Blog

Our news highlights from the past few weeks.

Facebook Timelines

Facebook introduced timelines for brands, bringing brand pages in line with individual user profiles following the recent design changes.  Timelines give brands a more visually impactful page with the addition of a ‘Page Cover’ banner, and provide some new features such as the ability to ‘pin’ a post to the top of the page. There’s also a new customer service feature that can be activated, allowing users to talk privately and directly with brands.

Timelines give brands the opportunity to tell the story of their history, filling in important milestones in their development and business. Visitors can scroll back through time to see these key events, be it the year they were founded or a previous advertising campaign.

Many brands are already using Timelines which become mandatory from 30th March. Our own clients, Lurpak and Glenrothes have made an early start, showcasing their current above the line campaigns and heritage.

Explore further at https://www.facebook.com/TheGlenrothes and https://www.facebook.com/LurpakButter

Absolut x Instagram

Alcohol brand Absolut recently launched a promotion using iPhone photography app Instagram. The competition gives participants the chance to win a limited edition bottle of Absolut designed by renowned artist Jamie Hewlett. Entrants take a photo of something that sums up London’s great features, adding an #absolutlondon hashtag.

The ever popular app is a great way for brands to tap into the creativity of their audiences, generating lots of branded assets in the process.

Find out more at http://www.ukstreetart.co.uk/absolut-london-instagram-competition/

Prepare for Pinterest

The buzz tool everyone in the digital sector’s talking about at the moment is Pinterest, a platform that allows users to compile a virtual scrapbook of pictures, ranging from products they like to things that inspire them, and everything in between. Many brands are already jumping on board, seeing it as a great way to give a visual representation of their positioning.

During London Fashion Week, Harrods created a Burberry board, inviting their audience to like or ‘pin’ clothing items that they most wanted to see the store sell. The most popular item then hit the shelves.

Take a look at http://pinterest.com/source/harrods.com/

London Fashion Week

On the topic of London Fashion Week, it was great to see some brilliant examples of brands using technology to various degrees. From rechargeable handbags for smart phones to live Twitter streams and video broadcasts, the week’s events set the mark for the digital teams of its international equivalents.

Take a look at http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/technology/lfw-goes-tech-in-2012

Cereal Tweeting

Breakfast giants Kellogg’s recently showed how extensive and reactionary their buzz monitoring is. Rock star Tim Burgess tweeted to say that he’d come up with a name for a new cereal and joked that he was available if Kellogg’s were interested. Shortly after, the brand created a one-off limited edition box of cereal based on Burgess’ idea which he went on to tweet a photo of, gaining lots of coverage across the marketing and music press.

Read more at http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/kellogg-creates-totes-amazeballs-cereal-response-single-tweet-138447

Female Behaviour Online

Last week, our very own Lloyd and Ronnie took to the pages of the Guardian online to talk about differences in the behaviours of men and women online and how the sexes respond differently to certain types of communications.

Have a read over at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/mar/02/female-species-more-digital-male

2011 was a game-changing year for digital (although let’s face it, every year is when it comes to the Internet). We saw the birth of Facebook’s Timeline, got to know Siri, and who would have picked that Instagram would grow to be bigger than Foursquare?

And we’re excited for what’s coming next. We’ve made a list of predictions on what will shape the digital environment in 2012.

Facebook Actions

Facebook is about to offer frictionless sharing by integrating the various actions users take across the web into the social network. Actions are similar to the ‘Like’ button on display but would include elements like ‘Read’, ‘Listen’, and ‘Watch’ – these are automatically posted on your timeline or news ticker.

Depending on how wide they open up the action functionality, it could lead to brands being able to take ownership of whole verbs specifically for their campaign.

Social Plugins and Aggregators

We’ll probably continue to see a rise in mobile services that plug into the existing social environment (like Flipboard, Path and Instagram). These types of aggregators play on the idea or thought that social media has evolved as a tool for the curation, distribution and sharing of current and news and events.

We may even see behemoths like Facebook fragment bits of their services into discreet apps (as they’ve already done with chat), letting you use the platform à la carte.

Mobile Wallets

It may be early days yet, but we believe the tap technology of Google Wallet and other mobile apps will catch on fast. Our Scandinavian correspondent reports that, in Stockholm, travel cards are fading away as people simply scan their phones to access public transport. In the UK, use of NFC (Near Field Communications) is set to boom as it is integrated across London 2012 sites.

Pinterest: the new social favourite

Both highly visual and addictive, one sharing tool that has caught our attention is Pinterest. The tool makes it a snap to share images, quotes, articles and products. It is also a lot more ‘credit friendly’ than Tumblr, tracking repins and where images originate.

According to Businessweek, traffic has increased sevenfold in the last five months, and recent investment in the company, means Pinterest is set to launch more features. Word has it that, in the near future, content shared on it will enjoy significant SEO value if tagged appropriately.

Google+

Will Google+ shake up social media in 2012 or will it just mess up the Internet? We see a lot of opportunity for Google+ to be used in interesting ways, but we think it needs some more dedicated development from Google’s team, otherwise it could go the way of Buzz.

Brands need to be aware that search engines evolve, social endorsements such as ‘plus ones’, ‘likes’ and ‘tweets’ can have real SEO value applied to them, as SERPs become tailored for individual users.