Global Digital delights from Visual Jazz Isobar

We love to share all things good here at Visual Jazz Isobar, and whether it’s an awesome piece of design work, a creative and innovative marketing campaign or just a hilarious gif, we are always looking for inspiration and knowledge to help make our work ever better.
With this in mind we’re bringing you a weekly blog post to share our collection of interesting and insightful articles, inspired by Dan Calladine – Head of Media Futures at Carat and a member of our Aegis Network.
Thanks for reading Visual Jazz Isobar’s Global Snapshot, bringing you the best in all things digital.

Facebook

Facebook’s new brand pages – what you need to know

The new Timeline for brands is quite similar in format to Timeline for personal profiles. It employs a cover photo at the top of the Page, and the Page is separated into two main columns by a dividing line, which represents the passage of time. This format provides brands with new options for self-expression: They can outline their corporate history with milestones (such as product launches, store openings, etc.) to construct a narrative for their audience.

Milestones present an important and dramatic opportunity to educate the public, humanize the brand and remove a perception of corporate anonymity. Our analyses of Page engagement have continually shown that brands posting content that depicts behind-the-scenes activities, exclusive updates or promotions encourages user interactions and promotes higher engagement rates. Using interesting milestones to craft the story of the brand over time (and updating the Timeline with new milestones as they happen) can help to stimulate conversations around major achievements.

 

Some examples of brands who are using Timeline well:

Coca Cola

Ford

 

Mobile

850,000 Android devices are activated every day

With a year-on-year growth rate of more than 250%, 850,000 new Android devices are activated each day, jetting the total number of Android devices around the world past 300 million. These numbers are a testament to the break-neck speed of innovation that defines the Android ecosystem.
Last year at Mobile World Congress (MWC), it was announced that there were more than 150,000 apps in Android Market. That number tripled to more than 450,000 apps today, with over one billion app downloads happening every month.

And more on QR codes – why are they so popular in Japan but not the rest of the world?

‘I am based in San Diego, California, and QR codes are everywhere here. We even have surf shops where every single item has its own barcode. When I travel, I notice almost every airport sign has a QR code and they are starting to creep into the advertisements in the inflight magazines, too.

‘So, if marketers are so excited about QR codes, why aren’t people using them like they do in Japan?
The missing piece of the puzzle is, of course, education. Most American consumers don’t know what a QR code is or how to use it. In Japan, DoCoMo, the Japanese telecom, sponsored full television advertising campaigns. Yes, DoCoMo paid to teach people how to use them.’

And more links to digital that we are delighted by:

A preview of Windows 8

Bonds’ new birthday campaign

Uniqlo’s unique navigation to help you browse