Trendspotting – Coming to a Lighthouse8 near you

Lighthouse8 is happy to present the start of a new and exciting project. Having partnered with some of the top students in their respective degrees at NTNU, Lighthouse8 is working on developing new technology that will streamline the digital marketing process on both organic and paid media channels. For now, the final product will be our little secret, but we’ll of course keep you posted on the partnership with NTNU and the progress made, as soon as Trendspotting starts taking shape. You’ll just have to settle for our Trondheim office’s recreation of the Trainspotting movie poster for the time being. Enjoy!

 

About Lighthouse8

Lighthouse8 is an international engineering company specialising in marketing robots development, business intelligence and performance marketing. Our teams in Europe and APAC work with some of the world’s leading companies to optimise online business performance and create business value. Founded in Sydney, Australia, the company was named one of the fastest growing companies in Australia at the Smart Company, Smart50 awards in 2014 and has continued to grow at an impressive rate. Since then the company has expanded into Singapore, Scandinavia and now the UK market after being selected for the 2016 Tech City UK Executive Accelerator.

 

Lighthouse8 successfully raises 20M in Series A funding

Invests in Lighthouse8’s vision & differentiated approach to AI-based digital marketing.; Funds will accelerate further technology development and international expansion

Trondheim, Norway June 6st, 2017. Lighthouse8, a leading international technology company, today announced it has closed a NOK 20 million Series A funding led by Sparebank1 markets . The company will use the capital to build upon its success in the marketing automation space.

After being selected for the Norwegian governments Tech Executive Accelerator program in 2016, the company has seen a considerable international growth & expansion. The proceeds of the Series A funding will be used to strengthen their existing teams in Sydney, Singapore & London. Funds will also accelerate further technology development and expansion into new markets.

Freddy Aursø, CEO of Lighthouse8 said; Traditional digital marketing approaches fall short. Marketers are primed for the next generation of marketing automation solutions – ones that let the marketer oversee the entire customer journey at scale while maintaining control over both media investments and content driven marketing. Leading automation technology & machine learning is what makes these new solutions possible”

The investment enables Lighthouse8 to accelerate growth and development and to take advantage of this growth cycle, through organic growth. By these means Lighthouse8 aims to achieve a leadership role in Europe and further drive its expansion in Asia Pacific.

About Lighthouse8

Lighthouse8 is an international engineering company specializing in marketing robot development, business intelligence and performance marketing. Their teams in Europe and APAC work with some of the world’s leading companies to optimize online business performance and create business value. Founded in Sydney, Australia, the company was named one of the fastest growing companies in Australia at the Smart Company, Smart50 awards in 2014. Since then the company has expanded into Singapore, Scandinavia and the UK market.

Biometric data – Will future marketeers be able to target emotions?

“Health care is an ‘enormous’ opportunity for Apple” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, as he outlined how the Apple watch could become the new warning system for our body, similar to a car’s computer when it warns the drivers when something with the car needs attention. According to Cook it’s not technologically possible to monitor what’s going on in the body to the extent of what they can imagine, but it’s just a matter of time before biometric data is in the driver seat of most technologies.

When you take a closer look at the construction of the Apple watch and the latest iOS 10 Health app, it can give us an indication of the current strategy and opportunities the wearable industry has and how this will affect future marketing.

Plethysmograph

apple plethysmograph biometric data

The apple plethysmograph

Firstly, it would seem Apple’s Watch heart rate monitor is much more intelligent than what Apple is currently letting on. Studying the Apple watch patent applications, you quickly learn that Apple’s heart monitor is actually a plethysmograph. A plethysmograph is capable of measuring much more than your pulse, it can accurately measure respiration rate, changes in heart frequency and measure the oxygen levels in your blood. The same vital signs routinely monitored by medical professionals to diagnose patients.

The iOS 10 Health App

The new iOS 10 health app confirms Apples’ future plans for biometric data collection. Why would Apple include blood glucose, electrodermal activity, oxygen saturation and peak expiratory flow rate unless they had the intentions to measure this data? And what can this data be used for?

ios 10 health app biometric data

Biometric data in the new Apple health app.

 

Apple watch – the next generation Polygraph?

The most interesting parameters Apple intends to monitor in the future is Electrodermal activity (EDA). This refers to the variation of the electrical properties of the skin in response to sweat secretion. By applying a low constant voltage, the change in skin conductance (SC) can be measured non-invasively. These responses are commonly utilised today as part of a polygraph or lie detector test as skin conductance can be a measure of emotional and sympathetic responses.

Biometric data – the future of marketing?

Utilising advanced business analytics and market data, we can already target the right demographic, at the right time, at a specific physical destination. Adding biometric data would bring targeting to an entirely new level. What if emotions such as happy, sad, angry, surprised, hungry and sleepy could be part of this audience segmentation? Restaurants could target people within a 500m radius of their address knowing that you haven’t had dinner yet. Insurance companies could nudge drivers to help prevent drowsy driving and only exposing you to advertising when you’re ‘in the mood for it’.

The ability able to measure emotional responses would no doubt lead to the biggest paradigm shift in the history of marketing. As a biomedical engineer turned digital marketer, right now has never been more exciting time.

Lighthouse8 selected for the 2016 Tech City UK Executive Accelerator

Tech City UK Executive Accelerator (TEA) is a commercialisation and skills programme offered to 10 selected companies each year, and we’re proud to anounce that Lighthouse8 has been selected for the 2016/17 programme!

Lighthouse8 @ Level 39

As of late September we will become a part of the Level 39 Technology Accelerator in London. Having the largest concentration of fast growing digital technology companies in Europe, we’re exited to enoy our new three-floor, 80,000 square foot playground occupying the 39th, 24th and 42nd floors of One Canada Square @ Canary Wharf. Together with our head office in Norway and our offices in Singapore & Sydney, London will be our 4th pin on the map.

level-39
Tech City UK

Tech City UK was launched in 2010, to support the growth of the technology cluster in East London. Tech City went on to become Europe’s largest digital cluster. In 2014 its role was expanded to embrace the whole of the UK, and Tech City UK now collaborates with the digital community, government, education establishments and business to support the growth of digital businesses across the country. London is rapidly emerging as the epicentre of global innovation in digital. Access to funding, depth of talent and the city’s role as a leading financial centre are all part of the attraction. After Silicon Valley and New York, the UK has the third biggest digital industry. Today, out of Europe’s 40 tech unicorns; 17 are located in Britain, of which 13 are in London. The Tech City UK Accelerator programme is offered to technology growth companies with ambitions and potential for international growth.

 

Lighthouse8 London

Innovation Norway

Innovation Norway is the Norwegian Government’s most important instrument for innovation and development of Norwegian enterprises and industry. They support companies in developing their competitive advantage and to enhance innovation. Together with Tech City UK they have spent the last three years of piloting the Tech City Executive Accelerator (TEA) programme. TEA has been developed based on inputs from forward-thinking tech executives that are looking to shape entire markets and change the way we work and live. The goal of TEA is to discover, develop and apply new approaches to the most critical growth challenges for digital companies in an increasingly interconnected world.

This is a great opportunity to expand our business in the UK market and to improve our service to our existing UK clients. We look forward to seeing you in London!

 

The Lighthouse8 team

Lighthouse8 raises $ 750 000 in seed capital

Sydney (November 23rd, 2015) – Lighthouse8, an international engineering company specialising in business intelligence, business technology and marketing automation – announced today that it has raised $750 000 in seed funding. With participation from the Norwegian governments tech fund, Innovation Norway and several angel investors, the funds will further lighthouse8’s mission to improve their data automation technology and expand the business into new markets.

The start-up, founded by a team of engineers from DigitasLBi in 2012, currently operates in Australia and Europe, with expansion plans in the APAC market. The company also announced that they are launching an office in Singapore in December 2015.

After being ranked in the Top 10 in the Smart Company – Smart50 Awards in 2014, the company has maintained their growth rate making them one of the fastest growing SME’s in Australia.

“Lighthouse8 is the perfect solution for technology savvy firms looking to automate their business data to create faster, smarter & more cost effective digital marketing campaigns. We continue to take market shares from the big agencies because our technology solutions continue to outperform traditional campaign management” said Freddy Aurso, CEO and Founder of Lighthouse8.

After integrating their digital marketing platforms, Ignite & Illume with the Google and Twitter API’s, lighthouse8 plans to integrate with popular social media channels like Instagram, Pintrest and LinkedIn in 2016. These integrations will allow the company to work with larger customers who are reliant on more complex campaign distribution and more technically advanced data management platforms.

About Lighthouse8

Lighthouse8 is an international engineering company specialising in business intelligence, business technology and performance marketing.

Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Ligthouse8 was founded in 2012 by a group of digital marketing veterans who wanted to place technology & data back into the driver’s seat of digital marketing.

Mobile just changed – Google launches Project Fi

Google has just changed the mobile phone business. The traditional telecommunication companies must surely sit up and take notice of today’s announcement of the Google Project Fi mobile plan.

For anyone with a mobile phone – that is everyone – the hassles and pain of the monthly phone bill have just taken a dramatic shift.

That’s the first provider to offer a seamless hardware, software and network offering.

Google Fi launched today only for the US but offers:

The plan starts with the Fi Basics for $20 per month. This includes:

  • Unlimited domestic talk and text
  • Unlimited international texts
  • Low-cost international calls
  • Wi-Fi tethering
  • Coverage in 120+ countries

Google Fi - Mobile Usage

Then it’s $10 per GB for data. $10 for 1GB, $20 for 2GB, $30 for 3GB and so on.
And the best bit if you do not use the data you get a credit this back on your account – like what Virgin do in Australia at the moment.

That’s it. With no annual contract required.

Here in Australia you can get some similar deals around the $30 – $40 / month all text and talk combinations included. But for me the biggest difference is international roaming.

Enabling easy communication across networks and devices

Project Fi works to get technology out of the way so you can communicate through whichever network type and device you’re using. Wherever you’re connected to Wi-Fi—whether that’s at home, your favourite coffee shop — you can talk and text like you normally do. If you leave an area of Wi-Fi coverage, your call will seamlessly transition from Wi-Fi to cell networks so your conversation doesn’t skip a beat. They also want to help phone numbers adapt to a multi-screen world. With Project Fi, your phone number lives in the cloud, so you can talk and text with your number on just about any phone, tablet or laptop. So the next time you misplace your phone, you can stay connected using another screen

International – Pay one rate for data around the world

Anyone who has travelled knows this is the biggest issue of the mobile plan world. Google now suggests that in 120+ countries, data usage costs the same $10 per GB as it does in the US (data speed is limited to 256kbps/3G). Check email, get directions, and keep in touch with friends and family when on your trip. Also, call around the world for 20c per minute and send unlimited international texts.

The catch is you need to own a Nexus 6, be invited at this stage and run everything through Google Hangouts etc and as we would love to know what data Google is collecting around this system. I’m sure the ads become a lot more targeted.

Over to you Apple and Amazon….

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