Saturday, 30 January 2010
Cx3: Apple iPad overview
Not that I try to be swayed by sales pitches, but the Apple iPad does appear to be extraordinarily simple and a beautifully executed user experience that takes interactive communications to another level. Very excited about this.
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Cx3: 2009 social media highlights
2009 is almost over, and no blog would be worth its salt without the obligatory picking out of choice highlights from the year - and Cx3 is no exception. Yes, I may be slightly biased with my selection towards the UK and my indulgance in the banal, but hey...it's Christmas!
Twitter
What can I say? 2009 was the year Twitter went mainstream. Twitter progressed from the techy early adopters to the majority in the product lifecycle. Why? Most noticably was an acceptance by traditional media broadcasters that Twitter was a powerful channel for real-time news distribution (that acctually beat them at their own game). The publicity and exposure Twitter received with the Hudson plane landing and Iran elections catapulted the Twitter communication channel into the spotlight. Secondly, the increased share of the iPhone in the smartphone mobile market allowed the mainstream masses access to a multitude of Twitter apps.
Susan Boyle
Who would have believed that Britain's Got Talent would be the source of the most watched video on YouTube in 2009. Susan Boyle, the fiesty wannabe singer from Scotland, became a worldwide conversational buzz overnight. Yes she didn't win the show (and maybe this was a blessing in disguise), but it's not stopped the '#susanboyle' having the UK's Christmas number one album in 2009.
#uksnow
Us weather obsessed Brits demonstrated our need to share our meteorological interest when, in February 2009, we suffered the worst snow for 20 years. The '#uksnow' hashtag trended on Twitter, and mobile pictures / videos were uploaded to Twitpic, Flickr, blogs, Youtube etc...The world suffered a global drift of British snow - what are we like? Sorry world.
iPhone
Ok, so I finally succumbed to Apple's charms and purchased the iPhone 3GS in July 2009. Seriously though, Apple has made a major dent in the share of the UK smartphone mobile market with the iPhone, and is doing the same in the US. The iPhone has been elevated to a desirable must-have object that is transforming the way we communicate..."What iPhone apps have you got?"
Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry has become the unlikely champion and celebrity spokesperson of Twitter in the UK. The expert wordsmith and linguist, has perfectly tweeted his intelligent wry wit to the score of 1,000,000+ followers. A worthy face to represent British Twits (that didn't come out right, did it).
Citizen journalism
The Iran election (influencial event rather than highlight), proved the demonstrable truth that Twitter had arrived as a channel for citizen journalists to broadcast real-time news worldwide, where traditional news broadcasters failed. The Iran election was also a milestone for integrated media channel broadcasting - BBC TV news adopted to broadcast YouTube videos when their reporters were denied access by the Iranian government, in order to sustain a newsworthy story.
Facebook v X Factor
The might of Facebook against the might of X Factor saw a historic battle to reach the prestigious number one spot in the UK Christmas singles chart. A Facebook campaign 'Rage Against The Machine for Christmas No1', created by Jon and Tracy Morter, was a reaction against X Factor potentially spawning the UK's Christmas number one single for the fifth year in a row. The Facebook campaign captured the public's imagination and Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing in the Name' successfully beat 'The Climb' by X Factor's Joe McElderry into second place by 50,000 copies.
2009 really has been a year where social media 'est arrivé'. In observing these choice highlights, there is a bridging commonality of the seamless social media integration with mainstream communication channels - predominantly broadcast and mobile.
Marketers realise that social media reaches an audience, and its dynamics sit within the holistic communications mix - let's see how marketers maximise the effectiveness of social media in 2010.
Merry Xmas!
What can I say? 2009 was the year Twitter went mainstream. Twitter progressed from the techy early adopters to the majority in the product lifecycle. Why? Most noticably was an acceptance by traditional media broadcasters that Twitter was a powerful channel for real-time news distribution (that acctually beat them at their own game). The publicity and exposure Twitter received with the Hudson plane landing and Iran elections catapulted the Twitter communication channel into the spotlight. Secondly, the increased share of the iPhone in the smartphone mobile market allowed the mainstream masses access to a multitude of Twitter apps.
Susan Boyle
Who would have believed that Britain's Got Talent would be the source of the most watched video on YouTube in 2009. Susan Boyle, the fiesty wannabe singer from Scotland, became a worldwide conversational buzz overnight. Yes she didn't win the show (and maybe this was a blessing in disguise), but it's not stopped the '#susanboyle' having the UK's Christmas number one album in 2009.
#uksnow
Us weather obsessed Brits demonstrated our need to share our meteorological interest when, in February 2009, we suffered the worst snow for 20 years. The '#uksnow' hashtag trended on Twitter, and mobile pictures / videos were uploaded to Twitpic, Flickr, blogs, Youtube etc...The world suffered a global drift of British snow - what are we like? Sorry world.
iPhone
Ok, so I finally succumbed to Apple's charms and purchased the iPhone 3GS in July 2009. Seriously though, Apple has made a major dent in the share of the UK smartphone mobile market with the iPhone, and is doing the same in the US. The iPhone has been elevated to a desirable must-have object that is transforming the way we communicate..."What iPhone apps have you got?"
Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry has become the unlikely champion and celebrity spokesperson of Twitter in the UK. The expert wordsmith and linguist, has perfectly tweeted his intelligent wry wit to the score of 1,000,000+ followers. A worthy face to represent British Twits (that didn't come out right, did it).
Citizen journalism
The Iran election (influencial event rather than highlight), proved the demonstrable truth that Twitter had arrived as a channel for citizen journalists to broadcast real-time news worldwide, where traditional news broadcasters failed. The Iran election was also a milestone for integrated media channel broadcasting - BBC TV news adopted to broadcast YouTube videos when their reporters were denied access by the Iranian government, in order to sustain a newsworthy story.
Facebook v X Factor
The might of Facebook against the might of X Factor saw a historic battle to reach the prestigious number one spot in the UK Christmas singles chart. A Facebook campaign 'Rage Against The Machine for Christmas No1', created by Jon and Tracy Morter, was a reaction against X Factor potentially spawning the UK's Christmas number one single for the fifth year in a row. The Facebook campaign captured the public's imagination and Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing in the Name' successfully beat 'The Climb' by X Factor's Joe McElderry into second place by 50,000 copies.
2009 really has been a year where social media 'est arrivé'. In observing these choice highlights, there is a bridging commonality of the seamless social media integration with mainstream communication channels - predominantly broadcast and mobile.
Marketers realise that social media reaches an audience, and its dynamics sit within the holistic communications mix - let's see how marketers maximise the effectiveness of social media in 2010.
Merry Xmas!
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Cx3: Rage Against The Machine beats X Factor
One of the most competitive battles to reach the UK's Christmas number one in chart history has been won by Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing in the Name' (supported by a fierce Facebook campaign), beating 'The Climb' by X Factor's Joe McElderry into second place.
The Facebook campaign 'Rage Against The Machine for Christmas No1', created by Jon and Tracy Morter as a reaction against X Factor potentially spawning the UK's Christmas number one single for the fifth year in a row, resulted in 500,000 downloads being sold beating the X Factor winner by 50,000 copies.
Colin Paterson, BBC News Entertainment correspondent comments:
"It is simply one of the biggest shocks in chart history.
The common belief was that the race for Christmas number one had been destroyed by the X Factor.
For the last four years the winning act has been top of the festive charts by a landslide. Bookmakers only took bets on who would be number two.
This year the corporate might of Simon Cowell has been defeated by a husband and wife's Facebook campaign.
The result is 'Killing In The Name', which most parents would be pretty reluctant to play to their children. It contains 17 uses of the F-word.
This chart shock is right up there with Spiller's 'Groovejet' derailing the start of Victoria Beckham's non-Spice Career in 2000 or crooner Engelbert Humperdink ending The Beatles' run of 11 number ones in a row.
Two other points - this could become an annual event - the public deciding on a track with which to take on the X Factor winner.
Secondly there is still every chance Joe will reach number one next week.
The Rage Against Machine campaign was designed for one week only so Joe could get the top spot, saving him the indignity of being the first ever X Factor winner not to hit number one with their debut single."
RELATED LINKS:
Cx3 blog entry: Facebook, the influential social networking book face
The Facebook campaign 'Rage Against The Machine for Christmas No1', created by Jon and Tracy Morter as a reaction against X Factor potentially spawning the UK's Christmas number one single for the fifth year in a row, resulted in 500,000 downloads being sold beating the X Factor winner by 50,000 copies.
Colin Paterson, BBC News Entertainment correspondent comments:
"It is simply one of the biggest shocks in chart history.
The common belief was that the race for Christmas number one had been destroyed by the X Factor.
For the last four years the winning act has been top of the festive charts by a landslide. Bookmakers only took bets on who would be number two.
This year the corporate might of Simon Cowell has been defeated by a husband and wife's Facebook campaign.
The result is 'Killing In The Name', which most parents would be pretty reluctant to play to their children. It contains 17 uses of the F-word.
This chart shock is right up there with Spiller's 'Groovejet' derailing the start of Victoria Beckham's non-Spice Career in 2000 or crooner Engelbert Humperdink ending The Beatles' run of 11 number ones in a row.
Two other points - this could become an annual event - the public deciding on a track with which to take on the X Factor winner.
Secondly there is still every chance Joe will reach number one next week.
The Rage Against Machine campaign was designed for one week only so Joe could get the top spot, saving him the indignity of being the first ever X Factor winner not to hit number one with their debut single."
RELATED LINKS:
Cx3 blog entry: Facebook, the influential social networking book face
Friday, 4 December 2009
Cx3: UK's best handheld - The Sun
The Sun newspaper hits back and champions paper-based news distribution with this wonderful pastiche of the iPhone advert. The UK's best handheld for 40 years. Brilliant!
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Cx3: Who is Gio Compario?
Absolutely loving the 'Who is Gio?' PR campaign to support Go Compare's ATL advertising starring the coffee shop opera singing wonder that is Gio Compario (and he's only a tenor/tenner...oh how we laughed!). Inspired by the Google Latitude stunt, the search for Gio is on, 39 people, 39 locations...But who is Gio?
The rising Go Compare star introduces his own Gio Compario campaign site. You can join his many fans on Facebook, and also follow operatic antics on Gio Compario's Twitter.
Following this one closely to see where Gio goes next.
RELATED LINKS:
Cx3 blog entry: Grow social capital and go guerrilla
Cx3 blog entry: Virgin Atlantic Still Red Hot video
Cx3 blog entry: T-mobile Liverpool Street advert - class
The rising Go Compare star introduces his own Gio Compario campaign site. You can join his many fans on Facebook, and also follow operatic antics on Gio Compario's Twitter.
Following this one closely to see where Gio goes next.
RELATED LINKS:
Cx3 blog entry: Grow social capital and go guerrilla
Cx3 blog entry: Virgin Atlantic Still Red Hot video
Cx3 blog entry: T-mobile Liverpool Street advert - class
Monday, 31 August 2009
Cx3: Big Brother's social media future
As an unashamed Big Brother fan (I indulge in its banality), and knowing for a while that Endomol's contract with Channel 4 was due to end in 2010 the recent spin targeted at Joe Public raising the prominance of a ratings slump was an amusing move in managing expectations.
I was interested to read Wildonion's insider thoughts on the subject and I totally concur with the opportunities mentioned that Endemol has for social network affiliation.
As Wildonion says "It [Big Brother] has a young audience. That audience don’t really watch too much TV", therefore, target the channels that they do access - does Endemol even need a traditional TV broadcaster to facilitate this? What we see today are managed bite-sized chunks of happenings in the house of what a Channel 4 producer wants a TV audience to see that supposedly makes good television and is an attempt to sustain TV viewing figures - but for what audience?
Big Brother started as a social experiment - a group of people cut off from the outside world and how they behaved over a period of time. As we all know, the programme became a perceived avenue for celebrity stardom. However, two interesting things happened this year that should not be overlooked:
- Firstly, the outside world came into the house for the first time in the form of a few 'celebrity gossip magazines', within which housemates were featured - their reactions were televised and it was a refreshing flashback to the original social experiment ethos of the first series.
- Secondly, conversations were encouraged by allowing housemates to discuss nominations.
In the future, why not give housemates ongoing access to social media whilst in the house so that they can view the conversations being said about them in the outside world - would this change an individual's behaviour in order to manage their own self's brand reputation? Housemates could engage with social media by recording their own diary-cam videos to upload to YouTube, they could write blog posts or interact with Twitter.
Ten year's after Big Brother started, social interactions have changed with the advances of social media. Therefore, it is these social media interactions that Big Brother needs to experiment upon again.
RELATED LINKS:
Big Brother - end of an era. Don't be so daft
I was interested to read Wildonion's insider thoughts on the subject and I totally concur with the opportunities mentioned that Endemol has for social network affiliation.
As Wildonion says "It [Big Brother] has a young audience. That audience don’t really watch too much TV", therefore, target the channels that they do access - does Endemol even need a traditional TV broadcaster to facilitate this? What we see today are managed bite-sized chunks of happenings in the house of what a Channel 4 producer wants a TV audience to see that supposedly makes good television and is an attempt to sustain TV viewing figures - but for what audience?
Big Brother started as a social experiment - a group of people cut off from the outside world and how they behaved over a period of time. As we all know, the programme became a perceived avenue for celebrity stardom. However, two interesting things happened this year that should not be overlooked:
- Firstly, the outside world came into the house for the first time in the form of a few 'celebrity gossip magazines', within which housemates were featured - their reactions were televised and it was a refreshing flashback to the original social experiment ethos of the first series.
- Secondly, conversations were encouraged by allowing housemates to discuss nominations.
In the future, why not give housemates ongoing access to social media whilst in the house so that they can view the conversations being said about them in the outside world - would this change an individual's behaviour in order to manage their own self's brand reputation? Housemates could engage with social media by recording their own diary-cam videos to upload to YouTube, they could write blog posts or interact with Twitter.
Ten year's after Big Brother started, social interactions have changed with the advances of social media. Therefore, it is these social media interactions that Big Brother needs to experiment upon again.
RELATED LINKS:
Big Brother - end of an era. Don't be so daft
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Cx3: Powerful social media stats
Some powerful stats demonstrating why social media is not just a fad - if Facebook were a country it would be the fourth largest in the world...plus many more.
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Cx3: Nielsen Iran social media stats
Nielsen has undertaken snapshot search results analysis from Google for Iran focussed key phrases (Iran; Iran protest; Iran election; Moussavi and Ahmadinejad) over a two week period. A number of insights have emerged about how the Internet and social media continue to be a transforming force for the news industry.
Findings from an Internet snapshot from June 18, 2009:
- CNN rarely shows up in the top five search results for select Iran Election terms, mirroring criticism from consumers that the global news network’s coverage of the Iran Election was lacking (#CNNFail).
- Wikipedia emerges within the top two search results for 4/5 of the leading topics.
- At least one social media source emerges within the top 10 search results for every term. In most cases, the social media sites emerge directly above a traditional, major news source, such as WSJ.com.
Findings from an Internet snapshot from June 24, 2009:
- YouTube emerges within the top 10 search results for all search terms in the second week.
- Wikipedia remains within the top three search results in the second week for four of the five search terms.
- Twitter emerges within the top 20 search results in week two, specifically the Twitter results for Moussavi and Ahmadinejad. Of course, traditional news sources such as the BBC (and CNN, in week two) bubble to the top of search results, as do general information sites such as Yahoo.com and Infoplease.com.
Nielsen say that it is "yet another watershed moment in the ongoing evolution of news and media, further blurring the lines between being, reporting, and following the story". Read full findings from Nielsen: The Iran Election and Social Media: The New News Revolution
RELATED LINKS:
Cx3 blog entry: Iran's social media voice
Findings from an Internet snapshot from June 18, 2009:
- CNN rarely shows up in the top five search results for select Iran Election terms, mirroring criticism from consumers that the global news network’s coverage of the Iran Election was lacking (#CNNFail).
- Wikipedia emerges within the top two search results for 4/5 of the leading topics.
- At least one social media source emerges within the top 10 search results for every term. In most cases, the social media sites emerge directly above a traditional, major news source, such as WSJ.com.
Findings from an Internet snapshot from June 24, 2009:
- YouTube emerges within the top 10 search results for all search terms in the second week.
- Wikipedia remains within the top three search results in the second week for four of the five search terms.
- Twitter emerges within the top 20 search results in week two, specifically the Twitter results for Moussavi and Ahmadinejad. Of course, traditional news sources such as the BBC (and CNN, in week two) bubble to the top of search results, as do general information sites such as Yahoo.com and Infoplease.com.
Nielsen say that it is "yet another watershed moment in the ongoing evolution of news and media, further blurring the lines between being, reporting, and following the story". Read full findings from Nielsen: The Iran Election and Social Media: The New News Revolution
RELATED LINKS:
Cx3 blog entry: Iran's social media voice
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Cx3: Thinkbox advert - brand nostalgia
Loving the trip down memory lane with the advert from thinkbox of some nostalgic brands made famous by TV advertising.
RELATED LINKS:
Cx3 blog entry: Grow social capital and go guerrilla
Cx3 blog entry: Virgin Atlantic Still Red Hot video
Cx3 blog entry: T-mobile Liverpool Street advert - class
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Cx3: #iphone 3G S and #HTC Hero - no contest
HTC's Hero is based on the Google Android system, boasts greater personalisation and an angled design...and not much else. It's going to take more than an attractive handset to challenge the market position of Apple's iPhone now. The new iPhone 3G S is a must-have desireable and sustains the iPhone's iconic status as the smartphone of today and the future. With a PR buzz protecting the iPhone, competitors need to dent this before standing a chance of being a commercial threat.
RELATED LINKS:
Cx3 blog entry: Smartphone market trends
Cx3 blog entry: Google G1 or Apple i-Phone...fight!
Cx3 blog entry: Apple iPhone App Store success reported
Cx3 blog entry: iPhone driving growth in mobile internet usage behaviour
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