Microsoft is looking to drive accessibility in the gaming industry with their new controller patent, which looks to change their standard Xbox controller by adding a Braille display for vision impaired gamers and paddles for Braille input. This is a big leap towards making gaming accessible to all players—not just those who can hold and manipulate the console’s standard controllers.

On the front, the controller looks like a standard Xbox gamepad, but technical illustrations in the patent filing reveal upgrades that include a bump matrix display, capable of displaying braille characters, that’s positioned where a gamer’s fingers could easily reach. It could lead to the development of new games that are specifically designed for the visually impaired.

With 48.9 million people in the US reported as having disabilities, of which 24.1 million are reported to be severe disability, it’s clear Microsoft is taking a strong stance of driving inclusivity within the gaming industry.
With the 2020 Paralympics just around the corner, brands will soon start to plan and develop disability-inclusive campaigns. However, as brands, we need to do better at connecting Disability with diversity and inclusion efforts, not just during the Paralympics.

Google had the annual developers’ conference May7-9. While most updates are geared towards developers and engineers about Google and Android’s updates, every year, this becomes a key event with some relevant news to the consumer. This year, many updates were centered around: Connectivity and XR.

A primary example of connecting to the “real world” is the Google Lens. Not only is the image recognition technology even more refined, but Lens is using data and features from Google Maps to tackle the food industry. You can point the camera at a menu, and Lens will populate reviews, photos from Google Maps, suggest specific items, and even calculate tip and split the bill.

This is not only a great way to partner as a QSR brand and highlight LTO menus once paid media opportunities open, but an even bigger opportunity to incorporate AR technology. XR is only as strong as the accuracy of reading what’s beyond the screen and providing a beneficial experience. Google aims to do exactly that by focusing on helping the consumer, rather than highlighting it purely as an enjoyable experience.

Other updates from the I/O 19 include:

• Nest Hub now includes a camera: performing facial recognition to cater to different members of the family
• Live Caption to all videos including camera roll, in-app, on web, even video chats
• Incognito mode on Google Maps
• Google Go, a search app that helps read out loud real-life texts for those who are illiterate or visually impaired

To celebrate World Banana Day on April 17^th, Chiquita teamed up with Snapchat to mass produce 200 million of their signature blue stickers to include a Snapcode which leads consumers to a one-of-a-kind AR experience on the platform. The campaign will start in the United State and roll out worldwide after the original 4-week run. The users will be led to 3 various AR experience, each to be found on separate stickers. The first experience turns users into a dancing banana, the second is a face lens and the last is a gamified lens in which users catch falling fruit into a bowl.

To an older generation, the iconic blue sticker on the Chiquita brand made the company the most recognizable and successful fruit business in the world. To stay relevant to a newer generation, Chiquita understands how the power of adapting to online consumption plays a role in evolving brand association and retaining legacy. There is also a simplicity in the campaign execution that would be rather turn-key for brands to engage with. Jack could find effective ways to utilize packaging or even customer receipts house these social codes that access engagement. It was very clever and calculated to launch the activation on a day extremely relevant to the brand.  Chiquita is not alone in utilizing the power of AR capabilities on Snapchat to promote their campaigns. Warner Bros. used a first-ever voice command Snapchat AR function to coincide with the release of their new superhero movie Shazam!

Pandora utilized audio capable OOH to launch their newest campaign in an effort to boost their first “Sonic Logo” or a sound cue associated with the brand. As the world of streaming audio is becoming increasingly more crowded thanks to several platforms branching into the space. Pandora is testing out an audible sound cue to stay top of mind with listeners. For a 12-week run in 5 major US cities, Pandora will be executing digital OOH boards that utilize a 3 second sound bite of the platform’s audio associated with their app startup. These boards will be placed across foot traffic-heavy locations such as malls, airports and major city streets. After the 12-week run, Pandora will be utilizing the audio logo within the app itself to keep the sound associating running indefinitely.

Audible branding is a technique for brands to break through the clutter of the crowded space and set themselves apart (Think of Taco Bell and their signature “ring” noise).  It can provide an additional recognizable extension of the brand beyond a visual logo. Brands who find innovative ways to assimilate these audio cues will eventually keep top of mind to loyal or potential consumers. With the rise of streaming audio services and podcasting, audible logo strategies will be even more of an incentive for brands to utilize the capabilities. Given Jack is looking to incorporate cross channel executions it would a great play to interject digital audio logo tactics to existing OOH media running throughout the various markets to create that association while people are on the go.

For the first time in industry history, advertisers will be spending more on digital initiatives than traditional channels. According to eMaketer, in the next 4 years the digital spending dollars will be outspending traditional media by nearly 2/3rds. 2019 ad spending sees that digital advertising is 54% of overall media dollars. This year also marks the first for digital giants Google and Facebook as this is the first time that shares for both companies has declined as digital revenue grows. This decline could be due to the growing privacy concerns that has haunted Facebook over the last year. The biggest winner in the digital spending war has been Amazon. According to eMarketer, the revenue share has increased by 2% from 2018. The company has seen a recent boom in revenue because of the rich behavioral data is has to offer due to its constant traffic of online customers.

Traditional media has declined across the board except for OOH spend which could be attributed to the digital capabilities the channel has been integrating in recent years. From last year alone, the overall ad spending dollars is projected to decrease by nearly 6%. This can be explained by the shift of how people are consuming media in today’s age. The world is becoming more connected and online media is leading the environment of change.  Traditional media has been slower to adapt and needs to be more innovative to maintain relevancy & impact in the media space. Television spending will see a decrease by over 2% from last year because of less culturally relevant lean-in moments taking place (i.e. Olympics, elections, etc.)

What is key for brands is to adapt to the changing media landscape and to place their dollars effectively based on where the audience is gravitating. By understanding the exact audience, brands have the ability to effectively place budget into channels that make sense. The shift to digital media could be explained by the younger generation being much more receptive to online advertisements than previous generations. As the younger generation shapes the future of where media trends will go, it is important for brands to keep up with the trends to grow their audience base as well has competitively conquest potential customers.