PSST (2.0 opinions & trends) : contagious ideas blog edited by jérémy DUMONT + Andreea HIRICA POPA

Bored Of Podcasts? Listen To Old Time Radio Instead!

There’s a ridiculous amount of free media content available from the Internet Archive, and the most interesting downloads are often the oldest ones. With masterpieces like Alfred Hitchcock films, gunslinging John Wayne westerns and reels of stock footage and home movies, you’d be forgiven for forgetting the audio archives exist at all.

After the Conet project shortwave numbers stations recordings my absolute favourite sound recordings reside in the Old Time Radio category. Featuring shows from the early days of radio, cheesy thrillers, radio-noir and preposterous tales of bone-chilling horror, I’ve found myself listening to quite a lot of these shows over the last few weeks.

So with years of radio history in the bag, I’ve dug out some of the most enticing series.

Murder at Midnight (1946)

Murder at Midnight can be summed up just by listening to the show’s intro, which harks: “Midnight, the witching hour when the night is darkest, our fears the strongest, and our strength at its lowest ebb. Midnight, when the graves gape open and death strikes”. Cue overly dramatic organ music and you have yourself a suspenseful serial that dabbles in the supernatural.

This show is as cheesy as they get, but with each episode lasting less than half an hour it’s easy to dip in and out. There were a total of 50 shows made but the Internet Archive currently only has half of them. I’d recommend The Man Who Died Yesterday and The House That Time Forgot as two predictable yet entertaining introductions to the show.

Dragnet (1949)

Not just a radio show but a sensation that spilled onto television as well, Dragnet was a 1950s detective series that debuted in 1949 with its final radio run in 1957. Of the 314 radio episodes produced the Internet Archive is home to some 298, each lasting around 30 minutes. The name Dragnet comes from the police terminology for a system of measures put in place to apprehend a suspect, and boy have they changed.

Realism was insisted on for this particular show, so unlike Murder at Midnight dialogue is often a lot less cheesy and stage directions far less explicit. Thanks to this Dragnet is still very palatable today, despite being a relic from old. Listen out for “Fatima Brand” cigarette commercials, the show’s primary sponsor from 1949 to 1952.

Voyage of the Scarlet Queen (1947)

Star Trek fans, listen up! Voyage of the Scarlet Queen is an old-time radio serial that takes place on the high seas and aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System in the late 40s. It is often compared to Star Trek, in fact it is often referred to as a precursor to the show for the parallels drawn between the two. At the time of airing, the ocean was still a highway to mystery and adventure in the same way that space was to Star Trek fans in the 60s.

The similarities come not just in the formula of moving around on an almost weekly basis with an intimate crew getting into trouble, but also from the intro and outro which were read from the captain’s log. The Internet Archive has 35 episodes, including the pilot created after the show’s cancellation in an attempt to reboot under a different name.

A Case For Dr Morelle (1957)

A BBC production from 1957 which ran for 13 episodes, A Case For Dr Morelle just goes to show that our tastes really haven’t changed much over the last 60 years. Why? Well Dr Morelle is the 1950s equivalent to CSI, Waking the Dead and any of those other crime-busting shows in which the usual police leads have gone cold, with Dr Morelle at the helm in his capacity as a Poirot-esque calm and collected crime-fighter.

Produced by the BBC the Internet Archive’s catalogue has been lovingly recovered from off-air recordings, original masters and some old reels found in Melbourne, Australia from the show’s run on 3LO Melbourne in the 1960s. The recordings are not all of the highest quality, but they’re still worth your time.

Gunsmoke (1952)

With a name like Gunsmoke, what else could this be but a western? Gunsmoke is an old time radio show that still seems to enjoy a loyal following, and had fairly high production values for its time. This has led to it being recorded as one of the finest radio shows in history, and you can enjoy 473 single episodes in the Archive’s catalogue.

Billed as an “adult western”, the show was set in the 1870s in Dodgy City, Kansas and is still known for the unprecedented realism it presented to listeners. The show was later turned into a successful, yet altogether less polished television show which ran for 20 seasons.

X Minus One (1955)

A breakout sci-fi hit from the mid-50s, X-Minus One was originally a reboot of a previous series called Dimension X. After remaking a few old Dimension X episodes the writers at NBC poured their heart into original scripts and adaptations of some very famous stories including Philip K. Dick’s “Colony” and Isaac Asimov’s “Nightfall”.

If you love old-style sci-fi then these are worth checking out, starting with Cold Equations. The intro is just as cheesy as Murder at Midnight, and features the line “These are stories of the future, adventures in which you’ll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds” – oh yes.

The Rest 

This is the tip of the proverbial iceberg, there are hundreds of shows available in the Old Time Radio category on the Internet Archive. If you’re bored of the usual podcasts then why not swap them out for an episode or two of some far-fetched tale of life in the year 2000, a cheesy horror or no-nonsense cop show?

View: Old Time Radio at the Internet Archive

Do you have any favourite old radio shows? Any from the Archive that you’d like to share? Let us know what you think in the comments, below.

Image Credit: Longsome (Mark J P), Gunsmoke cast (Wikimedia),

Anthony Mullen (Senior Analyst for Interactive Marketing at Forrester Research). Being a very open-minded and vivid person, he managed to launch the first 3G telecomms company, develop the first commercial mobile video calling service, and consult BBC...

http://bizzteams.com/content/1190-anthony-mullen-forrester-research-my-request-cadaver-wasnat-upheld.html

Anthony Mullen (Senior Analyst for Interactive Marketing at Forrester Research) is one of the most interesting speakers at Figaro's Digital Marketing Conference that took place in London. Being a very open-minded and vivid person, he managed to launch the first 3G telecomms company, develop the first commercial mobile video calling service, and consult BBC, Vodafone Global, Deutsche Telekom, and many other leading brands.

It is very nice of Anthony to have answered BizzTeams' questions (what he suavely did a few hours ago) describing his vision of the most noteworthy current trends in Digital Marketing. Read the Interview with Anthony Mullen and get to know why his request for a cadaver wasn't upheld and who will be able to earn billions of dollars very soon!


Hello, Anthony! We are glad to talk with you. Why did you decide to speak at Figaro’s Digital Marketing Conference in London this year?

- Figaro Digital attracts an innovative crowd receptive to new ideas. I also loved the fact it was hosted in the Royal College of Physicians. My request for a cadaver to make some points on the death of old marketing techniques wasn’t upheld unfortunately.

Please tell us a little more about yourself. We wonder what your professional experience in digital marketing has been hitherto. What were the reasons to join Forrester Research?

- I have been working for 20+ years in digital – from early mainframes with reams of paper printouts through to helping launch the first 3G network and cloud initiatives. I have worked with most major global Telecoms (Vodafone, 3, T-Mobile) and Media (BBC/Warner/EMI) organisations across multiple roles. While the first 10 years for me were solely IT the last 10 were characterised by having one foot in IT and the other in marketing. This has helped me appreciate both arms of the organisation and importantly how to make things ‘happen’!

We’d like to get your expert opinion on some digital marketing issues. What do you think about content management opportunities when marketing on Twitter? Can Twitter content increase a company’s Search ratings contributing to its SEO marketing results?

- I just wrote a blog on this subject called – Turning the Twitter Stream into an SEO Reservoir. There are two views to twitter 1) it’s a real-time pulse of what’s happening now 2) it’s a stream of content and links that can be leveraged outside of a fastly scrolling twitter client window. Search engines already take signals from twitter for assessing relevancy but this can be quite time sensitive leaving lots of your good tweets falling over the edge of the waterfall. Leveraging content for a longer period is something that companies like Twylah do well - historical tweets can be free gold for SEO. Check out my blog on this which goes a lot deeper into the topic.

In your opinion, is humanizing Search the main trend in SEM nowadays? Is it true that strictly technical SEO doesn’t work anymore?

- SEO is still incredibly important and will only continue to gain weight – the semantic web will make stronger connections between not just content but concepts and themes. If by technical SEO you mean 'gaming' the system then I'd avoid that altogether - it's a short term approach with a small harvest. Developing rich, coherent content and descriptions of the content is a tree that will continue to produce fruit. Social drivers and personalisation of search will continue to erode the real-estate for PPC (see Bings excellent work here) and the move to always on (vs. on demand) search will see filtering techniques used by consumers to eradicate noise – Augmented Reality will be the poster child for this.

When will computers become worthy interlocutors for people? When will Siri and S-Voice become wise enough to be pleasant and useful friends and teachers that not only know the nearest Pizza Hut location and weather forecast in Seattle for Friday but also help define what higher education to receive or what behaviour pattern to implement when talking to your sweetheart in a given concrete case in a given concrete person’s life?

- Computers will have to, and are becoming, mediators in order to cope with the volume of data, the noise of messaging and the possibilities for consumers to pick from. While the last 5 years has seen an explosion in content and connectivity it’s only just now that we are managing to interpret the content intelligently using listening tools, analytics and NLP techniques. In 2012 we have begun calibrating these digital machines (as individuals and in aggregate via crowdsourcing) to help them make better decisions. The humans aren’t out of the marketing equations yet by any stretch - we're still teaching the machines.

We know such major Internet marketing industries existing today as SEM, SMM, Email Marketing, Display (PPC) and Video Marketing, Mobile as well as Affiliate and Inbound Marketing (we do not guarantee this list is full and comprehensive, but in basic features it surely is). But are there any emerging online marketing technologies that can earn their place in the sun and let some people earn billions of dollars if they are first to discover their opportunities?

- I think one curveball here might be the rise of Personal Identity Management systems (PIMs) – essentially consumer gatekeepers of information. The privacy debate is picking up speed and it’s a good thing that marketing moves to being more transparent i.e. providing a rationale and reason around the sell that is being made. You could argue that Google and Facebook already play in this space but I think a distinct set of vendors will emerge. PIMs would change speculative marketing to strangers immeasurably – especially for reach technologies like Online Display, PPC and so on.

At the end of the day, will Social Media eventually freeze Search Engines out of the Internet?

- I don’t think that it is either/or as they complement each other well. Social Media will dovetail with real physical social situations more i.e. nebulous digital social activity will tie more coherently to physical social environments. Services like NextDoor are a precursor of where this could go. Search will move towards being a trusted advisor for consumers.

What trends in Cloud Computing industry would you put in first place today?

- From a business standpoint it’s the move from capex to opex allowing brands to make the case for prototyping and innovation more easily. Rent not buy is a revolution to help fuel healthy experimentation.

2012 is the 100 year anniversary of the birth of Turing and he is rightly considered to be the father of computer science and Artificial Intelligence. Which prophecies he predicted have already come into our lives, and which are still going to become a part of our lives in the future?

- Technology is allowing us to having meaningful dialogues with machines. The important part here is not that the machines are not thinking like a human but rather that they can provide valuable ‘insightful’ responses to humans. The Turing test will be passed soon. Check my recent Turing blog out.

You say that your “goals are to make simple and powerful computing ubiquitous to the public and to remain at the forefront of new technologies and systems”. What can we expect from you in the future? And what computer future would you predict for all of us?

- The use of artificial intelligence techniques in marketing to get smarter dialogue happening, treating the physical and digital realms as a continuum. Also the use of context such as environmental, social, external and emotional factors will modify marketing techniques to amp relevancy by quite a margin. It’s a huge opportunity out there but it won’t materialize without some brain-sweat equity from brands.

Now we would like to ask you our traditional personal questions.

Your desk book? – Two – Macbook Air and a Dell Latitude.
People you hold up as an example? – Alan Turing, Fela Kuti.
Mac or PC? – Mac all the way. I’m a musician so that bond was forged long ago.
iPhone or Android? – iPhone – synergy of multiple devices forces the issue – apps are also better.
Favorite auto brand? – Jags ‘cause they have curves.
Favorite sports clothes brand? – Adidas because of b-boying! Don’t like big logos on shirts though.
Favorite social network? – Twitter for research but it’s not really that social – it’s a link fest.
Favorite non-alcoholic beverage? –Context dependent – water is the go-to but Pepsi max and OJ have their moments, too.
The best country to live in? – London is the king of cities but I love South India at night.
Advice for dummies? – Listen a lot and do your own thinking – it will save you in the end.

Thank you very much for these highly valuable thoughts! We sincerely wish you every success in the future! Find the interview at BizzTeams.Com!

Table19's Fresh Thinking session on The Future of TV.

The Future of TV from wearetable19

YouTube Algorithm Change: 'Time Watched' Key to Higher Video Search Rankings

Greg Jarboe, October 22, 2012 5 Comments

YouTube has started adjusting the ranking of videos in YouTube search to reward engaging videos that keep viewers watching. In other words, “watch time” has replaced “view count” in the YouTube algorithm.

If you missed the news, it wasn’t announced on the Official YouTube Blog. Instead, it was announced on the Official YouTube Partners and Creators Blog.

This latest change is a continuation of ongoing efforts by YouTube to focus its video discovery features on watch time, and follows changes YouTube made to Suggested Videos in March as well as more recent changes to YouTube Analytics.

Eric Meyerson, YouTube’s head of creator marketing communications, explained why YouTube had started to focus on watch time back in August.

“YouTube viewers watch a lot of video -- over 4 billion hours a month at last count. But the average household also watches several hours of video per day on their TVs. So for YouTube to become the most important media in more people's lives, we've got a lot of growing to do,” he said. “Over the past few months we have made some changes to YouTube to encourage people to spend more time watching, interacting, and sharing with the community. To support this, we’ve updated what we call video discovery features, meaning how our viewers find videos to watch via search and suggested videos. These changes better surface the videos that viewers actually watch, over those that they click on and then abandon.”

Why This Shift?

YouTube’s video discovery features were previously designed to drive views. This rewarded videos that were successful at attracting clicks, rather than the videos that actually kept viewers engaged. (This short-sighted focus led some video marketers to use “cleavage thumbnails” to attract clicks.)

“Now when we suggest videos, we focus on those that increase the amount of time that the viewer will spend watching videos on YouTube, not only on the next view, but also successive views thereafter,” Meyerson said. “If viewers are watching more YouTube, it signals to us that they’re happier with the content they’ve found. It means that creators are attracting more engaged audiences. It also opens up more opportunities to generate revenue for our partners.”

The experimental results of these earlier changes were positive – less clicking, more watching. So, YouTube expects the amount of time viewers spend watching videos from search and across the site to increase.

What does this mean for video marketers?

This should benefit your channel if your videos drive more viewing time across YouTube. However, if your videos were only focused on attracting clicks, then you could drop in the rankings as even “PSY - GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) M/V” has reportedly done.

How Can Video Marketers Thrive in This New World?

The best thing video marketers can do to be successful on YouTube is make videos that people want to watch. It’s that simple. Unfortunately, many of the old tactics that some video marketers may have used to optimize videos for YouTube will now backfire.

For example, some marketers intentionally made their videos shorter in an attempt to get a higher retention rate. Unfortunately, this won’t help. While high retention on your videos is a good indication of engagement, YouTube is actually optimizing for how a video contributes to a longer viewing session on YouTube. So, your video isn’t more likely to be seen just because it’s shorter.

Conversely, other marketers intentionally made their videos longer, assuming that longer videos lead to more watch time. This also isn’t necessarily true, because it can be more challenging to keep viewers engaged through a longer video. (Imagine a speech by your CEO that drags on... just... a little... too long.)

As a result, YouTube’s primary recommendation is to make great videos that your audience will love and share, and stay away from questionable optimization strategies.

Watch YouTube Analytics Like a Hawk

The day before it announced its algorithm change, YouTube added new Time Watched reporting to YouTube Analytics, providing video marketers with more tools to evaluate the performance of their videos and channel.

If video marketers watch YouTube Analytics like a hawk, they can use this data to better understand what your audience wants to watch. More time watching content means a more engaged audience and more ad revenue. That’s what YouTube’s focus on watch time is all about.

IAB Europe publishes the first results from 8th wave of Mediascope Europe, its flagship media consumption study totalling over 50,000 consumer interviews

http://www.iabeurope.eu/news/4269m-europeans-online-across-28-markets-%E2%80%A6-from-belgium-to-bulgaria-uk-to-ukraine---europeans-are-more-connected-than-ever-before.aspx

IAB Europe publishes the first results from 8^th wave of Mediascope Europe, its flagship media consumption study totalling over 50,000 consumer interviews  


The Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (IAB Europe) is pleased to announce the latest findings from Mediascope Europe, the industry standard European media consumption study first launched in 2003 – measuring evolving media consumption patterns across online, radio, TV, newspapers and magazines. The study also covers internet use across four devices for the first time – computer, mobile, tablets and games consoles.

Key European findings revealed at IAB Europe’s Interact conference:

• 426.9m Europeans use the internet (65%), spending 14.8 hours online each week
• One third (37%) of Europeans access the internet using more than one device
• Traditional media activities are rapidly moving online with more than 9 in 10 European internet users visiting news websites
• Europeans are using the web and watching TV simultaneously to complement their viewing experience
• The internet has become an essential way for brands to engage with consumers with 4 in 10 European internet users agreeing that the way a brand communicates online is important
• 96% of European internet users research online for purchases and 87% shop online

Conducted using a combination of online, telephone and face-to-face methodologies totalling over 50,000 interviews across 28 markets Mediascope Europe now ranks as one of the leading sources of data on European consumer use of media and online shopping habits. 


INTERNET EVERYWHERE BY ANY MEANS

426.9 million Europeans go online every week (65%) with than one third (37%) accessing the internet using more than one device. 64% of people access the web via a computer – that’s 415.7 million people – and 21% use the internet on their mobile phone (139.2m). Using the internet via a computer is most popular in Norway and Switzerland (89%) and users are most likely to be aged between 25-44 years old (44%). Mobile internet users are most likely to be 16-24 years old (30%) and using the internet via a mobile phone is most popular in the UK, Norway and Sweden where more than 4 in 10 access the internet via this device.

Country	% who go online using a computer	% who go online using a mobile
Europe Average	64%	21%
Western Europe	79%	31%
Northern Europe	86%	36%
Southern Europe	59%	19%
Central & Eastern Europe	53%	14%

Source: Mediascope Europe 2012                                                           
Base: All respondents (1)

Time spent on the web differs by the device used – European’s spend a total of 14.8 hours online each week – those using a computer spend 13.3 hours, compared to 9.4 hours amongst those using mobile phones and 9.3 hours for those using tablets. The figure is 6.8 hours via games console.  

INTERNET BECOMES ‘ALL CONSUMING’ MEDIA DEVICE

What stands out in this research is how much of this ‘traditional’ media is now being consumed online.  

• 91% of internet users read news online (388.5m) - men are more likely to be consumers of news online than women (93% vs. 89%) and 35-54 year olds are the most likely to read news online - at 93%
• 73% of internet users watch TV online (311.6m) - 16-24 year olds are the most likely to watch TV online - at 83% - closely followed by 35-44 year olds (81%)
• 67% of internet users listen to the radio online (286.0m) – this increases to 81% of 16-24s and men are more likely than women to listen to the radio online (68% vs. 66%)

Demographic	% watching TV online	% reading newspapers online	% listening to the radio online
16-24s	83%	89%	81%
25-34s	70%	92%	67%
35-44s	81%	93%	78%
45-54s	70%	93%	60%
55+	67%	90%	57%
Men	93%	73%	68%
Women	89%	74%	66%

Source: Mediascope Europe 2012                                          
Base: Internet users

MEDIA MULTI-TASKING MEANS MORE ACTIVE CONSUMERS

The research shows that a staggering 48% of Europeans say they use the internet whilst they watch TV (297.4m) and 16% of all time spent watching TV in Europe is done whilst using the internet. Europe’s heaviest online/TV multi-taskers are the Norwegians at 70%, followed by 68% of TV watchers in France and 62% of those watching TV in the UK. The good news for advertisers is that one third (33%) of all TV and online multi-taskers say the online activity they’re doing is likely to be related to the TV programme they’re watching so there is a significant opportunity for brands to engage the consumer via both platforms. 

Alison Fennah, Vice President of Research and Marketing for IAB Europe comments, “It’s no longer appropriate or sensible to think of ‘using the internet’ as a specific and isolated activity. The ever-wider variety of devices that people use to access online content and the degree to which they do this while using other media shows the deep level of engagement consumers have with the internet today. For instance, many Europeans are clearly using the web and watching TV simultaneously, and a third of those are actually consuming complementary content. Those companies that understand and adapt to these changing consumption patterns will be the ones that succeed in the future.”

BRAND RELATIONSHIPS GROW VIA DIGITAL TOUCHPOINTS

The internet has become an essential way for brands to communicate and engage with consumers:

• 51% say the internet helps them choose better products/services
• 47% are inclined to find out more about products they see advertised online
• 46% of internet users say they often visit the website of their favourite brands
• 41% of European internet users agree that the way a brand communicates online is important
• 30% of internet users are more likely to buy a product of a brand they follow on a social networking site.

96% of European internet users research online for purchases, 87% shop online and almost one fifth (19%) of all their shopping is done via the internet. In a six month period Europeans spent €188 billion buying goods and services online – an average of €544 per European online shopper. Norwegian internet shoppers averaged the highest spend online (€1,162) followed by Swiss (€919) and Danish (€894) online shoppers. UK internet users devote the greatest share of total shopping spend to online (32.0%) followed by German (25.4%).

Fennah concludes, “As consumers we have access to a rich and varied media ‘playlist’ and the way we consume that content continues to evolve. Mediascope Europe is about understanding the impact those changes have on the way we behave – what we watch, what we read, what brands we prefer and what products and services we buy. What we see from the 2012 research is how the internet is being used together with traditional media – consumers aren’t rejecting one media platform over another, rather they are using multiple devices to enjoy a huge variety of media, either with their full attention or shared. For brands, advertisers and marketers, this information is essential to adapt and grow engagement with our consumers in our media multi-tasking world.”

ENDS

The New Bing Makes Google Look Anti-Social

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the-new-bing-makes-google-look-anti-social.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29

It's time for Bing's big headline. Today Microsoft takes the wrapper off the new Bing, for which the cleaned-up redesign a couple weeks ago was just a preview. For signed-in Facebook users, Bing now has a social search component that should send Google back to the drawing board. It's called Sidebar.

Sidebar is the most novel component of the new Bing. It's a mellow, gray sidebar that is closed by default. It shows a thumbnail of your picture and two control icons, and that's it. There's a hint arrow to expand it. When you open Sidebar, it shows you stuff from social networks that's relevant to your search.

If you have Facebook friends who might have an answer to your search query, they'll be listed there. It also shows you "people who know" about the subject from all over the Web, not just from Facebook, but from Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, Foursquare and, yes, Google+. You hear that, Google? Microsoft's social search bar searches all our social networks.

Sidebar also shows an activity feed for Bing-related Facebook news. So if your friends are helping you find hotels in Atlanta, for example, your Sidebar will show those conversations for reference.

There's also a Facebook share box right in the Sidebar, which will allow you to share your searches as a Facebook post if you want. So if you really need help looking for something and want to enlist your Facebook friends, you'll be able to share the search with them. A potential upcoming feature called Broadcast mode would share all your Bing searches on Facebook automatically, if you're into that sort of thing. Bing hasn't decided whether to ship that feature yet.

Coming Up Next: Snapshot

The next big feature coming to Bing Search is called Snapshot. It was there for a while in the demo, and I wish it was live now, but you'll get to see it soon. Snapshot will complete the clean-up of Bing's search results that started a couple weeks ago.

Snapshot will be the best demonstration of Microsoft's "entity engine" called Satori, the technology that lets Bing identify and describe things by mapping things on the Web that refer to them. It pulls together all kinds of information about the thing you're searching for, including images, maps, products to by and so on.

Google was the first search engine to start rolling multimedia stuff right into the search results. Google's Universal Search displays images, videos, maps, ticket info and all kinds of other information mixed in with the Web links. When Bing launches Snapshot, it will move all that stuff into a second column, so the first column is nothing but nice, clean Web links, just like we used to have.

So if you search for "Kiss tickets" on the new Bing (once Snapshot launches), all the websites will show up in an orderly list of links on the left, venue maps and ticket prices will fill in a separate column on the right, and all the way on the right edge of the screen, you'll be able to check if your friends are going.

Snapshot will also be amazing for people search. Google wants to solve searches for people by showing you Google+ profiles, but that's just another identity to maintain. Today, Bing uses your Facebook profile as a hub for its Linked Pages. Eventually, Snapshot will be able to pull all those pages together as its own kind of search result. No profile necessary.

Taking Google to UX School

The new Bing works in exactly the right way. It disentangles the many kinds of information we get from search instead of mashing them all together. There's no awkward toggle switch between "social" and "global," even though Google's idea of "global" is still personalized. Bing has one set of Web links, one set of related results, and social info lives in the sidebar.

Bing Search Director Stefan Weitz made sure to point out that it's not just called "Sidebar" because that's the Web design term for it. It's a sidebar like in a courtroom, a private counsel with your Facebook friends, with conversations from the whole social Web admitted as evidence.

There are so many ways in which Google's Search Plus Your World gets that wrong. The most obvious is the way Google privileges posts on its own social network inside main search results. It has every right to do that, but Bing's cross-network results are much better. But social search results also belong on the side, with the straight-up Web as the main event.

This new Bing is just better organized than Google, and that will help it expand naturally to all devices, "including the Xbox eventually," Weitz says.

The five Cs of connected TV

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9685-the-five-cs-of-connected-tv?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

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When two very different industries like traditional broadcast television and digital collide, it’s difficult to ignore the implications on both sides.

While analysts predict that 60% of households will be watching internet TV by 2014 and many companies are trying to capitalise on shifting viewing habits, the connected TV market is still in a nascent stage.

To coincide with the recent release of Econsultancy’s Connected TV Smart Pack, we’ve identified five key elements of this emerging ecosystem that any marketer needs to be aware of.  

These are what we call the five Cs of connected TV...

Convergence

This emerging, hybrid ecosystem is primarily based on the convergence of online and broadcast entertainment on a television screen.

This convergence is generically termed 'connected TV' and most often refers to a wide range of connected devices that provide an internet connection and deliver web content to TV sets, such as set-top boxes, games consoles, media streaming boxes and Blu-ray players.

According to Informa, there will be more than 1.8bn devices with inbuilt internet connectivity in use in over 570m homes by end-2016.

While providing access to online content on television sets is not an entirely new concept, alternative content delivery systems, second screen apps and social network interactions make it one of the major developments that will shape the future of television this decade.

Choice

Traditionally, watching TV has been a lean-back, passive experience that involved a limited programming choice and casual channel surfing.

Although consumers are now faced with a multitude of options and have more avenues through which they consume content than ever before, they still spend most of their time watching a small bundle of TV channels or shows.

As consumers’ choices only continue to increase and content availability and penetration of mobile devices reach all-time highs, focus is shifting from challenges in content availability and delivery to difficulties in driving and managing consumption. Challenges may no longer lie in having enough choice, but rather in keeping so much choice from becoming a burden for consumers.

The TV industry is gradually moving from a push to a pull model: consumers now expect advanced personalisation (choice of content and length), customisation (setup and delivery options), seamless content discovery and interactive social experiences around their favourite TV shows.

Research has showed that around half of consumers are now using another device while watching TV at home and most of them typically discover content on personal devices such as smartphones and tablets (often accidentally), but want to watch it on their TVs.

While many companies have started to make inroads in linking content discovery and consumption devices, the logistics behind seamless discovery and delivery are complex.

Switching between online, TV and stored content has proven to be a frustrating experience for users and the market is still far away from offering a single intuitive search and navigation interface that is tightly interwoven with a powerful recommendation engine.

Companion

As social media activity has started to disrupt TV watching, many startups are capitalising on the increasing convergence of the two by launching companion apps with interactive social media features to drive engagement and TV ratings.

Apps have become an important part of the holistic TV experience, as they recreate the water cooler effect and give viewers a reason to interact and engage.

In the UK alone, over a quarter (26%) of consumers surveyed say they have commented on a programme on a second screen, with young adults (46% of those aged under 25) being the most likely to chatterbox.

Figure 1: Percentage of people chatterboxing

Chatterboxing: Watching a programme on the television (colloquially known as 'the box') whilst talking to others about that programme online, normally via a social media platform.

Pay TV operators have also been looking at ways to incorporate social TV recommendations into their IPGs or to include social media elements in their shows such as live-tweeting, showing curated tweets or launching Facebook apps for live voting.

As Twitter's UK general manager Tony Wong said: "Broadcasters are not the ones to choose whether to have social TV. It happens whether they like it or not. But they have a choice about how to harness that social TV energy".

Cord-cutting

You have probably heard this phrase multiple times this year. For those who haven’t, cord-cutting is the act of cancelling cable and satellite TV subscriptions, often used in the same context as cord-shaving (spending progressively less on TV packages as more content becomes available online) or cord-swapping (switching from one multichannel service provider to another for a better deal on high-speed internet and cable TV).

But how real is this threat and how are pay TV operators responding?

Informa forecasts that globally, 16.1m homes (only 2% of the global pay TV subscriber base) will have 'cut the cord' with their pay TV provider by the end of 2015.

Under a fifth (16%) of the consumers surveyed by Chadwick Martin Bailey said they are 'highly likely' to cut back on cable next year, while more than half (57%) are 'unlikely' to do it.

Driven by the increasing demand for access to premium content everywhere and consumption of long-form content on mobile devices, broadcasters and pay TV operators have responded by extending existing TV services to different devices.

They are trying to explore different business models, such as either tying them to higher-tier offerings that include multi-screen services or offering standalone subscriptions for mobile or online access to content.

While TV Everywhere might be the answer to the cord-cutting threat, TV networks and cable operators are on a collision course due to content licensing disputes. The challenge for TV operators is two-fold: channels are increasingly making shows available through their own apps to have more control over viewer data and become less dependent on cable operators, and content owners seek new distribution methods and additional revenues for unlimited access.

News Corp. and Disney, for example, will only agree to license content to TV Everywhere if subscribers can also watch it through their joint-venture, Hulu.

Competition and cooperation

The connected TV market is set for explosive growth in the coming months and competition has already intensified. The convergence of online and broadcast entertainment is also creating a new breed of service providers trying to build market share.

For example, technology giants such as Google and Apple are utilising their hardware and service platforms to offer a potential replacement for traditional Pay TV. And then there are the big consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers building content portals and working with developers based on a revenue-share model.

As shown in the chart below, a recent survey conducted by Informa revealed that CE manufacturers stand to gain the most from connected devices, while traditional operators will lose ground overall.

Figure 2: Who will gain/lose from connected devices

While pricing and content rights will be key, the connected TV market will not reach its true potential unless all stakeholders collaborate to achieve DRM interoperability and standardisation in measurement instead of battling over profit margins.

Partnerships can enable a better user experience for the consumer and win-win business models for all companies in the value chain. In other words, key players need more than a piece of software that runs – content discovery and engagement will be the most significant challenges moving forward.

The Connected TV Smart Pack provides a snapshot of the fast-paced connected TV ecosystem. The 80-page report includes sections on:

• Market trends and developments.
• An overview of the key players in the industry.
• Case studies of compaies using connected TV for marketing.
• Third-party statistics and research.

Monica Savut is a Senior Research Analyst at Econsultancy. Follow her on Twitter or connect via LinkedIn or Google+.

App To Control Your Dreams, Now Available In English

 

http://designtaxi.com/news/352186/App-To-Control-Your-Dreams-Now-Available-In-English/

As the world’s largest dream experiment—and probably borrowing from Japanese design firm Technology Miraiworks’ Yumemiru dream-crafting app—UK-based Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire has created an English-version of the dream app for non-Japanese speaking/reading users to create their perfect dream.

Called ‘Dream:ON’, the app monitors your movement while you’re asleep, and plays ‘soundscapes’ designed to help you create your desired dream while you’re in Rapid-Eye Movement (REM) sleep.

All users have to do before they go to bed is: choose one of the soundscapes available; decide what time they wish to wake up and their alarm tone; plug in their iPhone to charge; press ‘start’; and place their phone face-down on the bed next to them.

The app waits till you’re especially still and in dream-mode (about 20 minutes before you want to wake up) and gently plays the soundscape that will influence your subconscious, and will get incorporated into your dream.

Users can also log what they’ve dreamt about and share it on Twitter or Facebook, to prove whether or not you can actually influence your dreams.

To be part of the experiment, users can purchase the starter pack of the app—which comes with two free songs and a fully-functional smart-alarm—on iTunes for free.













[via Los Angeles Times]


Wherever there are creatives, there will be finders.

Balancing Paid, Owned and Earned Media a Must for Multichannel Marketers

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008779&ecid=a6506033675d47f881651943c21c5ed4

Norm Johnston
Global Digital Leader
Mindshare Worldwide

Mindshare Worldwide, an advertising and marketing services agency that is part of Group M and the larger WPP company, was one of the first global, full-service media companies. Norm Johnston, Mindshare’s global digital leader, is responsible for overseeing and expanding the agency’s digital capabilities and strategy. He also works the front lines, advising clients on digital campaigns and media plans. Johnston spoke with eMarketer’s Lauren Fisher about the importance of looking beyond media devices and advertising channels when crafting a multichannel campaign.

eMarketer: How does Mindshare Worldwide approach building a multichannel advertising campaign strategy?

Norm Johnston: We do a lot of our analysis based on the consumer journey of trying to sense where the consumer is going based on the brand objective, or based on the data.

It’s not so much just about the channels or devices where we can reach consumers, it’s more about the understanding of the dynamics between paid and earned media. How consumers are using devices is quite interesting, and that has had an impact on how we approach and build campaigns, but I think if you build your approach around devices, you’re gradually going to drive yourself crazy. The goal should be making sure that on any device, people can find what they want to find.

 

"We need to get past this concept that mobile’s something separate, because it’s not. If people can’t see your brand on a mobile phone or a tablet, you’ve got an issue."

 

For example, rather than separating mobile out, we embed a mobility mentality into everything we’re doing. So when we look at paid, owned and earned media, there’s a mobile aspect to each of those things. Sometimes, it’s simply an extension of what we’re already doing—paid search is one example where that’s true. We need to get past this concept that mobile’s something separate, because it’s not. If people can’t see your brand on a mobile phone or a tablet, you’ve got an issue.

eMarketer: What benefit does looking at multichannel marketing through the lens of a paid, owned and earned media strategy offer?

Johnston: There are all these correlations between paid, owned and earned that are quite fascinating. When we’re helping clients build campaigns that mix these media, it’s important to make sure campaigns are fluid and not set in stone.

For example, if you see paid media activity generating significant amounts of earned media, then you should be able to recalibrate your focus and energy to be able to achieve greater incremental reach that leverages this observed relationship. We refer to this as “adaptive planning,” and it’s almost like a trading scenario, where you look at the data in real time and adjust things on a continued basis.

eMarketer: Do approaches to cross-channel advertising differ based on branding versus direct-response objectives?

Johnston: On the direct side, marketers have always been very good with digital, but there’s an arguable blurring that is happening between branding and direct response as more assets become interactive and response-oriented, which is inherently digital.

 

"The branding and direct-response worlds are beginning to blur more than they have in the past."

 

It’s no longer just about the qualitative boost to brand sentiment when interacting with a particular asset. Marketers now have to decide whether they want their creative to be shared or liked or clicked on to direct consumers to a catalog or retail space. The branding and direct-response worlds are beginning to blur more than they have in the past.

eMarketer: When thinking about incorporating elements of paid, owned and earned media into your overall multichannel advertising and marketing strategy, is there any one of the three that is most critical?

Johnston: You cannot underestimate the impact of word-of-mouth on the earned side. If you look at Apple, for example, they don’t spend a lot of money on media, and they spend very little on creative. But because they have a strong attitude and such strong word-of-mouth, it does wonders for the brand.

There’s a premium and a value to earned media, and it is especially important in product and vertical categories where you have a lot of commoditization—it’s the only thing that’s going to give a brand the ability to get a higher profit margin.

But I will say, from the data we’ve seen from Facebook and others, it’s hard to generate earned media without some level of paid media. And, you have to have something owned, even in the simplest terms, a Facebook fan page or a brand page—some place people can discover the brand.

Still, you can spend a lot of money in paid media and develop a wonderful website, but if there is poor sentiment, you’re in trouble. No amount of paid media is going to make up for a large amount of bad, earned media.

A longer version of this interview is available to eMarketer Total Access clients only. If you’d like to learn more about becoming a Total Access client, click here.

Check out today’s other article, “Kindle Fire Adds Fuel to Tablet Market Growth.”

 

 

Get more articles like this one delivered every day. Click here for the eMarketer Daily newsletter.

 

 

 

MTV launches WatchWith TV viewer companion app for iPhone via @FierceMobiCo

 

"MTV introduced WatchWith for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone, touting a second-screen mobile experience designed to complement conventional television viewing. According to MTV, the free WatchWith app curates Facebook and Twitter conversations around the network's flagship programs, filtering the best and most "liked" comments in real time while simultaneously pushing content from the user's own friends and followers to the top of the feed. WatchWith also showcases comments and re-tweets from the stars of MTV series like Jersey Shore, Teen Wolf and Awkward. MTV previously launched WatchWith for the desktop and iPad tablets.

WatchWith is the second significant smartphone app issued by MTV this month. A week ago, the network rolled out Live and Local, a free location-based concert finder app optimized for the iOS and Android platforms. Developed in association with concertgoer virtual community SuperGlued, Live and Local pinpoints nearby live music experiences spanning across multiple genres--users can create calendar schedules of all dates they plan to attend, purchase tickets from authorized vendors and access maps and venue information prior to showtime. In addition, Live and Local scrubs users' iTunes playlists to suggest personalized concert recommendations.

A consumer survey conducted by MTV earlier this year revealed that 83 percent of self-reported daily mobile application users feel they're "addicted" to apps, with one respondent even stating "Apps are like Xanax in a phone." Ninety-one percent of daily users say apps expose them to new things, 87 percent say apps let them have fun no matter where they are or what they're doing, 77 percent rely on apps as their personal assistant and 70 percent believe apps make the rest of life better. MTV adds that 53 percent of survey respondents cite personal recommendations as a decisive factor behind which apps they download, while 52 percent rely on user reviews and 42 percent credit seeing a friend use a particular app."

Source: www.fiercemobilecontent.com, via @zbutcher

UBIQ PARIS = An international showcase to spotlight the best of digital entertainment: TV, Music, Games, Apps

About

An international showcase to spotlight the best of digital entertainment: TV, Music, Games, Apps

Conference

A multi track conference program featuring the latest digital entertainment trends to engage with audiences

 

Exhibition

Attend UbiQ with a stand will position your company at the center of the European digital arena.

Venue

The Palais Brongniart, a prestigious venue located in the very heart of the historical Paris

Advisory Board

The advisory board is constituted of personalities from digital media, content creation and advertising industries.

Partners

Become partner of UbiQ to position your company as a digital entertainment innovation leader

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Register

Register now and save up to 30% on your stand package or visitor fee

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  DigitalEntertainment

  UbiQ2012

  Launch of UbiQ2012 18-19 June 2012, In Paris France http://t.co/lxwcWLs 22 days ago · reply · retweet · favorite

  The best party will be #UbiQ in Paris, 18 June 2012 http://t.co/lxwcWLs 22 days ago · reply · retweet · favorite

To Groupon Or Not To Groupon?

 

Recently, I attended the Brandhackers meetup on the Deal-a-Day model pioneered by Woot and made famous by Groupon. The clamor around Groupon-ing has reached a crescendo, not least based on the crowded meetup room and the web chatter generated by Groupon’s Super Bowl commercial.  Yet merchants remain unclear on whether to Groupon or not. They are right to be wary, as the following stats demonstrate*:

• Of merchants participating in Groupon and like promotions, only about 66% have a profitable outcome.
• The 34% of merchants running unprofitable promotions reported both significantly lower rates of spending by Groupon users and a repeat purchase rate of only 13%.
• There is abundant research that indicates that price promotions do in fact erode brand equity and have a negative impact on long-term growth.
• Given the above facts, it is no coincidence that Groupon is widely cited as rejecting seven willing merchants for each merchant who is accepted.

In light of these rather sobering stats, here’s a checklist every merchant should consider before talking to a daily deal or group coupon service.

1. Am I in the right category? Daily deals generally perform well in categories with high margins, where the cost of goods for each new customer is low i.e. the incremental cost of each sale is low. This explains why most deals tend to be in the restaurant-bar and spa-salon categories. Redemption rates are fairly high at 90%, coming in marginally higher than gift card redemption, so merchants who rely on low coupon redemption to turn a profit are in for a surprise. In fact, as much as 30% of coupons are redeemed in the first 90 days of an offer, with 20-25% redeemed in the first month. The remainder tend to come in just before the expiration date**.
2. Will it help me acquire new customers? One of the biggest sell points by daily deal services is that they attract new customers. However, a word of caution – it’s also possible that the deal attracts existing customers and cannibalizes sales that would otherwise have been made at full price, as US Toy discovered after offering a discount on Groupon.
3. Will customers buy more than the minimum redemption limit? Most deals bank on customers buying more than the minimum redemption limit on the coupon, to make the deal profitable for the merchant. Unfortunately, it’s also hard to gauge in advance how much customers will spend and that’s why 1. and 2. are so important.
4. What is the list size of the group coupon website? Often the size of the email list determines if a merchant will break even. Email conversion rates for email blasts are usually 1% or lower, making list size an important criteria. So even though there are literally dozens of group coupon sites, merchants should probably stick with the bigger ones unless they are targeting a niche audience such as cigar smokers (e.g. CigarMonster) or golf players (e.g. 14 Stix) only.
5. Do I have excess capacity that can handle a surge in foot traffic? Lastly, it’s pointless to run a deal if the merchant cannot accommodate a sudden surge in traffic. Or worse, delivers bad customer service that upsets all customers – deal or not.

While group coupon services position deals as “free” for merchants, consider the hidden costs above. My last bit of advice to merchants and small business owners? Consider daily deals as just another advertising cost – it’s possible you’ll turn a profit but if you don’t at least your marketing budget will cover the shortfall.

If you’ve worked your way through this checklist already and have some experiences to share – we’d love to hear from you!

* Source: Survey conducted by Rice University
** As shared by daily deal sites Scoop St and ScoutMob at the Brandhackers meetup

Originally written for the Seedwalker blog

Facebook Inc. plans to test a Groupon-inspired service that will sell discount offers, an effort to use its 500 million-plus members to capitalize on the surging online-deal market.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-14/facebook-to-offer-groupon-inspired-discount-deal-service.html

 

March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. plans to test a Groupon-inspired service that will sell discount offers, an effort to use its 500 million-plus members to capitalize on the surging online-deal market.

The service will get started in San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas, Atlanta, and Austin, Texas, the company said last week in a statement. It will be part of Facebook’s existing Deals program, which lets businesses offer specials to users. With the new feature, Facebook’s staff will work with local businesses to spotlight deals and encourage users to share them with friends.

“Local businesses will be able to sign up to use this feature soon, and people will be able to find Deals in the coming weeks,” the Palo Alto, California-based company said in the statement.

Facebook, the most visited U.S. website, is playing host to a growing array of features, such as movie rentals and location- based services, to keep users focused on its pages -- and the ads that make up most of its revenue. The foray into the deals market could put pressure on Groupon Inc. and LivingSocial, which lead the nascent industry but have a fraction of Facebook’s users.

Daily-deal services, which often target local businesses, will generate $3.93 billion by 2015, up from $873 million last year, according to BIA/Kelsey, a Chantilly, Virginia-based consulting firm.

‘Last Frontier’

“Local is the last frontier that the Internet has not conquered, and everyone is going after it with a vengeance,” said Lou Kerner, an analyst with Wedbush Securities Inc. in New York. “This news is just kind of an evolutionary moment in Facebook’s drive to be a major player in local.”

In addition to offering its own deals, Facebook will let users get discount offers from partner services, including ReachLocal, Gilt City, Tippr, HomeRun.com, PopSugar City, KGB Deals, Plum District and Zozi.

Groupon makes money by selling discount deals to consumers -- say, $10 for $20 worth of pizza -- and then taking a commission on the sale. Julie Mossler, a spokeswoman for the Chicago-based company, declined to comment on Facebook’s project.

The effort follows a plan by Warner Bros. last week to let Facebook members watch the studio’s films. Users click a “rent” icon to see movies and pay the equivalent of $3 with Facebook Credits, the company’s online currency. Facebook gets a slice of sales when credits are used.

Skype Discussions

Facebook also is holding talks with Skype Technologies SA about offering Web video calls to its users, two people familiar with the discussions said earlier this month.

Facebook announced in January that it raised $1.5 billion from investors led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., placing a $50 billion valuation on the closely held business. Facebook has seen revenue soar as its user base grows and it attracts advertisers such as Starbucks Corp. and JetBlue Airways Corp. The company may have reached $2 billion in sales last year, three people familiar with the matter said in December.

Facebook, founded in 2004, passed Google Inc. last year to become the most visited website in the U.S., according to Experian Hitwise, an Internet-tracking firm in New York.

--Editors: Stephen West, Nick Turner

 

 

2011 Mobile Trends by Thomas Husson

http://blogs.forrester.com/thomas_husson/11-01-25-2011_mobile_trends

In a recent post, my colleague Julie Ask and I examined what happened in the mobile space in 2010. In a new report, we are highlighting what we expect the key trends to be in 2011. While we believe that most of the trends identified last year will continue throughout the year ahead, here’s a snapshot of more specific trends that will shape the market in 2011.

•           The mobile/social/local combo will explode in usage but generate little revenue.

•           2011 will be the year of the “dumb” smartphone user. Thanks to handset subsidies, smartphones will be available to the masses. Expect new smartphone users to be less engaged and active than the first cohorts of Android and iPhone early adopters. The good news is that thanks to customer education and the convenience that these devices offer, even “dumb” smartphone users will consume more mobile media than ever before and will have incremental usage of mobile data!

•           The mobile fragmentation problem will continue in 2011. Prioritizing mobile developments will still be a challenge, and cross-platform development has not yet been achieved successfully.

•           The apps versus mobile Internet debate will continue — and remain irrelevant. This isn’t a question of either/or — but both.

•           Mobile marketing spend will grow significantly and surpass $1 billion in the US as consumers spend billions via mobile. For more information, Forrester clients should read our US mobile marketing predictions.

•           Mobile will increasingly prompt consumers to interact with their physical environment. Technologies such as QR codes and mobile augmented reality are already helping bridge the real and digital worlds via mobile devices. 2011 is — finally — the year that Near Field Communication (NFC) begins to matter. The market will finally move away from the trial stage in regions where NFC infrastructure is in place.

•           The attention paid to 4G will vastly outweigh the impact of these new networks. Despite the current buzz about US carriers’ efforts, the service will primarily, if not exclusively, be available on USB keys; few LTE devices will be available for consumers before the end of the year.

•           Companies will invest first in convenient services for customers; acquisition will come second. In the hierarchy of benefits that mobile offers — revenue generation, cost savings, and convenience — convenience will reign for the next year. However, for some industries, particularly in the retail space, we expect more and more companies to reach seven figures in direct mobile transactions.

•           Casual gaming will continue to lead the mobile charge for content companies. Forrester has already highlighted how media companies have some of the most advanced mobile strategies. Several news publishers that Forrester spoke with expect mobile to represent more than 20% of their total online audience. While they don’t expect advertisers to follow consumers that quickly, they will need to generate new revenue streams. Expect new business models based on subscriptions, microtransactions, and in-application billing to expand from gaming to other content categories, such as news and music.

•           The term “mobile” will mean a lot more than mobile phones. Consumers are connecting more and more devices wirelessly to the Internet. The recent CES show in Las Vegas showed that competitors’ answers to the first Apple iPad are now available and that tablets will emerge as category of their own in the years to come. Forrester clients can read recent analysis from our colleague Sarah Rotman Epps on why tablets will grow as quickly as MP3 players. However, only mobile phones will sell in the hundreds of millions and are truly “pocketable,” providing anywhere, anytime connectivity.

The path of mobile innovation is accelerating like never before; there are, of course, other areas where we expect to see lots of news and improvements — in particular around mobile measurement and mobile analytics. If you want to react to these trends or share your take, feel free to comment below or to join our discussion on the CPS community.

Follow me @Thomas_Husson

ABSOLUT’s ‘Exceptional Experience’ Bus Shelters

Why Make an Ad When You Can Make an Oasis?

by Angela Natividad

 

ABSOLUT Vodka sets itself apart by turning its campaigns into ambient experiences that mean slightly more than getting sloshed over Russia’s national beverage. (Remember ABSOLUT Kindness and ABSOLUT World?)

It’s been deliciously consistent and imaginative in this regard. For the launch of “Every Drink is an Exceptional Experience,” arm-in-arm with agency TBWA\CHIAT\DAY New York, the vodka label reminds us that even bus stops can be transformed into something unrecognisable in the daylight: an oasis amidst concrete desert.

We give you some Chicago-based bus shelter outdoor for ABSOLUT Twist, ABSOLUT Lemon Drop and ABSOLUT Bloody:

Magnifique! Let’s just hope that upholstery stays pretty.

If Bloody’s boudoir vibe looks familiar, that’s because it may well be: participating artists for the execution included Ellen Von Unwerth, a photographer/artist who specialises in erotic femininity. The poster girls are also well-known: Kate Beckinsale, Zooey Deschanel and Ali Larter.

Remember that despite the digital hype machine there’s still a world outside, and plenty of people waiting for buses. Your options aren’t limited to three sides of posterboard, either. Take advantage. Break that fourth wall!

 

Source: http://www.vanksen.com/blog/absoluts-exceptional-experience-bus-shelters/