CREATIVE: Starbucks, GoPro, Mercedez Benz And Other Top Instagram Videos This Week

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This week’s top Instagram videos continue to show some stable trends, with  superstar Justin Bieber still leading the charge. However, Starbucks Coffee has managed to make a huge jump into the top ten, showing the company’s savvy when it comes to making popular videos. Let’s check out this week’s top Instagram picks.

Meanwhile, in second place, The Ellen Show continued to garner a huge audience, with its latest clip gathering over 215,000 likes and 8,000 comments. In the clip, Modern Family‘s Eric Stonestreet gets startled by the emergence of a clown from a nearby box.

Starbucks Coffee had no problem landing in the top ten, with a fun little video clip featuring a driver showcasing a latte through a trip around town, eventually offering it to a pair of ladies. The video did very well, with over 104,000 likes and nearly a thousand comments.

National Geographic’s channel has no trouble drawing an audience, as it puts together majestic clips from worldwide locales, including, for this one, a trip to a Russian research facility in Antarctica. The clip has over 206,000 likes and over a thousand comments from its 7+ million followers.

Likewise, GoPro has no problem keeping its fans entertained with a number of first-person videos that utilize its equipment. This latest skateboarding clip managed to get over 118,000 likes and 1,100 comments.

With the MLB post-season in full swing, the league’s Instagram channel is blowing up with great clips for its fans. This one is no exception, featuring Derek Jeter’s stunning single hit that eventually scored the winning run for the Yankees. It has over 103,000 likes and nearly 2,900 comments.

It’s no surprise that Victoria’s Secret is a huge draw on the Instagram channel. With this clip, bits and pieces of the company’s products are shown off, along with a pair of beautiful women. It turned out to be a big draw, with over 92,000 likes.

Mercedes Benz revved up with a clip featuring an interesting hybrid vehicle, loaded with technology and a spiffy light-up front end. Though brief, the video has gotten some attention, with over 53,000 likes and nearly 6,000 comments.

Urban Outfitters continued to keep its fans pleased with a brief look at its latte-making tools, which customers can add a personal touch to with only a small amount of effort. Though without audio, the video has scored over 38,000 likes.

Last but not least, to celebrate MAC SS15 Fashion Week, MAC Cosmetics has posted a small teaser in terms of what attendees can expect from the event. Though at the bottom of the top ten, the clip has managed to garner over 15,000 likes.

Source: Adweek

Facebook Looks To Deepen User Research

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Facebook has come under fire with certain practices on its site, like an experiment back in 2012 that revolved around tinkering with a news feed to manipulate certain emotions out of specific users. With that, the social media site has promised that, for future-based purposes, further research with said users would be much deeper than before, with a look at “deeply personal topics” across several types of users.

However, the company stopped short of detailing just where these practices would come into play, not yet revealing guidelines in terms of what research would be utilized, or what practices would be considered appropriate. It also failed to clarify whether it would ask for consent from users in terms of certain projects, like the failed emotional test described above.

It did confirm, however, that outside companies would not be involved with it came to this research. However, some researchers feel that, despite the promises to basically “do better,” Facebook needs to do more.

“This is a company whose lifeblood is consumer data. So mistrust by the public, were it to reach too critical a point, would pose an existential threat to the company,” said Ryan Calo, an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law, who had previously asked Facebook about creating a review panel in terms of research. “Facebook needs to reassure its users they can trust them.”

Speaking about the new review process in the company’s blog, Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer stated that it has “taken to heart the comments and criticism.”

“It is clear now that there are things we should have done differently,” he said. For example, we should have considered other non-experimental ways to do this research. The research would also have benefited from more extensive review by a wider and more senior group of people. Last, in releasing the study, we failed to communicate clearly why and how we did it.”

There is still some show of concern, according to Cornell University professor Jeffrey T. Hancock, who was previously one of the authors behind the emotional study. While he is pleased that the company is considering teaching ethics better with its studies, he’s concerned that the results of future studies may not even be disclosed. “Will they keep doing those and not publish them Or does the review panel say we need to think about that ” he asked. “They don’t say anything about informed consent or debriefing.”

What do you think? Should Facebook be given a chance to prove itself with its new research studies Or are you worried that similar results could befall the social site?

Source: New York Times, Facebook

Young Mobile User Numbers Growing

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The Digital Kids Summit is coming to San Francisco later this month, and, this week, the official site for the summit decided to revisit just how popular social media is with a young age. And by a young age, we don’t mean teens — we mean kids aged 0-8.

Common Sense Media Inc. performed a large-scale survey on children’s media from last year, titled Zero To Eight: Children’s Media Use In America. Within the report, some interesting numbers have arisen in terms of use of social means across a very young age set.

Even though the data is a year old, it’s likely that they’ve risen since that time — which makes their results even more startling. Here’s what the report indicates:

The percent of children 0-8 years old who used mobile media doubled, from 38 percent to 72 percent.

The percent of children 0-8 years old with smartphones in the home grew from 41 percent to 63 percent.

The percent of children 0-8 years old with a tablet in the home (iPad, Android, other) grew from 8 percent to 40 percent.

In fact, almost as many children now have their own tablets (7 percent) as parents did two years ago (8 percent).

The percent of children who use mobile devices on a daily basis — at least once a day or more — has also more than doubled from 8 percent to 17 percent.

Among those who use a mobile device in a typical day, the average went from :43 a day in 2011 to 1:07 in 2013.

The entire report is available for download here, but in a nutshell, it shows that there’s definitely space for a younger audience, one that interacts with a number of apps that have a surprising social angle.

Out of devices used, it appears that smartphones are most popular with 63 percent (a rise from 41 percent two years prior), with tablets in second place at 40 percent (a huge leap from 2011’s  percent). iPod Touch and similar online devices also have a decent percentage at 27 percent (up from 21 percent).

Regarding time spent on said devices, 17 percent said they use social media on a daily basis, while 28 percent check in every week, and 18 percent use them less often than that.

What do you think Is this use of social media a bit surprising considering the young audience Or about on par with today’s technology

Source: Digital Media Summit

Image source

This Week’s #MustReads: October 3

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We sort through quite a bit of the fluff out there on the Internet on a daily basis and we’ve found what we think are the most crucial before you head off for your weekend.

Have something else to share Feel free to comment with your contribution below.

Apple To Hold iPad Event on October 16: According to Re/Code, Apple’s planning a special event in a few weeks for the iPad.

The World’s Top 10 Gaming Companies: New data from NewZoo shows just how much Tencent is killing it. See who made the list.

A Massive Hit Game Is An Existential Threat: Writer Steve Peterson examines the danger of a hit product in the wake of news about Rovio.

BuzzFeed Will Keynote the 10th [a]list summit: BuzzFeed’s Terry City will be talking about the future of mobile at [a]list summit on December 3rd. For more info, go to alistsummit.com.

Facebook’s Atlas: The Ad Network Utilizing Facebook User Data Everywhere: Facebook’s newest ad network is going to use the wonders of Facebook user targeting data all over the web.

Study Shows Consumers Prefer Non-Aggressive Marketing: Turns out, people really don’t like the hard sell.

A Marketer’s Thoughts on the “Anti-Advertising” Social Platform, Ello: Is Ello comparable to early Facebook Does Ello actually deter advertisers

Millennials Buy What They Share on Social Media: Millennials put their money where their posts are.

Win Tickets to Game Connection! You have until Monday, October 6th to enter for a chance to win a ticket to Game Connection Europe by liking our LinkedIn page. See article for rules.

5 Myths About Millennial Consumers: There’s a lot of bad information going around about millennial identity. Get it straight.

A Mixed Bag On Apps: What The New York Times Learned With NYT Opinion and NYT Now: With increasing attention to digital, The New York Times bet on 2 apps that targeted key audiences, perhaps too acutely.

 

Five Questions With JennXPenn

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Jenn McAllister is well-known in the YouTube sphere as JennXPenn and at only 18 has already worked with the likes of Hulu Plus, Sears and Old Navy, doing brand integrations on YouTube. “For me it’s not really about the brand as much as its about the video,” said Jenn to [a]listdaily.  “I only do brand integrations I actually like or things I actually use or would tell other people to use. I want it to be more genuine.”

Jenn doesn’t just only have over 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube, she’s also got a sizeable following on her Instagram as well, with 1.2 million followers there. We talked to Jenn about her recent campaign with OurTime.org, what’s great about being a YouTuber and what’s brewing in her future.

What is the most fun thing about being a YouTuber?

Well for me, I think , obviously the most fun thing is making the videos. I like being in front of the camera as much as I like editing the videos. Something that came out of this that I didn’t even realize is the events that we get to go to like Vidcon and Playlist— those are always so much fun even though there’s not many events throughout the year, but when we get the chance to do them, they’re really fun to go to.

What is it like meeting your fans in real life How crazy is it?

It’s so crazy because on the Internet it’s hard to realize that behind the number, there’s actually a real person there. When you go to to these kind of events, it kind of just puts a face to the number and it makes everything so real. It’s really cool and everyone is so nice and supportive and you get to meet them and see what they have to say.

So you got to work on a really great cause recently, which is encouraging people to vote. How was that?

It was really fun. I like being able to entertain people, but at the same time, it’s good to talk about more serious issues.  I’ve talked about things on my channel like bullying, anxiety and loving yourself for who you are. Getting to with with Our Time and talk about voting which is also really important was a really fun thing to do.

If you could work with anyone — a brand, person or other YouTubers — what would be your dream team?

I like Vitamin Water a lot, I think it would be cool to work with them, but it just depends on who’s in the space and who’s willing to work with YouTubers. Since it’s such a new thing, it’s all just coming into place right now.

What’s next for you?

We’re working on a lot of things right now so everything’s in talks or in the works. Some projects that are close to being finished or being announced are that I am working on a [gaming] app which is going to be really exciting and also a podcast.

 

Good News for Vevo: Nielsen Finds Music Beats Sports Online

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by Jessica Klein

In terms of digital entertainment, what do young adults favor, music or sports?  Nielsen answered this question through research commissioned by Vevo, finding an answer that should please the online music platform. While sports video content reaches about 12 million unique viewers per month online, music video programming gets 22 million, the study reports.

The research firm’s data also indicates that music video content on the web has more engagement power for viewers between the ages of 18 and 34. Such viewers stick with music content on the web for an average of 80 minutes per month, while sports content engagement average 40 minutes.

Music is more popular than sports on mobile, too. Music programming reaches 39 million monthly unique users across mobile, compared to just 21 million for sports, with the average fan spending 139 minutes engaged with music programming versus 71 minutes for sports, according to Nielsen.

This says as much about the choice to consume content on mobile devices as it does about young adults’ interest in music/sports. However, Nielsen’s research did find that young-adult music and sports fans tend to own more electronic gadgets than the digital viewing population at large.

Overall, music seems to draw a more passionate fan-base among the adults, 18-34, group. When asked to rate their fandom on a 10-point scale, respondents within this age group averaged 7.81 for music, beating out other categories like movies, TV, travel, video games, and — yes — sports.

Screen Shot 2014-10-02 at 4.02.01 PM

“Music fandoms cross all age groups and are evenly split between male and female,” said Vevo revenue chief Jonathan Carson. “With the sports audience not only older but heavily male, it’s surprising that brands are spending 10x on sports sponsorships versus music, according an IESGR sponsorship report.” (Or, said in more direct terms: All of you advertisers spending so much on sports content, maybe you should rethink that.)

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

TV Networks Losing Viewership

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While it’s convenient for TV channels to provide online programming for users to watch – including recently aired TV shows and some net-based exclusives – that doesn’t always mean they’re prone for success.

Case in point: according to a new survey by RBC Capital Markets, TV network websites are seeing a drop in viewers, while on-demand services like Netflix and Amazon are seeing growth.

Out of those polled last month, 42 percent use Netflix to watch programming (TV and movies) during the previous year, coming in a close second behind YouTube’s 44 percent. Hulu and Amazon ranked third and fourth, respectively.

By comparison, however, TV services, including official websites for ABC and NBC, have seen a rough decline in viewership, with somewhere between a two to five percent drop over the past year and a half. ABC took the biggest hit with a five percent drop overall.

As you can see from the chart below, on-demand services surged, probably due to the lack of forced advertisements as you normally see on the likes of ABC.com and NBC.com’s programs. Amazon has seen the most growth overall in the past year and a half, with an eight percent increase overall. Others, like Netflix and YouTube, have grown around four to five percent.

Although not all services have been popular – Hulu and iTunes both saw minor drops – they do provide an interesting trait when it comes to how viewers prefer to watch their programs online. One has to wonder if these traits are going to continue in the next year ahead, especially as channels like Netflix and Amazon boost their original programming cycle.

So what’s making Netflix so popular 19 percent of respondents believe that shows like Orange Is the New Black make all the difference. Said RBC analyst Mark Mahaney, “That exclusivity makes Netflix special.”

What do you think Do you prefer on-demand services in favor of channel-sponsored websites that show programming Or do you feel that there’s a need for both when it comes to fulfilling your TV/movie watching needs

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Vice Launching Live Shows With Skype

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With traditional news media following trends that some might consider predictable (even with breaking stories), Vice News is looking to break down the wall with new creative means for live programming.

The channel has announced a deal with Skype to use the online messaging service, owned by Microsoft, for live streaming broadcasts on its YouTube channel. As a result, it’ll be able to create live scheduled shows that interact with the audience, while delivering breaking news as it happens. This will mark the first time in the company’s seven-month history that live programming will be considered.

“We’re in development on multiple formats that we’re going to be programming on a regular schedule,” said Vice News General Manager Sterling Proffer. “What I can say right now is it’s definitely going to involve ways to break down the fourth wall and invite the audience into the conversation to bring them closer to the stories we’re covering and give them more access to the people who make it happen.”

As part of the deal, Skype will be paying Vice News to utilize its technology, although price terms weren’t provided at the time of report.

Vice News has already picked up a huge audience since its inception earlier this year, with over 950,000 subscribers on YouTube, who tune in to watch the channel’s docu-series and live streams. Its ratings have really picked up as of late with its coverage of the Ferguson protests, as well as overseas events, like the riots in Hong Kong.

Although the format of the live shows haven’t been revealed yet, a reporter speaking to a live audience is being considered, along with a debate-style talk show featuring various guests from around the country.

“From a technical standpoint, they have a really sophisticated back-end live production suite that will allow us to have our boots on the ground around the world to contribute and be able to bring audiences into that conversation live with a capacity that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible without diving into crazy control rooms,” Mr. Proffer said.

What do you think Is this a smart move for Vice News as it introduces more live programming

Source: Adage

CREATIVE: Chat With Your Future Self

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A lot of us dream about possibly time-travelling in the future and learning about what really happens to us – and if it’s a bad thing, hey, we can always go back and change things, right Well, while time travel technology isn’t likely to ever be developed, Orange has presented the next best thing, just in time for the company’s 20th anniversary.

The new digital campaign launched by the company, and created by Publicis Conseil and Jam3, is called Future Self, and it’s exactly as it sounds like. The site asks users to log in and have their picture taken and scanned, and then, after a small period of time, you’ll see a digitally recreated picture of yourself at a later age.

Using the microphone on your computer (or a plug-in one – it works either way), you can ask questions to your future self, ranging from personal topics to general questions, such as, “Did the Cubs ever win the pennant ” While some of the app’s replies may not be 100 percent accurate, it’s still a fascinating project that’s worth a try.

You can see the website in action in the trailer below.

 

Windows 10 Coming To Xbox One

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Previously, the Windows operating system was only available through certain Microsoft-powered devices, including Windows Phone and various models of laptops. However, with Windows 10, the big M is looking to expand services even further – to its newest game console.

The company has confirmed that Windows 10 will debut on Xbox One sometime next year, enabling developers to bring various applications and games from Windows Phone and PC to the console with barely any sort of conversion error. The company stated that “Windows 10 will run across an incredibly broad set of devices,” including portables and larger screens. In addition, it will be “primarily use (a) controller/gesture” interface, meaning users of the system’s Kinect device will be able to interact with select programs.

In addition, Windows 10 will also provide a huge visual push behind DirectX 12 technology, and the ability to play such games on an Xbox One could broaden the experiences available for it, including popular PC favorites.

Said Microsoft about the DirectX 12 implementation, “We especially encourage gamers to help us make this release great for you by becoming Windows Insiders. Game developers who are part of our DirectX 12 Early Access program have even more incentive to join the Windows Insider program. These game developers will receive everything they need to kickstart their DX12 development, including: updated runtime, API headers, drivers, documentation, and samples, all of which will work with the Windows 10 Technical Preview.”

Although not every mobile or PC program will make it onto the Xbox One, developers have potential galore to rework their applications so that, to some effect, they can reach out to a new audience. Microsoft is “delivering one application platform for our developers. Whether you’re building a game or a line of business application, there will be one way to write a universal app that targets the entire family,” although that’s up to the developers.

“Strategically, Windows 10 is the right move for Microsoft. It plays on their strengths. They’ve got a lot of talent when it comes to building operating systems, and this move allows them to focus that talent and build one product instead of several,” Kleynhans said. “This allows them to build an excellent operating system all the way through, that runs on any kind of device,” the company concluded.

What do you think Is the Xbox One ready for Windows compatibility

Source: IB Times, WP Central