Chatting to my good friend Jo recently, who is a primary school teacher, about methods of learning, it struck me that there are some clear parallels between classroom teaching methods and digital marketing.

As I took another gazzolop of sweet tea, I considered the fact that as education continues to gravitate towards increasingly stimulatory learning techniques, so digital advertising – whether it be online ads, social media campaigns or mobile marketing – also calls for similar measures to cut through and resonate. After all, success in both professions is essentially determined by how well you have inspired your audience to engage with the points you are trying to get across. Read More »

Connected TVs have gained significant attention over the last year, and it’s only set to continue. The BBC launched an updated version of its iPlayer for web-connected TVs, Sony and Opera teamed up to provide web browsing capabilities on the platform and Audi launched the UK’s first web-connected TV campaign to promote its A7 Sportback range. In addition, recent research from Furturesource Consulting claims internet-connected televisions are predicted to make up 90% of the TV market in the UK by 2014.

Research from several alternative sources, including Ericsson, clearly shows a growing uptake in connected TV purchases around the world, anticipating 50bn connected devices globally by 2020. The tech-savvy consumer is again leading the way and technology itself is forcing the industry to reassess their business models as audiences migrate away from traditional channels. Read More »

Welcome news today that Prime Minister David Cameron has signed up to FourSquare and LinkedIn.

The PM has a good track record of using technology. He has 1.8 million Twitter followers, 147k Facebook likes and has shared 781 photos on Flickr. I’m sure he’ll make plenty of friends on FourSquare and connections on LinkedIn.

Inspired by President Obama, there’s no doubt that the PM is building a strong digital profile but his focus, in words at least, has recently turned to bigging up the UK’s credentials as a leading tech nation.

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Each week we’ll be bringing you an overview of ITV’s The X Factor and what is happening in social media around the show, which has massively benefited by the surge in interactivity that two screen viewing has brought. We’re looking at the 16 finalists, judges and The X Factor’s official social media channels; Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

As the intro is being played at the start of the Saturday show, we took screen-captures of each profile (approximately 40 in total), which we did again as the credits rolled.  This was done again at the start and finish of the Live Results show on Sunday, and it will be done the same way for the rest of the live shows in the following 11 or so weeks. We have also created this infographic, which we hope you like at the foot of the post. Read More »

The New York Times is looking to part company with as many as 20 newsroom jobs and says it is looking for volunteers as it seeks to rebalance its “business for the digital age”.

The only people who need not apply are those working in the digital part of its business as a memo to staff says “newsroom employees who are covered under the union’s digital contract will not be eligible for the buyout.” Read More »

What a brilliant idea and a great use of Twitter. You simply pledge to pay £1 per motherloving swear, and connect your Twitter account. SwearJar monitors your swearing, and tweets you a link to pay up after a week. Read More »

Earlier this year Google launched an update to Google Translate for Android with an experimental feature called Conversation Mode that enabled Android users to speak into their phone and have their words translated from English into Spanish.

Now it has expanded that to 14 languages, adding Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish. Read More »