In this wonderfully crafted caper between Coke Zero and the makers of Skyfall, a vending machine on a platform in Brussels takes on a life of it’s own. It issues a seemingly simple challenge: get to the vending machine on the opposite platform in under 70 seconds and win 2 tickets to the film.

Ger Nolan, Creative Director

Michael Killeen discussing the trend of large clients hiring smaller centre-of-excellence agencies rather than using large networked agencies.

Another Facebook redesign is no doubt going to frustrate people, have brands up in arms and probably throw up some privacy debate too. But Facebook has to iterate and if they didn’t recognise how things have changed, in terms of consumption of content, they risk the irrelevancy slide. They clearly do, as Robyn Morris product designer at Facebook says “The design of News Feed hasn’t changed much since 2006, but the world has”.

Mark Zuckerberg said at the launch that he wanted Facebook to be “the best personalized newspaper in the world.” And like a newspaper editor, he wants the “front page” of Facebook to be more engaging — in particular on the smaller screens of mobile devices. (NewYorkTimes)

So it’s on its way. But what does it all mean? Well trawling through a few articles (sources at the bottom of this post) here seems to be some of the highlights:

1. Facebook Page Posts and Sponsored Stories that contain photo and video will appear 20% larger. This is obviously good for brands, they can leverage higher resolution assets and use more compelling captivating content. (the journal crunch)

2. The new design also includes some photo page posts being overlaid with a caption or description rather than the text appearing below, suggesting that shorter text on photo updates will be more effective. (the journal crunch)

3. The new look News Feed “celebrates content” in a way that the last iteration did not. One of the key thrusts of this change is the increased emphasis on the visual experience. “Photos are bigger and more visually compelling,” says global head of brand design Paul Adams. “They have always had higher than average levels of engagement so we know they’re more interesting to people.” (Marketing Week)

4. For both organic and paid page ‘like’ stories, the image that will be displayed in News Feed will be the brand’s cover photo, giving this more prominence. It is therefore even more important that the photo is representative of the brand. (Marketing Week)

5. The new Facebook design also means users will be met with the same look and feel on mobile, tablet and web. For example, the left-hand menu will be visible on any Facebook page, while users can quickly move to the top of News Feed when new stories arrive (Marketing Week)

6. Links shared to the site from other places like Pinterest or Quora will have bigger blurbs (techCrunch)

7. News Feed’s introduction of filters or feeds, enabling users to drill down to specific content. For example, users can see news from ‘All Friends’, showing everything their friends are sharing, or ‘Photos’, featuring only photos from friends and the pages users ‘like’ or ‘follow’. (Marketing Week)

This last point seems to be something that could prove problematic of businesses. As TechCrunch point out

“ If users choose to frequent that, they could be free to Like Pages to show off their interests or personalize third-party apps, but not have to see their feed updates.”

There is also some interest to see if video will play a larger role, but it is interesting to hear Facebook’s view on this:
“… with videos, people have to press play so there is a higher level of effort required – it’s more effort than viewing a picture. The reward from watching a video needs to be greater.” Paul Adams says.

It seems that this move by Facebook will have some challenges for brands, but advertisers seem to have welcomed the changes as it seems like it will increase dwell time on Facebook. Users, according to the New York Times, aren’t as happy, with suggestions that Flipboard, already offers a personalized newspaper in which users choose the topics and publications they are interested in.

Like it or not, Facebook is a giant and like all changes Facebook has made, we will all have to get our heads around them pretty quickly and find ways to make it work!

I just hope it puts a stop to all the Like and Share to win rubbish I see on my news feed all the time!

The Journal Crunch: POV: Facebook’s Redesigned News Feed

Marketing Week: Design: A less familiar Facebook

TechCrunch: For Businesses, Facebook’s Redesign Means Bigger Ads, A Pages Feed, But A Friends-Only Section Too

New York Times: Facebook Shows Off New Home Page Design, Including Bigger Pictures

In our game we are always looking for the next big thing. The latest piece of disruptive technology or the new experience that’ll make people go “wow… that’s very cool”.

I saw something lately that made me sit up and press the rewind button and say those very words…

It was a piece of broadcasting / filming technology that the Super 15s (rugby) are testing down under. It’s called a ref cam. And you just have to watch this video to get the full experience.

Now I admit I am a complete rugby nut, but even if you hate the sport you have to admit that is amazing! It is giving you a viewing experience never seen before (unless you’re a referee!).

So it got me thinking. We are always trying to surprise and delight consumers of the brands we partner. We are always trying to give them that experience they will never forget – especially when developing relationship marketing programs or when leveraging sponsorship deals. Can you imagine if Heineken and Sky Sports gave their loyal customers the chance to hit the Green button (rather than the red one!) when watching a Heineken Cup game, to give them (and only them) this camera angle*?

We’re working on a Ryder Cup brief at the moment for one of our clients – can you imagine Rory McIlroy’s caddy-angle view? Maybe I’m just a sports geek but I’m thinking – WOW… that IS very cool!

*If Heineken, Sky Sports or one of their agencies do this we will be looking for a big commission!

We thought Google Glasses were a breakthrough what about the new idea from Google which is an experimental shoe and works similar to a fitness-tracking device; it has accelerometers, gyroscopes and pressure sensors in its sole that analyse the wearer’s movements, providing witty feedback based on how the person is moving. It also connects to any smartphone or computer via Bluetooth, allowing users to track and share their activity, as well as the shoe’s witty remarks.

Are you telling more than you think when you click the “Like” button on Facebook? New research, published today, says that Facebook users are unwittingly revealing intimate details every time they use this social networking feature.

The research shows that “inference” data, such as the kind of TV show and music the user has “Liked”, can be used to build personal profiles of Facebook users. This “inference” data is used as opposed to “explicit” data, to greater effect. The research showed, as an example of “explicit” data, that less than 5% of gay users “Liked” gay marriage.

In fact, the research showed high accuracy for predicting a male user’s sexuality (88%), race (95%), political affiliation (85%), religion (82%) or even whether or not the user’s parents separated before the user was 21 (60%).

This differs from the AOL search data leak of 2006, where the twenty million search keywords of over 650,000 users were made publicly available online significantly in terms of privacy. In that case The New York Times was able to successfully discover the identity of the supposedly anonymous users in the leaked data by parsing their details. In this case the user is already known, their individual identity is established as a Facebook profile, and it is their details and secrets that are being parsed.

And while Facebook users may make their photographs and posts available only to their friends, their “likes” are nearly always public.

Read more:

University of Cambridge: Digital records could expose intimate details and personality traits of millions

The Guardian: Facebook users unwittingly revealing intimate secrets, study finds

Marketing Magazine (UK) reported that “senior Lego executives – from across departments, not just those in communications – were encouraged to take an eight-hour social-media course, culminating in a theoretical and practical exam”. The thinking behind it was that everyone in the organisation needs to get social media. As Danny Whatmough, director of digital strategies at technology PR agency EML says “No department should lay claim to ‘owning’ social media.”

Marketing Magazine, in conjunction with social-media agency Jam, has devised a quiz to put your understanding and knowledge to the test.

So take the test today and then why not use it to break the social media silo in your organisation.

Read the original article: Marketing Magazine, Rachel Barnes, 6th March 2013

Teach the young folk some good old fashioned manners.
Timmy and Alice don’t have any to speak of.
Watch how their bad behavior land them in a right pickle and learn the dos and don’ts of Facebook breakups. Young folk, KNOW YOUR LIMITS.