Twitter’s 10 million UK users

10 million Britons are on Twitter and most access the site from a mobile device, new statistics from the Twitter UK office have revealed. On Tuesday (15th May), the official feed for Twitter UK posted the following tweet: “Snapshot of Twitter in the UK: 10m active users, 80% of which are also active on mobile.” The UK is now the fourth-largest Twitter userbase in the world, trailing the United States, Brazil and Japan, and together the site’s 140 million worldwide users send around 340 million tweets every day. Twitter UK also revealed that their attempts to monetise the site have been productive, helping their London-based team grow in a short period of time. “140 brands have advertised on the site since we launched promoted products for the UK in Sept 2011,” a spokesperson said. “We went from zero employees a year ago to more than 30 today.”

Gogobot’s going places

It only launched in January, but already the social travel app Gogobot has hit the 1 million users mark. Gogobot had been in beta for 18 months prior to its official release, and that’s undoubtedly helped its success, but statistics show that the bulk of users have signed-up since January, with a new user joining every 15 seconds. The app allows you to share pictures and reviews of places you visit, which can then be viewed by other users and added to their travel wishlist. According to Mashable, more than five million places have been shared through the app and membership has grown 65x year-on-year – a stat assisted by Gogobot’s availablity on iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Speaking in January, founder Travis Katz said the app’s richness of information and sharing functionality make it an attractive proposition for travellers. “A lot of people have described it as a Pinterest for travel,” he added.

Mobile sales slip as Samsung rules

Despite an astonishing year of growth for smartphones, year-on-year sales of mobile phones fell in the first quarter of 2012, it has been revealed. 419.1 million mobiles were bought worldwide in Q1 this year – an amazing figure certainly, but one that’s still down by 2% on last year. This may seem surprising, but it’s indicative of the increasing turn to smartphones, which saw an increase of 44.7% (144.4 million units sold) in the same time period. Samsung are the dominant manufacturer, contributing 86.6 million units to the overall tally, and that means good news for Google, whose Android operating system is the dominant OS on Samsung devices. Indeed, Samsung sales accounted for more than 40% of Android based smartphones sales in the quarter. Apple, meanwhile, sold around 33.1 million iPhones, which is a 22.9% share of the total tally.

Social media advertising to double

Despite General Motors this week pulling their $10 million advertising campaign from Facebook, calling the platform “ineffective”, a new report has suggested that ad spend on the social networking giant (and Twitter) will double by 2016. The study has been conducted by BIA/Kelsey and shows that global ad spend on social media platforms will hit $9.8 billion dollars over the next five years (it currently stands at $3.8 billion). The US will lead the growth – hitting $3.1 billion from $840 million – and BIA/Kelsey’s analyst and program director Jed Williams attributed the forecasted growth to the improved options that Facebook and Twitter now offer. “Facebook opening its ads API to more partners, including those that work with SMBs (small and medium businesses), and Twitter’s self-serve platform will help to ‘democratize’ social ads, which will ultimately lead to more local growth,” Williams said.

Facebook’s biggest brands

Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Converse and Red Bull are among the biggest brands on social media according to a new infographic. Created by Social Bakers, the infographic shows that Coca-Cola has 42 million fans – 12 million more than nearest rivals Starbucks – and that Caburys Creme Egg, Cadbury Wispa and iTunes are leading the way for engagment, growth and total fans in the UK. The full infographic can be seen here.

The £4m ‘ün-established since 1882’ campaign launches tomorrow (15 May) and aims to bolster the brand’s ties to music and the creative arts.

A TV spot, which premiered on the brewer’s Facebook page earlier today, will front the campaign and aims to present a more contemporary take on popular Swedish culture references. For example, the ad features an Abba tribute band performing in an empty hall juxtaposed with a secret music gig in a forest.

The brewer is supporting the campaign with its Kopparberg Festival Player, a Facebook app developed in partnership with Spotify and Last.fm. Users will be able to create playlists around festivals this summer using the app, which marks the first time that both music platforms have collaborated on a project together.

To read the full article, visit Marketing Week.

A TV ad, ‘Fan Academy’, created by Fold7, will launch on Saturday morning (12 May) during ‘Soccer Am’ on Sky Sports.

The light-hearted campaign shows England fans physically and mentally being put through their paces at the ‘Fan Academy’, by a stream of famous faces such as Stuart Pearce, Brian Blessed and Ray Mears, to show what it means to be a “true England fan.”

Fans then graduate from the Academy with a pint of Carlsberg.

The creative director on the ad was Ryan Newey, who worked with creatives David Govier and Simon Johnson. The production company was Academy Films, with direction by Peter Cattaneo. OMD handled the media planning and buying.

To read the full article, visit Marketing Magazine.

A team of five injured servicemen from Walking with the Wounded – a charity that raises funds to re-skill and re-train wounded men and women from the British armed forces – will sample a selection of Glenfiddich single malts. The group was to attempt to reach the summit of Everest but has had to postpone its ascent because of severe weather conditions.

They will be joined by a panel of guests at the London Stock Exchange for the 45-minute tasting, which starts at 7pm UK time and will be streamed live online here.

The tasting follows a nationwide competition run by the brand that gave four winners the chance to trek to Everest base camp and deliver the malts for the tasting to the Walking with the Wounded team. They will deliver by hand the brand’s core range of 12, 15 and 18-Year Old single malts, as well as the recently released 19-Year Old Age Of Discovery Madeira Cask Finish.

To read the full article, visit The Grocer.

The latest installation was put together at Newhaven Harbour in Edinburgh as part of Red Stripe lager’s ‘Make with a Red Stripe’ campaign, which celebrates artistry and tries to challenge the creativity of its drinkers.

Using stop motion animation techniques, the illustrations by Spaceboy were brought to life thanks to help from Blac Ionica and students from the Edinburgh College of Art who helped with the process.

According to Spaceboy, inspiration for the piece came from 1970′s Jamaican music, where the lack of boundaries imposed on artists helped to build a new generation of sounds.

To read the full article, visit Drinks-Brands.com.

The streaming shows will be fronted by popular TV frontman Alex Zane, best known for his work on Channel 4′s Rude Tube, YouTube highlights programme. Zane will be joined by radio and television presenter, Pete Donaldson.

The Caffrey’s promo follows the new Caffrey’s tagline, ‘Redefined Smooth,’ and will rely on user generated content that focus on ‘redefined classics.’

Available from the 14th May, there will be four Caffrey’s sponsored shows available for fans to choose from which will lead viewers to a dedicated microsite where they can vote for their favourite redefined songs, which will later appear on the station.

Speaking of the campaign, Duncan Emmerson, Senior Brand Manager for Ales at Molson Coors, said: “We’re repositioning the Caffrey’s brand to attract a lost generation of smooth ale drinkers, and so it’s a great time to push the marketing activity into the digital and social space.

“This Spotify campaign will play a big part in modernizing the brand by inviting consumers to interact with Caffrey’s on Spotify by voting for classic songs Redefined for a new generation.”

To read the full article, visit Drinks-Brands.com.

Cadbury TV ads go digital with Shazam

Cadbury will become one of the first big-name brands to run a Shazam-enabled TV advert when their latest promo is aired during the Britain’s Got Talent final on Saturday 12th May. A mystery song will be played during the advert and when viewers use the Shazam app to identify the piece of music they will be taken through to a website where they can unwrap a virtual chocolate bar and discover whether or not they have won tickets to the Olympic opening ceremony. Clare Tasker, Cadbury’s head of consumer marketing for London 2012, says the use of Shazam is helping the company remain relevant to new consumers. “As a brand we needed to appeal to younger consumers to stay competitive. We’ve been allowed to do some really innovative work with our marketing around the Games to achieve this. The campaign is about making people feel a part of the Games.” Cadbury have already used Blippar and Google+ to reach new audiences, and the team-up with Shazam comes as a part of ITV’s recent deal with the app company.

Embrace new metrics, says report

Brands must stop relying on “old metrics” such as clicks and likes, according to Vice-President of Digital Sport for Nike Stefan Olander. Speaking at the launch of a new report entitled Velocity: The Seven New Laws for a World Gone Digital, Olander insisted that brands haven’t adapted to the changes digital technology has brought and are trying to force old methods onto new platforms. “Advertising is an old model that is being squeezed into the new framework of social media, when the fact is that people don’t want to be interrupted. Too many businesses are thinking ‘I need to sell inventory’, rather than ‘How can I add value to a smartphone, or a new device?’” Olander has written the report with AKQA chairman Ajaz Ahmed, and he added that there’ll be even more changes in years to come and that digital’s impact upon the market landscape will be every bit as significant as the Great Depression’s in the 1930s. “We believe this will be another Great Reset,” he said. “The ubiquity of technology in audiences’ hands means there will be extraordinary change and innovation with products in the next decade.”

Social reader use falls

There was surprising news for Facebook this week as figures suggested that the number of users of the website’s social reading apps has fallen sharply over the last two months. Using data for the Washington Post’s social reader, Forbes showed that the number of people taking advantage of the apps has dropped from just under 18 million in April to just over 8 million this week. The Guardian’s social readership has also dwindled, but a Facebook spokesperson has played the numbers down, telling Mashable that engagement levels are up and that they are constantly developing news ways to “get the right content in front of people”. The spokesperson also pointed out that such shifts in usership are common in new online products and that only a handful of publications have seen declines, with the apps of The Huffington Post, MTV and ESPN bucking the trend and gaining users.

Pinterest driving traffic and revenue

Pinterest drives more sales than Facebook, according to a study by Boticca.com. The fashion accessories marketplace integrated Pinterest into their site earlier this year and so far it’s reaped handsome reward, with the picture sharing network accounting for around 10% of their social referrals – Facebook contributed just 7%. 86% of visits from Pinterest are newcomers (only 57% from Facebook are), and Pinterest users spend $180 on average, compared to the $85 Facebook users spend. Of the difference between the two platforms, Boticca CEO Kiyan Foroughi said: “On Pinterest users are in discovery mode, looking for the best, most interesting products and designs the web has to offer. On Facebook, people are primarily looking to socialise with friends and consume video and photo content.” Boticca’s Pinterest page can be seen here…

Twitter ‘more valuable than Facebook’

Twitter will last longer and eventually be worth more than Facebook, according to Ogily and Mather vice-chairman Rory Sutherland. Currently, Facebook is by far the most valuable social network in the world, with Twitter lagging some way behind and struggling to find a reliable way to monetise their platform. However, Sutherland believes that Twitter’s shorter form gives it a longer life-span that means its “potential for making money is higher than anyone realises”. “I can see Facebook being superseded more easily than Twitter being superseded,” he said. “As a forum for outbursts, Twitter’s [character] limit, its haiku element is very appealing. I wouldn’t bet against it being more valuable [than Facebook] in the long term.”

The Scottish-based company accused Diageo of abusing its position as sponsor of British Institute of Inkeepers Scotland’s annual awards to force the organising committee to deny it the title “Bar Operator of the Year 2012”.

BrewDog took to Twitter earlier today (9 May) to raise awareness of what it claims were the “dirty tricks” employed by the Guinness maker, with the hashtag #AndTheWinnerIsNot trending on Twitter.

In a statement, a spokesman for Diageo says: “There was a serious misjudgement by Diageo staff at the awards dinner on Sunday evening in relation to the Bar Operator of the Year Award, which does not reflect in any way Diageo’s corporate values and behaviour.

“We would like to apologise unreservedly to BrewDog and to the British Institute of Innkeeping for this error of judgement and we will be contacting both organisations imminently to express our regret for this unfortunate incident.”

James Watt, cofounder at BrewDog, had previously described Diageo’s actions as “shameless, misguided and embarrassing”. It is not known if he accepts Diageo’s apology.

To read the full article, visit Marketing Week.

Click to read BrewDog’s original blog post.

In addition to the shop, FWM have also create a competition tab for the page. Users just have to answer a simple question to be in with a chance of winning a Sharp’s ‘Enthusiast Kit’, which includes 12 x 500ml bottles of Doom Bar, a Doom Bar bottle opener and a Doom Bar t-shirt, amongst other items.

The ‘Good Call Centre’ by Adam & Eve, is hosted on a dedicated website and introduced with a short video.

It allows people to submit a mate’s problem to Brad and Dan by picking from a series of choices helping to define their dilemma and adding their friend’s name.

The girls then deliver the file to Brad and Dan and the duo deliver a counselling session, addressing the friend by name.

Users can share a link to the video via their Facebook account or by copying and pasting a URL.

Adam & Eve has also created a short ad to drive people to the website.

To read the full article, visit Campaign.