Digital innovation

Introduction Personalised Videos iBeacons Reactive Websites

Introduction Minority Report

Personalised videos

CHALLENGE: Provide videos on demand to enable a personalised message or experience to be delivered to a user.

Challenges 1.The process of customising the video needs to be simple and allow for future videos to be made. 2.How to make personalisation easy to use. 3.How to actually personalise the video. 4.The various systems the video is viewed on have their quirks that need to be considered. 5.Links could all be sent out at once increasing the load in short bursts. Potentially involves a lot of CPU and bandwidth depending on the video size.

Solutions 1.HTML5 Canvas allows image editing and creation within the browser. The images can be overlaid on the video, this gives the chance to preview and position elements as required. 2.Uploading data will allow masks to be used in text blocks – such as [name] being replaced in each video with the name field in the data you uploaded. 3.We use the images to create layers that will be overlaid on the video at the required times. This can contain text fields. 4.The video is generated in MP4 format that is supported on most devices and browsers. Opera is the exception but with 1.3% usage. 5.By using cloud servers, we can scale up CPU and Bandwidth needs as required with a collection of independent systems to process the tasks.

Application

Further Thoughts The video could be compiled of several videos. In HE we could show a user a video snippet within a video of an area of the University they will be studying so the sports halls and pitches if a sports student, or science labs for science students. The editor system could also be used to generate animated GIFs from videos that has personalisation on.

i Beacon ™

CHALLENGE: Traditional Bluetooth and GPS based marketing services invaded privacy and had limited functionality.

Challenges 1.Remove the privacy issues involved with this type of marketing and information services. 2.Introduce hardware that will allow for more accurate positioning and identification. 3.Power and accuracy issues involved with using geo location to target users. 4.Ensure low maintenance of the systems and easy configuration. 5.Compatibility across multiple devices must be available.

Solutions 1.Using an iBeacon will require an application to be installed on the users smartphone. This removes privacy concerns as you have to opt-in by downloading the app. 2.The iBeacon format is a protocol standardized by Apple that has been used to develop beacons that broadcast their identifier to nearby devices. 3.Low power usage due to using Bluetooth over GPS and a much more accurate system. 4.Battery life in beacons is up to 3-5 years with some versions and requires no changes after initial set up. 5.Most smartphones now have Bluetooth activated which enables the use of beacons to a wider range of users and 35 million people have smartphones in the UK.

Application Antwerp Museum – Interactive iBeacon app

Further Thoughts Most implementations of iBeacons involve the app responding to the beacon in some way and displaying on the users phone. The app could send a notification back to a billboard or other advertising medium when they are in range of a beacon, producing an effect similar to the minority reports personalised advertising. Think of how this could then present a personalised video to the user on the billboard instead of their phone.

Reactive Websites

CHALLENGE: Improve conversion rates of offers by providing a personalised experience to the user selling the benefits or features they find most attractive

Challenges 1.Knowing who the key user segments are within your area of interest. This requires some segmentation to identify user groups. 2.Ensure user details are kept secure by not exposing personal information in links. 3.Make the web page react to the person using it by displaying differing experiences for those who are using it. 4.Look to bring in other systems that assist with the conversion of a guest, such as booking and sharing. 5.Track and monitor the use of the new pages to measure the success per segment.

Solutions 1.User journeys often identify particular groups that use a website but surveys can also provide a more detailed breakdown. 2.We pass a UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) that relates to an individual and perform a behind the scenes lookup to identify the guest from a remote source, such as a CRM. 3.After looking up the guest, segment rules decide what group this guest belongs to and what sections or features they see. 4.For the restaurant industry, we implemented booking, inviting friends and sharing the source article. 5.Using custom dimensions and metrics we pass the segments to Google Analytics to allow for a breakdown per segment in the data.

Application Drink SampleFood Sample

Further Thoughts Knowing who a person is when they land on a website is a very powerful tool with many possible applications. Combining the personalised videos with reactive pages means we could display a personalised video specific to that user. Think of a birthday greeting, we could tell if the user was male or female and switch the underlying video to represent that and still have the personalised element on there. A similar approach could be applied to HE, by displaying video elements advertising the university in different ways depending on whether the viewer was a potential student or a parent.

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