Adobe has entered the AI creative competition with a product called Sensei GenAI. It’s not the first tech firm to jump in, nor will it be the last.  

Among other things, Sensei GenAI can help marketers create text-based message variations for email, mobile messaging and other consumer touchpoints, Adobe says.

Marketers can select tone of voice and identify key words for creating emails. In addition, they can modify copy on their websites via AEM Sites. 

Users can also leverage large language models (LLMs), including ChatGPT, through the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and FLAN-T5. This selection will align with brand guidelines, product vocabulary and customer insights, Adobe says. 

The features include Conversational Experiences via Marketo Engage, Sensei GenAI, which will power Dynamic Chat and allow B2B brands to engage prospects who visit their digital properties and describe the interactions.

In addition, the Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform will utilize Sensei GenAI to create audience segments for personalized campaigns, providing insights on next-best offers and touchpoints. 

Sensei GenAI will also power intelligent captions with Customer Journey Analytics. Cohort tables, fallout charts and other such visualizations will generate text-based descriptions on key takeaways. 

Adobe is also offering Firefly, a family of generative AI models being integrated into Adobe Experience Cloud. This will allow users to produce content variations built on Adobe Stock images that have been deemed safe for commercial use -- and change the image components while generating variations for email, mobile, web and other channels.

The new features will first be natively integrated into Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Journey Optimizer, and Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform.

Because Adobe is a smaller player, it presumably will avoid some of the controversy that has accompanied the announcement of programs such as Google Bard. When answering a query, Bard listed Gmail as a source of data, and then the company quickly denied that this was true. 

According to TechCrunch, Google Workplace said “Bard is an early experiment based on Large Language Models and will make mistakes. It is not trained on Gmail data."

Meanwhile, Adobe has high hopes for Sensei GenAI. 

“Business growth is driven by customer experiences, and generative AI is a transformative, foundational technology that will impact every aspect of how brands connect with their customers,” says Amit Ahuja, senior vice president, digital experience business at Adobe.

SoundHound, a audio and speech-recognition company known primarily for its music-discovery technology and integrations with platforms like Netflix, has announced the launch of SoundHound Chat AI, a voice assistant that delivers rapid answers to a range of customer queries, for communication that resembles a natural conversation.

SoundHound believes voice is the most natural interface for generative AI, and is now focused now on enabling humans to interact with products and services as if they were interacting with each other, “by speaking naturally.”

Cutting out the typical “Sorry, I didn’t get that” response, SoundHound Chat AI keeps the conversation going by providing fast, accurate responses to customer queries using its proprietary technology to select the best answer for any question, a spokesperson told MediaPost.

“Whether that is real-time information that large language models cannot handle (like weather, navigation, stock prices, or sending texts) or a knowledge-based query better met with generative AI,” the spokesperson added.

The voice assistant is powered by two new proprietary developments. The software engineering technology called “CaiLAN,” or “Conversational AI Language,” builds knowledge domains, like weather, restaurants, traffic, and local search. While the machine learning technology called “CaiNet,” or “Conversational AI Network,” controls and arbitrates the results to provide the best response to the user.

The company says CaiNET can connect to SoundHounds internal models as well as external models such as OpenAI's GPT, among others.

SoundHound CEO and cofounder Keyvan Mohajer says the company’s new AI offering eliminates the need for awkward search queries, and delivers the digital assistant experience users have been desiring for decades.

Users can ask, as if in conversation, “I need some ideas for a birthday gift for my 16-year-old niece,” or “Did the Warriors win their last game?”

SoundHound Chat AI also allows users to ask follow-up questions and commands in order to filter, sort, or add more information to the original request. For example, “My niece is interested in art and film,” or “When’s the next home game? How do I get tickets?”

To use the AI voice assistant, people can download the app on Google Play, with options to subscribe to a weekly or an annual plan. The company says the app is coming soon to the iOS App Stores.

World Famous created a new videocentric campaign for Game Stop, a major video retailer, with the tagline: “There’s a place for us.”

The brand campaign celebrates GameStop’s community, such as the ad "Funeral." 

Other 15-second spots include "House Party" and "Single Player Love."

The ads will begin running digitally later this month.

World Famous, a creative agency based in Seattle, has also done work for Frida, Taco Time and T-Mobile.

"Picture a cell phone and an email machine all in one thing!"

As far as elevator pitches go, that must've sounded a little out there in 1996, the year IFC Films' "BlackBerry" opens. After all, it was nearly a year before Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, so you had to have a little vision for how that technological mashup might work. But it was the second part of the pitch depicted in the film, which opens in theaters May 17, that got investors interested: "There is a free wireless internet signal all across North America and nobody has figured out how to use it."

Needless to say, the nerds at BlackBerry founder Research In Motion figured it out, and the rest is history.

The film, which waxes nostalgic, is hilarious and seems relatively quaint by today's always-on, next-gen generative state of mobile communications. But it also provides some valuable business insights on what to do -- and what not to do -- if you're an undercapitalized, venture-backed, start-up expanding rapidly beyond your means as bigger, much more established competitors take notice.

And nearly three decades later, as Apple begins rolling out another mind-blowing update -- version 16.4 of iOS -- I still yearn for the ergonomic simplicity of the BlackBerry's chiclet-style keypad.

Or as one of the main characters explains while demonstrating a prototype to a potential investor, "Try typing with your thumbs."

Back in the day, I could have written this column on my BlackBerry.

You know what this column was NOT written on in 2023? My so-called smartphone.

Mail Metro Media has partnered with Firework to launch a vertical video infrastructure across its digital portfolio. It claims to be the first European news publisher to do so. 

The video technology suite debuted this month on the MailOnline and Metro desktop and mobile websites. It allows users to move up or down the homepage based on the content they want, while enabling brands to  integrate their social, UGC and shoppable commerce content into leading breaking news carousels.

Commercial opportunities include single slide ads, bespoke video with brand integration and promotion, and carousel takeovers that can combine bespoke videos with interstitial ads, Mail Metro Media says.

The goal is to develop “new ways for our audiences to engage with us,” states Lauren Dick, executive director of media & data services at Mail Metro Media.

In addition, the firm can its advertising partners “not just to promote their video assets, but to offer seamless shopping functionality from these assets, at the very heart of the news our audience loves to engage with every single day,” Dick continues.

Mail Metro Media serves over 25 million Facebook and Instagram followers, 15 million Snap subscribers and over 4.5 million TikTok followers. 

Adobe previewed technology this evening for the fashion and retail industries through its Summit Sneaks program at the company’s annual Adobe Summit in Las Vegas.

Sneaks is technology created by Adobe employees -- from engineers to designers -- that demonstrate innovations and next-generation personalized experiences. Historically, around 60% of Sneaks have become actual product features in Adobe products.

Adobe on Wednesday unveiled the technology -- Project True Colors, created by Adobe Staff Designer Dej Mejia. If implemented, it will be anchored in the Adobe Commerce Platform, which is used by more than 85% of the top 100 retailers in the U.S., across both small and medium businesses. 

This year Adobe had about 200 submissions, the most ever, up from 130 in 2022.  

Project True Colors is geared toward the fashion and retail industries and leverages the company’s long history of creative tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator. The goal is to help shoppers find apparel that works with their skin tone.

It is being tested internally, but not with customers at the moment. The test period can vary. It depends on the technology. Testing can run from months to years, depending on the readiness.

The technology enables shoppers to gain access to a free color analysis on ecommerce sites by simply taking a photo during the online shopping experience.

Consumers then receive a detailed analysis of the colors that work best against their skin tone, which is generated in minutes using artificial intelligence (AI).

The information then is integrated into the online shopping experience, allowing shoppers to customize what they see. 

This enables an inclusive and personalized experience. It also provides retailers information on the colors they have in stock and where gaps are in inventory to improve product availability.   

Adobe has been running the Sneaks program since 2012. Dubbed Project Car Smarts, Adobe introduced an app in 2019 to track car stats such as how the battery or engine is doing. It relied on the Adobe Analytics platform that was typically used for a website or mobile app and put it into the car.

For example, Journey is a conceptual service for Marketing Cloud that was introduced in 2017, which maps customer interaction with a brand and tracks customer activity across channels. It was powered by Adobe Sensei AI. It is not known whether these apps are still being used today.

As consumers trade down and increasingly look for deals in the cannabis space, online marketplace Leafly is doubling down on personalization and mobile ordering to better serve its brand and retail partners.

Launched in 2010 as a cannabis content library, Leafly derives revenue from more than 5,500 retailers and more than 9,000 cannabis and cannabis-related brands that pay for inclusion on the company’s website and mobile app.

While retailer revenue rose 9.3% to $36.7 million in 2022 and income from brands was up 12.9% to $10.6 million, price deflation is a major concern—particularly for brands.

“Cannabis prices are down, economics are difficult,” Leafly CEO Yoko Miyashita said on a Q4 earnings call last week.

That dynamic was evident in the fourth quarter, when retailer revenue increased 4% year over year, but brand contribution declined by 12% “reflecting the softening we started to see in the second half of last year,” said CFO Suresh Krishnaswamy.

Among other new features, having given shoppers the ability to make product price comparisons helped lure more than one million new users to Leafly’s mobile platform last year—up 18.5%.

This year the company will offer more user personalization, effects-based search for cannabis users, and an increased focus on deals for price-conscious shoppers perusing more than 160,000 products.

“We're building off our proprietary data to drive better personalization, creation and effects-based shopping, which allows consumers to shop based on how they want to feel,” said Miyashita.

“Mobile is where our most engaged customers are. They search more, they shop more and we have an easier path to retention and engagement.”

The company’s founding as a content library—now containing more than 11,000 cannabis-related articles and 1.3 million consumer reviews—has given it an edge.

“Leafly's decade-plus history of producing cannabis-related educational content has given it an online search advantage in most markets in the U.S.—especially on the East Coast where many markets are transitioning to adult use over the next several years,” investment firm TD Cowen noted in a post-earnings analysis.

“Cannabis—with all of its regulatory hurdles and starts and pauses—is a long game,” Miyashita said last week.

“We're going to see for the first time how cannabis performs in a down economy and what we see gives us reasons for optimism. We're adjusting to give consumers what they're looking for—value and providing retailer and brand clients with clearer and simpler paths to reach shoppers.”

With more people complaining about Instagram’s user experience (including cofounder Kevin Systrom, who recently said the app has lost its soul), a 14-year-old rival, Hipstamatic, has redesigned its app to meet user needs. 

Unlike Instagram, Hipstamatic’s refreshed app -- which launched on Wednesday -- has no ads, a chronological rather than algorithmic feed, and no real opportunity for creators.

The app limits users’ followers to 99 people maximum, with nine spots for people considered "close friends" for private posts.

Reels -- Meta’s response to the TikTokification of social media –– will not be replicated on Hipstamatic either, with co-founder Lucas Buick telling TechCrunchhe would never introduce video to the platform.

For people truly fed up with Instagram’s barrage of videos, creators and ads (which will now be featured in Search as well), Hipstamatic aims to offer what Instagram once was, a platform where friends share photos with other friends. To set it apart from other contenders, Hipstamatic has a large collection of photo filters that have been developed since its start in 2009

“Hipstamatic filters are very heavy compared with the rest of the market,” Buick tells TechCrunch -- alluding to the app’s ability to replicate vintage camera styles, like an 1889 photo, using facial-recognition technology.

With the redesign, Buick believes Hipstamatic will capture the attention of Boomers, as well as Gen Z audiences, who are currently obsessed with retro aesthetics in tandem with an uptick in 90s fashion, vinyl sales, digital cameras, and flip phones.

“Kids are buying iPhone 3Gs to have better photo experiences in some weird, twisted world of TikTok,” he says. “All of a sudden, a lot of things that we’ve built over the last decade have started to make sense again. That's sort of where we’re at now.”

The retro trend can also be seen in the rising popularity of social-chat apps like Discord, which boasts over 150 million monthly users and focuses on close communities with an aesthetic reminiscent of AOL Instant Messenger.

Instead of stoking influencer culture, Hipstamatic will include activities -- giving users stickers and stamps for participating in a photo walk or shooting during golden hour. Likes can also be traded out for “kudos,” a sticker seen only by the user who posted the photo.

In addition, photos on Hipstamatic disappear after 30 days.

Without ads or user-targeting, Hipstamatic plans to rely on a sustainable business model, with an added  subscription option. For $4.99 a month, users can unlock premium filters, editing features and other perks.

According to TechCrunch, the app isn not planning an immediate marketing push, but may do so in the future. However, users will be allowed to share their photos from Hipstamatic to Twitter and Instagram Stories, which may get the word out slowly. 

The app is live on the Apple Store but will never be available to Android users, says Buick.

Place Exchange, a SSP for programmatic out-of-home (OOH) media, has expanded its footprint in major European markets such as the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Spain.

"With Place Exchange's commitment to providing transparency and best-in-class programmatic technology to partners in mind, James is focused on growing the supply partnerships in the region, evangelizing the benefits of buying DOOH programmatically with agencies and advertisers, and continuing to build out a best-in-class team to service Place Exchange’s European partners," says Dave Etherington, CCO at Place Exchange.

James Power, commercial director, EMEA, at Place Exchange, is leading the company’s European charter. Appointed to the position in July 2022, Power joined Place Exchange to take on expansion plans.

A multilingual team supports Power—all dedicated to regional supply and demand partners in Europe.

Announced Wednesday, Marketers now have access to more than 13,000 digital out of home (DOOH) screens from European publishers such as ACMS, Alight Media, Atmosphere TV, Blue Billboard, City Outdoor, Clear Channel Outdoor, Executive Channel Network, Global, i-media, IQOOH, Limited Space, London Lites, Mass Media, Ocean Outdoor, Pixology Outdoor, RevTV, Smart Outdoor, TuMedio, and Zoom Media.

Brands can access the Place Exchange platform directly within integrated demand side platforms (DSPs) such as Google Display & Video 360, MediaMath, The Neuron, The Trade Desk, Yahoo DSP, and more.

The network provides access to a range of DOOH formats and venues including airports, billboards, grocery stores, gyms, malls, retail locations, street furniture, transit hubs, and more.

Place Exchange executives believe Europe represents a major market opportunity for programmatic OOH. Just as programmatic buying has dominated every category of digital advertising, Insider Intelligence reports that more than 94% of all digital advertising in the UK already transacts programmatically—the same programmatic transformation is set to take place in OOH as it did with online, mobile, social, CTV, and audio advertising. Statista projects programmatic ad spend in Europe will reach $120.8 billion by 2026.

Buy now pay later (BNPL) options for online shopping continue to attract more consumers -- even for groceries -- as prices for goods and services continue to rise. 

The Adobe Analytics data released Wednesday at the company’s annual digital summit this year in Las Vegas shows groceries grew 26.7% to $8.4 billion compared with the prior year, as more consumers are opting in to BNPL options.

Demand for electronics slowed following a record holiday shopping season -- falling 5.4% to $13.6 billion -- while apparel fell 0.6% to $11.3 billion, YoY. Home furnishings in February 2023 grew 12.9% to $9.4 billion year-over-year (YoY).

Consumers spent more than $126 billion on home furnishings in 2022 -- up 10.2% year-over-year (YoY) -- as well as $86.8 billion on groceries -- up 10.8% YoY.

While the data shows a demand for online shopping despite inflation rates -- specifically for groceries and home furnishings -- it also shows consumers are delaying payments for purchases through Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) options that enable consumers to pay for purchases over time.

The share of online purchases using BNPL in 2022 rose 14% YoY, up 27% YoY.

In the first two months of 2023, BNPL order share rose by 10% YoY, although revenue fell by 19% YoY, suggesting consumers are using this payment method for smaller purchases. 

Adobe also looked at BNPL usage across major categories including groceries, home furnishings, apparel, and electronics to understand the types of goods in which shoppers want to delay payments.

In the first two months of 2023, groceries’ share of BNPL orders grew 40%, while home furnishings grew by 38%. By contrast, apparel grew by 8%, and electronics fell by 14%. 

Consumers are embracing new categories and ways to make payments online, but they are doing so on mobile screens. The last holiday season was a turning point for mobile shopping, where 51% of sales on Cyber Week came through smartphones for the first time.

In 2022, smartphones drove 45% of overall online sales, but on the current growth trajectory, Adobe expects that every month will see smartphones drive the majority (over 50%) of online sales by December 2023. 

Retailers with more than $1 billion in annual sales are seeing more success with mobile shopping, driving 38% more visits that result in purchases, compared with retailers that generate between $10 million to $50 million in annual sales. The share of revenue from sales through smartphones is also 8.6% lower for smaller retailers.

Adobe also found that higher prices online, as tracked by the Adobe Digital Price Index (DPI), impact the types of products consumers buy. Adobe’s DPI shows that from January 2019 through February 2023, the cheapest pricing tier grew its share of sales significantly across categories including groceries, up 35.6%, and electronics rose 57.1%.