As part of my current role at Skype London, I like to send out a weekly email that highlights some great things I’ve seen around the creative world during that week. I figure it was just as applicable for this blog, so from now on I’ll include it here, under the suiting name of The Magpie Reports.

What the f*uck is Social Media now?

Facebook usage has grown by almost 3x in the past year. YouTube now has 24hours of video uploaded every minute. Social Media is here, and it’s staying for a while. This is a great little presentation on some crazy facts and impacts of this new world order.

http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-is-social-media-now-4747637
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2010/07/addictive.html

World gripped in Old Spice fever

The Old Spice ads are some of the best this year so far. Last week they went social and began responding to twitterings through the power of with witty retort and full production, 1-hour turnaround productions. Brilliant stuff. They even began producing snippets to allow other, more creative followers, to take away and create their own Old Spice mashups. The best of which were Old Spice man voicemail messages. Brilliant!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFDqvKtPgZo
http://www.youtube.com/user/OldSpice#p/c/484F058C3EAF7FA6/44/LWCVhGzrAT0

How they did it
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_old_spice_won_the_internet.php

Voicemail
http://www.oldspicevoicemail.com/
http://oldspicevoicemail.bhored.com/

GeoFencing

GeoLocation services are getting hot now. Foursquare has hit 2 million users and it’s gaining traction. What is really interesting however is the development of “area fencing” and allowing communications upon entering a defined area. Like a shop, office etc. An extremely powerful direct marketing tool, and potentially and interesting insight to social flow theory. Marketers now need to find a way to use it that isn’t offensively intrusive.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_geofencing_the_next_evolution_for_location_apps_location_labs_thinks_so.php
http://johnnyholland.org/2010/07/13/mobile-diaries-discovering-daily-life/

Milo, the Virtual Human

A Microsoft creation that allows a person to interact, socially, with a virtual child called Milo. Having fairly fluid discussions, where the software can even interpret fluctuations in the person’s tone of voice, indicating emotional state. There’s even a part where the demoist hands Milo a drawing, which is converted directly into his virtual world. Pretty impressive stuff.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10623423

That’s all for this week folks.

English has never been my strong point. According to the ingeniously curious I Write Like site, apparently I write like Russian. More specifically Vladimir Nabokov, whom until now was completely unknown to me. Amazon, here I come!

On another note, the URL for the site is one the shortest domain names I’ve seen – http://iwl.me

I write like
Vladimir Nabokov

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

The Old Spice campaign from W+K Portland has been doing the rounds recently, and deservedly so. It’s brilliant. To the point that I have actually considered buying some Old Spice bodywash just to see what it’s all about.

The recent introduction of a Twitter account @oldspice, where Tweeters can direct questions, and then the best are answered through a video on the Old Spice YouTube channel is just out-and-out genius. Now I just need to think of a witty retort to claim my 10 seconds of fame with Isaiah Mustafa.

Credits gotta be given where credit’s due. The trusty old Post It Note was light years ahead. Admittedly not limited to an exact character limit, but the principle was there: keep it short and sweet. You could (why am I writing in past tense?) then stick it anywhere, and (to a degree) anyone would see it. Move it between context’s, apply to any platform. Brilliant.

Love this fresh approach to Augmented Reality. Teaches the old dog (alright maybe not that old) a few new, and much needed tricks. Great stuff!

“The shadows exist both in a real and a virtual environment simultaneously. It thus brings augmented reality to the tabletop by way of a tangible interface. The shadow is an interface metaphor connecting the virtual world and users.”

http://joonmoon.net/index.php?/project/augmented-shadow/