If you happen to stumble across the ad for the 2013 Lexus ES in your favorite magazine, you’ll be able to bring it to life using a technology the carmaker’s ad agency is calling CinePrint. But ‘technology’ is a generous description since all it does is use an iPad placed under the page to play an animation which enhances the still imagery in the ad. More »
Facebook‘s Like button is famous with users the world-over, but it may not be long before folks have a couple more buttons at their disposal. Facebook is currently running a small-scale retail test with some of its partners that tosses “Want” and “Collect” buttons into the list. The test is for a new feature called “Collections,” which, according to a statement sent to PCMag, will allow retailers to share more details about their products with Facebook users.
Users will naturally be able to Like the collections they see on social network, while they’ll also have to ability to say they want the products in the collection by clicking on the Want button. If users are already collecting the products on display, they’ll be able to let the world know by clicking the Collect button. The world will know too, as your Want and Collect clicks will be added to your timeline.
Basically, think of this as a way for retailers to get customers excited for their products while gaining increased exposure at the same time. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard talk of a Want button on Facebook, as such a feature was rumored to be incoming back in June. Facebook has even dropped some hints that buttons aside from just the tried-and-true Like button would be making an appearance, so the roll out of an actual Want button shouldn’t surprise too many folks.
There isn’t any word when Facebook’s Collections feature will enjoy a broader roll out, but for now the company says that it won’t be available as part of a plug-in for other sites. Now, all we need is the oft-requested “Dislike” button and Facebook users will be good to go. We’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for more information on the Collections roll out, so keep it tuned here to SlashGear for additional details!
Facebook retail test introduces “Want” button is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We love riffing on TV shows like a latter-day MST3k, which means that companies are desperate to harness our homespun satire to their own ends. Second-screen start-up Zeebox has inked a deal with MTV and Comedy Central owner Viacom, offering exclusive content in exchange for on-screen advertising. That said, we’re not sure if the promise of behind-the-scenes clips would be enough to draw us away from just cattily judging the Project Runway contestants on Twitter, where we’re less likely to be moderated into oblivion.
Continue reading Zeebox adds Viacom to its list of second-screen partners
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD
Zeebox adds Viacom to its list of second-screen partners originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
You might already be familiar with different companies and brands promoting their status updates or tweets on Facebook and Twitter. By paying social networks, these companies make sure their messages are read by as many people as possible in the form of “promoted” content, and it looks like Facebook is expanding this feature to regular users as well.
Today, Facebook began testing Promoted Posts for regular users in the US (the feature has already been rolling out in New Zealand). By paying around $7 per post, Facebook will make sure your status updates will more likely be seen by your friends. Along with the increased visibility, Promoted Posts will come with a tool that lets users see how many people have seen their posts.
Testing out potential new features to a select group of users is a tactic that Facebook is known for. It did the same thing when they introduced automatic photo uploads for Android a couple weeks ago. To find out if you’re one of the lucky ones who got access to the feature, a new “Promote” button will show up next to “Like” and “Comment” underneath your posts.
We can see where this could be useful for everyday users. Obviously, it’s not something you would use on every single status update or post, but if you’re posting some photos to a special event or want to celebrate someone’s birthday by posting a special birthday wish, we can see why some people would want to promote these kinds of posts if they’re willing to shell out $7 to do so.
[via The Verge]
Facebook testing Promoted Posts for all users is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
I’m fully prepared to complete every sentence I utter about John Hodgman in the future with the qualifier “is a delight.” Author, comedian, professional voice actor, celebrity spokesperson — Hodgman keeps the sort of schedule that would make even the most hardened globe-trotting blogger ball up into the fetal position. When we finally nailed him down for an interview on the Engadget Show last month, we asked him to meet us at the General Society for Mechanics and Tradesmen in midtown Manhattan. It’s a place not far from Times Square that our producer Ben discovered while shooting a segment about the annual meeting of the Corduroy Appreciation Club, a group of menswear enthusiasts who meet each year on 11 / 11 — the date most closely resembling corduroy.
It’s a strange and beautiful old space that dates back to the early 19th century, as a resource for apprentices of a society that can, in turn, be traced back to 1785. It seems to serve a different purpose now, a couple of older gentlemen shuffling in and out of the library during the three hours we spend there, each staying quiet, seated alone at a small table, reading novels and history books from off the shelves. For today, however, it’ll serve as John Hodgman’s own private library, the tongue-in-cheek backdrop for his long-awaited Engadget Show interview. Ben and I go back and forth a bit, prior to his arrival, debating whether or not he’ll embrace the silly premise. He agrees immediately after traveling in from Brooklyn, offering up a single, key caveat: it’s actually the annex to his own private library.
The cameras roll and without missing a beat, he slips into his deranged millionaire persona, a character that has popped up a bit over the past few years, as Hodgman has wrapped up his trilogy of “complete world knowledge,” the last entry of which, “That is All,” was released in paperback and audiobook forms this week. “This,” the mustachioed author explains, “is the end of world knowledge.” It’s a journey that began in 2005, with the publication of “The Areas of My Expertise,” an almanac of sorts compiling the comedian’s knowledge of “matters historical, matters literary, matters cryptozoological and hobo matters,” to name but a small cross-section. Hodgman was a self-described former professional literary agent at the time, first making a splash amongst the literati some five years prior with the publication of the column “Ask a Former Professional Literary Agent” for uber-hip San Francisco publisher McSweeney’s.
Continue reading John Hodgman on the death of publishing and being a Mac trapped in a PC’s body
Filed under: Alt
John Hodgman on the death of publishing and being a Mac trapped in a PC’s body originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A US-based advertising lobbying group has sent out an open letter to Microsoft that criticizes the company’s decision to enable Do Not Track by default in its Internet Explorer 10 that comes bundled with Windows 8. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) called Microsoft’s decision “shocking.”
In the letter, the ANA mostly argued that “Microsoft’s announcement has been uniformly met with outrage, opposition, and declarations that Microsoft’s action is wrong.” Specifically, the ANA seems to be referring to representatives of various multinational corporations, such as General Motors, General Electric, IBM, and Coca-Cola that are outraged by IE 10′s Do Not Track setting.
The ANA seem to think that if Microsoft enables the Do Not Track feature by default in Internet Explorer 10, it will ultimately cause the advertising industry a lot of hurt, and will ruin competition and destroy innovation in the US, as well as possibly destroy the entire world if this kind of thing continues from the way they described things.
“We believe that if Microsoft moves forward with this default setting, it will undercut the effectiveness of our members’ advertising and, as a result, drastically damage the online experience by reducing the Internet content and offerings that such advertising supports. This result will harm consumers, hurt competition, and undermine American innovation and leadership in the Internet economy.”
Ultimately, the open letter is filled with industry jargon and sharp rhetoric, but it’s unsurprisingly low on actual data and is rife with inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and various fallacies. They mentioned that providing users with an opt-in option is unacceptable, and even goes as far as getting important names wrong when referring to people who supposedly support the ANA.
Obviously, the Do Not Track feature is going to upset advertisers at least a little bit, if not a lot. However, Microsoft (as well as other browser developers) are working hard to make its users happy, and adding the Do Not Track feature is just one big way that developers can get the positive support of users.
[via ZDNet]
Advertising lobbying group criticizes Microsoft for IE 10 Do Not Track feature is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Another easter egg at Fujitsu’s CEATEC booth was a system for transmitting coupons, URLs and other digital information from a TV screen to a user’s smartphone. We’ll back up a bit: the data ends up on-screen in the first place thanks to information embedded in light flashing at various levels of brightness (the frame rate is too quick to be detected by the human eye). Theoretically, when a viewer is watching a commercial, they’ll see a prompt to hold up their phone’s camera to the screen, and doing so will bring up a corresponding coupon or website on their handset. The embedded information covers the entire panel, so users don’t need to point their device at a particular section of the screen.
In Fujitsu’s demo, pointing a smartphone at the TV pulled up a website on the phone. It only took about a second for the URL to pop up on the device, and there was no noticeable flickering on the TV itself (essentially, the picture looks identical to what you’d see on a non-equipped model, since your eye won’t notice the code appearing at such a high frequency). The company says this technology works at a distance of up to two or three meters. Head past the break to take a look at the prototype in action.
Filed under: Misc, Home Entertainment
Fujitsu demos ad transmission technology, sends info from TV to handset via smartphone camera (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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To say that Facebook has to tread lightly around privacy issues is an understatement, especially with a targeted ad push underway. Rather than navigate that minefield once more, the social network hopes to skip it entirely by posting an overview of how the ad system tracks habits while retaining our anonymity. For the most part, Facebook walks the fine line carefully. Its Facebook Exchange auction system relies on a unique, untraceable browser ID to target ads to specific people without ever getting their identity; both a mechanism targeting ads beyond Facebook and a Datalogix deal to track the ad conversion rate use anonymous e-mail address hashes that keep advertisers happy without making the addresses readable to prying eyes. The initiative sounds like it’s on the right course, although there’s caveats at work. Opting out of any Facebook Exchange ads requires tracking down individual ad providers, which isn’t likely to result in many of us leaving the ad revenue stream. Likewise, those who’d object even to the completely anonymous ad profiling don’t have a say in the matter. With those concerns in mind, it’s doubtful there will be many significant objections in the future — Facebook knows its advertising money train can only keep churning if its members are comfortable enough to come along for the ride.
Filed under: Internet
Facebook outlines its ad targeting strategy on one handy page, presents a complex privacy picture originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
iPhone users in Brazil who also subscribe to a magazine called Capricho recently got an extra bonus in one issue. But it wasn’t a promo code for a free iTunes track or anything like that. No, it was a special printed cover that turned the rolled up magazine into a passive amplifying speaker for their phone. More »
Here’s a sign that all the TV advertising dollars in the world can’t always buy you market share and consumer love (useful lesson for politicians, too): a list of top ads in the U.S. for tablets puts Samsung way into the lead among vendors — but Apple, which actually is the best-selling tablet at the moment, doesn’t even make the top-10.
The rankings, from ad analytics company Ace Metrix – a startup backed by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Palomar Ventures, Leapfrog Ventures, and WPP – say they determine an ad’s “Ace Score” based on viewer reaction to national TV ads in which consumers are asked to rate ads “on a scale of 1-950, which represents scoring on creative attributes such as relevance, persuasion, watchability, information, attention, etc.” Respondents, it says, are randomly selected.
Samsung takes the lead six out of the top-10 tablet ads, with Google’s newly-launched Nexus taking two slots and Amazon’s Kindle Fire, also seeing recent launches, taking up two more. Here’s how the advertising rankings stack up:
The ranking seems particularly ironic in light of how tablets actually appear to be selling at the moment.
The Online Publishers Association in June gave Apple a market share of 52% collectively for the three versions of the iPad that have been released so far, with the iPad 2 at the top of the pile. Android collectively has a 47% share, with the Kindle Fire (forked Android as it is…) with a 28% share.
As a point of comparison, Strategy Analytics gave Apple an even bigger margin of the market for the last quarter. In July, it said that Apple accounted for over 68% of all tablets sold, with Android at under 30%.
Apple is also topping the charts for top tablet brand when it comes to customer satisfaction. The latest survey from J.D. Power put it just ahead of the Kindle Fire — with the $199 price tag of Amazon’s basic tablet carrying a lot of currency among users at the moment.
The best hope for top tablet contenders, it seems, is for there to be a delayed reaction to seeing effective ads, with users taking note and remembering the impact during the holiday shopping season — the biggest buying period for consumer electronics in the U.S.
Sentiments like this one — “This ad got my attention particularly because I’ll be in the market for a new tablet around Christmastime. In a few seconds, they showed several important/ useful applications. I will be looking further at the Samsung Galaxy.” — could give a boost to Samsung in sales. Unless Apple gets its way and a sales ban gets put into effect. (That case is coming up on December 6 — and Apple has demonstrated in the past that holiday-season injunctions can be a real pain for Samsung.)
Another worry is that the top tablet maker is indeed launching another product soon, with perhaps an iPad Mini waiting in the wings for a pre-holiday launch.
Ace Metrix notes that Apple hasn’t been buying up as much advertising airtime of late — with its last ad appearing at the beginning of August. “Do It More Beautifully” has been Apple’s most effective ad so far this year, the analysts say, but its Ace Score of 627 still wasn’t high enough to make the top-10.
That ad also gave Apple its biggest “change score” of 670, but that, too, was some way behind the lowest change score in the top-10.
This points to a potential turning of the tides for Apple, says Ace Metrix. “The key to the success of these ads is the demonstration of new, exciting features that consumers have never seen before. For example, Samsung demonstrates multi-tasking, use of a stylus, etc.—all contributors to big ‘Change’ scores, a critical Ace Metrix indicator that consumers’ opinions are changing about a brand,” writes Peter Daboll, CEO.
But dont’ go thinking that being absent in ads has a clear inverse variation with a product’s success. The Nook tablet from Barnes & Noble, is also absent from the top ad rankings, with its most successful ad, from May, achieving an Ace Score of only 582. The Nook currently only has a 9% market share among U.S. tablet owners, according to the ONA.
About Ace Metrix
Ace Metrix® is the new standard in television and video analytics, dedicated to delivering better, faster, and more cost-effective solutions for evaluating video advertising within competitive context. Through the Ace Metrix LIVE™ platform, companies can now access timely, actionable data wherever, whenever they need to, enabling real-time advertising campaign optimization. Combining leading edge technology and patent pending methodology, Ace Metrix is revolutionizing the way marketers measure themselves and their competitive landscape. The company is privately held and is backed by leading venture capital firms and industry leaders including.
Follow Ace Metrix on Twitter for sustained insight: @Ace_Metrix.
Note: Ace Metrix®, the Ace Metrix logo design, Ace Score®, and Creative Lifecycle Management® are registered trademarks and Ace Metrix LIVE™ is a trademark of Ace Metrix. Other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
