DM Magazine April 2023

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talkingpoints

FOBI

Fobi AI Inc, an industry leader in harnessing AI and data intelligence to enable digital transformation, is pleased to announce that the company signed a five-year $10 million licensing agreement with Canadian beverage manufacturing company, BevWorks Brands Inc. on Friday, March 24th, 2023. The agreement will enable Fobi to deliver technology solutions to support BevWorks’ growth strategy through a data-driven means to consolidate independent beverage manufacturers in alcohol markets and beyond. Fobi will generate $10,000,000 in revenue for the five-year contract. This revenue will be recognized in accordance with IFRS policies over the 60 months of the contract.

With over 50 years of collective experience in the craft alcohol industry, BevWorks specializes in in-house manufacturing across various markets, including alcohol, beer, RTD (ready-to-drink) liquor, alcohol replacement, and more. The license agreement will provide BevWorks with licenses to various Fobi technologies, including, but not limited to, Fobi’s real-time data processing and artificial intelligence applications, mobile wallet pass technology, patented IoT hardware, advanced analytics and forecasting technology, as well as the Fobi Data Exchange (FDX).

Andrew Harris, CEO of BevWorks, states: “We’re excited to partner with Fobi, a leading AI and real-time data solutions provider, to streamline our operations and futureproof our business. BevWorks has extensive experience in the hospitality and liquor beverage industry, and we’re confident our partnership with Fobi will provide us with a competitive advantage. With their cuttingedge technology, we’ll optimize our processes and deliver greater value to our customers. By leveraging Fobi’s real-time data and AI solutions, we’ll develop products that exceed our customers’ expectations. Our partnership marks a significant milestone for our business, and we look forward to delivering innovation to the industry.”

Fobi’s platform will provide BevWorks with enhanced visibility into real-time

measurement, attribution, and market insights, enabling the manufacturer to make 100 percent data-driven decisions that optimize product selection and development, sales and marketing strategies, distribution models, strategic acquisitions, and more. The utilization of Fobi’s various technologies will ultimately enable BevWorks to evolve into a dynamic brand incubator and expand its position as a leading product and beverage manufacturing entity.

SUPERAGING

Flashpoint Books recently released SUPERAGING: Getting Older Without Getting Old, by David Cravit and Larry Wolf.

“We’re very excited by this book,” said Kristin Mehus-Roe, Flashpoint’s publisher. “While there are many good books about healthy aging, this is the first to present a holistic view of a revolution: the reality of reaching the traditional age of retirement, and still having 20 or 30 years of lifespan ahead of you.”

The authors “brand” this new reality as SuperAging — in contrast to DefaultAging, the dominant model until now, which saw ageing — after 65 — as a relatively brief period of steady decline ending with death, during which time not much new could be accomplished.

SuperAging completely destroys that model. The book organizes SuperAging around seven elements (the 7 A’s of SuperAging): Attitude, Awareness, Activity, Accomplishment, Autonomy, Attachment and Avoidance (of harmful factors). It curates the current busy landscape of research, discovery, and new information on all these topics, identifying the most important findings and presenting actionable steps the reader can take to become a SuperAger. “With SuperAging, the reader has a guide to rethinking their own aging. We believe there is an enormous market for this book and for the transformative ideas it gathers and presents,” said Mehus-Roe.

Authors and SuperAgers David Cravit and Larry Wolf are well qualified to explain the SuperAging revolution. David, a board member of CARP (Canada’s largest association fighting for the interests of Canadians as they age) and a VP at ZoomerMedia — the only media company in Canada specifically targeting the 45-plus market — and appears frequently on radio and TV as an expert commentator on aging-related topics.

Larry has spent decades advising major corporations and governments in North America and Europe on branding and communications.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Flashpoint Books,” Cravit said. “They have an experienced and talented editorial team and compelling sales and marketing resources. We look forward to a dynamic and productive collaboration.”

FREQUENCY PEOPLE

Atlanta-based tech founders, John York and John McAdory believe it’s time for social media to make a change. They are giving users of their new app, Frequency People the opportunity to control almost every aspect of the communities they build.

“Our app allows you to build your community, your way. It isn’t about the number of followers, it’s about the quality of engagement,” says John York, Co-Founder of Frequency People.

The platform allows people to connect with others who have similar interests so they can easily create a community, actively engage, and monetize their content. The app also allows users to customize their own social platform called, Frequency Universes which are fully hosted within the app. Frequency People became an idea after founder John York attended a basketball game. As an avid sports fan, he wanted to find a way to converse with others at the game in real-time to discuss what was happening right then and there. Most social platforms have users exchange through comments or tweets, but Frequency People creates an opportunity for a more interactive and engaging experience, turning those comments and tweets into realtime conversations and interactions.

“We’ve been doing social media the same way for way too long. It’s time that users get access to more control over the content they create, the conversations they have and the communities they want to build,” says York.

John York, Co-Founder of Frequency People

Frequency People will offer free and paid options. Individual users and businesses can choose to create a public or private community and monetize through the release of exclusive and non-exclusive content. Users can also access real-time data, marketing options and customization.

Frequency Features:

❯ Frequency Communities – networks that use real-time communication such as live, chat and audio.

❯ Frequency Universes – users can create their own customized social platform hosted within ours.

❯ Frequency Wave Feed – interactive engagement feed to connect with other users outside your network.

In addition to the highlighted features, Frequency People has been working on advanced moderation tools allowing network owners to set their own “frequency.” Users can join communities that fit their style and standards by allowing network owners to set their frequencies. Also, by setting a “frequency” the platform will assist and enable the network owners to block comments and remove disruptive community members.

“We wanted to create a space where users could thrive within their communities and offer a place for authentic engagement built-in with enterprise solutions,” says John McAdory, Co-Founder of Frequency People.

to thrive through data-informed decisions. Brizo provides insights to foodservice suppliers and vendors of all kinds–from who is selling Wagyu beef or linen services, to companies offering staffing technologies, delivery or online reservation solutions.

“For restaurant industry professionals and suppliers, the sector has changed considerably through the rapid adoption of technology,” said Trevor Shimizu, co-founder and CRO of Brizo. “Brizo makes it fast and easy to understand the data and insights that are now part of day-to-day operations, and to operationalize those insights to remove friction for sales teams, widen margins and serve customers better.”

Since the pandemic, technology and data has become the new frontier in the food and beverage business. Brizo FoodMetrics takes all that data (from over one million foodservice establishments across the U.S. and Canada) and makes it digestible–capable of driving quick, high-quality restaurant and foodservice business intelligence.

“Brizo empowers food and beverage industry professionals and entrepreneurs in their own growth trajectories by cutting down on the time it takes to find sales leads and to identify new and emerging market opportunities,” said Jim Texier, Partner at FRAMEWORK Venture Partners. “Brizo’s technology is a powerful tool to increase the speed and efficiency of their operations, allowing them to pivot, to tailor offerings or to forecast future trends in the foodservice industry and get ahead of the curve.”

Brizo FoodMetrics includes dashboard customizations for a wide variety of customer uses including technology vendors, franchisors, food and beverage distributors and industry investors.

cellphone, and Google Wireless Engineer and WinnForum CTO Andrew Clegg.

With an international industry audience in attendance, the three technology leaders looked back on how the cellphone has impacted society. Marty shared his insights on how new innovations in mobile intelligence and sensing will impact improvements in health care, food security, and education.

Born from Motorola’s advances in commercial radio technology, the portable cellphone is considered to be one of the top 100 inventions of all time. It took 13 weeks for Marty and his design team to develop the first hand-held telephone prototype — the DynaTAC 8000 — which was affectionately known as “The Brick” because of its size and shape. Motorola made the device commercially available in 1983 for $3,995.

“It had 25 minutes of battery life, which was not a problem because you couldn’t hold it up that long because it was so heavy!” Marty said.

BRIZO DATA

In early April, Brizo Data announced a series A funding of over $12 million (CAD) in combined venture capital and debt. The round was led by FRAMEWORK Venture Partners and BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund. The company was launched in 2020 by seasoned entrepreneurs Ian Delisle, Trevor Shimizu, Gaetan Corneau and Jean-Sébastien Vachon. Brizo’s vision is to become the source of truth on the foodservice and hospitality industries through their unrivaled depth of industry data and insights.

Brizo Data’s flagship product, Brizo FoodMetrics, is North America’s most reliable and comprehensive source of near real-time, foodservice market analytics. Restaurant intelligence is now a key driver in industry research, marketing and sales, enabling businesses in the food and beverage industry

“We are thrilled to invest in Brizo as a technology that can empower the entire foodservice sector across North America,” said Joseph Regan, Managing Partner, Industrial Innovation Venture Fund at BDC Capital. “With data-driven, actionable insights, Brizo’s customers–business owners and emerging technology companies themselves — will be able to better manage risk and create opportunities through data-backed decisions.”

Ian Delisle, co-founder and CEO of Brizo says, “the infusion of capital will allow us to accelerate growth and expand into new markets — making our solution an even bigger game changer for the industry.”

FIRST CELL PHONE CALL - APRIL 3, 1973

Rich Lee, CEO of iPosi, co-moderated a Wireless Innovation Forum panel discussion on the Future of Wireless Technology in honour of the April 3rd 50th anniversary of the first cell phone call with Motorola Engineer Marty Cooper, inventor of the

With six billion current cellular subscribers worldwide or 65 percent of the global population, the cell phone’s impact is unmistakable, from E911 calls that have saved tens of millions of lives to powering a global trillion-dollar eCommerce economy.

“What we did 50 years ago was an introduction… We are at the very beginning of the cell phone revolution,” Marty said.

Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone

Open Banking and Payments Modernization:

The Potential to Transform Customer Interactions Across Multiple Industries

BY EDWIN ISTED

Two powerful changes are simultaneously impacting the Canadian payments market. The first is the introduction of open banking. The second is the Bank of Canada (BoC) payments modernization roadmap.

Open banking provides new legislative frameworks for Canadian financial institutions

and the customers they serve. The BoC provides the roadmap, and the technology and operationalization is carried out by Payments Canada in partnership with other financial services industry players.

Serving customers better These updates will do far more than transform payment processing in this country. They’ll give businesses

of all kinds the opportunity to serve their customers better. Open banking and BoC payments modernization open the field to more players to offer innovative services that help customers manage their financial lives.

A key feature of open banking is the control it gives customers over their financial information. Under the new model, customers choose

when and with whom they’d like to share their financial data. As these changes are implemented, therefore, it’s essential for financial services organizations to gain and maintain customer trust.

Financial products have traditionally been offered primarily by larger financial institutions. Now traditional banks are being joined by an

array of technology and software companies that offer specialized financial products and services through apps and other digital tools. The umbrella term is financial technology companies — or “fintechs” — but we’re now seeing the emergence of insurtechs (for insurance), wealthtechs (for wealth management), paytechs (for payment processing), as well as apps for budgeting, saving, and more.

With more products and services designed to help customers save, budget, invest and share their wealth, organizations will be able to deliver significant value to customers, enhance the customer journey, and deepen their relationships.

Serving customers

more securely

Crucially, these new frameworks will let customers access and use these products in a secure way.

In the current situation, when customers choose to share their financial data with entities other than their own banks, these entities may use what’s known as “screen scraping” workarounds to access the data. With screen scraping, customers share their usernames and passwords with financial apps in order to use the services on offer.

Some of the concerns around screen scraping include the risk of unauthorized transactions, fraud, and other data issues. While customers are usually protected by their primary banks in such incidents, they may lose those protections and bear full liability if they voluntarily share their usernames and passwords with third-party fintechs.

Open banking and the RTR aim to rectify that situation. Once they’re implemented, customers will be able to grant and revoke data access rights to third-party providers in near real-time, while retaining the protection of their primary banks, and keeping their usernames and passwords private. Initially, the customer will be able to safely authorize (and deauthorize) accredited participants (including fintechs, banks and other financial services players) to access limited account information — such as credit card balances. Over time, accredited participants,

at the discretion of the customer, will also be able to access richer data such as credit ratings, mortgage data, and investments.

Third-party fintechs will be bound by open banking legislation and required to meet certain accreditation requirements. They’ll also need to observe technical specifications to ensure the security of financial data transfers. A centralized register of all accredited parties will be kept, as

for as many financial apps as they wish to use.

While open banking is expected to take effect in Canada sometime this year, once the legislative frameworks are set out, the expectation is that customers will be able to authorize secure, private transactions in such a way that their trust in Canada’s financial system is not only reinforced but enhanced.

mechanisms that currently form part of Canada’s banking system. With the RTR, payments between Canadian bank account holders will happen in real-time. Another enhancement is that transactions will be packaged with comprehensive financial data, including, for instance, remittance information, payee and payor addresses, as well as end-to-end payment identifiers. In the future, non-banks will be able to initiate transactions if they are authorized by the customer to do so.

Open banking, coupled with BoC payments modernization initiatives, provides opportunities for organizations across industries to design and offer unique products and services to bolster and enhance customer relationships. Examples of this include improved financial decisions making, expanded payment choices, better borrowing, increased savings and investments, and increased opportunity to switch between providers.

The new frameworks empower organizations to design and manage the entire customer interaction process in a consistent way, and back up all phases of the interaction with rich supporting data. These changes let organizations create customer journeys that are intuitive, smart, and seamless.

More insights and downstream benefits

will a record, updated in real-time, of customer authorizations of these third parties.

Most open banking frameworks let customers authorize third parties to initiate transactions on certain accounts in certain conditions. For instance, a customer might want to share their bank account details with a wealth tech platform that centralizes information about all their investments and assets and provides a full picture of their net worth.

In this and other open banking scenarios, customers will benefit from having a safer mechanism for sharing only the financial information needed by a particular fintech company or app to provide the service in question. In open banking, this process can typically be safely repeated by customers

A Roadmap for improving customer interactions

The second aspect of the Canadian financial system that is undergoing a major change is the Canadian payments market. The government is introducing a broad set of initiatives called the Bank of Canada (BoC) payments modernization roadmap.

Most notably, the BoC roadmap includes real-time payment rails and introduces other enhancements to domestic payment arrangements.

Canada’s Real-Time Rail (RTR) is a domestic payment arrangement that facilitates the irrevocable movement of funds between verified bank accounts. The RTR is designed to move significantly larger sums faster, more efficiently, and more securely than is possible with other available transfer

Better data, faster transactions, consistent settlement, and higher security will enhance the customer experience. Those benefits, in turn, have the potential to furnish downstream operational and financial efficiencies for organizations and their business and retail clientele.

Industry players that recognize the value of a transformed financial ecosystem that allows them to align their value proposition with an end-to-end customer journey will gain deeper insight into every single customer interaction. Organizations will be able to offer tailored payments if the customer has allowed the third party to understand what payment products the customer has available to them (i.e., direct account, debit card, credit card, etc.).

EDWIN ISTED is a senior manager and payments co-lead at KPMG in Canada

“Open banking coupled with BoC payments modernization initiatives provides opportunities for organizations across industries to design and offer unique products and service”

TECHNOLOGY

Supercharging Organizational Decision Making with Artificial Intelligence

BY DAN HIGGINS

The far-reaching effects of economic volatility, social and political upheaval, and global health emergencies are being felt by organizational leaders under intensified pressure to produce results. But even under ideal circumstances, leaders know that making quick and confident decisions can be extremely difficult, particularly when they do not have access to trustworthy data. In fact, recent data from Gartner uncovered that 65 percent of leaders feel they are forced to make more complex decisions today compared to two years ago. Moreover, the same survey found that over half (53 percent) of those surveyed noted a greater need to justify or explain their decisions, highlighting a clear gap between hastened automation and a thorough comprehension of what is being automated and why.

Individuals and businesses are under pressure to make fast, consistent, and fact-based decisions, so called ‘decision

intelligence’. And it’s here where we often see enterprises deploy technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to augment their decision-making abilities to do just this. However, one of the most significant hurdles customers face is that organizations frequently attempt to deploy these technologies without fully comprehending the importance of context, or in other words, without a clear idea of the bigger picture driving what data is collected, examined, and how it is applied for decision making. Without context, AI predictions and decisions lack strength and dependability, potentially ushering in a range of long-term automation challenges and other setbacks.

Enter entity resolution — the process of parsing, cleaning, and standardizing data by using advanced AI and machine learning models to accurately identify entities. This process connects records related to each entity, creates a list of attributes for each entity, and generates labelled

links between entities and source records, and is significantly more efficient and effective than the conventional record-to-record matching method used by MDM systems.

A single source of truth: Leveraging quality data for AI business value

When it comes to AI and ML, the data you use is everything. That’s why data scientists are laser-focused on using reliable and transparent data to make the best algorithms possible. For instance, if you build a classifier to distinguish between photos of a raven and a crow, data scientists would ideally like an input image dataset certified by an ornithologist. If they are unable to source this, then the obvious next best place to find this might be online. But this is where the risks of input errors and misclassification begin to emerge. Another challenge is presented by inconsistent data entry, wherein a single entity may be referenced by varying names. For instance,

take actor and comedian Jim Carrey. Hi name may appear in its full form, James Eugene Carrey, just as it may be listed as James Carrey, Mr. Carrey, or in a like manner. This also holds true for companies, which can be referred to by their full legal name or an abbreviated form.

It is imperative that the algorithm can recognize and learn from a multitude of diverse names and formats. The successful operation of the algorithm hinges upon its ability to recognize and learn from a broad spectrum of names and formats. To make accurate distinctions between names and said formats, the algorithm must possess the capability to learn from a complete range of them.

By harnessing powerful AI and machine learning algorithms, entity resolution efficiently processes, structures, and divides data to identify like entities in a comprehensive approach. In contrast, the standard record-torecord matching methodology that most MDM systems use is quite outdated. But with entity

resolution, organizations can now bring in new entity nodes that act as essential linkages and effectively connect real-world data in a way that was previously impossible. Utilizing this technique is crucial to decision intelligence. It results in improved accuracy and efficiency when connecting data. It also allows for the matching of valuable external data sources, such as corporate registry information, that previously presented difficulties when trying to establish reliable links.

Data-driven transformation to accelerate the power of your business

Quantexa’s new research found that just 42 percent of IT decision makers in Canada, the US, and the UK have faith in their organization’s data. The study also discovered that one in eight customer records in the US is a duplicate, which means that tons of organizations struggle to differentiate between customers like me, J.E Carrey, Jim Carrey, and James Eugene Carrey.

When it comes to digital transformation, data is a musthave ingredient for improving operational efficiencies, customer value, and generating fresh revenue streams. Yet, despite the wealth of available data, organizations often struggle to derive actionable insights from it. This can make data both an asset and a considerable challenge when it comes to achieving transformational goals.

Organizations operating across industries like banking and financial services may encounter difficulties because of a data ‘context gap’, which can leave them exposed to vulnerabilities. The root of this problem can be traced back to the presence of identical datasets pertaining to the same customer that are scattered across multiple CRM and management tools and systems. Although it may be a minor duplication error — such as variations in name, address changes, or multiple phone numbers its impact on insights can be significant. For instance, if a customer’s name is spelled

with just one letter out of place on one system, but not another, there is a strong chance that the organization will consider these two entries to be two unique entities, even though they refer to the same person. Such occurrences are typical of siloed data. This is in part why context is so crucial when it comes to analysis; without it, you’re essentially flying blind, which can be a major obstacle to effective decision-making.

To take your understanding of your customers to the next level, it is going to take more than just manual deduplication efforts. Manual data management isn’t just slow and laborious, but also extremely prone to human error. Although methods like Master Data Management (MDM) have been around for a while, they’ve typically fallen short in detecting these “missing links” and connecting them to an individual customer.

Clean data, clear results

Augmented and automated data-driven decision-making has become the gold standard in today’s

business environment, and for good reason. Incorporating data into the decision-making process can provide valuable insights that lead to better, more successful outcomes for organizations. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a dark side to this rising as well — to break down potential data silos, companies must parse through a bog of duplicate redundant data, which can have a ripple effect on decisionmaking efficiency and accuracy. This can lead to wasted resources across data, IT, and business teams creating bottle necks in a company’s ability to quickly identify risks and provide top-notch customer service. That is why achieving decision intelligence all comes down to the strong foundation of your data, making it imperative that companies establish effective and efficient data practices that protect valuable assets, optimize resources, and identify opportunities for growth.

DAN HIGGINS is the Chief Product Officer at Quantexa, a leading pioneer in Contextual Decision Intelligence.

ISTOCK/ METAMORWORKS

Flexing its Marketing Muscle Flexing its Marketing Muscle

BY MICHAEL BROOKE

There is no question that streaming is having an immense impact on Canadians from every demographic. Roku’s 2023 VOD Evolution study provides marketers with some great insights as to how users are migrating from cable. The study was done in conjunction with Fuse Insights and it clearly shows how Canadians are voting with both their eyeballs and their wallets. While there has been much fanfare over those folks who have cut the cable cord, almost 30 percent of streamers have never used cable.

When it comes to where people watch content, there are three basic choices — TV, desktop/ laptop or mobile phone. The study showed that overwhelmingly, people prefer to stream shows through their TV sets. Many Canadians are spending almost five hours per day on their

smartphones. Thus it makes sense that “escaping to something else” was the number one reason given for why the TV was their number one choice for viewing.

I had an opportunity to meet with Christina Summers who heads up Roku’s advertising division in Canada. Christina

explains the main reason for doing the study was that marketers were asking for specific data and insights about the Canadian marketplace. One of the key findings is that 76 percent of Canadians are now streaming. “This is a large percentage of the population which I am sure would surprise a lot of people,” she says. “When you break this number down, you have about half watching ad-supported content. A lot of consumers are still sticking with the big guys like Netflix, but they are changing their behaviour.”

In response to this change, Roku coined the term FlexiVOD. This reflects how consumers will sign up for a service and then suddenly cancel, downgrade or upgrade. Or these people will simply move from one service to another. “This is a different type of behaviour than what we’ve seen with cable or satellite services where people

generally don’t make radical changes,” explains Christina.

Roku’s been involved with streaming services for quite some time but they recognize it can be a bit of a learning curve for those advertisers new to this type of service. “If you have moved into this space personally, then you tend to be a bit more forward-thinking,” says Christina. Roku’s message for CMOs looking to explore advertising in the streaming space is straightforward. “You need to go where your audiences are. You want to meet potential customers in an environment where they are open to hearing your message.”

The power of this medium is the tradeoff between free content and a minimal amount of advertising.

According to their study, 7 out of 10 Canadians find there are just too many TV commercials on cable. TV Streaming services have

How streaming provides the experience of television with the pipes of digital

Christina Summers, heads up Roku’s advertising division in Canada.

ANDREA PIACQUADIO

a relatively light commercial load coming in at roughly half the ad minutes when compared to linear (ie cable or satellite) TV. The fact that there are fewer commercials means whatever is being shown stands out more. Additionally, many streaming spots are 15 seconds in length. This means viewers have less time to do something while the ads are being streamed which in turn keeps them in their seats.

Perhaps one of the most powerful tools behind the proliferation of SmartTVs is the

technology called Automatic Content Recognition or ACR. Whenever someone is watching the TV, ACR will identify and gather viewership data. It collects information such as geolocation and viewing history — no matter if this is coming from the web or cable or satellite or even a gaming system. As Christina explains, “ACR allows us to look at the TV holistically so that we can understand how consumers are spending their time from a streaming perspective or what you are watching from a linear

perspective.” The Smart TV shares this aggregated viewership data with demand-side platforms. From here, the data can be used to showcase ads to viewers who are most likely to view, engage and convert into customers. By tracking real-time TV audience measurement metrics, marketers can adjust their ad strategy with greater precision and efficiency. By adding to what is available in the linear world of TV, advertisers can reach potential customers who are streaming. This incremental audience offers huge rewards

because it dramatically increases the reach of the marketing message.

One of the key things that Roku is doing to ensure its content is resonating with its audience is something called “behavioural targeting.” This means that the company can draw on specific demographic and psychographic information and deliver ads that are relevant. “Consumers understand the value exchange — they are getting free entertainment in exchange for relevant ads.

One very valuable insight that came from the report was the finding that 76 percent of streamers take action when they see an ad running on the platform. “This is a large number and taking action can mean anything from searching for more information, visiting a website or shopping online,” says Christine.

As streaming advertising technologies advance through things like richer metadata, automation and AI, there become more opportunities to better identify category entry points that matter to marketers. This brings us to something that Roku calls Moment Marketing and it lets advertisers bring their brands into viewing moments in a natural and timely way. For example, if you happen to be watching a show that features a character who has hurt their back you might just see an ad for pain medication. “With the pipes of digital, we can introduce things to the screen that haven’t historically been available,” says Christina. “We are trying to bring things into the advertising that encourage the use of QR codes or use the functionality of the remote.”

As the economy faces challenges, people are making some difficult decisions when it comes to where to spend their money. Six out of ten streamers said they are worried about their ability to pay bills in the coming years. Almost the same number feel they have less disposable income than before. The study showed that 18 percent of consumers plan to cancel or downgrade their cable or satellite package. As consumers see the benefits of a little less advertising with quality content, it makes sense that companies like Roku could see their numbers increase dramatically over the coming years.

Roku’s incremental audience offers huge rewards because it dramatically increases the reach of the marketing message.

2023 The State of Channel Incentives - Tacking Against the Headwinds Highlights from the 360 Insights Report

Incentives are critical to driving business outcomes and 90 percent of all respondents describe incentives as key to their business, including maintaining market position and wallet share. In fact, when asked to evaluate incentives as a top priority, 87 percent of all participants rated it among their top 5 priorities.

While incentives are often thought of as a tactical feature of partner engagement, our research suggests it’s viewed more strategically for the C-suite — a prodigious 95 percent of VP and C-level stakeholders rate incentives as a top 5 priority. However, its perceived value declined further down the organizational structure, with 85 percent of team managers and leads and 75 percent of senior contributors believing the same. Of course, 75 percent is nothing to sneeze at, but the steady decline in perception suggests some of the recognized value to overall business strategy is being diluted.

Why is the C-suite so bullish about incentives? Fundamentally, it’s because incentives deliver against many initiatives key to the success of any brand. Participants from all industries identified competitive differentiation (61 percent overall) and increased mindshare with partners (55 percent overall) as the top bene fits.

As we write this report, the economic news is filled with impending layoffs alongside shifts in consumer spending, even amidst inflation concerns. What does this mean for those participating in channel incentives? While we initially feared brands would batten down the hatches, instead our intrepid participants are planning modest budget increases as they invest in indirect channels and wait for the skies to clear. Considering a key bene fit of incentives is helping to

weather downturns, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that savvy brands are turning to incentive programs as an opportunity to grow mindshare and wallet share despite negative economic predictions.

89 percent of companies surveyed will increase the budget for incentives in 2023. To break it down further, 13 percent anticipate an increase of more than 10 percent, 40 percent anticipate a 5-10 percent increase, and 36 percent are looking at a more modest 1% to 5% increase.

If we look at participant segmentation information, the big standout in budget increases comes from Canadian companies, as 64 percent are looking for a 5 percent or more increase in 2023. A more optimistic segment drops to 49 percent and 50 percent respectively for the US and UK.

other professionals, and online influencers like bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters topping the list for incentivization.

The keen interest in influencers reflects increasing attention on ecosystem business models in addition to larger social shifts accelerated by the global pandemic. Increased corporate investments in influencer marketing were initially a staple of B2C sales, but are now making waves in B2B business models.

The need for rapid adaptation is seen as a bridge between high-

lack of models for incentivizing outside of the traditional transactional sales role, with 55 percent citing the lack of models as their top challenge.

These results indicate part of the gap between opportunity and implementation relates directly to difficulties in identifying other stakeholders that contribute to brand sales and success. More than half (58 percent) of participants acknowledged a desire to incentivize stakeholders beyond the sales transaction, and in the end, justifying, prioritizing, and funding those programs proved so difficult that only a fifth of participants said they currently had programs in place.

When sailing through choppy waters, effective navigation requires adaptability to the winds and currents. Likewise, rapidly changing market conditions necessitate adaptability and flexibility for brands. One noticeable trend is a desire to add more stakeholders to incentive programs and promotions. In fact, 99 percent of brands across industries indicated a desire to broaden the reach of incentives, with channel lead generation teams, industry influencers such as designers, product experts, and

interest levels (99 percent) and the more meagre implementation of incentive programs as reported by only 20 percent of participants. Of the 79 percent who are hoping to incentivize additional stakeholders, 66 percent are in some stage of planning new programs, while 13 percent struggle with where to start.

Challenges to implementing new incentive programs still abound, although budgeting is not a top concern. Of primary interest to stakeholders independent of industry, role, or country is the

However, survey participants also emphasized a pragmatic focus on specific channel activities. When asking who companies currently incentivize, half (51 percent) had programs for influencers or advocates, while 42 percent incentivize partner companies. The runaway winner was individuals, with 76 percent of companies providing SPIFFs or other incentives to marketers and engineers. Finally, bundling of accessories, products, or services also accounted for the top answers across all industries.

Surprisingly, the widespread use of individual incentives did not make SPIFFs the predominant incentive type. For Consumer Durables, MDF and BDF funds are the top incentives (62 percent). For Automotive, rebates for individual transactions, and the Technology

industry spread incentive funding evenly across four incentive types: MDF/BDF (51 percent), Co-op/promotional allowances (51 percent), SPIFFs (48 percent), and volume rebates (45 percent).

When we queried how incentives are paid, we found direct deposit is still the most popular option (47 percent), followed by account credits (45 percent), invoice and early pay discounts (43 percent, 41 percent), and points (36 percent). A shocking 32 percent of companies still use checks while 31 percent utilize pre-paid cards.

Obviously, the strongest ROI for incentive programs is achieved with high partner engagement which explains why 87 percent of our participants are concerned about unclaimed incentive budgets with 35 percent being very concerned. Research on program utilization is always a bit of a conundrum because the viewpoint of partners matters here as well.

What we do know, however, is that when asked what drives program utilization, our participants believe the strength of a partner relationship is the

being very concerned compared to only 31 percent for Consumer Durables, and only 26 percent for Automotive. Canadian stakeholders are noticeably less concerned about unclaimed incentive monies, with more than a fourth (28 percent) reporting no concern compared to their US and US counterparts (8 percent and 9 percent respectively).

What insights can we draw from the survey results? Clearly, 2023 will be a year of continued storminess for businesses in all industries. A good ship’s captain understands you can’t sail directly into a heavy wind and expect to make forward progress.

“Tacking against the headwinds” perfectly encapsulates how we feel about incentives at 360insights, especially considering these survey results. Incentives are powerful tools in good economic conditions, and when faced with persistent headwinds, they become even more powerful. It is only the most experienced sailors with the expertise to effectively leverage the winds who reach their destination, and for experienced

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strongest driver for claiming and redeeming an incentive (60 percent), followed by the timeliness of payments (40 percent), simplicity of program (39 percent). Finally, only a third (33 percent) believe the generosity of incentives to partners accounts for proper utilization.

Although percentages don’t significantly vary by incentive type (e.g. volume rebates vs. SPIFFs, etc.), the most surprising data emerged when looking at levels of concern, segmenting by industry and country. Nearly half (48 percent) of the Technology industry participants reported

business leaders, incentives become a critical tool in helping their companies tack against the macroeconomic storms appearing on the horizon.

It’s clear incentives are crucial to helping companies navigate through both good and bad weather, and considering the forecasts ahead for 2023, they will make all the difference between a sunken ship and reaching the far shore.

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The Art & Science of Partnership Curation

BY RICHARD SCHENKER

In recent years, we have witnessed a proliferation of brand partnerships in different incarnations across just about every business sector. Some have been wildly successful collaborations and others not as effective. Companies tend to form partnerships with other brands in order to acquire and retain customers and extend incremental value to their customer bases. A well-developed and thought-out partnership has the ability to foster greater brand loyalty. Partnerships take time to curate and consummate, let alone bring to market. There are also different types of partnership models, and it is important to understand their specific nuances and applications. There are three prevailing partnership models, each with their distinct purpose, structure, level of integration and duration.

2

Transactional Partnerships

1Strategic Partnerships

These are typically partnerships that transcend a transactional relationship between brands and foster emotional relatability with customers. They are customarily deeply embedded in each others brand’s purpose and usually manifest in a co-branded relationship where each partner brand has a physical presence together. Strategic partnerships are a real commitment that are longer in duration, as they are more difficult to dismantle. These partnerships are usually exclusive so as not to dilute their marketplace presence. They exemplify to their audiences a common purpose and belief that draws like-minded customers together to seek out the partnership. As an example, Louis Vuitton has formed a strategic partnership with the famous Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Louis Vuitton has a belief in the arts and thus as a fashion house, they have partnered for years with this renowned artist. They have created limited edition Louis Vuitton merchandise that embody her art on the physical Louis Vuitton products. Louis Vuitton’s partnership investments in the arts and thereby creates a very focused and coveted experience for their customer base.

3Pulse Partnerships

This type of partnerships is highly commonplace and ubiquitous. It is predominately focused on bringing transactional or monetary benefits to each of the partners’ customers. Transactional partnerships can often include added benefits that create a more convenient and enjoyable experience for customers when transacting with the partner brands. They tend to have longevity but can change in structure over time or cease to exist after the duration of a contract term, usually 2-5 years. These partnerships are commonly exclusive but can be co-exclusive to a business category. Transactional partnerships are popular in many business sectors such as retail, hospitality and airlines with their frequent flier programs. Air Canada’s Aeroplan program is a perfect example of a coalition program with many transactional partners that include Star Alliance’s Airlines, Starbucks, LCBO, Uber, Fairmont Hotels and many more partners.

These partnerships are promotional in nature. They are typically time based, relatively short in duration and can be a one-time event or occur repeatedly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually. There is usually just a one-time commitment but when the promotion is an evergreen event, that commitment can be repeatable based on a mutually defined period. Pulse promotions are often non-exclusive and allow for partners not to be locked in with exclusivity outside of the promotional period. A typical pulse partnership is Tim Hortons “Roll up to Win”. This promotion takes place twice per year for up to six weeks and has multiple prize partners.

IMAGES COURTESY RICHARD SCHENKER

1

The Strength of the Partner Brand

It is vital to ensure that when partnering with a brand, your company is associating with a brand-aligned and customer relevant company. Taking stock of brand perceptions of the partner brand, their strength in their sector, positive and negative PR and marketplace perceptions (i.e., follower, leader, cutting or bleeding edge etc.) are all important factors to consider. Remember, you are hoping to secure a positive halo impact by partnering with the partner.

2 The Strategic fit of the Partner brand

It is important to ensure that the potential partner brand has a similar strategic kinship to your brand. Understanding the partner brand’s scalability and ability to augment your category with your consumer base is an important consideration.

3

The Size and Value of the Partner’s Customer Base

Acquisition of customers is one of the key reasons why brands partner in order to expand their reach and build their market share. Understanding the composition, size, value and duplication of the partner’s customer database and the extent to which their customers will find your brand relatable or relevant are important pre-requisites for partnering.

4 The Partner’s Operational Track Record

Partnerships are only as good as your brand and your partner’s abilities to execute on the planned partnership. Examining the track record of the proposed partner to execute their operational capabilities and commitments are crucial indicators of partnership success. The best partnership idea is only as good as your brand and partner’s ability to execute with impeccable precision.

5

The Cultural Alignment with the Partner

The degree to which the prospective partner has a shared vision, a collaborative and easy working style and common beliefs will be an indicator of how likely you will be able to secure a meaningful and harmonious relationship.

6 Data and Technology Integration

It is of paramount importance to conduct proper due diligence on your proposed partner’s data sharing practices and capabilities, customer track record with data utilization, protection, ethics, and their analytical horsepower.

7 Assets in the Partner’s Ecosystem

Taking stock of all of the assets in a prospective partner’s brand ecosystem is an important exercise to undertake when considering a partnership. There are often assets that might be brought to bear in a partnership to add value to your customer’s experience. These can take on many forms such as, but not limited to extended value, incremental services, properties and experiences.

8

Financial Implications of the Partnership

Financial obligations are usually where the partnership either makes it or breaks it. At the end of the day, a partnership must be reciprocal and have financial gains for each party. The costs incurred by each party must also be proportionate to what each party brings to the table.

9 Contractual Obligations and Restrictions

Any partnership deal will have contractual obligations and restrictions. It is incumbent on each party to ensure that they have the confidence that they can live up to not just the contractual commitments, but also the spirit of the contract.

10 Marketing Assets

It is crucial to evaluate the breadth, depth and suitability of marketing communication assets which the partner might have in order to extend your brand’s reach to new and existing customers. Additionally, it is important to take stock of any relevant sponsorships and their respective efficacy, which might be leveraged to further amplify your brand.

Partnerships, regardless of structure, are not for the faint-of-heart. They require significant thought and evaluation. Without the proper due diligence and planning, a partnership between brands will be bound to fail and will ultimately harm the transactional and emotional loyalty that your customers have with your brand.

RICHARD SCHENKER is Founder & Chief Customer Engagement Officer, loyalstrategyconsulting.com

How should a brand evaluate the potential suitability of a prospective partner, regardless of partnership type?

When evaluating any potential partnership model, it is incumbent on a company to ensure that they have a solid grasp of several important partnership ingredients that will set the partnership up for success:

ISTOCK/ PESHKOVA

And the Most Valuable Player is…

YOU!

BY JOHN TSCHOHL

Basketball courts

were a hotbed of excitement in the United States during March Madness as 68 men’s college basketball teams competed for the national championship in seven rounds of a single-elimination tournament. By the time the teams had been whittled down to the Final Four in late March, what made things even more exciting was those teams were underdogs that had overtaken top-seeded teams in historic upsets.

As an employee, you can learn a lot about growing and winning by studying athletes — how they train and how they perform. One of the most important things you will learn from them is that, no matter where you come from or what the odds are, you can rise to the top. What does matter is your commitment to doing whatever it takes to succeed.

What drives athletes to succeed? What steps do they take to achieve their goals? How can you achieve similar success in your job? Moving up in any career — whether it’s on a basketball court or in an office — takes dedication, focus, and skill.

If you want to be your company’s most valuable player, take these steps:

❯ Don’t be afraid to fail. You will learn more from your failures than you will from your successes. To learn from failure, however, you must analyze your shortcomings. Then you must address them and move forward. Selfimposed limitations are the biggest barriers to success. If a football kicker misses three out of five kicks during a game and wants to improve, he analyzes what he did wrong and then continues to practice to do better.

❯ Conduct a self-assessment. Look at yourself and your skill set. Honestly scrutinize your attitude, your work ethic, and your skills. A good selfassessment will allow you to measure your progress and move forward. It will also help you become more proactive with your career and set you apart from other employees.

❯ Seek constructive feedback. Athletic coaches give their players feedback during practices and games. Players might not ask for it but they get it. As an employee who wants to improve your performance, it’s critical that you ask for feedback from your superiors who are, in essence, your coaches and

from your co-workers. Ask them what you are doing well—and what you need to do better. Use that feedback to develop a plan of action.

❯ Believe in yourself. Success begins in your mind. Nothing will happen until you make it happen. Realize that you can do anything you set your mind to do. Praise yourself. Positive personal affirmations help you develop new beliefs that can eventually become second nature. Pat yourself on the back when you take a step forward—and then take another step forward.

❯ Set goals. Envision what you want to achieve, what you want to become. Your goals should be realistic, specific, and measurable. They should include a time frame that will keep you focused. There’s a saying: If you can dream it, you can do it. Create a blueprint for your life — and your career — and set benchmarks so you can track your progress in achieving your goals.

❯ Focus. Don’t let life distract you from achieving your goals. Your job affects everything you do, including your personal life, so it’s critical that you are successful.

❯ Be positive and passionate. Don’t give up. If you do, you will become stagnant, You will not move ahead, whether that means getting a raise or being promoted. Being positive and passionate includes being a good member of your team, and doing whatever you can to ensure each player is successful.

❯ Never stop learning. If you fail to learn, you fail to grow. Learning can involve taking an online class, reading a book on personal development every month, attending seminars and lectures in your field, and taking advantage of tuition reimbursement opportunities.

❯ Become indispensable. Make a difference; do more than is expected of you. Think outside the box. Execute your dreams. Hard work and creative drive separate extraordinary employees from mediocre ones. Create value for your company, and you will become its most valuable player.

JOHN TSCHOHL is the founder and president of the Service Quality Institute—the global leader in customer service—with operations in more than 40 countries. For more information on John Tschohl and the Service Quality Institute, visit www.customer-service.com

Calgary’s Daughter Creative

BY MICHAEL BROOKE

While many Canadian advertising agencies are based in Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal, there is no shortage of excellent work being done outside of these cities. Calgary-based Daughter Creative is a relatively young agency coming in at just over seven years, but this hasn’t stopped them from gaining a number of prestigious advertising awards. Most recently, they were included in the Institute of Canadian Agencies Creative Power List. As Daughter Creative Stephanie Kochorek explains, “it was a bit of a ‘pinch me’ moment. If you told me seven years ago this would be the reality, I don’t think I would have believed it. I feel grateful, lucky and proud.”

There are a number of critical factors that have resulted in Daughters receiving a number of advertising awards and this most recent level of recognition. Stephanie points firstly to the fact that the agency puts a huge amount of emphasis on team dynamics. They make sure employees feel both challenged and safe. “We give people the space and time to perform at a very high level. At Daughter, we have a saying that states ‘none of us is smarter than all of us.’” It is this spirit of teamwork and cooperation that is the foundation of their success. As Stephanie explains “we

have incredibly talented people on our team who truly work together in an intimate collaborative environment.”

When asked about a memorable campaign, Stephanie recalled the graphics change for a local craft brewery named Annex Ale. The campaign sparked a vast amount of national and international recognition and won four major advertising awards.

Their work with the non-profit Safe Haven also garnered a huge amount of recognition. Daughters produced a 60-second TV spot entitled ‘Bedtime Routine’ that parodied YouTube influencer videos. The point-of-view of a homeless teen girl giving tips for sleeping on the street went viral and raised a significant amount of donations for Safe Haven.

A few years ago, Daughter was approached by a business amalgamating a number of companies operating under a consortium of different acronyms. Their mission was to tackle the climate crisis by finding ways to make it profitable for businesses to reduce their harmful impact. Daughter didn’t just create a truly creative ad campaign, they also came up with the new company’s new name — Radicle. The company was nervous about making this leap but Stephanie was confident that it would garner

both attention and success. As Stephanie recalls, the client made all these brave choices and created a really distinctive visual identity which was eventually acquired by the Bank of Montreal. “BMO cited the brand as one of the key factors in the purchase,” says Stephanie.

Stephanie started her career in the US with big production budgets

and spent a number of years working in Vancouver. When it comes to Calgary she acknowledges that there is amazing talent in the city. Although the city might not see itself as a creative city, this perception is starting to change. ”We don’t have a stronghold yet,” says Stephanie “but there is a burgeoning creative community that is really starting to band together.” There is a shared vision of Calgary becoming a creative hub like Minneapolis. “Having creative workers is important and anything that Daughter can do to help establish our city as a creative stronghold is very meaningful to me.”

As for the future, Daughter Creative recognizes that marketers are facing challenges — from things like ad budgets to how best to garner attention from consumers. “As a team, we are united in putting out great creative work,” says Stephanie. “We are experimenting in the space between a budget of $5,000 and $500,000 and trying to find what works best for clients.”

Stephanie Kochorek

Over the past few years, Calgary-based Daughter Creative has been gaining a huge amount of recognition for their work. The agency prides itself on creating a truly inclusive work environment. / Photos Courtesy of Daughter Creative.

Harnessing data across your organization to be truly data-driven is not easy. Contact us to learn more about how our PRIZM™ segmentation system helps you connect our data to activation for campaigns that drive real results.

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