Author: rssmasher

It wasn’t just you. A lot changed.

A lot has happened this year, some of it strange, some of it scary, all of it very 2017. At least as far as it can be measured and charted, we’ve attempted to encapsulate the uniqueness of this year through graphics.

1. All Trump, all the time

If it felt like President Trump dominated the news cycle this year, you’re right. News outlets consistently published more articles and, in turn, received a bigger share of page views for pieces about Trump than any other major topic we searched, according to Parse.ly Insights, a tool that measures how much attention articles receive across hundreds of major global publishers.

Articles that mentioned Trump had higher readership than those that covered sexual harassment, the heroin and opioid epidemic, net neutrality, NFL protests, Uber, AI and the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar. Briefly, before Hurricane Irma, during the eclipse and following the Las Vegas mass shooting, did those topics oust Trump as the most-read. Overall, in 2017 articles mentioning Trump received 5 percent of all page views in Parse.ly’s network.

2. The Weinstein effect

Interest in the term “sexual harassment” hit a record high this month as a share of all Google searches. Exceptional reporting on Harvey Weinstein’s years of sexual harassment triggered a watershed moment for conversation on the topic.

All of a sudden, powerful men were being held accountable for hurting women and dozens of high profile sexual abusers were ejected from their jobs. Buoyed by these results and by social media campaigns like #metoo, women came out in droves to fight — and read about — sexual harassment.

3. The “failing” New York Times has the last laugh

The New York Times can thank President Trump for its record number of new digital subscriptions this year. The first quarter of 2017 was the Gray Lady’s biggest ever, with 308,000 additional digital news subscribers.

In the first three quarters, it had added over 500,000 new subscribers — already more than last year. The move from ad-based to subscription-based revenue has helped the Times save itself.

4. Uber’s improbably high executive turnover

Uber saw lots of executive turnover this year, amid a series of PR nightmares, from corporate espionage to sexual misconduct.

Uber’s drama led to a bunch of high-profile exits from the ride-sharing company, including the notoriously combative co-founder Travis Kalanick. It also expedited the search for qualified executives to fill key, new roles.

5. Digital beat the television star

It’s been a long time coming, but digital finally beat TV ad spending in 2017.

Digital ad spending reached $209 billion worldwide — 41 percent of the market — in 2017, while TV brought in $178 billion — 35 percent of the market. TV ads are still much more expensive than digital but the shift in overall spending shows that TV has lost its stranglehold on the ad industry.

6. Bitcoin mania took over the world

This year, bitcoin prices went nuts. The cryptocurrency surged to over $19,000 apiece this month — nearly 20 times its value at the beginning of the year.

The high price tag made it seem like everyone either bought or regretted not buying bitcoin, which is currently worth less than $12,000.

7. SoftBank ate Silicon Valley

Japan’s SoftBank was involved in more than half of the top 10 biggest investments in VC-backed startups this year.

Led by Recode 100 honoree Masayoshi Son, SoftBank changed the landscape of venture capital this year. Its mammoth $100 billion Vision Fund made it both a hero (to startups) and a villain (to other venture capitalists).

8. Self-driving cars steered toward reality

2017 was the year that driverless cars made the leap from far-out concept to something closer to reality.

The leader in driverless tech, Google’s Waymo hit four million autonomous miles driven on public roads this year. Some two million of those miles were logged in 2017 — the same amount recorded in the previous seven years.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would allow for the testing and commercialization of driverless cars, and a similar bill has been marked up by the Senate.

9. Fidget spinners had a minute

Fidget spinners, a simple toy that rotates on a ball bearing, came and went as a cultural sensation.

Interest in fidget spinners peaked in April in the U.S. and in May worldwide, according to Google searches, and teachers everywhere breathed a sigh of relief.

10. Instagram cloned its way to success

Instagram launched its Snapchat copycat Stories in the summer of 2016. By early 2017 Stories had surpassed Snapchat in daily active users.

As of their last reports, Instagram Stories has a user base that’s more than 100 million people larger than Snapchat’s entire user base, which means Instagram’s version is more popular than the original.

11. “Despacito” made streaming history

Released in January, Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” became the most-streamed music video of all time by July — in record time.

YouTube

The Spanish-language reggaeton song, featuring Daddy Yankee and set in Puerto Rico, has since blown far past the competition. Already this year it’s received more than 4.5 billion views on YouTube, blowing away one-time records like PSY’s “Gangnam Style” and Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again.”

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[Read More …]

It wasn’t just you. A lot changed.

A lot has happened this year, some of it strange, some of it scary, all of it very 2017. At least as far as it can be measured and charted, we’ve attempted to encapsulate the uniqueness of this year through graphics.

1. All Trump, all the time

If it felt like President Trump dominated the news cycle this year, you’re right. News outlets consistently published more articles and, in turn, received a bigger share of page views for pieces about Trump than any other major topic we searched, according to Parse.ly Insights, a tool that measures how much attention articles receive across hundreds of major global publishers.

Articles that mentioned Trump had higher readership than those that covered sexual harassment, the heroin and opioid epidemic, net neutrality, NFL protests, Uber, AI and the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar. Briefly, before Hurricane Irma, during the eclipse and following the Las Vegas mass shooting, did those topics oust Trump as the most-read. Overall, in 2017 articles mentioning Trump received 5 percent of all page views in Parse.ly’s network.

2. The Weinstein effect

Interest in the term “sexual harassment” hit a record high this month as a share of all Google searches. Exceptional reporting on Harvey Weinstein’s years of sexual harassment triggered a watershed moment for conversation on the topic.

All of a sudden, powerful men were being held accountable for hurting women and dozens of high profile sexual abusers were ejected from their jobs. Buoyed by these results and by social media campaigns like #metoo, women came out in droves to fight — and read about — sexual harassment.

3. The “failing” New York Times has the last laugh

The New York Times can thank President Trump for its record number of new digital subscriptions this year. The first quarter of 2017 was the Gray Lady’s biggest ever, with 308,000 additional digital news subscribers.

In the first three quarters, it had added over 500,000 new subscribers — already more than last year. The move from ad-based to subscription-based revenue has helped the Times save itself.

4. Uber’s improbably high executive turnover

Uber saw lots of executive turnover this year, amid a series of PR nightmares, from corporate espionage to sexual misconduct.

Uber’s drama led to a bunch of high-profile exits from the ride-sharing company, including the notoriously combative co-founder Travis Kalanick. It also expedited the search for qualified executives to fill key, new roles.

5. Digital beat the television star

It’s been a long time coming, but digital finally beat TV ad spending in 2017.

Digital ad spending reached $209 billion worldwide — 41 percent of the market — in 2017, while TV brought in $178 billion — 35 percent of the market. TV ads are still much more expensive than digital but the shift in overall spending shows that TV has lost its stranglehold on the ad industry.

6. Bitcoin mania took over the world

This year, bitcoin prices went nuts. The cryptocurrency surged to over $19,000 apiece this month — nearly 20 times its value at the beginning of the year.

The high price tag made it seem like everyone either bought or regretted not buying bitcoin, which is currently worth less than $12,000.

7. SoftBank ate Silicon Valley

Japan’s SoftBank was involved in more than half of the top 10 biggest investments in VC-backed startups this year.

Led by Recode 100 honoree Masayoshi Son, SoftBank changed the landscape of venture capital this year. Its mammoth $100 billion Vision Fund made it both a hero (to startups) and a villain (to other venture capitalists).

8. Self-driving cars steered toward reality

2017 was the year that driverless cars made the leap from far-out concept to something closer to reality.

The leader in driverless tech, Google’s Waymo hit four million autonomous miles driven on public roads this year. Some two million of those miles were logged in 2017 — the same amount recorded in the previous seven years.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would allow for the testing and commercialization of driverless cars, and a similar bill has been marked up by the Senate.

9. Fidget spinners had a minute

Fidget spinners, a simple toy that rotates on a ball bearing, came and went as a cultural sensation.

Interest in fidget spinners peaked in April in the U.S. and in May worldwide, according to Google searches, and teachers everywhere breathed a sigh of relief.

10. Instagram cloned its way to success

Instagram launched its Snapchat copycat Stories in the summer of 2016. By early 2017 Stories had surpassed Snapchat in daily active users.

As of their last reports, Instagram Stories has a user base that’s more than 100 million people larger than Snapchat’s entire user base, which means Instagram’s version is more popular than the original.

11. “Despacito” made streaming history

Released in January, Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” became the most-streamed music video of all time by July — in record time.

YouTube

The Spanish-language reggaeton song, featuring Daddy Yankee and set in Puerto Rico, has since blown far past the competition. Already this year it’s received more than 4.5 billion views on YouTube, blowing away one-time records like PSY’s “Gangnam Style” and Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again.”

---

[Read More …]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg has ruled that Uber is a transport company rather than a digital service. The decision, which cannot be appealed, means that the app will be subject to the transport legislation of member states rather than an EU wide e-commerce directive.

The landmark decision could pull the carpet from under other gig economy apps who have arguably benefited from a lack of legal precedent around their status. On the other hand, Uber immediately commented that it already strives to adhere to local transportation law, despite this “millions of Europeans are still prevented from using apps like ours”.

In the UK in particular, three cities have banned the app this year, London, Sheffield  and York. It’s worth noting that the app continues to operate in London as it appeals a TfL ban. Meanwhile in Sheffield the ban was promptly usurped.

There may be a cataclysm for the gig economy ahead.

What changes?

John Haggis, a lawyer at Keystone Law, said that the ECJ ruling may empower member states to manoeuvre around the taxi service now. “The ruling clarifies that member states can create new regulations in the transport area specifically aimed at this new disruptive model. From a reputation viewpoint, this ruling won’t have a major impact, Uber have already tried to comply with the rules, but they still have the battles ahead.”

Haggis added: “It will be interesting how it fits in the UK around the driver employment tribunal, this ruling shuts down the argument that they are not a taxi business.”

Indeed the global legal friction the disruptive company faces is far from its most significant issue with regards to how consumers view it. Julian Green, head of corporate practice at Kantar Millward Brown, analysed social media posts about the brand over the second half of 2017. Green noted that the brand has had a bumpy year. “It goes back to stories around corporate culture and their treatment of drivers and stories in the press around customer safety, most recently, the data breach resulted in the biggest fall.”

In this leak, revealed in November 2.7m UK user accounts were exposed, this included their names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers. Globally,  57m accounts were compromised.

Bad reputation

Kantar Millward Brown measures reputational damage across three fronts; customer services, comms and data protection. While United Airlines and Pepsi fell down on these first two criteria respectively, Uber saw its biggest hit of the year in the data protection criteria.

“Data security is the biggest gripe for consumers, this takes much longer to recover from. Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of brands using (or misusing) their personalised data,” said Green. “When people realise companies are squandering their data, that really knocks their belief in the brand.”

The week the news broke, sentiment levels fell from an already low 20 to minus 50 in the space of days. To contextualise this, Pepsi, quickly recovered to 85 on the trust scale after the Kendal Jenner gaffe.

In 2018, Uber will look to have a firmer grip on its brand, it has had the benefit of doubt for long enough by being a pioneer in the space. Green added: “It is very much the disruptive space, as more competition comes into the market, Uber will find it much more difficult to manage their reputation. At the moment, they are not really too bothered about it.”

One of the main talking points on social media is how the company treats its drivers, its European reclassification as a transport company may see it take more responsibility for its staff. “Treating drivers fairly is one of the most positive drivers in our data for Uber. People talk about the drivers being the face of the business, they want to know those employees are being taken care of,” concluded Green.

The same rings true for any other players in the gig economy space, be it Airbnb, Deliveroo and more. With the ruling, the ECJ has called a spade a spade, Uber, in Europe at least is a transport company, not a information society business.

Haggis concluded: “This is the first time that someone in the gig economy has really been told you are not an information society business, you really are in the taxi business, we now look to Airbnb, the largest room listing business in the world, larger in fact than hotel chains, are they not now in the hotel business?”

[Read More …]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg has ruled that Uber is a transport company rather than a digital service. The decision, which cannot be appealed, means that the app will be subject to the transport legislation of member states rather than an EU wide e-commerce directive.

The landmark decision could pull the carpet from under other gig economy apps who have arguably benefited from a lack of legal precedent around their status. On the other hand, Uber immediately commented that it already strives to adhere to local transportation law, despite this “millions of Europeans are still prevented from using apps like ours”.

In the UK in particular, three cities have banned the app this year, London, Sheffield  and York. It’s worth noting that the app continues to operate in London as it appeals a TfL ban. Meanwhile in Sheffield the ban was promptly usurped.

There may be a cataclysm for the gig economy ahead.

What changes?

John Haggis, a lawyer at Keystone Law, said that the ECJ ruling may empower member states to manoeuvre around the taxi service now. “The ruling clarifies that member states can create new regulations in the transport area specifically aimed at this new disruptive model. From a reputation viewpoint, this ruling won’t have a major impact, Uber have already tried to comply with the rules, but they still have the battles ahead.”

Haggis added: “It will be interesting how it fits in the UK around the driver employment tribunal, this ruling shuts down the argument that they are not a taxi business.”

Indeed the global legal friction the disruptive company faces is far from its most significant issue with regards to how consumers view it. Julian Green, head of corporate practice at Kantar Millward Brown, analysed social media posts about the brand over the second half of 2017. Green noted that the brand has had a bumpy year. “It goes back to stories around corporate culture and their treatment of drivers and stories in the press around customer safety, most recently, the data breach resulted in the biggest fall.”

In this leak, revealed in November 2.7m UK user accounts were exposed, this included their names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers. Globally,  57m accounts were compromised.

Bad reputation

Kantar Millward Brown measures reputational damage across three fronts; customer services, comms and data protection. While United Airlines and Pepsi fell down on these first two criteria respectively, Uber saw its biggest hit of the year in the data protection criteria.

“Data security is the biggest gripe for consumers, this takes much longer to recover from. Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of brands using (or misusing) their personalised data,” said Green. “When people realise companies are squandering their data, that really knocks their belief in the brand.”

The week the news broke, sentiment levels fell from an already low 20 to minus 50 in the space of days. To contextualise this, Pepsi, quickly recovered to 85 on the trust scale after the Kendal Jenner gaffe.

In 2018, Uber will look to have a firmer grip on its brand, it has had the benefit of doubt for long enough by being a pioneer in the space. Green added: “It is very much the disruptive space, as more competition comes into the market, Uber will find it much more difficult to manage their reputation. At the moment, they are not really too bothered about it.”

One of the main talking points on social media is how the company treats its drivers, its European reclassification as a transport company may see it take more responsibility for its staff. “Treating drivers fairly is one of the most positive drivers in our data for Uber. People talk about the drivers being the face of the business, they want to know those employees are being taken care of,” concluded Green.

The same rings true for any other players in the gig economy space, be it Airbnb, Deliveroo and more. With the ruling, the ECJ has called a spade a spade, Uber, in Europe at least is a transport company, not a information society business.

Haggis concluded: “This is the first time that someone in the gig economy has really been told you are not an information society business, you really are in the taxi business, we now look to Airbnb, the largest room listing business in the world, larger in fact than hotel chains, are they not now in the hotel business?”

[Read More …]

Trunk Agency is continuing to hook upcoming creatives with established talent – this time by releasing a potty-mouthed game called Critmas Tosser.

The work was coordinated by Nick Enwistle, a creative director at the agency and the founder of the One Minute Briefs. It helps publicise the Merry Critmas drive to pair industry newbies and those wanting a hand up with creative directors who are willing to donate their time to critique portfolios. This looks to encourage those at the top to share their knowledge and perhaps spark working relationships.

The game has been given a single star review from Father Critmas himself who said he wishes he could give it less, in its way, a seal of approval from the campaign’s mascot.

To further help the campaign resonate, the One Minute Briefs community was set the challenge of creating ads to entice people to play the game. Here are a few top works from those efforts.

 

OMB RETURN OF @FATHER_CRITMAS #MERRYCRITMAS BRIEF WINNER:@MATTHEW__WYATT with this fantastic visual and copy. https://t.co/AzDzqLQJrx RT pic.twitter.com/zpczPZ6S9S

— One Minute Briefs (@OneMinuteBriefs) December 4, 2017

Dont throw it all away #CritmasTosser pic.twitter.com/yU00p0XduD — ZED (@ZedTrafficker) December 19, 2017

 

 

@OneMinuteBriefs #critmastossers pic.twitter.com/VvjaKFGPwP

— Stuart Johnston (@IrnStu) December 19, 2017

My ad for #CritmasTosser @OneMinuteBriefs @father_critmas pic.twitter.com/CIgIaND1Um — Paul Turner (@_paulturner_) December 19, 2017

 

 

The drive looks to entice creatives of all levels to sign up, you can do so here. The activity builds upon a parody of the movie IT that rolled out last month.

IT’S HERE!!! My new film written by, produced by, directed by and starring me!! Thanks to all my little elves for helping make this happen. Will you crit too? Head to https://t.co/TtxmrYsSAz to give/receive the gift of a book crit this December. #MerryCRITmas pic.twitter.com/4FxLyKfcDV

— Father Critmas (@father_critmas) November 27, 2017

[Read More …]

Trunk Agency is continuing to hook upcoming creatives with established talent – this time by releasing a potty-mouthed game called Critmas Tosser.

The work was coordinated by Nick Enwistle, a creative director at the agency and the founder of the One Minute Briefs. It helps publicise the Merry Critmas drive to pair industry newbies and those wanting a hand up with creative directors who are willing to donate their time to critique portfolios. This looks to encourage those at the top to share their knowledge and perhaps spark working relationships.

The game has been given a single star review from Father Critmas himself who said he wishes he could give it less, in its way, a seal of approval from the campaign’s mascot.

To further help the campaign resonate, the One Minute Briefs community was set the challenge of creating ads to entice people to play the game. Here are a few top works from those efforts.

 

OMB RETURN OF @FATHER_CRITMAS #MERRYCRITMAS BRIEF WINNER:@MATTHEW__WYATT with this fantastic visual and copy. https://t.co/AzDzqLQJrx RT pic.twitter.com/zpczPZ6S9S

— One Minute Briefs (@OneMinuteBriefs) December 4, 2017

Dont throw it all away #CritmasTosser pic.twitter.com/yU00p0XduD — ZED (@ZedTrafficker) December 19, 2017

 

 

@OneMinuteBriefs #critmastossers pic.twitter.com/VvjaKFGPwP

— Stuart Johnston (@IrnStu) December 19, 2017

My ad for #CritmasTosser @OneMinuteBriefs @father_critmas pic.twitter.com/CIgIaND1Um — Paul Turner (@_paulturner_) December 19, 2017

 

 

The drive looks to entice creatives of all levels to sign up, you can do so here. The activity builds upon a parody of the movie IT that rolled out last month.

IT’S HERE!!! My new film written by, produced by, directed by and starring me!! Thanks to all my little elves for helping make this happen. Will you crit too? Head to https://t.co/TtxmrYsSAz to give/receive the gift of a book crit this December. #MerryCRITmas pic.twitter.com/4FxLyKfcDV

— Father Critmas (@father_critmas) November 27, 2017

[Read More …]

Germany’s statistics agency said it will stop sending sensitive economic data to journalists before it is publicly released, amid evidence from a Wall Street Journal analysis that found suspicious trading patterns in currency-futures markets.
[Read More …]

Germany’s statistics agency said it will stop sending sensitive economic data to journalists before it is publicly released, amid evidence from a Wall Street Journal analysis that found suspicious trading patterns in currency-futures markets.
[Read More …]