Higher !nnovation Blog
And Intel Engineer a couple of years ago projected 16 and 32 core processors on a single die within the next five years. He went on to say that cores could be dedicated to graphics and audio subsystems to create deeply engaging simulations that are cinematic in quality and life-like in experience.
It's two years after that Intel conversation, the shift from multi-core computing to many core computing is on the horizon. Recently, Microsoft published The Manycore Shift White paper on its stake in the many-core transition and what it means to both business and personal computing:
- User experience is undergoing a radical transformation. The computing experience for end-users is going to take a quantum leap from what's possible and cool today.
Download the electronic version of Manycore Shift White Paper free of charge.
Data from comScore Voices and iProspect
comScore revealed exclusive universal search data that showed many more searchers than expected are seeing blended search results. The data gathered during one week in January, showed that there were 220 million universal search results, of the total 1.2 billion search queries in the U.S. That means 17 percent of all searches on Google showed at least one result with video, news, images, maps, weather, or stocks. comScore's findings support the assertion that the search result page is transforming from a directional guide to a destination.
iProspect came out with more research emphasizing the prevalence of blended search results, and the way they change the behavior of searchers. The data showed that searchers are much more likely to click on image, news, or video search results when they are presented in a blended format.
Download the electronic version of iProspect Study free of charge.
Kiss and Punch - Forbes.com
In 2007 WPP reported a pretax profit of $1.4 billion on revenue of $12.3 billion, up 8% in constant currencies. (That revenue puts it behind only Omnicom, at $12.7 billion, in its industry.) WPP's operating (roughly speaking, Ebitda) margin has improved steadily to 15%, and in the last quarter of the year WPP stunned rivals Omnicom, Publicis, IPG and Havas by announcing record-smashing account wins with AT&Tand Dell. Total billings last year: $63 billion. Over the past decade the company's earnings per share have been climbing at an 11% annualrate.
The globe spends $700 billion a year on advertising.
WPP is well ahead of its competitors in cracking Asia; the firm identified 1,200 potential acquisitions in China. Miles Young, chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific, says WPP cherry-picked 18 acquisitions in greater China (includes Taiwan) these last four years. WPP is the biggest ad firm in greater China (36% of total billings), India (56%) and Thailand (39%).
Last year the Internet accounted for 7.5% of the total $151 billion spent on advertising in the U.S. But Americans are spending some 25% of their news and entertainment time on the Web. The ad spending will catch up. Digitally focused firms accounted for 12% of WPP's total revenues in 2007.
Atlas Solutions - Online Advertising: Advertiser and Publisher Ad Serving Solutions
Over half of a campaign’s users see ads across multiple placements, and a third of users see ads across multiple publishers.
This research indicates that, while a minority of users are reached across multiple sites, they consume media at a much higher rate than the users exclusively reached on single sites. Moreover, this overlapped group is often responsible for the majority of conversions.
It is critical to understand the drivers of overlap and keep these findings in mind:
- Measure the overlap in every campaign
- Maximize overlap for branding
- Manage overlap’s impact on frequency
- Keep buys that deliver targeted reach
Download the electronic version of Study free of charge.
Groundswell by Forrester Research
“Right now, your customers are writing about your products on blogs and recutting your commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipedia and ganging up on you in social networking sites like Facebook. These are all elements of a social phenomenon — the groundswell — that has created a permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works.”
A Book by Forrester Research Analysts Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
Also by Charlene: Social Technographics® - Mapping Participation In Activities Forms: The Foundation Of A Social Strategy US$279 at Forrester
Download the electronic version of Book Excert free of charge.
International Herald Tribune
The effort to add to traditional advertising research techniques the tools of biometrics - measuring brain waves, galvanic skin response, eye movements, pulse rates and the like - is increasing.
Of the 19 Cannes and Effie honorees [measured by EmSense], 15 demonstrated "speed of engagement" that far outweighed the average commercial. "Typically, a spot engages with viewers in 5 to 7 seconds," she said. "The Cannes and Effie ads engaged, whether emotionally or cognitively, in 1.5 seconds."
"What we are really trying to measure and understand better is what consumers are engaged...
The simple fact is the brain makes behaviour," Dr. Knight [working for NeuroFocus] continues. "If you can effectively measure the brain, which we think we can ... We can give you information that's not available by any other methodology. You just can't get it in conventional marketing."
Also see 'Scientists Unravel Attention Process'
Also see 'Microsoft's investigation into the subconscious'
Download the electronic version of Persuasion White Paper free of charge.
Richard Edelman Blog
The 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer is the agency's ninth Trust and credibility survey among global opinion-forming elite. This year, for the first time, the survey sampled two different age groups concurrently: 25-34 year olds and 35-64 year olds.
Here are [some] the key findings from this year's study:
- Communicate peer-to-peer, as well as top-down: There is highest trust in ‘people like me’ and experts such as ‘academics’, ‘doctors’ and ‘financial analysts.’
- Corporate communications must incorporate social media: As you might expect, social media matters most to the 25 to 34 age group.
- Engage the info-ential generation to build a beachhead: The 25-to-34 year old group is more trusting of business, less xenophobic and more reliant on multiple sources of information than their older counterparts.
A few interesting Internet-related points from the survey:
- Social media tools are are making inroads, but are still less trusted than any other information source
- Blogs: Trusted by 26% of 25-34 and 19% of 35-64-year-olds
- Social networks: 25% and 20%
- Video sharing sites: 25% and 19%
Younger people are more likely to talk online about about trusted and distrusted companies than older people
Wikipedia is the second most credible source for young Americans (behind business magazines)
- Blogs, YouTube and social networks are still close to the bottom, higher only than corporate or product advertising
The growing influence of social media is reflected in the names the report gives to the different segments of “elites.” Despite the low trust still currently shown in social media tools, they label the largest segment “social networkers”:
- Social Networkers (39% of “elites”)
- Frequently share views on companies by word of mouth
- Seeks company opinions from trusted sources
- Want companies to listen
Social Activists (26%)
Solo Actors (11%)
Uninvolved (24%)
Bloggers aren’t seen as credible spokespeople - just 4% of people would trust them
- However, bloggers can also fall into other trusted categories like academics, analysts or doctors, in which case their credibility rockets
Social media is more credible as a source of company information in Asian countries
Download the electronic version of Trust Barometer free of charge.
Download the electronic version of Key Findings of the Trust Barometer free of charge.
Download the electronic version of Trust Barometer Presentation free of charge.
Contagious
The Attention Economy is upon us, be careful how you invest!
Consumer attention has become the rarest of commodities, as the principles of this ‘attention economy’ remind us. So the costs of production are no longer ‘cost drivers’, but have become the new ‘value drivers’. This includes the cost of writing, especially if we assume that these new formats demand the skills of authors rather than creatives.
These brands, acting as media or entertainment providers, are indeed targeting an audience, and are no longer addressing what they usually consider as ‘prospects’ or ‘consumers’. In an attention-driven economy, attention has to be earned and rewarded. An audience, by nature, is fickle and demanding: it will decide whether or not to interact with the content/experience offered by the brand according to whatever ‘perceived value’ the right communication strategy or PR campaign will manage to attach to it.
The ‘real value’ delivered by the experience (in this case an entertainment value, as we are talking about branded entertainment) will reward the audience for the attention it chose to allocate to the operation. As a result, audience satisfaction with the content/experience will be a key driver of talkability and actual recommendation.
A piece of content will live or die based on it's ability to forge a real emotional connection with the viewer.
The smart moneys says that the saviest consumer will soon demand entertainment in place of advertising.
Download the electronic version of Branded Entertainment - Article free of charge.
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