Afternoon all,

Wow, a bumper load of clicks last week, over 100 for the SuperSloMo cam and Tupac at Coachella (apologies for those who got a dead link on the Tupac one, in the time of writing to posting YT removed the video, there were still plenty out there so hopefully you found one and saw it in its glory, so all good.

Social Search: For a while the perceived holy grail of search is relevancy through your social graph. Back in Jan Google announced Search+ Your World their attempt at bringing a more social bent to your search results. It has been met with mixed reception, not least for being limited to only really being Google+ results. Bing and FB have been tied together since 2010. Both have their limitations which predominantly revolve around the integration of the full suite of social services out there. As we have often seen before it is the nimble small player who comes in and disrupts the market and Wajam are no different and have managed to draw in from al l the big players. Check out the video on their site to see it properly.

In action it looks like this – when I do a search for Gary Neville’s Meg Ryan like reaction to the Fernando Torres goal against Barcelona I get a little addition showing who I follow on Twitter / FB and G+ have also mentioned or shared links about it. If you haven’t heard it then here you go: it is like a cross being his ecstasy and the Hound of the Baskerville.

A less surprising thing to hear would be if one of the big boys, most likely Google, swoops in for them soon.

NFC: We chat to Zappit’s Cameron Worth about NFC (near field communication)and mobile, covering the importance of the Olympics for uptake, adoption barriers, tips for successful campaigns and hear how “at worst brands are early adopters and best case are pioneers”. Check out the video here

Twitter TV ad: If you are fan of Homeland (if you aren’t you should be)then this Sunday night you will see an ad for Prometheus and then shortly after a follow up ad, with live Tweets streaming across your tellybox, will be shown giving immediate feedback to the trailer. To get involved use #areyouseeingthis

And finally, welcome to the future... With the Prometheus film about to launch you could be mistaken into thinking this next piece is a part of the promotion for it, especially when you hear that James Cameron is involved. But it isn’t. This is a real company that announced itself this week and their stated aim is to be able to mine asteroids in near earth orbit. Check out the pretty phenomenal intro here. Other high profile backers are Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt.

They are hoping to launch their first spacecraft the Arkyd 1 within the next 24 months and be mining before the end of the decade. No doubt a film will be made soon...

Have a great w/e.

Oli.

Afternoon all,

Depending on how plugged in to music you are this might be old news, but one of the biggest trending things on Twitter / FB and YouTube this week was the amazing 3D hologram* return of Tupac at Coachella. If you haven’t seen it then have a look (disclaimer - it has a rather “urban” feel to it so if you are easily offended I suggest without volume).

*For the real pedants out there, it is a 2D trick called a Pepper’s Ghost illusion not full 3D.

Beyond it simply being a phenomenally amazing looking depiction of a dead performer it becomes even more amazing when you realise it isn’t simply a rehash of a previous gig but a new unique performance taking his likeness and voice and piecing together physical characteristics and movements from previous performances to create a whole new set with fresh movements and dialogue. Indications are that this cost $100k-$400k.

Will we be seeing future stadium tours from other deceased artists or even living stars touring as their younger selves? It is now a very real possibility and no doubt Vegas will be first to try it with Elvis.

You may think it crazy and far-fetched but it is already happening. In Japan, no surprises, Miku Hatsuna has been selling out arenas for over a year and getting number 1 albums even though she is just a hologram vision. Here is a song from a recent well packed gig - http://bit.ly/Japanese3Dgig

Tupac’s posthumous skills aren’t limited to just singing, a toungue in cheek Twitter account has attracted over 30k followers

Facebook buy Tagtile: Hot on the heels of their Instagram purchase FB have got the chequebook out again and bought another mobile company. Tagtile is a company that specialised in loyalty programs (coupons and rewards) for users when they tagged their phone against a physical device at checkouts in stores. The rationale goes that it isn’t the service per-se they are interested in but the infrastructure of the installed devices which will enable FB to connect the dots between online and offline purchase.

Crowdfunding is now fact: Every so often I mention a project from the crowdfunding site Kickstarter.com. If you have never been on there you should. It really is reflecting a shift in behaviour whereby individuals and companies are foregoing the traditional funding route to go directly to the buyer and offer them an early opportunity to be involved and for exclusives. Well, after the $3m barrier was broken a month or so ago for a new game we are well on the way to seeing $5m being smashed. The product is a watch that synchs with your phone.

Here is an interview with the guy behind the watch on WIRED when they were at a paltry $3m

Genius or wasted space? This has been niggling me for a few days. Is it a really clever piece of contextual advertising? Yes. But, the wasted daylight opportunity as a standard placement seems too much. I am sure both day and night could have been used for this without diluting the impact of the night time reveal. What do you think?

Xbox isn’t just a gaming machine: For the last year or so we have been doing a fair bit of work around the agency to demonstrate how Xbox is more than a simple games machine. Latest numbers show that non gaming time on xbox is now almost a whopping 50%. Users are watching films, programs via services like iPlayer, listening to music, browsing photos etc. If you have an xbox and haven’t yet signed up to LIVE Gold membership then you are in luck, this w/e Xbox will be opening the service up for everyone (19th to the 23rd) across the world. It is worth checking out.

The death of the USB stick: After years of rumour it is seemingly about to be released, most likely on Tuesday next week, apparently Tuesday is the best day for tech launches. Google will unveil their Dropbox like cloud storage offering Google Drive.

Users will get 5mb storage and desktop integration making it as simple as a drag and drop to store files.

And finally: Proof that anything filmed in super slow mo looks awesomely cool

Have a great w/e.

Oli.

Afternoon all,

No doubt you have all seen in amazement the $1bn buy out of Instagram by Facebook. This has sparked vast amounts of chat around; is this the beginning of the end of the next tech bubble?, how Instagram was FB’s biggest threats all the way through to proof that the imminent future of the web is already mobile only. A huge amount has been written about it all week so this isn’t the place, but the big tip is that it was the location data that Instagram has that most appealed.

Mega start-ups, who’s next?: Business Insider has put together their top 10 list and it makes for great reading (note, this was written prior to the Instagram acquisition so they are already getting some of it right) and shows a few companies you have probably never even heard of. http://read.bi/thenextbillion

Another of the companies on the list is, not surprisingly, Pinterest. A huge amount of thinking of late as to how to properly incorporate it in to our campaigns. For me the resounding answer and advice is still just try something, doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work. We have been exploring for weeks what the possible tracking solutions can be and at the moment a lot of it seems to revert back to “check your weblogs and see if traffic increased”, not the ideal. No doubt in a short amount of time we will start to see more advanced integration with our traditional 3rd party solutions, in the meantime a new solution has popped up called Pinerly, still invite only but you can sign up for the waiting list here

Google Art Project: Working too hard? Loads of plans for down time but finding you never get to visit the exhibition you wanted? Then Google Art Project might be your answer. In their continued attempts to “organise the world’s information” Google have released the Art Project. Much like streetview does for roads the Art Project allows you to go inside museums and galleries and explore the paintings from the comfort of your own home. No more worrying about fast approaching closing hour or the mass hordes crowding around the one painting you want. Admittedly it doesn’t have all the atmosphere of the trip but then it does allow you to see it

If you can’t be bothered with that then here is a really wonderful intro video to give you a flavour

YouTube 3D: If you still have some retro 3D glasses kicking about then hooray, you are about to get a load more content, YouTube have added a 3D format to their HD videos, just click the link, next to the cog, and it will play – apparently people are clicking on it.

Twitter history: Curious about your own or someone else’s twitter history and want to see all the tweets on a single list?Previously it has been difficult to get beyond a few months, now you can see up to a maximum of 3,200 (the API limit) regardless of time frame - http://bit.ly/AllMyTweets

Twitter Smart Cartoon: Ever wanted your twitter feed to be more creative? Check out this feed from Smart Car in Argentina when it loads press “J” to get the full effect (or just watch the video here)

Opportunities Spotify: If you missed it on Weds not to worry, Spotify announced their universal Play button. What does such a thing do you ask. Simply put it enables brands to embed a Spotify play button on their site. Think Cineworld for example having the soundtracks to the movie you are about to buy a ticket for.

It really is very cool. Here's just one example on MSN For the full Spotify write up check out their blog

Kiosked.com: And finally, I had an interesting meeting with a company offering a new opportunity – Kiosked whereby we can overlay interactive hotspots to video, pictures and games. Click on the link above and check out the Rihanna example. Very cool and a great way to bring the sales basket direct to the content. We should be able to add this to YouTube videos and within Facebook. Give me a shout for details.

Final final: This was so cool I had to put it in and big thank you to Elliot for the link, launching a new TV channel in Belgium it is worth the click, trust me.

Have a great w/e.

Oli.

Afternoon all,

There has been a lot of talk of late in meetings and presentations I have attended about how the TV format is evolving and the rise of the Audio Visual future where a “TV” is simply a screen capable of playing audio and images, be that a phone, a tablet, or a screen connected to an Xbox.

These are all AV units and all capable of giving us great immersive and resonant experiences. TV is not dying it is just evolving and we are evolving with it.

Bearing this in mind I was really impressed with a new entertainment network that launched on YouTube this week Geek and Sundry

Why should we pay attention to what they are doing?

Simply because they understand how the game is changing at they are at the front of it. The journey started a back in 2007 when a little know bit part actress/comedienne on Buffy the Vampire Slayer decided she needed more work during her bit parts. So taking her love of World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragon games she made a web only series called the Guild all about those who play. It was unashamedly “by geeks for geeks” in her own words. TV studios told her it was too niche but YouTube was the perfect platform. Its first season generated 9m views and Xbox commissioned Season 2 for the Xbox Live platform. It is now launching its 5th season.

I think web video is finally reaching a tipping point this year for sure. People are getting used to consuming video on all of their devices, and they want it whenever they feel like watching it. Appointment viewing is rapidly disappearing. – Felicia Day in WIRED

She has this week officially launched Geek and Sundry a whole channel on YouTube where she and her team create the content and effectively run a TV network – trailer here

Already they have 135k subscribers (all who will be alerted when new content gets added) after just one day; ITV by comparison has 36k subscribers, Channel4 has 90k.

As is the way she also understands the power of social and their Google+ page is a great example of making all your touchpoints work .

Creating all cast Hangouts so viewers can get involved, launching exclusives that can then be shared out, and also understanding that it isn’t just about them – they are happy to share the cool things they find across the web and give further entertainment value.

Watch with interest, this will grow mega fast and really raise eyebrows.

Random top G+ tip: Want to know how a post of yours has spread, who the key influencers were? Then click on the right hand down arrow by the post then hit View Ripples

Ads in Gmail – it will never work: When you are one of the uber early people at Google you get involved in the development of things that completely change the landscape. Watch a short video as Marissa Mayer (20th in) discusses how she tried to stop Gmail ads and how big they have since become.

April fools online: And just in case you missed them last Sunday here are some of the more noteworthy online April fool’s jokes.

Google Maps goes 8-bit as it gets reformatted for the original Nintendo

This is the centre of London and you can pick out Buckingham Palace, with some of the guards trooping, Big Ben and Nelson's Column.

Here is the full video introducing it

Not to be outdone by James Cameron actually tweeting from the bottom of the ocean, real story, Virgin decided to tunnel to the centre of the earth with the Virgin Volcanic, a massive corkscrew type vehicle. As well as various online articles they also supported it via social with Branson tweeting about it

And supporting it on his Google+ page too.

And my absolute favourite, Assassins Creed on the Xbox Kinect. What makes this even more amazing is that it was done completely by fans, no involvement with Xbox or the game developers.

Specially for Gavin: When telling a story or explaining something it is great to bring it to life in a way that reinforces the point. An interesting article on Gaming from the NYT that opens with a fun little game

Google Glasses: Finally, not an April Fool gag but the envisioning of the next mobile phone and portable computer the Google glasses project They aren’t saying these are ready for building but they are taking the initial rumours and corroborating them and almost crowd-source designing them.

Have a great Easter w/e.

Oli.

Afternoon all,

People seemed to like the Google Project re-brief link from last week so as a bit of a follow on and in honour of MadMen new season coming back to our AV screens (not just TV) I give you the MadMen themed Friday email.

YT creativity:

MadMen is back. If you can’t get enough of it and love your retro computer games you can help to guide Don Draper to saving the agency through a very quirky YouTube game. Worth looking at to see the creativity in the space if nothing else

Twitter mobile:

MadMen characters were one of the first full on engagements with the platform and they weren’t coming from the program makers. Hardcore fans were creating them and allowing their enjoyment of the show to go beyond the weekly hour slot. This was the early blueprint and still the benchmark for program engagement on the platform.

Here is the story behind the phenomenally successful Betty Draper fake twitter feed. There is a great video at the end of the article showing a Beatles concert at Shea Stadium being live tweeted by Betty and the girls.

And to keep it real to our day jobs, Twitter has launched Promoted Tweets on mobile phones this week, available to target iOS and Android devices at present. BlackBerry will be rolling out during April.

We can now target: Standard desktop / laptop iOS - Apps and Web on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad Android - Apps and web on phone and tablets Other smartphones - apps and web

Betty loves Kipling:

Tenous link here, Betty loves baking so here is something even she would be proud of; the Kipling team here in London have created an awesome campaign turning a bus stop into a bakery (of sorts). So cool that it has been talked about on Canadian news jump to the 57th minute for the story.

Self-driving cars:

And for when Don leaves the office and is undoubtedly way over the legal limit, he can still use the Cadillac – as long as it is one of the Google self-driving ones that is. See how it helps a blind user. Could the keywords of the future be physical destinations?

And finally, it’s a couple of years old so no Pinterest and they recommend a ringtone, but this is still a humorous little video where Don and team talk digital strategy for an Instant Noodle brand - the voices are weird at first, but stick with it.

Have a great w/e.

Oli.

Afternoon all,

Well, this was the week that Apple didn’t buy Twitter. After strong rumours it was going to break open the $100bn piggy bank and splash the cash on the blue bird Apple ended up deciding to return some money to share holders in the form of their first dividend since 1996 (Steve Jobs didn’t believe in them). But, that didn’t stop a big buy happening elsewhere; Amazon bought up a load of robots when it got Kiva for $775m.

Who are Kiva you may ask? Only the future of factory life – a far cry from the little Dickensian figures dirty with grime and clanging sounds all around, the modern factory is humming with the soft noise of robots. Check out the video to see how it works I particularly like the laser light to point out which item needs to be picked up.

Rich music: Love your original iPod? Prepare to hate it. Had you invested the $399 it cost back in 2001 in Apple stock you would now be enjoying a cash pile worth $26,000. That is bitter sweet music. A big thank you to Gavin McGrow for making me feel like I wasted my money all those years ago with that fact.

Life it would seem, really is like a box of chocolates - http://bit.ly/ForrestGump_e

Classic ads reimagined: I found myself being drawn into this during the week. A great idea, take a classic ad and redesign it for a modern audience. Google, as a way of showing off the capabilities of their display offering have teamed up with the original talent behind some of America’s most iconic ads of yesteryear and recreated them with a modern twist

Maps as creative spaces: The simple map is often overlooked when we plan campaigns, we tend to just think of it as the utility to enable us to find out how to get to our next meeting. But actually something is happening in the world of maps and it is starting to become a space. The absolute winner in this is the Jay-Z example with Bing from a couple of years ago worth watching if you don’t already know of it

So provide some inspiration here is a selection of fun uses of maps on Google

And finally... For those who have yet to get sucked in, you will, Draw Something is the new super addictive and compelling app game that has raced to 35M downloads and 15M daily users in just 7 weeks, as well as a £200M purchase from Zynga for its founders, really putting it in to the Monopoly money stakes.

Draw Something has 13.3m daily active users. Zynga bought them for $200m. At a CPM of $10, users would need to see 1500 ads to break even. But the assumed reason they have bought them is the audience access to a completely new non-gamer demographic who are already spending upwards of $250k a day through the game and enables Zynga to cross sell their other games at a time when they have been seeing audience numbers stagnate.

Have a great w/e.

Oli.

Afternoon all,

Hopefully you enjoyed last week’s video with Ricardo and you have been able to think about how mobile is already an integral part of your audiences experience even if not yet part of your marketing approach – Milton and team are always on hand to help you develop your mobile strategy and even create a mobile landing page if needed. Right, hard sell over.

David Shing video: This week we have David Shing. David is AOL's Digital Prophet, a roving global ambassador. We were lucky enough to have a quick chat with him where we covered: - The new era of "fast fail" - What brands need to know now - Moving from the social web to the interest web - Why it's important to innovate and experiment Have a watch here

This week saw the end of SXSW (South by South West) and here are some top things to watch: Everything.me – mobile search

It presents your searches in a far more graphical way and across a broader spread than would be traditionally expected. It is great for personalities – yes I still live with the dream that Henman will come out of retirement to finally win Wimbledon – and less so for traditional “thing” searches. It will be really interesting to see how this develops. As a sign of where things are moving the guys behind it say they have no intention of developing a desktop version, mobile only.

Other key things coming out of SXSW were how were social discovery. If 2010 was all about location based check-ins (FourSquare launched), 2011 was Messaging apps (GroupMe and Beluga) 2012 was all about location again but with introductions to like minded strangers added in to the mix. The two top apps were Glancee and Highlight which both work around the principle of letting you know when a person with a similar set of social interests is within your vicinity and enabling the introduction.

Advancement on QR code? Such a shame all of these developments need a 3rd party app. Will be great when devices come with them already built in or they can force the device in to it via a simple user action. Touchcode

Story of Gif: Gifs, love them or loath them they have played a key part in the creativity of online. Having pretty much disappeared with web 1.0 they are back and playing a more cultural role in our online experience. A nice short film from PBS in the US about the history of these animated forms and their new artistic role - http://bit.ly/HistoryofGif

Pinterest campaign: With lots of people wondering about how to create a presence on Pinterest here is a really nice campaign from BMI and a fun way to engage with the Pinterest audience. The key thing to take out is that there no rules, it is down to your imagination as to what you do on the site – as David Shing says in his interview, you have to play with the platforms and experiment, see what will take off. bmiLottery

Google search geekery: And finally as a closing video here is a great insight in to the level of detail that Google go to make sure your search results are the best possible video It is quite mind boggling the level of details they go down to.

And this is why they do it:

Have a great w/e.

Oli.

Afternoon all,

It was the week, the new, not 3 or HD, iPad launched to a fairly subdued reaction. I’m not going to write anymore on that, if you want pre launch predictions we were in Campaign and our reactions to the launch were written up in MediaTel

Samsung – ready for lift off: So, the mega goodness kicks off with a trip in to space. You may remember back last year when our International team launched the amazing Angry Birds in Space level complete with its own special Golden Egg.

Well get ready for blast off because they have gone ever more boldly where no one has gone before – watch this NASA astronaut discuss the physics around Angry Birds, it’s worth watching until the end -

SXSW (South by South West): If you can’t make it to Austin Texas next week for SXSW then fear not. Samsung will go for you and keep you up to date using the #FEED tag on Twitter to get all the best bits brought to you as they happen. They will also have an interactive exhibit at the Austin Museum of Art if you do make it. So follow @SamsungMobileUS and save the #FEED.

AskMen and ask Ricardo Poupada: Making its first appearance of 2012 we have a great Q&A session with the Co-Founder of AskMen Ricardo Poupada discussing how they have been able to get ahead of mobile averaging 30% of total traffic vs. A UK average of 7.5% and why Sunday is the day for tablet consumption.

Tech hacks: As a close I give you my favourite videos of the week, the Kinect powered shopping cart that helps you manage your dietary requirements.

And the Board of Awesomeness, using mind control and a Samsung tablet skateboard to propel itself.

Have a great w/e.

Oli.

Good afternoon,

A completely different approach to the Friday email this week. It is a Pinterest board. But don’t worry, the platform may have changed but the content is all there. There is a strong focus on mobile and how that is really starting to fulfil some of the future promise today.

So, before you click over to Pinterest, link at the bottom, here is the quick 101.

“Who or what is Pinterest?” you may say, or you could be one of the 12 million in 8 months who have signed up to this new phenomenon to make it the fastest growing stand-alone site ever (Google+ is classed as an extension of Google in this stat so their 40 million doesn’t count).

In brief it is a social bookmarking site in the form of a digital pinboard of your interests that can be shared with others. Users are “pinning” images of what they like, are interested in etc, and then others can click through, share, buy whatever. Without even trying they seem to have locked up the wedding planning market.

Sites are loving it too as it is rapidly becoming a key traffic driver for them and Pinterest uses the Skimlinks tool to tie that purchase back to them and take a small cut.

And unlike most early crazes online this is a female led one opening up a whole new audience.

So without further ado, I give you the Friday email Pinterest board

Have a great w/e.

Oli.