When the rock group, The Eagles first penned their iconic top-forty hit, "New Kid in Town,"
with lyrics that spoke to: "talk on the street. . . everybody’s
watching you," the year was 1976, predating the Internet by almost two
decades. While spot-on prescient as to what was to come, surely Don
Henley, Glenn Frey or Joe Walsh couldn’t have known the level of
surveillance that’s blanketed the world we NOW live in…
Ranging anywhere from eight to sixteen feet in height, King Robota manufactures some amazing robots designed for corporate events and large entertainment venues. But… how much of the robot is a robot?
It appears when Ben Mezrich penned his tell-all book about the
early beginnings of Facebook and included the bon mots "money" and
"betrayal" in its title, he had paved a path for another to follow.
After all if one social network could be launched on greed and
deception, couldn’t others? Good ole Machiavellian ethics may be as old
as time, but it appears to be the common denominator for both…
The fact that Samsung is based in South Korea doesn’t mean that the company faces no problems in pushing its products to its fellow citizens. Quite the contrary, Samsung spends hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing in South Korea. According to the company’s regulatory filings in the country, its sales promotion costs exceeded its advertising expenditures. Promotional expenditures were up 38.7 percent in the first three quarters of 2013 as opposed to the same timeframe in 2012. This amounts to 934 billion won or US$888 million being spent on various promotions alone.
On the other hand, Samsung reduced its advertising expenditures in South Korea. In the first three quarters of 2012, Samsung spent around 1.71 trillion won or US$1.63 billion while this year it spent just 695 billion won which equals US$661 million. This is the first time that the company’s promotional expenditure has exceeded its advertising expenditures. Promotions included various marketing activities, rebates, discounts as well as other incentives to get more users to pick up its devices. Even outside South Korea, Samsung leads its rivals in ad spending. Last year, as per data compiled by Kantar Media, Samsung spent some $401 million on advertising alone in the U.S., trailed in second place by Apple with $333 million. Even if these behemoths significantly reduce their spending, their rivals still won’t be able to match them. In the same time period last year, HTC spent just $36 million on advertising in the U.S.
Samsung’s Astronomical 2013 Marketing Expenditures On Home Turf Detailed original content from Ubergizmo. 
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So 20th Century Fox contacted professional video maker and friend of Gizmodo Casey Neistat to make a video for them about Ben Stiller’s upcoming movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Cool, that kind of stuff happens all the time to him. But instead of using the money to make a movie about the movie, Neistat used his entire budget to help survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, the typhoon that ravaged the Philippines
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It’s good to be the king, especially if you’re England’s Henry the Eighth in full-on turkey leg nomming mode. Now Burger King Japan is channeling good king Hank’s festive side with the “King’s Turkey Party Set”, a deluxe Christmas dinner for two featuring a pair of royally massive smoked turkey drumsticks!
Perhaps not as funny as the classic 1938 comedy sketch "Who’s on First?"
popularized by Abbott and Costello, but it does bring a smile to one’s
face when anybody is able to give Google a run for their money. Such is
the case when the Northern American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
backed by Microsoft and Bing take on the Granddaddy of search engines in
a face-off that pits one Santa Tracker against another.
“I have a dream…” of great savings! The stylized image of American civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. has begun appearing in ads for Chinese internet mall Taobao’s upcoming Sales Day.
For those addicted to the HBO’s hit series, Homeland,
the writers have inserted drones into their plot lines almost as if
they were dark villainous anti-heroes. Last season, lead
character Sargeant Brody sought revenge for a drone attack gone sideways
killing innocent Iraqi children. This season the unmanned aerial
vehicle is now used as "eyes on the ground" allowing Brody to seek
covert asylum in Afghanistan…
Black Friday isn’t all about shopping carts, it’s also about shopping cars! Retailers of all stripes are targeting drivers this year and some are being mighty creative in their quest to win over car owners. Umm, please keep in mind the term “door crasher sale” isn’t to be taken literally.
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