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Toronto's Spin Master has done it again. The toy company that brought kids to a fervour over Zoomer robotic pets has created the hottest toy of 2016: Hatchimals. But they're already sold out everywhere, leaving parents in a panic.
WTF is a Hatchimal? Good question.
Imagine a large, speckled egg that hatches as a result of touch and sound. Inside, your child will find a bright, fuzzy robotic creature. It could be a Draggle, Penguala, Owlicorn, Burtle or Bearakeet (don't worry if you can't tell the difference, they look pretty similar.) That's when the fun starts. Kids then teach it to walk, talk and play using specific phrases.
"Hatchimals incorporate the very best elements of nurturing play with the interactivity of robotics in a truly innovative and entertaining way," Ben Varadi, Spin Master's chief creative officer, said in a press release. "This is one of the most unique products Spin Master has ever launched and we're confident that the consumer response will be strong."
Well, that's putting it mildly. The toy retails between $60 and $90 and it has sold out online everywhere. Sears, Toys R Us, Mastermind, Chapters... no one has it....
Content - Video appeared on the scene so suddenly that marketers are still learning how to use it effectively. Here's a look at three forces shaping the evolution of content marketing...
In this article you'll learn… - Why it's important to include video content for C-Suite buyers - How video analytics help you continually improve video content - Why video is the rising star for content marketing ROI.
"The next big thing in content marketing is video," Justabout Everyone, Company ABC.
Ican't credit that "quote" to anyone in particular because it's been said by so many, from those in online media to B2B marketers. The truth is... as much as marketers love surveys and trend data, sometimes it's just blatantly clear that something is upon us. Enter video.
But, knowing hasn't yet translated into doing. Most folks are stuck. Video appeared on the scene so suddenly that marketers are still learning how to use it effectively. It's a black box. But it's time to crack it open....
Video apps: Discover 5 video apps to boost your online engagement and market your business.... Do you want to use videos to market your business? Are you wondering if there are simple mobile apps to make this possible? In this article I’ll review five mobile video apps and share how they can boost your online engagement. Why Mobile Video? Vine, Twitter’s mobile video app, has business and marketing professionals considering the numerous ways video apps can be used to increase engagement. Ekaterina Walter, social innovator at Intel and author of Think Like Zuck, recently predicted that “2013 will be the year of visual marketing”. Walter based this prediction, in part, on the fact that “…visuals and video done right are highly effective in cutting through the noise.”
It’s become clear that a dynamic visual presence is essential for develop a successful social media campaign and just as essential to your fundamental social strategy. But stunning visual campaigns don’t have to be just for the big-name brands with money to burn on fancy lighting, editing and production costs. Even a small brand can make waves with thoughtful and visually powerful multimedia. Here are 5 ways that almost anyone can start introducing multimedia elements into your social media presence....
...However, one type of content that still is underutilized in the world of SEO is online video. Although a lot of brands are incorporating video content into their overall online marketing strategies, most SEOs don’t place a high priority on it. Usually, they opt for creating various other types of content (e.g., infographics, images, written content, etc.). If used correctly, video can be an extremely powerful form of content and make a significant contribution to your overall SEO strategy, in more ways than one....
The Drum catches up with a selection of industry experts to ask their views on some of the big issues affecting the social media sector, such as video and data. 11 experts share their thoughts on video in social media...
Online video can no longer be ignored. On the crowded commuter train many passengers have ditched their evening newspaper for YouTube on their phone. In my office when something goes wrong with the system our calm, twenty something intern sits back and watches a YouTube video to find a solution to the problem.
YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine in the world behind the mighty Google itself. So there is no doubt that you, as a company, need a presence there. Here’s everything you need to know about YouTube for business to get started....
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Public service advertising doesn't often go viral (indeed, PSAs rarely appear on Google and Adweek's monthly leaderboard of the most-watched ads on YouTube). But the Ad Council knocked it out of the park last month—notching almost 50 million views (it has since topped that) for the R/GA-produced "Love Has No Labels" spot.
Samsung, which often dominates the leaderboard, placed another two spots in March, battling Durex's "#Connect" ad for the No. 2 slot.
Elsewhere, Geico's unskippable pre-roll ads proved to be just that, as the family-dinner ad got more than 5 million views. And YouTube itself placed two spots on the March list, for one of its #DearMe spots and for YouTube Music Awards welcome video.
See all 10 spots below....
Twitter has become much more than 140-character blurbs, and now Tweetbot is using that additional content to turn our media-rich feeds into a stream of photos and videos for users to quickly scroll through. An update released today for Tweetbot on iPhone and iPad introduces a new timeline view that displays images and videos — including content from Instagram, Vine, and YouTube — inside of the Twitter feed. The display uses tweets as captions for the content, and it omits any tweets that don't include something to look at. Twitter has been working to enrich its feeds with news stories, images, and interactive content by letting developers create multimedia cards — but so far that effort hasn't exactly livened up the text-based medium on mobile devices. Tweetbot's media stream may do just that; it doesn't require users to actively open content to engage with it, and instead works by surfacing those images and videos. While it may repeat tweets that have already gone by, it's an easy way to catch up on things you may have missed. The new timeline appears to display all image and video content supported on Twitter itself, as well as select outside sources, such as Instagram, that require custom support. However, the view doesn't include all of the frills and shortcuts that Tweetbot's traditional feed has, though it can be quickly toggled on and off at the top of a timeline beside the app's search box. No announcement has been made about when or if the new view will be coming to the desktop, but if it's anything like the mobile-centric apps that it resembles, it could be a while....
How many banks can you think of that put so much faith in the power of brand content that they began producing award-winning television and video shows on a daily basis? No matter how hard you try, it’s likely you’ll only come up with one: Jyske (pronounced You-ska) Bank. Jyske Bank has created one of the most high-tech, in-house television production studios in Denmark. In fact, the company refers to itself as both a bank and a media company.Jyskebank.tv produces amazing financial programming, as well as compelling stories that the bank believes are relevant to its core audience of younger consumers and small enterprises. Jyske’s brand content program is made up of two key values: Remaining true to the organization’s guiding vision, which it calls “Our Foundations“Telling good stories...
In a world where half of Facebook posts are now images, Web editors swoon over responsive design and brands place photos in tweets, it’s clear the Internet has become a more visual place. Now, one company is looking to exploit the love of pictures with a product that both editors and advertisers can use to make digital images more interactive, engaging and, perhaps most importantly, super shareable. "If you communicate through an image, people engage with it—we know that because of Facebook," said Neil Vineberg, CMO of the two-year-old startup ThingLink. "And if you put content inside an image, the engagements go crazy." Vineberg observed that images embedded with videos, annotations or links see clickthrough rates of as much as 50 percent. Forbes recently started using ThingLink to enhance its storytelling on the Web, turning a pictorial of the Forbes 400 into an interactive infographic complete with videos, story links and data. Want to know more about Oprah or Warren Buffet? Just hover over a button embedded in the picture, then click. Some 100,000 other publishers have signed on....
Pepsi disguises another famous athlete to prank unsuspecting people. Donning glasses and a fake goatee, world famous NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon pranks a car salesman into taking a test drive with him in a 2009 Chevy Camaro. "I don't know if I can handle it," said a disguised Jeff Gordon to the unsuspecting car salesman. "I've never driven anything like this before." "I think a way to really make you feel comfortable would be to put you behind the wheel," replied the salesman. And off they went doing wheelies and sharp turns while going at max speeds. The video, of course, was sponsored by Pepsi Max, which previously disguised NBA All Star Kyrie Irving as an old man named "Uncle Drew" who dominated streetball games....
More than 70 percent of B2C and B2B companies are investing in video marketing this year, and YouTube is fast-becoming the silver screen of the world wide web. It’s an essential network for getting in front of the right viewers. Google’s video platform has seemingly endless reach, garnering more than 800 million unique visitors each month. At the same time, Americans are increasingly eager to subscribe to their favorite Channels so they don’t miss a single video. It’s important to have a video marketing strategy that powers consistent updates for eager viewers! There are a number of steps you can take to ensure your brand Channel is easily discovered and ridiculously engaging. In our latest infographic, Brafton outlines the top 10 ways you can optimize your business YouTube Channel. Check out our related blog post and our video marketing white paper for more insights....
Videos, which you may be using in your business to help highlight your products and services, are a great tool for expanding your social connections. As you’re probably aware, videos help bring your brand and key marketing messages to life in a different way than text or still images do. And you may have already posted some of your videos to YouTube as a way to generate buzz. However, to do true “social video marketing,” you need to go beyond simple YouTube posting. You need to encourage audiences to add their own ideas to the video mix, which means they are implicitly endorsing your marketing messages. According to research from Bazaarvoice and Kelton Research, most consumers trust user-generated content – that is, content that’s not created by the brand – over any other kind. In addition, 84% of people under 35 say that user-generated content has some influence on what they buy. They are also three times as likely as their parents to use social channels to research their purchases. Below are ideas for getting the most possible social mileage out of your videos....
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Coolest 2016 toy is already sold out. Watch the parent panic begin.