Thoughts in Flight

In one minute all this happens!

Thanks to Ali for passing on this interesting infographic.

- Sam

This Week in Digital: w/c June 11th

 

What’s happened this week:.

• The E3 Gaming convention in Los Angeles set the scene for gaming for the next 12 months;
  • Nintendo focused on the software line up for the WiiU due later this year.
  • Sony showcased an amazing trans-media Harry Potter wonder book.
  • Microsoft highlighted xbox SmartGlass a technology to link consoles with tablets and smartphones.
  • Lots of people launched integrated cloud based gaming products for their devices.
  • Microsoft announced that IE10 will have ‘Do Not Track’ enabled as default. This could, however, prove to be a greater opportunity than it is a threat.

What we have learned:

• Global Mobile advertising was worth USD 5.3bn in 2011.
• 84% of people enjoyed their most recent interactive Mobile advertising experience using technologies such as NFC and Bluetooth.
• 36% of UK consumers use Social Media to speak to brands, illustrating that Social is now a mainstream inbound communication channel.

 Cool stuff

• A clever piece of Augmented Reality from Paddy Power using banknotes to announce Euro2012 football news.
• Kinnect will soon be able to target ads based on how happy or sad you look.
• Airtime is the hot new social video chat app from Napster co-founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker.

 Where to find more:

• The latest Internet Trends presentation from KPCB’s Mary Meeker is out illustrating the wide variety of activities now being disrupted by Digital technologies and behaviours.
• 32 new world changing innovations according to the New York Times, from electric clothing to teeth that think.
• The challenge for the new generation of TV app developers is changing the me of an app to the we

- Sam (thanks to JP and the Futures Group)

 

 

This week in digital w/c 28th May

This Week in Digital: w/c May 28th and June 4th 

It is a double TWiD due to the UK double bank holiday next week; we will be back on June 11^th.

What’s happened this week:.

• Facebook launched Facebook Camera an app not entirely dissimilar from the USD 1bn Instagram.
• The parent company of Juicy Couture sold shares to their customers via their Facebook page, incentivizing customers to be brand advocates – the “ultimate ‘like’ button”
• Yahoo have made their search results more visual

What we have learned:

• Even small local companies can benefit hugely from mobile optimized pages
• Mobile, especially tablets, are becoming more important to retailers
• Guinness is the most mobile friendly drink!

Cool stuff

• Leap Motion is a super accurate motion sensor that brings the Minority Report interface to life.
• Mystevie creates a TV station from your Facebook and Twitter feeds, with your phone acting as remote control.
• AT&T are cleverly connecting broadcast product placement in ‘Touch’ with branded web series ‘Daybreak’.

Where to find more:

• Apple’s haptic (vibrating) pen opens up a lot of opportunities. iPhone users will also find a cool custom vibration tip!
• Some very creative examples of banner ads
• Google’s Larry Page at Zeitgeist – we should take advantage of the amazing opportunities modern technology provides and with more ambitious goals we can double the rate of human progress

Thanks to JP and the Futures group

Nike's latest little bit of awesome..

If you have not yet taken a look at Nikes latest ad then you should.  The level of interactivity is quite extraordinary...

http://www.youtube.com/user/nikefootball?feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_739162&src_vid=QMv8g8CO4cQ

- Sam

 

Some interesting thoughts from the Metro mobile conference...

On Wednesday I went to an event organised by the Marketing team at Metro. There were some interesting speakers and panalists at the event including Meabh Quoirin (Future Foundation), Peter Duffy (Easyjet), Will Sauson (Contagious), Ben Wood (CCS Insight), Glyn Britton (Albion), Jonny Kaldor (Kaldor ltd), Andrea Nicolaou (O2), the lovely Sophie Robinson of Metro and more. As is oftent the case, much of what was said felt familiar, but here's some of the themes and nuggets that stuck out to me:

Smart Boredom - Meabh shared the thought that boredom moments are increasingly valuable on a few levels; firstly we are valuing our downtime more and more and hence filling it with the most fun, entertaining and interesting ways possible; secondly, she talked about how creativity works. For a while now we have been having debates internally at M2M about the best way to get to ideas.  The typical approach is to get a room full of people brainstorming random ideas, when in actual fact, as the very smart Simon Carr pointed out to me, the best ideas usually come from individuals spending quality time focused on a problem.  Quoting from Jonath Lehrer's book called Imagine: How creativity works, she echoed this thought, stating that creativity is often linked to boredom - when people are alone and slowing down.  If you have ever found yourself searching for a notepad in the middle of the night because your brain has finally 'cracked it', you'll know what I mean.  Similarly I had a conversation the other day about traffic jams - that's what happens when you are new dad and thus tired!. Anyway, it is my theory that a lot of people don't actually mind traffic jams when they are alone in a car, as it gives them a rare chance to think and contemplate life. They value the alone time, and often come up with things they would not otherwise have done. If you are with someone it is a different matter.  If it's someone you are hundred percent comfortable with then all's fine, if not, it can lead to an increasingly uncomfortable experience!

Peformance Leisure - this was a trend Meabh shared that related to our desire to capture and share posts and content.  In effect people today are constantly using social platforms as a form of self validation.  For example, there is even a facebook app called status shuffle that lets you choose from popular status updates posted by random others.  Why?  because if you too use the popular one you might just look better to your friends!

Tablets are for home use, not work - 8% of people use their tablets for work vs. 80% at home. 15% use it as their primary home tech device.

Easyjet's rapid mobile expansion - Peter gave an interesting insight in to the incredible rise of mobile in their portfolio, including the fact that 1.5% of sales are now through mobile; the fact that their app is downloaded 80k times a week; and 10% of site hits come through mobile.  He stated that they believe the role for mobile in their comms mix is to act as the 'customers friend', providing information to people when the website or a check in desk rep is not available.  In that sense he brought up a theme others built on, in that the tablet was a 'lean back' more discursive channel.  He also raised an interesting question about search.  Easyjet spent £54m on search last year while Ryanair spent zero, and as a business they are starting to wonder what incremental revenue it is actually driving. As a result easyjet are actually reducing their digital spend at present.

Get the basics right - Ben raised the point that all too often clients want the new and shiny toy; be it augmented reality, geo targeting, blipper etc.  It is human nature to want them, but he argued that the important first task was simoply to get the basics right, such as having a website that is mobile enabled.  Countless examples were cited, including a stat that 75% of QR codes direct people to sites that are not mobile ready.  Clearly it is an important point, one further highlighted by the fact that 80% of apps created by brands have less than 1000 downloads.  The lesson...get your site ready first.  After that, before you even consider getting braver, ask 'what will genuinely be useful, interesting or entertaining for people'.

Business partners vs. media partners - whilst talking about what he wants from agencies, Peter stated that he wants companies that understand easyjet.  Partners that recognise not everything is appropriate for their business model and then take them on a journey they could not otherwise go on with the staff they have.  It was a great thought that backs our belief that what clients truly need and want are business partners, not just media partners.

The need for unified mobile standards - a big question was raised by the panels and audience around measurement and trading issues with mobile.  At present there are no unified standards of measurement. Few publishers can or do tell you how many people actually see your inventory and until that happens there will be a lot of contention between media owners, agencies and clients.  To Metro's credit they ran a whole exercise dedicated to gathering questions agencies and clients want answered.  We look forward to hearing what they come bacjk with.

'Creative agencies are backwards' - Glyn stated his belief that most creative agencies are stuck in the past when it comes to tablet and mobile.  With the advent of digital he believed that the creative industry are facing the same disruption that the music industry faced in recent times. 

Act like a software developer - Building off the last point, Glyn went on to talk about his belief that brands need to act like software developers, lighting 100s of small fires and pouring fuel on the ones that start to spread.  He was echoing many similar thoughts, such as the 'Bonfires and Fireworks' model we often discuss that was nicely coined by John Wilshire. In essence the belief which I share, is that marketing is shifting from big, short, sharp advertising campaigns that burn bright for a short space of time before they die out (fireworks), to the creation of many more social bonfires that you try to spread.  It is an idea that mirrors both Facebook's approach to innovation and Zynga's 'ghetto testing' model - if you have an idea put it out in to the market - If people like it, build on it. 

All interesting stuff, well organised and run by Sophie and the team and I look forward to seeing the write up they promised to share.

- Sam

This Week in Digital: w/c May 14th What’s happened this week:.

What’s happened this week:

• Facebook have begun to test a consumer pay to post scheme as another potential revenue source, if it succeeds it will be another example of the emerging ‘branded consumer’.
• Google+ for iOS re-launched with a very distinctive look and feel.
• Bing has reinvented itself around social search with a specialist set of results.  ‘What your friends may know’ is taken from our ever expanding social graph. 

 What we have learned:

• US consumers now spend more time on Facebook Mobile than on the main website, a sign of the fundamental shift to mobile happening all over the world.
• Smartphones are tracking to be the fastest adopted technology of all time.
• The Mobile industry is set to be worth USD 1.5trn this year over 2% of Global GDP.

 Cool stuff

• A sign of the emerging Internet of things, a milk jug that texts you when you are low on milk.
• Clothes Horse is a new suite of tools to link personal body data to retailer stock and style information to create a more streamlined and curated service.
• New tools to increase Facebook engagement such as the edge rank checker. Increasingly important in the ever growing eco-system of Facebook apps.

 Where to find more:

• The re-invention of TV, NDS have an interesting vision for the future of our TV sets; modular and passively obedient.
• *Angel investor Roger McNamee believes that we are on the verge of a new phase of the Internet disruption where content will be far easier to monetize (primarily due to html5 driving intelligent ad models).
• Susan Greenfield believes that mobile is changing the way that we think as it increasingly becomes the focus of our domestic lives, something akin to the piano in the Victorian era. 

 - Sam (thanks to JP and the Future group)

This Week in Digital: w/c April 23rd

 
What’s happened this week:

• Google launched the brand activate initiative to measure online advertising at scale.
• With 100 days to go the official London 2012 Olympic Athletes social media hub launched.
• Intel launched the Ivy Bridge processer range. It is the first with 3D transistors which will keep Moore’s law going for at least the next few years.

What we have learned:

• 6% of 2-5 year olds have their own smartphone, one of many observations about Generation i (i.e. those born after 1994).
• The Google + button is served 5bn times a day + several hundred other recent Social Media facts.
• 62% US Tablet owners use the device daily, they spend an average of 2.4 hours a day on it (from Viacom’s recent Tabletomics Study).

Cool stuff

• Brands are increasingly looking to add something to the broadcast experience; this example from Red Bull adds a second screen point of view to what’s on TV.
• Personal is a new kind of personal data vault, owned by the consumer, to automate many online tasks. We can expect to see many more of these over coming years.
• Google’s autonomous cars are now driving every day errands for blind passengers.

Where to find more:

• Tim O’Reilly’s latest thoughts from MIT Media Lab conversations; the services that will thrive utilize new forms of shared knowledge.
• The future of in car technology; future visions from some of the world’s major automotive  brands.
• What Social Media is doing to news now that over half of us find out about major stories through it.

- Sam (thanks to JP and the Futures team)

 

Facebook Timeline - what you need to know and do before the 30th March

Following on from Divya's note in a previous post, a number of you have asked for more information about the changes being made ot Facebook Timeline.  With this in mind, please find attached a very handy summary from our Creative Content division Drum:

Download An Intro to Facebook Timeline

Any questions then give us a shout,

Sam

Incredibox - unleash your inner composer!

Ali sent this round earlier.  Incredibox is an interactive Flash website that lets you create your own a capella beatbox vocal group. You select the vocalists, set the effects, and let ‘em sing. A great way to fill a spare few minutes.  You can then send it on to your friends.

- Sam

iPad3, Facebook's timeline for brands, and ever more apps downloaded..

The digital team have since updated 'this week in digital.  Similar to the poste a few below with a couple of notable additions including the iPad 3. Over to them...

Morning everyone, In between Apple, Google, and Facebook, we digital people can be sure to have a constant source of surprises, information, revelations and outcries…. We can be pretty confident to always find some sort inspiration, something new to investigate or get our head around. The biggest news, this week, is without surprise, Apple’s announcement of the much anticipated iPad3, or as the tech world now calls it “the new iPad” or “iPad HD”. Some will be mesmerised, some others will be disappointed, one thing is for sure, it gets people talking... only the future will tell us effects and consequences of this announcement. Stay tuned.

What’s happened this week:

• The Facebook Marketing Conference in New York saw the launch of a number of new marketing products such as Timeline for brand pages, the reach generator and ads on mobile. Do ask if you would like more info on this.

• Apple obviously presented their much anticipated iPad3 or “New iPad” yesterday in California, The link takes you to some expert’s reactions. New features include HD display, 4G, iPhoto and a stronger A6 processor.

• Apple’s market capitalisation crossed half a trillion US dollars, making them the world’s most valued company by over USD 100bn.

• Google revamped their Android app marketplace and named it Google play in a new attempt to take on Apple’s iTunes.

• A Chinese man downloads the 25th billion app on the iTunes store, symbolic on many levels….

• A few more bits on the Mobile World Conference:

• Eric Schmidt’s vision of the future: smart phones for all and 1GB bandwidth delivering everything in more places.
• Facebook’s focus on open standards in mobile and cracking the mobile payment problem.
• Some (other) amazing new mobile technologies, including the 41 megapixel camera phone Nokia announced.

What we have learned:

• 25% of global smart phone users have made a purchase on their handset.

• 4x as many iPlayer shows are delivered to the iPad as all connected TVs combined, despite being in only half as many homes.

• 25bn iOS apps have now been downloaded meaning that the average iOS user has 80 apps and the average app is downloaded 45k times.

Cool stuff:

• ‘Hacking for brands’ OMD in New York brought developers and brands together for a 48 hour “hackathon” creating all sorts of new ideas.

• Cloud computing is an abstract concept, but Apple explain it elegantly in 30s with no words.

• Fantasy Shopper is an interesting British start-up that aims to transform shopping behaviours with game mechanics, The Economist thinks that they are on to something.

Where to find more:

• The Gamification of Business: Games and game theory are being implemented in enterprises around the world.

• ‘I’m being followed’ An interesting in depth look in to ad targeting and why it is a necessary part of the funding ecosystem of web content.

• Consumer 2.0: How brands are adapting to new consumer needs.

Have a great week end!

Kind Regards

The Digital team, M2M