... 18,000 square-foot facility, claimed to  be "an Epcot Center for aging" that would draw consumers and industry leaders from across the country. The goal is to create what essentially would be a mall for fashionable and functional senior products, from furniture to cosmetics.

The project will aso serve as a 'living laboratory' in whch startups and other companies can demonstrate and test new products with a specific set of consumers.

One section will include a model home, called an 'idea house,' that will enable entrepreneurs to test and collect data on products designed to allow seniors to stay in their homes longer.

For instance, the bathroom might include new robotic-tub technology that helps lift seniors out of the bath. Another section will be filled with "eldertainment," such as virtual-reality games that promote fitness, mobility or rehabilitation.

One of InnovateLTC's clients is a Dutch company called Vita Care, which is developing "therapeutic motion simulation" systems that use video and vibrating chairs to simulate activities such as motorcycle riding or jet skiing. 

Assuming success stateside, it's seems invitable that the InnovateLTC concept will extend to Western Europe and beyond.

According to the company's website, InnovateLTC claims to be "deeply entrenched in academic research and has connections to several of the nation’s top universities".

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Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... a collection of datasets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using current database management tools.

The benefits - which can only be realised by massive investments in new technology - include capture, curation, storage, search, sharing, analysis and visualization.

According to Peter Tufano, the dean of Oxford’s Said Business School, which played host to the event, while awareness of the topic was high among enterprises, only about 6% of companies have got beyond a pilot stage, and 18% are still in one.

“That means three-quarters of industries are looking at this and saying ‘what is this all about?’”

Why aren’t they looking at Big Data? “The answer across all business,” he said, “was ‘we don’t know what the business case is.’”

But according to speakers at the event, the business case has already been answered.

Michael Chui has extensively researched the area for McKinsey Global Institute. His conclusion is emphatic: “The use of data and analytics in general is going to be a basis of competition going forward for individual firms, for sectors and even for countries. Those companies that are able to use data effectively are more likely to win in the marketplace.” [MT's italics]

MGI’s research showed that in just one field—personal location data—some $100 billion of value can be created globally for service providers through use of data.

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... $7.1 billion, despite which market share will slip to 57.1%. 

Among the report's key forecasts are:

• Since eMarketer's May 2012 forecast, estimates for paid search have risen slightly to a compound annual growth rate [CAGR] of 9.7% on paid-search spending between 2011 and 2016, rather than 8.5% as estimated in May.

• The revision is prompted by greater-than-anticipated search spending in the first half of the year, as reported by the UK Interactive Advertising Bureau. 

• eMarketer estimates that in 2012 around $2.0 billion - or 23% of all UK digital adspend - will go to display advertising such as banners, rich media, video and sponsorships. The steady gains will partially come from an increase in use of realtime bidding and video formats, although doubts about the speed of economic recovery will lead some advertisers to focus on proven search tactics.
   
• Online video ads in Britain should rise from $273 million in 2012 to about $1.4 billion in 2016. The estimates include social video and video advertising on mobile devices.

According to eMarketer, in 2012 only the USA and Japan will outrank the UK’s $721 million market share, with projected mobile ad spending of $2.4 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively.

The annual rate of growth, estimated at 120% for 2012, is expected to remain above 50% until 2016, when mobile ad spending in the UK will approach $3.5 billion.

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...“they’re signing their own death certificate, because their credibility is going to erode more and more.  

"And ultimately, that could end up hurting them", Mr Carroll added. He cites as an example of the genre this recent BuzzFeed political ad.

During the presidential election season, President Obama’s campaign paid BuzzFeed to post content that looked just like one of the website’s “native” news stories.

Although savvy ssurfers might notice the small box in the righthand corner that says 'Paid Political Content', other readers could easily assume it was a genuine news story.

The Atlantic magazine has recently taken this trend one step further with a series of videos called: Are We There Yet?

But all the videos are paid promotional spots for Mercedes Benz, listed as: 'Sponsored Content Provided by Mercedes Benz', using text in a small, light gray font that could easily go unnoticed.

But "what goes around comes around", as the old proverb has it. For example the 'advertorial' fad of the '70s.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... tracking those consumers wherever they may wander across the web.

Programmatic buying is the reason that luggage ad follows you irrespective of whether you’re on Weather.com or on a local news blog.

Ms Vega reports that this mega shift is "punishing traditional online publishers, like newspaper, broadcast and magazine sites, who are receiving a much lower percentage of ad dollars as marketers use programmatic buying across a much broader canvas".

"Some sites, like CNN.com, refuse to even accept advertising through programmatic buying because they do not want to cede control over what ads will appear.

She cites Ben Winkler, chief digital officer at Omnicom media shop OMD: “It’s allowing advertisers to assign value to media rather than publishers,” he said.

"Publishers can’t control the price, but they can control the quality of the content and the audience on that site.”

FMCG advertisers like Nike, Comcast, Progressive and Procter & Gamble are currently using programmatic buying, while luxury advertisers are starting to follow suit.

Forrester Research estimates that in 2012 all ads traded on exchanges (which includes all programmatic ads) have increased by more than 17.5% to about 629 billion impressions (the number of times an ad appears) versus just 535 billion impressions in 2011.

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... “multicultural” marketing tends to be an afterthought.

In an interview with Adweek, Warner argues that until now marketers have taken a simple approach to the multi-cultural segment - like translation or featuring an African-American in a commercial. "But the diversity conversation is evolving, and it has to evolve so that marketers aren’t thinking about it from an obvious point of view."

Continues Warner: "Marketing has to evolve into a cultural competency. Brands have to ask themselves:

• How do these consumers understand their cultural experience?
   
• How do they live?
   
• What do they value?

"The big thing is not looking at multicultural marketing as an add-on to the general strategy. It should be thought of within your general marketing."

She cites as an exemplar: "When Disney was thinking about how to drive meaningful engagement with multicultural audiences, they developed the Disney Dream Academy.

"It selects 100 multicultural students from across the US - students who’d probably fall through the cracks otherwise - and provided them with a three-day leadership program to help them align their goals and objectives with real-life experiences. For example, a student who wanted to be a designer got to work with Disney’s costume designers.

"That program was a perfect example of a brand that brings its purpose to life in a way that connects meaningfully with a multicultural audience."

[MT comment]: Although the markets addressed by Ms Warner have mainly been US-domestic, MarketingTomorrow.com points to comparable demographic trends elsewhere - which suggest that the US ethnic growth curve could well be replicated across Europe and Australasia.

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... socially responsible, even if they’re still fuzzy on what CSR actually means!

Says Cone's evp for communications, Jonathan Yohannan: “This shift in stakeholder expectations carries significant implications for companies engaged in CSR.” 

“Purpose is no longer enough, and successful campaigns must demonstrate return for business, brand and society. ‘Proving purpose’ is the new mantra for effective CSR.”

Cone, a pioneer in cause marketing and CSR, has established Corporate Social Return - a new and measurable approach to CSR that centres on the conviction that CSR must deliver measureable business, brand and social impacts that yield benefits for vested stakeholders.

A new study by Cone reveals that:

• 84% of participants in its survey say companies aren’t just responsible for doing the right things, but also for effectively communicating them to shoppers.
   
• 86% say they are more likely to trust companies that report their CSR efforts.
   
• 82% say that when presented with a choice, they will choose the more 'do-gooder' brand.
   
• While 40% say that if they can’t find out about a company’s CSR efforts, they won’t buy the brand.

The survey was conducted online by ORC International over the period 6-8 August 2012 among a demographically representative US sample of 1,019 adults comprising 510 men and 509 women aged 18 years and over.

The margin of error associated with a sample of this size is plus or minus 3%. Some numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

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... realise his vision of moving advertising technology into other businesses.

Says Nardone: "Audience-based targeting isn't just for advertising. It's for websites, call centres and any channels used by brands to interact with customers and create an experience."

Automation will move services from helping to determine what ad to serve up on a page, to integration with CRM systems. Technology will automatically make decisions to carry out tasks and populate databases that are able to follow-up and send consumers information based on actions and clicks.

At Nardone's company, work has begun to build a feature that will automatically populate contact information into CRM databases from data entered into a website.

The platform will automatically create a record and file the information in the CRM platform when a consumer enters the information online.

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... a concert flyer printed with Touchcode could display a video clip of the performer singing.

The process is economical and simple to use; it can be printed either on paper or foil to digitally enhance the value and increase the function of almost all printed matter.

The technology was developed in Germany by PrintTechnologics, whose flat battery cell was the first printable energy source, boasting the advantages of being both extremely flat and flexible. This opened-up the possibility of completely new application areas. 

The technology has a number of advantages over QR codes, chiefly its simplicity. A user need only place the printed item on the screen of a tablet or smartphone —or place the screen on the item—and the invisible code immediately connects to the online content. There's no need to summon your device's camera and snap a shot of a barcode.

"It does look very novel," William Webb, chief technology officer of UK start-up Neul and an Innovation Awards judge told The Wall Street Journal. "Much simpler than using a camera!"

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... a meagre 1.1% increase in offline marketing growth during the same period. 

The fastest growth will come from cable TV at 4.1%. Radio, newspapers, and Yellow Pages will decline.

Forrester also trimmed the US display forecast by about 13% over the next five years, attributing some of the decline to a shift to less expensive social media impressions, a trend that will weaken portals such as MSN and Yahoo.

Emerging ad types and pricing models will get a bigger share of budgets by 2017, Forrester believes. Program media, fueled by audience targeting, will offer the best performance.

As marketers compete for similar audience segments and the number of bids increase, average CPM prices of exchange impressions will rise from $3.17 to $6.64 come 2017.

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