Publicis Media Russia, VK.com and Singaporean start-up AIQ ink partnership deal
Publicis Media Russia, Singaporean start-up AIQ and Russian social media network AIQ have inked a partnership following a campaign which launched earlier this year.
VK.com
In the campaign created by Publicis, AIQ’s visual recognition technology was introduced to major Russian cities through out-of-home ads which offered player incentives for Clever Boy, an online gaming app under VK.com, Russia's most popular social network.
Now the start-up, Publicis and VK.com have inked a deal that will see AIQ’s computer vision and video recognition technology added to the Publicis portfolio.
Julia Udovenko, business transformation director at Publicis Media Russia explained: “It is essential for Publicis Groupe to deliver seamless user experience to our audience. And AIQ’s image recognition technology allows contact with consumers at a deeper level and introduce elements of digital-interactive to visual offline media, which according to the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia in 2018, amounted to 248.7 billion rubles (approximately US$3.9bn). In our campaign, the engagement rate in offline media was three times higher, which shows a high level of audience interest.
“In the future, we see vast potential for using this technology both when working with technology companies and with FMCG brands. AIQ’s technology is ideal for FMCG companies that traditionally use offline media on the Russian market and are interested in new ways of connecting offline media with online tools.”
John Ng, innovation specialist at Publicis Media Singapore, and General Manager of the agency’s Singapore Government Business Unit added: “We are extremely excited at Publicis Media’s ability to deliver digital transformation seamlessly across borders with this partnership. With AIQ’s visual and video recognition platform, we are able to overcome the divide between offline and online media. The opportunity to integrate offline consumer behavioural data with online insights greatly enhances our clients’ ability to bring people closer to brands.”
VK.com is the country’s most popular social media platform, and an entity of the Mail.Ru Group with over 100 million downloads since 2011. Its gaming app, Clever Boy, has more than 5 million downloads since its release in March 2018.