Media, Marketing, PR & Comms – our observations & insights
Archive for the ‘trends’ Category
Mar
2012
March! Spring! Hares! Yes, all of that stuff. Whatever this morning’s commuter rag may have told us, Web Curios is declaring winter over. So there. That’s ok then.
Feb
2012
Launched as a closed beta in March 2010, Pinterest is a lighthearted niche platform getting serious amounts of mainstream attention. It even made it to the Channel 4 News tonight in a well rounded report by Benjamin Cohen who compared it to one of my favourite places in London, the amazing John Sloan Museum. So via popular demand, I’m posting the briefing email I wrote for our clients on the top three things that make this growing platform important for big brands.
UPDATE: Pinterest is addressing use of copyrighted material and other issues. They’ve updated their Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Acceptable Use Policy. Considering that over 80 percent of content is currently re-pinned rather than original content, I think there is a huge opportunity for brands to offer legally pinnable, aesthetically pleasing content to their users.
Pinterest self describes as a Virtual Pinboard and their wonderfully simple interface is as intuitive as tacking postcards on a bulletin board or pasting images in a scrapbook. One of Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites of 2011, data from comScore shows Pinterest recently hit 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors, crossing the 10 million mark faster than any other standalone site in history and had a 55 percent gain in unique visitors between November and December 2011. A hot site indeed.
1. A niche network for a heartland audience
Especially for all brands courting the 18-45 female consumer demographic, the reports that 97% of users on Pinterest are women are music to a social marketers’ ears. Fashion, food, and family milestones like weddings lend themselves to visual image Boards made easy by Pinterest. But don’t discount this site as an addition to your social strategy just because your audience skews male or your brand is B2B. I think we’ll see use of the platform from all sectors. Check out a macho Board from GE titled Badass Machines or our own Duncan Gallagher’s Race and Rally Car collection.
2. ‘Frictionless Creativity’
We all want to be creative, but not everyone can be a famous artist or a Martha Stewart. The stats around Pinterest rocket ship growth are interesting, but we can learn more studying the reasons why people love it. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb
2012
Ahead of Mobile World Congress next week, Jay Andersen from H+K Strategies’ analyst team examines the explosive growth of smartphones. Here are his thoughts.
Current Situation
Over the past five years, smartphones have moved from the realm of executives and early technology adopters towards mainstream adoption. According to Canalys, smartphone shipments surpassed personal computers for the first time in 2011. Vendors shipped nearly 490 million smartphones for the full year, driven by lower-priced devices and increased interest in web browsing and mobile apps. Gartner reported that worldwide smartphone shipments reached 149 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, a strong 47% increase year-over-year.
For consumers, making telephone calls is often secondary to being able to play games, watch and create movies, and connect with friends and families over social networks. Business workers use smartphones, both company-issued and their own personal devices, to access enterprise-class applications without needing to carry a laptop or be tied down to their desktop.
“In the space of a few years, smartphones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to become a truly mass market proposition.” – Chris Jones, Canalys
An interesting constituency to next week’s GSMA’s Mobile World Congress event will be government regulators, including many from emerging markets where policy-makers are looking to wireless technology to help in the promotion of economic growth, education, and healthcare. Mobile technologies have played a key role in enabling developing countries to ‘leap frog’ many of the aging-infrastructure issues that developed economies have grappled with.
Some of the most talked-about technologies at the show will include:
Outlook
Analysts expect smartphone explosive growth to continue. Forrester predicts that over one billion smartphones will be in use by 2016. Interestingly, Forrester expects to see a strong percentage of smartphones in the hands of consumers with only 35% of the smartphones expected to be issued by businesses to employees. Spending on smartphones is also expected to explode with overall mobile spending reaching $1.3 trillion, and mobile applications sales hitting over $55 billion. Currently about a fifth of the world’s mobile subscribers are currently using their smartphones to browse the Internet; Forrester expects global penetration of mobile Internet users will exceed that of PC-based Internet users in 2016.
With the millions of new smartphone users, enterprises will need to carefully manage how their employees use their devices at work. IT departments will need to invest in mobile security and wireless infrastructure to insure that employees can safely and efficiently use their smartphones. In addition to companies needing to invest in infrastructure, wireless operators will need to build out their networks to handle network congestion from growing data traffic.
“Mobile is the new face of engagement. Businesses should stop thinking about it as a small Web site on a tiny computer, and start thinking about mobile as being deeply embedded systems of engagement. That turns out to have huge implications.” – Ted Schadler, Forrester Research
For more analyst insights, check out the HK Briefs’ page.
- Ching-Han Wan
Feb
2012
I AM BORED OF FOOTBALL. Or at the very least the in-no-way-criminal, potentially racist / definitely racist, stroppy foreigner elements of it. Does anyone remember when football used to be a fun distraction from the woes of the world rather than a major constituent part of said woes? No, me neither, but there must have been a time. Personally I blame social media. Could everyone stop talking about the DAMN FOOTBALL PLEASE?
Jan
2012
So we near the end of the first month of 2012 – WELL DONE US. Except that Italian captain. And Tom Watson’s intern. And all those naive enough to believe that the SOPA/PIPA thing has gone away (if those words mean nothing to you then read this). And Snickers. And unwitting singers at American churches. And the Russian police. And Bayern Munich. And Uzbekistan. Everyone else, though, pat yourselves on the back – especially me, who found my very own doppelganger last week! We survived the most depressing day of the year, and from hereon in everything will be just peachy.
Dec
2011
Launching the world’s first snore absorption room; creating the world’s biggest shave; reinterpreting art with technology; revealing the best place in the UK to bring up a family… As 2011 draws to a close, we take a look back month by month at some H+K Strategies campaigns and work throughout the year.
You're hired: Karren Brady+ City & Guilds' Chris Jones
To start the new year, preparations to launch City & Guilds first ever Apprenticeship Summit went underway early on. The aim of the campaign was to help ensure one million Apprenticeship starts by summer 2013.
In January, we commissioned a report to identify the barriers employers face in hiring apprentices with the findings discussed by key political and business leaders at the Summit, hosted by Apprentice star Karren Brady.
Nearly 100 pieces of coverage resulted from this campaign as well as a request from Professor Alison Wolf to receive a copy of the full report after seeing the articles to include in her Government review of 14-19 education.
Shortlisted for various industry awards, our Technology team created an exciting art campaign- Intel Remastered to showcase the creative application of Intel technology. The project saw 13 modern artists reinterpret iconic masterpieces using digital technology and techniques.
Pushing the boundaries of art and creating one of the most talked about art events on the year, the stories and inspiration behind classics such as Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ and Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ were retold and presented to a digital-savvy audience.
Nov
2011
I believe it was contemporary urban philosopher Ferris Bueller who once said ‘Life moves pretty fast; if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it’ (NB – on reflection, I don’t know why I wrote that; I hate people who ascribe deep significance to the throwaway utterances of fictional characters. IT WAS WRITTEN BY A SCREENWRITER, YOU CHUMP). This edition of Web Curios is brought to you by the whooosh-ing sound that time makes as it flies past your ears; it seems like only yesterday that I was writing the last one of these, talking about holidays and the end of summer and stuff. All of a sudden it’s December, I’ve not written a Curios for a month (not that any of you CARE, you unappreciative whelps), and you can’t turn on the television without a famous trying to sell you stinkwater. On an unrelated note, I am yet to eat a mince pie in 2011. If anyone would like to courier some over to H&K towers, I will be very grateful and possibly do a small happy dance in gratitude; thanks (in the unlikely event that HRH Prince Charles is reading this, I am a massive fan of Duchy Originals).
Nov
2011
Trying to prep my bit for the WPP Stream London IWE event in our bar tomorrow, I got totally side tracked. Google launched brand Pages on Google+. Hurrah.
Have been waiting and watching for this since forever. Well, since G+ itself launched. There are many feature-led business reasons I think this is so important for brands. But, in my gut, I really really want all the people working on the brands we represent to feel the rush. To beat their competitors off the starting blocks. To be an early adopter brand.
Those are my emotional reasons. The top practical ones include:
There is nothing better than to learn by doing. And early adopters learn more, faster. Facebook is almost eight years old; Twitter launched in 2006. Neither was built for brands and, to be honest, many brands are still not sure what to do there. That’s ok. Have a play with Google+ and it just may help your company get serious with an overall social strategy. It’s not a zero sum game and I think the future is a multi-platform place.
We have been doing Workshops on Google+ (and other things) so ping us if you want to know more. And please do circle me.
Oct
2011
Phew. Three weeks since I last did one of these, and my word has there been a lot going on. Bankers have shut down a church (well, you know, indirectly)! The Sun gave us possibly the most tasteless frontpage in years! One of the most appalling hatecrimes of the (admittedly newish) decade was committed to little or no mainstream media fanfare! France and Germany mocked Italy’s sexually incontinent Premier! The filthy rich just keep on getting richer! And loads more besides, much of it even more dispiriting than those few links I’ve just shared.
Ignoring the fact that world is going to hell in the proverbial handcart, though, I’ve actually had rather a lot of fun (because that is obviously the MOST IMPORTANT THING). I’ve seen comedy; I’ve been to an awesome gig;I’ve been to the theatre and seen probably the most harrowing play I’ve ever seen, ever (actually, make that the second-most harrowing - this was probably worse); I’ve eaten some truly tremendous food; and I got to see a truly tremendous rapper live in a tiny venue. So, you know, I’m alright. Are you alright? I’m starting to worry.
Anyway, enough of this. Make yourself a cup of tea, settle down in a suitably confortable chair, and imagine my soothing, dulcet tones reading this out to you (and, if you like, imagine my malcoordinated body acting out every single video too. You pervert). You may want to get some biscuits too; this could take a while.
Image courtesy of Neutron, LLC
Oct
2011
The pretence that this blog is a weekly thing really has to stop. One month since the last one, fact fans. I’ve had THINGS TO DO. Not least going to Brussels and Croatia, where I went on holiday and did NOTHING other than read and swim and be horizontal. It was awesome, and as a result I now look less like this and more like this. No really, I do.
BUT that was then and this is now; I have returned to a world in which the internet spends all its time railing against the evil of corporations and then…er…goes incontinent with grief over the passing of the head of one of the world’s largest corporations; in which Silvio manages to somehow become even more ridiculous and offensive; and a world in which somehow one of the members of 1980s pop combo Hue & Cry has become a consultant on games, play and ludic theory. We live in interesting times. Here are some totally insignificant bits of online ephemera to help distract you from what appears to be the total meltdown of civilisation which is going on all around us. Christ, I sound like an old man.
Socially responsible graffiti on a Croatian beach hut
