This Week in Aducation December 3, 2010

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Some post-Turkey day news:

eBay says that Cyber Monday mobile shopping increased by 146% this year. The leading mobile device used? The iPhone. No surprises there. [Tech Crunch]

Google is looking to start up an electronic bookstore! Ka-ching. [Techland]

This past week, I bought my first Groupon because I’m a social media super early innovator. The next day, I find that Google bought the start up. Further, in the e-commerce space, Amazon is putting money on Living Social. [WSJ]

BlackBerry, probably the blandest of smartphones currently on the market, acquires Swedish UI and design agency, The Astonishing Tribe. Hopefully, this proves to be a good move – RIM really needs better designs in order to compete in the crowded smartphone market. [NYT]

To end the week, here is a quick video on the success of Angry Birds and don’t pretend you don’t know what I am talking about.

This week in Aducation September 17, 2010

Global branding consultancy Interbrand releases its annual list of top 100 global brands. The top 10 are Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, Google, GE, McDonald’s, Intel, Nokia, Disney, and HP in that order. Not surprisingly, huge tech giants dominate the list. Toyoto (#11) fell out of the top 10 this year, but that’s what happens when you have faulty brakes. Apple saw the largest increase in brand value (#17 with a 37% increase YOY) while BP saw the greatest decrease (they’re not even top 100 anymore).

Austin-based tech giant Dell is reviewing for creative agencies, which means Y&R San Francisco could be losing a $4.5 billion account. This is really bad news for the agency as they just recently lost Dr. Pepper Snapple Group’s 7Up brand to New York’s mcgarrybowen without a review.

Going back to Google, this bit of news was marked as “BREAKING NEWS” by cnet.com: GOOGLE JUST SAW A DECREASE IN MARKET SHARE according to marketing research company ComScore. Their share dropped to 65.4% from 65.8% between July and August. WHO TOOK THAT .4% FROM GOOGLE? Yahoo! And Microsoft, apparently.

In the social media space, we’ve got this thing called Diaspora (www.joindiaspora.com), which could maybe potentially compete as a legit rival to Facebook. Two of Diaspora’s differentiators: it focuses on maintaining users’ privacies, and it’s open source. I want in.

ID of the Week!

MORPH by Nokia

Nokia has concepted this phone of the future that they call “Morph,” which shows how nanotechnology can possibility affect the design and utility of future mobile communication devices. Though it looks really really cool, this is light years into the future.

Your Wish is Granted February 1, 2010

It’s that time of the year when market research companies send out predictions for the upcoming year.  I ran across Gartner’s top predictions for 2010,  some of these predictions are interesting and some are “interesting.”  Here are a couple of their thoughts, with a couple of my thoughts.  Sounds like it is time for a poll question.

• By 2012, Facebook will become the hub for social network integration and Web socialization – I think 2010 and 2011 will be big years for Facebook, will they be able to get over the MySpace hump?

• Internet marketing will be regulated by 2015, controlling more than $250 billion in Internet marketing spending worldwide –  I can see the Internet being regulated the same way TV and Radio are regulated through the FCC, but are commercials regulated?

• By 2014, over 3 billion of the world’s adult population will be able to transact electronically via mobile or Internet technology – Interesting that 3 billion is half of the world’s population, you would hope this number would be higher.

• By 2015, context will be as influential to mobile consumer services and relationship as search engines are to the web – will you and your organization be ready?

• By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide – That sucks for people with AT&T service!!

This Week in Aducation, October 2 October 2, 2009

Welcome to the fourth installment in the infinite-part series entitled “This Week in Aducation.” Read on for this week’s cream of the crop in advertising information.

1. Cause and Effect: How MediaVest’s New Research is Affecting Media: MediaDailyNews discusses the decision to launch a cause marketing campaign. The author lists the top causes according to favorabiltiy among consumers, profiles the generations based on their level of involvement with causes, and identifies the most important things to think about when trying to ID an appropriate cause to market.
2. Digital Execs to Marketers: Digital Advertising Works: Online Media Daily reaffirms the usefulness of digital advertising, but also discusses its direction and the nuances that must exist among the strategies of companies in different industries.
3. Brands Aren’t Dead on Yahoo! News: Search Insider details Yahoo!’s recent initiative to bring branding into the search sphere. Corporate logos will begin to accompany search results, and behavior-based accommodations will deliver brand-exclusive content to some searchers.
4. Print Going Digital for the Mobile Market: The Center for Media Research recently uncovered some interesting trends in the publication industry around the market for mobile advertising. It seems that mobile not only is responsible for significantly increased digital publication web traffic, but also is set to explode as a publication distribution channel. If you’re really hungry, check out the related whitepaper.