The word ‘curator’ derives from the Latin curare meaning ‘take care’, and is commonly used in the context of cultural institutions; galleries, museums etc.

Over the course of the last year or so the term was increasingly used in conjunction with digital marketing, particularly social media-based campaigns. For fast-paced, content-driven comms planning, agencies would talk of acting as the ‘curator’ for the brand. In other words, deciding what content, stories, reactions, conversations and touchpoints to release at precisely the right time.

Now I think it can apply to the very nature of one’s digital identity itself.

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Is the internet leading towards a single, shared cultural identity? Or is it facilitating a break-up into many smaller groups, each of which see themselves as having a defined culture of their own?

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Heineken, Xbox, TBG Digital and Adam & Eve triumphed at the Revolution Awards 2012, held on 20 April at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane.

AKQA’s Star Player app for Heineken scooped the Revolution Award for Innovation, the event’s most prestigious accolade. The app focused on the competitive banter of football fans by creating a live and social TV game experience.   Read More »

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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English Premier League football clubs are starting to ramp up their Social Media activity as they begin to gain more followers. In the past few months our data has showed that clubs are quickly gaining more and more Twitter followers and Facebook Likes every month. Clubs have recognised this rapid growth and responded with a higher volume of tweets and updates in order to ensure this growth doesn’t slow. 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 »

After an eventful trip involving engine problems, missed connections and cross country transfers the UKTI SXSW mission group found itself arriving bleary eyed at Dell HQ in Round Rock Texas to a pre SXSW kick off “Unconference”

If you haven’t been to Dell the comparison to the Death Star is entirely apposite with 5 Hangers named appropriately Dell 1-5, as you drive up you see Michael Dell’s very own 501 Legion of Troopers arriving in their SUV’s – polo shirt and chino clad clutching their silver coffee travel cups – Dilbert is alive and well and working as a stormtrooper in Texas ! Read More »

Ever wondered where Foursquare was launched, where Twitter hit the big time or where you can hear keynotes from the likes of Jimmy Wales, Guy Kawasaki, Craig Newmark, Evan Williams or even Mr Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, himself – well Austin, Texas is where it is at in March as SXSW comes to town.

And next week we will throwing ourselves into the madness of SXSW Interactive as part of the UKTI Trade Mission along with 39 other companies from the UK and over 25,000 others from round the Globe. We will endeavour to bring you daily updates as to themes, new ideas and creative technologies on show along with the weird and wonderful from Austin. 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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Which football team is ruling the Social Media roost in this month’s EPL infographic? This February we have added a few new metrics and treats to the infographic, including: ‘How many people are talking about’ stats, who has lost Twitter followers, who has the Premier League’s fastest growing Facebook Page this season and what has been the best Social Media campaign of the month?

Importantly, EPL clubs surpassed a combined total of 50,000,000 Facebook Likes which just goes to show the sheer size of the league globally. However, it should be noted that Manchester United make up just under half of this number with an amazing 22 million Likes. Twitter in comparison came to a combined figure of 3.2 million Followers – but this has grown by 69% since the start of the season (+1.3 million new followers).

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