Thoughts in Flight

Invisible Children - a rabbit punch from Charlie Brooker

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past week, you'll know of Joseph Kony, the tyrannical Ugandan Warlard repsonsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people. His new notioriety is of cousre due to the record breaking 30 min doc produced by the charity Invisible Children to raise awareness of his atrocities and ultimately increase US involvement. To that effect it has probably worked but there is a growing fight-back from critical groups. Most visceral unsurprsingly comes from Charlie Brooker. Disturbing.

 

John (via Simon)

 

 

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

The local theatre isn't showing your film? Then Tugg

A while back we talked about the changing distribution models within film here, and while following some of the news from SXSW in the US, I came across a post about Tugg.  As the title of the post suggests Tugg is a company set up in the states to help people bring events to their local towns that wouldn't actually have happened.  As Run DMC would say, it goes a little something like this:

Creating an event:

1. Pick Your Event Content

• You select a feature film from their library
• Personalise your event with special features like short form content, guest intros or a Q&A session afterwards

2. Pick a Time and Place

• Select a date and Tugg shows you all the available timeslots for your event.
• Choose from any of the available theaters to be your venue.
• Adjust ticket pricing and compare options to perfect your event.

3. Add Details and Finish

• Fill in your event info, embed trailer, and add poster.
• Set your event to be public or private and you're done

Simple!  It reminds a lot of Paranormal.  When the first film was launched, the PR machine worked on the notion that people were demanding the film to come to their local towns.  They went on to leverage the audiences reactions as the key driver in the marketing, based on the insight that 'fear is social'.  Or put another way, when we watch a scary movie with friends, it is our friend's reactions that heighten our fear as much as the film itself. 

Anyway, back to Tugg. It's a simple yet interesting idea that clearly gives power to the people, and potential added revenue to the film distributors. Once the event is set up, it is then the organisers responsibility to help promote the event in any way you can - social networks etc.  People can also come to the Tugg site, browse events in their area and book tickets.  If an event reaches it's threshold, then it is good to go. 

Let's see if they make it across the pond. I hope so.  Take the concept on a step and it could work for anything.  Get enough fans involved and pop up restaurants could get the go ahead, theatre productions and more.

- Sam

People are awesome

Sometimes a break from the world of media and communications is needed.  Many of you will have seen this before.  If not, enjoy

 

Anyone else now feel like doing something utterly mental?

- 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

Beauty, luxury and fashion news

Another update from Divya and the Digital team, this time relating to the latest news from the world of beauty, luxury and fashion:

• Louis Vuitton have launched a new short film series with the aim of capturing the essence of different cities from across the globe in relation to gender. Hong Kong is the subject of the debut film and presents the Asian destination as if it were a woman with appearances from students, various career women and rising star of Asian cinema; Grace Huang. Directed by Jean-Claude Thibaut, who has previously collaborated with the likes of Armani and Dolce & Gabbana, the film is the first in a series to be uploaded on Louis Vuitton's YouTube channel. Focusing on cities from across the globe, the pictures will use gender as "a lens to interpret each city's identity." The video has been met with extremely mixed reviews – it will be interesting to see how Louis Vuitton responds to these reactions.
• Louis Vuitton’s gender-related metaphor is an interesting one and it follows from the recent surrealist release from Italian label Miu Miu, which saw women transforming themselves into dresses and starred Italian actress Maya Sansa. Directed by Italian moviemaker Giada Colagrande, short film "The Woman Dress" was the third instalment of the label's Women's Tales Saga, which was made to explore "the feminine love affair with Miu Miu”.

 

• DIOR, THE MAGAZINE: Christian Dior boasts nearly 7 million fans on Facebook — and now the French house is out to conscript more readers and viewers with the launch of DiorMag. The online magazine goes live with eight articles — that number representing one of the founder’s good-luck charms. Their Fall Fashion Show will be live-streamed for the first time and interestingly, blogger Susie Bubble is to oversee a simultaneous feed on Twitter. More here
• It’s all about the discerning shopper: Harvey Nichols, the luxury department store group, said a mix of £65,000 alligator skin handbags, face cream and a focus on ‘timeless’ rather than cutting-edge fashion should produce record profits this year, capping a comeback from its 2008 decline.
• In December, Lancôme ran a competition (launched 27th December) on their Facebook page asking women to apply for the Super Serum Challenge. The top prize for 10 women included a month’s supply of Genefique and Visionnaire, a trip to London for a beauty makeover and the chance to record their own skincare testimonials. 60 runners up also received a month’s supply of Visionnaire. They’ve recently uploaded photos from behind the scenes of the beauty shoot on their Facebook page – we’re sure that videos will follow shortly.
• TheFancy.com is a new scrapbooking and shopping site – it’s a space where users can share photos of covetable objects and experiences with the hope of eventually buying them.All interesting stuff with more to follow in the weeks to follow.

- Sam - (thanks to Divya and the Digital team)

 

 

Facebook changes for business - timeline and more

A number of you will already know about this from our mailers that have been sent out, other blogs and forums, but in case you have missed it, I thought I'd share a note Divya from our digital team sent round recently to alert companies of the changes ahead:

News:

Facebook made some major new announcements this week. Please see below:

New Pages: Mission control for your Business on Facebook. All premium advertising now originates from content on your page. All Page admins will see a megaphone announcing the new design when they visit their Page. They will then be able to switch to the new design as admins and view and build their Page out in the new layout until they are ready to publish.

All pages will be published on March 30th.

 IMPORTANT: Once you have pressed publish, you cannot revert to old design. DO NOT publish your pages before you are ready as you can’t undo any changes…

 There are some of the functional enhancements:

• Messaging: Users can now private message page admins if this function is enabled on the page. See the Toyota example: www.facebook.com/toyota  - beside the like button
• Pinned Post: Pages can now pin a post to the top of the page for 7days
• Tabs and Mobile: If you build your tabs in HTML5 they will be visible on mobile. Currently tabs cannot be found on mobile
• You can feature large stories + Videos on your page – check out Burberry – scroll down to their show in February.  www.facebook.com/burberry 
• Social context – a user’s friends will have a more prominent appearance on the page. i.e. friends in common etc            

New Premium: For the first time marketers have access to Newsfeed and Mobile.

Sponsored stories are starting to appear in newsfeed and mobile. News feed stories have a 5-10X increase in engagement. The more engaging your posts, the more distribution they will get in the newsfeed and mobile (please note that mobile is not a standalone buy)

Logout Experience: A new ad format that is sold as a complement to the Reachblock has been introduced - it’s a high impact placement on the log-out page

New Post Type called Offers: Allows page owners to create a deal which a user can claim by sending it to their mobile or email.  These claims get newsfeed distribution and sponsored stories

Real Time page insights: Coming soon

Facebook are also launching a series of Best Practice Guides and Social Blue Prints – we will share these with you as soon as we receive them.

Any questions then please just give us a shout.  The changes can seem daunting, but it will be better for sure. 

- Sam (thanks to Divya)

This Week in Digital: w/c March 5th

 
What’s happened this week:

• Mobile World Congress 2012 has passed with : 
  • 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 amazing new mobile technologies.
  • 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.
  • Apple’s market capitalisation crossed half a trillion US dollars, making them the world’s most valued company by over USD 100bn.

 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 startup 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.

- Sam (thanks to JP and the Futures group)