Shape up, Whatters.

As some of you may know, I started running this year and, aside from an old injury rearing its ugly head, so far it’s going pretty well. Earlier this year, when I was bragging about healthy I was being to the team at CALM, they challenged me to do something worthwhile with my new found hunger for the road and raise money for charity.

So here I am: running the British London 10k for the Campaign Against Living Miserably. I’ve set a target of raising £1500, reckon you can help me with that? I reckon you can.

Go on, give a tenner (or more!) and help save the male.

DONATE TODAY.

I know I’m late to the party on this one but…

Check out the latest ad for Britain’s Got Talent.

Look familiar? That’s because it is.

Check out this video, from Belgium, released in April of 2012.

It’s just embarrassing.

This baby has been hidden away for 12 years.

A friend of mine just dropped these two mixes just onto Soundcloud. Recorded at the Concord in Brighton back in August 2001, this an utter find. To quote:

A rare DJ set by The Avalanches, recreating their popular album Since I Left You but with many additions.

Clearly I don’t own the rights to either this mix or the original music, but it’s been over 10 years since I was given these mp3s as a treat by the sound team at one of their live performances, and thought it time to share this awesome mix and to remind you all of The Avalanches.

Put this in your ears.
-

Got a question about this recording? Ask Josh.

Have a great Monday y’all.

-

Can you tell?

Is the masters on tv now cant find it

— Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) April 12, 2013

Crolla v matthews. Im going for a draw. Maybe crolla just nicked it. Good fight — Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) March 30, 2013

Great dat today. Back home chilling out. My son is so funny. Bedtime — Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) March 17, 2013

The pitches change. The killer instinct doesn’t. Own the turf, anywhere. @nikefootball #myground twitter.com/WayneRooney/st…

— Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) April 7, 2013

Any ideas? Anyone?

No, I’m not sure either. In the meantime, I’ll just leave this here:

Example: a Twitter user is paid by a brand owner or marketing practitioner specifically to use Twitter to promote a brand, product or service. The brand owner or marketing practitioner should ensure that the Twitter user discloses the payment by including ‘#ad’ within their tweet. As tweets are limited to 140 characters, the use of the ‘#ad’ hashtag allows maximum room for the message itself, but also makes clear to consumers that the message has been paid for.

Cheers.

H/T Andrew Allsop.

THIS. JUST. GOT. MORE. AWESOME.

Hit ‘HD’, make it big, then bury your face in your screen. WOW*.

BONUS WALLPAPER!

*But seriously ‘Today we are cancelling the apocalypse!’ is one of the worst lines ever committed to celluloid, but I think we can forgive them.

Maybe. 

So, this is interesting.

Last Monday night I was invited along to the launch of the new ‘Refresh’ tariff from O2. Not since Orange launched their animal range (remember them?) has anyone actually gone to any length to launch a [yawn] phone tariff before but, when you dig a little deeper on this one, you can kind of see why it’s such a big deal.

The killer pitch of O2 Refresh is that you can upgrade your phone whenever you like. So we’re clear on this, what that means is:

YOU CAN UPGRADE YOUR PHONE WHENEVER YOU LIKE.

Got that? Good.

‘But how?!’ you all cry. Well, it’s achingly simple. So simple in fact that it’s stunning that no one else has ever done it before. O2 Refresh is a 24mth tariff that separates your airtime bill from your handset bill, meaning that you get absolute clarity on what money is being spent where. On a £37pcm contract? £20 of that goes on the phone, £17 on the airtime (that £17 by the way gets you unlimited minutes, text messages, and a gig of data).

To quote directly from their press release:

‘For those customers who want a new handset before the end of their contract term, O2 Refresh enables them to pay off the remainder of their Phone Plan and end their Airtime Plan with no termination fee. To make it even more affordable to get the latest smartphone, customers can trade in their old mobile for cash using O2 Recycle, getting up to £260 to put towards their new phone.’

Magic.

Speaking of which, there was magic on show on the night too -

Mr Oliver B (on the right, above – clearly), was a fantastic entertainer and, amongst other things, managed to swap my HTC One for a Sony Xperia Z (both of which are funnily enough, available on Refresh) right before my very eyes*.

Amazing.

Thanks very much to O2 for inviting me along to their event and congratulations to them too for actually attempting to innovate in one of the most staid and boring areas of the entire mobile industry.

O2, I salute you.

*Oliver B will be out and about in London town tomorrow doing more of the same, so keep an eye out on the @O2 Twitter account if you want to know where you can see him in action.

It’s been a while…

I first wrote about Oblivion back in December of 2012. I was excited about the premise, and I made five predictions on why it would be awesome. So, was I right?

Prediction 1: Tom Cruise does good sci-fi.
Yes, he does.

Prediction 2: It’s ‘WALL-E with guns’.
It is, and it isn’t. But as I said before: that’s no bad thing. This film borrows from many great sci-fi flicks actually, and the end result is better for it.

Prediction 3: It’s directed by Joseph Kosinski, so it’s bound to be good.
Kosinski’s last film was Tron: Legacy (which I loved) and there are echoes of that futuristic world scattered throughout. Again, this is no bad thing. The elder Kevin Flynn would live well in this universe, and he would approve of the decisions ultimately made there. Kosinski has a great eye and everything from the light used in the flying craft (see image above) to the base stations where our protagonist lives, has the touch of a talented sci-fi director. Good work sir.

Prediction 4: This future is imagined properly.
The year is 2070, the Earth is a barren wasteland, and yet the small areas we see are fully-fleshed out. To go into more detail would give away key plot parts of the film. Let’s just say that you believe that the Earth could end up this way; the vision of the Moon in this future is incredibly realised.

Prediction 5. I am a geek, so I’m definitely going to like it.
Right and wrong. I didn’t like this film because I’m a geek. I didn’t like this film because I’m a massive Tom Cruise fan (there, I said it). I liked this film because, as much as I was annoyed about the Morgan Freeman reveal shown in some (most/all) of the trailers, it still had so much left to show me. It just kept going, and going, and going, and going…

In closing, I really enjoyed Oblivion. Tom Cruise is great as Jack Harper and Andrea Riseborough is great (if not, better) as his tech-partner Victoria. Olga Kurylenko is OK, and the rest just serve to keep the plot moving forward.

For the nay-sayers out there you’ll be pleased to know there isn’t much TOM CRUISE RUNNING and there isn’t much TOM CRUISE BEING TOM CRUISE either. Oblivion is a well shot, well-directed, and well-thought through piece of sci-fi and definitely worth seeing big and loud.

The end.

Also in cinemas: TRANCE [terrible film, don't bother].

Place your bets now please…

The facts:

• The Facebook-owned photo-sharing site, Instagram, does not have a business model (yet).
• ‘Official’ ads will be coming soon (if on hold), but celebrities (and their sponsors) aren’t waiting around.
• The Federal Trade Commission (and the ASA) state that ads on social media must be labelled as such.

With those key points in tow, let’s take a look at a few recent examples of how ads have begun to appear on the this particular social network -

EXAMPLE 1:  Lebron James, Nike

Copy: ‘These are simply the best!! Ultra comfy and can wear them with anything. I’m ordering 100 pair right now. #kicks #Nike #family’

Is this an ad? It could be deemed as such, certainly. Is Lebron James sponsored by Nike? Definitely. Is ‘endorsement of product across social media’ part of his contract? Maybe. This is something I’ve talked about before. In short: how do social media advertising rules work when it comes to sponsorship deals? Should this image have an #ad tag?

Let me know in the comments.

EXAMPLE 2. Kim Kardashian, Sun Kissed

Copy: ‘Sprayed tonight after watching KKTM! My legs are soooo dark! Loving Kardashian SunKissed! #AvailableAtUlta’

If this isn’t an ad, then I really don’t know what is. Let’s review -

1. We’ve got a CLEAR product shot!
2. We’ve got a a massive ENDORSEMENT (Kim’s ‘LOVING’ it guys).
3. Finally, that final hashtag? Oh, hi there call to action. How you doin’?

All of these elements add up to a clear piece of advertising. Is it marked up as such? No. While you could argue that KK is endorsing her own products here (so no money has officially changed hands, and this is technically not actually ‘paid for’ advertising) and therefore she’s exempt from the advertising guidelines… but still, it’s a grey area at best.

EXAMPLE 3: Nicole Richie, Suave
(image via Ad Age)

Copy: ‘Ad: My new don’t-leave-home-without-it product? Moroccan Infusion Styling Oil from @SuaveBeauty! Check out ways to add brilliant shine to your style here: bit.ly/XDJOkp’

OK, so this works. Finally someone is using the ‘Ad’ tag properly when it comes to advertising via earned media – hurrah! The interesting point here is that the brand in question has gone on record and said that the above image was indeed part of the existing partnership between the company and Ms Richie. Again, making things even clearer. Perfect.

——  So what can we learn from this?

There are three things at play here -

1. Without a business model, Instagram, and therefore Facebook, is clearly missing out on potentially lucrative ad dollars being bought and sold on their network.

2. Celebrities, and their sponsors, are getting smarter, faster.

3. In the same way that the ASA took Snickers and Nike both went to tribunal here in the UK, I wouldn’t be surprised if the FTC went knocking on the doors of a few US-based brands in the very near future.

It sounds so obvious when you say it out loud but, when it comes to paid-for endorsements on social media, clarity and transparency are key.

It’s been a bit quiet around here lately -

1. I got busy. 
It happens. Between work (more on that shortly), organising and speaking at events, and generally a whole bunch of other stuff; life has been a bit hectic. As I said, it happens.

2. No more blogging projects (for the time being at least).
Well, Five things on Friday came to an end, which meant no more enforced blogging, which in turn took my brain out of the habit of writing [here]. Trimming is still on-going, but what with the whole Google Reader thing, I’m loathe to dive into them at the moment.

3. Podcasting.
The Voicemail is where you can find my mobile rantings, in audio format obviously. My co-host is back from his travels now and we’re about to get back into the swing of things. A good time to subscribe, I’d say.

4. Other blogging.
I mentioned getting busy; we relaunched the Ogilvy Soho Square blog (oh yeah, I don’t work in PR anymore, I should write something about that) which, at the time of posting, is 100% my own domain, just while I get it off the ground and cajole a few members of the team into taking part. There are a few posts up already, some silly, some not. If you’re into social media and the latest thinking (of mine) around it, then I suggest you add Soho Square to your reading list too. Follow us on Twitter for when we publish…

Oh, and on a personal note, I’m messing about on Tumblr these days too.

5. What of My Happy Place? 
All of the above means that blogging here is coming last on the list (again, for the time being), but I’ve got a couple of things coming down the pipeline – including my first ever GUEST POST from the one and only Bizhan Govindji.

Amazing, I know.
Here’s a question for you, what’s the most exciting thing you’re working on right now?

Twitter has quietly launched new markup documentation for twitter cards…

And brands should take note. Why? Let’s start at the top -

What are Twitter cards?

Twitter cards are a fairly recent addition to the Twitter suite of tools that allow richest media content (images, videos, and blog post previews – or ‘photo’, ‘player’, and ‘summary’ respectively) to be displayed in-stream. Launched last year with a few partners such as The New York Times and WWE, these expanded Tweets are another way for publishers to engage with Twitters in a more meaningful way.

Since June last year, Twitter has slowly released this functionality both as new partnerships with other media houses; and as developer documentation for others to add to their own websites and blogs.

Why are they useful?

It’s simple: Twitter cards enable a preview (or in some cases a full view) of the content linked to in the Tweet. This means users of the official Twitter client can consume content without leaving the app and, if they do have to click out, they have a better understanding of what they’re about to engage with.

So what’s new?

Overnight, Twitter launched three more variations of the Twitter card on top of their ex: App, Gallery, and Product.

The first two work as follows -

App
This one shows information about an app; including the app name, icon, description and other details such as the rating or price. If your app is in the AppleApp Store or Google Play, then the corresponding information there can be pulled in accordingly.

Result? More app downloads, hurrah! 

Gallery
This new card represents an album or a collection of photographs via a preview of the photo gallery. This card indicates to a Twitter user that a gallery has been shared, as opposed to just one individual photo.

Result? More imagery = more engaging = increased CTR.

That’s all well and good, but it’s this next third one that I find most interesting:

Product
The Twitter product card can represent different products by showing an image and description, along with up to two customisable fields that let you display more details like price or ratings.

On both web and mobile, it would look something like this -

Result? MORE. SALES. It’s that simple. 

In short: this is fantastic.

This basically says that brands can now, with a simple piece of html markup, preview actual products, for purchase, including reviews and/or pricing information into their followers’ Twitter streams. Combine that with some decent tracking and you finally have what looks like a decent social sales ecosystem.

Think about that for a second; instead of ‘Hey! Look at this thing we’ve launched! [link]‘, you now get ‘Hey! Look at this thing we’ve launched [image] + [price]‘.

HUGE.

We’re already talking to our clients about getting this markup integrated into their websites’ product pages, and we’ve got a funny feeling a few of you might be too.

Exciting times indeed.