“This Analysis Helps Advertisers Identify The Right Influencers”

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Desperation sounds funny when expressed in words. A scream would probably be more coherent.

Nobody really knows how to remake newspapers and magazines of a bygone era to be profitable in this one, and the great utility they provided–the Fourth Branch of Government the traditional media was called–is not so slowly slipping away. What’s replaced much of it online has been relatively thin gruel, with the important and unglamorous work of covering local politics unattractive in a viral, big-picture machine.

All I know is when Condé Nast is using IBM’s Watson to help advertisers “activate” the “right influencers” for their “brands,” we’re all in trouble.

From The Drum:

With top titles like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour and GQ, Conde Nast’s partnership heralds a key step merging targeted influencer marketing and artificial intelligence in the fashion and lifestyle industry. The platform will be used to help advertiser clients improve how they connect with audiences over social media and gain measurable insights into how their campaigns resonate.

“Partnering with Influential to leverage Watson’s cognitive capabilities to identify the right influencers and activate them on the right campaigns gives our clients an advantage and increases our performance, which is paramount in today’s distributed content world,” said Matt Starker, general manager, digital strategy and initiatives at Condé Nast. “We engage our audiences in innovative ways, across all platforms, and this partnership is another step in that innovation.”

By analyzing unstructured data from an influencer’s social media feed and identifying key characteristics that resonate with a target demographic, the Influential platform uses IBM’s personality insights into, for example, a beauty brand that focuses on self-enhancement, imagination and trust. This analysis helps advertisers identify the right influencers by homing in on previously hard-to-measure metrics–like how they are perceived by their followers, and how well their specific personality fits the personality of the brand.•