DigitasLBi Labs, Klépierre Launch Personalized Digital Shopping Experience

Digitas LBi Labs, the agency’s tech-inspired incubator, and European real estate investment company Klépierre collaborated to create “Inspiration Corridor,” a digital prototype personalizing experiences in shopping malls by providing customized product recommendations and telling users where to go to shop for them.

According to DigitasLBi Paris deputy GM/connected commerce lead, Vincent Druguet, the project began with the insight that “consumers rarely know every single shop in a mall, and are even less aware of their newest products. Right now, there’s a wealth of product information available to people through personalized search engines. Our idea was to offer people all this information in a fun and experimental way, using digital technology in shopping malls.”

The “Inspiration Corridor” works by using an infra-red camera to analyze individual consumers upon entering with body scanning technology. Then, a “device equipped with QUIVIDI video analysis and PigData product recommendation scans the visitors and their outfits within 10 seconds and registers the collected data: their gender, age, and clothing style.” This results in a personalized “mood board” tailored to the individual consumer. Users can also scan the bar code on recently purchased items to get recommendations for matching accessories. Then, the “Inspiration Corridor” simulates window shopping, allowing consumers to walk through the corridor select the products they’re interested in. Each item they choose “affects the recommendation engine, made with PigData, and simultaneously updates the product selection.” Upon leaving, “customers can synchronize their product selection to the Klépierre mobile application using iBeacon technology.”

For a better idea of how it works, you can watch the prototype in action above. It’s a pretty nifty device, allowing users to combine digital and offline shopping in exciting ways. Stay tuned for credits after the jump. continued…

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Maurice Lévy Returns, Now with Balloons in Tow, for Publicis Groupe’s 2014 Greeting

publicis-groupe2014

Maurice Lévy is back this year for the new Publicis Groupe New Year’s greeting. After toying with YouTube’s functionality last year,  the holding company, with the aid of their DigitasLBi France unit, has once again found a new way to make their greeting interactive.


This year, Publicis built their message around the theme of #TheMoretheMerrier in honor of their expected merger with Omnicom. To accomplish this, they’ve made it so “The more people that join in during the video, the merrier it will become.” So, what does that mean exactly? Well, if you watch the video alone, nothing special happens. But if you watch with a friend, Maurice Lévy will deliver his speech in a confetti storm. Adding more people to the mix will result in “gospel singers, cheerleaders, Chinese dragons and a few other surprises.” It’s a pretty cool concept, managing to be interactive in an intriguing new way.

 

To accomplish this, Publicis’ tech team developed “a fancy facial detection algorithm that allows a webcam to count how many people are actually watching the video together.” The facial recognition software was conceived by “a 21 year old Russian math genius” working for DigitasLBi France. The software is the “first of its kind to detect up to ten faces simultaneously” while the video plays. “The More the Merrier” is the first video to count the number of viewers, rather than views, on YouTube. That’s a lot of technological firsts for a New Year’s greeting. By the way, in case you were wondering, it takes 1,487 balloons to cover Maurice Lévy.

Credits after the jump. continued…

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