SPP - Earth 2045

Great work from SPP, a Swedish financial services company.

Above is the trailer - see the full experience (in English) by clicking the link below

http://earth2045.com/

The site shows a video of what the world will be like in 2045, with a good and bad scenario which you can switch between, a tiny bit like Honda’s Civic R film The Other Side from earlier this year

Finding the demographics of Facebook page 'Likers'

This one came up today - how do you find demographics of a page in Facebook, if it's not your own page?

This is one way to do it.

Create a dummy ad, pointing to any url at this Facebook Ads Create page -  (you're not actually going to buy any ads)

Select the page subject as an interest - to demonstrate I've picked Shakira, the world's most liked person on Facebook

Go through changing the age and gender, to see how many fans there are at each level.

Here are the results for Shakira in the UK - it seems to make sense.

(Anyone else know a simpler, free way?)

Note - this may technically be the demographics of people who list Shakira as an interest, rather than page fans, but even so it must be a good approximation of their demographics

Sainsbury's 'Food Rescue' site with Google

This seems like a very obvious idea:  Sainsbury's & Google have collaborated on a site that lets you search for inspiring recipes to avoid wasting food.

For example, if you have some broccoli in the fridge that you need to use up, it recommends 20 recipes that you could make.  You can search through your keyboard, or through voice, and also include multiple items, and also exclude items (it was sadly unable to come up with any recipes that included both broccoli and chocolate).

I should also point out that any recipe site worth its salt also lets you search by ingredient; but well done to Google and Sainsbury's for seizing the moral high ground on this.

See the site here

Data-driven design at Gov.UK

Last night I was lucky enough to hear Russell Davies of the Government Digital Service (GDS) talk about how they re-worked the UK government's websites, at a Google Firestarters event.

The GDS's websites process 1.3 billion transactions (inc queries, I think) across 660 services, so designing and running the websites is clearly very challenging - or as he'd put it, 'it's not complicated, it's just hard'

One example that I loved was how they re-designed the page that shows bank holidays.  Previously the page listed all of the bank holidays throughout the year, but analysis of the search data showed that what the majority of people wanted to know was the date of the next one.

So they redesigned the page to show that prominently, and list the other information below that.

A lot of people talk about data analysis and using this to make decisions, but this is a perfect and simple example of it in action.

Kidrated - Video Reviews by Kids

A friend Simon, and his partner Natalie, have set up a site and YouTube channel called Kidrated.  It's a site to review London attractions, for kids, by kids.



At present there are 99 videos on the YouTube channel, with more in store to upload in the next few weeks.  The aim is for kids to start making their own - there are tutorials to show you how to - and also 'Mum Reports' where Tiff, the resident mum, reviews things from a parents' perspective.



There are even short film reviews:



The site came about because Simon realised how much of his son's online use use video, and how his son and his friends would rather watch videos than any other sort of content.  (This also ties in with research that I took part in for Tremor Video last summer).

The other thing I like about it is that it's a great example of a local niche site, albeit a very big niche.

Good luck Simon - let's see this take off!

Three examples of brand campaigns on Buzzfeed

Buzzfeed is currently going from strength to strength - a new UK office doing great things, 85m monthly uniques globally, and profitable.

Brands have been using it for a while, using their own content channels, rather than using banner ads.

Here are 3 interesting things, in keeping with both brand values and the rest of the content:

Virgin Mobile - 10 movie plots that would have completely changed if they had cell phones

Virgin Mobile - 11 Things No One Wants To See You Instagram - done when Instagram for Android was released

Toyota - The 20 Coolest Hybrid Animals

DieselReboot

Spotted by @xavi_izaguirre on Brick Lane at the weekend, the url dieselreboot.tumblr.com is a site seeking inspiration from Diesel fans.


Fans upload what inspires them (although according to the ts & cs it can't be copyrighted work) and then it goes on the site, presumably after some moderation time.

See it here

Looks good, I think, and it seems that brands have no problem with creating short term (ish) urls for their projects (see also Jay-Z's MagnaCarterHolyGrail.com) instead of tying everything back to the main parent URL.

Apparently it's created by Nichola Formichetti - see his own Tumblr here

Will be interesting to see how this develops, and whether Diesel do learn from their users.

A Google Image search for Atari Breakout

Another brilliant Easter Egg from Google.

How long has this existed..?

Coca Cola's 'Ahh' Sites

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Why you need a mobile-accessible site

Before and after pics of the page you visit to book your UK practical driving test appointment, when accessed from a mobile device.

So much easier!

Apparently 23% of test bookings now come from mobile devices.

BandPage - Selling experiences to Super Fans

One of the reasons for the success of a lot of music projects on Kickstarter is that the most committed fans really love their favourite bands and are willing to pay more to be closer to the band and the experience.

Musicians have traditionally tried to keep it all fair, and charge all fans the same amount for gigs and so on (maybe even charging fan club members less for tickets) but Kickstarter shows that if you offer special experiences (band plays at your house for £2,000 or whatever) there are people who will pay.

Now BandPage has been set up as a site that sells these experiences, away from the mechanism of doing a full Kickstarter project.

Opening offers include a 30 minute guitar lesson from Zakk Wylde (on Skype) for $2,500, watch the band Stars from the side of the stage for $100, and a pre-show listening party with the band Issues for $30 (concert ticket not included).

The rather bizarre offer in the video above, Nataly Dawn delivering cookies to your door (if you're near her tour) and singing for you, for $150, has sold out.

A fun idea, and I'm sure it will grow.

Update - and for an indication of how much some fans are willing to pay for things, this Kickstarter to fund a Veronica Mars film hit $1m after just 4 hours, and someone has pledged $10,000, to have a speaking role in the film

Mobile site & experience for the Toyota GT86

My colleagues at glue isobar have made this interactive mobile experience for the Toyota GT86.

The Toyota GT86 is the first sports car by Toyota since the MR2, Supra and Celica, and has been over ten years in development.

Built in HTML5, you can swipe across the screen to rotate the car, and access menus to find out more, book a test drive or download a brochure.  Click here on your mobile, scan the QR code, or see the pics above & below:

Monetising a blog

A couple of years ago I wrote about the menswear blog Put This On.  I had another look at it today (curiosity sparked by trying to find a male version of the Wendy's Look Book videos)

Put This On definitely isn't a male version of those (though there'd be a huge market for them if someone wants to make some), but what it has done is find a really good way of monetising.

PTO started listing cool items that were being listed on Ebay, and found that it was a really popular service.  In fact, you can see how the popularity was self defeating - suddenly lots of people were bidding for the same cool vintage sweaters and shoes.

What they've done is to produce a weekly email alerts of the best Ebay items as a subscription service, at approximately $1 a week, through Member.ly, as 'Put This On - Inside Track'

It's a very clever solution to monetising blogs that are effectively curating items around a theme, and also makes use of one of my favourite trends, managing scarcity.

Update - 2013 - they now also have an Etsy page, selling pocket squares

Member.ly offer lots of other things on subscription, including subscriptions to fine soaps, loose leaf tea, and arty prints, but sadly aren't taking on new clients at the moment.

Yahoo! responds quickly to #DearMarissaMayer

Earlier this week Marissa Mayer was announced as the new head of Yahoo!, taking her away from her position at Google.  In the days after she's had lots of unsolicited advice from the great and the good, but one of the most common questions from internet users as a whole was whether she could do something about Flickr, for example this comment on MetaFilter

"Is she going to fix Flickr? That's the only part of Yahoo that I even know exists without having to look it up. I keep a ton of pictures and videos there, and I would love it if Flickr could thrive."

One user set up this page, DearMarissaMayer.com, essentially asking the same thing, with sharing buttons, and a hashtag reading #dearmarissamayer

So far the page has had nearly 23,000 tweets, and 12,000 Likes.

And...  It's worked.  Flickr now has this page, Flickr.com/DearInternet, acknowledging the request, with the hashtag #dearinternet and hiring people to work at Flickr.

Well done Marissa Mayer!  Now - what should be the next suggestion on DearMarissaMayer.com?

Privacy warning notices

This warning has appeared on the FT, displayed the first time you visit the site.  It warns of cookies on the site, and if you dismiss the notice you are accepting that they can track your usage of the site.  It's in response to the new EU cookie directive becoming UK law.  I haven't seen any other examples this morning - but I'll post them if I do.

Update - The Sun has a much more minimal notice - a thin band along the bottom, saying "By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. You can change this and find out more by following this link"

From looking at the screengrab below you can see how people could fail to notice it...

A Day... for Photography

ADay.org is a project to get the world taking photos on 15th May, and upload them.  I'll be taking part - I think it'll be a very interesting project.  Photos are just so hot right now!

Get involved here

Magnum Pleasure Hunt - Back, Bigger & Better

Magnum scored a huge hit last year with the Pleasure Hunt.  They've done the sensible thing - brought it back for another summer, but made it bigger and better.  This year you run around the map, as well as through other brands' sites.

Watch the trailer...



...& then play here.  This year they've co-opted some Non-Unilever into the game, including jeweller Bulgari, surf gear brand Quicksilver, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Hotel Fasano in Rio, whon provided their intellectual property free in return for their exposure, according to AdAge

Tom from Google+

The first British ad for Google Plus, breaking on TV tomorrow night.



Very classy, as you'd expect, but too subtle?

& yes, they clearly chose the name Tom deliberately!

Are you Insanely Driven?

A new immersive game to promote Reckitt Benckiser's graduate programme.



Launches early next week.  More here and on Facebook

The 'Source' command on Pinterest

I discovered this today.  I'm not sure how widely known it is, but if you use a 'source' command in the URL - see below - you can see the pictures on Pinterest pinned from a specific site.

E.g.

http://pinterest.com/source/apple.com/

or

http://pinterest.com/source/nike.com/

or

http://pinterest.com/source/lisastickleylondon.com/

or

http://pinterest.com/source/magnumphotos.com/

or

http://pinterest.com/source/flickr.com/

Or even 

http://pinterest.com/source/shutterstock.com/

& finally 

http://pinterest.com/source/emarketer.com/

You can see the most popular content from a site.  It makes it a brilliant source for all kinds of research!