An oft-quoted definition of social media (even Facebook uses it) is from Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein: ‘…a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content’.

Well, perhaps a more pertinent, and possibly even more important, definition would be: ‘A group of Internet-based applications that generate feelings of addiction similar to that of consumerism during the mid-2000s’.

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Trying to create an ad as irreverent, funny and memorable as the Old Spice “man your man could smell like” is a gargantuan task that many have tried to achieve, and almost universally failed to do.

However, DollarShaveClub.com is within a whisker of being just as good. From a migrant worker to a bear, this ad is better than good. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it’s “F***ing Great”. Read More »

For me, trying to choose a favourite talk from Austin’s SXSW interactive festival this week would be like lining up a row of twelve pots of deliciously fruity yoghurt and stating that I was only allowed to have one.

Agony.

Anyway, whatever the talk, and no matter what its theme, there’s great potential for use within digital advertising. It was good stuff. If someone tells you they weren’t inspired by SXSW then maybe they’re looking for fully-formed answers on a plate, whereas half the fun of this industry is taking a raw possibility, be it a technology or channel, and trying to do something different with it. Read More »

A study looking at how newspaper companies are coping with the transition to digital found on average they were losing print ad dollars at a whopping seven times the rate that they were growing digital ad revenue.

Most papers it said are not putting significant effort into the new digital revenue categories and said that executives predict newsrooms will continue to shrink, with more papers closing while those that survive deliver a print edition only a few days a week — something that the Guardian’s Alan Rusbrigdger suggested last year. Read More »

Yesterday we heard that Facebook users will quit the social network over ‘too many ads, ahead of its mobile ad launch, and today we hear Twitter is to extend its Promoted Tweets ads to Twitter iPhone and Android apps.

Initially, a small number of users will see Promoted Tweets near the top of their timelines from brands they already follow as Twitter pushes its ad strategy across all platforms.

This infographic picks up on that and suggests that not only are consumers getting tired of being inundated with digital ads, but that as many as two thirds of consumers say they are turned off by unwanted ads on their smartphones. Read More »

Facebook: users say they'll leave, but will they follow through?

Facebook users in the UK and America are saying that they will quit Facebook if they are subjected to “too much advertising”.

The news comes ahead of an expected announcement by Facebook of a mobile advertising platform this week. Read More »

Everything is becoming more complicated.

It’s a given that consumers are spending less time on more tasks, giving everything less attention, and generally skipping around loads of subjects at any one time on Twitter, Facebook, TV, email, text and a thousand other digital touchpoints.

Now, the challenge of the digital marketer to gain entry into the consciousness of the time-and-touchpoint-squeezed consumer is greater than ever.

So it struck me as interesting when I read a quote in an essay by Lera Boroditsky, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, that ‘consciousness is not unlike Twitter – millions of mundane messages bouncing around, all shouting over one another, with only a few rising as trending topics’.

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Meme: ‘A self-propagating unit of social imitation; something that people repeat and pass along’. Or, ‘Memes replicate data. And just as genes replicate genetic data, memes replicate cultural ideas’. Or, ‘lolcats’.

However you describe them, everyone loves a good meme. And, since the term was popularised by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book ‘The selfish gene’, advertising has been responsible for generating many well-known examples. (Here’s one, oops sorry…no, two examples (in one): ‘Will it blend?’ for Blendtec.) And with the connectedness and social media channels offered by the web for brands to spread and share content, you would have thought that conditions were perfect for many more… Read More »

New ad for Samsung Galaxy S II shows urban scene kids with delusions of creative greatness (who are actually baristas, apparently) queuing for the latest iPhone. It goes on to show people outside the queue who already have a great phone with 4G and a big, bright screen. Read More »

If Sherlock Holmes were around today, he’d often be found chillaxing around the cafes of Baker Street, necking cups of espresso by the bucketload, muttering under his breath about the price of Madame Tussauds tickets, tinkering with his iPad – and, despite himself, instinctively sensing which brands felt ‘right’.

Being Sherlock Holmes, and therefore the authority on everything, he’d know that tone of voice and personality used to be qualities mainly associated with copy and art direction, but now they could be attributed to the way a brand ‘feels’ using digital touchpoints too.

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