Thoughts in Flight

2013 Trends

Happy New Year and welcome to 2013. Our friends across the group and globe have been pulling together a summary of predicted trends for the year ahead.  January always brings a rush of these, but we wanted to share them as there are some good points to kee[p in mind...

For starters one can hardly miss the signs of media convergence today. Mob scenes erupt with each new iPhone launch, sales of tablet devices have skyrocketed, and Twitter hashtags have cropped up with increased frequency on both TV commercials and programming. Second screens became a dominant force in 2012, and will continue to reign in the coming year.

In turn, the culture quake driven by the Millennials, presents a challenge for marketers. These modern marketers must adapt and merge the ads they buy, the content they own and the media coverage they earn into a converged strategy that’s fast and fluid enough to keep up with the multiplatform now.

Here are 10 of the major trends in media and marketing for 2013:

1. Mobile Focus: With the increasing penetration of smartphones in both developed and emerging markets, new users are more likely to first come online via mobile today. Effective marketers will shift their focus from advertising and sponsorships to developing new and interesting tools embedded in the phone (think geo-location and gyroscope) to attract and engage mobile users. Increasingly, brands and agencies will depend on mobile technology experts for multiplatform success.
2. Social TV: The blossoming of the second screen/social TV space will continue to evolve as users discover and interact with their favorite shows and commercials by responding to on-air polls, coupon and contest offers via their handheld devices. Brand marketers will turn to technologies such as Shazam and the newly-launched iSpot.tv to mine second-screen engagement through big screen content.
3. Commercial-tainment: A recent Edelman study found that 80% of Millennials want to be entertained by advertising. Brands like Macy’s, Juicy Couture and ASOS began to merge commercials and entertainment last year with short, engaging shopping videos. This year, expect brands to expand that model to capture even more second-screeners by incorporating contests, sweepstakes, coupons and exclusive content.
4. Viral Strategies: The speed with which information travels via social media presents a high-risk, huge-reward opportunity for brands aiming to become this year’s marketing equivalent of PSY’s “Gangnam Style” or Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 campaign.
5. Visual Interest: One picture is worth a dozen tweets to social media users who went picture crazy in 2012, thanks to visual sharing sites Instagram and Pinterest. Expect major brands to jump heavily onto the visual bandwagon with apps, photo sharing and Pinterest-like mosaic interfaces.
6.  Ad Versioning: Gone are the days when TV advertising involved merely matching the right ads with the right media. In 2013, advertisers will increasingly rely on technology that tweaks both the creative and the copy in real time to “version” it automatically. Expect these “smart” algorithms to also execute version testing and adapt each ad to its environment.
7. TV 2.0: Despite predictions of TV’s imminent demise, the growth of second-screen users has actually bolstered its popularity while at the same time diverting millions of eyes from the big screen. How will advertisers respond? Expect some to experiment this year with the creative use of sound to get their message across in much the same way as radio.
8. Data Planning: Advertisers who were overwhelmed by consumer data last year will reap its benefit this year, now that they’ve identified the sophisticated systems necessary to make sense of the information. Expect more effective multiplatform marketing plans as a result.
9. YouTube: YouTube, with its eclectic mix of DIY and commercial video content, will continue to grow in popularity, especially among Millennials. Advertisers will watch closely for opportunities as YouTube settles into its new Los Angeles production studio this year and forms partnerships to expand its content to movie theaters, home entertainment systems and digital storefronts.
10. Voice Recognition: Granted, Siri and Google Now didn’t catch fire the way some had expected, but the fault lay more in the execution of voice recognition than in the concept. That’s likely to change in 2013 as SRI, the maker of Siri, courts vendors to build on the Siri framework. Expect VR to make your voice heard on the websites in the coming year.

A big thank you to Jen Razor for pulling this together.

- Sam

Can You #SurviveSinister - M2M and Drum create the Fear factor

Vox pops, night vision, people jumping out of seats: these are now the new norms of horror marketing. If you show them being scared enough then the film must be scary, right?  But no film has have ever actually measured the fear factor. Until now…

For the launch of the new film Sinister from the makers of Paranormal Activity and Insidious, M2M and Drum teamed up with Professor Brendan Walker of The Thrill Laboratory to measure and record the authentic, sheer fear generated by the film. 

To establish Sinister’s ‘Fear Factor’, subjects were placed in a cinema theatre with 400 members of the public and hooked up to instruments measuring their heart rate, skin temperature, and perspiration.

The results of the experiment concluded that the subjects were in a genuine state of fear for an incredible 41% of the film. The peak heart rate was 237 beats per minute, a frightening 177 bpm above normal, matching the top heart rate people reach on some of the world’s most intense rollercoasters.

In the content released as a 6o” spot on Saturday 29^th September (longer online only version is running as an exclusive today on Orange) Professor Brendan Walker from the Thrill Laboratory relays back to one subject: “You were having a very extreme experience. You actually broke our heart rate monitor”.  Even the bravest contestant amongst them was in a state of fear for 34% of the film.

The experiment sits alongside a partnership with Bauer to showcase content from the experiment on their TV channels, along with advertorials and spots that track the journey from subject recruitment through to results in Zoo and Kerang, Kiss and Kerrang radio.  All are set to drive people to www.sinisterfilm.co.uk.

Building on this M2M are currently ramping up the fear across TV, radio, outdoor and press as the 5^th October release date approaches, all posing one simple question:

Can You #SurviveSinister

- Sam (thanks to all the Momentum team)

Paddy Power sky writing helps inspire Europe to Ryder Cup victory

Whether you are a golf fan or not this weekend was nothing short of awesome to watch.  Just exactly how did Europe not just win, but escape what looked like a thorough beating? 

Well, while Paddy Power can't claim full credit, we do however hope that the audacious and brave activity we worked on with Paddy Power helped. 

Here's a little context...

Ahead of the Ryder Cup American Captain Davis Love III stoked the flames for a fiery confrontation, stirring up U.S fans to deliver the loudest frenzy ever seen at the tournament. With the tournament to be played at Medinah in Chicago, the European's knew they were going to be up against it.

With this in mind, Paddy Power, in conjunction with the team here at M2M and Crispin Porter + Bogusky embarked on an audacious plan to redress the balance for Team Europe. As the second day's play began, a fleet or acrobatic planes were utilised to create the worlds highest and largest tweets printed in the sky above the course. Visible from over 20 miles the tweets were designed to rival any ground-level heckles.

On Saturday Paddy Power’s twitter feed (@paddypower) called on European supporters to submit messages with the hashtag ‘#GoEurope'. Working across the weekend the team at M2M used a promoted trend and tweets to extend the reach of the idea. Ryder Cup editorial in national press ads asked viewers to “Help a Yank to Shank” and to submit their messages via the #Go Europe hashtag. TV advertising began in the Ryder Cup coverage with a similar message.

During the process the Paddy Power twitter page was overrun with tweets and over 55 messages were ‘sky-written’ by stunt pilots flying at 10,000ft above Medinah in the world's first Twitter campaign of its kind. These included “Spirit of Seve”, “Mrs Duffner is hot” and “Rory’s Gonna Getcha” which saw Rory himself taking photos and exclaiming “I love that!”.  A video of him watching the Skytweets has even just been put on his Youtube channel here. 

Live on air the European team Captain Jose Maria Olazabel was clearly excited about the tweets and said the team were trying to find out who was behind them. One of the sky tweets '#GoEurope' was adopted wholesale by fans (including Gary Lineker and Austin Healey) and additional TV advertising was placed in the Sunday coverage of The Ryder Cup as the tension mounted to get people involvbed and fired up all the more.

To help push Team Europe to a stunning victory the campaign finished with the world's biggest ever sky-written message. The message was made up from all of the twelve European players’ names - listing Seve as the 13th man to make it a record-breaker delivered to tie in with the start of the team’s dramatic and nail-biting comeback. The full text took up approximately 70million sq ft of sky. With each letter bigger that Shard in London, it was designed to break the current record by at least 10million sq ft.

This incredible campaign was the latest iteration of the ‘We Hear You’ campaign in which Paddy Power have been listening to what punters are saying and responding to them in over the top fashion. To get a full 360 degree panormaic view of some of the tweets in action have a look at the link below:

 Paddy Power Ryder Cup sky tweets

While we are in the process of reviewing the whole campaign, from an initital media results perspective the promoted trend on Twitter delivered 18 million impressions (2.5 x the Twitter norm) over the Saturday and Sunday (a 21% engagement rate). The promoted tweets on Twitter delivered 171k impressions and combined nearly 30k clicks (8.9%) and #GoEurope received 65.5k mentions, including the ones from Gary Lineker and Austin Healy.

In short, it was one awesome and emotional weekend that nearly even bought Colin Montgomerie to tears. The American's fielded an incredible team that for two days looked like they were going to take the Europeans down comfortably.  While effectiveness is rarely measured in Ryder Cup vistory terms and Paddy Power could certainly not claim the full motivational credit, we certainly hope the sky tweets played a small part in creating what has to go down as the greatest Ryder Cup comeback victory of all time - one we hope Seve would have been proud of. 

- Sam (with big thanks to all the Paddy Power team) 

Lawless, woodcutting and Little White Lies

 

I'm a sucker for beautifully crafted objects. 

The time, effort and pure love that went into the creation of the new Little White Lies Lawless special reaffirms my belief that there'll always be a place for lovingly crafted physical objects (admittedly its not for everyone - like vinyl - but there'll always be a committed hardcore to this stuff).

Props to Little White Lies and The Church Of London.   

- Simon

This Week in Digital: w/c July 9th

 

What’s happened this week:

• YouView launched in the UK, with Internet enabled set top boxes going on sale at £300 over the next few weeks.
• ITV detailed plans for micropayments for TV shows, enabling a paid for version of ITV player.
• Yahoo announced Electric City, a web first animation series starring Tom Hanks.

 What we have learned:

• People in the UK use their Smartphones for 2hours 8 minutes per day, mainly for entertainment and web surfing.
• 81% of UK mainstream consumers surf the web whilst watching TV, according to IBM’s ‘Beyond Digital’ global study of connected consumers.
• Mobile devices now account for 10.5% of all web traffic up >250% since the end of 2010.

 Cool stuff

• Wearable computing is a trend that seems to be finally coming of age with Olympus and Apple joining Google in creating new form factors.
• The Avengers Initiative second screen app points to a new model of monetisation for Hollywood blockbusters.
• Dateline Chatline is the most ambitious attempt yet to curate online interaction around a major broadcast TV show.  

 Where to find more:

• The evolution of the web, beautifully illustrates the acceleration of new web technologies of the past few years.
• Hacking the future of TV. Developers will shape the future of TV through the creation of innovative TV apps.
• The next billion dollar idea will come from unlocking a secret about human behavior rather than a new technology, an inspiring perspective form Nir Eyal.

- Sam (thanks to JP and the Futures team)

Entertainment is dead. Long love entertainment!

Many people talk about how the entertainment industry is dying. The blame obviously lies with the internet and all those 'downloaders' creating a shift from broadcast networks to audience networks (as Mike Walsh frames it in Futuretainment). We are what we share, right?

But its about as true as any other endist statement (TV is dead! Radio is dead! Press is dead! etc etc). And in fact there have been some studies in the US that have shown that downloading has actually increased overall consumption. Similar to the TV PVR research in the UK which asked people who owned PVRs how much time shifted TV viewing they did. LOADS AND LOADS came the overwhelming reply but upon further investigation into their actual behaviour they simply thought they were time shifting more but their behaviour hadn't changed much. But I digress. 

Mike Masnick (Founder of Techdirt) has put together a detailed look at the entertainment industry called "The Sky Is Rising" which shows that it is quite simply in rude health. The titans may be struggling but new thinking, new technology and new ideas are contributing to the industries overall growth. You can innovate your way out of anything with a bit of imagination and grit. 

Infographic with the headlines below. 

And you can get the full 36 page pdf report here.

 

 

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

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

This Week in Digital: w/c February 13th

 
What’s happened this week:

• Lots of mobile interaction during Super Bowl TV ads, including a dozen which urged users to scan the ad with the Shazam app
• Twitter is very close to announcing 500m users
• Facebook Timeline has led to an increase in many other  third party sites and apps. MySpace (remember them?) is doing particularly well this year

 What we have learned:

• Forrester predicts 1billion Smartphone and tablet users by 2016 – 90% of these will be Apple, Android or Windows, with this chart of US users showing the huge potential in mobile as most devices are not smartphones
• Pinterest is growing in popularity incredibly quickly, with more referral traffic to sites in January than Google+, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn and MySpace all combined
• The new iPad app Wisdom can analyze huge groups of people based on their Facebook behaviours, e.g. Democrats vs. Republicans or Football fans:
• The app economy has created almost 500k jobs since 2007

 Cool stuff

• The latest Spiderman trailer had a hidden link to a great new Alternate Reality Game (ARG) in 6 US cities
• Scientists have discovered an amazing way of using your heartbeat to replace passwords
• A Google Search engineer has left a Radio 1 inspired Easter egg. When users type in “Jason Isaacs”, a special Mark Kermode inspired message appears, as the presenter has said “Hello” to Jason Isaacs in almost every episode of the movie review show for ten years

 Where to find more:

• Are QR codes replacing SMS? We don’t think so just yet… the question is when will augmented reality replace QR?
• Some very useful mobile commerce and consumer behaviour insights
• Interesting view on how Twitter is causing increased demand for breaking news but with varied accuracy.

- Sam (thanks to JP, Mark and the Futures team)

Measuring and visualizing movie data

 

Angus, a friend and fellow film fan over at OMD sent me this video link earlier today. As it says, 'Cinemetrics is about measuring and visualizing movie data, in order to reveal the characteristics of films and to create a visual “fingerprint” for them. Information such as the editing structure, color, speech or motion are extracted, analyzed and transformed into graphic representations so that movies can be seen as a whole and easily interpreted or compared side by side'. 

This is another interesting example of data visualisation cases we have showcased before (here's a top 50 from webdesignerdepot.com if you want to see more).  Some are not just beautiful, but also very useful.  In this case, I am not quite sure how useful the film visualisation tool is, but it's interesting none the less.

- Sam