Google Glass: What I’d do #IfIHadGlass

Google has unveiled new details about their highly anticipated Glass project, inviting all ‘creative’ tech fanatics to a contest that could win them their own pair of the ‘wearable computer’ headset.

If you’ve got $1,500 to spare and a brilliantly original idea (in 50 words or less) for what you’d do with a pair of the glasses, then tweet your compelling Glass purpose under the #IfIHadGlass hash-tag for your chance to become a ‘Glass-Explorer’!

The 8,000 lucky individuals that will be chosen will get to test out their very own prototype of the exciting new voice-controlled technology, which lets you browse the internet, take photos and videos, and essentially hold the power of all information within your eyesight.

The project has been under intense development for years and with the release of new information, Google has put out a video showcasing the various mind-boggling ways in which the glasses could be potentially used. While the wearable technology might not appeal to everyone for now, Google is certain that by the time of their planned 2014 market release, they will have attracted quite an eager following. As part of the campaign to involve potential clients, Google co-founder Sergey Brin spent some time testing out the glasses around the New York subway.

The Glass technology is still under development, but the handsfree device (running on the Google Android operating system) will offer all the benefits of a smartphone, and much more. The technology first began its evolution in 2012 under a secret division of the company, known as Google X.

I definitely love the way they’ve decided to put the project out there. It’s always great to involve social media in launch campaigns, and this 50-words-or-less technique is sure to get some enthused minds churning!

The competition is open solely to US residents over 18 years of age, and closes on February 27th. So if you’ve got an idea that could catch the eye of a Google judge, you’ve only got a week left to tweet it.

Top 5 Valentines Day Campaigns

Valentines Day seems to be the Super Bowl of romance in terms of ad campaigns, as many brands compete for a strategic (yet highly creative and aww-inspiring) marketing push. Unlike any other seasonal celebration, Valentines Day honors all the cheesy and bonding elements of love, even managing to elicit a response from those who plan on spending the day just loving themselves. It’s purely a dream for marketers, who churn out original and quite imaginative campaigns each year in the honor of love…and erm…sales. Here’s my top 5 campaign picks for this V-day.

5. Personalized Innocent Smoothie Bottles

As a highly original present (and a change from the usual cheesy card), Innocent created a label generator, allowing you to choose whatever graphics and messages you want for your bottle. According to an Innocent spokesperson, “We’re a bit sick of Valentine’s Day cards. Not everyone’s a fan of Cupid’s arrows flying across the page or doe-eyed teddies holding shiny hearts hopefully.” Seems like quite a yummy present to receive from a loved one, or even a friend.

4. Field Notes’ Red Blooded Notebook

Notebook retailer Field Notes decided to launch their new Red Blooded Notebook with a totally adorable video campaign for Valentines Day. What can be more touching than a love story played out on a little red notebook? Extra kudos to their marketing team for managing to tie in their product with something that will surely bring out an “aww” from anyone.

3. Ikea Australia offers free baby cots

For any baby born 9 months from today, Ikea Australia are offering a free cot. Seems like the folks over at Ikea sure know what today is really about. And hey, it’s always good to be prepared! Loving their humorous touch to a day that many marketers sometimes try too hard for.

2. Channel 4 Wedding Proposal

Channel 4 decided to jump on the Vday bandwagon by offering one (incredibly enamored) viewer the chance to propose to his or her loved one through a 30-second prime time advertising slot. All for the incredible price of £130,000! VeryFirstTo.com are the advertising company behind the wedding proposal campaign, and according to founder Marcel Knobil, “Such a remarkable, groundbreaking proposal will surely be very difficult to refuse”. Would be quite harsh to get refused after such a daring (and expensive) proposal…

1. Uber Romance On-Demand

Uber, a private hire car-service in the US, are offering clients the possibility of picking up your loved one with a bouquet of roses, a gift package, and a serenading band. They’ve provided a list of artists they have on hand, and it’s all for the price of $150! The romantic gesture can be easily ordered through Uber’s mobile app service. Just tick the Romance On-Demand box and, voila, you’ve got your very own incredibly grand gesture!

Keep calm and stay InstaSmart

Hell hath no fury like an Instagrammer scorned. As most of you know by now, on Monday, Instagram announced some new Terms of Service that sparked quite the cyber chaos. The controversial new ToS (which, to me, seemed to be a rewording of the old terms) outlined that from January 16th, 2013, Instagram will be free to commercially use your pictures, essentially being able to share (sell) your content to third party advertisers and to its parent company, Facebook.

This anoncement led to an Instagram user revolt, as many vowed to close their accounts due to the breach to their privacy. Even celebrities flocked to their social media outlets to denounce Instagram for the situation. And in their usual manner of responding to scandals, angry users joined together in hashtag action, sending off thousands of  #BoycottInstagram tweets. Users were already seeing their filtered duck faces and burger snaps plastered on the sides of buses. Many resorted to using sites such as Instaport and Instarchive, which allow you to bundle up all your images into a zip file that you can download to your computer, where your pictures will always (hopefully) be safe. After retrieving all their content, many users deleted their accounts and bid farewell to any trace of their Toaster-ed images.

So how did Instagram respond to all of this? Well…they didn’t. At least not until after 24 hours of ignoring all news organizations and user complaints.

Yesterday, Instagram co-founder, Kevin Systrom, took to the Instagram blog to explain that the intentions of the new ToS had been misleading, and some clarifications were in order. He assured the masses of outraged, pitchfork-baring InstaUsers, that the company has no intention of selling their pictures.

From the start, Instagram was created to become a business. Advertising is one of many ways that Instagram can become a self-sustaining business, but not the only one. Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram. Instead it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation. This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos.

In his post, Systrom made it clear that Instagram does not own the rights over your photos, and that the content you post remains yours. He also mentioned that if your account is set to private, Instagram will only share your photos with those that you have approved to follow you.

In clarifying how Instagram plans to use your content, Systrom said:

Let’s say a business wanted to promote their account to gain more followers and Instagram was able to feature them in some way. In order to help make a more relevant and useful promotion, it would be helpful to see which of the people you follow also follow this business. In this way, some of the data you produce — like the actions you take (eg, following the account) and your profile photo — might show up if you are following this business.

These plans sound very similar to some the advertising steps that Facebook has taken, by which it uses content that you post and like to create sponsored stories. This should come as no surprise considering the fact that Facebook recently acquired Instagram for an approximate price of $736.5 million (with Facebook’s current stock prices). Instagram, along with its 5 billion photos shared so far, are now in the control of Facebook. So what do people expect from a giant social media platform whose thirst for expanding has caused it to start catering to the far-reaching grasp of the advertising sector. Do we really expect the content that we post to these platforms to be fully ours? And are we really not already seeing the intrusive future of social media?

Let’s be honest. Leaving the social media world (not necessarily Instagram) is the worst move you could make in today’s world. Especially if you’re a young and bright mind searching for a job in the communications industry, where employers seek people with social media skills and know-how. So, unless you’re really planning to put social media behind you (good luck!), here’s the most important tip to follow:

USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO YOUR BENEFIT. Enough with the status updates and tweets about what color wall you’re looking at or what you’re having for dinner. Using social media to promote yourself as a brand will help you gain skills that will be very useful in a communications career. I understand the need to communicate with friends using social media, but why not use your friend base to spread word of your new blog post or career-oriented activities? Sure, social media platforms might be using your content commercially, but why not give them something worthwhile to use? Examples of social media put to brilliant use lie in celebrities, believe it or not. Publicists push their celebrity clients towards embracing social media in order for them to continue promoting themselves. There’s nothing quite like a fan feeling like he’s that much closer to Rihanna because her blunt-rolling pictures show up on his feed. Be smart and use social media to promote yourself in the most beneficial way possible. And unless you’re Rihanna, maybe try omitting the blunt-rolling pictures.

George Entwistle resignation: Playing it safe?

Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters

While it remains unclear whether or not George Entwistle, now the former Director General of the BBC, was pressured into resigning, it is easy to understand why the BBC Trust and the Culture Secretary would be advocates of this move. As Entwistle himself stated, his role as Editor in Chief meant that he should have known about the Newsnight report before it aired. The fact that he only found out about it afterwards puts the BBC into a dark light of shame.

With the BBC being a public broadcasting service, public opinion is of crucial importance. The way the BBC has handled the Savile scandal has been wrong from the very start, and the consequent stain on its reputation continues to spread. While some might think Entwistle is being cast as a scapegoat, it would come as no surprise if a long series of resignations is to follow. In an internal scandal such as this, in terms of public relations damage-control, as politics come unto play it is best to first remove any players that draw attention away from the main scope of the crisis by reacting unfittingly in their roles. Entwistle’s failure of preventing the Newsnight report that wrongly accused an anonymous politician, who later turned out to be Alistair McAlpine, of sexual child abuse, brings the spotlight even closer to the BBC. By first distancing themselves from these players, the BBC is playing things safe. One can only hope that once this process is complete, the attention will again return to Savile’s victims.