Zola, Jess and Jarrett too

I've debated over posting this.  It's not particularly relevant to this blog (to put it mildly) but it's a good illustration of why Twitter is sometimes the best party, the best fun.

It's a long, rambling tale of a Hooters' waitress's wild weekend in Florida, and all the far out scrapes that she gets into.  It's quite extraordinary - it would make a good film.  No dodgy pictures in it, but quite a lot of 'adult content from the outset and throughout', as they'd say in Geordie Shore.

Read it on Storify here:

(Or on Imgur here)

The Tweets have since been deleted, but Zola's account is still active.

It's remarkable for being one of the first things I've seen for a while to come from nowhere and go properly viral, without any sort of feature in the mainstream press - even BuzzFeed haven't mentioned it - because it refers to crimes (a lot) and some of the people must be (quite) easily identifiable.

(Update - Complex has now written about it, pasting in the entire story)

(Update - BuzzFeed now has it too - looking at Twitter's reaction to it)

(Update - The Daily Mail's report ties it to a reaction from the director of the film Selma)

However it's been trending on Twitter all day - Twitter seem to think that 'Zola' is trending because of the footballer, and so on.

It's also spawned lots of memes, for example

Jess: I hope we can still be friends Zola: pic.twitter.com/vsh6MrG32Q

— WALE LAWAL (@WalleLawal) October 28, 2015

&

Zola and Jarrett when they heard Z shoot the guy in the face pic.twitter.com/0uZzuD8ekK

— ☔️Cammy☔️ (@EdenianKing) October 28, 2015

& casting debates

Zola, the fiancee, Z, & Jess (From Left to Right) pic.twitter.com/9OdVYmBChY

— kai (@microsoft42) October 28, 2015

Zola’s story had: -character development -plot twists -atmosphere/tone -racially diverse cast -passed the bechdel test

— Isaac Kariuki (@isaac_pdf) October 28, 2015

Update - Washington Post's account of the events, with court documents etc

(There are now lots of blog posts, Reddit discussions and more that I'm not going to link to - it goes to show that these days it's very hard not to leave a trail and a permanent record of what has happened)

Twitter's first TV ad

This will be shown on TV in the US to capitalise on the World Series, and focussing on Moments

I like it; it makes Twitter look like a party, which it is, if you understand how to use it.

More here

& this is their Tweet announcing it

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

Hunted

Channel 4's reality show Hunted ends this week.  The point of the show, filmed in the summer, is to highlight the power of the surveillance society by challenging people go on the run for 28 days without being tracked down.



I've always been a big fan of 'on the run' books, like The Thirty Nine Steps, Rogue Male, and Ordinary Thunderstorms, and I really enjoyed this show too.  It's been fascinating to see what your digital footprint can say about you, for example:

The authorities (represented by the team of hunters in the show) can track cars on motorways through number plate recognition - but not, generally speaking, on other roads

A phone call gives your location away - and the contents of rext messages can be read too (in one case they tapped the phones of fugitives friends - I'd love to see the contracts that the contestants signed)

You can see lots from discarded devices - one thing the hunters do is searh the homes of the fugitives.  Any devices are taken and then hacked into, so that they can read messages and so on, and even clone devices once they know someone's number, so that they can can follow what is happening on the handset's accounts and apps in real time

Search history on sites like Trip Advisor can be deduced from regular emails - if you've been searching for information on Wales, TA will send you lots of Welsh picks in your next newsletter

I think it's going to be interesting to see how a second series works because future fugitives will be wise to these techniques.  My advice would be to use things like Snapchat where the messages are deleted after sending, and obviously to use as many non-digital channels, like writing letters to people, as possible.

It's also unclear how specific the rules are.  Almost all of the hunted have been charging around the country (they can't go abroad) so is this in the rules?  Surely it would be better to pick one very good hiding place (maybe in your own street) and stay there, incommunicado.

Note - not everyone likes it, and it has to be said that given that all the fugitives have a camera operator with them, there are other ways the hunters may be tracking them down.

Update - When it came down to it the final episode was a bit of a disappointment.  None of the 4 still on the run were captured, and they introduced a new element where as well as staying on the run they had to get to a secret rendezvous undetected.

It was interesting to see that when both groups of two met up at the end they knew each other (prosumably Channel 4 had held briefings with all the participants), and that, while the show had implied that they went on the run at different times, if they were ending at the same time they must have all started at the same time.

Twitter Moments

Twitter Moments is a new feature that lets you easily see more background to popular tweets by swiping left.

New! Find the best of Twitter in an instant with Moments: https://t.co/QAKGUSVBbT pic.twitter.com/KAjfkysVKC

— Twitter (@twitter) October 6, 2015

It's a good example of what Twitter is trying to do to make itself more accessible to new and returning users, and also an example of Twitter as a self-contained walled garden, keeping people within the service for longer, rather than just enabling them to find content elsewhere

Looking forward to seeing some creative uses of this!

See more here

Coca Cola's #shareacoke emoji on Twitter

Twitter has created a 'clinking coke bottles' emoji for Coca Cola as part of an ad deal.  Every time someone uses the hashtag #shareacoke (not case specific) the emoji appears - a bit like the ones Twitter produces for the Olympics, the World Cup, and so on.

.@CocaCola buys first emoji on Twitter with #shareacoke drive http://t.co/BL5T6hWKoM via @MarketingUK pic.twitter.com/YvdYskle3w

— BrandRepublic (@BrandRepublic) September 27, 2015

Oh - and it's popular!

168,800 #ShareaCoke tweets were sent last Thursday, a world record for Largest Twitter “Cheers!” Congrats @CocaCola and all who tweeted!

— RecordSetter (@RecordSetter) September 22, 2015

No idea how much it cost, or if costs depend on how much it's used...

Facebook 360 Video examples

Facebook has started introducing '360' videos, that let you alter the angle, explore and so on.  Google is also doing it with YouTube, and once Oculus Rift and other devices start to come out expect a lot o more of them.

So far they're a bit clunky (argue this with me in 2 years time...) but they will get better.

Here are two examples -

Star Wars -

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Immersive 360 Experience
Speed across the Jakku desert from Star Wars: The Force Awakens with this immersive 360 experience created exclusively for Facebook.
Posted by Star Wars on Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Posted by Star Wars on Wednesday, September 23, 2015


& Go Pro

GoPro Spherical: Sand Dune Jumping in VR with Ronnie Renner
Check out freeride legend Ronnie Renner FMX carving up the dunes in Idaho with full 360 view. For the most immersive experience, click and drag the camera.
Posted by GoPro on Wednesday, September 23, 2015

More info about 360 videos here

'Request your free catalogue online today'

Storage solutions company Big Dug is currently advertising on the underground in London.  On the ad it clearly says 'go online to order our catalogue'

Why would you order a catalogue if you were on their site anyway?  Surely it would be easier just to search on the site?

Well actually, no.  When I posted this on various channels people told me that lots of companies like this, especially in B2B, still have catalogues, because it's easier for people to show to colleagues, to refer to throughout the day and so on.

So while it seems that catalogues for consumer categories are becoming less popular - Littlewoods prints far fewer for example - but in some industries an online catalogue is not essential.

Star Wars uses landcape video on Instagram

Star Wars is (I think) the first user to use landscape video on Instagram (as opposed to square video).

There has been an awakening... #StarWars #TheForceAwakens

A video posted by Star Wars (@starwars) on Aug 27, 2015 at 10:00am PDT

It's part of Instagram's new (possibly controversial) support for full screen, portrait and landscape pictures.

More examples here


Instagram Video in Landscape - Examples from Instagram on Vimeo.

Follow that, Vine!

In praise of cheap content

Apropos of my post last week about the genius of BuzzFeed's cheap videos - Americans Watch Geordie Shore For The First Time and more - and how they wouldn't have been a great deal better if a lot of money were spent on them, comes this animated gif.

His reaction when he finally breaks the glass is brilliant... pic.twitter.com/FT0pfHiJLM

— LOL_Express (@LOL_Express) August 16, 2015

Yes, there's a place for expensive ads like the one John Lewis just produced, but there's always going to be a place for things like this too.

'Americans Watch Father Ted for the First Time'

Apparently BuzzFeed produces about 75 video clips a week.  It's clearly a bit of a scattergun approach, but it means that they produce things that will resonate with lots of different people in different ways, and also that they understand that with content there is a point of diminishing marginal returns in production cost.

(Diminishing marginal returns is an economics phrase that essentially means that after a certain point the amount by which you enjoy something, or something gets better, starts to decline at a certain point.  My economics teacher at school taught it by telling us to imagine eating chocolate bars - first one great, second one great, 3rd one great, 4th one - good, 5th one - you're starting to get a bit sick of eating chocolate, and so on)

It looks like BuzzFeed made this video pretty cheaply.  3 couples, one laptop, one camera, no script, some clips of the show probably free under 'fair usage' rules, and a bit of editing.  They could have used multiple cameras, a nicer set and so on, but it wouldn't have made it a great deal better.  The idea was great, it was well presented, didn't last too long, and has had over 600,000 views in a couple of days.  They just did it and got it out there.

They can also replicate it very cheaply with Mrs Brown's Boys, Only Fools & Horses, One Foot In The Grave, Phoenix Nights, Dick Emery...  (They've actually done one for Geordie Shore...)  Or show Brits lots of shows that didn't make it over here on a large channel.

(In fact they now have 114 videos called For the First Time including Moms Play Minecraft For The First Time, and Indians Try Baseball For The First Time)

I think BuzzFeed are going to do quite well at this whole viral video thing.

Realtor's Partnership with Airbnb

Realtor, the US estate agent, has partnered with Airbnb to let people try an area before they commit to buying there.

When you find a property on Realtor.com you can easily see nearby Airbnb properties that you could rent for a few nights to see if you like the area to live in.

Yes, it's a bit of a stunt (how many people actually do this?) but it's a good differentiator for Realator, and it emphasises that with Airbnb you are 'belonging' anywhere.

More here