Australia Post’s Pass the Parcel. No messy newspaper to clean up.
It’s been a busy week for us here, starting on Monday with the launch of Australia Post’s new Pass the Parcel promotion on Facebook.
Australia Post approached us with the idea of using social to reinvent the classic kids’ party game Pass the Parcel – one of the first really “social” games most of us played as children – while keeping the concept simple and accessible.
We put together a Facebook app that put you in a “circle” with other contestants – don’t be surprised if some of them are your friends. We sat you guys together.
When the parcel gets to you, just click on it and see if you’ve won a prize. There’s a lot to be won and you can come back and try again every day.
The response so far has been amazing. Since launching on Monday morning, we’ve had more than 50,000 unique users and more than 30,000 new likes for Australia Post.
Amnesia Razorfish, an agency of many facets and faces, has joined the Pinterest train. Why may you ask? Well because it’s the big man on campus, socially media speaking.
Plus we get to pin cool stuff like this:
Freddy Mercury riding Darth Vader.
According to Google Ad Planner, Pinterest drew 38 million unique visitors globally in March, which is up from 23.7 million in February and 3.5 million in September last year.
The Los Angeles Times reported how Pinterest is ranked the third-most-popular social networking site behind Facebook and Twitter and the trend is set to rise.
There are articles dedicated to fighting or nurturing Pinterest addictions and Repinly is a page created for the sole purpose of monitoring the most trending Pinterest topics (Food & Drink for now).
So it seems that every marketer, trend observer and media analyst wants a piece of the Pinterest pie, with twitter streams full of answers to the power in a pin.
However for brands, Pinterest is not always the miracle solution for reaching target audiences and, particularly in Australia, the site is yet to prove itself to cautious digital strategists.
For now, these Australian based statistics, found using Google DoubleClick Ad planner, show that while Pinterest is a creative and connected platform, it may not be suited to everybody.
March Pinterest demographics
Pinterest in Australia attracts an older audience, with 34% of users in the 45-54 age bracket.
Of these users, an overwhelming majority (62%) attended ‘some college’ and based on the ‘Audience Interests’ below, the types of colleges become clear.
The most interesting statistic shows that where globally women comprise 72% of pinners, in Australia men are leading the game taking their 52% cut of people pinning.
So what does this mean? Are Australian men less averse to the pictures of cupcakes, Martha Stewart-esque home renovations and wedding dresses dominating Pinterest?
This ostentatious display of everything girly is responsible for the Pinterest inspired site, Gentlemint, that with its mustache logo and promise to be a ‘mint of manly things’ abhors anything with glitter or kittens.
If you’re not familiar with the report it is compiled by Razorfish in the U.S. and provides an in-depth analysis of emerging trends in media, technology and creativity.
A major theme from this year is collaboration, content and relationships defining a new approach in media.
The year in digital media is reviewed here and other hot topics include:
News Digital Media recently ran a promotion where you could win lots of prizes including the chance to be an Agency Hero. So guess who won an Agency Hero Award and $5000 for our Christmas party? Becki Luxton! @bexlux
In her own words..
‘Every week I correctly answered the quiz and it turns out I’m the hero! We have a giant cheque (I’ve always wanted one of those) and a week to plan our ultimate Christmas party. Thanks News Digital!’
You were already a hero in our eyes Becki, but here’s to News Digital for spotting it too!
In the last 10, the world has moved into digital. The word “digital” itself underlines the major role of technology. This year our Razorfish team led by our CTO Ray Velez created a report of 5 Technologies that will have great significance this year.
Cloud services and open APIs will become essential for social brands, making it easier for businesses to tap into the consumer’s social graph.
Reliance on the cloud’s infrastructure will continue to grow as the need for real-time scalability becomes increasingly critical for survival.
Multi-touch technology, which has already become mainstream in consumer devices, will infiltrate retail and business environments so extensively that it will become expected.
Improved hardware and connectivity will help mobile make the final transition into cloud-based data that allows the user to learn the world around her in real time.
Agile and iterative Web development will open new doors for innovation by allowing developers to innovate and adjust products based on immediate customer feedback.
Search just finished its first decade! Our US Search teams have put together a look back over the past 10 years and key milestones which have shaped the search landscape today. It’s amazing how far the industry has come in such a short space of time and how much it has changed. Most notably, back in 2000 Google was the default search engine for Yahoo users and now they’re main competitors!
Click here to see The Decade in Search highlights and below our thoughts from Amnesia, it’s effect on the APAC region and what the future is set to hold – for the moment at least!
Why has Google become so strong?
Leading innovation, products and add ons that are simple for consumers to use and make Google the one-stop shop for consuming and sharing online
For advertisers they have developed user friendly interfaces, in-depth reporting and free applications such as Analytics and Insights to make sure we can target consumers as effectively as possible on the Google network
Both Yahoo and MSN have both lagged behind in innovation which has ultimately held back their advancement in the majority of APAC
Key Changes for the APAC region:
Reputation management – the force that is social is an exciting time as online becomes more of an open forum. As search engines start to rank more and more social content the process of reputation management becomes more challenging and also brings up the age old question – is all news good PR?
Censorship – hot topic at the moment especially here in Australia. Is the free availability of information set to end? We’ll be keeping a close eye on proceedings and also the effects this may have on advertisers
China is the key market for change, with recent heavy news coverage that Google may pull out over a combination of high levels of censorship and hacking linked to the government.
Accessibility – the imminent launch of new devices, such as, the iPad and Android phones, will open up the way people can search and the frequency in which they can do it
Bing – Microsoft’s new search engine has reportedly been growing, albeit at a small rate. It will be interesting to see locally if consumers in each market will transition once it comes out of Beta and all features are available. Look out Google? Only time will tell!
All in all we are about to enter the next chapter in Search. Especially here in APAC where there are many different types of market, from emerging to mature and everything in between. The key to success is strategy localisation to ensure your advertising is meeting the needs of consumers from very varied backgrounds.
The month of mo-growing, mo-itching and mo-ridicule is almost over. Amnesia have shown sterling character with their Movember efforts … and raised rather alot of cash. For the benefit of our overseas friends, the rules are simple: Grow a ‘Mo’ and raise money for men’s cancer and depression charities.
Now many of you (yes you – working in other Razorfish offices around the world) haven’t donated yet. Please dig-deep and support the Amnesiafish crew and this very worthy cause. Ends Monday when we will announce our final team total.
“Customers are being faced with increasingly complex buying decisions, especially when it comes to technology and services. As a result, increased pressure is being placed on store associates to provide knowledgeable service to customers. Our Emerging Experiences team used this opportunity to develop a solution to demonstrate how an immersive interactive experience can assist customers and store associates with complex buying decisions in a retail setting.”
Using Windows 7, the Razorfish Touch Framework and NextWindow touch screen technology, Razorfone is another example of how multi-touch experiences are going to become a bigger and bigger part of our lives.
“In today’s increasingly digital world, the experience is the message.” Razorfish’s Group Vice President of Experience Planning Garrick Schmitt (@gschmitt) introduces the 2009 FEED Report, a concise and invaluable output of leading edge digital consumer research.
Topics include:
Digital Brand Experiences Create Customers
Actions Speak Louder Than Advertising
Digital Fluency
The Language of Love for Brands? Deals.
Measuring Brand Engagement
…and more.
“This report is probably the best analysis of online consumer behavior” according to Guy Kawasaki.
