The world is changing, and brands are changing with it. On this report we look
at a few case studies on how big companies are acquiring, investing, and
accelerating their way to
innovation.
Welcome back to the Trend Of The Week
Brands are in the midst of a massive digital transformation that’s all about products,
strategies, and services to match new consumer expectations. Three announcements
are using to innovate. 
 from the past few weeks display the diversity of the strategies big companies
using to innovate. The publisher space has been one of the most diligent in
updating their offerings and one of their core approaches is acquiring companies
who specialize in new types of content. Take for example: RYOT. RYOT began as a
publication where each news story was tied to a specific social action that
readers could take. Starting two years ago, the company recognized that virtual
and 360 video had huge power to engage audiences and so started building
out their VR production capacity. Last week, RYOT announced that it was being
acquired by AOL to build a new unit under the HuffingtonPost. The new
division will produce editorial content across the company’s family of
publications as well as sponsored branded content. The acquisition marks the first
exit in the VR content space. In other cases, content producers are using
strategic investments to build new capacities. HBO and Discovery announced
that they would take equity stakes in OTOY. The VR company improves
how complex 3D environments are rendered. In other words, it helps people in
virtual environments interact with the world around them without any weird
processing lag that could jolt them out of the experience.
CVS also recently announced a strategic investment, teaming up with Curbside to
offer CVS Express. The program allows customers to pick up their order without
leaving their car.
CVS launched the program after seeing significant repeat use during a pilot.
The benefit of an investment versus a full acquisition is that CVS gets to take
advantage of the insights Curbside develops working with other partners
ranging from Target to Levis. Another approach to innovation that has become
more popular in recent years is to support accelerator programs, effectively
seeding the types of startups a company would like to work with. The latest of
these is Techstars Connection, a collaboration between TechStars and AB
In Bev.
The program is aimed at startups that create new types of social, product delivery, and
geo-specific experiences. For AB In Bev, who does so much of their marketing
through live events, these are the type of companies they could work with to add
value to fans. These major deals are all incredibly exciting, and the brands behind
them should be lauded. At the same time, they can have a distracting effect, in
which they convince us that the only digital transformations happening are at
these highest of levels. The truth is most digital innovation is in the realm
of discovering new channels, new platforms, and new allies who deliver on some small aspect of
the consumer experience. Take, for example, the announcement this Tuesday that
Jaguar had partnered with Tile to make sure drivers never left their home
without their keys. This isn’t autonomous cars like Tesla or even new types of on-demand from
Uber. Instead, it is just a real, simple, technical solution to a problem that
afflicts even the tech savvy every day. It’s a reminder, ultimately, that most of
digital transformation will happen at the partnership level, with brands
building relationships with hundreds of new platforms and vendors who can help
them with any challenge or opportunity no matter how small or large. Stay tuned
to Partnered to hear about all of those deals. For Partnered, I’m Jessie Pray. See you next time.
