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by Greg Taylor, 23/05/2013

Forget the Fisher Price smiley-faced phone. Now children can make real calls from a real mobile all of their own. (Cheers, Andy P.)

Dubbed the BratBerry by sceptics, 1stfone is the brainchild of Ownphone and is aimed at children between four and nine.

by Sue Unerman, 23/05/2013

Britain’s Eurovision dreams have been dashed again. No great surprise that Bonnie’s song came 19th out of 26. That won’t have caused a total eclipse of the national heart.
What is a surprise is that academic research from a noted music college has conclusively proved that this is a perfectly fair and just result. Denmark triumphed on merit alone. European politics had no part in it. According to this recent research, there is no truth at all in the idea (widely believed over here) that the voting essentially involves friendly countries doing each other favours, while countries who may have thrown their military or diplomatic weight around in the past get treated less generously.

by Tom Ollerton, 23/05/2013

Marissa Mayer certainly knew what was coming when Yahoo announced its $1.1bn (£723m / 857m euros) purchase of blogging platform Tumblr earlier this week. Rather than waiting for the critics to pounce, she issued a rather succinct, clear and highly quotable message proactively: “we promise not to screw it up”.

by Marco Felicio, 23/05/2013

And I’m certainly no Tom Cruise. Before I explain this issue it’s important to understand that a website is like the human body. Your health is not only based on your current routines (eating, exercise, etc.) but lifestyle choices you’ve made previously. If you stop smoking today you’ll still have a higher chance of getting heart disease for many years to come.

by @gordonmacmillan, 23/05/2013

Electronic Arts has been named the number one brand in the Social Brands 100. EA won for its ‘Battlefield 3′ first-person shooter game and beat American Airlines, Innocent, Argos and Tesco, who all made the top 10.

by Mark Cluer, 23/05/2013

Who do you trust more to recommend a product to you, someone within your social circle, or the person paid to market the product?

It’s not a hard question to answer, and that’s why recruiting third-party brand advocates is one of the hottest topics in marketing right now.

by @gordonmacmillan, 22/05/2013

Twitter has announced an addition to its Twitter Cards today to allow marketers to generate leads and drive purchases and all within the space of a tweet.

It is a significant move that brings the ability for Twitter users to easily leave their contact details within expanded tweets, called the Lead Generation Card, to express interest in what a brand is offering.

by Charlotte Henry, 22/05/2013

Many businesses try and engage user and demonstrate their expertise via running chats over Twitter. These are on a chosen topic, and curated and followed by a pre-assigned #hashtag.

Twitter chats can be a very useful way of networking and community building for those involved, however they are also easy to miss. While you can read the conversation back, this clearly limits the interactivity and value of the conversation.

by NABS, 22/05/2013

Words by Alistair Proctor, Creative careers coach at NABS

Recent issues of Campaign have both celebrated Patrick Collister’s appointment and examined why older creatives have such a hard time of it. Here is an example of age securing a plumb job as head of design in a youth dominated business. For me however, it wasn’t the fact that he’s been hired as an older creative that struck me, it was that I’ve always known Patrick not as an art director, or in this case a designer, but as a copywriter. He is also a very effective Creative Director and I imagine that that is why he’s been hired.

by @gordonmacmillan, 22/05/2013

Interesting research here from the research from the Pew Research Center points to how Twitter isn’t perceived by some teens as a social network in the same way as Facebook or LinkedIn.

by Daniel Domberger, 22/05/2013

There are three ways to look at Yahoo’s $1.1bn acquisition of photo-blogging service Tumblr. You can view it as a considered strategic move to evolve Yahoo and give it a slice of social media.

by Greg Taylor, 22/05/2013

To promote its new Office 365 software, Microsoft placed an ad with free wifi in a special edition of Forbes magazine. (Nice spot, Alex.)

The ad was made up of four pages, with a super-skinny router and battery packed in between. After activating the wifi, readers could get online for free (thanks to T-Mobile) for 15 days, wherever they took the magazine.

by Dave Henderson, 22/05/2013

For anyone who grew up during the 70’s and 80’s, the continued digital revolution is staggering to behold. Each new development brings us more wonderful experiences, with amazing freedom, at a hitherto unimaginable speed. But for the next generation, my 12 year old daughter included, nothing has changed.

by @gordonmacmillan, 21/05/2013

A useful study here from the ‘Pew Research Center’ taking a look at the demographic make-up of US social media users across Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. No data on LinkedIn of Google+, but great stats all the same.

by Lol and Nat, 21/05/2013

Apologies in advance for what may be a darker post than usual. Dark, but in some way practical, I hope.

Yesterday a friend and co-member of the DDC* and I hit upon a realisation. At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to magically edit those bits of the internet that remind you of things you’d rather not be reminded of? Banners, Facebook ASUs, emails, etc.

by Greg Taylor, 21/05/2013

Mayonnaise isn’t just for sandwiches. At a supermarket in São Paulo, Hellmann’s used NFC technology to suggest new recipes to shoppers as they perused the aisles. (Thanks, Tim.)

by Dave Trott, 21/05/2013

In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait.
By 1991 it escalated into what became known as The First Gulf War.
Kuwait couldn’t be allowed to just fall into the hands of a military dictator.
Everyone was outraged.
Kuwait would have to be invaded.
Iraq would have to be thrown out.

by John Reynolds, 20/05/2013

The Barclays Premier League season may have finished for the players, who have nothing more taxing to look forward to than kicking back and relaxing for two months somewhere they see as exotic, more than likely to be a teammate’s marital bed.

Why do clever people keep doing stupid stuff? External website

by Andy Nairn, 20/05/2013

Everybody’s heard of the code-crackers of Bletchley Park. The boffins at this Buckinghamshire mansion were responsible for British Intelligence’s biggest breakthrough of all time and were instrumental in turning World War II in the Allies’ favour. They deciphered the Germans’ infamous Enigma code, were hailed by Churchill as “the geese that laid the golden eggs but never cackled” and have been immortalised in several blockbuster movies and books.

by Andrew Walsh, 20/05/2013

The Barclays Premier League is increasingly looking like a recession proof business but there are good reasons why it attracts so much money.

We all know about the rising value of TV rights, thanks not just to the forthcoming battle between BSkyB and BT but also to the fact that it’s now broadcast in 212 territories by 80 different broadcasters.