Well to answer my own rhetorical question, the mobile offers possibly one of the greatest platforms for advertisers to play with. Seldom has there been an object that we rely so heavily upon. Whether it is using it as an alarm clock, listening to a couple of tunes, playing a game or two, planning how to get from A to B, replying to your messages via text and email, the list is endless. Just to hammer home the point of how omnipresent the mobile is set to become, Morgan Stanley, recently predicted that the number of people accessing the web via their mobile would exceed desktop usage by 2013. To give you an idea of how many people that figure represents, that is a mere 1,966,514,816 active internet users.

Since the introduction of the iPhone, users expectations of what can be achieved through their phones has greatly increased. Consequently, advertising which is seen not to be pushing the boundaries of their device, is poorly received. Smartphones, after all, are smart. Therefore, this mantra needs to be extended to everything that can be experienced through a mobile.

Bearing this philosophy in mind, for a recent project I was set the challenge of not only locating the best examples of mobile advertising from the past year, but also trying to imagine what advertisers could do if they fully utilized the smartphone platform. To sum up my findings I created a booklet showcasing the best branded content currently out there. As you will see, many of the concepts offer a unique and personalised benefit to the user, moving it beyond a simple advertising message. The best branded content, also highlighted the unique technical capabilities a smartphone has to offer, such as the accelerometer. This created adverts which were  truly interactive.

To view the full booklet please click on the link below.

(They have all been around the blogosphere a couple of times already, but there is a reason for that. They’re good.)

As was the case with early examples of TV advertising being radio spots with a picture, the first wave of digital video advertising was essentially repurposed TV spots.

But increasingly, we’re seeing marketing take advantage of the strengths of the medium. An absence of a standard, inflexible format. Interactivity. Spreadability.

Kudos to W&K and Lionsgate for the following:

Click through for the Expendables

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We’ve been conducting our own job experiment. Through social media, we have been publicising our job vacancies. For a princely sum of zero, we have already been fortunate enough to attract several high quality candidates.

However, we’re growing fast and we remain keen to recruit additional researchers. If you feel as if you possess the necessary interest and potential to be a researcher in the areas of media, technology and communications then take a look at our available positions on our main website.

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Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

Exciting, or worrying?

Those that know us will have noted that our iPhones are never far from our hands. Yet none of us are using any augmented reality applications at the moment. This is partly because Apple is “protecting the user experience” as our resident Apple evangelist might put it, but primarily because the applications just aren’t that useful.

Beyond the initial social currency of showing your friends how cool your phone is when at the pub (Exhibit A: Gun App), applications only gain traction if they have some meaningful benefit. So while Layer has the potential to enhance our travels, do people really want to play Rock, Paper, Scissors with their t-shirt? While the ever real threat of walking into a lamp-post is preventing us from attempting to type n walk.

If we are able to get accustomed to the even greater level of sensory overload, there is the potential for augmented reality to improve our lives, rather than offer an annoying distraction.

But having to wait for the kettle to boil? Surely something can be done about that.

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Fantastic visualisation from Gary Hayes – click through to go to the original page, including sources for the figures.

A similar count for social media can be found here.

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Prezi is firmly on our radar. Check out the one minute tutorial at the homepage or have a play about with the below presentation from Wired

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Anyway, there are some interesting points in it even when some of the “facts” are taken with a pinch of salt. For instance, Ashton Kutcher may have more followers on Twitter than the population of Ireland. But how many of those “followers” are real, individual, people rather than businesses, secondary accounts and spambots?

Nevertheless, there are far worse ways to spend some time on Youtube. Though there are also better ways.

Click here to go to the original blog post with the stats included.

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