Google Play Audiobook Korea Release Demonstration Session
On January 24, 2018, Google held ‘Google Play Audiobook Korea Release Demonstration Session‘ in its office in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The session was held to announce the outline and characteristics of Google Play's audiobook service, which was released on January 24th in Korea time, with Jae-hui Kwon, manager of Google Play Global Product Partnership Team, and Oh-jun Kwon, leader of Contents Business at Audiensori. According to the announcement, Google unveiled the Google Play Audiobook service, which can be enjoyed in the Google Playbook app. The service was first launched in 45 countries, including Korea, and supports a total of nine languages including Korean. ▲ The demonstration session of Audiobook service Korea release was held. ▲ Korea is included among the first-releasing 45 countries, and Korean is supported. The Google Play Audiobook service is a sound book service that allows you to listen to the contents of a book, and provides various categories of audiobooks and bestsellers based on the global library provided by publishers worldwide through Google Play Books. Through this service, domestic users can enjoy books produced in Korea as well as overseas books as audio books, and some of overseas books are provided free of charge. In particular, Google Play Audiobook service utilizes machine learning technology to automatically generate and provide a detailed table of contents that facilitates navigation underneath the main table of contents. Machine learning technology divides the text of an eBook and the words of an audiobook into syntactic units and automatically generates a detailed table of contents considering the flow of natural contents and a table of contents by detailed table of contents. By applying an individual book purchasing model, users can purchase an audiobook that they want at a 10% discount without any burden of subscription service. In addition, they can listen to a part of the audiobook through free pre-listening before purchasing and decide to make a purchase, and the purchased book is stored in the Google Playbook app, so users can easily check the list of purchased books. Google Play Audiobook service can be used on a variety of devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops using platforms such as Android, iOS, and Chrome Web. It also provides functions that are optimized for user’s lifestyle such as sleep timer settings, playback speed settings, skip forward button, listening to each table of contents, checking remaining time, background playback, and offline playback. In addition, through interworking with Google Assistant, which is Google’s artificial intelligence voice secretary system, a number of ‘hands-free’ functions such as voice commands will be provided to Google Play Audiobook service in sequence. Jae-hui Kwon, who introduced Google Play Audiobook service, said, ”Google Play, which has provided a variety of digital content such as games, movies, and books, is launching an audiobook service in the book sector followed by e-book. In particular, this is an innovative service with machine learning that users can use more conveniently in daily life. As interests and demands for audiobooks grow, we will provide richer audiobook contents.” ▲ The Google Play Books app lets you use the Google Play Audiobook service. ▲ It automatically generates and provides a detailed table of contents under the basic table of contents using machine learning technology. After the introduction of Google Play Audiobook Service, the introduction of the features and usage of audiobooks was followed. The audiobook, which means a book listened by ear, is a content produced for users to read more happily. It is produced by a method in which a plurality of voice actors who fit the characters read directly without mixing the TTS, and live sound effects and background music are added. In the past, audiobooks were produced mainly for the blind, but now they are getting the spotlight as a new way of reading. As for the process of producing an audiobook, after selecting the works and proceeding with the script work, the recording is carried out in the state where the music and effects are prepared. After the editing process and quality verification, it is then provided to users in a way of distributing the finished data. For listening purposes of audiobooks, users answered that they mainly use the audiobook contents to enjoy their own contents or to take advantage of free time while moving. Self-development, poetry, essay, genre literature are ranked as preferred genres. Oh-jun Kwon, leader of Contents Business at Audiensori, who introduced about an audiobook, said, ”Audiobooks are gaining attention from people who prefer to use free time, as well as from voice actors and students, and the number of users is rapidly increasing. I look forward to expanding the basics of audiobook users through our partnership with Google Play, and Audiensori will try to provide better content.”
Epic Games Korea 'Fortnite' Media Showcase
Epic Games Korea, the Korean subsidiary of Epic Games, held a media showcase at Grand Intercontinental Seoul Parnas in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the morning of 19th January, 2018. The event was organized to introduce features and service schedule of Epic Games' action building game 'Fortnite' in advance of domestic service with some officials of Epic Games Korea including Country Manager Sung-chul Park, Won-se Lee, in charge of domestic business, and Hee-uk Yoon, in charge of marketing, in attendance. Sung-chul Park, Country Manager of Epic Games Korea said, “After Epic Games Korea launched its Korean subsidiary in 2009 for the Unreal Engine business, we feel new since it is the first time to provide service of both the game and engine, which are the main businesses of Epic Games, in Korea through releasing ‘Fortnite’. In order to enable Korean gamers to enjoy games in an optimal environment, we made our best effort to the domestic service of ‘Fortnite’ through Korean localization, real-time global one build contents, and various Korean exclusive benefits. In addition, as we have introduced the game to be rated for over 12 years old so that teenage gamers can also enjoy a Battle Royal game, I would like to ask you a lot of attention to the service of ‘Fortnite’ in Korea.” ▲ Epic Games Korea's "Fortnite" media showcase was held. ▲ Sung-chul Park, Country Manager of Epic Games Korea said, “We made our best effort to the domestic service of ‘Fortnite’. I would like to ask you a lot of attention to the service of ‘Fortnite’ in Korea.” According to the announcement, 'Fortnite' is an Action-Building game that combines elements of battle, construction and action. Its biggest advantage is that users can enjoy creative new concept of battle play with unique skins and emotions over a normal shooting game that users simply shoot down enemies. Especially by dissolving easy play and in-depth game elements into the game, it has been loved by gamers from all over the world right from its release. In July 2017, 'Fortnite' was released ‘Save the World’, a new concept of action building system that four players cooperate with each other through role division into battle and construction as an early access version through Epic Game’s platform ‘Epic Games Launcher’. In September 2017, ‘Fortnite Battle Royal’, a PvP mode separate from ‘Save the World’ was released free of charge. Epic Games has recorded 10 million users in two weeks after launching the 'Fortnite Battle Royal' mode, followed by 20 million users in 72 days, 40 million users in 100 days, and 1.75 million concurrent connected users (CCU). With more than 2 million CCU, it has been recorded as one of the fastest growing games. ▲ In 100 days, it recorded 40 million users and 1.75 million CCU. Regarding the service of 'Fortnite', Epic Games implemented a complete 'Global One Build' policy that simultaneously releases the same content all over the world. Also, it stated that it will never introduce a business model that would impair the game’s fairness such as 'Pay-to-Win' items. It made it clear that it will respond strongly to illegal users such as cheat program users. In addition, Epic Games will continue to provide fresh and new pleasure through fast content updates. It will focus on high quality localization that is more readable than English version and has familiar fonts for Korean users to continue to develop the game. Epic Games has produced the first CF of 'Fortnite' in Korea, produced by Jung-hoon Park, a film director of the movie ‘The Villainess’, and Actor Sang-hoon Jung. It also plans to launch special events for domestic gamers such as releasing a limited edition T-shirt made by designer brand ‘Super Rocket Punch’, and providing Battle Pass to all the pre-orderers who play the game within two weeks after the launch. ▲ Various events for Korean users are prepared. ▲ Epic Games has produced the first CF of 'Fortnite' in Korea, produced by Jung-hoon Park, a film director of the movie ‘The Villainess’, and Actor Sang-hoon Jung. Sung-chul Park, Country Manager of Epic Games Korea, who came back on stage after the presentation of all the information about 'Fortnite', announced that Korea service of 'Fortnite' will start from January 23. Meanwhile, Epic Game’s Game Developer Tim Sweeney sent a video message. “The most important thing to consider when we make a game is 'fun', so we create a game that we want to play. We took six years to develop the game that users can enjoy tense fast-action as well as building construction with their friends, and the outcome is 'Fortnite'. It is the first time for Epic Games to provide service in Korea in its history of 27 years, so it is our new experience. And, it is expected that Korean users will be ranked first in ‘Fortnite’. Please enjoy the game.” ▲ Tim Sweeney said, “It is expected that Korean users will be ranked first in ‘Fortnite’.”
KT & KT Estate GiGA Genie AI Hotel Service Launching Press Conference
KT (CEO Chang-gyu Hwang) and KTestate (President Il-sung Choi) held a press conference at Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun Hotel & Residence (Novotel Ambassador Dongdaemun) on 18th July and introduced AI Hotel service. Il-sung Choi, President of KTestate, said, “We will provide tourists with a new concept hotel space and service that can not be found in any hotel in the world by combining the IT infrastructure of KT Group with hotel service. This will create an entirely new hotel offering innovative convenience and experience for tourists visiting Seoul and providing tourism industry and new growth opportunities to the region.” ▲ Il-sung Choi, President of KTestate ▲ Jun-su Jung, Vice President of KTestate. He gave a presentation. Novotel Ambassador Dongdaemun with AI service was opened on July 3rd with the goal of cutting-edge hotel based on ICT. The hotel has a total of 523 rooms including 331 guest rooms and 192 residences, presenting Novotel's first “hotel & residence” complex brand. Accor Ambassador Korea operates under the global standard of Accor Hotels. KT and KT Group companies plan to offer new experiences to users through innovative ICT as well as the comfort of the existing hotels. They also have a plan to lead the popularization of 5G in the future as also the first place to experience services based on 5G, including AI. ‘GiGA Genie', applied to Novotel Ambassador Dongdaemun, is considered to be the representative domestic AI service as it has secured 90 million subscribers for 15 months since its launch in January of 2017. KT is expanding its AI service area to a variety of living spaces such as hotels and automobiles, following the launch of GiGA Genie-based AI apartments. ■ Using 'GiGA Genie Hotel' with voice and touch, and 24-hour care service is available with 'Genie phone'. Novotel Ambassador Dongdaemun is the first hotel in Korea to use ‘GiGA Genie Hotel’, which is a collection of KT's AI technologies. The GiGA Genie Hotel is an infotainment system that provides not only voice recognition but also a touch screen, allowing guests to use various services of the hotel easily and quickly in their room. It is possible to control lighting, heating and cooling, order room supplies, check hotel’s facility information, control TV and listen to music 24 hours a day with voice and touch. At the existing hotels, guests had to use a remote control or adjust the thermostat to control the room temperature. However, at Novotel Ambassador Dongdaemun, they can simply adjust the temperature by saying “Genie, set the room temperature at 20 degrees.” when lying down on the bed or doing other things. In addition, the hotel will provide an advanced concierge function, such as checking the utilization cost or checking out in the room. The functions that can easily pay for the mini bar and room service with only voice in the room will be also added in this year. Moreover, as the number of foreign visitors increases, it plans to expand not only English but also other foreign languages and reinforce contents. KT provides hotel smart concierge phone 'Genie phone' to Novotel Ambassador Dongdaemun guests to offer 24-hour care service. Guests can receive Genie phone at the hotel or Incheon airport and use services such as domestic and international calls and data use, traffic card, tourist information, room control, tax refund, etc. Therefore, it is expected to be highly appreciated by foreign guests. It has excellent contents such as information about restaurants around the hotel, which are discovered by hoteliers, as well as information on major tourist attractions and festivals linked with information by Korea Tourism Organization. Genie phone is planned to be continued to update its content to help promote local businesses. KTestate expects that the 24-hour concierge service of Genie phone will contribute to the enhancement of real estate value in the surrounding area through the activation of local festivals and market revitalization. Novotel Ambassador Dongdaemun introduced advanced systems to hotel management as well as customer service. 'GiGAeyes’, which is an intelligent image analysis security service, and 'KT-MEG', which is the world's first integrated energy management platform introduced by KT, would be representative examples. GiGAeyes can be used both inside and outside the hotel to detect wandering and trespassing of strangers and take charge of real-time firewatching and crime prevention. KT-MEG analyzes hotel power use into big data and provides optimal energy management system through power usage inquiry and prediction, peak time power management, and so on. ▲ GiGA Genie currently supports Korean and English. Chinese and Japanese will be added. ▲ Korean and overseas Accor Membership users can enjoy a unique accommodation experience in Dongdaemun. ■ Four high-techs ICT hotels providing innovative services to Seoul area by 2022 KT and KTestate are planning to introduce a global brand hotel that combines cutting-edge ICT technology starting from Novotel Ambassador Dongdaemun to 4 core commercial areas in Seoul by 2022. They will open Hyatt's Andaz brand near Apgujeong Station next year, a hotel of Accor Hotels brand at Songpa in June 2021 and a hotel of Marriott brand at Myeong-dong(scheduled) in April 2022, so a total of 2,000 rooms will be secured. The three hotels to be shown following Novotel Ambassador Dongdaemun will be spaces to provide various innovation services based on AI and 5G. As tourist attractions are increasing through Urban Regeneration project promoted by Seoul City, the number of foreign tourists visiting Korea is expected to increase gradually. KT and KTestate are aiming to make 4 high-tech ICT hotels another ‘tourist attraction’ where foreign tourists can experience the innovative technology of Korea including 5G.
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[OID Korea 2018] OpenInfra Days Korea 2018 Press Conference
OpenInfra Days Korea 2018, co-hosted by OpenStack Foundation, OpenStack Korea User Group and Cloud Native Computing & K8S Korea, will be held on June 28-29 at COEX in Gangnam- gu, Seoul. This event was developed from 'OpenStack Day Korea' as a part of efforts to promote various open infrastructure technologies and to revitalize related ecosystem. The event will be held under the theme of "Open Infrastructure: OpenStack, Containers, and Cloud Native Computing”, and it will cover the ecosystem of open infrastructure technology created by combining openStack and cloud native computing technologies such as Kubernetes and Container. The OpenStack Foundation, as well as global open source foundations such as Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and Open Networking Foundation (ONF), will participate in the event, and technical presentations, exhibition booths, and workshops will be held under the sponsorships of Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, NetApp, manTech, and Open Source Consulting. At the press conference of OpenInfra Days Korea 2018, Jonathan Bryce Executive Director, Mark Collier COO, Lauren Sell Vice President of Marketing & Community Services, and lan Y. Choi, President of OpenStack Korea User Group, attended. OpenStack Foundation pointed out AI-related infrastructure environment as an area where the use of OpenStack-based infrastructure begins in earnest. Also, it emphasized that its ultimate goal is to solve many problems in the open source world by making users and technology companies working together. ▲ The press conference was attended by key executives of OpenStack Foundation and Korea User Group representatives Q ) The vGPU support in 'Nova' was introduced, and there were various restrictions on the configuration of the vGPU environment up to now. Does vGPU support in Nova also have these kinds of restrictions? (Acrofan) vGPU is a fairly new concept. Within a GPU, there are hundreds or thousands of small processors, components, and logic gates, and we have to deal with them as a piece of hardware. NVIDIA and Intel are making all of these components possible to virtualize within the GPU. The chip manufacturer's support will be needed to enable the use of vGPUs, and its restrictions will be similar to other environments. On the other hand, there is a limited number of chips available for virtualization. The "Cyborg" project in OpenStack uses a GPU or FPGA as an accelerator without virtualizing the chip, creating an accelerator inventory in the cloud and providing it to users or several tenants. If vGPUs and non-virtualized accelerators are used in the cloud at the same time, it is possible to build an infrastructure with powerful processing performance. Q ) In the case of Kata Containers, virtualization is used for container isolation. In general, the container has an advantage of high efficiency by sharing the kernels. However, it seems that using virtualization might reduce efficiency. What is the reason of combining virtualization with container technology, and what additional security benefits can be gained? (Acrofan) Container technology uses C-groups or namespaces to isolate kernel components. Therefore, no matter what tasks are performed in the container, the same kernel must be used, and the CPU, storage, and network will all run in the same location. In this case, it is inevitable to share with other containers and workloads, and the overhead becomes low, while isolation is not sufficient. Therefore, in order to secure the system configuration, it was necessary to configure it in many layers. In case of large public cloud services, they operated users’ containers on each user’s VM for sufficient isolation, which is a less efficient method. For Kata Containers, it uses a much smaller VM. The size of the VM is MBs, not GBs, and it can be started within 100ms, not minutes. It has small kernel size, small overall size, excellent isolation and security, and less overhead than a complete virtual machine. Another advantage is that it is compatible with existing container tools. It is a technology that runs containers at the lowest level of container technology and can be applied as a plugin to container tools such as Docker or Kubernetes. It has the advantage of using existing container tools and applications as they are. The Kata Containers simply adds an option to run the code at that level. Q ) OpenStack has been expanding from cloud to telecommunication and IoT infrastructure. What are the areas that are expected to expand in the future, and what are the projects that are closely related to this? (Acrofan) The “AirShip” project can be applied to various use cases, but in particular, it will be a big help in the edge area. It automates the software stack that runs on the edge and makes it reusable. Also, StarlingX is a more edge-specific project. Both projects are in early stages, but they are likely to be more interesting next year as they mature and the support increases. Since then, there are examples of using OpenStack environment for machine learning and AI. Hardware support, such as a GPU or FPGA, is intended to support this use case. As workloads from data analysis and others increase, new technologies and the related projects will be developed in the future. On the security side, the technology stack, including virtualization, seems to have a lot of room to improve its security or performance. Kata Containers is a technology that enhances security while reducing the weight of containers. Ultimately, the goal is for users and technology companies to work together to solve many problems in the open source world. ▲ The diversification aspect of the cloud has also been an important reason for the change in the strategy of OpenStack Foundation. Q ) What is the exact meaning of "cloud diversification"? Currently, users want to use a variety of technologies in the cloud. Using a variety of architectures will be more beneficial in handling workloads in AI, machine learning, and containers. Different types of chips and storage hardware, as well as a variety of hardware and software will be available. From this perspective, cloud and data center-related technologies are diversifying. In terms of edge computing, the concept of the cloud is also changing. There is a demand to utilize the cloud on the edge side, and there is also a desire to diversify the cloud. Q ) 'Open infrastructure' could be applied to containers and CI/CDs in addition to the cloud. What meaning does 'Zuul' have in an 'open infrastructure'? Infrastructure is automated and applications running in the cloud are changing, and the driving force behind automation and change is that people want to improve, test, and integrate software and continue to deploy software on the cloud. 'Zuul' allows users to develop software that can run on an open infrastructure as open tools. It is a cloud service that allows you to submit code from any cloud hosted server and whichever community, city or country you are in, and automate testing in the cloud. I think this is well suited to the kind of infrastructure we wanted. On CI/CD, it was previously possible to implement immediate compilation and testing after committing codes when development is done using automation build method through Jenkins and others. have. However, in some cases, such as in code reviews, automation builds do not work well. In the case of the foundation, the Infrastructure Team created ‘Zuul’ to solve these problems, and the foundation's document site is managed by it. I believe that open infrastructure can include not only technical areas, but also infrastructures actually used in development. 'Zuul' was originally developed by the community for the OpenStack project, but it has also attracted a lot of attention from outside projects and software departments. Moreover, there was a huge demand from the outside, so it was separated into an independent project naturally. In March, when version 3.0 was released, I think it was a good time to separate the project into an independent project. Version 3.0 also supports technologies that are not related to OpenStack, but considered important such as GitHub, etc. Q ) What do you think about the contributions of Korean communities and companies? The largest part of the contribution in Korea is the integration of the container into OpenStack. Helm and Kolla are tools designed to facilitate the operation of the container in OpenStack. In this part, Korean companies such as SK Telecom are playing a leading role. By contributing to the integration of the container into OpenStack, the stability of OpenStack is consequentially improved and the upgrades become easier. In case of Samsung Electronics, it has an NFV-related solution. It puts lots of development and resources to the part that is managed after containerization on a Kolla basis, and solutionizes the part. SK Telecom is also participating in a project that allows OpenStack to operate on container platform by combining with container technology to easily build and operate OpenStack itself. In particular, SK Telecom not only simply progresses development internally but also contributes development part to the community and progresses co-development with AT&T, Intel, etc in the community. Korea plays an important role in the movement toward open infrastructure, and there are many booths and sponsors in this exhibition than in the past. OpenStack, Kubernetes, and container technologies are combined to provide people with the 'open infrastructure' solution they really want, and I think this shows how much interest Korea is showing in this move. We participate in various events around the world and meet various community members. Here, we found that each country has distinct characteristics. In case of Korea, local leaders are proactive and collaborative, and the introduction of new technology is fast and user-driven. On the other hand, in the past, there were not many cases where domestic companies were doing business extensively based on OpenStack. But this year, domestic companies are coming up to the position in which they can do business and sponsor with open infrastructure technology. As the scope expands to container technology, the opportunity seems to expand. And this might be the trend seen in sponsors and others of the event this year.
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[OID Korea 2018] ‘OpenInfra Days Korea 2018’ Keynote Address
OpenInfra Days Korea 2018, co-hosted by OpenStack Foundation, OpenStack Korea User Group and Cloud Native Computing & K8S Korea, will be held on June 28-29 at COEX in Gangnam- gu, Seoul. This event was developed from 'OpenStack Day Korea' as a part of efforts to promote various open infrastructure technologies and to revitalize related ecosystem. The event will be held under the theme of "Open Infrastructure: OpenStack, Containers, and Cloud Native Computing”, and it will cover the ecosystem of open infrastructure technology created by combining openStack and cloud native computing technologies such as Kubernetes and Container. The OpenStack Foundation, as well as global open source foundations such as Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and Open Networking Foundation (ONF), will participate in the event, and technical presentations, exhibition booths, and workshops will be held under the sponsorships of Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, NetApp, manTech, and Open Source Consulting. At the event’s keynote address, Mark Collier, COO of OpenStack Foundation, pointed out ‘diversity’ as the future direction of the cloud, and from the perspective of the community beyond the infrastructure, he introduced that OpenStack is focused on introducing and integrating new technologies to solve the problems that users are facing. Also, in this integration strategy, he suggested four steps; finding common user cases, collaborate across communities, build the required new technology, and test everything. At the same time, the Foundation announced the long-term support version of OpenStack and the introduction of functions such as fast forward upgrade. ▲ Mark Collier, COO of OpenStack Foundation ▲ Now, the ‘long-term support version’ will be provided to OpenStack community version. Mark Collier COO and Lauren Sell, Vice President of Marketing and Community Services, gave keynote speech of OpenStack Foundation. First, the Foundation introduced some results of user survey that the infrastructure currently running in OpenStack environment is more than 10 million cores, and 71% of users who are using OpenStack are in production environment or preparing to deploy to production environment within the next 12 months. It is added that its market size is about $6.1 billion. Currently, OpenStack Foundation is running a variety of software projects centering on OpenStack. Recent noteworthy news in these projects was that vGPU support was provided in the virtual machine environment "Nova" and expected to be useful in a variety of use cases. In addition, the offline "Fast Forward Upgrade" allows users to upgrade from originating version to user desired final version for multiple releases at one time. Also, from the OpenStack "Ocata" version, a long-term support version, which provides 18 months of additional support, will be presented to meet the needs of users. OpenStack is currently used not only for data center and enterprise but also for scientific research and infrastructure operation such as traffic. Also, as it is used in various areas, the requirements for OpenStack, cloud, and infrastructure have changed a lot from the past. Today's infrastructure requires more, such as AI, containers, machine learning, and serverless technology, and these functions are used at the edge level beyond the data center. In addition to the existing standard architecture, architectures are being diversified into ARM-based environments, or environments that user GPUs and FPGA, and various open source solutions are used together. ▲ Lauren Sell, Vice President of Marketing and Community Services of OpenStack Foundation ▲ The four stages of integration for 'open infrastructure' flow like this. In the early days of the cloud, everything seemed to be merged on a standard hardware foundation, but now the movement of the cloud is becoming more "diversified" into various architectures. Moreover, various technologies such as AI and machine learning, which are used to solve various problems, are based on open source. However, the foundation emphasized that open source is not enough, and that it needs more than code to transform into an 'open infrastructure'. At this time, the foundation and the community are the best players in solving this problem through cooperation, and what the foundation has learned from communities in building an open infrastructure is that it is ‘human' that ultimately runs the infrastructure. To these changes, the foundation and the community are responding with strategic changes. In the past, the foundation thought about infrastructure from the perspective of an OpenStack project, but it is now thinking from the perspective of the 'community'. In the case of the community, it is featured by using various new technologies besides OpenStack in approaching the problem. As for difficulties in open source and infrastructure, "integration" is pointed out, and it is explained that new strategies for this part to help integrate technologies are discussed last year. Also, the “four steps for integration”, which includes identification of common use cases, collaboration, incorporation of new technologies, and the general testing, is defined. In identification of common use cases, various organizations have participated in introducing white papers relating to containers and edge clouds. After understanding the use cases, collaboration among communities is needed. There a lot of technologies to integrate, so the foundation stated that it can help with smooth integration by establishing relationships with various communities and identifying the deficiencies of each other through collaboration. The white paper on the edge cloud has worked with a variety of organizations, and it was helped by the Kubernetes upstream community. Moreover, the foundation provided resources to the Kubernetes community. New technologies and projects may be needed to overcome poor technology after collaboration. And the OpenStack Foundation has been leading the OpenStack project since 2012, and last year it had just launched a new main project besides the OpenStack project. The new projects are "Kata Containers" and "Zuul”. What’s more, it is announced that “StarlingX” and “Airship” projects will soon be available as well. ▲ “Kata Containers" and "Zuul" are presented as the new main projects of OpenStack Foundation. 'Kata Containers' is a virtualized container technology that can provide performance of containers, isolation of VMs and security. There were some voices that the existing container technology, which is isolated at the domain level while sharing kernels of the host, are insufficient in isolation. Hence, in some cases, the container platform was mounted on VM and the container was operated. Kata Containers is a technology that can take both the isolation of virtualization and the efficiency of container by utilizing virtualization technology into container isolation. It is an open standard project that combines ‘runv’ of Hyper.SH and Intel’s ‘Clear Container’ project. A new thing for this project is that Google, Microsoft, Huawei and others are taking the leadership, and it was evaluated positively in terms of collaboration opportunities with companies. The project that has been for six years, Zuul’s latest release is version 3, and it is said to be an important project in the foundation. Zuul is a technology developed for the community in OpenStack community, used for software development and testing, and it is one of the largest open source project CI systems. It is characterized by the ability to implement continuous test workflows in complex projects in distributed environments involving thousands of developers from hundreds of countries. Individual tasks are written in Ansible. They support Gerrit and GitHub and can be used outside of OpenStack. The startup project, StarlingX, is a project for edge computing and industrial IoT, with Wind River and Intel collaborating on code, and the mailing list is being actively operated. Mainly hosted by AT&T and participated in by SK Telecom in Korea, “Airship” project implements all pipelines for the installation and configuration of OpenStack environment as a container and a cloud native platform, centered on Kubernetes. When the server comes in and connects, it automates the whole process of deploying the container and configuring the functionality, and it enables to implement this process as a single declaration. Meanwhile, SK Telecom is also contributing code in related projects and applying it to the actual working environment. ▲ Lee Je-eung, President of The Linux Foundation Korea Next, Lee Je-eung, President of The Linux Foundation Korea, briefly introduced about Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). It was established in December 2015 as Linux Foundation-affiliated project foundation, and it coordinates policy and direction aspects of various cloud native projects centered on Kubernetes. There are currently 23 projects under management. In addition to the Kubernetes, which had already entered the mature stage, 16 projects in the upbringing stage and 6 projects in the early ‘sandbox’ stage are being managed. CNCF also supports activities such as transference to the next stage through testing. The move from virtualization to cloud-native is focused on optimizing resource utilization through orchestration among containers by breaking down applications into micro-services and packaging them into individual containers. In the process, CNCF provides political management to connect various related projects through open source-based collaboration in the move to cloud native. Meanwhile, it has more than 240 members involved in the cloud-native ecosystem. As the reasons for participation, CNCF cited neutral contribution and activation, provision of selection, validation and support of projects through Technical Advisory Committee, and opportunity to share much information through activation of intercourse between end user, service provider and communities. By joining as a member, you will have the opportunity to participate in various events and inform your products, and you can expect various support for tests and technology exchange. Moreover, the end-user community with more than 54 members is sharing their experience and accepting it so that projects could be carried out to the right direction. The advantages of CNCF’s membership participation include ‘technology leadership’ aspects such as reflecting opinions of direction and contributing of technology, reflecting opinions of technological development strategies that are important to the members' business, leading additional extension development, deciding direction and suggesting guidance on additional functions, etc. The membership participation also has benefits such as strengthening members’ roadmap through community participation and collaboration, cross-collaboration between enterprise and industry, and ensuring interoperability of members’ products or applications. The membership is divided into Platinum, Gold and Silver membership depending on the benefits and the size of the support, and it is proceeded with certification program, online training program and qualification examination system. ▲ lan Y. Choi, President of OpenStack Korea User Group lan Y. Choi, President of OpenStack Korea User Group, introduced the main activities of the Korean user group so far through 'Community Report'. OpenStack Korea User Group was established in February 2011 and is an official user group certified to OpenStack Foundation. In addition, the Korean user group is contributing to both upstream and downstream activities across the OpenStack ecosystem. As for the upstream activities, contribution of translation in the aspect of internationalization and various contributions from “Airship” project, in which SK Telecom participated, are mentioned. Also, as for the downstream activities, various business activities such as global discussion, local meetup, study activities, community cooperation, and domestic sponsorship were introduced. For the past one year, OpenStack Korea User Group has carried out various activities. After OpenStack Days Korea 2017 held in July 2017, the first open source software community day was held in September, and the six study group meetings were held in November and December. There was a networking day in November and a year-end party in December. In addition, 'Korea Community Day 2018' was held in February 2018, the monthly seminar in March and April, and 'MeltingCon 2018' in May with a number of communities. Moreover, the online lectures produced at the community level are also mentioned as important activities. Meanwhile, an event celebrating OpenStack’s eighth birthday is scheduled in July. One of the most important activities of the OpenStack community, 'User Survey' will be published in the Berlin Summit in October 2018. The survey was formerly available only in English, but now contribution of the community is reflected so that it is also available as a Korean version and domestic users can easily participate.
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[OID Korea 2018] Covering the spot of ‘OpenInfra Days Korea 2018’
OpenInfra Days Korea 2018, co-hosted by OpenStack Foundation, OpenStack Korea User Group and Cloud Native Computing & K8S Korea, will be held on June 28-29 at COEX in Gangnam- gu, Seoul. This event was developed from 'OpenStack Day Korea' as a part of efforts to promote various open infrastructure technologies and to revitalize related ecosystem. The event will be held under the theme of "Open Infrastructure: OpenStack, Containers, and Cloud Native Computing”, and it will cover the ecosystem of open infrastructure technology created by combining openStack and cloud native computing technologies such as Kubernetes and Container. The OpenStack Foundation, as well as global open source foundations such as Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and Open Networking Foundation (ONF), will participate in the event, and technical presentations, exhibition booths, and workshops will be held under the sponsorships of Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, NetApp, manTech, and Open Source Consulting. In this two-day event, visitors will be able to meet and study technologies of various fields related to use cases in open infrastructure such as DevOps and CI/CD as well as various open infrastructure solutions including OpenStack, Ceph, Docker and Kubernetes. Many domestic companies including Kakao, Naver, Line, Netmarble, Nexon Korea, etc. will participate in presentations. On the second day, many technology presentations and hands-on workshops from OpenStack Korea User Group, AWS User Group, Korea Azure User Group, Google Cloud Platform User Group, Kubernetes User Group, and IBM developerWorks User Group are prepared. ▲ Developed from 'OpenStack Days Korea', 'OpenInfra Days Korea 2018' covers the whole infrastructure. ▲ Various programs will be held during the two-day event. ▲ The lecture program is divided into four tracks. ▲ The demonstration booths are prepared in front of the venue so that various solutions can welcome participants. ▲ In Korea, Samsung Electronics and SK Telecom are actively using OpenStack. ▲ OpenStack becomes more valuable in high-density ARM server environments ▲ HPE, SUSE, and Nokia are also regular customers at the overseas summit. ▲ 'Line' also participated in this event as a booth. ▲ Meanwhile, the first day of the event exceeded 600 attendees and is expected to reach 1,200 for two days.
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T.OS Accelerates Its Efforts to Advance into the Global Market Through Nasdaq Advertisement
T.OS announced that it is accelerating its efforts to advance into the global market through advertising its cryptocurrency T.OS coin on Nasdaq. T.OS claims to be cryptocurrency for the actual transaction, and in the process of replacing the real money with the cryptocurrency in the future, it continues its efforts around the world to stand as the ‘key currency of cryptocurrency’. At present, T.OS is disseminating its possibilities all over the world in order to build economy for practical use. One of T.OS promotions in progress all around the world, the Nasdaq advertisement of T.OS had been prepared during the preparation stage of advancing into the global market beyond Asia ahead of the listing of large exchanges. The ad was released to the public on the outside of the Nasdaq building on two occasions, the third week of June and the third week of July. T.OS’s payment system maintains the same value at the point of currency exchange at trading floor and at the point of purchase at the store by introducing TOSP coin, which is the internal private coin with unchanging value, into the process of payment, purchase and exchange beside TOSC coin that is used for transaction. TOSP is used only for the internal process of T.OS payment system, so it is not traded in the external exchange, which features the advantage of no price changes through distribution transactions. T.OS stated, “TOSP, a central element of the T.OS payment system, is the internal private coin that is optimized as a quick and stable payment method, so it is cryptocurrency that cannot be distributed in the market. Therefore, since it is excluded from the targets of hackers, customers and business owners can have peace of mind when using TOSP coin in commerce activities.” In addition, the company will present its proprietary-protocol based hardware wallet without internet protocol as order production method so that users can protect their cryptocurrency more safely. It also plans to operate cryptocurrency consulting and franchise and make each country’s trading floor become a stronghold of T.OS payment system after firstly develop 10~20 sites around the world. T.OS plans to launch a payment system for T.OS in the second half of the year and test the actual transaction system through some of merchants, including Japan's famous live house "Kento’s", and then conduct public services in the first half of 2019. T.OS’s marketing manager said, “T.OS project is aiming at a block-chain payment system platform that can be used for both on-line and off-line payments of cryptocurrency. In the future, we will continue to make efforts to promote T.OS to the global cryptocurrency market with technology development and lead the cryptocurrency payment platform.” Meanwhile, T.OS participated in "Blockchain Partners Summit 2018" held at Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul for two days from 21st July as a Platinum sponsor to share the technology and vision of T.OS. Also, at the summit, Wook-tae Kang, CEO of Blockware, attended as a speaker to introduce the advantages of T.OS.
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Starbucks and Alibaba Group Form Strategic Partnership to Transform the Customer Experience in the Coffee Industry in China
• Marking a significant milestone for the two companies, Starbucks and Alibaba poised to enable a seamless Starbucks Experience through deepened partnership • Starbucks to collaborate across key businesses within the Alibaba ecosystem, including Ele.me, Hema, Tmall, Taobao and Alipay, to significantly elevate the Starbucks Experience for Chinese customers: o Announces plans to leverage Ele.me’s on-demand platform to pilot delivery services in Beijing and Shanghai in September 2018; delivery program to expand across 30 cities to more than 2,000 stores by end of 2018. o Partners with Hema supermarket to create “Starbucks Delivery Kitchens” specifically designed for Starbucks delivery order fulfillment, further expanding delivery capabilities while ensuring the highest levels of the third-place in-store customer experience. • Companies to co-create an unprecedented virtual Starbucks store that will integrate multiple platforms across Starbucks and the Alibaba ecosystems, to enable a seamless and even more personalized experience for members to register, redeem benefits and enjoy an extensive range of services. Starbucks Coffee Company (“Starbucks”) (NASDAQ: SBUX) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (“Alibaba”) (NYSE: BABA) today announced a deep, strategic “New Retail” partnership that will enable a seamless Starbucks Experience and transform the coffee industry in China. Collaborating across key businesses within the Alibaba ecosystem, including Ele.me, Hema, Tmall, Taobao and Alipay, Starbucks announced plans to pilot delivery services beginning September 2018, establish “Starbucks Delivery Kitchens” for delivery order fulfillment and integrate multiple platforms to co-create an unprecedented virtual Starbucks store – an unparalleled and even more personalized online Starbucks Experience for Chinese customers. The announcement marks a historic moment as two iconic, global companies build on their distinct retail and technology strengths to revolutionize the customer experience. Leveraging the Alibaba ecosystem and New Retail infrastructure, Starbucks will be able to further unify a seamless Starbucks Experience between its stores and online for customers. “Thanks to the elevated customer experience delivered by our over 45,000 partners, Starbucks is growing and innovating faster in China than anywhere else in the world,” said Kevin Johnson, president and chief executive officer, Starbucks Coffee Company. “Our transformational partnership with Alibaba will reshape modern retail, and represents a significant milestone in our efforts to exceed the expectations of Chinese consumers. Starbucks China is one to watch, and I have full confidence in the team that will bring the new innovation behind the Starbucks Experience to life.” Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of the Alibaba Group said, “Starbucks is more than a destination for premium coffee and we share the same vision to pioneer a new coffee culture and lifestyle through innovation and technology. Alibaba is thrilled to expand our existing partnership with Starbucks by leveraging our cutting-edge New Retail infrastructure and digital power to enable an unprecedented experience for consumers. This partnership is again a testament to the success of our New Retail strategy.” The strategic partnership is part of Alibaba’s broader New Retail push, which aims to transform how commerce is conducted by merging online and offline experiences. New Retail was introduced by Alibaba in 2016 and has since become a hallmark strategy of the retail industry. - Creating an Unparalleled Order and Delivery Experience Powered by the Alibaba Ecosystem Working with Ele.me, China’s leading on-demand food delivery platform with 3 million registered delivery riders, Starbucks will pilot delivery this September in 150 stores located in key trade zones in Beijing and Shanghai with plans to accelerate and expand its delivery program to more than 2,000 Starbucks stores across 30 cities by the end of calendar year 2018. Both Starbucks and Ele.me collaborated to develop a unique, customized delivery infrastructure that has been meticulously determined each step along the way, including dedicated Ele.me delivery riders, precise delivery time, and custom carriers. Both companies have created a tailored order-to-delivery Starbucks program that upholds the unparalleled experience and quality that customers have come to expect in Starbucks retail stores. Through this delivery partnership, Starbucks and Ele.me have pioneered a best-in-class coffee delivery service standard for Chinese customers. “Ele.me has a robust infrastructure for on-demand delivery in China. We are pleased to partner with Starbucks to launch these reliable and trusted delivery services to satisfy customers’ needs and capitalize on the delivery sector’s great potential. It is an important milestone for Ele.me to deepen our collaboration with retail chains and further expand our penetration in the food delivery sector,” said Wang Lei, Chief Executive Officer of Ele.me. In addition, Starbucks will partner with Hema supermarkets to be the first retail brand to establish dedicated “Starbucks Delivery Kitchens” within their locations. The “Starbucks Delivery Kitchens” will utilize Hema’s distinct fulfillment and delivery capabilities to complement the delivery of handcrafted Starbucks coffee and tea beverages offered through existing Starbucks stores. Starbucks will also leverage Hema’s highly effective consumer insights and unique fulfilment expertise to further penetrate and better serve the needs of individuals and families in communities across China. This intentional strategy will inform the future network planning for new Starbucks stores, combined with “Starbucks Delivery Kitchen” locations, to further expand the scale and reach of Starbucks delivery services, while enabling our partners (employees) to continue to elevate the third-place experience for the customer. Starbucks will open “Starbucks Delivery Kitchens” in selected Hema supermarkets in Shanghai and Hangzhou as soon as September 2018, with plans to expand its presence to other cities over time. “Our Chinese customers have a high expectation of their Starbucks Experience and we are proud to introduce a premium delivery experience that reflects the same service and quality they’ve come to love and expect from us in our stores – we will never compromise,” said Belinda Wong, chief executive officer, Starbucks China. “More significantly, through our partnership with Alibaba, we are breaking the physical and virtual barriers between the home, office, in-store and digital space, making China the first Starbucks market to deliver a seamless Starbucks Experience across all facets our customers’ lives and further reflecting the uniqueness and strategic importance of the market.” - Digital Innovations Transforming the Retail Industry A key strategic initiative under the partnership is the development of a pioneering, first-of-its-kind virtual Starbucks store in China. This digital partnership will see Alibaba develop a centralized online management hub, with the unique capabilities to integrate and deliver a consistent Starbucks Experience across multiple digital platforms. This innovation will transcend the traditional limitations of a single-app visit by providing the consumer an elevated, and even more personalized Starbucks digital experience across the Starbucks app and Alibaba’s customer-facing mobile apps, including Taobao, Alipay, Tmall and Koubei. This latest innovation will revolutionize the traditional offline-to-online model by effectively extending the reach of the Starbucks Experience into the everyday lifestyle ritual of the Chinese consumer, regardless of time or place. Whether it is at home or in the office, within a Starbucks store or online, Starbucks customers will be able to access and enjoy a one-stop Starbucks Experience when purchasing merchandise online, buying a Starbucks handcrafted beverage to be delivered to a friend or sending a Starbucks gift of love on the “Say it with Starbucks” social gifting platform. Starbucks will progressively integrate its Starbucks Rewards (SR) membership platform onto the centralized system to leverage its consumer insights to deliver a truly personalized experience to its customers, while establishing a strong foundation for the future development of Starbucks digital experiences in China. Starbucks and Alibaba are trusted business partners who share common values in the spirit of innovation and the unrelenting pursuit of product and service excellence. This deepened partnership is a significant step as both companies partner together to elevate the customer experience across China.
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VolitionRx's First Research Use Only Product Is "On-The-Shelf" Today
ISNES, Belgium, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- VolitionRx Limited (NYSE AMERICAN: VNRX) ("Volition") today announced that its first product the "Total Nu.Q™ Assay" research use only (RUO) kit, is ready and available for purchase through Active Motif, its Global Sales and Distribution Partner (https://www.activemotif.com/catalog/1266/NuQ-total-assay). This kit, based on Volition's proprietary Nucleosomics® technology, is the first in a range of kits due to be released over the coming months. The new Nu.Q(TM) Total Assay Kit Founder and Chairman of Active Motif, Joseph M. Fernandez, commented "We are continuously looking for innovative products in the field of epigenetics and believe that Nucleosomics® is a breakthrough technology. These RUO kits will provide researchers throughout the world with a new way to explore epigenetic modifications in circulating cell-free nucleosomes across different diseases from clinical samples. We are delighted that the first kit is now available for sale and continue to work with Volition to develop a broad range of assays focused on important targets for future roll-out. We expect revenue this quarter from the sales of these RUO kits." The RUO kits are based on the same Nu.Q™ immunoassay technology as Volition's cancer screening panels and may be used to investigate a variety of clinical questions beyond Volition's core focus in cancer biomarkers. The range of the RUO kits will allow researchers to explore patterns of epigenetic modifications in circulating nucleosomes in disease models, pre-clinical testing and clinical trials across a broad spectrum of clinical applications including cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases and trauma. The RUO kits will offer a complete profiling solution from cell to serum. Chief Executive Officer of Volition, Cameron Reynolds, commented, "This is a fantastic achievement for both Volition and Active Motif; it was very exciting to see the first pack come off the production line. We expect that the RUO kits will provide an additional revenue stream beyond that from the expected commercialization of our blood-based tests for cancer. If the assays are developed as a companion diagnostic for another company's therapeutic, this could also potentially result in further future revenue through a licensing or similar arrangement." An interview with Cameron Reynolds and Mark Eccleston, Business Development Director of Volition regarding, the RUO Kits is available to view at https://volitionrx.com/news/video-gallery About Active Motif Active Motif is an industry leader in developing and delivering innovative tools to enable epigenetics and gene regulation research for the life science, clinical and pharmaceutical and drug discovery communities. The company has a significant portfolio of assays, genome wide services and validated antibodies for use in ChIP-Seq. Active Motif operates globally through its corporate headquarters in Carlsbad, California, regional headquarters in Belgium, Japan and China, as well as a worldwide network of sales and support offices. Active Motif applies a multi-disciplinary approach to create new and modify existing technologies to meet the current and future needs of life science researchers. To learn more please visit www.activemotif.com. About Volition Volition is a multi-national life sciences company focused on developing simple, easy to use, cost effective blood tests designed to help diagnose a range of cancers. The tests are based on the technology platform of Nucleosomics®, which is the practice of identifying and measuring nucleosomes in the bloodstream or other bodily fluid - an indication that disease is present. As cancer screening programs become more widespread, Volition's products aim to help to diagnose a range of cancers quickly, simply, accurately and cost effectively. Early diagnosis has the potential to not only prolong the life of patients, but also to improve their quality of life. Volition intends to expand the application of its technology beyond cancer by exploring other disease applications. The company's research and development activities are currently centered in Belgium, with additional offices in London, Texas and Singapore, as it focuses on bringing its diagnostic products to market first in Europe, then in the U.S. and ultimately, worldwide. For more information about Volition, visit Volition's website https://volitionrx.com/ or connect with us via: Twitter: https://twitter.com/volitionrx LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/volitionrx Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VolitionRx/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/VolitionRx The contents found at Volition's website address, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube are not incorporated by reference into this document and should not be considered part of this document. The addresses for Volition's website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube are included in this document as inactive textual references only. The contents found at any third party's website address are the sole responsibility of such third party, are not incorporated by reference into this document, such website addresses are to be considered inactive textual references only, and Volition makes no representations or warranties regarding such contents. Media/Investor ContactsLouise Day, Chief Marketing & Communications Officerl.day@volitionrx.com +44 (0)7557 774620 Scott Powell, Executive Vice President, Investor Relationss.powell@volitionrx.com +1 (646) 650 1351 Joseph Green, Edison Advisors jgreen@edisongroup.com +1 (646) 653 7030 Safe Harbor Statement Statements in this press release may be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that concern matters that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or projected in the forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "aims," "targets," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "optimizing," "potential," "goal," "suggests," "could," "would," "should," "may," "will" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to the effectiveness of Volition's bodily-fluid-based diagnostic tests as well as Volition's ability to develop and successfully commercialize such test platforms for early detection of cancer and/or other disease applications. Volition's actual results may differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements due to numerous risks and uncertainties. For instance, if Volition fails to develop and commercialize diagnostic products, it may be unable to execute its plan of operations. Other risks and uncertainties include Volition's failure to obtain necessary regulatory clearances or approvals to distribute and market future products in the clinical IVD market; a failure by the marketplace to accept the products in Volition's development pipeline or any other diagnostic products Volition might develop; Volition will face fierce competition and Volition's intended products may become obsolete due to the highly competitive nature of the diagnostics market and its rapid technological change; and other risks identified in Volition's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, as well as other documents that Volition files with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about Volition's business based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release, and, except as required by law, Volition does not undertake an obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances. Nucleosomics®, NuQ®, Nu.Q™ and Hypergenomics® and their respective logos are trademarks and/or service marks of VolitionRx Limited and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, service marks and trade names referred to in this press release are the property of their respective owners. Additionally, unless otherwise specified, all references to "$" refer to the legal currency of the United States of America. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/volitionrxs-first-research-use-only-product-is-on-the-shelf-today-300690017.htmlRelated Links :https://volitionrx.com
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[KANTAR] Celebrity-Based AD Campaigns: What are the PROS and CONS in World & South Korea?
Celebrities are used in advertising around the world. The right celebrity, used in the right way, can undoubtedly be a powerful brand asset. But using a celebrity does not guarantee effective advertising; overall, there’s very little difference between the performance of ads with celebrities versus those without. However, celebrities can make campaigns more effective. There are pitfalls to using celebrities. To gauge whether a celebrity is right for your brand, you need to establish whether they are known, whether they are liked, and what they stand for, among your target audience. ■ WHERE ARE CELEBRITIES USED IN ADVERTISING? The use of celebrities in advertising varies enormously around the world. It continues to be highest in Asia Pacific, as this analysis of ads we have researched with our Link copy test shows. In terms of individual countries, use is highest in Japan and Korea, where around 40 percent of TV ads feature celebrities. In comparison, use of celebrities is 31 percent in China, 23 percent in India, 11 percent in the U.S., and 11 percent in the UK. The type of celebrity used varies a lot by region. Movie stars are particularly popular in Asia, notably Korea and Japan. TV presenters are particularly popular in the UK; while sports stars are more common in the US. ■ ARE THEY EFFECTIVE? Celebrity-based campaigns can be very effective. The Snickers “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign won a Cannes Lion Creative Effectiveness award; as did Virgin Mobile Australia for their ‘Fair Go Bro’ campaign. In the US, one client had used a celebrity in some of its ads over a ten year period, and wanted to know if they should continue the relationship. Our analysis showed that the ads featuring the celebrity performed better on key measures than those without the celebrity. The celebrity had also become a strong branding cue. We were able to estimate that the celebrity was worth over $5 million per year to the client. After an ROI calculation, the client continued the relationship. An in-depth analysis of Twitter volumes and sentiment for 16 brands across 5 countries found that celebrities are one of the drivers of short-term buzz. Brand campaigns and short-term promotions generate buzz more often, but celebrity associations and endorsements are likely to increase positive sentiment for the brand in the short term. In February 2014, Mila Kunis was announced as the new face of Jim Beam and featured in a number of ads and videos for the brand. Using our Digital Behavior Analytics solution to decompose the raw digital signal into more meaningful metrics, Kantar Millward Brown was able to quantify that this was a more efficient use of the brand’s marketing budget, and delivered a greater return on investment in both the short term and the long term. However, while individual celebrity campaigns can be highly effective, there is very little difference overall between the performance on most key measures of ads with celebrities versus those without, on key measures like Enjoyment, Involvement or branding. However, our CrossMedia database suggests that campaigns with celebrities tend to be more effective than campaigns without. Why should this be? An internal assessment of the campaigns for the 2018 AdReaction study suggested that campaigns with celebrities tend to be better integrated. It seems the presence of a celebrity can provide an instant link to other elements of the campaign, promoting synergy. But other audio and visual elements can also provide that ‘instant link’. For some long running campaigns, particular celebrities have, over time, become synonymous with the brand: for example, Roger Federer for Rolex, Gary Lineker and Walkers in the UK, Carina Lau and the cosmetic brand SK-II in China. The following example shows the gradual build of one celebrity brand cue over 15 ads. ■ THREE KEY QUESTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE USE OF CELEBRITIES Given that using a celebrity does not guarantee a successful campaign, what are the guidelines for getting it right? We’d suggest there are three key questions you need to answer. 1. Who is the celebrity? Where the celebrity is central to the core idea, it’s important to establish how well known they are among your target audience. Some time ago, a lipstick brand was launched using a foreign model. Among those who recognized her, communication, enjoyment and purchase intent were much stronger. However, less than a quarter of the audience recognized her, severely limiting the effectiveness of the campaign. 2. Is the celebrity well liked? While it isn’t essential for a celebrity to be liked, this can have a significant impact on the emotional response to an ad. The effectiveness of likeable celebrities is more similar across countries: enjoyment is higher when the celebrity is liked, in all countries. All countries tend to see higher scores across persuasive measures and overall Power Contribution when the celebrity is liked. In particular the likability of the celebrity needs to be assessed among the target audience. In one project for a cereal brand in the UK Kantar Millward Brown asked about celebrities who were considered positive role models. One particular male TV and radio presenter was rated highly; but this ranking was driven by the 40+ age group. When we researched an animatic version of an ad for the brand featuring him, he was dismissed by the younger target respondents as being too old and old fashioned. The ad was not produced. 3. What does the celebrity represent? It’s important to understand how well the celebrity fits with the brand, or with where you want to take the brand. When the celebrity is perceived to be appropriate, communication can be enhanced. The ‘right fit’ celebrity can enhance key measures. ■ Potential pitfalls Unlike an animated character, celebrities are human, and subject to human failings. So there are a number of ways in which a celebrity could become a liability to the brand. The Chinese athlete Liu Xiang was in the London Olympics, but had apparently disguised an injury; the injury flared up and he had to pull out. Chinese public opinion turned against him for his perceived dishonesty, and a year later was still far from recovering. Other examples of celebrity activities potentially damaging a brand include: OJ Simpson, the face of Hertz, being charged with murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson; Whoopi Goldberg, failing to lose weight while endorsing Slim-Fast; following the media exposure of his adulterous affairs, and a public divorce from his wife, Tiger Woods lost five major endorsements. Brands are quick to distance themselves from such issues. In early 2016, when Maria Sharapova failed a drugs test, brands she had promoted such as Nike, Tag Heuer and Porsche all distanced themselves from her within 24 hours. In addition, there is always the risk of a celebrity becoming the hero of an ad, rather than the brand. A new campaign was developed for a tea brand in India, featuring popular movie actors. Kantar Millward Brown researched two versions of the ads in animatic forms; one with the celebrities, and one without. The research showed that, in the versions with the celebrities, the message takeout was weaker; the celebrities were ‘drowning out’ the communication. And while the celebrities were intended to help gain attention, the versions without celebrities were just as impactful. The client went ahead and filmed and aired versions without celebrities. But experience suggests that this tends to be more an issue of ad structure than the fame of the celebrity. Testimonial ads, for example, with their clear focus on the brand, rarely suffer this problem. But the celebrity needs to come across as likeable and genuine, or the endorsement may lack credibility. Hence, the right celebrity, used in the right way, can be a powerful brand asset; in any country, in any category. ==================== Executive Director and Creative Domain Lead (Korea) Subhashish Dasgupta currently works at Kantar group company Kantar Millward Brown and leads the Creative Domain for Insights division of Kantar Korea. His marketing and research career spans over 18 years in both Asia and Europe. Subhashish has extensive research experience, encompassing market entry studies, strategic brand and positioning research, brand health tracking, concept and product testing, advertising testing, channel partner motivation tracking, and stakeholder management. His sector experience covers Automotive, Services, Oil & Gas, Telecom and FMCG. Subhashish has two post graduate degrees with an MBA with specialization in Marketing and Marketing Communication.
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[Media Actually] Beyond Product to Content, the Secret of the Trend Keyword 'Collaboration'
At the local elections held on June 13th, MBC borrowed the format of the FM Radio's leading program, “Bae Cheol-soo's Music Camp”, to broadcast the election. In fact, it is the first time to bring the format of music program, while broadcasters have made various efforts to provide the voters with fun and information in ballot-counting broadcast so far. It was a successful collaboration of a music program and election broadcast. 'Collaboration' refers to collaborative work that a heterogeneous corporation carries out with a certain goal to convey a new experience to users, and it is actively appearing mainly in 'products'. In fact, product collaboration has already become a successful marketing technique as it is no exaggeration to say that collaboration products have been the driving force behind 'camping phenomenon', which is the phenomenon that some consumers line up overnight to purchase 'limited edition' products. Recently, however, the phenomenon of 'collaboration' has been emerging in 'content' beyond the scope of products and services. This is because it shows more positive effect on recognition and sales when working as a collaboration than working alone. Typically, in 2011, the luxury brand Versace collaborated with the SPA brand H&M, and the collaboration gained huge popularity around the world that it is called ‘Battle of Versace’. As collaboration is considered to be a successful marketing trend, recently, there is a tendency to try collaborations in various fields such as food and medicine. However, in fact, although the probability of failure is very high as the probability of success is high, the failure of collaboration is not likely to be discussed. If so, what kind of rules are hidden in one that determines the success and failure of the collaboration? The core of collaboration is, above all, in 'expansion of experience'. Here, the expansion of experience means the depth and breadth of experience. While most think of collaboration as a new experience created by meeting between different domains, in fact, successful collaboration should upgrade the experience of each domain, which means it should provide a deepening of the experience. For example, through collaboration between A product and B product, the positive experience with the A or B product should not be reduced or eliminated, but rather should be multiplied. Next is the expansion of the area of experience. By meeting different areas, a new experience that could not be created by each area should be felt. In other words, the combination of A and B must provide a different value, such as C, rather than simply AB. At this point, it would be more successful as fresh as users cannot imagine what C is (but in a way that does not impair the existing positive experience). Also, the collaboration does not always have to create a new experience, but it can be progressed in a way of offsetting the negative experience of A or B. Therefore, not only for making new changes, the collaboration should be progressed in consideration of which experience of the product you want to deepen and what extent of experience you want to widen. It is important to note that if you try to collaborate without considering this, you will even destroy your existing positive experience. ■ ‘Content Collaboration’, How Much Have You Done? Three Principles of Content Collaboration Now, collaboration became a necessity, not a choice. The reason why the collaboration has become a necessary course of corporate marketing is due to the attractiveness that it can reduce the cost, effort, and risk taking every time the corporate releases a new product or service and secure a certain amount of sales at the same time. For this reason, a collaboration, which was mainly focused on offline products, has recently expanded into the content area. In fact, content collaboration seems to be similar to commodity collaboration, but content collaboration has a unique feature in that it can try collaboration throughout the process from content production to distribution and consumption. Therefore, understanding the rules of each step allows you to enjoy content collaboration more fun. The first is productive collaboration. Productive collaboration is a form in which IPs of different contents create new contents together, or IPs of other contents are put into one content. In the case of the former, the movie <Avengers> could be a representative example. Collaboration is different from One Source Multi Use (OSMU). Collaboration is a transmedia that collects individual contents and create one big story, while OSMU uses IP of the original content to create an individual secondary creation. That is, the connectivity and interactivity of the content are maintained. Each character of the movie Avengers has individual stories, but each one also creates a new story by gathering together. An example for the latter case could be <Infinite Challenge>, which is an entertainment program of MBC. In the Infinite Challenge, members create collaborations with the existing contents by making a new challenge weekly. Also, recently, several one-person creators gather together to create joint broadcasts, and this can be an example of the latter case. The second is distributive collaboration. It might be unfamiliar in terms of expression, but it refers to the collaboration of content and platform. In spite of the existing distribution platform, it provides a positive consumption experience by providing it to the new platform. From this point of view, distributive collaboration is mainly used to give a positive experience such as convenience and reliability of content rather than new content experience. One example could be Disney content, which had supplied its contents solely to Netflix. Another example is that domestic TV broadcasters have provided contents related to election broadcasting to social media or portals during the election season. The last is consumptive collaboration. It is a form of offline extension that allows users to participate or to consume again offline. Consumptive collaboration is different from character products that we commonly know. If a character product is a separate product for selling the character, consumptive collaboration is a combination of the experience of the existing product with the experience of the content by adding IP of the content to the existing product. For example, JTBC drama <The Package> has released 'The Package set menu' which includes the behind story of the drama and character introduction with the franchise coffee shop “TOM N TOMS”. As such, content collaboration has already deepened our daily lives and gives new media experiences to content users. Above all things, we must remember that what is important in collaboration is the "experience expansion" through two encounters, not two different "encounters".
