“Innovation is communication. The things we do say so much more about us than the things we say.” Shaun McIlrath discloses that the root of all the judges’ questions were consistent: Is it a breakthrough? Will it endure? Can it change lives? Have a look at his standout ideas, which for the most part had to do with innovation in the service of people and communities. The Grand Prix went to  What3Words, a universal addressing system designed on a 3-by-3 meter global grid. Each of the 57 trillion squares has been pre-allocated a unique three-word address, which is then turned into precise coordinates by a geocoder. In a world where 75% of people suffer from complicated, inconsistent or non-existent addressing systems, this simple and memorable system can benefit not only business, but also communities in remote locations where access to w ater facilities or refugee camps are sometimes impossible to locate.

​Mike Cooper from PHD referred to us as being at “11.59pm on the eve of AI”. Over $57bn has been invested in AI to date, and that number is increasing 60% every year. Japanese mobile carrier Sof tBank showed off its emotional Robot Pepper at the festival, which by the way, sold out in only ONE MINUTE when its first batch of 1,000 went on sale last week.

Within 15 years, we will be able to taste and smell movies while we watch them, according to Charles Spence, an academic at Oxford University. Collaborating with blu eCigs, a competitor of BAT’s Vype e-cigarettes, Professor Spence created a ‘sensory cinema’ experiment in north London; some were vapours inhaled through e-cigarettes, while others were food and drink that the audience were prompted to consume at certain moments.

Multi-sensory experiences are a big trend and can make the brand experience more effective and memorable for the consumer. Research shows that sensory stimuli such as flavours, aromas and physical sensations can have a direct emotional response to what we see. With emotion being the most important aspect of the customer experience, let’s think about how multi-sensory experiences could work for our brands!

With so much time spent glued to our phones, people’s shopping behaviours have shifted to mobile in profound way. Yet, the vast majority of online shopping is still done on desktops and laptops. Consumers complain about product images not being large enough to see or find it’s too difficult to type through shipment and payment options. Now big tech companies like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Google are trying to bridge this gap between time spent and dollars spent on mobile with a simple buy button. If these tech companies become the middlemen between retailers and consumers, we could see reduced traffic to retailer websites and possibly loyalty to those stores as well.

We have to recognize these types of behaviours through our understanding of the PDJ. This can help identify where potential sales are being lost and lets us think of how we could turn this into an opportunity. Consumers want quick, simple transactions on mobile and if a brand can’t provide that, we risk losing them to someone else.

Coffee creamer. It’s not really the most exciting product to talk about. All Nestlé really knew when trying to promote their Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss, was that consumers only really cared about wanting something natural in it. So how did they try and grab consumers’ attention in a way that linked to their product benefit? Together with 360i, Nestlé opened a one-day pop up café called the Natural Bliss Café as the foundation of its digitalcampaign. People who entered the café on their morning coffee run were soon shocked to realise that many of the workers were paid actors and performers who were ‘nude’ – or rather, only covered in body paint.

The content captured from this one-off event is now being pushed on the brand’s digital channels, scaling its communication. Sometimes shock value is a good way to spark conversation about products that consumers aren’t necessarily excited about. At least the café gave away the coffee for free, which was more surprising to some of the local New Yorkers than the fact that the workers were nude!