The UM MENA Point of View
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Tech companies great and small always have a gimmick or two up their sleeve, and Google has been known for their screen adaptations and their playful renderings of their logo on the main Search page. But this year’s “Let It Snow” frosting of the search result page takes the icing on the cake.
Just do a search for “let it snow” and watch the flakes fall across your screen until the search result window gets completely ‘snowed’ over and the blue ‘Search’ button at the top becomes ‘Defrost’. What’s even cooler is that once your screen gets completely fogged up you can also draw on the Google search results page like a finger on a window.
As of today (three days past Christmas) the trick is still on, and it may be a nice idea for Google to keep this on through the cold season. So, yes, even in Dubai, we can sit back at our offices or at home and enjoy the snow.
We hope you had a good 2011 and are celebrating the arrival of the New Year. At Innovations_Digital we wish you all the best for the Season. So, let it snow…
Sourced from our digital content and strategy agency: Innovations_Digital blog
The state of the US mobile platform base. Biggest opportunity: getting smartphones in the hands of non-smartphone users. (This is true of the US, but also very true of developing markets where the shift to mobile is enormous.). Apple slowing down, but Android growing by leaps and bounds…
Advancements in digital technology, increasing demands of the consumer and the client, and changing habits of media consumption are all creating a new landscape in the ad world. What is emerging is scalable, adaptable, lean, multi-dextrous and nimble. And collaborative. Smart. The new ice age is dawning and the cold wave is technology.
A webisode is a short episode which airs initially as Internet television, either as a download or streamed content – as opposed to first airing on tv.
The format can be used as a preview, a promotion, as part of a collection of shorts, or a commercial. A webisode is usually part of an existing drama or series or it may consist of entirely original material. A lot of webisodes are now being produced as original ‘made-directly-for-online’ content.
A webisode is simply a web episode – collectively it is part of a web series, a form of new medium called web television that characteristically features a dramatic, serial storyline, where the primary method of viewership is streaming online over the Internet.
While there is no set standard for length, most webisodes are relatively short, ranging from 1–10 minutes in length. With the increasing popularity of online media consumption in the region, the demand for creating short duration video content for distribution via web is becoming prevalent. For well established periods in the calendar which are known in the region for media consumption on a daily basis – such as Ramadan, when the serial TV episode format is hugely popular, webisodes delivered across online will also become a commonly accepted format. Interestingly, webisodes are also available in a more compressed format, even further optimized – for mobile – and these are known as mobisodes.
Webisodes are also becoming a popular format for branded content – where either a brand’s product is ‘indirectly’ placed in some form of drama or continuing story, or in a direct brand driven game or user-selected ending format are also becoming popular as new ‘channels’ or brand marketing opportunities.
Interestingly, the format is getting a lot of chatter in media circles and production agencies are gearing up. Once we have good creative planning and content, this format will be a very interesting challenge to the serial format on tv. And, do watch out for the mobisode – the serial on your mobile. I’ll write about that next…
Tom Roy, CIO, MCN
Here in the Middle East, it’s a little slower on the uptake than what’s happening in the West, but brands today – powered by YouTube, facebook, twitter and even the blogosphere are becoming independent – and relevant – media channels by themselves.
Because, combined with digital production and planning agencies, brands are now increasingly aware of the power of combining owned, earned and paid media. They’re creating content and publishing it, pushing it across channels that they are able to create. They are hiring either creative talent within their own ‘marketing’ functions or are freelancing it out. Or getting agencies in to combine content and media – creating and masterminding editorial, written, video, audio and to-be-shared social and viral content.
This is probably because there isn’t enough good content in the market out there. Brands are increasingly creating and crafting what they want to say or want said about their brands, rather than depend on bloggers and independent creators, or even existing media channels. So, a fashion brand may create their own ‘how-to’ content for a YouTube channel, rather than depend on, here in the Middle East, a Yahoo Maktoob…
Tom Roy, CIO, MCN
