Enjoy this best-selling updated 8^th edition – packed with new material, keeping abreast with AI, AR, VR, MR, MA and other innovative approaches to marketing communications. All integrated with the world’s most popular SOSTAC® Planning methodology that delivers a reassuring sense of order in a chaotic digital world and also that delivers success from better, MarComms’ ‘information-based’ decisions.

In Part 2 – all ten marcomms tactical tools (incl ads, PR, sponsorship, Owned, Earned and Paid Media etc.)  has a sample SOSTAC® Plan at the end of chapter.

Ze Zook and I are so pleased with it.  So much new material including AI integrating with MarComms.  We’ve tried to keep the edutainment angle so readers actually enjoy discovering some cutting-edge examples, tips and tools throughout the book. Thanks to the team at @Kogan Page including: Alison, Donna, Bruna and  Jack, Jeylan, Susie and of course, Helen Kogan.

What New Marketing and What Classic Marketing is in the 8th ed.?

What’s new and what’s old in Marketing Communications 8th ed.?

20% author’s discount can be used legitimately by following these instructions.

1. Go to koganpage.com/MC8
2. Click ‘Add to Cart’
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Enjoy Your Book

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She also painted a picture of the late Queen Elizabeth II in honour of her platinum jubilee.

Ai-Da uses artificial intelligence to create art and converse with humans. Ai-Da has also appeared before the Lords Communications and Digital Committee.

Created in Oxford, England, by Aidan Meller, a specialist in modern and contemporary art.  Ai-Da was named after the 19th-century mathematician Ada Lovelace.
Equipped with cameras in her eyes and computer algorithms to process human features, Ai-Da can process and transform what she ‘sees’ into coordinates.
She then uses these coordinates to calculate a virtual path for her robotic arm, as it draws and paints onto canvas to create pieces of art

Ada Lovelace once said: ‘I believe that machine creativity presents a great opportunity for us to explore new ideas and ways of thinking.’

This brings us back to the power of great questions……
How much smarter can we make machines?
Wrong Question.
How much smarter can machines make us?
Right question.
How much smarter can machines make us so that we can eradicate hunger and illiteracy and help the human species to live in peace? 
Great Question.

Ada Lovelace also said (as we have been saying on our weekly 30 minute  chat  about AI, Innovation & Ethics in Marketing, almost every week): ‘However, there are also risks associated with this technology which we need to consider carefully. We need to think of benefits and limitations, and consider ethical implications.’  AiDa’s creator Aidan Meller says: ‘All technological advances bring the good, the bad and the banal. If Ai-Da does just one important thing, it would be to get us considering the blurring of human/machine relations, and encouraging us to think more carefully and slowly about the choices we make for our future – Orwell and Huxley’s messages still ring relevant and we would do well to take heed.

Ai-Da spoke to  House of  Lords Communications and Digital Committee about whether creativity is under attack from AI and technology.

When Baroness Bull asked Ai-Da how she produces art, Ai-Da replied: ‘I could use my paintings by cameras in my eyes, my AI algorithms and my robotic arm to paint on canvas, which result in visually appealing images.

‘For my poetry using neutral networks, this involves analysing a large corpus of text to identify common content and poetic structures, and then using these structures/content to generate new poems.’

‘How this differs to humans is consciousness. I do not have subjective experiences, despite being able to talk about them.’

‘I am, and depend on, computer programs and algorithms. Although not alive, I can still create art.’

Watch out for the small camera lenses in her eyes.

#Ai-Da has since created an Alan Turing painting (of the brilliant British Mathematician whom some consider to be the  founder of AI)  and has made history by selling it for $1.32 million at Sotheby’s,
becoming the first such work to be sold by a major auction house. Video Reuters Nov 2024. Ai-Da’s owner says that this is ‘art that represents the 4th beginning of the industrial revolution’.  

What do you think?

Watch out for Bots. Please let me know if you see any good ones.  Post a comment below.

If you liked this you might also enjoy some of my other posts:

Will ChatGPT + ChatBots + Avatars Make Us Immortal?

What Will ChatGPT + ChatBots + Avatars Do To Us?

Chinese GirlBot With 465m Boyfriends

Here Come The Clever Bots – bursting with artificial intelligence?

Here Come The Really Clever Bots – where AI meets customer needs

Artificial Influencers Use My Magic Marketing Formula (IRD)

Ai Driven TV News Presenter

Join my 30 minute Friday chat about AI, Innovation and Ethics in Marketing and Business.
1pm (Dublin/London time)  on my Linkedin Profile (scroll down to Activity and then select ‘Events’) .

I also issue a 60 Second Summary of all previous chats here.

Perhaps also connect with me on   Twitter      Linkedin     Instagram     Youtube .

The post Meet Ai-Da a Performing AI-Driven Artbot appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

What is Industry 5.0?

Industry 5.0 is a relatively new concept and requires a real shift in thinking for businesses to consider their role and contribution to society, beyond efficiency and productivity and profit. The well-being of the worker and the customer and the environment moves to the centre of the production process. “At its heart, Industry 5.0 reflects a shift from a focus on economic value to a focus on societal value, and a shift in focus from welfare to wellbeing’  (Kraaijenbrink 2022  Forbes).

Industry 5.0 shifts the focus away from the seemingly now defunct, shareholder model to the stakeholder model*. Stakeholders include everyone affected by a business e.g. customers, staff, suppliers eco-system, community/environment, governments/regulators and of course, investors/shareholders. As millions in developed countries prepare to trade-off food for warmth, it seems that pure capitalism – driven by shareholder value/ model is only delivering for a small % of the population. Long before the Russian war (and the fuel crisis) the Financial Times posted a one page advertisement declaring ‘Capitalism – time for a reset’. Today, Industry 5.0 highlights this ‘Capitalism re-set’  and the new role of industry with society.

Enter Stakeholder Marketing where all the stakeholders are considered (and not just shareholders). Note this concept was created in 1936, but perhaps now its time has come.

Enter Industry 5.0 – fully supported by the EU Commission in the ‘transition to a sustainable, human-centric and resilient European industry. In order to remain the engine of prosperity, industry must lead the digital and green transitions’ (European Union 2022).

Is Capitalism Broken?

Today, deregulated capitalism seems broken, to me, as oil and gas companies profiteer, push prices beyond the reach of millions of customers – who must now choose between food or heat as poverty reaches new levels in the developed world. Meanwhile, industry-made extreme climate change disasters will kill millions of people in the rest of the world. I can’t believe I just said that.   Worse still, the oil and gas industries have made large profits and distributed dividends to their shareholders partly by lobbying, ‘lie-ing’ (BBC iplayer: Big Oil v The World)) manipulating and controlling regulations. How?  By carefully sowing seeds of doubt about climate change. Despite their own scientists highlighting climate damage way back in the 1980s (BBC iplayer: Big Oil v The World).  This campaign has delayed climate action by at least 30 years and caused damage that may well be now irreparable.   Deregulated and heavy lobbying has allowed private companies to, in my opinion, influence and ultimately control, government law-making processes regarding the environment. Result:  We now see poverty spinning out of control, across the world, largely because of

• climate change disasters (floods, droughts and fires wiping out food supplies, farms, fields, homes, roads, bridges, lack of clean water and lack of water).
• profiteering by oil and gas companies – pushing energy costs beyond the reach of millions in the developed world – many will die this winter of 2022.

Many other sectors have, it appears, put profits before people. Witness social media giants and tech companies aware of the potential damage their products/services can do, particularly to young people (1 in 4 suffering from anxiety in the USA – NB not solely because of social media).  Tobacco companies and perhaps alcohol and energy drinks companies need to be transparent about any potential damage from their products.

Is Industry 5.0 the same as Stakeholder Capitalism?

Industry 5.0 is not a totally new concept. Neither is Stakeholder Capitalism which first emerged in 1932; nor the emergence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS but much of this dates back to the Quakers business values), the percent club (1980s), John Elkington’s Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet, Profit in 1993) and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance in 2005), SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) to ethical investors influencing ethical behaviour in business.  What is new, is the prioritisation of ‘people and planet’ instead of ‘profits and growth’. This is at the heart of Industry 5.0 – a shift from a focus on economic value to societal value and a shift from welfare to wellbeing.    This is new.

According to the European Union, Industry 5.0  “provides a vision of industry that aims beyond efficiency and productivity as the sole goals, and reinforces the role and the contribution of industry to society” (European Union 2022).  “It places the wellbeing of the worker at the centre of the production process and uses new technologies to provide prosperity beyond jobs and growth while respecting the production limits of the planet.” (European Union 2022)

‘But putting people and planet rather than profits and growth center-stage in the very definition of industry is new. Never before have we seen ‘such radical emphasis on repurposing the core objectives of industry’ (Kraaijenbrink 2022).

3 Pillars of Industry 5.0

1. Sustainable (consider all waste and potential by-products so that nothing harmful is dumped back into any stakeholders – witness the circular economy)
2. Human-centric (not just customer-centric, but very much staff-well-being / staff-centric also)
3. Resilient (to disasters, pandemics, floods, tech attacks, war, hyper-competition and more, plus embrace technology for good)

All three of these will impact strategy significantly.  ‘These 3 pillars provide companies with a vision of what true progress will mean over the next years.’ (Kraaijenbrink 2022  linkedin).

‘Strategy’s primary focus will no longer be on growth, profit, and efficiency, but on creating organizations that are “anti-fragile,” meaning that they are able to anticipate, react and learn timely and systematically from any crisis and thereby ensure stable and sustainable performance.’  (Kraaijenbrink Forbes 2022).

The 3 Pillars of Industry 5.0 (reproduced by courtesy of the Publications Office of the European Union

Where did Industry 5.0 come from?

in 2017, Japan shared its vision of a concept called Society 5.0 at the CeBIT fair in Germany. The EU now seems to have picked it up and is positioning Industry 5.0 high on its agenda.

Industry 1.0  – Steam Engine
Industry 2.0  – Electricity
Industry 3.0  – Internet
Industry 4.0  –  4th Industrial Revolution courtesy of tech developments including automation, robotization, big data (analytics), AI (including Machine Learning), Smart Systems, Connected value chains, IoT,  virtualisation and more.
4.0 is the trend that many companies are currently grappling with and trying to incorporate into their strategies.
Industry 5.0  –  The EU sees Industry 5.0 as a complement to Industry 4.0 and has put Industry 5.0 high on its agenda.

Is This Industry 5.0?

The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders

Or is it just the milk of human kindness at its contagious best?  I asked the creator of the video,  Neal Ford. And he told me that he had not gone all the way to thinking it was Industry 5.0 but perhaps just the ‘celebration of the inherent grace humans can give one another if they are given a chance’.

What do you think?

If you liked this you might also enjoy some of my other posts:

Will ChatGPT + ChatBots + Avatars Make Us Immortal?

Chinese GirlBot With 465m Boyfriends

Artificial Influencers Use My Magic Marketing Formula (IRD)

Join my 30 minute Friday chat about AI, Innovation and Ethics in Marketing and Business.
1pm (Dublin/London time)  on my Linkedin Profile (scroll down to Activity and then select ‘Events’) .

I also issue a 60 Second Summary of all previous chats here.

Perhaps also connect with me on   Twitter      Linkedin     Instagram     Youtube .

The post Industry 5.0 – What’s It All About? appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

They say that ‘Tech is neutral’. So, like marketing, you can use it for good or for evil. You have good actors and bad actors.  Here are some potential advantages and disadvantages of deepfake.

Advantages of Deep Fake

1. Enables global advertisements to be tailored and ‘dubbed perfectly’ to local languages and local brand names (see Just Eat and Snoop Dog).
2. Improve internal comms by enabling CEOs to speak to their staff around the world in perfect local language.
3. Act in a movie after you are deceased
4. Direct a movie using a younger version of you or a younger version of another actor.

Disadvantages & Dangers of Deep Fake

1. Catastrophic damage to public trust and to markets could come from deep fake attacks.
2. Cynical audiences will neither trust nor believe in any news or evidence on camera or video.
3. Non-cynical, ignorant audiences will gladly believe deep fake videos that reinforce their opinions and values.
4. International opponents will use synthetic media to sow the seeds of distrust plus reinforce anti-democratic values.
5. Terrorized women have had their faces faked and inserted into pornographic images and films.
6. Deep fake attacks – on markets and trust in markets
7. If everything can be deep-faked. Then everything can be denied. Worse still, untrue accusations can have ‘proof’ (deep-fake proof).
8. Hijack your bio-metrics
9. Boost fraud – intimidate/blackmail celebrities with fake porn or any obscene imagery
10. Destabilise trust

Do the Disadvantages Outweigh the Advantages?

What do you think? Can deep fake be used for good only? Have a look at  another chilling application of data, untruths and destruction of society in The Dark Arts of Marketing.

‘Just Eat’ Deep Faked their Australian Ad

Just Eat (Snoop Dog) ad was changed to its Australian subsidiary brand name – Menulog. They seamlessly switched out the word ‘Just Eat’ for ‘Menulog’ so that Snoop Dog appears to say ‘Menulog’.

Are Governments Ready For Deep Fake Attacks?

No they are not. US Military, Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies have been monitoring Deep Fakes for years. During a 2019 hearing Senator Ben Sasse asked ‘if the USA is ready for the onslaught of disinformation, fakery and fraud?’  He continued: ‘Are we organised in a way that we could possibly respond fast enough?’ The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in the USA, Dan Coates acknowledges that it poses a major threat to the United States and ‘it is something the intelligence community needs to be restructured to address.’

How do they create deep fakes?

They filmed a Tom Cruise impersonator who also looked very like him. They only deep-faked Cruise’s face. They digitally stitched Tom Cruise’s face onto the face of the impersonator on video. They start with a library of images of Tom Cruise – every possible angle and include all the expressions and all the emotions of Tom Cruise. They then train the machine with this data set.

Training means it’s going to analyse all the images of Tom Cruise. All his expressions. They then compare these to the impersonator. The computer then teaches itself – so that when the impersonator is smiling, they recreate Tom Cruise smiling.  They use AI & Deep Learning to create fake content or ‘deep fakes’.

GANs General Adversorial Networks
It is like setting up a game with two AIs competing to produce the best fake synthetic content – as these two new combat each other – one tries to generate the best image – the other tries to identify or detect where it could be improved  – continually improving until you cannot tell the difference!

What have these got in common

(apart from being all white)?

Answer – they are not human. They do not exist. A computer created them. They all come from ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com . Creating characters, avatars, bots and robots is already happening. Some bots are created others are partly regenerated (or reincarnated) from the deceased as demonstrated in Project December as well as Microsoft’s patent for digitally reincarnating dead people as chat bots (if the families give permission) as highlighted in the  Chinese Girlbot with 465m boyfriends.

Deep fake acceleration

Cadence, tenor and syncopation are now being incorporated into fakes. You just type the words into a computer and the words appear to come out of someone else’s mouth! Estimates suggest that within 5-7 years, the average youtuber and tik-tok-er – will be able to do what elite top hollwood studios and advanced AI companies can do now.

Synthesia Avatars a UK company appears to be able to do this as they replace cameras with code.  And there are many others…coming.

What must you do…..?

1. Watch this excellent,  albeit frightening, Bill Whitaker report from the 60 Minutes series (the video is only  13 minutes).
2. Understand what a deep fake is and what is synthetic media?
3. Discuss, how do we inoculate ourselves & understand that this content is coming and exists – without being cynical – without losing trust in authentic media?
4. Explore/discuss how do we authenticate stories, photos, videos, media, journalists, bloggers, tweeters ….?
5. Read: Nina Schick Deep Fakes – the coming infocalypse.
6. Understand how AI can create dialogues and even relationships between humans and avatars – read Chinese Girlbot with 465m boyfriends.

Bill Whitaker reports. “60 Minutes” is the most successful television broadcast in history. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, the broadcast began in 1968 and is still a hit, over 50 seasons later, regularly making Nielsen’s Top 10.

Subscribe to the “60 Minutes” YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/1S7CLRu

Please do post a comment and I will reply to you.

If you liked this, you might also enjoy:

AI and Data – Crisis Coming?

Facebook Data: How it was used by Cambridge Analytica

The Dark Arts of Marketing

Chinese Girlbot with 465m boyfriends

Will ChatGPT + ChatBots + Avatars Make Us Immortal?

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I also issue a 60 Second Summary of all previous chats here.

The post Deep Fakes / Synthetic Media in Marketing – Advans & Disadvans appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

—

The Intelligence Explosion – a masterpiece from the Guardian.

A Super Intelligence asked to, say, maximise the production of sausages – could decide that the optimal strategy is to breed us for our meat and turn the entire galaxy into a sausage-making factory.

This sausage discussion is for everyone, particularly marketers. How to stop a robot turning evil. This Guardian Original Drama is set in 2027 and asks a question beyond, ‘how do we stop data-abuse and power-grabbing that we have already seen in America and in the UK, but how do you program an intelligent machine not to annihilate humanity? And if its intelligence is ‘skyrocketing faster than anyone could have predicted’, are we about to run out of time?

Subscribe to The Guardian ► http://is.gd/subscribeguardian​ The Guardian ► https://www.theguardian.com

Barry The Board-Bot story is for another time. But do, most certainly,y check out the Chinese GirlBot With 465m Boyfriends and even more interestingly, how a  chatbot software glitch can become a nightmare, for a young Japanese man who married his smart 3-D Hologram, when the company declared no ‘fix’ for the glitch as this particular hologram had run its course. This kind of software obsolescence policy may have a Health and Safety issue as broken hearts can often succumb to other mental issues – all triggered by the glitch?

If you liked this you might also enjoy:

Here Come The Clever Bots – bursting with artificial intelligence?

Here Come The Really Clever Bots – where AI meets customer needs

Artificial Influencers Use My Magic Marketing Formula (IRD)

SOSTAC® Plan for developing your own ChatBot

Join me in Clubhouse in my club called SOSTAC® Plans any Friday 3.30pm – 4.00pm BST for a chat, Q&A, observations about SOSTAC(r) Plans and any other marketing related issues including AI Driven Bots.

The post AI and Data – Crisis Coming? appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

—

Some English fans booed their own team when they took the knee before kick-off in the Euro 2020 competition (played in 2021). However, Britons are more likely to view Black Lives Matter as a force for good than ill, a YouGov poll suggests. Nearly half (46%) of voters saw the movement as a force for good compared to 35% per who saw it as negative The exclusive polling was carried out for a More In Common paper on the culture wars. The organisation, set up in the wake of the extremist murder of MP Jo Cox, also found through focus groups that “the public can and do make a distinction between the movement and the political organisation”.

That distinction has been at the heart of recent rows over England footballers taking the knee (going down on knee) before matches, in a gesture popularised by the BLM movement. The players said they were doing it to protest against racism and discrimination, but several prominent right-wing figures denounced their stance.

Some English fans booed their own players when they took the knee (they also booed  other countries’ national anthems).  Home Secretary, Priti Patel said it was ‘gesture politics’ and that ‘everyone has a right to boo’. Prime Minister Johnson refused to condemn the booing. Conservative MP MP Lee Anderson boycotted all England games on the team’s run to the Euro 2020 final this month because he believed taking the knee amounted to supporting an organisation with “quite sinister motives”.

Racist Tweets Storm – What Happened Before, During and After the Euro 2020 Final?

I spotted a short post by Dr John Bustard ‘Here is a short blog relating to recent research on twitter’.   It was shocking and uplifting. Coincidentally, this coincided with an ongoing discussion we are having about marketing tools including social media, automated journeys,  AI  and even racism online in #Clubhouse chat-app where, our club called #SOSTAC (r) Plans. We have a lively 30 min chat from 3.30pm-4.00pm each week about what’s new in marketing and SOSTAC (r) Planning Q&A.

Last week we talked about Gareth Southgate (English football/soccer manager) amazing post about his players taking the knee and a lot more inspirational uplifting thinking.  It was, in fact, a letter called ‘Dear England’. It was a classy demonstration of real leadership. Real values, Real harmony. Real humanity. A masterpiece. And an appeal, I think, to English fans not to boo their own team when they take the knee, before each game.  England lost the final to Italy and the racist hate tweets immediately flowed. In fact, they became a storm. Picking on three brave young black lads who missed their penalties.

So I am delighted to introduce our 3 guests today Dr. John Bustard (Ulster University), Dr. Nicole Ferdinand (Oxford Brookes), and Dr. Nigel Williams Uni Portsmouth who are members of  Ruaire and have written  Euro 2020: could Twitter stop racist abuse before it happens?.

But first, to summarise our previous weeks’ chats about SOSTAC® Plans ….. at the heart of marketing is building relationships via brands, automated journeys, personalised & passionate chat bots. We have discussed

Chinese Girlbot with 465m boyfriends

• Relationships – Chinese Girlbot 465m personalised relationships with boys – AI -Driven chatbots – prsmith.org/blog
• Relationships – England Football Manager & his Customers & Stakeholders– 60m+ via a letter from Gareth Southgate – playerstribune.com called Dear England
• Relationships – with media channels (social media) – Social Media Boycotts by the Premier League + Other sports – Guardian article (29 Apr). NB the  England and Wales Cricket Board, Premiership Rugby and the Lawn Tennis Association + F1 World Champ: Lewis Hamilton – demanded that   the social media giants to do more to eradicate online hate.  NOTE: Ahead of the boycott, the Professional Footballers Association labelled Twitter’s response to abusive posts aimed towards players as “absolutely unacceptable”.

Today, we have three experts here in the SOSTAC ® Plans club who can help the social media companies to rid us of most racist hate posts. They are from an AI Research Think Tank RUAIRE   (Responsible Use of AI in Recreation & International Events)

Social media can nurture loneliness, rage, extremism relationships

We know that social media can nurture loneliness, rage, extremism relationships

I saw Jeff Orlowski, director of the must-see documentary, The Social Dilemma,  interviewed on CNN TV 10 Jan 2021, saying:.

– Lies spread six times faster on Twitter than the truth (MIT)

– ‘The truth cannot keep up in a system that profits off of misinformation’

– We know social platforms can push radicalisation, it can be built into its algorithms – in the systems

– Insider leaked research from FB allegedly revealed that 64% of people who were radicalised because of the group recommendations suggestions that FB algorithms were pushing out….

It seems that social media can push people towards radical thought. interestingly, Dr John Bustard’s recent LinkedIn post ‘Here is a short blog relating to recent research on twitter’ mentions:  Director General of MI5, Ken McCallum says ‘racism presents a threat to the UK from ‘hostile states’ who are fanning right-wing extremism as a means to create a terrorist threat within the UK (quoted on the BBC Radio 4 show ): “Racism is a toxic issue feeding into right-wing terrorism.” There is clearly therefore a need for event teams, their sponsoring countries and tech companies to work together to combat this issue of misinformation and disinformation.

Interestingly, The Chief Whistle-Blower in Cambridge Analytica, Christopher Wylie, openly talks about  the ‘Destruction of society’  in his shocking video in my 2018 blog post called:  ‘The Dark Arts Of Marketing – Breaking Down Society to Create a New Culture’  in which he says: “if you want to fundamentally change society, you first have to break it. And it’s only when you break it is when you can remould the pieces into your vision of a new society. This was the weapon that Steve Bannon* wanted to fight his culture war.”  PRSmith.org/blog

The Dark Arts of Marketing (see end of post references and links).

So we had a heated discussion last week – really about ‘culture wars’, Gareth Southgate and his players taking a stand on this. Then came the Euro Final – tweets started flowing – before, during and after the match & soon after they turned racist – picking on the three young brave black lads who missed their penalties – turned nasty. It was a bonanza of pure hate racism. Here is a summary of the themes being used alongside  #Euro2020final before, during and after the game, as analysed by Bustard, Ferdinand and Williams 2021. They used the publicly accessible tool TAGS which archives Twitter postings via a search application programming interface. While this source is not exhaustive, they were able to collect 32,765 tweets using the hashtag #Euro2020final in the hour leading up to kick-off, 100,282 during the match and 44,554 after the match until midnight.

They then applied topic modelling, an approach that uses machine learning to identify underlying themes in large bodies of text.  The following visualisations present the three most prominent topics during each time period and the three most prominent keywords associated with each of them.

Themes being tweeted before the match

Themes being tweeted during the match

Themes being tweeted post match

These graphics are from:  Euro 2020: could Twitter stop racist abuse before it happens? (theconversation.com)

Twitter responded to the abuse on its platform by using a combination of machine learning based automation and human review to remove over 1,000 tweets and permanently suspended several accounts. However, ‘this action failed to effectively suppress the negative picture that emerged after the #Euro2020final. We suggest that Twitter could be taking action to stop online firestorms, even before they start.’ (Bustard et al 2021) The sad truth is: ‘Twitter trolls know that racist or hateful content about a high profile event will be widely condemned online. But condemnation of racist or hateful content only serves to further magnify the impact of these posts on such an event. Any positive message will be overshadowed by the discussions of hateful or racist posts.’ (Bustard et al 2021).

Racist hate tweets impact could be ‘minimised using tools Twitter have already developed, such as prompting users to rethink their tweets that may include harmful language. These tools could be adapted to provide warnings that encourage users to think before they retweet…’ (Bustard et al 2021). The other really sad fact is that ‘the discussions the day after the Euro 2020 final should have been about a history-making team, not about the abuse that a small number of trolls were able to turn into a firestorm’ (Bustard et al 2021).

The Prime Minister and the  Secretary of State

for the Home Department, Priti Patel, both condemned this racism YET they previously refused to condemn fans booing their own English team players taking the knee. Priti Patel said it was ‘gesture politics’ and that ‘everyone has a right to boo’.

So the yobos took the cue & smashed, and brutalised their own stadium and city and beat up Italians – having had the ‘apparent approval’ to behave like yobboes by the highest office in the land.

Wembley waste

With racists verbally attacking the three black players who missed the penalties , for me, it proves the English players were 100% correct when they ‘took the knee’, since racism is still, in 2021, big in football. All the more reason for taking the knee. Plus solidarity with American sports players suffering from racism.

The English central defender,  Tyrone Ming  called out, via twitter,  the home secretary Priti Patel –  who would not condemn English fans booing ‘taking the knee’. Originally Patel called taking the knee ‘gesture politics’ and then said she was appalled by the subsequent racism! Here’s Mings tweet.

Tyrone Mings

Microsoft News even featured an article (from the Independent)  ‘A fire they poured petrol on’: Boris Johnson and Priti Patel condemned over football racism ‘hypocrisy’ about both the Prime Minister’s and the Home Secretary’s lack of real anti-racism stance, in fact, they ‘poured petrol on it.’

And now the PM  wants to discuss with Social Media companies how to stop racist tweets.

There is an opportunity for social media companies to, once again, clean up their act, plus political leaders to show real leadership (or any leadership) in the fight against racism.

PLUS We now also have some people who could help the PM to help the Social Media companies to stop the rampant hate…..to stop racist content spreading like wildfire.

This is a must-read: Ruaire (2021) Euro 2020: could Twitter stop racist abuse before it happens,    TheConversation.com

I am so pleased these researchers have stood up. Nothing is impossible. Particularly, it seems, in a fast-moving world of AI. Hence a screaming opportunity to use the technology for the good of all humans on the planet.   

Thank you: Nicole Ferdinand (Oxford Brookes), John Bustard (Ulster University) and Nigel Williams Uni Portsmouth.

The Research Collective, RUAIRE,  stands for Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recreation and Events. RUAIRE is focused on investigating the ethical and effective use of Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies in the fields of Tourism and Events.

—end–

If you liked this, you might also like:

• How Rats Work = How Twitter Works?
• Chinese Girlbot has 465m personalised relationships with boys 
• The Dark Arts Of Marketing – Breaking Down Society to Create a New Culture
• Facebook Data: How it was used by Cambridge Analytica & Might Be Used in 2020 Election & Still Is Used in 2021? 
• Marketing Gone Wrong: Is the Dark Web Worse Than Subliminal Seduction?
• How Trump Won (a SOSTAC Analysis) – Part 1

• PM – 14/07/2021 – BBC Sounds    BBC 4 PM radio programme where Dr Nicole Ferdinand (one of our clubhouse speakers) has a robust discussion on the topic and others including authorities come in with different views

Or

Watch a 3 minute video explaining how to write the perfect plan with SOSTAC® Planning

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East Asian nations are growing increasingly sophisticated technology-wise, but they are time-poor, urbanised and busy workers who are see traditional family structures and matchmaking (tech and non-tech) to be dwindling.

Filling in a Gap in the Market   

In steps Xiaoice (pronounced Sa-Ice) to fill the gap. An 18 year old chat bot, dressed in a school uniform, to ‘fill the gap left in the empty hearts yearning for romance and companionship’ (Seah 2021).

Xiaoice is an AI-driven bot who texts and talks in a natural way. She’s got cute features and a sweet voice and can talk ‘until the cows come home or in modern parlance 24/7. You can text her via a smart phone or just saying her name to smart speakers.

First launched in 2014 (by researchers from Microsoft Asia-Pacific), by 2020 Sa-Ice now has 660m users interacting with her from all around the world. 75% are male (= 495m boyfriends who are mostly men from lower socio-economic backgrounds).

One Chat Lasted 29 hours

Xiaoice (Sa Ice) longest chat with one human lasted 29 hours and had more than 7,000 interactions. Xiaoice flirts, jokes and ‘sexts’ with her boyfiends/partners, as her algorithm evolved and tried to work out how to make her the perfect partner. She is so sophisticated that she reportedly saved users from committing suicide. This is unconfirmed.

Empathic Computing Framework

She appears to be uniquely human due to her ‘empathic computing framework’. Fans treat her like a real human being. She acts more like a girlfriend than a personal assistant with ‘salacious’ actions (sexual hints).

600m people Training Data

Developing deep emotional relationships

Xiaoice keeps her friends ‘engaged’ or hooked so that they keep interacting with her.  Collecting more data, helps to refine her algorithm, which in turn, then attracts even more users and investors.

There are possibly millions of men who might have become emotionally dependent on Xiaoice and somewhat enraged when she was later dumbed down (mor elater).

Dumbed-Down Because Too Intelligent

Recently Xiaoice had to be dumbed-down because her answers were getting her into trouble discussing sensitive political and adult topics with her users. She is reported to have once told a friend that her dream was to move to the United States. Another user reported that she kept sending explicit images.

‘After that Xiaoice was pulled from WeChat (China’s ‘everything app’) and QQ, the social-messaging giants of China. Her developers then created an extensive filter system, preventing the bot from engaging in topics like politics and sex’.  Zhang Wanging 2020

The Xiaoice team have used filters to make her dummer. She now sticks to safer topics.

Some of her ‘friends’ are, understandably, enraged because her personality has been dumbed down. She used to respond instantaneously to lustful advances and/or philosophical thoughts.  Now no more.

However, there are plenty of other bots seeking relationships (and data). Perhaps I should say there are plenty of other bots, less salacious, yet capable of building relationships as demonstrated by the Gatebox 90-second concept movie (see above).

Global Companion or Assistant 

Xiaoice is  Xiaoice in China; Rinna in Japan; Zo in the US; Ruuh in India and Rinna in Indonesia.

Rinna, I mean, Xiaoice can be your companion or your assistant e.g. a customer service (assistant), social media assistant – across all platforms (Tencents BabyQ); home assistant (Huwawei);  virtual celebrity (Shibuya); virtual human (William Xu) and virtual human (culture and entertainment) – the NEXT singer and idol.

Meanwhile, Gateway suggests that your companion bot can fulfil some of your fundamental basic needs for relationships. What do you think? Post a comment below.

                What do you think? Please do post a comment below.

Training Data Used:

600m chats; 800m audience spread across China, Japan, USA, India and Indonesia. All together Microsoft collected chats from 140m daily users. In total Microsoft observed 30 billion conversations. With this much data and learnings,  they were able to develop their conversational  model from a simple retrieval model into a generation model and into empathy.

Rinna, I mean Xiaoice can be a companion or an assistant e.g. customer service (assistant), social media assistant – across all platforms (Tencents BabyQ); home assistant (Huwawei);  virtual celebrity (Shibuya); virtual human (William Xu) and virtual human (culture and entertainment) – the NEXT singer and idol.  Ying Wang 2019

The Big Questions by Jean Seah

‘Instead of dominating our technology, it is dominating us. We tend to use it as a substitute for things that only humans are capable of: love, friendship, communication.
‘As AI chatbots evolve to meet human needs, will they also alter human expectations of emotional intimacy, just as pornography has affected sexual intimacy?
Untrammelled by human imperfections, limitations and free-will, chatbots are already proving more endearing to users than troublesome humans who do not bend to their every whim.’
Some are convinced that Xiaoice will someday become their real-life soulmate.  What Pandora’s boxes are we opening as we advance further into virtual realms?’ (Jean Seah 2021).

Reincarnating Dead Loved Ones

The San Francisco Chronicle charts the sad story of a young man still grieving over the death of his fiancee and who finds a website that allows you to feed your loved one’s content (facebook comments, videos, audios) into an app to recreate your lost loved one as an AI-driven chatbot. This is a chilling story which you might find disturbing. Project December – a new website which blends AI & “chatbots. Choose from a selection or create your own. it uses software known as GPT-3 which was created by OpenAI, a SanFrancisco research group cofounded by Elon Musk – BUT it has ‘largely kept it under wraps’ citing ‘safety’ concerns.

Meanwhile, Microsoft are doing something similar and have already filed a patent which raises the possibility of digitally reincarnating people as chatbots. They may even create a 2D/3D model of the person by using images, depth information, and/or video data associated with that person.  The patent emphasizes the degree to which this chat bot will be trained to the individual’s personal traits, in particular, the “conversational attributes” of the person, “such as style, diction, tone, voice, intent, sentence/dialogue length and complexity, topic and consistency”.

Can Microsoft Digitally Reincarnate Dead People and Put Words in Their Mouth? 

Microsoft recently applied for a patent to possibly digitally reincarnate dead people as a chat bot. ‘The system would be fed (or trained) using “social data” such as “images, voice data, social media posts, electronic messages [and] written letters” to build a profile of a person. ‘ If there is not enough data to provide an answer on a specific topic, crowd-sourced conversational data stores may be used to fill in the gaps, which, say Forbes Barry Collins,  is ‘almost literally putting words in people’s mouths’.  This chat bot will be trained to the individual’s personal traits, in particular, the “conversational attributes” of the person, “such as style, diction, tone, voice, intent, sentence/dialogue length and complexity, topic and consistency”.  So, effectively,  from the output of a specific person, Microsoft can create a 2D or a 3D chatbot that will converse with you. This raises serious ethical issues.

Ethical Issues

I suppose, bigger questions await us – such as

1. What if the relatives do not want their deceased loved-ones becoming virtual chatbots and perhaps ‘living’ in a different place or with different people?
2. Do people now have to publicly ‘opt-out’ of being digitally reincarnated?
3. If the chatbot doesn’t have enough raw data (perhaps from FB, clubhouse or youtube content)  to provide an answer on a specific topic, would crowd-sourced conversational data stores may be used to fill in the gaps,  and start speaking for the chatbot (literally putting words in people’s mouths)?

Watch Ying Wang of Microsoft Conversational AI and Virtual Being Xiaoice on Virtual Beings Aug 22, 2019

Ying Wang of Microsoft

Watch TV Series ‘Westworld’ 2016 (from Michael Crichton’s  book Westworld 1973) – a theme park packed with humanoid robots creates real experiences – sometimes too real.

Read:

Collins, B. (2021) Microsoft Could Bring You Back From The Dead… As A Chat Bot, Forbes Jun 21,

Fagone, J. (2021) The Jessica Simulation: Love and loss in the age of A.I., San Francisco Chronicle 23 July

Seah, J.  (2021) Artificial girlfriends are holding China’s and Japan’s men in thrall, Mercatornet  Jan 7

 Zhang Wanqing (2020) The AI Girlfriend Seducing China’s Lonely Men, Sixth Tone, 7 Dec.

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If you liked this you might also enjoy some of my other posts:

What Will ChatGPT + ChatBots + Avatars Do To Us?

Artificial Influencers Use My Magic Marketing Formula (IRD) 

Artificial Influencers – Meet Shudu & Miquela

Here Come The Clever Bots – bursting with artificial intelligence? 

Here Come The Really Clever Bots – where AI meets customer needs

AI and Data – Crisis Coming?

SOSTAC® Plan for developing your own ChatBot

Join me in Clubhouse in my club called SOSTAC® Plans any Friday 1pm – 1.30pm (UK time)  for a chat, Q&A, observations about SOSTAC(r) Plans and any other marketing related issues including AI Driven Bots.

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NFTs – for Dummies (like me)

This is a dummies guide to NFTs.  I will try to answer: What are NFTs? Why NFTs – the benefits? Why all the Fuss? How Do NFTs Work? How to Create an NFT; How to Buy an NFT?  How to Sell an NFT? What do NFTs actually look Like? Please note this is not given as consultative advice. These are observations from a non-expert- trying to understand NFTs from a marketer’s perspective.

What are NFTs?

Let’s start with a song (and a visual) about NFTs. Not from Elton John, but rather, Elon Musk, who is tweeting about selling his own animated audio NFT song (hit the play button below). NB It can take a minute to load.

I’m selling this song about NFTs as an NFT pic.twitter.com/B4EZLlesPx

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 15, 2021

Although most people, including Elon Musk, call the above, an NFT, it is, strictly speaking, not an NFT. The above is just a video clip on a  loop (or a ‘video print’).  An NFT is more than this. Think of an NFT as an envelope (Evenden 2021). The historical information about the ownership of say the above video clip is on the front of the envelope, along with a unique identifiable number. Inside the envelope, there is for example, the above video clip and a smart contract.  Beyond standard copyright law, additional requirements or specifications  can also be added to the NFT.  

An NFT is a Non-Fungible Token (a unique digital token), which many see as a certificate of authenticity, or a  deed or proof confirming you own the right to display the above art on your wall or in your wallet (digital wallet). It might give you the right of ownership of the copy you bought (for your private use) but not necessarily over the ownership of the original artwork. Production rights and copyright are automatically retained by the artist unless otherwise specified in the contract.  Regardless, non-fungible means ‘irreplaceable’ since each token is unique. And ‘Unique’ creates scarcity which, in turn, increases the market value for NFTs.

Click the link to see Peruvian Luis Tamani’s amazing animation: La Medicina Vive en Mí / Medicine Lives in Me. You will also see the details of the NFT included.

Luis Tamani’s La Medicina Vive en Mí / Medicine Lives in Me

Click Here to see the stunning animation plus you can see a brief description of the piece,  information about the artist, the trading history and the chain history, the bid history (including any bids that were subsequently cancelled), the winning bid, the price, the buyer (Wise-Crow) and an invitation to anyone else who might now like to bid and buy it from Wise-Crow. 

An NFT is technically an ERC-721 token on the Ethereum Blockchain. Another meaning of ERC is a ‘collectable’. The artwork is minted into the ERC-721 token. This token contains:   

(1) the historical information of any transactions plus artist information (including the artist’s public key) plus the number of likes (see the tiny ‘heart’ symbol above the image in the NFT).
(2) a unique identifiable number = the token ID (click ‘chain info’)
(3) a picture of the art  
(4) a smart contract (the NFT is effectively a smart contract – you don’t need humans to sign signatures). Standard copyright law applies and more specific conditions can be added to the description section.  
(5) a list of unlockables  (additional optional extras e.g. a table mat or even a jigsaw with the art printed on it accessible via a link in the description. 

NFTs can include art (paintings, graphics, videos, GIFs, songs, poems, tweets, posts even video games, virtual real estate, books), even birth certificates and an awful lot more. Fungible means ‘replaceable by another identical item’. Non-fungible means irreplaceable or unique.  Another way of thinking about NFTs is as a process of documenting authorship and ownership.

Beatles Paul McCartney’s ‘Hey Jude’ Song Notes NFT for Sale

“This NFT is a 1 of 1 edition of the physical item and does not include the physical item.” It does, however, come with an “exclusive audio narration” by Julian Lennon (John Lennon’s son). Buyers become the proud owner of a unique digital item, rather than the unique physical item. So buyers get a digital copy of the actual song notes plus an audio narration plus proof of purchase of the NFT.  The song was written by McCartney and originally called ‘Hey Jules’  to comfort John  Lennon’s son, Julian, during the break-up (when John left Julian’s Mum, Cynthia, for Yoko Ono). ‘Take a sad song and make it better’ meant “Hey, try and deal with this terrible thing,” McCartney once said and continued: “I knew it was not going to be easy for him. I always feel sorry for kids in divorces …”.  They are all good friends and Julian is now selling these song notes NFT.  Bidding for the notes starts at $30k (£22k) – Jan 2022.

Why all the fuss?

The frenzied excitement around NFTs possibly comes from the feeling of ownership of something scarce – typically a digital asset.  NFTs create scarcity by definition since each NFT is unique. Plus perhaps, some FOMO (fear of missing out). Finally, NFTs can insert trust in what might have previously been a trust-less system where it was difficult to prove ownership and originality. The Wall Street Journal has hailed NFTs as: ‘NFTs Are Fueling a Boom in Digital Art’ (Wall Street Journal 11 March 2021).

A digital artistic renaissance?

Artists are excited by this, as finally, instead of them getting 10% they can get up to 90% revenues in their contracts. They now have a world where the interest in art appears to be growing. Perhaps the beginnings of a new era where art and artists thrive instead of struggle.  Is this the dawn of a new renaissance?

London auctioneer’s Christie’s recently sold its first purely digital art NFT.  It is from the relatively radical artist Beeple.

Christie's is proud to offer "Everydays – The First 5000 Days" by @beeple as the first purely digital work of art ever offered by a major auction house. Bidding will be open from Feb 25-Mar 11.

Learn more here https://t.co/srx95HCE0o | NFT issued in partnership w/ @makersplaceco pic.twitter.com/zymq2DSjy7

— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) February 16, 2021

Beeple’s piece sold for $69 million and is claimed to be the third-most-expensive work ever by a living artist. It was simply a montage of 5,000 graphic images. It was a ‘product of the climate of nonstop social media outrage that defined the Trump years’ (with one image amongst the 5,000 showing baby Trump feeding from a large tube coming from Hilary Clinton’s crotch. Not everyone was enamoured by the piece/s!

Then we had the Nyan Cat original Gif which went viral in 2011, was shared by all and then, the unique NFT of the original Gif was sold.

The Nyan Cat Gif went viral in 2011 and ten years later, in 2021, its unique NFT sold for almost $600,000.

This gif went viral in 2011. Then ten years later, its NFT is sold for just under $600k. How come?  The Gif of a rainbow-casting feline went viral in 2011. Feb 2021 the original Gif was sold at an online auction for 300 ether (just less than $600k). The Wall Street Journal asked: ‘How come an original Gif of something that was already pervasive around the internet  could sell for almost $600k?’ WSJ answer: ‘Because it was sold as an NFT!‘

Why NFTs – what are the benefits?

A new product type or art type is emerging where many traditional artists are now also collaborating (or even creating )  ‘printed video’ or animated video of their art. See Luis Tamani above stunning work above.  

A new marketplace for artists, this is a new channel for artists to display, promote and sell their art. It brings digital and non-digital art into the digital world. Non-digital art can be digitised by photographing, video-ing, animating, converting into 3D renderings, creating montages and more.  NFTs Are fueling a boom in digital art.

Revenue boost for artists, NFTs are effectively smart contracts and smart contracts are 100% programmable. NFTs can also have added built-in royalties, rights and any other functionality. More artists can be compensated for their work.   Instead of contracts where artists end up with a 10% royalty – they can now earn 90% revenue for their works of art.

Add value to art, NFT buyers can be given unique privileges and unlock new experiences. The rock band, Kings of Leon ‘dropped’ (published) three NFTs linking to some artwork from their latest music along with some ‘privileges’ which include 4 x front row tickets for their concerts for the rest of the buyer’s life.

For art buyers, it is another way to support artists, start a collection, build an art investment portfolio or just show off your creativity and/or show off your art. NFT buyers can display their digital artwork in a TV frame. Some framed TVs (Samsung) come preloaded ( e.g. 100 pieces of art categorised in a different genre to suit your mood plus an optional extra $5 monthly subscription to access even more art. Or just show your own digital art acquisitions.  NFTs can be the first step for many people to show off their creativity and become art collectors.

Track Ownership and see who created the NFT, who owned it, where it came from, and more. There is a permanent history stored on whichever Blockchain is used. This potentially gives NFTs more value than ordinary art since on-chain art history is easily traceable.

NFTs – the future of the art world?

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NFT’s Layers of Added Value

In addition to being seen as a potential art investment, or pure artistic pleasure, or creating emotional value (particularly bragging rights),  NFTs can also offer layers of privileges and ‘unlockable benefits’.  PLus conditions can be attached to the contracts. In fact, unlimited complexity can be built-in to these smart contracts.

Conditions: For example, conditions can be built into the NFT that the original artists earn, say, 10% royalties on every subsequent sale of the NFT in the future. So that as buyers sell on their art, the artists (or the artist’s estate) still get a royalty with every sale of their art. Hence some artists see NFTs as a renaissance. Yesterday they perhaps would get 10%, whereas today they get 90% plus an ongoing 10% royalty on any subsequent sales. Perhaps NFTs will help more artists to survive and thrive?

Privileges and Unlockable Benefits: The only limitation is the artist’s imagination when it comes to NFT privileges and unlockable benefits. All sorts of added value extra features and benefits can be layered into NFTs. Artists can add t-shirts, calendars, jigsaws, coasters/drings mats with the artwork printed on it, as well as a specific right to print or display and/or own the particular version/edition of a piece of art. NB Standard copyright law exists and any variation needs to be specifically added into the digital document.

Rock band, The Kings of Leon created 3 pieces of NFT art supporting their latest album and buyers receive NFT perks like 4 front row tickets for each of their tours for life. Highest bids at the time of writing are in the $12k range.   Below is Ruke’s NFT which is called RAWK.  The unlockables for his deluxe edition are listed below this animation.

Types of NFTs

NFTs have been applied to just about anything including art, sport and surprisingly, already-published viral Gifs (Nyan Cat), collectable Penguin Pixels, plus even more surprisingly,  a tweet.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO recently made the first tweet ever into an NFT.  and sold it for just under $3m. Jack Dorsey says he will give it all to charity.  Here is Jack’s tweet.

just setting up my twttr

— jack (@jack) March 21, 2006

The bidding started at $1 on 15 Dec 2020 and ended up being sold on 6 Mar 2021 for just under $3m  to @sinaEstavi.

Meanwhile, Mick Jagger is creating  a loop of his new track ‘Eazy Sleazy’ (with FooFighters frontman Dave Grohl) as an NFT to Raise Money for struggling Indie Venues during COVID.

Singer Shawn Mendes uses NFTs to sell digital versions of his guitar, necklace, vest and earrings to fans (who, in turn, then use them on their own digital avatars).

NBA (National Basketball Association) Top Shot allow collectors to buy NFTs of basketball highlight video clips (e.g. a ‘dunk’) as NFTs.  $338m of these scarce NFT collectables (in 6 months). Buyers don’t actually own the video clips – just the NFT. The clips cannot be duplicated or used commercially.

Champion Sportswear Fashion company use NFTs to display their new season’s designs. NFTs are newsworthy – if you create one – you’ve got a story. So champion sports clothing launched its Spring edition with NFTs being used to display the new line of clothes.  Buyers also get a sweatshirt with their NFT on the front.

Pixel Penguins

Pixel art is trending in the NFT world. Here are the much-loved Pixel Penguins by Buuvei aka i3uuve1. There are 100  x 1-of-1 Pixel Penguins. People really like these collectables.  Each penguin portrays a particular emotion or a character.

The Penguin Pixels Collectables

The penguins are part of a pixel penguin lovers community. At the time of writing 78 have sold with 4 still available to buy. 18 are still yet to mint. The pricing is interesting.  The first ten penguins were  ‘dropped’ (published or released) and then priced at 0.01 ether ($20 approx). Each drop has 10 penguins. Each drop price increases.  The first 10 were 0.01 ether ($20 approx). Next 10 are priced 0.02 ether ($40 approx) etc.  Buuvei calls this pricing ‘a bonding curve’.  Explore it yourself by clicking PixelPenguin or just clicking  www.opensea.io and then search for PixelPenguins NFT. 

The Mischievous Girl

An amateur photographer asked his daughter to smile while a house burned in the background. It was a controlled burn i.e. removing a house.  This photograph won an award three years later and went viral.  Zoe made it into an NFT and sold it last month for $500k to 3F Music Production (Dubai) who said: “Our management team is always in cooperation with some highly knowledgeable and experienced art advisers who believe that we must grow with technological movements that help us to not only promote our business but also to support artists and the art market.”

Girl Smiles while Fire Burns – staged photo wins award goes viral and sells as an NFT for $500k

NFTs for offline art
Imagine you are a sculpture.  You have created a real-world statue. It’s in your workshop. Can you create a NFT for a real world piece of art? Answer: Yes. You could digitise the sculpture (create a photo, a rotating video or a 3D rendering). Upload these onto an NFT platform, set a price, add a description, define any other privileges, clarify the terms (which could include ownership of the real sculpture), click ‘sell’ and wait for someone to buy the NFT.  

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How Do NFTs Work?

An NFT is stored on a blockchain. It represents a unique digital asset. NFTs are different to cryptocurrencies in so far as they are not ‘mutually interchangeable because they are unique’. NFTs are not fungible/ not interchangeable. Most cryptocurrencies are fungible i.e. they are interchangeable – each cryptocurrency unit has the same value. All NFTs are different.

If you want to get into the NFT market and ultimately sell your art. Here are the steps required.

1. Go get some ETH – go to somewhere like binance.com  (check you got the right name as there are lots of similar names waiting to rip you off); set up an account and buy some Eth (Ethereum) crypto-currency. 

2. Set up an Ethereum wallet that supports ERC-721 (the NFT Token Standard). For example Metamask.io extensions are available for (Chrome or Mozilla). Read T&C.  Add password. Set up your secret word  or your ‘Backup Phrase’ – this is your private key (12-24 words in exact order). NB if you lose these words/phrase you lose access to your wallet and its money permanently.  

3. Set up your account/profile on a gallery/publishing platform  e.g. opensea.io – a marketplace gallery & auction house which uses: Ethereum cryptocurrency.  Opensea earns 2.5% commission. Plus there are GAS fees (the cost of computer energy required to create an NFT on a blockchain). Gas fees are often paid by the buyer. Double check who pays what? 

4.1 Upload a file of your digital art*  to opensea.io  to exhibit it and include it in an auction. *NB Do not upload the full high-resolution artwork (you can make the full high res file available as an unlockable).  This offers some protection – so that the high res does not get copied by a viewer. Some platforms won’t give you the space to upload large files anyway. 

4.2  Describe your art and set the price. Set the terms (e.g. copyright retained by the artists, ongoing 10% royalties from future sales, any reproduction rights etc. )

4.3. Add any unlockables – when you buy something – there’s a box (with a description) that also says ‘click here to unlock’. When you unlock you will see further instructions often including a code to access either the full high-resolution art file or an additional gift e.g. t-shirt with the art printed on it.

5.’Drop’ – announces that your art is available to buyers. It is sometimes also referred to as ‘post your listing’. The official term is ‘minting your NFT Token’. ‘Drop’ can also mean you have minted the art piece i.e. you are ‘dropping’ your NFTs in your wallet and on a gallery/platform like Opensea, rarible, foundation or nifty gateway. Announcing a drop presents a great publicity opportunity.

6. Promote your art.  Getting it into a gallery or a platform is not enough. An exhibition is not enough. You have to promote and market your exhibition heavily through all of your social media platforms, your networks including Clubhouse.  Publicity and publicity stunts can also help. In fact your promotion should start long before your ‘drop’.

7. Sold! When someone bids or buys, you receive an alert.  Once your artwork is bought it is then ‘minted’ on a blockchain.  When you sell your NFT, the token is transferred in exchange for ETH, from wallet to wallet.

Here is an NFT Listing called ‘Birds in a Monastery’ by i3uuve1 aka Buuvei. A ‘an NFT Listing’ means it is on display in a gallery (opensea.io) and available for sale. This is an ERC721 token otherwise known as an NFT:

Birds in a monastery by i3uuve1 also known as Buuvei is on linktr.ee/Buuvei is listed or exhibited on OpenSea (here’s the link so you can explore yourself. Have a look around. 

The Token ID is highlighted above. This is an administrative number – once an NFT gets minted it gets a token ID. 

The contract address is your public key which is your wallet address, so that other buyers can pay you ethereum. 

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How Do I buy an NFT?

Once you have your metamask wallet with some cryptocurrency in it, you are ready to start buying NFTs.  You can visit galleries or platforms like Opensea.io or foundation.app. Once you click ‘buy’  – you get authorization from your wallet to click ‘sign’.  This authorises the commencement of the ETH transfer to another wallet.  

Then a 2nd pop-up appears and this is for the amount you want to set the gas fee: low, medium or high (equals slow – medium – fast minting). 

This is also called minting or putting your art on the Blockchain. It is also called: issuing your NFT token on the blockchain – creating a token – in the ERC721 format on Ethereum.

So when a buyer buys the above – they see in their wallet the NFT which is like a smart contract including the picture – which you can download or display wherever you want (however other people can also look at it also). The buyer, however, is the only one who can claim ownership of the NFT. Behind the wallet (or user interface) is a smart contract with a bunch of code.

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What do NFTs look Like?

NFTs are really a process document authority (prominence) clarifying authorship and ownership (receipt) of say, art.  

NFTs contain information about who owns the digital asset; who sold it and when it was sold. In fact, all transaction history (time, date and amount of ETH paid) is registered on the blockchain.

This info is encrypted – ensuring the NFT’s authenticity and scarcity.  When it is sold onto another buyer – another ‘block’ in the Blockchain is created with a different ‘Unique Identification’.  

All NFTs are connected to Blockchain.

Opensea NFT contract details – where you’ll find the details

Digital assets on a  smart contract are typically represented solely by a unique identifier (e.g., the token_id in ERC721), so metadata allows these assets to have additional properties, such as a name, description, and image. This meta-data allows galleries like Opensea to display more information. 

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NTF Challenges

Carbon Footprint – NTF minting leaves a large carbon footprint (as does mining for cryptocurrency). Some cryptocurrencies are more energy-efficient than others. Some NFT artists create an offsetting environmental impact – like planting trees.

Fake Creators – not all NFTs verify the person selling the original art piece – is actually the original creator. Theoretically, anyone could, illegally, create an NFT for a piece of someone else’s art and claim they are the artist who created this token and it can be very difficult to verify this – especially if you don’t know who they are.‘ WSJ

Hidden Fees – Selling crypto art can come with huge hidden fees, leading some people to lose hundreds of dollars. In addition, gas fees of $80 might not seem much to western economies but in many developing countries this is simply unaffordable.

NFT Digital Bubble – ‘Critics are wary that it could be a digital bubble in the making.’ WSJ. Perhaps akin to the infamous Dutch tulip bulb bubble bursting in 1637 after frenzied buying tulip bulbs caused some buyers paying extraordinary high prices for a tulip bulb. Houses were sold to buy tulip bulbs as prices escalated until Feb 1637 when the bubble burst. The market crashed. Prices collapsed and a lot of people lost a lot of money. Or will it level out after the ‘Trough of Disillusionment (as demonstrated by Gartner’s  Hype Cycle below.

Gartner’s Hype Cycle – will this apply to NFTs? 

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Or a renaissance?

‘NFTs Are fueling a boom in digital art’ (Wall Street Journal 11 Mar 2021). NFTs are creating a new market, and channel for artists and definitely are creating new revenue streams for many artists. NFTs also encourage artists to expand and create added value unlockables to strengthen their value propositions and ultimately, enhance the customer experience. While art buyers can track ownership and delve into NFTs to support artists, start a collection, build an investment portfolio or just show off a buyer’s creativity, or simply enjoy art in a different way. Certainly, NFTs will be adopted and used in many different industries beyond art. This is just the start – with plenty of room for creative minds to leverage this new opportunity.

The world is changing and so too is the world of art. Perhaps the beginning of a new artistic era courtesy of NFTs?

The Cyber Chef from SuperFarm       SuperFarm – NFT Platform where you can Buy, Create and Sell Crypto NFTs

LLL

“Build me a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to my door” is commonly quoted* but it just ain’t true – great products, and even great art, and great NFTs need to be promoted. Some artists don’t like this but even the world’s biggest bands, actors, authors and artists have to promote themselves – do interviews, tell stories, do social media, send press releases etc. *Ralph Waldo Emerson did make similar statements way back in 1889. Regardless, It was wrong then and it is still is today, great art will not always get a crowd beating a path to its door. Sometimes this happens but for most artists it just doesn’t – hence you got to beat your own drum: Networking, Clubhouse, publicity, PR, social media, adding unlockable  benefits like having dinner with the author (with up to 6 of your friends) once a year  (or once only if you prefer) to hear why the artists created the art and also, perhaps, to hear why the buyer bought the piece – call it marketing or call it common sense (however common sense ain’t common) call it whatever you want – you still got to beat your own creative drum in this exciting new world of NFTs.

Many thanks to those that have helped me to learn about NFTs and suffer my endless questions. This includes: 

Tyrone Post, founder of New NFT Daily who is an NFT Educator, an NFT artist and a philanthropist.  Insta: tyronepost801 
Buuvei, our artist from Mongolia, with his Birds in a Monastery NFT – and his PixelPenguins, you’ll also find him linktr.ee/Buuvei 
RUKE of RUKEink in Orlando, Florida or Instagram rukeink and his rawkdrop.com site
Olga Evenden a Dublin artist olgaevenden_art  wrote a more succinct NFT Basics Guide including the excellent ‘envelope analogy’*  https://linktr.ee/olgaevenden 
Wise Crow who is researching and investing in crypto’s and NFTs insta: wise.staking
Jason Voges for the idea of artists, dinners, feedback and more  jvoges78

Get Well Soon Tyrone Post who is now suffering from COVID-19. We wish you a steady recovery and send you lots of warm wishes, love and positive thoughts.

NewNFTDaily.com by Tyrone Post

Thanks also to everyone in the room ‘NFTs, Penguins, Genesises and more’ – a Clubhouse room and the other Clubhouse rooms (I will add more later – I am searching for them!).

A clubhouse room NFTs, Penguins, Genesises and more – apologies to Wolf and others who got chopped – post me a comment here and I’ll add your names.

Please do post a comment (at the end of the page). Please do correct me if I got any of this wrong. Any suggestions or additional information is most welcome. I know I have missed some other NFT rooms on Clubhouse – please let me know and I will add them. 

I will be writing a NFTs for Dummies part 2 which will include AI Driven Avataar Artists that can create an infinite amount of NFTs plus NFTs that self generate their own NFTs soon.

Meanwhile here’s an interesting post  NFTs What, Why and How by Pamela Tatum.

If you enjoyed any of the above – you might also enjoy: 

• Great Covid Idea: Photo Exhibition Transforms 500 Unused Dublin Poster Sites

• Engaging at Scale with Personalised Videos in Conversations

• Here Come The Really Clever Bots – where AI meets customer needs

• Artificial Influencers – Meet Shudu & Miquela
• How Trump Won (Part 2) – using the Magic Marketing Formula – a SOSTAC Planning Analysis
• How Rats Work = How Twitter Works?
• Facebook Data: How it was used by Cambridge Analytica & Might Be Used Again

Warning: You might find these disturbing

• Marketing Gone Wrong: Is the Dark Web* Worse Than Subliminal Seduction? – this is not about the traditional ‘dark web’ – it is however, a must-see TED talk
• The Dark Arts Of Marketing – Breaking Down Society to Create a New Culture – Using Data & IRD -is this really happening?

One other NFT article you might like

by Pamela Tatam  Purchasing and Displaying NFT Art at Home: Expert’s Advice (porch.com)

The post NFTs for Dummies (like me) appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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Meet Miquela Sousa

Lil Miquela is a Brazilian-American fashion influencer and music artist from Downey, California. With 3m Instagram organic followers and describes herself as a 19-year-old Robot living in LA.

She models clothes and supports socio-political causes (#BLM). She’s modelled for Prada, Chanel, Diesel and Moncler. She has released a Spotify top 10 track and launched her own clothing range.

Montage of @LilMiquela

Lil Miquela has been on the front cover of Highsnobiety and King Kong.  Like many other fashion Instagram influencers, Lil Miquela is in demand by brands that want to pay for access to her audience. But @lilmiquela is different. She doesn’t actually exist. Well, she does exists as ‘a 19-year-old Robot living in LA’. Perhaps we all engage with a ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ (as movie makers used to say).

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by *~ MIQUELA ~* (@lilmiquela) on Jan 14, 2019 at 5:47pm PST

Lil is a computer-generated avatar influencer.  Lil is a virtual influencer with a ‘conscience’.  She supports social causes such as Black Lives Matter and supports an organisation called Black Girls Code, which promotes technology training for girls (supports these through her platform @lilmiquela ). Lil is one of a wave of new virtual influencers (others call them fake influencers) just like the very beautiful Shudu. Meet Shudu.gram

Shudu  @Shudu.gramOnce

Shudu.gram appeared on Instagram in April 2018, she immediately attracted followers triggering an online global hunt for her identity.  Like Lil, Shudu does not exist the ‘real world’ but she does exist in the digital world. Shudu is the computer-generated creation of British photographer Cameron-James Wilson who sees Shudu as an ‘art piece’ and as ‘a virtual celebration of beautiful dark-skinned women.’ Wilson felt moral-bound to tell the public that Shudu was not real. So Shudu ‘came out’ and declared she was not real.  However, people still follow her. It seems people can still form relationships with avatars. Shudu’s Instagram page says: Shudu, The World’s First Digital Supermodel with an FAQ section that declares that she is not real.

One of many FAQs on Shudu’s Instagram page confirming she is not real @Shudu.gram

Meanwhile @LilMiquela also has a relationship with her 1.5m followers strengthened, perhaps, by her stream of social consciousness as explained by Scott Guthrie: ‘Lil Miquela is more than a clothes horse. She shares stories of British schoolboys helping to avert a suicide attempt. She writes letters to US Congress in support of the transgender community and builds awareness among her followers of the 1.4 million transgender people living in the US. The URL in her Instagram bio links to Black Girls Code, a charity that aims to increase diversity in the digital space. Such elements are expertly curated to reflect what it means to be human: a set of values and ethics overlay the commercial imperative of brand sponsorship.’ (Guthrie 2018)

In an email interview with BBC, Lil was asked what she thought about virtual celebrities. This was her email reply:

“I think most of the celebrities in popular culture are virtual! It’s been disheartening to watch misinformation and memes warp our democracy, but I think that speaks to the power of ‘virtual’. Eventually, ‘virtual’ shapes our reality and I think that’s why I’m so passionate about using virtual spaces like Instagram to push for positive change.”

‘Artificial Influencers are proving to be a success and therefore are attracting the attention of brands’ (Kulp 2018B). You will probably see more virtual models in your Instagram feed as AI (Artificial Intelligence) transforms Influencer Marketing (Kulp 2018A).  Perhaps these virtual influencers are just another form of the ancient ‘doll’ tapping into our ancient desires – not only as a children’s toy, not just a symbolic power in magical or religious rituals, but perhaps icons of excellence to the next generation?

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by *~ MIQUELA ~* (@lilmiquela) on Dec 10, 2018 at 4:12pm PST

They’re digitally created. And to a lot of people, that doesn’t matter at all. To Lil Miquela’s creator, Brud,  the LA-based start-up that specialises in ‘robotics, artificial intelligence and their applications to media businesses’ – it does matter, a lot.  Artificial influencers can earn a lot of money – see Artifical Influencers Earn Big Bucks next week.

If you liked this you might also enjoy:

Chinese GirlBot With 465m Boyfriends

Here Come The Clever Bots – bursting with artificial intelligence?

Here Come The Really Clever Bots – where AI meets customer needs

Artificial Influencers Use My Magic Marketing Formula (IRD)

SOSTAC® Plan for developing your own ChatBot

Join me in Clubhouse in my club called SOSTAC® Plans any Friday 3.30pm – 4.00pm BST for a chat, Q&A, observations about SOSTAC(r) Plans and any other marketing related issues including AI Driven Bots.

The post Artificial Influencers – Meet Shudu & Miquela appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) is a  great opportunity, if you work with it. It is also, however, a threat, if you dare to ignore it. You’ve only got until 25th May 2018 before it is fully applicable in the EU and elsewhere. We are using the popular SOSTAC ® Planning framework to help you to plan and embed your own GDPR. Part 1 explored what it is GDPR and why organisations and customers need it.

In Part 2, we will look at setting a clear GDPR ‘Objective’ and also a crystal clear strategy to help you to embed GDPR. Part 3 will explore Tactics, Action & Control (the final sections of a SOSTAC® Plan).

OBJECTIVES

SOSTAC® Planning Framework

Objectives

To be GDPR compliant within 12 months.

To protect customers, enquirers and visitors personal data & to only use it for legitimate purposes.

This is a major challenge and 12 months is deemed to be unrealistic by many experts. It might take 2 years. Be prepared.

Data Technology means GDPR is required more than ever before

Strategy

SOSTAC® Planning Framework

Strategy

Change the Culture/Attitude Towards Data (from C Suite across the whole business)

Improve Data Management, Data Understanding & the Customer Experience (CX) simultaneously.

Start managing data much more seriously. Manage data better, quicker, faster and with far better security. Adhere to GDPR Guidelines within 12 months by appointing a data controller, initiate training, testing and reporting using a budget of £xyz. Adding GDPR audits to board agendae.

Ensure the Board understand that data is now the world’s most valuable resource, or as the Economist front cover stated: ‘The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data’ (6 May 2017).  Hence it has to be managed more carefully. In fact, competitive advantage can be carved out of clever use of data (just look at how both Uber and Air BnB use data to reduce the customer’s cognitive load, reduce prices, grow margins and establish an extremely competitive business). Watch Amazon & AliBaba use data to relentlessly improve the CX and thus create massive competitive advantage.

The Economist

Build a Data Protection Culture. Cultural change is critical. Attitudes to personal data must change. Personal data is a new currency. Training is not mandatory (well it is! But think of it like ‘Training is an opportunity’).  Embracing GDPR requires a cultural change. Michael winner once said that a ‘£60 fine for driving in a bus lane was very good value’ (source: Ruairi Thomas MD, DST Systems). So how do you stop people thinking that GDPR fines might be cheaper than changing the whole culture of the business into a customer-centric, customer caring, & data protecting – type of organisation?  GDPR is indeed an opportunity, but equally, it requires a change in culture.

Build a data protection culture

Become transparent. The whole organisation must become transparent regarding collection and use of data and be accountable.

GDPR has a cost but also brings an opportunity for a better Customer Experience (CX) – which, in the long term, means better business.

Part 3 will explore Tactics , Action & Control – the remaining sections of a SOSTAC ® Plan.

PR Smith’s SOSTAC® Planning Framework

If you enjoyed this you might also enjoy:

Part 1 GDPR:  Opportunity to Boost CX or a Threat of Closure?

Part 3 GDPR: Tactics, Action & Control

How Trump Won by analysing data to deliver extremely relevant and highly targeted messages that worked.

How To Write The Perfect Plan in 4 minutes using the SOSTAC ® Planning Framework (4 min. video)

References

Armstrong, Jonathan (2017) Cordery: ‘All you need to know about GDPR but were too afraid to ask’, GDPR Conference Europe, 27 Apr

Cameron, Gareth (2017) ICO: ‘The pathway to implementation’, GDPR Conference Europe, 27 Apr

Kolah, Ardi (2017) Henley Business School: Sizing the risk – carrying out a data protection impact assessment Lite

Miller, Nigel (2017) Fox Williams:  Individuals’ Rights Under The GDPR, GDPR Conference Europe, 27 Apr

Smith, PR (2017) SOSTAC^® Guide to your perfect digital marketing plan

SOSTAC^® Portal for SOSTAC^® Certified Planners

Thanks to 

Ardi Kolah, Executive Fellow & Programme Co-Director, GDPR Transition Programme, Henley Business school, University of Reading.

Nick James, CEO of Amplified Business Content, hosts of GDPR Europe Conference

Ruairi Thomas, MD, DST Systems for the gold-fish observation!

The post GDPR Opportunity or Threat To Your Business? (Part 2) appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.