Category: Media Marketing Tools

Paid Media Marketing In 2021: 8 Changes Marketers Should Make

Marketing Strategy, Media Marketing Tools, Social Media Marketing

Paid media has one job: to lift your brand. And as digital marketing evolves, so too will your strategy. So how should you change your paid media strategy in 2021? Here are eight changes you can incorporate without a second thought.

1. Getting Passing Ads to Convert

Passing ads are a growing sector of the paid media world. This is evidenced by the recent evolution of Instagram Reels as well as the widespread popularity of sources like TikTok, Instagram stories, and Facebook stories.

Basically, if it passes through the user’s streaming or browsing session, you can consider it a passing ad (or passive ). Up to you! So how do you get these types of ads to pay off, both in the short and long term? These types of advertisements have their own playing field.

They must be quick, relevant, and (ultimately) conversion-oriented. A few specific types of ads work best here:

  • Organic-seeming ads are best. You want your audience to presume you’re someone they follow, even if they don’t. You want them to think this is a regular product or service offering update, even if it’s not.
  • Include post links or swipe-up links whenever possible. The easier you make it for folks to find you, the better.
  • The first second matters most. Include audio when relevant and make your offering known right away. Your personality should be obvious at first glance.
  • Cross-promote. If you share a product video on Instagram Reels, upload it to your story and your feed. If you have a TikTok, share the video there, too.
  • Use them to build a remarketing audience of “viewers” and “engagers” and “clicks.”

2. Making Core Influencers Part of Your Business Model

As a business, you don’t have to do it alone. Micro and macro influencers are an awesome resource at your beck and call, just as long as your audiences align. Even pages with a few thousand followers can make a big difference for smaller brands looking for a leg up.

Go on a hunt to find the top influencers in your space. Then, figure out the cost-per-acquisition for tracking each of them down (because you have to court influencers, especially the bigger ones).

From there, you can create a win-win partnership that gets you leads while the influencer earns income. Pro Tip: You can use influencer marketing tools to help you in your journey of integrating core influencers into your business model. Some of the most popular include AspireIQ, BuzzSumo, BrandSnob, and NeoReach.

Whichever you choose, make sure the influencers you find are big enough to provide real value to your brand — and that you’re paying a CPA that makes sense for your budget.Advertisement

3. Better Audience Management on Each Platform

2021 is the year to get your audience management down, both from a holistic perspective and within each encapsulated platform. That means zeroing in on every site in which you publish paid media advertisements and determining audience management. The first step in this process?

Building audiences.

From there, you must set up a strategy to target folks within every stage of the funnel – from upper to lower – and on each network. Perhaps the most crucial part of this process is refreshing your audiences as the year goes on. You should definitely plan on retargeting and testing new audiences throughout this time.

If you fail to incorporate this part, you run the risk of targeting the wrong sector of people, ultimately throwing money down the proverbial drain. However, if you retarget and refresh your approach, you’re bound to find a dynamic audience that correlates with your vision. In the end, audience management alone can be worth its weight in gold.

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4. Way More Funnels

One word:

Funnels.

You want to double-down on creating funnels and landing pages. But you don’t just want to throw these advertisements out into the internet abyss.

Build these funnels and landing pages:

  • By ad.
  • By network.
  • By stage in the customer journey.

By using these three correlations, you can figure out the route users are taking to get to the purchase point, and you can determine the root of your audience’s behavior. Journeys might differ between YouTube and Facebook, and that’s because these platforms are not built to act the same. Similarly, customers may respond differently by ad type (think carousel ad vs. video ad).

Where they are in the customer journey makes a huge difference as well. Consumers in the awareness stage will not respond to a coupon in the same way that someone just shy of the purchase stage will.Advertisement .In short, keeping nuances in mind as you develop a collection of funnels and landing pages will make all the difference.

5. More Forecasting by Source & Time With Budget Allocation

Staying on track with your paid media strategy means accurately allocating your budget across the board. It may sound tedious, but once you get into the swing of things, this process will be a natural part of your digital marketing.

First things first: Know the cost of all items in your program. This could be the cost-per-clicks, subscriptions, influencer payments (as mentioned above), or a whole slew of other monetary payments. Basically, you want to know what you’re paying, and where.

Next up: Forecast by quarter, not just year. This allows for easier budget shifts within a year. When you’re ready to change up your paid media tactics, you’ll be better set up to do so. Getting the budgetary green light from executives will run much more smoothly with a quarterly forecast in hand.

6. Getting Into Bed More With Microsoft

Microsoft, you’ve outdone yourself. The new Microsoft Advertising options are here, and the platform itself is really taking off. As a marketing professional, your brand will surely benefit from digging into it more by 2021. Specifically, Microsoft Advertising is now offering three new targeting options:

  • Enhanced LinkedIn targeting: Since Microsoft acquired Linkedin in 2016, they’ve developed targeting for LinkedIn profiles. Now, marketers can target LinkedIn audiences by job function, company, and industry. There’s also the option to use campaign bid modifiers by industry or job.
Enhanced LinkedIn targeting
  • In-market audiences: Microsoft Advertising has expanded in-market audiences to France and Germany, which could be beneficial for some companies. But aside from that, in-market audiences themselves are super effective.
  • Dynamic remarketing for Microsoft Shopping: Microsoft Shopping now gets dynamic remarketing. This means that ecommerce marketers can now target customers who’ve already interacted with them in some way (i.e., targeting consumers who abandoned their shopping carts).
dynamic remarketing

7. Getting an Acceptable CPA on YouTube & DSP Networks

Your cost-per-action (CPA) on YouTube and demand-side platform (DSP) networks needs to be at an acceptable rate. Using CPA ad networks is smart for businesses with a well-developed market. You don’t have to count on clicks just to bring in money, and you can advertise based on a particular action.

It’s also important to mention that you need to make these more secondary. They should come after the lower funnel networks and audiences are maximized. If you need help capping your CPA, consider making use of Google’s Target CPA bidding tool. It’s robust on machine learning and helps keep you at or below your target CPA.

Set bid limits, make device bid adjustments, and calculate your average target CPA, among other nuances. And if you didn’t know Amazon even has its own DSP now.

8. Using Machine Learning to Your Advantage

Machine learning is only getting stronger. For marketing leaders, 2021 really is the time to hop on the machine learning bandwagon. It just so happens that machine learning and paid media go together like peanut butter and jam.

Instead of using PPC managers who have to be compensated for doing it all, you can use machine learning. In fact, it can strengthen your ROI for paid media campaigns of all kinds (whatever the channel you prefer). Just make sure you don’t sacrifice your brand’s personality for a little efficiency.

One way you can do this is with Google’s responsive search ads. With a combination of creativity and machine learning, your ads have the potential to go far. You can also utilize Google’s Target CPA bidding, a tool we mentioned that just so happens to use artificial intelligence to get the job done.

By: John Lincoln

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Rohan Sheth

Learn How to Become a Paid Media Expert in 2020 with Rohan Sheth. Paid advertising on YouTube, Facebook, Google and other platforms is growing intensively. At my marketing agency we manage a dozen of paid media buyers and I’ve learned what it takes to become a successful paid media expert or media buyer in 2020. I break it down for you in this video. 👉 Download the Digital Expert Book: https://digitalexpert.com/welcome 👉 The Complete Course to Start Generating Business Online: https://digitalexpert.com/digital-exp…#PaidAdvertising#PaidMedia#RohanSheth 👇 Enjoyed the content? Subscribe to my channel 👇 ↪︎ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdtL… 🔥 CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO: How I Moved From a 600 sq. ft. Apartment to a $3.5M Mansion in Under 3 Years ↪︎ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEeR7… YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: 🤳 Day In The Life Of Rohan ↪︎ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj1Hm… 📚 Learn Digital Marketing & Business ↪︎ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38D8Y… FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM: ↪︎ https://www.instagram.com/rohan_sheth/

Fortune Is The Latest Big Media Brand Sold To A Wealthy Businessman – Jill Goldsmith

business News, Content Marketing, Media Marketing Tools, Newspaper/Media, Social Media Marketing

 

 

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Meredith’s unloading of storied Fortune magazine to a Thai businessman is the latest in a string of personal private investments in major media publications by assorted billionaires, and one of the biggest ever to a foreign investor.  Chatchaval Jiaravanon, a Bangkok-based tycoon with an undergraduate business degree from the University of Southern California, is buying Fortune for $150 million in cash.Who is he?Meredith, the Des Moines-based publisher, described Jiaravanon as “at the helm” of a head-spinning portfolio of public companies — including board positions at True Corporation, Ticon Industrial Connection………….

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgoldsmith/2018/11/09/fortune-magazine-sold-to-thai-businessman-for-150m-cash/#339698852978

 

 

 

 

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How to Use Influencer Marketing – Ask the Pro By Grant Cardone

Campaign Marketing, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Influencers, Local Sales Marketing, Marketing Hacks/Proposals, Marketing Strategy, Media Marketing Tools, Online Marketing Study/Strategies

Bill Carmody is an international marketer having been in the internet marketing space for 22 years. He asks the question—how do you leverage networks to gain influence? The easy route is to pay and put campaigns on autopilot. There is a better way—finding influence marketers—people who have a big audience but havent figured out how to monetize them.

How do you go to the next level and scale? Get involved with niche players who are highly engaged in their spaces. The cost of what you give them versus the value they give you is exponential. If you optimize for fame, you don’t get fortune, but If you optimize for fortune, you will get fame. Click here for more Ask the Pro….

 

 

 

 

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Traffic Robot – Drive Unlimited FREE Traffic To Any Website or Offer In Less Than 60 Seconds At The Touch of A Button

Affiliate Marketing, Audience Traffic Tools, Content Marketing, Marketing Course Study, Marketing Hacks/Proposals, Media Marketing Tools, Traffic Builder, Traffic Builder Tool, Traffic Exchange Apps, Traffic Exchange Tool, Traffic Exchange Tools, Traffic Manager Tools, Traffic strategies, Traffic Strategy, Traffic Surfing Tools, Traffic Trends

Brand new, newbie friendly cloud based traffic generation software that enables you to drive free traffic to any website or link of your choice in less than 60 seconds at the touch of a bottom. Our fantastic support team are ready to help you if you have any problems at all with the software. Simply raise a support ticket and will receive a prompt response to ensure everything runs smoothly. Like the idea of free traffic at the touch of a button but don’t know how to utilize it? No problem. Our video training teaches you how to turn the traffic into $125 per day or more, even if you’re brand new to marketing online……

Read more: http://trafficrobot.co/exclusive

Million Dollar Shortcut Secret Plan – The ULTIMATE Shortcut To A 7-Figure Online Business Products & Sales

Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Course, Affiliate Marketing Study/Strategies, Affiliate Sales Page, Content Marketing, e-Commerce Online, Internet Marketing Course, Media Marketing Tools, Mobile Marketing/Apps, Niche Marketing, Online Course Centers, Online Marketing Study/Strategies, Passive Income, Software News

Instant access to 3 evergreen, PROVEN software solutions you can sell to build YOUR business… zero product creation or market research needed WITH Unique ‘Everything DFY’ Resell rights let you leverage OUR authority, marketing pages and tools to make sales on autopilot. yOU CAN Make WINDFALL profits whenever you promote while building a massive list for DAILY affiliate commissions PLUS Live, over the shoulder traffic training INCLUDED – discover the EXACT strategies we use to drive 100% free traffic. Effortlessly build a buyer’s list you can earn DAILY affiliate commissions from AND Leverage OUR authority and sales materials to make hands-free sales: perfect for both beginners and marketers exploring new niches……

Read more: http://milliondollarshortcut.us/get_it/?r=873

Pixamattic – A Powerful Artificial Intelligence Turns Designs Into Dozens Of Content Media

Content Blogger, Content Building Tools, Content Marketing, Content Strategy/Generating Content, Content Targeting, Content/Visual, Designing Tools, Media Marketing Tools, Photography, Picture/Photography, Social Media Marketing, Visual Content/Marketing

 

Pixamattic PRO Artificial Intelligence Automation Software by Brett Ingram is the Best Artificial Intelligent Designer and Social Media Automation That Turns A Blank Canvas Into Stunning, Ready-To-Post Designs In Just One Click That Designed For You And Your Brand Automatically, So You Can Attract, Engage And Convert Your Leads Into Sales And Paying Customers. Pixamattic empowers you to publish and communicate unlimited and gorgeous visual messages the way your customer want, today. You can have your first viral campaign ready and getting you new leads and sales in just 60 seconds…

Read more: https://pixamattic.com/new/

The Future of Social Media Education – Laura Tierney

Content Marketing, Educational Learning Tools, Educational Technology, eLearning Issues, Learning/Knowledge, Marketing Strategy, Media Marketing Tools, Social Media Marketing

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Teens build relationships with friends through FaceTime and group chats. They nurture friendships with compliments on Instagram and Snapchat. They stay in touch with friends and family overseas with messages on WhatsApp. Social media is just how they socialize these days.

Students are spending an average nine hours each day on their screens, according to Common Sense Media, and social media has become one of the greatest influences on our children’s happiness, health, safety, and future success, according to other reports. Many of the parents and school leaders I’ve talked with initially just wanted social media to go away, but now that it’s here to stay, some adults and students are beginning to see it as a powerful and positive tool.

According to The Social Institute’s 2017–2018 Social Media Survey with nearly 4,450 students from independent schools, more than 80 percent of fifth- through 12th-graders said they believed that social media can have a positive impact on their world, whether that means their school or local community, state, or country.

This is why many independent schools are adopting a proactive, growth-minded, and sustainable approach that empowers students, parents, and educators to positively navigate social media. They strengthen their reputations, protect their privacy, follow positive role models, and more. This new approach better aligns with a school’s mission and values, supporting students’ health and wellness. The future of social media is bright, and it’s one where we empower and equip, rather than scare and restrict.

The Current Landscape for Schools

Since social media really took off 10 years ago, few institutions or parents have found a relevant, effective solution to helping kids navigate the world of posts, texts, and selfies. Why? There are three current issues at play: what schools teach about social media, who teaches it, and how it’s taught.

Schools continue to approach social media education as a matter of digital citizenship. Common Sense Media defines digital citizenship as the ability to “think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly in our digital world.”

We all want students to have digital skills, but telling students to use “digital citizenship” when using technology is like telling them to use “proper navigation” when driving a car. In the world of social media, relevance is everything, and “digital citizenship” is simply not relevant.

Furthermore, most schools use a top-down approach in which adults teach students. Of course, this happens for nearly every school subject, why not social media? The problem again lies with relevance.

According to the 2017–2018 Social Media Survey, 100 percent of students said they believed they know more about social media than their parents or school faculty. How are schools and parents supposed to teach something teens believe they know better (and likely do)?

Lastly, digital citizenship is often taught by adults strictly through “don’ts.” Don’t post this, and don’t share that. Don’t join that app, and don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see. However, imagine if a coach only taught how not to throw a ball or how not to shoot it. Players wouldn’t know what to do. Students are not being taught what to do on social media.

This relevance-lacking, top-down, don’ts-driven approach is failing our students. Students are progressing through school unequipped to navigate life with a phone in their hand. They are overwhelmed by the pressures of cyberbullying. They are being rejected by colleges because of racist Facebook posts. Sleep deprivation among teens is rising because they can’t put their phones away at night. Nude photos of teens are shared around school. Tweens are committing suicide because they’re cyberbullied.

As long as students feel like they are being lectured, they will tune out. They will fall victim to the same landmines, and this negative cycle will continue, potentially tarnishing the reputation of both students
and schools.

The Future of Social Media Education

We must refine social media education with a positive and proactive approach. The Social Institute works with several independent schools to implement such an approach and empowers students, parents, and faculty. We are halfway through a three-year strategic partnership with Ravenscroft School (NC) and have learned four best practices.

Integrate the curriculum. Rather than putting “digital citizenship” in a corner, Ravenscroft integrates social media life skills into its school’s advisory program, which encourages character development, health, and wellness. The school weaves lessons throughout its advisory program, which promotes “leading self,”
“leading with others,” and “changing your world.”

Students learn to have their social media profiles represent their true self and character. They learn to use empathy when engaging with and posting about others. And because social media is a student’s microphone to the world, sixth- through 12th-grade students learn how to use platforms to spark positive change. The program resonates with students because it supports their belief that there is no distinction between your “real self”
and “digital self.” It’s simply “you” and your ability to have high integrity and character—with or without a device in your hand.

Use a bottom-up approach. Rather than using a top-down approach, in which students are lectured by adults, Ravenscroft students co-lead the program. Student focus groups help develop materials and lesson plans, ensuring they are most relevant to the apps and behaviors students witness online. It’s effective because younger students admire the older student-leaders, and student-leaders help set the standard around social media use at the school. With a train-the-trainer approach, Ravenscroft’s 11th- and 12th-grade student-leaders are now learning to teach sixth- through 10th-grade students, parents, and faculty about positive social media use. It’s a team approach.

Focus on the do’s. Rather than harping “don’t do this” and “don’t share that,” we have found that reinforcing the actions to take allows students to strengthen their reputations, better handle the challenges, and change their worlds for the better. In Ravenscroft’s #WinAtSocial program, students learn seven Social Standards—including “protect your privacy like you’re famous,” and “use your mic for good.” (See “Gold Standards,” below.)

Assemble a cross-departmental team. The power of social media impacts nearly every administrative department. Susan Perry, Ravenscroft’s assistant head of school for student affairs, says, “Our students and parents have longed for a sustained, systemic message about how to connect conversations and educate about technology and social media. Our work with our faculty, students, and parents allows us to have an ongoing, supportive, and educational dialogue about how to leverage social media for respectful outcomes. We feel our commitment to community health must include such a systemic educational approach to understanding the potential positive impact social media can bring.”

How We Get There

As one of the most powerful influences on a child being happy, healthy, and successful, social media needs to be a priority. Schools have the opportunity to get ahead of the game. It starts with administration teams determining why it’s a priority and championing a holistic approach to educating students, parents, and faculty. The upfront work is hard, but the impact is remarkable—these are lifelong skills that students require.

Once schools make the commitment, there will be less helicoptering and more huddling. Less fear and more trust. Less bullying and more empathy. Fewer fire drills and more high-fives. Less negativity and more positivity. The future of social media education is bright, and it’s one where students are empowered and hold one another to high standards, whether online or off.  ▪

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Mega Bot – How To Use Web Traffic ROBOTS That Works 24/7 to Bring You Traffic, Leads, and Sales

Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Sales Page, Content Marketing, Integrator Tools, Media Marketing Tools, Social Integrating Tools, Social Media Marketing

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It’s true, we’ve created an automation software that actually automates the process of getting traffic.This cutting edge software can run day after day on your computer, even if you’re not there with it. As long as your computer is on, it can be generating subscribers, traffic, and sales while you’re off doing who knows what.

Whether you’re brand new to the online business world, or if you’ve been in it for almost 20 years like we have, one reality is the same: Getting web traffic is a pain. Some methods of web traffic, like SEO, are complicated, difficult, and take huge amounts of time.

Other methods are easy, but cost a lot of money and are risky because you can lose a lot of money if you don’t know what you’re doing. So either way, it’s a pain because it takes time, money, or both. Likewise, list building is a huge challenge. As Jeff and I can attest, your own list is a powerful source of web traffic and it allows you to generate income on demand.

In other words, the money really is in the list. But you have to have web traffic to build your list in the first place. We’ll be the first to tell you, there is no magic bullet in this business. Believe me, we’ve tried everything. We’ve also made millions of dollars online, and we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t.

Mega Bot is made to run on Windows computers, but it can run on a Mac by using a program called Parallels Desktop for Mac. Parallels allows you to run any PC software on a Mac, without rebooting. Parallels does cost money, but it’s well worth it to be able to run all of your Internet marketing software like Fast Traffic Bot on your Apple computer.

With such a powerful traffic and income system, this is something we could be selling on a big ticket webinar for $1000 or more. Considering all the time and money that went into the creation of this system, and what it DOES, I don’t think $1000 would have been unreasonable for this package.

This is NOT something you could easily just build on your own…

First of all, you probably don’t want to spend thousands of dollars to develop your own software from scratch. Second, it could take you years to figure out everything that you’re going to discover today in the materials that you’re getting in this package.

And when you think about the thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours spent on developing this system, you can see why $1000 wouldn’t be a bad price at all. But… we’re not asking that much.

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Imagine this. You activate Mega Bot by clicking a few buttons, and then it does the hard work FOR you, without any confusing technical procedures or effort on your part. This powerful software uses proprietary algorithms to generate traffic, so you can get more traffic and build a list on autopilot too!

getinstant

Five Reasons Social Media Is A Powerful Tool In Your Marketing Strategy – Noah Mithrush

Business Assistant, Business Hacks, Business Psychology, Content Marketing, Marketing Hacks/Proposals, Marketing Strategy, Media Marketing Tools, Social Media Marketing

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As a modern marketer, you likely often find yourself within the social media realm managing multiple accounts on various sites. It can feel daunting. If you are in charge of your organization’s social media marketing efforts, you know and understand that being “social” can have a big impact on the buyer journey. But not everyone really grasps why, as social media still carries the connotation of being a hobby or a time waster when you’re bored, rather than a lucrative channel for nurturing prospects and publicizing content.

To bring to light the powerful impacts of social media that often get overlooked, here are five reasons why social should be part of your strategy when competing in today’s digital landscape:

1. It’s a feeding ground for industry insights.

What better way to gather information from your target audience than to listen to real, candid conversations that your prospects are having? With social media management tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social, you have the ability to listen in on trending conversations happening within your target market. This is a great way to find your next blog topic. And one of the best parts is that this can all be accessed for free.

4. It gives you street cred.

If you aren’t active on social media or don’t have accounts altogether, your company is asking for a slow death. Okay, that may be a bit of a stretch, but you are making things much harder for yourself — especially when your audience and every one of your competitors are already there. If you aren’t on social, you are seen as outdated or even nonexistent. Many consumers validate a company based off of their profiles. Ask yourself, are you a company that you would want to follow?

5. You can do more for less.

The reach that you get on social media from posting quality content alone is hard to replicate anywhere else. Add in some spend for advertising to push your campaign and you have a highly targeted ad running for low cost, compared to most other marketing channels.

Of course, you have to put all this in context for what works for your organization. A business-to-business software company is not going to have the same strategy and approach to social as a busines-to-consumer company in retail. Take the time to develop the right strategy for your audience. The effort will be worth it.

2. You become human.

As the business environment changes, we have to adapt to the changing expectations of our consumers. One of the trends that social media has caused is the expectation for companies to be more human. Reviews, comments and word of mouth have forced brands to be more candid on social platforms. These voices should not be ignored, as consumers give them more weight than any paid advertisement. Welcome to the world of influencers and social commerce: People validate and buy from other people. Consumers often self-educate and make up their minds before they step foot in a store or before your salesperson picks up the phone.

3. It makes cold-calling cool.

Many people say that cold-calling is dead. However, I wouldn’t totally agree — it just requires a new approach. With professional networks like LinkedIn, you can prospect in a whole new way, from joining relevant groups to commenting on posts to engage with leads in a non-intrusive way. When you do connect, it’s a whole new experience from both sides of the conversation. Maybe you’ve connected with your prospect and engaged them in a conversation by commenting on a post of theirs. You can bet those engagements make a difference in whether or not they answer your call or open your email.

4. It gives you street cred.

If you aren’t active on social media or don’t have accounts altogether, your company is asking for a slow death. Okay, that may be a bit of a stretch, but you are making things much harder for yourself — especially when your audience and every one of your competitors are already there. If you aren’t on social, you are seen as outdated or even nonexistent. Many consumers validate a company based off of their profiles. Ask yourself, are you a company that you would want to follow?

5. You can do more for less.

The reach that you get on social media from posting quality content alone is hard to replicate anywhere else. Add in some spend for advertising to push your campaign and you have a highly targeted ad running for low cost, compared to most other marketing channels.

Of course, you have to put all this in context for what works for your organization. A business-to-business software company is not going to have the same strategy and approach to social as a busines-to-consumer company in retail. Take the time to develop the right strategy for your audience. The effort will be worth it.

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AI Is Already Changing The Way We Think About Photography – Evgeny Tchebotarev

Artificial intelligence, Business/Innovation, Content Marketing, Innovation/Devices, Marketing Hacks/Proposals, Media Marketing Tools, photo Tools, Photography, Picture/Photography

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AI is rapidly changing the way we think about photography. Just a couple of years from now, most advances in the photo space will be AI-centric, and not optics or sensor-centric as before. The advancement in photography technology will, for the first time ever, be untethered from physics, and will create a whole new way of thinking about photography. This is how it’s going to happen.

Processing power

Just six months ago we saw the first glimpse of AI entering our consumer world when Apple introduced A11 Bionic neural engine chip, which powers current generation of iPhones. The A11 is important because the chip is specifically designed for tasks such as image–and face–recognition, AR applications, etc. In applications like this, it’s way more effective.

I then wrote that the Google Pixel line would introduce it’s own hardware chips, designed for specific tasks, and that indeed happened sooner than anyone—including me—expected, as the Pixel 2 featured dedicated image enhancement chip to help with image processing on the fly.

What made it intriguing is that when Pixels were announced and shipped, there was no mention of the feature, and only sometime later did Google admit that the Pixels had a dedicated chip which would be “enabled” sometime in the future (if you own Pixel 2 today, this hardware feature is already enabled).

Then came Chinese smartphone maker Huawei with the P20 Pro, featuring 4 cameras — 1 in front and 3 in the back. In addition to achieving the highest DxO Mark score to date, the Huawei P20 Pro is packed with AI features, such as real-time image scene recognition, meaning it can discern 500 scenarios in 19 categories, such as animals, landscapes, as well as an advanced night mode, where the AI assists in processing noisy photos, making them almost perfect.

The Verge has great coverage with image samples to provide a good overview of this photo powerhouse. As the next generation of smartphone products are developed, many manufacturers are focused on image capture and real-time processing, partially because it’s a great marketing differentiator, but also because advances in this area are clearly visible to the consumer.

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Catering to the pros

But in professional and semi-pro setting, there are several other developments that are key to image quality. First of all, is the processing part, that has to happen right after the photo has been taken. Advances in RAW processing have been steady and predictable (but yet, very welcome by everyone), but AI is ready to supercharge this process. Recently PetaPixel featured a research paper named “Learning to See in the Dark” by Chen Chen, Qifeng Chen, Jia Xu, and Vladlen Koltun, that covers techniques of recovery of extremely underexposed RAW files.

For the consumer it means that AI-assisted software can create high-quality images way beyond the current physical limit — allowing smaller sensors (such as found in drones or mirrorless cameras) to leapfrog current top-end DSLR’s.

In other applications, it might allow tiny security cameras to yield high-quality imagery, increasing overall surveillance.

Photo optimization

One intriguing technology I had a chance to see recently is AI-powered upscaling, far beyond in quality than what is currently available to the public. A team of AI developers at Skylum is putting finishing touches on technology that will allow smartphone images to be upscaled and printed at an incredibly high resolution and sharpness. As I’ve previously pointed out, not everyone has an iPhone X in their pocket — hundreds of millions of people today are buying brand new phones that use 4-year-old technology, so having sharper, crispier photos from outdated smartphone sensors will allow millions of people future-proof their precious moments.

Thousands of kilometers from Skylum AI research lab is another startup, that stealthily applying quantum mechanics research to RAW files, is promising to compress your photos up to 10x without loss of data.

A year ago Apple introduced HEIF, High Efficiency Image Format. If you use iPhone with iOS11 you are likely using HEIF without even knowing it. HEIF allows for higher quality images (compared to JPEG) at about half the size, allowing to keep twice as many photos as before. Dotphoton, a small startup from Switzerland, is aiming to up HEIF format and is focusing on the professional applications, from aerial footage to professional photographers.

After a long technological hiatus in image tech, we are yet again seeing an explosion of interest in the space. Photography plays an important role in every tech company, but nowhere it is more important than in the smartphone race. And as September edges closer, Google and Apple will both be aiming to announce cutting-edge photography advances. Yet, an influx of smaller players are innovating at a rapid rate and raising the stakes for everyone. Evgeny Tchebotarev founded 500px (acquired by VCG), backed by A16Z . He is VP Business Development Asia at Skylum and Director of Startup Grind Taipei. He is based in Taipei, Taiwan.

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