Search driven by AI: The Drum Search Awards 2019 jury gazes in the crystal ball
How are new intelligent technologies allowing search marketers to make faster and smarter decisions, fuelled by AI? The Drum asked a few jury members of The Drum Search Awards.
Search driven by AI: The Drum Search Awards 2019 jury gazes in the crystal ball
We have reached the point where people are changing the temperature in their homes by yelling at a plastic tube from Amazon, “and the industry is offloading more and more thought process to AI and machine learning,” says Mindshare’s search director, Niki Grant.
However, like many audio centric platforms, such as the recent dive into audio journalism, voice search is still in its infancy. Search is fuelled by consumer behaviour, however, according to Grant, we haven't seen such a huge tech usage shift since the internet or smart phones were created.
“As an industry (and a society), we're being driven by users choosing exactly how they want to interact with the world around them, and we're all striving to make sure we're present when they're doing it,” she said. “Voice search is a great example of a capability/behaviour that has evolved, but doesn't yet have commoditised ad space, so we're in a position where an entire industry is sitting, poised, waiting to see who brings out a new audio ad format first.
The degree to which users are interacting with and adopting tech is at an all time high, she added. “The onus is on the media industry more heavily than ever to work out how we can evolve with that behaviour while respecting ethics and data protection."
The Drum Search Awards looks for the best in search and to shine a light and recognise the best work being produced by the industry, including category’s like ‘Best Search Software’ and ‘Technical Innovation of the Year’ and. Grant, along with other industry experts from Bing, Jellyfish, Volkswagon, Havas Media Group, Missguided, Lego and Manning Gottlieb OMD are set to judge these awards. The deadline for which has passed, but you can still enter by apply for an extension.
UK head of sales at Bing, Ravleen Beeston believes that efficiency still seems to be the key driver in the industry right now. “With increasing integration of intelligent automation, the desire to create efficiency has never been stronger. Efficiency can only take you so far though. What I love about these awards is you get to see the sparks of inspiration that will fuel the next wave of growth beyond what we can currently optimise today,” she said.
On the award submissions, she hopes to see great innovation. “The best entries are the ones that make you stop and say ‘I wish I’d thought of doing that’. Especially if the innovation is scalable and applicable to multiple verticals – that’s usually a very strong contender for an award winner.”
If you missed the deadline for The Drum Search Awards, you can still enter by applying for an extension. Please contact Christine.White@thedrum.com for more information.