There have been some inspired examples of brands on Twitter and showing how they are willing to engage, try something a little different, and win plaudits for it.

The Betfair Poker account on Twitter is a good example of that.

More recently in July we saw another good example from bookstore Waterstones and the feed from its Oxford Circus store, which offers an amusing geek filled stream of tweets with a character all of its own.

Another really good example is highlighted here from coffee brand Douwe Egberts. It has a small Twitter following and hasn’t been on Twitter that long.

It got into a random conversation with The Dolphin Pub in Hackney, which has a strong and distinctly individual feed of its own. The two came together and a highly entertaining conversation ensues. Read More »

So how good exactly was Nick Clegg’s tuition fees apology video turned single?

Not only did the charity single version of the Liberal Democrat leader’s autotuned apology make the Top 40 download chart, but the video was viewed more than 1.7 million times.

The views have helped make the song the biggest viral mash-up hit of the year – and proved an unlikely boon for the Deputy Prime Minister and his struggling party. Read More »

According to recently released comScore data so successful is Instagram that in August US smartphone users visited the photo app more frequently, and for longer periods of time, than they visited Twitter.

The report says that in August, Instagram had an average of 7.3 million daily active users compared to Twitter’s 6.9 million.

A report on AllThingsD it says that Instagram user spent 257 minutes accessing the photo-sharing site on their mobiles while the average Twitter spent 170 minutes viewing the site. Read More »

Basic intuition and a bit of self awareness will inform you that news consumption is changing rapidly.

However, a fascinating new report  by the Pew Center details just what an effect mobile is having on the news landscape, as well as showing that the networks we all assumed would be influential actually aren’t.

For instance while news gathering is very common among Twitter users, because as we know so many journalists use Twitter and many say they can’t work without it, the overall reach is limited because the audience remains relatively small.

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Great use of a Facebook Timeline here from London’s most historic landmark, the Tower of London, which is planning to launch a millennium of monumental dates for social media users to explore in what is believed to be the oldest historic timeline on Facebook.

The Timeline will encompass 1,000 years of history and will be backdated to 1066 when what became London’s premier fortress was first established by William the Conqueror. Read More »

An amusing infographic here giving us a lowdown on what those Shoreditch hipsters and their international brethren spend their cash on.

You’re unlikely to be surprised, though you may be embarrassed that some of the credit card charges are strangely similar to your own.

A slouched beanie, check. A distressed tee with screen-printed bird silhouette? Oh yes. An iPhone 5 64GB? Well of course, you had that almost as soon as the doors of the Apple store opened.
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If the government makes good on its promises, within two years 98% of the UK will be covered by 4G.

This is big news for marketers, as finally brands and agencies will not be hampered by the constraints of slow internet speeds – broadband will have caught up to mobile capabilities.

What does this mean in practical application? Well, it’s pretty obvious that consumers presented with quicker speeds are going to use their mobile more. Those who previously wouldn’t have bothered taking one minute to check a price in-store against that of a competitor will be more willing to do so if it only takes a couple of seconds. Read More »

Burberry has largely drawn plaudits this London Fashion Week for arguably being the only fashion house this side of the pond to try anything remotely ambitious in terms of digital.

Whilst Google Glasses, Hangouts and live streaming were all being debuted/implemented to various degrees of excitement and success Stateside, although London was markedly more reserved as it looked to consolidate its resurgent reputation. Read More »

Twitter has released some data that provides interesting statistics that give an idea of the kind of performance Promoted Tweets are achieving for advertisers.

Most notably though is how mobile is performing. In one campaign for Volkswagen the best performing Promoted Tweet on mobile received 43.8% engagement.

While a campaign for LG saw a Promoted trend achieve an average engagement rate of 38%. Read More »