Welcome again to the monthly overview of the key digital media stories that you may have missed in February.

Still Pinterested?

Pinterest received a huge volume of media coverage last month becoming the fastest growing social media platform of all time. The rising star of social media now has over 11.7 million users and beats YouTube, Reddit, Google+, Linkedin & MySpace for percentage of total referral traffic. However this success did not occur overnight with development beginning in December 2009 and an initial beta launch in March 2010. It wasn’t until August 2011 that the site began generating global recognition with Time magazine listing the site in its “50 best websites of 2011” column. Fast forward to 2012 and Pinterest has become a social media darling – with traffic stats to prove it.

Twitter reaches 500 million users #wow

Twitter reached the milestone of 500 million users less than six years after the first Tweet was sent. Since launching in July 2006, the micro-blogging site has grown rapidly thanks in part to its popularity with public figures. By sharing comments, pictures and internet links in less than 140 characters, stars have invited fans to join them in their daily lives.

Twitter currently has 12 people signing up to the micro-blogging site every 12 seconds. One problem with the current 500million figure is that the volume of active users is unknown. Many new accounts are setup, 10 – 12 tweets are sent and then they remain dormant.

On another note has anyone seen the infamous fail whale recently?

 Maybe Twitter has managed to iron out previous site issues?

Apple counting down to 25 billion app store downloads

Apple has set up a page on their site counting down to the 25 billionth download from its App Store.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/25-billion-app-countdown/

The site features a counter which is currently rising at a rate of 1,000 downloaded apps every four to five seconds.  The user that downloads the 25^th billion app will receive a $10,000 App Store gift card.

Broadband speeds improving in the UK

Broadband speeds in the UK increased by 22% over the last year according to the latest Ofcom figures, but the country is still a long way from being digital. Ed Richards, Ofcom’s chief executive said “we can look forward to further increased broadband speeds over the next few years.” The average speed in November 2011 was 7.6 Mbps, compared with 6.2 Mbps in November 2010.

Campaign of the month

Finally every month we like to highlight a campaign of interest. This month we wanted to showcase one of our own campaigns for Compassion in World Farming (CiWF) called Origami Hen. The focus of the campaign was to highlight that half the world’s 6 billion laying hens still live in battery cages. In these conditions they will never see the sun, feel fresh air or get the chance to stretch their wings.

Activity was centred on a pre-roll video featuring hens made of paper in battery cage conditions. This was to highlight when crammed together in these conditions each hen has a space smaller than an A4 sheet of paper to live in. The pre-roll activity clicks to a CiWF page were the user can print off their own paper origami hen which they can make by following 6 steps of folding instructions. The user is then encouraged to send the origami hen to the Italian government who are one of the worst perpetrators on the law banning barren battery cages.

The ad was created in partnership with Specific Media and behaviourally targets users that are more likely to give to charity.

Please use the following link to view the Origami hen video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ATPV5-A_AMA

Wow January went fast, welcome again to a monthly overview of the key digital media stories that you may have missed.

Why are pirates called pirates? Because they argh

The SOPA bill was opposed in force by major US websites including Wikipedia, Google, CraigsList, Reddit, and Mozilla. US visitors to the Google site on the 18^th of Jan were greeted with a blacked out Google logo.

Wikipedia which usually receives 100 million unique visits a day displayed the following message:-“imagine a world without free knowledge”.

So what is SOPA? SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. It’s a proposed bill that aims to crack down on copyright infringement, by restricting access to sites that host pirated content. SOPA’s main targets are rogue overseas sites such as Pirate Bay.  The bills goal is to cut off pirate sites U.S traffic by obliging US search engines, ad networks and even hosting networks to withhold their services.

Kim DotCom

Recent US piracy focus has been on Kim Dot Com and Mega Uploads illegal video streaming empire. If you haven’t read up on Kim Dot Com I would recommend this article.  If Kim DotCom is convicted of hosting illegal content he could face up to 50 years in prison.

The Social Media Juggernaut+

Google released a master plan for integrating Google+ in Google search. Google has strap lined the search update “Google + Your World”. Starting 10^th January, Google+ members were able to search the broader web and integrate their own social graph. To put this simply this will mean that Google+ circles, photos, posts and more will be integrated into search.

However, delivering information that is shared even if it only between a small group of people, could raise privacy issues. To counteract this, Google search across your world only works if you are signed in to Google+ and searching on Google’s secure search.

Facebook IPO

As Facebook prepared for an IPO of its stock which values the business at $100 billion, a number of Facebook staff are in line to be become overnight millionaires.  One graffiti artist David Choe took shares in the company instead of cash for painting the interior of the first ever Facebook HQ and he could see his 0.25% share in the business worth $200 million when the company floats. See the full story here

#SuperBowl & social media command centre

The Super Bowl host city Indianapolis, has concocted a new way to deal with the madness that comes with managing the world’s biggest annual event. The solution is the first-ever social media command centre – a team of techies, analysts and strategists will monitor the online social buzz from a 2,800 square foot space. The social media team will also be tasked with answering thousands of queries through Facebook and Twitter

Pinterest

The last few weeks in the office have been filled with the chatter of ‘Pinterest’.   So what is Pinterest and why are we excited about it? The best way that I can describe Pinterest is when you are browsing online and see something that you don’t want to forget, you can ‘pin it’. This will save it to your virtual pin board which is a creative board of your interests. Pinterest’s goal is to connect everyone in the world through ‘things’ they find interesting.

Sky to offer BBC iPlayer

Up to five million Sky customers will be able to catch up on BBC programs later this year when iPlayer is made available on the Sky Anytime+ service. However, what Sky didn’t mention is that Sky Anytime+ is only available for customers that have both Sky and a Sky Broadband package.

Finally every month we like to highlight an interesting campaign.

This month we wanted to showcase Cancer Research UK’s SunSmart campaign – “R UV Ugly”. The aim of the campaign was to educate young people about the dangers of using Sunbeds. Users can opt in through Facebook to receive a free voucher for a skin scan worth £25. Anyone that opts in is encouraged to share the campaign with friends. What is interesting about the campaign is that it has received a 50% share rate through mobile.

Until next month……

Christmas has started in the Navigate Digital office with the commencement of Christmas tunes, the opening of advent calendars and the embellishing of the office with Christmas decorations. As we reach December it is time again for our monthly digital overview.

eBay opens physical store in London – the online auction site will be opening its first physical shop in the UK for five days this December. The shop, situated on Dean Street, will not feature traditional tills instead savvy shoppers will be encouraged to pay for products with their smartphones.

The store opened on the 1^st of December and showcased 200 of the websites best-selling items. To make a purchase users need to scan a QR code using their smart phone, the code then takes the user to the payment section of the eBay mobile site where they can complete their purchase.

Online newspapers see record traffic – The Mail Online, Guardian and Telegraph saw record site traffic last month. With the Mail Online being the most visited newspaper site – attracting a record number of monthly and daily users.

Britain to have best broadband in Europe by 2015 – Britain is currently on target to meet the government’s ambition for the majority of Brits to have access to superfast broadband by 2015.

It is still estimated that in the UK 8.7 million adults have never used the internet.

Brands launch profiles on Google+ – Burberry, Angry Birds and Mumsnet became some of the first brands to set up a company profile on Google+ at the start of November.

Users of the social network (which now amounts to over 40 million) will now be able to add brands to their circles and recommend them to friends.

Finally every month we like to highlight an advertising campaign that interests us – seeing as Christmas is around the corner we wanted to focus on the John Lewis Christmas advert.

The online ad made its debut on YouTube and Facebook on November 11^th before being shown during the ad break of the X-Factor on November 12^th. The initial launch of the ad made an instant impact on Twitter, with various celebrities tweeting their approval.  Furthermore the success of the ad extended online to video streaming site YouTube with the video now recording 3.2 million views.

John Lewis has spent around £6 million on its Christmas advertising campaign, which includes online, TV ads, print and social media projects.

For the few that haven’t seen the advert here is a link –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSLOnR1s74o

Until next month…

Here is an overview of last month’s digital news.

Google has opened its first physical store in London to introduce consumers to the new Google Chrome Book. The pop up shop called the ‘Chrome Zone’ which is situated at PC World on Tottenham Court Road is the company’s first bricks and mortar retail operation. Chrome Books have been built and optimised for the web, operating on Google’s own operating system (Chrome OS) which is a notebook optimised version of Android.

The amount that marketers are predicted to spend on digital video advertising looks set to increase by 25% over the next 12 months, with an estimated 23% of corporations total online spend being dedicated to the medium. Further research has indicated that video sharing sites and on demand content usage has increased three fold over the last 12 months.

YouTube is launching a ‘Merch’ store which will allow musicians to sell merchandise, digital downloads and tickets straight from their artist page. The Google owned site has announced partnerships with Top Spin which will help in merchandise sales, Songkick which will sell concert tickets and Amazon and iTunes will assist in music downloads from the site.

Sony has confirmed that it is to pay £920 million to take full control of its mobile handset joint venture Sony Ericsson. Sony has released a statement claiming that the move has been made to “integrate smartphones into its wider portfolio of consumer electronic devices”.

Every month at Navigate we like to highlight an interesting marketing campaign. This month we have focused on a loyalty based Facebook campaign from Heinz.

Heinz’s social media campaign focuses on offering discount vouchers for their new chili flavoured tomato ketchup. Users that are not currently brand advocates can ‘like’ the page before clicking through to receive a coupon. The user can then choose between immediately downloading the coupon or sharing it with their social connections, which doubles its value to 50p off.

At Navigate we are impressed that Heinz has used a simple loyalty mechanic to provide social advocates with a discount and then incentivise them to harness their social connections to promote a product. Too often brands attempt to gain the highest volume of ‘likes’ without taking full advantage of the massive direct marketing potential available through social media.

Look out for the next digital world update in early December.

Thanks

Matty

Another month has flashed by and as we leave the Indian summer behind and prepare for the onslaught of the Great British winter (apparently the harshest ever) it is time for another monthly digital update from Navigate.

Last month featured two major launches from Google.

The advertising giant officially launched Google wallet in the US. The mobile payment app aims to replace your wallet by offering payment services through your smartphone using NFC.

On the 30^th Sept Google announced the launch of Google Analytics Premium in the UK, US and Canada. At the same time Google also announced the global launch of Google Analytics Real Time, providing users with up to the minute site data. Previously users had been restricted to only viewing the previous day’s data.

Facebook has unveiled a radical design overhaul as the site strives to be a one stop shop for all entertainment. The social network has partnered with brands including Spotify, The Guardian and The Independent to allow users to listen to music and read news without the need to leave the site. Mark Zukerberg at the F8 conference in San Francisco said “we are making it so you can connect to anything you want”.

Has Amazon launched an iPad killer? Sporting a 7-inch display and highly competitive pricing the Kindle Fire is set to ship on the 15th Nov.  Amazon’s strategy to offer users premium products at non premium prices may help them compete against the dominant iPad. However, seeing as the Fire lacks a camera, microphone and 3G connection the product is unlikely to offer anywhere near the same user experience as an iPad.

Last month the rise of the twittering masses continued with Twitter hitting 100 million active users. Twitter expects to add an additional 26 million users between now and the end of the year.

Finally, every month at Navigate we like to highlight a campaign/marketing activity that we find interesting.

This month we wanted to look at how P&G have extended the Old Spice advertising campaign to target universities and cities within the UK. The Old Spice Man campaign will tour across the country until the end of November. Fans who visit the tour will be able to emulate the “smell like a man, man” TV spot by having their picture taken on a white horse, as well as trail new upcoming old spice products. Guy White Old Spices brand manager commented “the brand is really going from strength to strength”.

Here is an overview of last month’s key digital headlines.

Are social media and mobile communications to blame for the London Riots? Although politicians and the police force were quick to suggest that Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger (BBM) were utilised to organise the London riots, Freddie Benjamin a research manager at Mobile Youth, believes that much of the online riot noise is just that – “users talk about it or use the same hash tag but are not actually joining in” he said.

Away from Twitter’s visible feed, there were more credible reports that rioters were using private communication systems such as BBM to evade police and coordinate their next target. This evidence was supported by a number of BBM users reporting to Blackberry that they had received ‘riot’ related messages.  Blackberry responded with a rather woolly statement saying “We feel for those impacted by this weekend’s riots in London. We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can”.

Steve Jobs has resigned as Apple CEO, appointing former Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook as his replacement. Jobs’ long term battle with health issues has forced him to resign from his duties as CEO. Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak but left the company in the mid 80’s. He returned to the company in 1996 to lead Apple towards being one of the world’s most valuable companies. Art Levinson responded on behalf of Apple’s board confirming that Jobs will remain involved with the company.  Please see Steve Jobs resignation letter here.

Are we seeing the end of the Daily Deal? Last week Facebook pulled the plug on its daily deals experiment after just 4 months of activity. Facebook stated that they will remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people. However, with 750 million users worldwide, Facebook could not make daily deals work – and they are not alone. A major player in the US daily deals market (Yelp) has had similar issues. The company has halved its sales team stating that they simply could not financially justify competing in the daily deals market. Surely Groupon with its 115 million subscribers and $8 Billion valuation is continuing to perform? Not according to web analytics firm Experian HitWise.  They reported that Groupon traffic has dropped by 50% since July 11.

Google Buys Motorola mobility for £12.5 billion. Motorola is one of 39 manufacturers using the Android operating system, and Google buying a hardware company is an unusual move. A blog post from Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page says that Google has acquired Motorola not only because of its strength in the Android smartphone market, but also for “being a market leader in the home devices and video solutions business”. The fact the company reports owning approximately 14,600 granted patents and 6,700 patent applications worldwide may have also helped sway the acquisition.

Finally every month we like to highlight a campaign/marketing activity that the team at Navigate find exciting. This month we would like to talk about one of our own campaigns for Palmer’s promoting their partnership with the 2011 MOBO Awards. This is the second year running that Palmer’s have run online promotional activity surrounding the MOBO’s. This year a Palmer’s competition Facebook app encourages users to upload a picture to the style file gallery rocking a ‘killer look’. The winner of the competition will win VIP tickets for two to the MOBO awards where they will mingle and rub solders with the best talents in urban music. We are working with urban music sites Kiss and ChoiceFM to drive traffic to the app. If you think you have what it takes to rock a ‘killer look’ enter the competition here.