Gillette uArt iPhone App

Gillette have just launched an iPhone app called “uArt“. Its a pretty good attempt at a branded iPhone app, where you get to load in a photo of yourself, apply various types of facial hair and then use the Gillette ”fusion” razor (your finger) complete with vibration to shave yourself a masterpiece!

Catchy little concept, but to go viral and make the most of the app, they really needed some sort of social media “share” option to post back into the likes of facebook, twitter, flickr .etc The app was created by BBDO / AIM Proximity. 

Site: http://www.gillette.com/uart/

High Priced Domains

1 Fund.com, Sold in 2008: 9.99 million dollars
2 Porn.com, Sold in 2007: 9.5 million dollars
3 Diamonds.com, Sold: 7.5 million dollars
4 Toys.com, Sold: 5.1 million dollars. Directed to Toys ‘R’ Us’ website
5 Vodka.com, Sold: 3 million dollars
6 Creditcards.com, Sold in 2000: 5.1 million dollars.
7 Computers.com, Sold: 2.1 million dollars
8 Seniors.com, Sold: 1.8 million dollars
9 DataRecovery.com, Sold: 1.5 million dollars
10 Cameras.com, Sold: 1.5 million dollars

2009 Ad Awards

5/22/2009 International Food and Beverage Creative Excellence Awards - FAB Awards

6/1/2009 The Webby Awards

6/3/2009 Global Effie Awards

6/6/2009 ADDY Awards - New York

6/9/2009 AICP

6/10/2009 Chip Shop Awards

6/11/2009 D&AD Awards

6/11/2009 International Advertising Festival "Golden Hammer"

6/12/2009 Art Directors Club of Europe Awards

6/17/2009 Grand Prix Stratégies de la Publicité

6/21/2009 Cannes Lions - International Advertising Festival

6/30/2009 The New York Festivals International Advertising Awards in All Media

9/11/2009 Kinsale Shark Awards Advertising Festival

9/16/2009 EURO EFFIES

9/25/2009 Loerie Awards

10/4/2009 The Golden Drum Awards

10/9/2009 EFFIE Germany

10/26/2009 The Cresta Awards

11/16/2009 London International Awards - LIA

11/18/2009 Green Awards

11/29/2009 Eurobest

Ref: http://www.adforum.com/creative_archive/award/schedule.asp

Most Web 2.0 Companies Fail

Without any comment..!

Cool Speakers

All in One (concept)

Created by industrial designer Erick Sakal. They combine the subwoofer and stereo speakers in a single package, using directional angles to widen the sound.

E-Pod (concept)

Created by designer Eun Seok Huh. It is the perfect speaker for your bedroom. It has a built in speaker (obviously), a movie projector and an alarm clock. Sweet!

500XL

Designed by Winnif Pang. They mimic the original iPod headphones, but as the number suggest, they are 500 times bigger.

Headphonies

The ninja speakers, or anything you want. Small limited edition speakers that you can either buy pre-designed, or blank, so that you can make up your own design.

ref: http://tinyurl.com/o5dhwt

Google rolls out mobile phone barcode scanning

LONDON - Google's online shopping service Product Search has introduced a barcode scanner for Android mobile phone users that allows for price comparison on the fly.

The free application scans barcodes on products and shows the user what the item is retailing for online. It also provides links for products reviews and specs.

Google said the scanner works best for products like electronics, books, movies and video games, but is planning on adding more barcodes for other items.

The app is similar to iPhone's Snaptell, which provides product reviews and price comparison for CDs, books and movies by taking a picture of the product with the iPhone's camera.

ref: http://tinyurl.com/ov79b6

Banner Ads: Beyond the Click

Display ads do more than look pretty.

Online display ads have gotten a bad rap lately. It’s a format, according to many sources, with declining investment and waning effectiveness. 
But a study from iProspect may have discovered an unexpected benefit of online display ads. 
When Internet users were surveyed to find out what actions they took when viewing a display ad on an ad-supported Website, nearly one-third said they clicked on the ad.

In addition, 27% reported that they did an online search for the product, brand or company, and 21% typed the company Web address in their browser. Nine percent sought additional information using social media tools. 

That means a click is only one measure of a display ad’s effectiveness. 

Among respondents who saw a display ad and performed a related search at some point, the largest proportion (38%) visited the advertiser’s site through search results, 11% searched but did not click on any of the results, and 14% searched, visited the site and purchased the product advertised.

Golden mouse

The Gold Bullion Wireless Mouse (not to be confused the the piratey USB hub) is actually plastic. Which is why it costs $35 and not $35 gajillion. To its credit though, it does have a scroll wheel. But still, why anybody would actually pay for this garish piece of bullionshit (count it) is beyond me.

Untangling Your Brand: 4 Marketing Lessons From Lost

Last night was the season finale of the TV show Lost - and just in case you haven't watched it and have it sitting on DVR waiting for you, don't worry ... there are no spoilers in this post. Actually, though I'm an enthusiast of the show, the reason for this post isn't to gush about how great I think it is. It is about what you learn from how the show has been promoted. Like many recent dramas, it is not an easy show to follow. It isn't about nothing, and you can't just miss a few episodes and still get into it. Yet as I wrote about in PNI (search for "Lost" with the Search Inside feature on Amazon - it is Page 108) - the show's unique format of taking you into the backstory of each characters builds an emotional investment from the viewer in a way that many other shows never manage to do. You believe in the characters because you know about the situations that make them the way that they are.

There is a marketing lesson in that, as there is in several other choices the show's producers and marketing teams have made. Here are a few things that the show does and the marketing lesson that you can learn from them:

1. Share the backstory. As I mentioned above, giving viewers a look at where the characters come from gives each of them a sense purpose and allows you to feel more empathy towards them. As any good screenwriter knows, the point isn't for you to love every character - it's for you to feel something towards them. Once you do that, you're engaged in the show. Marketing Lesson: Make sure you share the story behind your brand so you can give people a reason to believe in it.
2. Untangle the complexity. One of the smartest things the show does is they feature a simplified 3-5 minute version of every episode untangled (see video below in this post). These descriptions are from the outside looking into the show, referring to a character who wears too much eye makeup as "eyeliner" and poking fun generally at the actors in the show and the way they portray their roles. Alongside this irreverance, Lost Untangled explains the plotline of every episode in a way that allows you to understand it despite the complexity of time shifting, multiple characters and hidden clues. Marketing Lesson: If you have something complicated to sell, get creative about how you can simplify it.
3. React to your critics. Early in the show, the creators were criticized because they got people emotionally invested in the core characters of the show, and then introduced new characters and shifted the focus. Many viewers were confused because the characters they knew had essentially vanished. Though this was presumably part of the broader story arc, the producers recognized that viewers needed some connection to the characters they already loved, and found a way to bring that back - while still progressing their story and introducing the new characters they had planned to. Marketing Lesson: Don't ignore your critics, but don't change your strategy because of them either.
4. Have a finite ending. As the trailers after last night's finale noted, next year will be the final season of Lost. For a top rated show, it cannot have been an easy decision to let the show end at what seems to be the height of its popularity - yet having a finite end is important for both audiences and for the writers of the show. Everyone knows that the show is leading toward something. There is a sense of anticipation and excitement, as well as urgency to watch. It's not a soap opera where people go into comas, die, wake up and go on again. Marketing Lesson: Having an ending is important - even if it's just a campaign that ends so you can start a new one.

REF: http://tinyurl.com/qxebab 

Average iPhone App Sees 19.9 Uses, 9.6 Minutes Per Play

The average iPhone application has an engagement of 9.6 minutes per session and is accessed 19.9 times over its life cycle - for an average total use time per user of three hours and 10 minutes, according to Greystripe’s Q109 Consumer Insights Report, which released information about iPhone app usage among its users, as well as user response to ads placed within iPhone applications. 

The research, which was conducted among Greystripe’s US iPhone customer base to meet growing demand from publishers and brands for information about market size, revenue and usage, reveals that 42% of iPhone app users have a household income of $78K or more, while 15% earn $165K or more, and 44% have children. The study also found that 46% of users play their games/apps five times or more, while 10.2% play 25 times or more.

Top 10 Apps

Greystripe said that the top 10 games/apps for the iPhone, among its users are (listed alphabetically):

Interest in Interactive Ads

The report also found that consumers favorably rate Greystripe’s rich media Flash ads for the iPhone. According to data Greystripe cited from comScore, 80% of Greystripe users would consider downloading more ad-supported mobile games and apps:

Some 65% of Greystripe’s iPhone users say they would interact more with an ad if it were an interactive ad, as opposed to a static ad; and users were 48% more likely to prefer an interactive ad if they had previously experienced a GS.Rich Media Flash ad, the report stated.

Moreover, Greystripe said comScore findings reveal that its Flash ads have seen an average increase in top-of-mind brand awareness of 10 percentage points vs. the online average of one percentage point.

Additonal report highlights:
The US still dominates country-specific popularity of Greystripe-supported iPhone apps with the US accounting for 74.8% of traffic. The US is followed by Great Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico and Germany.

Among Greystripe’s iPhone consumers, there is an almost even gender split (52% male, 48% female).

45% of Greystripe’s users are between ages 18 and 34.

91% of Greystripe’s users are involved in their household purchasing decisions.

Greystripe provides free mobile content to consumers in an ad-supported model. Research from Q408 found that the company’s mobile gamers prefer the iPhone.

ref: http://tinyurl.com/puvn5u 

4 Tips: Twitter marketing

Twitter is everywhere and chock-full of consumers – so more and more marketers want to get on the Tweeting bandwagon. But how can you be sure you're making the most of your microblogging efforts? Four experts share their top tips;

Get started
Twitter is just one of the tools that you need to have in your social media toolbox along with things like a Facebook page, a LinkedIn profile, a blog, and an RSS feed on your website. We are living in an age of instant communication and a river of information flowing through our social networks, mobile phones, and email inboxes. Twitter is just the latest and most streamlined method for obtaining that information. So sign up and create an account, then find a few people you'd like to follow such as a celebrity or guru in your field, and follow them. Watch what they “tweet.” Some have lots to say and some have very little. Some “re-tweet” what others have said and some add links to photos, videos or news stories. This will help you understand how you should communicate. As you follow others, you will find people following you. You don't have to do a ton of marketing for your Twitter account. Just get started. 
Larry Weintraub, CEO, Fanscape

Don't just talk about yourself
Twitter is about tapping into trends and dialogue. It's conversational and informational all at the same time, which provides a unique opportunity for marketers to build trust. If you only talk about yourself, your products or your service, people will ultimately tune out (unless, of course, you're a brand like Apple and your products are the trend). As you get involved with the community, you should help solve problems, address concerns, provide real information and create value for your followers. Tell them things that they didn't know. Make them laugh. Give them a reason to keep following you. And more importantly give them a reason to like you and talk about you. 
Avi Savar, founder & CEO, Big Fuel Communications

Don't spam your audience
Don't set up an automated Twitter feed. Listening to a robot is fun for about 10 seconds. This is not what Twitter is about. Be original and engage with your followers. Additionally, don't use Twitter as an online press room to post your company's press releases, news updates or new hires. Sure, it's fine to include a couple links to a new company initiative or event…but it must be done sparingly and must be relevant to your followers. So remember to tweet wisely!
Ian Spalter, creative director, mobile and emerging platforms, R/GA

Tweet predictably 
Know ahead of time how often you plan to tweet. How often will your followers want to hear from you? Once per day? Twenty times? Make up your mind beforehand, then be predictable and stick with a consistent frequency. Don't try to tweet “on the hour,” (you're not a radio station), just avoid a “feast or famine” schedule. It helps to have some general topics queued up, so you're tweeting with a consistent voice.
Jayson Elliot, director of user experience, Wunderman, New York

http://tinyurl.com/p76x6k 

internet istatistikleri..

Google search stats:

1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) - approximate number of unique URLs in Google’s index

2,000,000,000 (two billion) - very rough number of Google searches daily

$110,000,000 - approximately amount of money lost by Google annually due to the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button

24,400 - number of people employed by Google (December, 2008)

68,000,000 - the average number of times people Googled the word Google each month for the last year (source: keyword tool)

$39.96 - the average cost per click for the phrase “consolidation of school loans” in AdWords (source: keyword tool)

1,430,000 - the number of Google results for “Robert Scoble”

136,000 - the number of Google results for “Admiral Ackbar”

Wikipedia stats 

2,695,205 - the number of articles in English on Wikipedia

684,000,000 - the number of visitors to Wikipedia in the last year

75,000 - the number of active contributors to Wikipedia

10,000,000 - the number of total articles in Wikipedia in all languages

260 - the number of languages articles have been written in on Wikipedia

YouTube stats 

70,000,000 - number of total videos on YouTube (March 2008)

200,000 - number of video publishers on YouTube (March 2008)

100,000,000 - number of YouTube videos viewed per day (this stat from 2006 is the most recent I could locate)

112,486,327 - number of views the most viewed video on YouTube has (January, 2009)

2 minutes 46.17 seconds - average length of video

412.3 years - length in time it would take to view all content on YouTube (March 2008)

26.57 - average age of uploader

13 hours - amount of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

US $1.65 billion in Google stock - amount Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for in October 2006

$1,000,000 - YouTube’s estimated bandwidth costs per day

Blogosphere stats

133,000,000 - number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002

346,000,000 - number of people globally who read blogs (comScore March 2008)

900,000 - average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period

1,750,000 - number of RSS subscribers to TechCrunch, the most popular Technology blog (January 2009)

77% - percentage of active Internet users who read blogs

55% - percentage of the blogosphere that drinks more than 2 cups of coffee per day

81 - number of languages represented in the blogosphere

59% - percentage of bloggers who have been blogging for at least 2 years

Twitter stats

1,111,991,000 - number of Tweets to date

3,000,000 - number of Tweets/day(March 2008) (from TechCrunch)

165,414 - number of followers of the most popular Twitter user (@BarackObama) - but he’s not active

86,078 - number of followers of the most active Twitter user

63% - percentage of Twitter users that are male 

Facebook stats

200,000,000 - number of active users

100,000,000 - number of users who log on to Facebook at least once each day

170 - number of countries/territories that use Facebook

35 - number of different languages used on Facebook

2,600,000,000 - number of minutes global users in aggregate spend on Facebook daily

100 - number of friends the average user has

700,000,000 - number of photos added to Facebook monthly

52,000 - number of applications currently available on Facebook

140 - number of new applications added per day

Digg stats

236,000,000 - number of visitors attracted annually by 2008

56% - percentage of Digg’s frontpage content allegedly controlled by top 100 users

124,340 - number of stories MrBabyMan, the number one user, has Dugg

612 - number of stories from Cracked.com that have made page 1 of Digg

36,925 - number of Diggs the most popular story in the last 365 days has received

Garanti Bank 4ever..