Here’s a summary of interesting stories I’ve seen over the last week. I try to concentrate on the stories which aren’t necessarily mainstream.
Strange, but creative. Still strange though
Conor Nickerson, from Canada, has spent a lot of time and effort adding himself into his own childhood photos. He’s pasted himself, as an adult, next to the original himself, as a child. He’s achieved some great results. You wouldn’t have even noticed the editing without knowing beforehand. It’s a good, creative marketing trick, and I hope he got some business from this. I hope it doesn’t become a trend. https://www.boredpanda.com/guy-photoshopping-childhood-photos-conor-nickerson/
Cars
Porsche in Atlanta has launched a new subscription model for their range of cars. For $2,000 a month, you can get access to a range of Porsche cars each month. And as with all good Internet subscription models, there’s a Premium version that gives you access to more cars including some GTS models.
This new model from Porsche reflects two trends:
- In the western world, most cars stay parked (aka unused) for at least 94% of the time, so what’s the point in owning a car which only depreciated whilst stood still?
- The rate of mobile phone users upgrading their handsets is staggering – we spend well over $1bn a year in upgrades. This device-promiscuity is going to follow into other industries too – cars being an obvious example here.
Social Networks
Twitter has published its roadmap for its content safety strategy rollout (i.e. hate or abusive messages). I think all the social networks are in an impossible position here. It’s one thing to remove an overtly abusive tweet with say, a swastika, but it’s another challenge to police all messages with bad intent. What is impressive is that Twitter is dealing with the media scrutiny by publishing its roadmap. https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2017/safetycalendar.html
Retail
Tesco supermarkets in the UK are going to start selling green satsumas and clementines. They will taste the same as orange ones, but they are green. When I first saw the article, it made me wonder how much green fruit must have been destroyed before Tesco made this decision, and what made them make this decision. When was the last time you saw a potato in a shop with mud on? Our food has become too perfect. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41665946
Security
You can buy an ATM-hacking-kit from the Dark Web for $3,788. ATM attacks have risen 300% in the last year, which isn’t surprising considering the availability of this kit. Before you get too excited or worried (depending on your moral compass), you will need to get inside the ATM to reach the USB port. The most worrying part of this news is the trends for these technical “products” designed for criminals. https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/31210/atm-jackpotting-for-dummies-yours-for-just-3788
Events
I went to an event organised by Wayin this week on the future of advertising. I learnt a new word: “Infobesity” which means we have too much content and information, usually for free. Key summary: More than ever, content and advertising needs to be more relevant; advertising fraud is rampant; over 99.9% of ads are unclicked, unnoticed and unseen.
The full event report is here: https://bradbox.com/blog/future-of-digital-advertising