Las Vegas becomes the global center of technology and innovation as more than 130,00 attendees, business leaders, and over 4,000 exhibitors arrive for the start of CES 2024, January 9-12. Across more than 2.5 million square feet of exhibit space and 250 conference sessions, the ETC@USC team of reporters and analysts will cover stories of greatest interest, importance, and potential impact to the future of media and entertainment. Smart TVs and next-gen displays; the latest in processor upgrades; AR, VR and XR; security; mobility and robotics are among the themes we expect to take center stage, all of which will be tied in one way or another to AI. Continue reading CES 2024 Expects 130,000 Attendees and 4,000+ Exhibitors

WeAre8 is a different kind of social media platform making its U.S. debut a year after launching in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The socially conscious mobile app prohibits hate speech and pays its users to watch ads. Earned funds can be withdrawn or directed to causes like Save the Children, Feeding America and Water.org. The app prohibits tobacco, big oil and gambling interests from advertising. Backed by publishers including The Independent, Warner Bros. Discovery and LADbible Group, WeAre8 hopes to attract 80 million users in two years. Continue reading Publishers Get Behind New Social App to Fund Good Causes

Brands are eager to promote their products in front of the estimated 3.7 billion people worldwide who play video games. Now, rather than simply purchasing visibility, more adventuresome advertisers including PepsiCo and L’Oreal are creating games of their own. PepsiCo had a quest developed in collaboration with Y2K Games for Mountain Dew inserted into the latest edition of the publisher’s blockbuster “NBA 2K” series. L’Oréal embedded a mini game in Activision Blizzard’s “Candy Crush Saga” and saw 40,000 samples of the Prada Candy fragrance that was the reward for completing the game claimed on day one of the five-week promotion. Continue reading Brands Create Their Own Games to Expand Marketing Reach

Madison Avenue continues to scale in the metaverse, which is experiencing a land-grab for the best storefronts as brands like Gap and Nike unveil digital-only versions of their goods competing against — and sometimes collaborating with — digital-first brands like sneaker maker RTFKT and fashion house Fabrikant. Mobile game destination The Sandbox has already sold more than 70 percent of its “land” to businesses including cryptocurrency exchange Binance and video-game maker Atari. Even traditionalists like NASCAR and JPMorgan Chase are pitching virtual tents. The bank has signed a lease in Decentraland, a 3D online world. Continue reading Major Brands Are Starting to Experiment with the Metaverse

TikTok is pushing out its Creator Marketplace API, which allows partner firms to optimize campaigns using first-party data and platform integration. The Creator Marketplace aggregates TikTok’s influencers, sharing basic stats that helps them connect with brands that can then mount, manage, measure and track campaigns within the app. The new API takes this to a new level with features including demographic filtering and real-time campaign tracking. Formally debuted in June 2020, Creator Marketplace aggregates TikTok influencers with at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the last 30 days. Continue reading TikTok Creator Marketplace Connects Brands and Influencers

The COVID-19 pandemic is driving increased demand for augmented reality at some companies, including Mercedes-Benz and L’Oréal (whose brands include Lancôme, Kiehl’s and Maybelline New York), in the last year. L’Oréal chief digital officer Lubomira Rochet stated that, “we saw the appetite, it grew and it’s our responsibility now to continue to innovate.” That company has debuted a number of AR projects for employees and customers in the last few months. One uses ModiFace AR to connect consumers with beauty advisers. Continue reading Pandemic Is Accelerating the Adoption of Augmented Reality

On China’s Singles Day, Alibaba Group reported it earned a record $75.1 billion this year, in part by extending the buying window to eleven days. This year, however, Alibaba, founded by Jack Ma, is under increasing pressure from regulators who suspended the dual IPOs of Alibaba’s Ant Group. Since then, according to Refinitiv data, the company’s shares on the New York market have dropped 16 percent, erasing $137 billion from its market value. Alibaba and JD.com said the U.S. was the top seller of goods to China. Continue reading Alibaba, JD.com Set Record Earnings for China’s Singles Day

Amazon, which launched its new StyleSnap feature to select iOS and Android users in April, will soon make the in-app tool widely available, said company worldwide consumer head Jeff Wilke at the company’s re:MARS AI conference in Las Vegas. Users can reach StyleSnap via a shortcut found by tapping the camera icon in the Amazon app’s upper right-hand corner. Based on image recognition, the machine learning-enabled StyleSnap (and Pinterest Lens competitor) will offer similar items to any photo or screenshot uploaded by a user. The algorithms also incorporate computer vision and deep learning. Continue reading Amazon’s AI-Enabled StyleSnap Is Ideal for Fashion Market

Alibaba is facing a growing problem with counterfeit goods that has led to some top brands taking legal action. The Chinese e-commerce giant is debuting a solution in the form of unique tags similar to QR codes. The company is working with Israeli startup Visualead to introduce dotless visual codes, which can be used to scan products to prove their authenticity and then automatically destroyed so they cannot be used more than once. Customers will use Alibaba’s Taobao mobile app to scan the codes when they receive their orders. Continue reading Alibaba Tests Dotless Visual Codes to Fight Counterfeit Goods

StyleHaul, a digital startup with a focus on fashion, beauty and lifestyle content, is paving the way for some of its YouTube stars to make their television debuts. The company, which manages thousands of YouTube personalities, has recently secured a deal with Oxygen, Trium Entertainment and Lentos Brand to create a reality TV show. StyleHaul can leverage this opportunity to not only improve visibility for its YouTube stars but also take a cut of the ad revenue that supports cable TV.   Continue reading StyleHaul’s YouTube Stars Making the Transition to Television

StoryTech Managing Partner Lori Schwartz moderated a CES 2015 webcast “Know Before You Go” on December 3rd. Industry experts discussed key trends they expect to see at January’s International CES in Las Vegas — from emerging areas such as immersive gaming, virtual reality and wearables to the infrastructure, platforms, and applications of a variety of compelling new products. Topics of the webcast centered on digital disruption, personalization, Big Data, the Internet of Things, and much more. Continue reading Know Before You Go: StoryTech Offers Preview of CES 2015