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Indie L.A. shop Zambezi has looked outside the agency world for its newest executive, hiring entrepreneur and entertainment industry veteran Dawn Thomas for the newly created role of head of culture, strategy and content innovation.

What does that mean?

Most prominently, Thomas will lead the Samsung business. She will also oversee “all agency client initiatives to elevate creative strategy, brand narrative and cultural IQ.” You know the score. The agency’s newest hire reports to chief strategy officer Kristina Jenkins, who moved over from mcgarrybowen in 2015 and also recruited Thomas for the new job.

“I believe in finding inspiration and talent from unexpected places,” said Jenkins of Thomas, adding that she “straddles a range of industries leveraging a deep understanding of people and an exceptional network” and “truly knows what it takes for brands to create with culture in powerful and meaningful ways.”

The incoming head of culture had this to say about her new role.

“For me, culture is truth and stories are powerful. Culture is a phenomenon that is constantly changing, refusing definition, and rejecting formulaic tropes. It appears across many passion points and is fueled by music, art, entertainment, fashion, technology and more. It doesn’t ask for permission and it can’t be bought. My intention is to continue building a collective of culture’s muses, invest in and amplify their passions, and architect strategic blueprints for brands fueled by authentic story narratives.”

We hear lots of talk about people with unusual backgrounds, and that is certainly the case here. Thomas began her career as an analyst with the banking industry, earning her law degree and a masters in new media business before moving to Los Angeles and making her way through the entertainment field starting with a role at CAA and eventually becoming a producer and senior developer at Overbrook Entertainment, the company founded by one Will Smith. She launched that business’s interactive marketing division, leading multimedia campaigns to promote its own titles like I Am Legend while developing content promos involving comics, video games and brand partnerships.

She then launched her own consultancy that focused on helping brands like Verizon, Walmart, Ford and Reebok better reach female consumers via creative/content strategies and, in 2016, launched an interactive VR content platform called Koi Media that also focused on reaching young women. Coincidentally, Thomas is also a skilled front-end developer.

Zambezi CEO Jean Freeman called Thomas “a gladiator,” adding, “She thinks out loud, challenges the status quo, and is fearless. She doesn’t play it safe or stay within traditional boundaries. She has no interest in that—and neither does Zambezi.”

Thomas is Jenkins’ second big hire. Earlier this year, Wieden+Kennedy’s Danielle Pak joined Zambezi as its first director of communications planning.

In May, the agency also launched its own production/post-production shop, Blink Studios.

Remember AI-CD ??

McCann Japan introduced the artificial intelligence creative director last year and subsequently pitted it against real human Mitsuru Kuramoto in a competition to create an ad for Mondelez Japan brand Clorets Mint Tab (Kuramoto won).

For its latest experiment, McCann Japan turned to AI-CD ? to create a music video for Kawaii pop girl group Magical Punchline. To shake things up even more, the music video will be created before the actual music track even exists.

AI-CD ? was programmed to create “the optimal visual expression” for the group’s new song, based on what The Drum describes as “a structural analysis of music-centered commercials added to its database.”

As it turns out, artificially intelligent creative director developed an approach that might make you a little uncomfortable. AI-CD ? recommended creating “a stimulating video that conveys hunting instinct through a tone of ennui” by “using a school motif” and “objectification.”

Uhh…

The approach is made all the more disturbing by the young age of members of the group, which was launched last year by Japanese idol Rena Sato with the concept of “a ‘girls fantasy’ mixing elements of Harry Potter and Dragon Quest into her own fantasy world.”

According to The Drum, McCann Millenials is now working on shooting a music video based on the instructions, again without any sort of backing track to go on. Can we maybe get an alternative strategy, AI-CD ??

Magical Punchline’s music label, Pony Canyon, is going plans release the completed music video, sans music, ahead of the song itself and McCann Millenials is documenting the process with a behind-the-scenes video.

We’re more than a little perplexed by this whole exercise, to say the least.

But before you pin too much of the blame on AI-CD ?, keep in mind it created the instructions based on “music-centered commercials” made by humans. So it’s hard to say how much the misogynist approach owes to past work by actual people and how much can be attributed to the peculiarities of the AI-CD ?’s analysis. At the very least, it shows the limitations and drawbacks of artificially intelligent strategy devoid of any sort of human social filter. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect is that AI-CD ? is designed to create what it has determined people want.

We imagine the end product (much like this whole premise, really) resembling something out of Black Mirror.

FuboTV, the sports-centric internet TV service, is airing its first national campaign during NFL games this season as it looks to find a foothold in the rapidly growing over-the-top streaming video marketplace.

Fubo has become one of a sea of internet-delivered TV services looking to attract younger consumers who are either disconnecting from their traditional pay-TV providers or have never had cable or satellite at all. But Fubo is unique in that it started as a streaming service dedicated to soccer in 2015. It has since expanded to include more than 65 networks, more than half of which are sports channels. (ESPN is not included in its packages).

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Despite incredible advances in machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), chatbots are still in their infancy in more ways than one. Like human babies, chatbots come into this world not fully ready to engage socially. In order to have a useful chatbot — one that is a seamless representation of your brand — a great deal of time needs to be spent in training. Like all parenting, this is harder than you think.

When you just want yes or no

Straight out of the box (or out of code), a chatbot is incoherent; IT needs thoughtful and intentional training to become a better bot. Sure, there may be shortcuts. You can develop your bot for a major AI platform like Amazon’s Alexa or Microsoft’s Cortana, and adapt your programming for their corresponding voices and personalities. But you’ll still need to write responses that align with the bot’s (aka your brand’s) personality and test extensively. Even these major-league digital assistants may not understand language and syntax specific to your intended application.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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