You want some influence marketing quickly -- with not much accountability, or even reality? The Russians have something to sell you. In speaking at the OMMA LA event, Jeff Suhy, president and partner of creative agency Mop Op, says you can get lift from influencing marketing via fake Instagram “likes” through a “Russian Vending Machine”. The actual vending machine has seen in an upscale shopping center near the Kremlin in Moscow, according to Refinery29 story. One can purchase as many as 10,000 followers (from dummy accounts) for under $70. For 50 Russian rubles, one can buy …

About 74% of marketers still struggle with the return on investment from influencer marketing because it's difficult to define a strategy, said Maria Sipka, cofounder and chief evangelist at Linqia.

The privilege is having access to consumer data. Consumers love this network of brands that make up TechStyle Fashion Group so much that they are willing to give them data. Lots of data.

Speaking at the OMMA LA conference, Sujay Kar, head of data science of TechStyle Fashion Group, says predictive technology is a key for the marketing efforts of its fashion business -- even allowing it to spend more on advertising. The group, whose brands include Fabletics, JustFab, ShoeDazzle and FabKids, has 4 million VIP members, 80% repeat consumers, and 65 million products shipped. TechStyle spends close to $180 million in advertising -- with 24,000 active creatives on Facebook, 36 unique TV commercials (150 iterations that are tested), and 3,300 email creatives. Kar says the company can …

I'm beginning to wonder, as Google, Bing and others build platforms that teach humans how to team them. We're at OMMA LA today to talk about robots and programmatic creative.