Creative tech and experience design shop Deeplocal, which has created experiences for clients ranging from Google to psychedelic rock band The Flaming Lips (frontman Wayne Coyne is actually an experience designer at the agency), uses its SaaS platform, Gumband, to collect data on event visitors and evaluate which experiences people are engaging with most.
For one of Deeplocal’s retail clients, Gumband collected and analyzed data from in-store pop-ups and then passed that data onto corporate to be aggregated with other retail data including foot traffic and sales.
The agency said currently the data can only be captured once a guest starts to interact with an activation but it’s working on expanding capabilities to include insights from onlookers, as well as which exhibits attract crowds and which people are ignoring.
Deeplocal expects to release its latest product to use in experiential marketing in June: A cameraless sensor that can gain these types of insights in real-time. All of the data being collected by Gumband is anonymous in order to protect people’s privacy and stay compliant with GDPR and CCPA regulations.
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Tracking technology has recently gotten some flack for seeming to infringe on people’s rights. MSG Entertainment, the owner of New York’s Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, was criticized when it was reported late last year that it was using facial recognition technology to identify and turn away lawyers who represent people suing the company.
Deeplocal Creative Technologist and Chief Innovation Officer Patrick Miller said all of the data Gumband collects is for the purpose of enhancing the experience for the brand and visitors; the agency is careful not to infringe on people’s privacy while doing so. He said Gumband never collects information on specific individuals; it won’t say: “Oh that’s Patrick Miller and we know everything that he’s looked at today; we can sell more stuff to him.”
“We have to be willing participants of it otherwise it quickly crosses the line to creepy,” Miller said. “People want their privacy so there needs to be some value exchange. If I’m at an event and the event wants to know who I am, the experience that’s being created should be much more valuable to me as a user going through the experience.”
IBM has been experimenting with AI for years but recently found particular success using it within sports and entertainment.
“There’s just a number of different things that we’ve done really over the last 10 years in this space and it’s just getting more refined and becoming more open and more visible,” said IBM’s Erin McElroy, program director, executive programs and event experience, noting that AI is a great tool for providing highlights and broadcasting to sporting events across all the channels where viewers are tuning in to watch including via apps.
For example, IBM leveraged AI in a few new ways for the Masters, one of four major professional men’s golf championships, earlier this year. IBM has been providing tech and services to The Masters for 25 years, but this year was the first it used AI-generated commentary on the tournament within the Masters app.