Over 60 million mobiles will be purchased in Indonesia in 2013, a staggering figure. With a 114% penetration rate of mobiles this market is driven by the replacement market and social media.

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As its legacy continues to grow, last year will forever be the year of London 2012, one of the greatest events ever to grace the sporting world. It also happened to fall within what the industry is calling ‘The Social Era’ of sponsorship.

So what have brands learnt from it? And what does that mean for sponsorship and the rest of 2013 – already dubbed ‘The Empty Year’?  Read More »

Over the past ten years iTunes has drastically changed the way we share, purchase and consume music. It has given us unrestricted and portable access to music’s extensive back catalogue and taught the masses the art of a perfect playlist. iTunes has pioneered a listening revolution.

It has liberated music and allowed the top spot to be anyone’s game. The charts are now powered by hashtags and social media movements as much as they are press and PR.   Read More »

Apple has reportedly held talks with Beats Electronics, the headphones firm founded by hip-hop producer Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, about its new music streaming service for which it this week raised $60m.

Tim Cook, the Apple executive, is said to have met with Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine late last month as Beats’ readies its streaming service. The service is named “Project Daisy” and was announced in January. Read More »

Netflix’s unique content play, “House of Cards”, starring Kevin Spacey, has satisfied its subscriber base in the US according to a small survey by Cowen. It has also made their subscribers more loyal.

However it failed to take off from a word of mouth perspective and the content was mediocre rather than exceptional. In light of this both move from Netflix what is the future of content v’s distribution channels in the digital age and who will gain the most from this change in dynamics?

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Every year we like to take a look at the state of mobile usage around the world, what platforms dominate in each country and how this has changed over time. The last 12 months have seen some interesting changes in the mobile landscape with Android being the biggest winner and Nokia the biggest loser. In the UK BlackBerry continues to hold on for dear life as it slips from 2nd into 3rd position, dropping 11 percentage points over the last 12 months. Read More »

Some tech writers have been getting a little frothy about Research in Motion’s chances of pulling a huge save out of the bag this week as it rolls out its new BlackBerry 10 operating system and a couple of new phones. It is a precipice moment in RIM’s history. There is going to be a $3.7m (£2.3m) 30-second Super Bowl TV spot and masses of other marketing activity to build buzz. It needs it. Read More »

Singapore has the greatest penetration of smartphones in the world, 90% of the 5.3 population according to the MMA, 92% according to Flurry. 2^nd is Australia with 70%. Countries like the UK and America have only just passed 50% amongst the general population, over 70% amongst 15-65 year olds.

Singaporeans are mad about technology and the latest gadgets. They happily form queues for the latest ipad and the latest Samsung Note or Galaxy smartphone. Interestingly it’s this surge towards the Asian brand Samsung over the US brand Apple which could spell doom for the Steve Jobs-less mega giant as Singapore appears to set the trend the rest of the world follows….

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Twenty-three percent of the top 100 brands enable consumer outreach and engagement via mobile and social networks using phones, smartphones and tablets, according to a new report from Brand Keys.

Apple and Amazon dominate. You have to go to number 12 on the list before you are not dealing with a tech brand that has a natural fit into mobile.

The 16^th annual loyalty leaders gives the loyalty rankings for the top 100 brands out of 598 brands assessed in 83 industry categories in the 2012 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.

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Fresh from exploits on the edge of space Red Bull has been named number one in a list of the Top 100 Social Video brands having been deemed to have the best overall “social video strategy”. The first Goviral Social Video Equity Report put the energy drink above brands such as Google and Samsung, which came in second and fifth place respectively. Apple and Microsoft both failed to make the top ten, coming in at numbers 11 and 37.

The report looks at how video content is being used by global brands as part of their marketing strategy after auditing them based on volume, total views and engagement for content uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook in 2012.  It also evaluated the quality, innovation and relevance of content before calculating a final social. Read More »