PR95949

TORONTO, May 12, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

-- Former Microsoft Research Managing Director and computer vision pioneer P.

Anandan joins Hivestack as a special advisor to spearhead initiative

Hivestack, the world's leading independent programmatic digital out of home

(DOOH) ad tech company, has today announced the launch of a new research

division that will focus on exploring in-store, programmatic media activation

in the metaverse. Legendary computer vision scientist P. Anandan

(https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3532602-1&h=3609585878&u=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FP._Anandan&a=P.+Anandan)

has joined Hivestack as a special advisor as part of the initiative.

Photo -

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1814991/Hivestack_Hivestack_Launches_Research_Division___Focuses_on_Prog.jpg

According to a recent eMarketer report (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3532602-1&h=2481220646&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.emarketer.com%2Fcontent%2Fwhy-2022-will-year-of-retail-media-networks&a=eMarketer+report) advertisers spent $31B USD

in 2021 in the US on retail media, with a path to

$100B in the coming years. The findings of the report showed that the majority

of the ad spend went to advertising on Amazon and Walmart's digital assets. A

growing trend is that large, big box retailers are implementing custom ad tech

stacks with identity solutions to monetize their online marketplace as well as

their physical stores.

Indeed, big-box retailers are taking the next steps in their digital offerings

and developing metaverse equivalents of their physical venues. When these

stores launch, consumers will be able to wear VR headsets and have their avatar

counterparts walk down aisles garnering all the benefits of a virtual shopping

outing. This will offer consumers a much more immersive experience than

shopping on current two-dimensional user interfaces from their mobile devices.

Metaverse stores will enable advertising opportunities for marketers to connect

with consumers - in particular, their avatars, at the point of purchase - on

virtual in-store walls, virtual digital endcaps, and even virtual in-store

audio advertising. Preliminary research shows that consumer engagement in the

metaverse will far exceed current online experiences and thus lead to deeper

engagement with ensuing greater outcomes for advertisers.

Andreas Soupliotis, Founder & CEO of Hivestack shared: "With the launch of our

research division, we are prototyping how ad tech can be used to

programmatically activate ad opportunities in virtual retail stores in the

metaverse. In this environment, the consumer is technically inside their homes

shopping via VR headsets, but their avatar is out-of-home. Much of Hivestack's

full-stack technology for digital out-of-home activation and monetization

applies to retail metaverse advertising, but some important computer science

gaps remain to be addressed. We launched this initiative to formulate the

needed technology to make programmatic DOOH a success in the meta as well as

the physical world."

P. Anandan, former Managing Director of Microsoft Research, Distinguished

Scientist and Emeritus Researcher at Microsoft, and now consultant to the Bill

& Melinda Gates foundation commented on his new role of Special Advisor at

Hivestack: "I am thrilled to be advising Hivestack on this new direction of

avatar-based out-of-home advertising. There are some important technology,

product and engineering challenges that need to be addressed in order for

marketers to benefit from this new generation of advertising. In particular,

how does one translate avatar identity from a one-to-one metaverse world to the

actual, one-to-many physical world? Also, how do marketers measure the efficacy

of these cross-universe media activations? And how should physical-world

behaviors drive media activation in the metaverse? Finally, there are many

unanswered questions regarding how media payments will be made to metaverse

retailers. As you can see there are many hurdles to overcome, and I look

forward to helping Hivestack grow a research team that will address these new

frontiers in ad tech and provide marketers with the solutions they will need to

succeed in the burgeoning field of 'Meta Marketing'."

Kevin McDonald, CEO of Kinetic Canada commented "The retail metaverse is

opening up a new reality for consumers that blends the sensations of physical,

out-of-home shopping with ease of mobile shopping. Kinetic Canada is

laser-focused on driving precise measurable outcomes for our clients. As the

lines blur between consumers and their avatars, the combination of real-world,

retail DOOH and metaverse retail digital out-of-home advertising is an

important area of exploration to us and our clients. We know that the future of

marketing is being built now and we thus look forward to working with Hivestack

as we develop a new strategy for cross-universe (physical and virtual),

outcome-based marketing."

About Hivestack (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3532602-1&h=3544205185&u=https%3A%2F%2Fhivestack.com%2F&a=About+Hivestack)

Hivestack is the largest independent, global, full stack, marketing technology

company, powering the buy and sell side of programmatic digital out of home

(DOOH) advertising. Hivestack was founded in 2017 with headquarters in

Montreal, Canada and operates in 25+ countries across the globe.  For more

information, please visit hivestack.com (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3532602-1&h=559196440&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hivestack.com%2F&a=hivestack.com) or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @hivestack.

Media Contact:

Ginny Bourne

Global Marketing & Communications Director

ginny@hivestack.com

SOURCE Hivestack Inc.