Not only FinTech or MarTech. Technology is changing how communication works, and introducing new possibilities for content co-creation.
While robo-journalism platforms bring artificial intelligence inside media, some companies are approaching ComTech, thus using software and algorithms to support corporate and brand communication. ComTech is entering the scene for two main reasons.
First of all, brand storytelling is widely influenced by algorithms, deciding for instance where a web site or page will be listed among search engine results, or whether a content will be visible on social networks or not. Learning how to manage these processes is pivotal for any content marketing strategy: Pirelli is a prime example. It succeeded in becoming a real ‘media data company’ by orchestrating its storytelling upon accurate analysis and correlation of data generated by messages, tools and channels.
More, communication specialists have now the opportunty to leverage artificial intelligence for content creation – as of today, it’s not a matter of replacing people, but using technology to boost human creativity. A research by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab and McKinsey investigated the potential of human–machine collaboration in video storytelling. Researchers developed a model relying on deep neural networks to identify common emotional arcs in video stories, that are the emotional paths moving and engaging people.
The model was applied to different type of videos (movies, TV, and short online features), considering the plot, characters and their dialogues, but also more subtle touches like framing, facial expressions, sounds and music. The team ended up acknowledging that computers don’t cry, but they can almost exactly predict when we will. By work alongside machines, writers and storyboarders might use AI capabilities to sharpen their stories and amplify the emotional pull.
A few months ago, another interesting advertisement experiment came from IBM, that leveraged Watson technology to create latest Lexus ES commercial. Artificial intelligence allowed to scrutinise about 15 years of footage, text and audio promotional materials for car and luxury brands, identifying recurrent and most successful elements. It was the machine which informed the script flow and outline, from which the creative agencies built the story.
There’s the Italian start up LittleSea behind Babelee, the platform to automatically generate videos from data series. It allows for instance to make financial communication more appealing, create infographics to support a corporate announcement or an event, launch data storytelling campaigns.
The news about ComTech is the opportunity to extend human ability to design and prepare contents, speeding up the creative process and automating some features. You never know, algorithms and artificial intelligence might become the best friends of corporate communication departments.
