Posts from date: February 2011

What is it about sport that makes men go giddy?

Now, I truly believe men and women should be equal in everything, sport viewing included but the one sport that doesn’t seem to have a huge female fan base is Cricket.

I like my sports but I will tell you the knowledge I, as a girl, know about cricket. It goes on FOREVER. It is slow. There’s this thing called ‘leg before wicket’ that is shortened to LBW but apart from that all I know is there is a bat and a ball involved.

Maxus, as you will be aware, have moved into a swanky new office with all new mod cons and the one thing that is an eye opener is how well received our new TV’s are. We have one everywhere. We can pick whatever we want on them but for the last week the screens have been dominated by… you’ve guessed it. The bloody cricket. Indeed, it’s the cricket world cup and I am sure it is interesting for some people but unlike other sports that have managed to get a following from both genders; cricket remains predominately male.

I understand The Cricket World Cup has grown as a media event with each tournament. The International Cricket Council has sold the rights for broadcasting of the 2011 Cricket World Cup for around US$ 2 Billion to ESPN Star Sports and Star Cricket. The tournament is being broadcasted all around the world in about 220 countries. These are massive figures and very impressive considering that only 1 in 325 (approx.) women take any interest in the sport at all.

I’m asking my girls, can any of you tell me the appeal? Please. If Maxus are anything to go by, it’s purely a male sport.

Facebook Usage - Video infographic

I'm personally a very big fan of this style of video infographics, and so here is an excellent little snapshot of some incredible Facebook usage stats. Regardless of the fact that the video mainly focuses on US usage, I think this is still worth a watch.

Video - The World Is Obsessed With Facebook

My personal favorite stats from this are that apparently 57% of people talk more online, than they do in real life, and that 48% of young Americans said that they find out about what is happening in the news via Facebook.

10 Inspirational Moments in History on YouTube

As Mashable quite rightly points out, long gone are the days where YouTube was purely a destination where teenagers could watch skateboarding dogs, and kittens falling from things. The below list is a collection of perhaps some of the most inspirational moments in history, which just goes to show how far Youtube has evolved in six years. Now a destination where users can view music videos, on-demand TV content, and independent films it really is going to be interesting where the site goes next.

1. Fall of the Berlin Wall

2. The Moon landing

3. Tiananmen Square protests

4. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech

5. Professor Stephen Hawkin’s zero gravity flight

6. Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics

7. The Wright Brothers flight

8. Barack Obama’s victory speech

9. Roger Bannister breaks the 4 minute mile

10. Gandhi’s Dandi Salt march

Video of the week #49

How did they recreate 20's Atlantic City for Sky's Boardwalk Empire?

Watch and learn.....

Boardwalk Empire VFX Breakdowns of Season 1 from Brainstorm Digital on Vimeo.

Big Fat Gypsy Wedding 1: Brit Awards 0

And there’s me thinking Katie Price’s wedding was one of extravagance…Her wedding to Peter Andre had nothing on the weddings the nation has been tuning in to watch on C4’s Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.  The UK nation has experienced some jaw-dropping viewing as we've had the chance to enter the secretive world of traveller weddings. The series is an observational documentary and made predominantly from the perspective of Gypsies and travellers talking about their own experiences. Warm, intelligent, engrossing and funny, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings tells intimate stories on an epic scale, laying bare an exotic unseen Britain that exists right on our doorstep. Having watched this series I can say that, there’s no wedding like a gypsy wedding – amazing attention to detail, celebrations on a grand scale - and dresses with lights on!  I particularly enjoyed the story of 17-year-old Josie, who married 19-year-old Swanley.  Her enormous wedding dress weighed over five stone, but that didn’t stop her from dancing provocatively as she prepared to leave for the church accompanied by her friends, who were somewhat chaperoned, yet still wearing saucy outfits containing less material than a hanky.

Whatever we think about the show we are all watching it and were all talking about it.  This has been illustrated in the fact that The Brit awards suffered its lowest ratings for five years after an average of only 4.8 million viewers tuned in to watch the ceremony.  ITV1's coverage was overtaken by the final episode of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, seen by an average of 6.5m on Channel 4.

Mobile: Big news is a coming – 11.02.11

So, what’s being discussed in the mobile industry this week? Nokia, Nokia and well Nokia. It’s Nokia’s Capital Markets Day on Friday where their new (ex Microsoft) CEO Stephen Elop is widely expected to announce a tie-up with Microsoft’s mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7.

The chatter started this week with an open letter from Berenberg Bank  analyst Adnaan Ahmad to both Elop and Steve Ballmer urging a partnership that would see Nokia ship devices using WP7 software and has continued at Pace.  Today a ‘leaked’ memo from Elop to Nokia staff has found its way on to Engadget and been quickly syndicated across all major news networks. Surprise surprise Nokia’s share price has been steadily rising.

Elop talks about Nokia being in crisis thanks to being caught out by the likes of Apple and Google, adding even more weight to the prediction a Microsoft tie-up is just days away. Reactions have been numerous and varied. It’s been called everything from ‘the industry’s new powerhouse’ to the ‘coalition of the defeated’.

Given that this is still just a rumour at the moment, and we’ve no idea of what a potential partnership would look like (a couple of high-end handsets rushed out to appease a baying marketplace or a five year role out strategy across all of Nokia’s mid to high end devices?) It’s far too early to pass judgement but the potential is huge.

I’d bet my house that pretty much all of you had, back in the day, a Nokia or two that you absolutely loved, their hardware has always been class leading and despite poor software over the last five years they still have the best cameras available. WP7 got great reviews on launch and backing from the biggest device manufacturer in the world is just what they need to see it take off. We might even see the first device at Mobile World Conference in a couple of weeks.

Of course it could be another unmitigated Nokia disaster, but I hope not. Roll on Friday!

Personalised Ads? Well sort of....

A handful of lucky – although that depends on your point of view – subscribers to Wired magazine recently received their latest issue, but with a difference…..the front cover was hyper personalised. This personalisation took the form of a letter, the contents of which consisted of all the data the Wired team were able to find (from publicly available sources) about the individual.

The majority of info came from sources like the edited electoral register, Companies House, the Land Registry and of course good old social networks. When these data sources are cross referenced with each other it can quickly build a pretty detailed profile, from mobile number, home address, location, annual earnings through to your kids’ school reports and the videos they post online. It’s all out there and readily available to anyone willing to do a bit of digging.

Now sadly this is not the first step for Wired in actually providing tailored content per reader but more a demonstration of how much information there is and how relatively easy it is to get your hands on it. Our data is out there now. Forever. Whether we like it or not. After all, posting information online is akin to getting it tattooed on your forehead…visible to all, permanently, so we might as well embrace it, sit back and enjoy the hyper targeted, personalised ad campaigns that data sufficiency will bring….never having to watch another ‘We Buy Any Car’ advert? I could live with that.

Super Bowl Super Ads!

This Sunday the Super Bowl will take place in between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers in Dallas and whilst the sport is the main draw for pulling in record breaking viewing figures the ads are almost as much an integral part of the event.

We know all the big brands such as Coke, Apple, McDonanld's etc will have an ad, the alcohol brands and car manufacturers will be involved as well as many ads for the up coming summer blockbusters but I think the most entertaining and creative ad will come from a brand no one has really heard of who will be hoping for some TV fame and for consumers to wonder how they never knew about it before.

Unfortunately in the UK we'll have to wait until monday morning to catch the latest big budget ads desperate to entertain us, but the question is who do you think will have the best ad during superbowl?