Best Branded Content: AI perfumes, Starbucks conquers Italy and small business stories

We dig out the week’s best brand content, so you don’t have to.

Check out the best branded content from the week of 17 September 2018.

Global

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be an abstract concept. For a perfumer, it can be difficult to think how AI might relate to scents. IBM shows how. Its AI and analytical supercomputer, Watson, processed the content of social media, so Master Perfumer Nathalie Feisthauer was able to create personalised scents for people she’d never met.

Italy

Did you know there are more than 27,000 Starbucks outlets around the world? Until recently, none of them were found in Italy. With the first outlet opening in Milan, the franchise’s founder, Howard Schultz, is on the marketing offensive. “We are not coming here to teach the Italians how to make coffee,” says Schultz. So why does the coffee capital of the world need a Starbucks?

Singapore

Small business makes up 99% of businesses in Singapore, employing 70% of the workforce. They all need a banking partner too. DBS and Singtel have set up 99% SME, an eMarketplace to help small business get started online. For inspiration, they talk to Far East Flora about their first eCommerce steps.

Vietnam

Brand ambassadors show potential customers a different side of a product. Vietnamese illustrator and graphic designer Thai My Phuong (aka Tamypu) uses the HP Pavilion x360 to communicate with the world through her creative work.

Guatemala

The late physicist Stephen Hawking was the first to bring widespread attention to the motor neurone disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. In Guatemala, Otto Knoke was diagnosed with ALS 20 years ago. Wanting to continue work as a data analyst, he operated his computer with a foot mouse. Eye Control for Windows 10 means that he can type with his eyes. It’s almost as if he has his hands back.

United States

How others use your products is a great marketing story. PepUp Tech is a nonprofit organisation working for diversity in the tech industry. Its founders met through the Salesforce ecosystem and partner with the group for the training programs. Meet the founders.

Global

Samsung has decided their TVs are not just about moving pictures, but fine art as well. When you’re not watching, The Frame TV displays images from its Fine Art Every Day collection. Norwegian photojournalist Jonas Bendiksen talks about the process behind his photography.

Global

Finally, nothing makes for better visuals than a GoPro strapped to motocross rider ripping up a dirt track. Ever wondered what it would look like on a kid’s Hot Wheels car?

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