Sir Martin Sorrell, the WPP Group chief executive, has been talking to the Harvard Business Review about everything from the state of the advertising business, to social media and emerging technology.
His interview takes in such topics as programmable T-shirts and Google Glass, and he also had a few things to say about Facebook and Twitter, and why he doesn’t think they are advertising media. Read More
London 2012 may be over, but the digital world continues to reverberate to a dizzying halo of statistical superlatives.
The 44 world records we’ve seen broken at the Olympic Games and 251 at the Paralympic Games were accompanied by unparalleled broadcast reach, new milestones of social media engagement and ever more progressive uses of digital technology.
It’s a significantly transformed landscape from the one in which the British Olympic Association first began working on London’s bid in 1997, when broadband internet reached just 17 per cent of the UK population, Nokia commanded 37 per cent of the global mobile phone market and Google operated under the name Backrub. Read More
Social media consultancy Sociagility has published a report on the comparative social media performance of the 25 main London 2012 Olympics sponsors that has found those that performed best used social to focus on engagement not just brand awareness.
Among the key findings were that there was a significant number of brands did not appear to engage with social media at all – or only sporadically. While for some, it appeared that social media activation was undertaken in isolation or as an afterthought – or as merely an amplifier for advertising campaigns.
Given the emphasis placed on the “social Olympics” that is hugely surprising and a missed opportunity for those brands that took this approach. It serves as a reminder that some brands still don’t get social media. Read More
As the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games come to a close, we can look back with delight at Team GB’s success in the medal tables. I know I’m not alone in finding that my enjoyment of the event has been increased still further by the frequent, reliable and inclusive updates from Team GB across their social media channels.
I spoke to Joe Morgan, Digital Manager to Team GB to find out how they coordinated the social media activity for such a fast-paced, complex event.
And how they made sure they squeezed as many comments, likes and shares as possible from every single update.
Brands love hashtags. Many don’t understand them, but that doesn’t stop them. They’ll hashtag anything, even if it makes no sense whatsoever. I like to look at a hashtag as the social media equivalent of a camp fire story.
Something people can connect with, something that invites the continuation of a story or perhaps even starts a new one.
Getting it right is tough. Especially if you’re a brand. Many make the foolish mistake of thinking a hashtag has to be about the brand to deliver any value. Others think you can make it about an irrelevant strapline no one cares about. Others, like Nike, absolutely 110% get it.
As Sir Chris Hoy became the most successful British Olympian, he also eclipsed fellow British athletes with 208,000 tweet name checks on Day 11. Sir Chris Hoy tweet mentions peaked at 19,000 per minute – the highest for a cyclist in these games.
The Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonathan winning Gold and Bronze respectively. followed Sir Chris Hoy with 154,000 tweets as they took Gold and Bronze in the Men’s Triathlon. Read More
It’s been a good week for Twitter outrage, but a bad week for the people at the centre. Diver Tom Daley has been on the receiving end of some vicious tweeting; a journalist for the Independent was chucked off Twitter for criticising NBC over shoddy Olympics coverage (though since reinstated), and a 17 year-old has been picked up from a guesthouse, arrested and given a harassment warning as the presumed sender of the abusive tweets to Daley.
Perhaps it seems odd to include the alleged perpetrator of the abusive tweets in the ‘bad week’ round up. But I’m not the only person wondering if arrest seems a little extreme. Read More
Four years ago in Beijing, social media (although in its relative infancy) ran free with no restrictions. In Vancouver in 2010, social media use had evolved to necessitate some relatively simple “blogging guidelines” for athletes and other participants in the games.
Fast forward to this year, and such is the explosion in social media use that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has deemed it necessary to release in-depth social media, blogging and internet guidelines. These cover the use of photos, videos and audio, as well as URLs and domain names and more. Read More
Twitter looks to be making a fascinating move into become a fully fledged media player, producing original content, according to an Ad Week article.
It says that the San Francisco-based company, along with multiple Hollywood producers and network executives are in serious talks about the possibility of launching several original video series via Twitter. Read More
London 2012, which kicks off this Friday, will arguably be the first Games where it will be possible to keep up to date on who’s winning and losing, and who’s on the podium, as it happens, without actually watching any of it – the first ‘social media’ games. If you’re following the right people on Twitter or specific pages on Facebook or Google+, you’ll be up to date on the action.
The volume of tweets is increasing all the time, and the continued sophistication of smartphones encourages broadcasting and connection on the move. At Ipsos MORI we know that nearly as many Twitter users are accessing the site on their mobile than on a more traditional device, such as a PC or laptop, in GB (65% vs. 68%) (Source: Ipsos MediaCT TechTracker). This isn’t altogether surprising. The key to Twitter is the spontaneity of it, the immediacy with which opinions can be shared. Smartphones fit this requirement perfectly.
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