Leo Burnett - Cultural Fuel

The new trend report for January 2011 is here!!!

Click here to download the report.

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Ok, I admit it, I’m a Google fan and I have used Bing a couple of times but I don’t really like it, I have the feeling they tried just too hard to make it look nice and ended up with something fake (pretty much like a McDonald’s), anyway while reading this morning Google’s official blog I found that Bing has been using Google’s search results without giving any credit and even worse, denying it.
You can read the whole post clicking right HERE, but you can keep reading and find out what’s going on.
Everything started with a misspelling word: “torsorophy” instead of “tarsorrhaphy“, for which Google gave an orthogrpahic correction and some results. Bing at the moment offered no results at all, until some months later when the same results offered by Google appeared on Bing, but without that orthograpahic correction.
Long story short: Google made a “synthetic search” on which typing highly improbable words like hiybbprqag or delhipublicschool40 chdjob brought specific, unrelated search results like a sitting chart of a theatre. Guess what happened? After some time Bing started to give the same results for such words, proof that it bases its search in Google.
If I were Google I would be really pissed off. I’m writing my dissertation thesis and the first thing I learned even before I had a topic was how to cite and give reference to the work of others, otherwise it would be like stealing, right? Being one of the biggest corporations around doesn’t really give them the right to bend the rules, even when they might feel free of doing it.
Anyway, let see how it ends and now that I remember … wasn’t Yahoo! powered by Bing?

P.S. Today, the word “torsorophy” in Google doesn’t even give you the orthographic correction anymore, but the trend topic around this situation … isn’t it awesome having the power of inventing new words?

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com

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Since we post so many other agency’s successful campaigns, I feel it’s okay to also post something we’re proud of once in a while. In this year’s JdW (Jahresbuch der Werbung), we won in the Megaphone category, automotive category and durables category. The case is based on a social media strategy across offline and online channels.

Congrats to the team and a gutsy client.

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Download the November/December 2010 trends now.

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From the World Cup in South Africa, to an annoying talking orange, with Justin Bieber and the Old Spice Man in the middle, this was the 2010 according to Google.

The Google’s Zeitgeist 2010 tells you the top 5 events during the year:

1. South Africa World Cup
2. Olympic games in Canada
3. The Haiti earthquake
4. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
5. The ash cloud in Iceland

Also, the most watched videos, where else?, in YouTube:

1. BED INTRUDER SONG!!! (now on iTunes)
2. TIK TOK KESHA Parody: Glitter Puke - Key of Awe$ome #13
3. Greyson Chance Singing Paparazzi
4. Annoying Orange Wazzup
5. Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
6. Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10
7. OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
8. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE - Trailer
9. Jimmy Surprises Bieber Fan
10. Ken Block’s Gymkhana THREE, Part 2; Ultimate Playground; l’Autodrome

Check the links for more listings and trends. Meanwhile, my favourite: The annoying orange! and the second video is a summary of the whole year in a 3 minute video, Google style. Enjoy !

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Ok, I understand if one company patents the whole name but what about when it is only a part of it and even when this word is of such common usage as “Face”.

That’s right, according to a Techcrunch article Facebook is just about to get the official trademark for the word “Face”, all it has to do is pay the issue fee within the next three months. The article quotes the usage of the word “Face” in: Telecommunication services, namely, providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users in the field of general interest and concerning social and entertainment subject matter, none primarily featuring or relating to motoring or to cars.

Of course this act has already created a lot of controversy because of the trade marking of such a common word, even it has already spawned a new troll in which you write the word face … sorry Face™, as many times as possible in coherent and ordinary sentences.

It is clear that this measure will help to eliminate the piggybacking from other sites and that it applies for online telecommunications, but what happens with other no copying sites/apps/brands that already have that word in its name? I just think right now of iPhone’s FaceTime but I’m pretty sure there may be others out there.

Let face it, it may sound ridiculous but what’s next? YouTube patenting “You” or Microsoft doing it for “Hot” and “Mail”?

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Have you seen already the coolest ads or the latest trends of the past month? … No? Well this is now your chance to do it!

Download the Cultural Fuel October 2010 Issue

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Reinvention Summit: 2-week Virtual Summit on Future of Storytelling, Nov 11-22, 2010.

We are gathering a new tribe of storytellers: change-makers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and creatives who see storytelling as critical to their work and mission. There’s a star-studded line-up of 25+ speakers with diverse backgrounds to lead teleseminars, interviews, and panel discussions that relate to the future of storytelling as our world goes through reinvention. All sessions are recorded for playback. The online summit includes lots of social networking, collaboration, and crowd-sourcing for those who feel inspired to play. Entry-level pricing starts at just $11.11. To learn more: visit www.reinventionsummit.com

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Over on eMarketer there is a post about college student’s web browsing habits, showing the results of the ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology.  The study shows that although teens and younger children tend to rely on feature phones, the college set is increasingly moving into smartphone ownership as a matter of course.

As the trend continues, we will begin seeing mobile browsing start to eclipse desktop computing across more and more segments, and companies should be preparing now for this situation.  When we spoke about our mantra recently, we said that mobile must be a part of brand planning, and it will continue to be more and more vital to consider as plans are finalized for 2011.  The frequency of access show in the following chart should be enough impetus for most brands to realize that the trend is accelerating at an astounding pace.

At the Forrester Consumer Forum on October 28-29, John Kosner from ESPN said that mobile is the #1 screen, personalization is expected and real-time is the new reality for content.  People are learning to rely on access to solutions anytime, anywhere, and Brands that offer those solutions will reap the rewards.

Are you mobile-ready?

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Don’t you hate to open a new tab in your browser just to update your Facebook account or to tweet what you are having for breakfast? Well, those times might be over with the new RockMelt web browser.
RockMelt spins (almost) completely around social media and well, considering the time everybody spends in social networks it was just matter of time for that to happen. It has a menu with your favourite networks on the right and a list of your friends on the left. You can share, search and chat, all in the same screen. RockMelt is based on Chromium and backed up by Netscape (yeah, I guess it is still around).
It looks actually pretty cool but somehow it reminds me of Google Wave … and well, we all know what happened.
Anyway, I am more than happy using Google Chrome and my tabs all over the place but for curiosity’s sake I might give it a try.

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