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 »

You’ve already heard my views on the subtle ways that realtime media, user-generated content and networks are fundamentally changing the world of journalism. As digital technology weaves its way into every part of our lives, it’s also starting to drastically change consumer behaviour – and with it, the industries and products around us.

The publishing industry has seen some dramatic changes over the past year, and that shows few signs of slowing down in 2012. A few years ago, it was simple – books were published by publishing houses, we bought them from bookshops or online retailers such as Amazon and the author was paid a small royalty for every sale. It was a formula that worked on a basic level.

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Comedian Louis CK has announced the initial figures from his experimental $5 download scheme for his new DVD special. By skipping the traditional distributor model and offering the DVD directly to fans for a $5 download, sales within the first few days have topped $500,000.

Since 10 December, the comedian announced that over 100,000 $5 downloads of Live at the Beacon Theater had been purchased by fans—covering the initial production costs and earning the comedian a tidy profit.

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As the esteemed American marketer, Brian Solis, recently pointed out, we are entering an era of ‘Digital Darwinism’. That is: “the evolution of consumer behaviour when society and technology evolve faster than our ability to adapt”. With the digital landscape developing at such a dynamic pace, it’s no wonder some companies are nervous about taking that bold but crucial decision to go truly digital.

Gartner research predicts that by 2015, 50% of traffic and orders to retailer websites will be from social media and mobile. So it could be argued that to undervalue digital is to severely compromise future revenue flows. Yet, some companies are alarmingly slow to adapt. They may have a basic e-commerce strategy in place. But it is really integrated? Is it mobile-friendly? Does it use social media to maximum effect? Read More »

Several years ago I grudgingly set up a Facebook account, joining an online community that now has over 800 million users across the world. I’ve never been Facebook’s number one fan – I use it minimally and mainly to not-so-subtly spy on my 16 year old son, to make sure he’s behaving himself as much as possible.

However, even a skeptic like me couldn’t fail to be impressed after a sneaky look at the developer’s preview of the new Facebook timeline. Put simply, when it rolls out across the site’s user base over the next few months, Facebook’s new layout is set to be a game changer. Read More »

Last year, we launched a different sort of journalist/PR award scheme. We wanted to celebrate the famously love/hate relationship between both camps in a unique, memorable way. How did we choose to celebrate this, I hear you ask?

Well, by poking fun at it, now you mention it.

The CRAPPs (The Communicative Relations Awards from PR Professionals – the acronym unsurprisingly came first) was born in 2010 and was always intended to be a light-hearted affair, in an industry awards calendar more tightly packed than Vanessa Feltz’s fridge. Let the CIPRs of this world battle it out for serious, industry-respected awards, we thought. We’re just happy bringing a bit of premature Christmas cheer to the professional world we inhabit. Read More »

News, views and reviews now travel at incredible velocity online. This video reviews how social news can have a profound effect on anyone because the public has already made up its mind on the issue before you’ve even responded to it.

Think England football captain John Terry, the claimed cyber-lynching of a US Presidential candidate, the BlackBerry outage? Read More »

Do you have the attention span of a spider monkey that’s drunk five cappuccinos?

I was delving into the issue of shortening attention spans recently, and one essay in particular caught my eye. Written by Douglas Rushkoff , media analyst and documentary writer, it was entitled ‘The internet makes me think in the present tense.’

Rushkoff argues that ‘the internet pushes us all towards the immediate. The now. Every inquiry is to be answered right away’. Then he states: ‘Once the internet changed from a resource at my desk into an appendage chirping from my pocket… the value of depth was replaced by that of immediacy masquerading as relevancy’. Read More »

Facebook has always been about driving engagement, the problem they’ve had over the past few years is that their mechanism for engagement hasn’t gone much further than the inflexible ‘Like’ button, a share, or, if you’re lucky, a comment or two. This was great while it lasted, but it did open brands pages up for social media black hat techniques.

We’ve seen a well-known socially irrelevant brand up their likes by 5,000 in the space of a week and take unprecedented engagement from people, that if you investigate, either work for their PR agency, or are praising the price of a product they’re ineligible to purchase.
All very naughty and not in the spirit of organic brand growth. Read More »

Goviral’s top 10 global videos of the month for September 2011 has some crackers including the very funny Carlsberg biker ad as well as George Clooney in the DnB Norwegian bank ad, apparel company, Vooray, Red Bull and F1 going to America and the full length spot for the hotly anticipated Battlefield ad to the tune of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems. Enjoy. Read More »