Brandtech Consulting

What the future of search means for your brand 💥 Last week, OpenAI released live web search baked into ChatGPT, enabling us to search in a conversational way. This update has been heralded as the first, real threat to Google’s search dominance, pointing to a future where search looks fundamentally different. But what are the noteworthy differences and what will that mean for brands? 👉 Perplexity’s ‘AI-powered answer engine’ has 15M monthly active users, growing 50% in the last 2 months. Their platform delivers concise answers with citations and the ability to ask follow up queries but prioritizes information retrieval rather than conversation. 👑 Google, unsurprisingly, has a global market share of 91.47% and while their Gemini-powered AI Overview feature is exploring a more interactive way of searching, their primary function still relies on providing links to relevant web pages. And this is where ChatGPT comes in. 🔮 ChatGPT integrates live search citations into their natural language interface - read conversational engagement that allows follow up questions, maintains the search thread allowing you to easily observe the search journey you have been on and helps to reduce hallucinations. 🧐 We wrote recently, about the rise of audio-interface design as part of a trajectory that sees tech focus on delivering more adaptable, natural and personalized experiences. ChatGPT’s search launch moves in the same direction, showing the clear trend towards more human ways of accessing and interacting with information. It also makes understanding what the LLM’s think of your brand increasingly important. Our fellow group company, Jellyfish, has a tool that can do just that - Share of Model gives brands a way to track how models perceive your brand and products across perception, awareness and sentiment, bringing clarity to optimization. You can learn more about it at the link below or get in touch for a Share of Model demo. Get in touch at hello@brandtechconsulting.com to ask us your burning GenAI questions ✉️ https://shareofmodel.ai/ 🔮 🚀 #Brandtech #StrategyToAction #BrandStrategy #SocialMedia #BrandStrategy #CustomerEngagement #InfluencerMarketing #Innovation #DigitalMarketing

‘A Modern-day Dadaist Prank’ Interfaces, and how they are designed, shape the future of our relationship with technology. They govern how tech fits into our lives, our relationships, even our bodies - as we hunch over our phones, and stare into the abyss of our little blue screens. It is with much interest then, that the next wave of GenAI developments seem to be focusing on auditory interfaces. The likes of the voicechat feature in the ChatGPT app; Apple’s new AI-powered Intelligence update (currently available in Beta and rolling out this month), capable of reading webpages aloud, summarising in natural language; and Google’s NotebookLM’s ‘audio overviews’ feature which turns pdfs and other content into podcast conversations between two AI-generated hosts. These suggest a much more intuitive and convenient way of interacting with technology: a focus on context-aware systems that can integrate more naturally into our daily life, additionally helping a wider set of users reap the learning benefits of GenAI. NotebookLM’s ‘podcast’ feature, built in just two months, is being called a ‘ChatGPT’ moment for the company - a case of users getting enjoyment from AI-generation akin to the astonishment experienced with the initial release of ChatGPT. Perhaps the most striking example of this, is the notorious ‘Poop Fart’ document - if you haven’t already witnessed this, listen to the resulting podcast generated at the link below! The document, which simply repeats those two words hundreds of times, becomes the source of a provocation into our human search for meaning, with the AI-generated hosts drawing on Dada, Warhol, and leaving us with this really quite sage piece of life advice: ‘‘Instead of searching for the ‘why’ in absolutely everything, maybe it’s just okay to experience it; to let go of that need to analyse and categorise and just, like, be present in the moment. Even if that moment is just poop and fart.” Experiments like this give us a hint at how we might evolve to use and relate to technology in the future. Whether listening to content while we walk the dog, do the washing up or hop on the bus, the focus on voice suggests that we are moving toward a future where interacting with tech becomes more adaptable and personalized, capable of understanding not just what we say, but how we say it. This will challenge companies to create more empathetic, context-aware systems, fostering deeper relationships between users and machines. Get in touch at hello@brandtechconsulting.com to ask us your burning brand questions ✉️ 🔮 🚀 #Brandtech #StrategyToAction #BrandStrategy #SocialMedia #BrandStrategy #CustomerEngagement #InfluencerMarketing #Innovation #DigitalMarketing https://lnkd.in/dJtQp_mG

We think brands should celebrate, facilitate and contribute towards creation of content that supports their mission - putting a megaphone up to amplify the great work that others are doing. By establishing these behaviours brands will be able to lead cultural dialogue and spark participation. We’re a team of strategic thinkers and doers that like to draw ✏️ and our #Stratgrams give you an insight into our visual thinking in service of helping brands turn strategy to action, at speed 🏎️💨 Get in touch at hello@brandtechconsulting.com to ask us your burning brand questions ✉️ #Brandtech #StrategyToAction #BrandStrategy #BrandStrategy #CustomerEngagement #InfluencerMarketing #Innovation #DigitalMarketing

Brands can generate value by seeking out and collaborating with others. Real people, niche communities, influencers and even other brands can often convey your message more tangibly, and in ways that create greater attention, than you alone. We’re a team of strategic thinkers and doers that like to draw ✏️ and our #Stratgrams give you an insight into our visual thinking in service of helping brands turn strategy to action, at speed 🏎️💨 Get in touch at hello@brandtechconsulting.com to ask us your burning brand questions ✉️ #Brandtech #StrategyToAction #BrandStrategy #BrandStrategy #CustomerEngagement #InfluencerMarketing #Innovation #DigitalMarketing

What Tiffany, Deadpool, and a White Cotton Blouse have in common. There is a conversation that we keep having with clients and it goes something like this: simplicity matters more when you are competing with the world of the phone rather than that of the shelf. With the overwhelming proliferation of really everything online, being memorable and recognisable necessitates simplicity. New guard brands have an advantage, having been designed to compete in this era; with tightly logical portfolios, instantly recognisable packaging and cohesive brand worlds. Legacy brands have a harder time, reconciling sprawling portfolios with sub-brands that dilute cohesion. Vogue Business recently did a piece on what they deemed the ‘White Cotton Blouse Index’ - a brief investigation into the quantity of choice among luxury retailers, measured by how many iterations of the classic white cotton shirt were on offer. They found that those with the highest number of choices (Farfetch - with over 1100 shirts) were the ones struggling with performance issues, while those with the most curated options were in a stronger business position. Drawing on Barry Schwartz’s classic Ted Talk from 2006 - ‘The Paradox of Choice’, Vogue makes the point that when presented with too much choice, we become paralyzed into inaction. What stands out these days is knowable signs and symbols that stick. Brat and its lurid green. Barbie pink; Heinz ketchup and mustard x Deadpool and Wolverine. Simple icons that represent broader ideas. It is the simplicity of these icons - from Nike to Tiffany - that mark the foundations of coherent and compelling brand worlds. Get in touch at hello@brandtechconsulting.com to ask us your burning brand questions ✉️ 🔮 🚀 #Brandtech #StrategyToAction #BrandStrategy #SocialMedia #BrandStrategy #CustomerEngagement #InfluencerMarketing #Innovation #DigitalMarketing

AI, including generative AI has been a huge focus for the One Young World Summit 2024 in Montréal. (One Young World is the global young leaders platform co-founded by Kate Robertson and our founder and CEO David Jones, which has positively impacted more than 42 million people since 2009.) There have been many outstanding AI sessions with creators, practitioners, engineers and policy makers, including the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. As One Young World's Official Gen AI Partner 2024, The Brandtech Group has been honored to host, participate and learn from these global leaders. But the heart of any One Young World Summit is the delegate speakers. Hundreds of brilliant young leaders apply to speak on each of the main themes but only five or six get to deliver their speeches to the event on each subject. These remarkable young people were the speakers in the AI Plenary Session - Olasupo Abideen, Founder OPAB Gas and FactCheckAfrica (Nigeria), Jose Zea, CEO, Arkangel AI (Venezuela), Adrianna Pinzarui, Founder, SKIIP (USA), Arhum I., Co-Founder and CTO, ConnectHear (Pakistan), and Ethan Waisberg, Doctor/Researcher, University of Cambridge (Canada). Congratulations to all these extraordinary people, who are all working for a better world using AI and if the future of this tech is in their hands, we can look forward to a safer, better future, powered by AI. #OYW24

OpenAI’s o1 Model 🍓: A Promising Leap in Advanced Reasoning Capabilities! From testing OpenAI’s new o1 model, codenamed Strawberry, we've found it introduces some groundbreaking reasoning capabilities that differ substantially to previous ChatGPT models. This advancement enables more deliberate, human-like problem-solving, making it ideal for complex automation tasks. For instance, we can now experiment a lot deeper with digital twins—hyper-realistic audience simulations—for research and predictive insights. Unlike its predecessors, o1 excels in multi-step reasoning, enhancing its ability to handle intricate challenges like duplicating a Qualitative research panel and embodying a wide range of customer profiles. Its new decision-making powers could allow us to forecast behaviours and simulate outcomes with greater accuracy, offering unprecedented opportunities for automation-driven workflows. The o1 model is set to potentially transform automation, offering smarter, more strategic insights for industries looking to stay ahead.

“A lot of creatives have this misconception that AI will replace them completely; if you’re creative, using AI helps you to be more creative and experiment with novel ideas," says Salma A., who is the latest Gen AI star creator to join our Brandtech Residency program this month. An expert in Gen AI branded product images, Salma is founder and Creative Director of Qreates, an AI-powered platform that helps creatives gain control over their AI images. She also publicly shares all her learnings as a Gen AI creator on X to help build the community. Creating a beauty brand from scratch for her Residency workshop with Brandtech, Salma used various Gen AI tools to work through ideas, aesthetics and concepts, before settling on a range of Gen Z lipsticks - along with the brand name Jude and a product campaign. “So often, I hear people say that with AI you press a button or type a few words, and it will do the whole thing on its own," says Salma. "It could be that these creatives are coming from a place of fear. AI is a tool - you still need that creative eye and to actually do the work. It takes me 200 generations to get to my three final images. ” Salma is the third creator to join Brandtech’s Gen AI Residency, following filmmaker Ryan Phillips and AI illustrator James Gerde. The creators all teach a masterclass to Brandtech’s teams, which always includes creating a final collaborative piece of work. Find out more about the program 👉 https://lnkd.in/edzZZHgU Huge thanks to Natalie Silverstein at our Group company Collectively, who searches out and signs up all our brilliant Gen AI creators, and to our Gen AI Creative Director James Dow, who hosts our masterclasses. #GenAI #Brandtech #AIpowered #FutureofAI

If you haven't already heard... last week The Brandtech Group launched its new Ethical Gen AI package. Here at Brandtech Consulting, we've worked in collaboration with InKroud Agency to develop a sprint product to deliver a short, sharp burst of strategic thinking to co-create and validate your brand's ethical position as relates to Gen Al. Our partners told us they'd value expert collaboration to explore the opportunities, assess the challenges, and identify an appropriate position, use cases, and narratives. So we've created a super simple way of delivering just that! Get in touch about our Ethical Gen AI sprints at hello@brandtechconsulting.com ✉

🤖 Move over ChatGPT, there’s a new LLM in town. The 70B parameter open-source AI model from HyperWrite (OthersideAI) is setting new standards. They’re already (apparently) surpassing many open & closed-source alternatives with a 'reflection-tuning' system to combat & reduce hallucinations. This could be a game changer for tasks needing high accuracy and reliable citations. This week, their 405B parameter version is launching; if the internal 70B testing is anything to go by, we could be looking at the best LLM on the market. Another huge win for the open-source community. We, at Brandtech Consulting, get excited about this not just for our own interest but also to help our clients execute Gen AI-enabled strategies faster and sharper than ever. 🔮🚀#Brandtech #StrategyToAction #BrandStrategy #SocialMedia #BrandStrategy #CustomerEngagement #InfluencerMarketing #Innovation #DigitalMarketing