Specialist insurer Hiscox has turned digital billboards into hacker “honeypots” as part of its new ‘CyberLive’ ad campaign, to raise awareness of the threat of cybercrime to small businesses.

For the campaign, Hiscox set up three honeypot servers, typically used by small businesses, which feeds data into live digital posters. Each time a cyber attack takes place, the poster reacts by triggering a pulsing red light, which gradually builds as further attacks occur and resets every 24 hours. The more attacks there are to the servers, the more the poster headline visually reacts.

Today, it seems as though there is no technology trend more talked about than Artificial Intelligence (AI). But despite widespread media coverage, the specifics of AI are often lost, misunderstood, or even unreported. 

Artificial intelligence is typically used as an umbrella term for types of technology that enable machines to mimic human intelligence. This can include the ability to understand and respond to the environment, problem solve and understand human speech. 

Subsets of AI include Machine Learning and Deep Learning, which involve experience-based learning and machines training themselves in complex tasks, respectively. 

One area in which AI is being developed and implemented is within digital marketing and advertising. With digital ad spending overtaking TV ad spending since the end of 2016, advertisers and marketers should be innovating and investing in digital advertising.  

Here are three AI trends digital marketers should be looking out for now and in the near future: 

With the number of ‘Internet of Things’ devices expected to jump from 6.6 billion to 22.5 billion by 2021, it’s clear that we’re currently going through a new wave of tech innovation.

With Apple, Amazon and Google leading the charge in launching voice-enabled devices, there’s no doubt that voice is increasingly becoming the new touch. And, as marketers, it’s important to realise that you can’t just rely on visual advertising anymore because there’s no guarantee consumers will be seeing your message anymore – they could be hearing it instead!

The folks at Pandora recently teamed up with Edison Research to explore how consumers are interacting with these new devices to uncover some insights, illustrated in the infographic below, that it might be worth checking out…

Yahoo has filed a patent for a new type of “smart” digital billboard that could potentially transform the OOH industry by taking data collection via the medium to a whole new level.  

Remember that scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise walks through the shopping centre and gets bombarded with advertising? It’s sort of like that, but maybe not quite to the same level…

Advertising’s being driven more and more by digital innovation, so it was great to see my favourite channel, cinema, hailed by John Hegarty at Cannes Lions this year as a fantastic medium. This led to comments in the press along the lines that good old fashioned cinema continues to perform well without being seen as particularly innovative.

Traditional, maybe. But old fashioned and lacking innovation? I don’t think so!

To me, cinema is both pioneering and innovative. It was arguably the first truly immersive media experience, and over the past 20 years, cinema tech has evolved massively in terms of both sound and vision – take 3D, for instance. Meanwhile, the growth of the multiplex has made cinema a destination in itself, not to mention the boutique explosion, with  luxuriously comfortable seats and the ultimate in comfort food and drinks on tap. This has driven us all to fall even more in love with the movies, delighting in being a captive audience sharing the experience with family and friends, where ads are simply seen as part of the experience – to my knowledge, no one has ever left to make a cup of tea while they’re showing!

It’s a New Year which means a new wave of innovation is coming and rather than worrying about how to keep up with the marketing trends for 2016, the folks over at MDG Advertising have highlighted the four top trends to be aware of when planning how to spend your ad budgets.

1. Digital advertising to overtake TV
2. Mobile will be the fastest growing segment
3. Keep an eye on digital video
4. Facebook is increasingly dominant

Even better, they have pulled it all together into one handy infographic. Check it out below…

Make no mistake, your brand’s value now relies or will soon rely on two-way participation experiences with your customer. And it’s not just Generation X or Generation Y. The rise of digital media, followed by increasing smartphone and tablet ownership has resulted in a highly fragmented communications landscape, making it more and more difficult to engage with all generations through traditional marketing techniques.

What’s more, people have become increasingly marketing savvy and with the help of digital filters are adept at filtering out messages that don’t interest them. In some countries nearly one quarter has adblocking software installed, 1 in 5 in the UK. Bombarded by thousands of marketing messages by businesses and brands offering similar products and services, it’s not only tough to reach your target audience, but also to make an impact when you do.

Consequently, marketers are always looking for a platform that allows them to communicate their brand benefits to an engaged audience willing to listen. They want more personal conversations with hot leads and more participation from customers to help develop products and services that people actually want.

It’s no surprise then that brands are turning to experiential marketing to satisfy this need. Once seen as the poor relation in the marketing mix, it is increasingly becoming a key part of marketing campaigns and marketers’ new secret weapon by not only immersing people in a brand through interaction and participation, but also being highly shareable across digital media.