showcased to the viewers at the show, and winning projects were announced – be it a Grand Prix (FABulous), a Gold (FAB) or a Silver Award.

Richard Denney, Jury Chair – Advertising & Innovations at The 25th FAB Awards

The recipients of the best in show ( FABulous Award ) at The 25th FAB Awards, were as follows:

FABulous Award across all Design categories:

Swee Kombucha – 100% Natural by Bedow, Stockholm

As one with the olive by Design Bridge and Partners

FABulous Award across all Advertising & Innovation categories:

Malnutrition Labels: Nutritional Ink by St. Luke’s, London

BBDO New York wins Agency of The Year Award 

BBDO New York took home The Agency of The Year Award. BBDO New York were the winners in 2021 and have now taken the crown back from AMV BBDO who were last year’s winners. The Omnicom Agency won a FAB ( GOLD ) and number of Silver Awards and closely edged out their closest competitor who were St. Luke’s London this year.

MARS, Incorporated Win The FAB Brand/Marketer of the Year Award

Much of MARS‘ success came from their Pet Food and Snickers & M&M’s Projects by BBDO New York  and MARS Petcare and won them a FAB Gold Award and several FAB Sliver Awards. 

The food giant have now won the accolade for the fifth time.

Shenzhen Tigerpan Design Co., Ltd. Wins FAB Design Agency of the Year Award

Branding & Design expert Shenzhen Tigerpan Design Co., Ltd., was named the FAB Design Agency of the Year, taking home Silvers and a FAB ( GOLD ) at The Awards.

FAB GOLD Winners were:

Packaging Design:

Swee Kombucha – 100% Natural by Bedow, Stockholm

As one with the olive by Design Bridge and Partners

Nikasi or other beer by Shenzhen Tigerpan Design Co., Ltd.

Johnnie Walker Blue Label – Cities of the Future 2220 by Butterfly Cannon, London

On the Fringe by Denomination

Dada Chapel by Stranger & Stranger

Interior Design & Retail Environment

Gaucho, Liverpool by DesignLSM, Brighton

Advertising & Innovation FAB GOLDS

Here for #WagathaChristie by St. Luke’s, London for Butterkist ( Press & Print )

Malnutrition Labels: Nutritional Ink by St. Luke’s, London for Dole Sunshine Company (Poster / Outdoor / OOH )

Placeb’eau for SPA by Happiness, Brussels ( Direct Marketing )

Pre-Hated Marmite by OLIVER London for Marmite ( Guerrilla Marketing & Online Advertising )

The MilkmAId by Ogilvy Paris for La Laitière ( Best Use Of Technology )

Pedigree – Rescue Doodles by BBDO New York for Pedigree ( Mobile )

The FAB Awards Trophies are made out of recycled packaging materials.

A full list of the Winners of The 25th FAB Awards can be seen here.

Source: The FAB Awards

Adaptive streaming tech platform SeenThis has announced a partnership with DSP, Adform, as both companies continue to strive to minimize carbon emissions from the digital supply chain while improving and modernizing the online ecosystem.

SeenThis’ proprietary streaming technology minimizes unnecessary data transfer in display advertising and achieves faster load times. Now working in partnership, SeenThis and Adform will offer high-quality user experience and improved outcomes for more brands while achieving a measurably lower data footprint in campaigns when compared to conventional delivery methods.

This partnership will help to drive further carbon emissions savings capabilities in the market, with SeenThis’ adaptive streaming technology reducing data transfer on ad campaigns when compared to conventional technology – helping brands and agencies not only to reduce the environmental cost of their digital campaigns but also making their ads load faster and ensuring higher performance. In addition, Adform and SeenThis collaborate with Scope3 in their joint mission to help to devise best-in-industry approaches to enabling the reduction and measurement of carbon emissions when delivering display advertising.  

“We are producing great synergies as we continue on our shared mission of creating a more environmentally friendly marketplace. Increasingly, clients are choosing more sustainable publishers through the Adform DSP and, with SeenThis technology, we can help to drive less wasteful advertising,” explains Adform’s Naveen Angaru, Head of Customer Success APAC.

SeenThis Steve Alpe, Partnerships Director ANZ adds: “Adform has already shown itself to be a pioneer in sustainability and will now aim even higher by leveraging our technology, which streams ads in bite-sized pieces, only when in-view – thereby significantly reducing data wastage and associated carbon emissions, when compared to conventional download technology. Increasingly, brands are seeking to reduce negative impact on the environment through their media partners and choices. Fortunately, through the use of our groundbreaking technology, we are able to drive performance efficiencies and minimize emissions.”

This news follows hot on the heels of the launch of SeenThis’ creative platform and Emissions Dashboard, which enables clients to track, measure and analyze their carbon footprint. More details about the methodology and carbon footprint measurement can be found here.

Source: SeenThis

The cards were created nearly 40 years ago but have never been updated. With that in mind, Vivo is launching the project “The Autism Journey” in partnership with AMA – Association of Autistic Friends, first nonprofit institution to support autistic people in Brazil, created by the agency Africa Creative. Cards can be updated in an innovative way using artificial intelligence, through an online platform that is simple to navigate and will bring autistic people closer to the most revolutionary technology of the moment. Just access www.theautismjourney.com.br and interact with a neural network that analyzes billions of online data to further strengthen human relationships with those who need it most.

“Vivo continues with its purpose of digitizing to approach and brings a project that can help family members and educators to promote a different and immersive experience with autistic people”, says Marina Daineze, director of Brand and Communication at Vivo.

Scientific studies prove that interacting with autistic people through their hyperfocus helps to improve communication, and based on this, it will be possible to create personalized cards on the website, inspired by the interests and passions of each autistic person. That is: if a person within the spectrum likes dinosaurs, he can generate several cards on the site with drawings of dinosaurs demonstrating basic and easy-to-understand situations. In this way, they can feel more engaged in interacting with the cards and, consequently, more motivated to communicate. The platform also had all its architecture and layout designed for autistic people, respecting colors and typologies that are friendlier to them.

Source: Africa Creative

Digital entertainment and media platform Azerion and adaptive streaming specialist SeenThis today announce a groundbreaking partnership to enable emissions savings from more sustainable delivery of campaigns across Australia and New Zealand.

Azerion ANZ combines creativity and technology for brands through high-impact rich media, in-game solutions and full-funnel customised performance strategies – delivering thousands of campaigns each month. 

In contrast to conventional technology used to deliver programmatic creative, SeenThis adaptive streaming solution delivers the highest quality creative possible, instantly and with less redundant data waste – streaming in bite-sized pieces only when ads are in view.

 In this way, its technology improves the user experience of display formats, including static images and video. The partnership aims to drive more sustainable advertising at scale across Australia and New Zealand, and enable brands to minimise energy consumption and waste in advertising campaigns.

Elizabeth Grant, Operations and Partnerships Director at Azerion explains: “In this climate, it is more important than ever for advertisers to work with trusted partners and to deliver competitive outcomes, maximising revenue through effective use of media and technology. Through this partnership and SeenThis’ innovative and ground-breaking technology, we are thrilled to put sustainabbility at the forefront of digital campaigns.” 

The partnership provides an ideal solution for advertisers who prioritise environmental sustainability, said both companies. 

Steve Alpe, Partnerships Director, ANZ at SeenThis said: “We are delighted to partner with Azerion to drive more sustainable advertising at scale in these important markets. Our unique technology, with its data-efficiency capabilities, enables the reduction of our clients’ data transfer from creative delivery – which would reduce the energy consumption of the internet and, in turn, drive lower carbon emissions. 

He added: Beyond this, while minimising unnecessary data in digital advertising, we also deliver an enhanced user experience and performance gains – with instant load times and high quality creatives.” 

Learn more about SeenThis methodology and carbon footprint measurement here.

Source: SeenThis