3 THINGS WE DIDN’T KNOW LAST WEEK:
Facebook Buys Gowalla
Facebook has confirmed that is has bought location-based network Gowalla for an undisclosed sum. The social network had been tipped to have made an offer for the company, a rival to location-based mobile company Foursquare. Gowalla works in a similar way to Foursquare and allows users to share their location with friends and access information, recommendations and photos from the surrounding area. The app integrates with Facebook Places and blogging site Tumblr.
Twitter Revamps Their Website
Twitter has rolled out a major revamp including enhanced profile pages for brands and new tools to help users discover content more easily. The most significant update is to brand pages, giving them more creative control with the ability to insert a large header image and select one tweet to highlight at the top of the timeline. The new brand pages are free to use but are not yet available to all companies. Twitter will be slowly rolling out all the new features with the aim of it being live to all by the start of 2012. The 19 launch partners include American Express, BestBuy, Coca-Cola, Heineken, McDonalds, Nike Basketball, Paramount Pictures and Pepsi. For users, the company has also rolled out a major update for both the desktop and mobile version of the site. Twitter now focuses on four sections, Home, Connect, Discover and Me. ‘Home’ shows a summary of activity and information and hosts the timeline with all the tweets from accounts the user is following. ‘Connect’ acts as a hub for notifications and information about whom and when people have followed you, retweeted you or replied to your tweets. Me is the section dedicated to more personal aspects, such as direct messages, lists and settings. The most significant addition is the ‘Discover’ section, designed to help people find more relevant content, helping to also better display rich content such as photos and videos. Within Discover you can either view content around topics that Twitter has surfaced based on your interests in Stories, or you can select Activity, which shows you the topics that are popular within your community.
Facebook Ads Are The Most Engaging
A recent study by NeuroFocus, a subsidiary of Nielsen, recently showed that advertisements on Facebook receive much higher levels of engagement than those on regular websites. The study also found that people pay more attention to and have a higher than average memory retention of ads seen on Facebook. The study also showed that Facebook ads have gender differences in their effects, with men see them as resonating with themselves more so than women do. The study also said the ads on Facebook elicit memory retention when viewed in the news feed because the rest of the content on the page provides context that promotes learning. Apparently, these factors together make ads on Facebook more effective than those on television.
________________________________________
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK: BARNEY’S ‘GAGA CONSTELLATION’
US department store Barney’s created an interactive window display merging the amazing things that are Twitter, Lady Gaga, and stardust. The display held at their New York store allows shoppers to get their tweets onto the big screen by “wishing on a star” – that is made of ‘Lady Gaga dust’. The Barneys window on Madison Avenue features an installation titled “Gaga Constellation”, and after watching a wild display of Gaga in space, unicorns and stardust, anyone passing by can tweet their wish to the installation and instantly see it written in the stars. The CG film that plays at the beginning of the installation features Lady Gaga being formed from stars and interstellar particles, morphing into white unicorns, and then fading into the tweeted wishes of shoppers. Using the hashtag #gagastars, anyone can get their tweets next to an out-of-this-world Gaga as part of the massive 12 by 6.5 foot laser display.
View the video here
________________________________________
APP OF THE WEEK: V for MURAT PARIS INTERACTIVE PRESS APP
Jewellery bran Murat Paris have created an interactive print ad designed for use with a smartphone to show users their current stock range. To use the app, you simply place the phone on top of the print ad, loading a rich mobile site that allows users to flick between various jewellery products from the brand on the virtual hand. Following on from the stock showcase, users also have the option to discover more information about each specific item, as well as locate it in their nearest store via the app map. This is a great way of delivering new marketing innovation via standard day to day print platforms, making a shopping experience a lot easier and more casually done for users in the comfort of their own homes or on the road at times when they may not have the opportunity to actually go to the store and discover the items. The app also drives footfall into stores with the tracking of local stores which stock your desired item.
View the video here
________________________________________
INFOGRAPHIC OF THE WEEK:
Deck the (Social) Halls – view here