Probably late in the day, but I recently stumbled across the quite brilliant Hailo taxi app co-founded by three cabbies in London.  For those not familiar with this app, it allows you to select a black cab in the near vicinity, indicating how many minutes it will take to reach you and gives the taxi details to look out for when it arrives.

After arriving at your destination you can then automatically pay with your credit or debit card as the fare on the meter is charged straight to your account. Without any additional mark-ups and a copy of the receipt emailed directly after the journey I found it to be a joy in its simplicity and effectiveness – especially when using it for the first time on a late, wet and windy night. And of course the cabbies win too as they find more passengers on the street, with the added benefit of avoiding traffic on the way through an alert system.

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The latest data from the IAB report (co-produced with PWC) says that advertising on mobile devices in 2011 reached a new high of £203.2M, a 157% increase on the previous year. When compared to estimates from The Advertising Association/Warc Expenditure Report, this expenditure is now greater than overall cinema spend (£182M). So what is the best way to engage with consumers via their mobile?

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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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Facebook's Doctor Who Floor

It’s been two weeks since Facebook UK moved into its new home, having outgrown the previous space in Carnaby Street. Stacked boxes and busy delivery men reflect the transition that’s in the air.

Those seasoned in more traditional media spaces might be relieved to hear it’s not all picture perfect at Facebook’s new abode. The front door’s intercom is not working (yet), and once inside you’re greeted by a lobby that can best be described as functional… Read more about  Facebook UK here.

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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Today’s internet is so dominated by Facebook and Google it’s hard to imagine how they could possibly be superseded. This infographic from CenturyLink reminds us that on the web, nothing is forever. The past giants from AOL to Yahoo! have all experienced life cycles, and according to the averages below Facebook has about 3 years until it dies! Maybe we should be taking Facebook up on their offer last Thursday to download an expanded archive of all our data after all.

Do you think Facebook will suffer the same fate as these giants?

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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 »

TwiIt seems so natural to many people now, that it’s a hazy memory of a time when it wasn’t possible to catch up on the latest news stories or updates from celebrities on your mobile, in the same amount of time it takes to step off the tube, jump on the escalator and order a latte in the coffee shop next door. In the modern world people want information quickly and in an easily digestible format, and this helps to explain the growth in popularity of Twitter since its inception six years ago. Read More »

Whilst online surveys often overstate the uptake of technology, Ipsos MediaCT’s offline Tech Tracker data tells us that just over four in ten GB adults now own a smartphone, representing an increase of roughly 30% in the last two years. The rise of the smartphone has coincided with the increased popularity, and normality, of social media usage. Arguably the two are connected, the modern mobile device being the ideal format for keeping up-to-date, and updating, as it means people are always online, even when on the move. Read More »