Full Tilt Showcases New Brand With Dramatic Advertising Campaign

Revamped Full Tilt comes to life online, in print, and on cinema and TV screens

Some of the most interesting stories are created or told at Full Tilt. Being able to share these stories and the intrinsic enjoyment of playing games such as poker, casino or slots is key to the new Full Tilt brand.

Going forward, the Full Tilt product, marketing and branding will focus very much on sharing the experiences of players. To whet the appetite, an innovative series of advertisements will showcase the drama of playing at Full Tilt from a player’s perspective. However, there’s always another side to the story, making each ad a must-see. Demonstrating a typical battle of wits at the tables, the advertisements feature two perspectives of one hand, giving a glimpse of the type of stories that unfold every single day at Full Tilt.

The campaign is initially set to hit England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, allowing budding poker players all over the UK to create their own stories with a tantalizing offer of £10 Free from Full Tilt. Available to new sign-ups, £10 Free gives players the chance to experience real-money play at Full Tilt, providing a taste of what’s available 24/7 at the tables.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3CL01YcfwuM

A digital campaign will support TV and cinema spots, increasing awareness among the online community, while advertising will also appear in print and on the daily commute. Full Tilt’s new campaign was brought to life by creative agency Simply Zesty and centers around two cinematic ads, ‘The Bluff’ and ‘The Call’. These beautifully shot advertisements will debut in the UK, with additional markets to follow.

Full Tilt Managing Director, Dominic Mansour said, “These cutting edge adverts showcase exactly what playing our games is all about – the psychological warfare, the bluffing, the fun and the drama that happens all day long at Full Tilt. A huge amount of time and effort has gone into the new brand and we’re thrilled to share the first of our stories with the UK.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KGOh-AZTsnE

Credits:

Client: Paul Dervan, Bryan Connolly, Oli Bartlett

Agency: Simply Zesty

Head of Creative: Marty Busch

Art: Aaron Goodliffe and Peggy O’Neill

Copy: Eoin O'Brien

Head of Client Services: Conor Byrne,

Account Exec: Grainne Kehoe

Production: Antidote Films

Director: Jonathon Irwin

Producer: Tess Bunworth

Agency Producer: Conor McGuinness

Post: MPC

Sound: Scramble

Score: Ross McCormick

Trending Topic from the WebSummit: Saints and Sinners?

#Trending:  Saints and Sinners?

We seem to be evolving the conversation beyond our love of the underdog story - that much rehashed tale about the saintly and virtuous 'little home startup that's shaking up an industry'. Now the conversation seems to be turning to one of frustration at the tech 'sinners'. Whether it was discussing the backwards approach of the RDS to the wifi challenges, the slowness of some bigger businesses and organisations to effectively innovate, the gap between the technology we have available and the rubbish  products ill-informed key decision makers buy (*cough - Irish Water)... the story of the tech world seems to be dividing into a story of saints and sinners. The story of the innovating idealists that push for change to create a better world and truly useful things... and 'the lethargic big businesses' that occasionally toys with innovation thanks to a singular blind objective of revenue.

The key learning we'll be taking is that in order for us to not only thrive, but survive, we all need to become the innovative idealists for our businesses, brands, industries and communities. 

Do you agree with our pick of key topics? Maybe you spotted some of your own? Let us know

Intelligent Computing - It Really Does Exist

To begin with I would like to quote Louis Armstrong with the immortal line "What a wonderful world".

Many of the principles used within our modern computing systems are derived from the vast world around us - from our learning systems to how data is processed. Artificial Intelligence has been a term which has been thrown around for around 60 years, but what does that actually mean to us?

Intelligence is defined as the ability to use logic, to learn, to solve problems, to be creative, to plan, to remember, and to communicate.  I have left two widely accepted definitions of intelligence out of the mix, emotional awareness and self-awareness.  Self-aware intelligent systems fall into an area of AI that I will come to shortly, but true emotion is an area that will possibly never be introduced into computing systems.  Emotional responses are chemical alterations to our state, triggering physical changes. However, if you consider this as a response to something rather than chemical changes, then systems can replicate emotional responses to situations.  So where does this lead us when considering computer systems?

The answer is Autonomous Computing - an AI derivative of Biological Computing Systems in which biological principles are used to create a "living" system.  Autonomous computer systems are detailed as "self-systems" (remember my reference to self-awareness?)  Well this is one of the "self" components of an AC system.  AC systems are self-configuring, self-healing, self-optimising, and self-protecting. Sound familiar?  This is a description of the human autonomic nervous system, hence the link to biological computing.

How does this lead to Swarm Intelligence?

Simple, biological systems across the globe use some form of intelligence when determining which actions they should undertake, the logic component of intelligence.  They pull the correct responses from their memory, planning what to do next with the current information, learning from the mistakes they make when deciding upon an outcome.  Now take this model and use it alongside the logic for a computer system - it stores data in a database (memory), it uses logic to decide on outcomes, it plans ahead using historical data (cases), and responds the changes in its situation (emotion). Now for the Collective Intelligence component, or "Swarm Intelligence" as some refer to it.

"We are Borg."

Collective intelligence is one of the most prevalent systems that we come across on a daily basis, you may not be aware of it, but it is everywhere.  

Where do we begin?  

Collective intelligence is generalised as shared intelligence that becomes apparent when working as a group to a common outcome.  The largest type is the Recommender System or as the mass majority of online store users calls it: "that thing that tells us what to do/buy".  Every time we purchase an item online, two actions occur.

Firstly, it is tracked by meta data which is then used to provide similar categorical suggestions for us specifically and secondly, the collective grouping of purchases occurs. Afterwards we are asked to rate every item, from the service we get, to the quality of the film that we have watched. This is then fed into a recommender system that combines the weighting of meta data (e.g. Netflix film tags for example, sci-fi) and the rating given.  The outcome of the algorithm is a weighted list of options that suit our previous habits, so we may get a list of sci-fi movies all based on aliens, that have a minimum rating of 4 (because we won’t watch anything lower than this). This is not only used within our favourite online stores (remember Facebook?)  It presents lists of pages you might like based on previous likes, suggested friends based upon similar groupings like university attended, or games/apps based on what you use most within that platform.

"What do we need to do, and how do we do it?"

Back to our biological counterparts for this one.  If you look around us, you will see many examples of swarm intelligence and for now we will start small.  Bee colonies or Ant colonies are the prime example of a hierarchical swarm in which there are specific roles within the colony, all contributing to their collective goal.  The Queen at the top, making all of the decisions based upon information provided by the Scouts, which in turn is acted out by the Workers, and protected from threats by the Soldiers.  Each role has its own specific purpose - we have the Queen (Self-Configuring – Decision Making), the Scouts (Self-Optimising – information provision), the Workers (Self-Healing – provide food, and repairing the colony), and the Soldiers (Self-Protecting).

Computing systems can use the same hierarchical process, having a logic mechanism to act out the decision making process, a response system which optimises based upon information provided by the workers, healing itself when components break down by sending out workers, and protecting itself by sending out the soldiers to lock down components.  The system begins with a basic set of rules, and is allowed to learn about threats, what outcomes work best in a given situation, and how to proceed when an unknown event occurs.

Skynet "becomes self-aware at 2:14AM, Eastern time, August 29th [1997]".

The line from Terminator 2, which created suspicion around the AC systems that painted a poor representation of what these systems actually entail.  Within the development community there is a saying “a system is only as intelligent as the person who built it”. This simply refers to the knowledge that can be applied to the development of an AC system; primarily our own understanding of our own biological systems.

So, where is the link betweeen Collective and Swarm Intelligence?

Swarms, or general AC systems collaborate when working towards a common goal, sharing information between each level according to responsibility, using the information to complete their specific sub-goal.  Collective intelligence is the generalised terminology which governs this type of system, in which a system can learn from the increased information throughput. Learning systems are the core of any AI system, where learning cases are derived from the activity of the general population (IF this_happens THEN do_this).  Collective intelligence builds up the learning capability of the system, in which Recommender or Case Based Reasoning Systems provide the logical decision making component with information from which to determine outcomes from.  The decisions made drive the swarm roles rule base, increasing their awareness of their specific roles.

 Remember my earlier description (self-awareness is the core for any AC system, in which they learn, use logic, retrieve from memory, and communicate to the user or other components).

So, what benefit can these sort of systems provide to us?

AC systems can provide a robust solution, although in recent years Autonomic Computing itself has taken a hit, becoming more directed to its sub-divisions, or AI. Intelligent systems, such as swarms, use a specific tool for a specific job.  Components within systems are developed with a core directive in mind, all moving towards a common goal, but never cross between their given tasks.  Users will never be aware of what the system is actually doing in the background, so why try to make a single system entity that does everything?  Why not componentise the entire system?  Why not ensure that the system does not get its resources drained by a single component being over-worked?

Swarm intelligent systems provide a solution, wherein the common goal is achieved by creating an environment in which task completion is by each individual rather than everything trying to race to win.

Now to close out this part, throughout this I have discussed insects as a prime example. And of course computing systems, but not one of the largest swarms, humans.  

Think about it using this example, a development team comprising of clients, project managers, designers, and developers.  We all have a common goal, deliver the project, but all have given roles, the Queen (Client), the PMs (Scouts), the Lead Developers (Soldiers), and the designer/developer (Workers).  

Makes sense, right?

Okay, how about the benefit to the client?

The general scenario is to build a learning system which can present the user with the capability to get customised content based on their interactions, with this being managed by the micro actions being undertaken by the system components in the background.  The system can continue to evolve as data availability increases, and be able to provide correct suggestions to a user.  The system can live in the background, ensuring that it is able to alter its own state depending on the types of request that some through, protect itself in the eventuality of an attack or issue arising, and heal or close off a component when an issue arises.

A system which can do what needs to be done without constant developer, or engineer intervention.

Biological systems can provide us with great inspiration. Right now they are influencing everything in technology from architecture and city planning, to the latest technological innovations in health.

If you wander around the cities and countryside, you will find inspiration everywhere.

Automation in a Creative World

Results from recent study into the future of employment have cast a light on how varying sectors are shaping up to embrace automation and advancements in robotics, and for a while now, the figures have been causing somewhat of a stir online.  Depending on whose analysis of the data you choose to believe, anywhere between one third and one half of all jobs in Ireland and Great Britain are due to fall into the shadow of automation over the next twenty years.

However, those in the digital industries shouldn’t be planning extra time in the garden just yet - as the study has placed many IT and online professionals very much toward the bottom of a rather extensive list of jobs being lined up for computerisation.

The idea of workplace automation is not a new concept: in the latter half of the last century saw a hundred-fold productivity increase for the automotive industry thanks so assembly line robotics; work that once took half a day can now, in 2015, be done in just under a minute and a half.

The publication of the findings and subsequent coverage has no doubt caused so much feather ruffling due to the fact that roles considered to be rife for automation are no longer limited to such assembly lines and behind-the-scenes heavy industry.  While many in sectors which currently undergo high levels of computerisation see an exponential increase in machine-oriented tasks, those outside of these professions are left with little to no visibility of the advances that, if the study is to be believed, will soon be knocking at their door.

Leaps and bounds in robotics and machine learning mean that what we once considered to be intelligent tasks beyond the scope of machine capability are next on the chopping block for excision of the human element.  Even at this, with one eye firmly on the worst case scenario, there is much left to be said for keeping flesh and blood in the mix, particularly when it comes to creativity; digital or otherwise.

Two particular notions raised in Michael Osborne and Carl Frey's paper from which most of the data is taken speak to the necessity of the human element, and offer assurances toward many creative and client-facing roles that we are a long way from robotic replacement.
 

Here, we have to take a moment to acknowledge the roles of Creative Intelligence and Social Intelligence in the working world.

They form the basis of the fundamental elements that, for now, fill the chasm between human and machine cost/benefit in many scenarios where the two are being traded off against each other.  
There is no argument in the academic community that what underpins even the most basic notions of human creativity is very difficult to narrow down.  

There is, however, the consensus that creativity often takes known ideas, concepts or models and combines them in a novel way so as to produce something unique and in and of itself, novel.  For machines, this raises the question of not necessarily replicating the process of creativity, but of being able to judge the output of the idea.  Is it valuable to us?  Is it relevant to the status quo?  Those in the creative services should be able to produce an idea at the drop of a hat.  But only when that idea is formed does the real work begin.  Has it been done before?  Is it going to make sense amidst the multitude of factors necessary to consider for a happy client that comes away with a unique product?

These are questions only the complex human empathy of circumstance can answer.

Social intelligence however, within the context of client management, concerns itself with the ability to negotiate and persuade, and the arming of oneself with the knowledge necessary to affect a positive outcome.  Out in machine-oriented research, there is much to be said about social intelligence, the most prominent examples stemming from the popular Turing Tests, which try to convince a human subject, by way of interaction, that they are in fact talking to a human rather than a machine.  However, for all the attempts at programming 'thinking intelligence' it is only in the last year we have started to see positive results.  We are a long way from rolling out a business standard.

With that in mind it's no surprise, then, that those in client-facing digital and creative roles (and indeed the digital sphere in general) feature very low down the list of jobs lined up for automation in the next few decades.  Digital Project Managers, among other IT specialisms were ranked at a ranked 21.6% likelihood to be automated in the next 20 years, closely followed by web designers who had a 20.6% likelihood of being ousted in favour of a programmable counterpart. Above and beyond these roles, however, Graphic Designers fared particularly well, yielding only an 8.2% likelihood of redundancy in their working lifetime of many active today.

If you want to figure your own future prospects out just take 

where LPM, LC and LSI are labour inputs into perception and manipulation tasks, creative intelligence tasks, and social intelligence tasks. Erm, this being said, if you can figure that one out, I'm guessing you've probably got a few career options up your sleeve anyway... 
 

So, in the face of redundancy of human involvement in Client interaction, how do we go about safeguarding ourselves against our robot overlords?

To return to the automotive example, one of the biggest emerging selling points of high end vehicle manufacture is the coupling of precision engineering and hand-crafted interiors.  Workers in the Ferarri's Italian manufacturing site form an elite group responsible for hand stitching the upholstery to a quality synonymous with the global reputation of the brand.  Something which, in many other circumstances can be completed with laser-guided detailing and automation-by-schema.

So why, then, do we have a multi-billion Euro company favouring skilled tradespeople over the investment of a machine that many push as their biggest talking point?  Put simply – the idea of hand crafted artisanal produce, whether it be in a farmer's market or a Ferarri production line, is increasingly rare therefore increasingly precious.

Where hand-laid skills are disappearing, particularly where people demand high quality and a certain amount of care... they become the selling point.

In Philip K Dick’s The Galactic Pot Healer, Joe Fernwright is the titular pot healer who, living in a world almost entirely automated, is completely surplus to requirements, until a god-like alien recruits him to use his antiquated skills to rediscover a temple long since forgotten in the depths of a treacherous ocean on a hostile alien world.  A very top-level reading would make the case that we should preserve old skills as much as promote those that would enable us to travel half way across the galaxy, but beneath the surface there is within the prose a sense of warm nostalgia for the world Joe should, by right, belong to.  One that no longer exists in the isolationist automation of society.

Surely, somewhere out there, on another world if not our own, there is a machine that could analyse fragments of a broken vase, model and render replacements for repair.  But Joe doesn't create or replace, he preserves and repairs wherever possible – only Joe has the ability to appreciate fragments for their age, for the skill that crafted them 2000 years ago, and to use this logic to dictate why he must do everything possible to maintain their existence.

So, too, lies with us the opportunity to offer an emotional investment in a user or client's journey, something which will, or at least should, remain a solely human trait of the creative industry.  Engaging creatively, rather than ticking boxes and templating responses to challenges only strengthens the argument for keeping the people in the driver's seat.

Striving to evolve ourselves creatively, to gauge and engage in the subtle nuances of our every day interactions will stand us in good stead for being a driving force against an increasingly automated world.
Failing that, there will have to be someone hanging around to change the batteries.

Introducing Kentico 9

Kentico 8 was already a groundbreaking enhancement for the platform over version 7, it was a hit with our developers but more importantly it was a hit with our clients. Version 9 is a significant refinement release on version 8 that still gives you all the great features and functionality of the platform, with some significant improvements and new features such as:

Version 9 now allows for closer integration with source control systems such as TFS, GIT and Visual Studio allowing our developers to move development coding and data changes automatically from our development environment through QA, Staging and onto our clients production environments quicker than traditionally achieveable, all with integrated rollback versioning.

Why is this important to our clients? By having source control fully integrated into the CMS, our development process is streamlined, therefore reducing the development time, reducing costs and speeding up development delivery, making Kentico more accessible as a platform thanever.

Where Kentico excels over other Content Managment Systems is how its fully integrated suite of marketing tools including lead scoring, A/B & MVT testing, marketing automation and an email marketing platform which seamlessly integrates with the other aspects of the CMS including Content Managment, Ecommerce and Intranet.

The latest version of the CMS allows for deeper integration between the tools and a whole new campaign management tool that allows the effective execution of cross channel digital marketing campaigns. This one location solution allows for development of campaign assets, campaign managment and results analysis with minimal effort without the need for third party modules of platforms.

Increased Security

One of the biggest reasons our clients love the Kentico platform is that it is a secure platform. Verison 9 increases the out of the box security support with the Anti Cross-Site Request Forgery Token System to protect the site against CSRF vunerabilities with no reduction on website performance.
 

Why should I upgrade?

There are lots of reasons why you should invest in the latest version of the Kentico platform but the top three reasons are:

1. Kentico support only covers 3 versions of the platform, so if your on version 6 or previous, your platform is not going to be supported for things like security patches and CMS support.
2. New Features. There have been several new feature updates in the most recent versions of the CMS, most notable being the CRM integration bus and the all new drag and drop form builder.
3. New CMS interface. If you are not used to the new Kentico interface, it is a massive departure from the previous CMS back end, with responsive elements built into the platform, it really is a platform that you can use on the go, regardless of the device.

If you are interested in finding out more about Kentico, or have a legacy version of Kentico you would be interested in upgrading, contact us and organise a call or demonstration by one of our Kentico Specialists in the comfort of your own offices.

Migrating Kentico to the Microsoft Azure Platform

WHY AZURE ?

The South West College web site was developed in Kentico version 8 which is Azure ready. South West College made the decision to move to the Azure platform on the based on the fact that Kentico was Azure ready and the need to ensure their site was hosted on a robust, scalable, secure and enterprise ready platform.

In 2011 Kentico became the first CMS to be certified for Microsoft Azure. Out of the box Kentico Kentico supports all the Azure website services on offer from the Microsoft Cloud and can be installed on Azure via a single installation without the headache of extra configuration and coding.

THE MIGRATION

South West College approached Simply Zesty and tasked us with migrating the existing college Kentico website from its present single stage server platform to a multi stage solution residing on windows azure platform which includes “development” “staging” and “production” environments.

TECHNICAL DELIVERY & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The entire process was wrapped in Simply Zesty’s technical project management process to ensure a smooth transition to Azure. Simply Zesty created a migration plan framework that ensured all parties associated with the project were informed on their roles and responsibilities. At a very high level the stages of the project were as follows:

1. Setup and configure Azure environment
2. Migration and deploy code, database and assets to Azure staging environment
3. Conduct factory test and user acceptance testing
4. Implement a content population freeze
5. Migration and deploy code, database and assets to Azure live environment
6. Conduct final user acceptance testing on the live environment
7. Implement DNS switch to Azure environment

THE END RESULT

South West College now a fully functioning Kentico 8 website hosted on the Microsoft Azure infrastructure. Simply Zesty are delighted to be involved in the migration to Azure as this project carries on with a strong tradition of working with Educational Authorities across Ireland.

Please get in touch with us if you would you need to migrate your current website to the Azure platform.

Wild Atlantic Way Celebrates Global Win

Since we launched the Wild Atlantic Way website with Failte Ireland last year, there has been nothing but award success. Starting with Kentico Site of the Month Award, then picking up the Best in Travel, Sport, Leisure and Tourism, as well as the Best Digital Geography at the Eir Spiders Awards.

We didn’t think it could get any better, but last month we were shortlisted for a site of the year award by Kentico. For our team to be shortlisted for designing and developing one of the best sites in the world, is a huge achievement in itself.

Winning awards is something we’re extremely proud of and this week has been no different. It was announced that our work for Failte Ireland went on to ultimately WIN the Best Travel and Events site. This was the result of our design and development team pushing the boundaries of design and the Kentico CMS with custom integration to not only deliver a website that is visually pleasing but ultimately extremely user friendly.

While we enjoyed celebrating success at the Eir Spider Award as a suited and booted team, this celebration is equally enjoyed in a more casual but cake filled way this morning which always goes down well with our team, we barely got a photo in before the celebration cakes were gone!

Thanks to all that voted for us, we really do appreciate it and are glad you enjoyed our work!

Twitter adds more personalized follow recommendations to its apps

Twitter is trying to fix its discovery problem — again.

The company is adding a new section to its iOS and Android app that will provide users with personalized recommendations for accounts they should follow.

SEE ALSO: Twitter is now a 'news' app in the Apple store

The update appears in the top left corner of the app, where the "find people" tab has been renamed to "Connect." The Connect tab (not to be confused with the notifications tab that waspreviously called connect) now provides much more robust follow suggestions than previous versions of the app.

The section takes factors like who you're already following and your previous activity into account in making its recommendations. It also explains why it's making each suggestion. Twitter says it expects these recommendations to improve over time as it tweaks its method.

Additionally, the update also allows you to sync Twitter with your contact list so you can get notifications when people you know sign up. 

Writing in a blog post Tuesday, "finding new accounts to follow used to require jumping through a few hoops and a dash of luck," Twitter seems to be hoping the update will help address the network's oft-cited discoverability problem. New users often have a difficult time finding relevant accounts to follow, which has been making it hard for the network to attract and hang onto new users, critics say.

Though the Connect tab hardly seems a big enough change to silence Twitter's more vocal critics, it's certainly an improvement over the previous "find people" section and the recommendations do seem to be a bit more relevant.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Facebook is testing a feature that lets you find more Groups

Whether you're looking for parenting tips or the best new restaurants in your neighborhood, Facebook Groups is useful for finding virtual communities around various topics.

Now Facebook is testing a dedicated "Discover" feature within the Groups section, making it easier to join conversations.

A new tab will let you browse public and closed Facebook Groups by category, including Groups your friends are in and local Groups. You can see what's gaining traction in your circle, and in your city.

SEE ALSO: 10 Facebook Live stars you need to follow now

As a randomly-selected Facebook user in the test group, I can confirm the Discover feature is easy and intuitive to use. Indeed, it's a surprise it's taken this long to roll out something like this. 

But the effort makes sense: it's not unlike Twitter and Instagram's new discovery efforts.

Discover offers 25 different categories such as parenting, sports, food, buy & sell, networking, animals & pets, hobby & leisure, support & comfort and travel. Each topic page highlights the top suggested Groups based on popularity and who you may already know that's a member. 

Previously, you'd have to type keywords into the search bar to find related Groups or wait until you were invited to join one by a friend.

While only a select group of people have the feature right now, Facebook told Mashable it will roll out more broadly in the near future.

Beyond Facebook's news feed, Groups is the most-used feature within the app. About one billion people use Groups each month.

How IBM Cloud can help Indian CXOs beat business data risks

Data risks are among the key challenges that CXOs worry about. Here's why IBM Cloud is the perfect solution for this.

Know more about the unique features of IBM Cloud here or join us in our conversations@IBM_in.

Click here if you would like IBM to help your business.