20th January 2018
Really refreshing piece from the New York Times, via Storythings: Beyond The Bitcoin Bubble. ‘Despite there being a million articles written about Bitcoin every week, we still don’t totally get it. And then this came along and all of a sudden the fog lifted a little. If, like me, you kinda get it but don’t totally get it, then you really should bookmark this essay and give it a read when you have the time. It’s without doubt the best thing I’ve read on the subject.’
From Wired. ‘That mantra of connecting the world was thrown into sharp relief last week when the social network announced the most significant change to the algorithm that powers its News Feed to date. Zuckerberg wrote that the change was to stop posts from businesses, brands and media from “crowding out the personal moments”. The subtext to all this? News. Facebook never wanted to be a news organisation and is now attempting to make a hasty but calculated retreat. But could it all really be about China?
Not great for the Ad Industry, this research from Kantar Millward Brown, suggests that we are really ‘down’ on advertising. ‘Three quarters of UK consumers believe they see more ads now than they did three years ago. Worsening this scenario, two thirds think ads are generally more intrusive than they used to be, an inevitable issue when brands experiment with big data and tracking.‘
Again from @Wired. ‘For most of modern history, the easiest way to block the spread of an idea was to keep it from being mechanically disseminated. Shutter the newspaper, pressure the broadcast chief, install an official censor at the publishing house. Or, if push came to shove, hold a loaded gun to the announcer’s head. Things have changed – is this the (democracy-poisoning) golden age of free speech?
“I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes,” A drone has rescued two people from rough seas off the coast of Australia.
By CNET and from C.E.S – ‘Wall-sized TVs. Connected everything. Smart mirrors. Autonomous electric vehicles. The world’s thinnest laptop. This is everything that mattered at CES 2018.’
Nice observation on the state of the digital advertising market. ‘Ironically, it is the programmatic media buyers – those doyens of algorithms and efficiency – who have a math problem. They have been calculating the costs of cheap media without all of the figures. The real calculus of programmatic media buying not only must include presumed fraud, irrelevant targets and brand reputation. It must also add to the equation the growing tech tax when literally hundreds of billions of micropenny transactions ring up in the massive, virtual cash register that is the entire ad tech ecosystem. This is the high cost of low CPM’s.’
From Newsweek. Nice touch from @TourismZambia referencing Trump’s comments about “****hole” nations. Their Facebook page declares ‘Visit ****hole Zambia . Where the only stars and stripes you’ll have to see are in the sky and on a zebra’.
This has been out a few weeks, but I love this HSBC Ad. It really speaks for (some of) the United Kingdom and the current socio-political zeitgeist. ‘At HSBC UK, we believe that no man, or woman, is an island. The people, communities and businesses of the UK all thrive more when they’re connected to something bigger. Very Well Said. #globalcitizen
And finally, Amazon has kindly released an Echo for the older generation. This infomercial brought to us by Saturday Night Live…