Sep 25, 2015 | Mobile
With the Rugby World Cup in full swing, how are the official app and website faring? New research suggests lessons have been learned from design flaws in last years FIFA football World Cup app. Digital business performance specialist Dynatrace carried out tests on the...
Sep 24, 2015 | Digital marketing skills, Mobile
Internet user growth is slowing and over half of the world’s 7 billion people are offline, the United Nations (UN) has warned in a report released this week. Around 57% (or 4.2 billion people) do not enjoy regular access to the Internet and in the...
Sep 24, 2015 | Mobile, South Africa, Unilever - Research, tips and news for marketers
South Africa may have one of the lowest maths literacy rates in the world, but it’s up there when it comes to tech literacy – the market boasts 86% mobile penetration. Using the latter to boost the former seemed a good opportunity – and laundry brand OMO, with a...
Sep 21, 2015 | Mobile
Burberry’s new spring-summer collection got an exclusive preview on Snapchat for the first time. Pictures of the new range was shown on the luxury-goods brand’s Snapchat channel for 24 hours from 7 pm on September 20. A day later, the photos of the collection...
Sep 17, 2015 | CPG, Mobile
Snapchat has launched in-app purchases and new ‘lenses’ tool that adds smart animations to selfies, with Mountain Dew the first brand to sign up. The new Lenses feature is a selfie filter which recognises photos of the user’s face and applies animation to...
Sep 17, 2015 | Mobile, Regulation, Russia
Russia’s anti-monopoly watchdog has accused Google of abusing its dominant position in the market by forcing phone-makers to pre-install its apps on Android phones. The firm could face penalties of up to 15% of its 2014 revenue in Russia. The case was originally...
Sep 15, 2015 | Mobile
Americans are spending 198 minutes per day using mobile apps this year, compared with 168 minutes watching television, according to new research. The study, from Flurry, indicates that entertainment and content apps are breaking into top-grossing charts, with Netflix,...
Sep 15, 2015 | Facebook marketing, Marketing through gaming, Mobile, Social media
Advertisers globally are spending nearly four times more on Facebook mobile app ads than last year, used to promote mobile apps from Google Play and Apple app stores. The research, from Kenshoo, also indicates that app installs from the mobile app ads increased by...
Sep 14, 2015 | Mobile, Online advertising, Regulation
If you’re an advertiser, Apple is about to make your job more difficult. The latest IOS 9 for iPhones and iPads allows mobile ad blocking and introduces a Flipboard-style news aggregator that favours iAds over rivals. We look at the implications as Apple changes the...
Sep 14, 2015 | China, Germany, Mobile, Online advertising, Search engine marketing, USA
The amount spend on internet ads worldwide is catching TV at a rate of growth that could see it become the dominant medium by 2018, according to a new report. The research, from ZenithOptimedia’s latest Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, indicates that internet...
Sep 11, 2015 | Mobile
In further evidence of how the internet of things is spreading to new industries, a new app is helping sheep farmers keep track of their flock via a smartphone app. The app, from Welsh government-funded TAG project, lets users record everything from the weight of a...
Sep 11, 2015 | Mobile, Regulation
The UK government has launched a national programme called IoTUK which it said will “amplify” the UK’s Internet of Things (IoT) capability. IoTUK will be all about pushing IoT entrepreneurship, the government said, and will collaborate with...
Sep 11, 2015 | E-commerce and E-retailing, Mobile
Google is launching its second attempt at mobile payments, rolling out a new ‘Android pay’ service across the US this week. The firm previous attempt at replacing credit cards with mobile phones ‘Google Wallet’ failed to get much traction, and...
Sep 10, 2015 | Mobile
Apple has revealed its latest range of products, including an iPad Pro tablet with stylus pen, a TV box with its own app store and new iPhones, alongside an app that helps Android users switch over to the Apple ecosystem. At its event Wednesday in San Francisco, Apple...
Sep 9, 2015 | Facebook marketing, Mobile, Social media
Instagram has launched a set of new 30-second TV-style ad formats across 38 markets, as the Facebook-owned chat app looks to boost its ad reach. Instagram also launched new advertising formats including landscape-shaped photo and video to give ads a “more cinematic...
Sep 8, 2015 | China, E-commerce and E-retailing, Mobile, Social media
With China’s economic troubles making headlines this month, how is its digital sector doing? A new report indicates that Internet take-up is slowing in the country as the mature market approaches saturation point, with nearly 90% of the country’s web users...
Sep 8, 2015 | Mobile, Online advertising, Regulation
For the first time, Apple will allow adverts to be blocked by the iPhone and iPad versions of Safari, in a move is likely please users, but will concern both advertisers and publishers alike. Ad blockers have been available on desktop browsers for years, but analysts...
Sep 8, 2015 | Mobile, Regulation
Car maker Fiat Chrysler has recalled 8,000 vehicles after fears that hackers could take over the controls from the driver. The recall is of the new Jeep Renegade SUV, and specifically those ordered with 6.5in touchscreens in the dashboard. The 2015 Jeep Renegade comes...
Sep 8, 2015 | China, Mobile
Uber has raised $1.2bn for its expansion into China, with plans to launch the taxi app in 100 cities in the next year. The move was announced in an interview with its chief executive, Travis Kalanick, published by Sina, a Chinese-language website. The company already...
Sep 8, 2015 | Mobile, Social media
Instagram has revamped its direct messaging service with new features including shared images and threaded messaging, which lets users send content from their feed as a direct message. Previously, users had to start a new conversation each time they wanted to send a...
