Facebook and Google will receive a combined 56.8% of U.S. digital ad investment in 2018, a decrease from 58.5% last year, as Amazon and Snapchat experience growth. Read more at MarketingDIVE.
Amazon
Amazon is issued patent for delivery drones that can react to screaming voices, flailing arms
Amazon has been granted a new patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a delivery drone that can respond to human gestures. Read more at The Washington Post.
Amazon adds app-based photo confirmation for deliveries
Amazon has started having package delivery personnel take photos of packages that have been delivered, unattended, to a customer residence to confirm to customers that the package was delivered and where it was left. Read more at Mobile Marketer.
Voice Shopping Heading To $40 Billion; Amazon Dominates
While consumers are using smart home speakers to listen to music and answer questions, they’re also increasingly using them to buy things. Voice shopping is already a $2 billion business and projected to grow to $40 billion within four years…. Read More ›
Amazon buys ‘smart’ doorbell maker Ring
Amazon is buying Ring, a maker of smart doorbells, to help the e-commerce giant expand its home security and in-house delivery services. Read more at Mobile Marketer.
Amazon SmileCodes put a new face on QR codes
Amazon has started placing QR code boxes that include its trademark smile logo into magazine advertisements, enabling Amazon mobile app users to scan the “SmileCode” to open Amazon product pages or other content on their phones, an Amazon spokeswoman told Retail… Read More ›
Amazon’s idea for employee-tracking wearables raises concerns
A warehouse worker reaches for a high shelf, a wristband wrapped around each arm. The company-issued wearables track the location of every product the employee handles while occasionally vibrating to guide their movements. The gadgets aren’t in use in any… Read More ›
Amazon’s Alexa can now send text messages
Amazon’s Alexa is now able to send SMS messages to a contact in a user’s smartphone. At launch, text messages can only be sent with smartphones running the Android operating system in the United States. Read more at VentureBeat.
Report: Amazon in talks to sell Alexa audio ads with Clorox, P&G, others
Amazon is in talks with major packaged goods companies including Clorox and Procter & Gamble about promoting their products on its best-selling Echo devices through the Alexa voice assistant. Read more at Mobile Marketer.
Amazon Brings Alexa Voice Commands to the Workplace
Amazon announced new voice-activated tools for the workplace, hoping that verbal commands—”Alexa, print my spreadsheet”—will handle common office tasks. Read more at AdAge.
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