Well, we’ve had a bit of a hiatus lately but I’ve finished my travels and am back on board. What you may not know though, is that there have been some pretty major changes, which have happened. Not only did I finish up at LOUD Sydney, but I kept my bags packed and headed to Singapore to start at BBH to become their new Engagement Planner. If you are interested in hearing more about the move, check out my warts and all accounts at lincutripping.wordpress.com.
But back to the internetz.
ESPN-ville Facebook game gains 350K users in 2 weeks
A social game for sports fans, the ESPN game takes a Farmville style approach to make gamers run their own sports bar filled with sports paraphernalia and TVs streaming sports games. The games also allow you check out real time scores and listen to ESPN radio. But where this game is sure to really come into its own is the inevitable (at least I hope they are heading this way) opportunity to combine the real world with the gaming world by allowing users to stream live sports matches from within the game.
Gaining 350,000 users in just 2 weeks, this will be a game with enormous potential.
Instagram reaches 150 million photos
Instagram is the iPhone darling of recent times and the latest round of stats sees no slowing of its popularity. Instagram, the photo sharing app available only on iOS, has announced that they have had 150 million images shared through the app at a rate of 15 per second. But the really interesting fact is that 80% of these photos have used filters. So what does that say about us?
Hierarchy of digital distractions
Another great infographic from Information is Beautiful.
Yes, word on the grapevine is that Twitter is set to launch brand pages similar to Facebook’s pages to allow brands more space to communicate with followers. If this is in fact true, this will be a major change to Twitter and something which will either make it or break it. My prediction – it will break it. We already have FB so we don’t need a copycat. Stay true, Twitter. Stay true.
Angry Birds Rio
Are you an Angry Birds addict? How would you feel if you could play it guilt free for your client? This is how the promoters of the new movie, Rio, feel right now. Actually, not only are they probably guilt-free, but are probably high-fiving their way to the bank as their partnership with Angry Birds has given them 10 million downloads in 10 days. At $AU1.19 per download, that’s $11.9 million from a promotion. Win.
So what other apps are you obsessed with and how could you make them work for your clients?
Facebook for mobile
With over 250 million users logging into Facebook from their mobiles, it makes sense to have as much functionality as possible without impacting on usability. Facebook feel pretty confident that they can squeeze some more function into their mobile apps (let’s face it, there wasn’t that much to begin with so it was a fairly safe bet) and have launched maps, unfriending and most importantly, the ability to check-in to events, not just locations.
To be able to check-in to an event you have to be invited and RSVP’d “yes” to attending. Your location also has to match the location of the listed event venue, and it has to be the correct time of the event. This will be an interesting addition to watch as it merges real life social with online social. Update your software on your phone to start checking in now.
Vice and WPP join forces
Global, monolithic ad agency network WPP has become a major partner in Vice Magazine. Vice – an infamous youth magazine – is known for its cheeky and irreverent take on the world. An interesting acquisition you may think, but WPP have invested in the mag to further develop their content capabilities and no doubt, further blur the lines between advertising and entertainment. If they don’t kill the mag in the meantime, this will be a stellar move.
In a direct move to combat Facebook’s “like” button, Google have introduced the “+1” button. The button will appear on articles, websites, etc for you to click and give your “public stamp of approval” towards. While I love the idea of “+1” as it taps into an already well-used terminology and acts as more of a indication of agreement, be it good or bad, rather than the positivity of a “like”, when I stop to think about it, the possibilities that come with this (if it takes off) are actually quite worrying. Let’s not beat around the bush here, Google already know everything about your internet habits. But what they don’t properly understand is the sentiment around your habits. By introducing this button, every time you click +1 Google will be able to build up a more accurate profile of you in order to better target ads and search results to you. More so though, this is actually a really smart move by Google. As the US prepares to introduce a “do not track” option for web browsing, Google will need other ways to play big brother…and this is it. Let’s just hope they remember their tagline is “don’t be evil”.
Get more info here:
Facebook announces profiles can become pages
If you are one of the many confused brands out there that is struggling to manage a business page when people keep trying to friend your profile page instead, you’ll be happy to know some changes are coming. Profiles were set up to operate for people only, however as pages became more popular for brands, many companies were setting up profiles for their employees to work from to manage the brand. The double up of pages vs profiles confused users and many were friending and fanning both, resulting in information overload. Now businesses who have built up a big friend base don’t have to worry about losing them and can convert their profile into a page and administer the page via a business account. I’m still investigating whether profiles can be merged with existing pages – fingers crossed! Stay tuned.
Amazon Music and Cloud
Best known as book sellers, Amazon have moved into music. Better still though, Amazon have launched a cloud service so you can stream your music from anywhere. You can upload 5GB of music for free and an extra 1GB for $1 per gig. It will be interesting to see how this picks up. As the first major player to offer this functionality, they will surely make huge inroads, but as they are not known for their music, will people think to use them? And is Apple just letting them go as a test before they launch their own category smashing product? Regardless, cloud music is the next big step for the music industry and one I can’t wait for!
She’s off to a friend’s house for the weekend so no parental duties for a few days. And just when I had got used to this whole lunch making, homework doing, dinner cooking business. But even though I may not have seen her for a few days, didn’t mean she wasn’t right here with me, because every few hours I’d receive another text message letting me know what she was up to or just saying hello. Definitely sweet and nice to know she doesn’t hate me yet, but more importantly, it’s again all about shared experiences for her. If she is already developing these habits before she has reached the world of Facebook, imagine what the status update will mean to her when she is of FB age? While it’s hard to predict behaviour in 4 years knowing that Facebook as we know it will be very different by that time, it’s safe to say she will already have progressed past a simple “I was here” status update, to an advanced comfort level in sharing unlike what we have seen so far.
Well it’s the pre-SXSW edition of BOTI this week, and let me just say, I am freakin’ excited for next week. If the twitter stream is anything to go by, it’s going to be a highlight edition. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we still have this week to get through and there were actually still quite a few substantial announcements to document.
Al Jazeera’s new Facebook talk show
Arab news network, Al Jazeera, have announced they will be producing a talk show using content from social networks, including Facebook and Twitter, to drive the topics. This is an initiative aimed at attracting “a younger, more technologically connected audience than most other news talk shows”.
The move comes following the reliance on social media during the recent uprisings in Egypt and Libya, which gives an interesting look at the changing role of social media in society from narcissistic mirror to a news and entertainment source.
WiFi Cabs
Japan strikes again in the innovation stakes, introducing WiFi to their fleet of taxis. While business people might rejoice at being one step closer to being constantly online, you have to ask, should there be times when we need to log off?
Facebook’s anti-bullying strategy
Long accused of inactivity in the fight against online bullying, Facebook have stepped up and developed an anti-bullying strategy. With the aim of creating a “culture of respect” the new tools include a better reporting system for offensive or bullying content as well as a more community focused option, whereby people are guided through the possible options for action including privately messaging offenders, removing them as a friend or blocking them altogether.
It’s important to note that users must be over 13 to join Facebook in the first place. So, what do you think of these steps? Is the subtle but empowering approach enough or should Facebook be more aggressive in their steps to reduce bullying across the site?
SXSW
Everyone get excited because SXSW is happening right now! SXSW is the premier event each year to reveal what new technologies are going to emerge and dominate. Hold onto your seats because the next issue of Best of the Internetz is going to be awesome! If you just can’t wait until next week, check out http://sxsw.com/ or the twitter stream for all the latest as it happens – search #sxsw.
Social games are enormous. Farmville has anywhere between 60-80 million average monthly users worldwide and men and women of all ages are fans, so it was only a matter of time before brands started jumping on board. Bing was a notable entry, offering players free ‘farm cash’ for becoming a fan of the search engine.
McDonald’s however, takes the spade (geddit?) though with their branded farm on Farmville for a one day event. During the event, McDonald’s became your neighbour farm allowing players to come and work on the McDonald’s farm, helping to grow things like tomatoes and mustard seeds, in return for virtual McCafe items to help them grow their farms twice as fast.
With around 16 million daily users on Farmville, the exposure for McDonald’s is huge. But the choice of game is interesting. Anyone remember the “McVideo Game” from 2006 that did the rounds? Designed to draw attention to the greed of the Macca’s management and unethical practices they support to source the ingredients for its menu, the game has a very similar set up to the famed Farmville.
I can’t help but wonder, is 2006 long enough for people to forget and not draw comparisons between the two games? And would something like Cafe World at 22 million monthly users have been a better fit? I guess we’ll soon find out…
Having worked closely with a tourism client for some time now, I’m always looking for innovative ways to promote tourism. Tourism can be a deeply personal, highly excitable experience for most people, so it is frustrating to see the same old channels used to promote it. A TVC merely projects a predetermined experience onto the viewers, print is lifeless, radio is one-way… Why use mass marketing on such a unique product?
The Canadian Tourism Commission, charged with promoting Canada to its slightly higher charged neighbours, took Twitter to the streets of New York, LA and Chicago and set up an interactive mural. Using current tweets by travellers in Canada, passers-by were encouraged to use the touchscreens to learn about other people’s real-time Canadian experiences via Twitter, Facebook and You Tube. A nice way to bring tourism to life and highlight just how personal it can be.
I'm Lindsey. I work in advertising, but I'm also an ex-record store, high fidelity-esque Aria Award winner. I'm a trend hunter, music obsessed and a pop culture tragic. I collect watches and scarves & I love to travel to anywhere completely different to home. I'm an Australian living an adventure in Singapore.
