March, 2016 | Furthr

Apple’s new TV series is the world’s worst idea for a TV series ever

March 29, 2016

Man, this is going to suck.

Apple are making their first foray into the world of TV, reports the New York Times.

It’s a non-scripted series about apps.

“One of the things with the app store that was always great about it was the great ideas that people had to build things and create things,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, said in an interview with the Times.

Sounds like a laugh a minute.

Ok, Ok it’s easy to criticize. Maybe it will be fine. Oh wait, what’s this?

“Apple announced on Thursday that it was working on the series with the entertainer Will.i.am.”

Oh Christ.

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The latest victim has confirmed it: Apple just killed the wearables market for the forseeable future

March 29, 2016

Apple has destroyed the wearables market.

While Apple’s smartwatch has prospered, the competition has been trashed.

The latest victim is Pebble. The smartwatch pioneer has just announced it is laying off 25 percent of its staff amid increased financial concerns.

When Pebble launched in 2012 it received a (then-record) $10 million in crowdfunding from Kickstarter.

Meanwhile, Fitbit, which was initially championed as an industry leader after a promising public listing last year, has seen its stock take a battering in 2016.

Nike have left the wearables market completely.

Nike know the truth: If you are going up against Apple, you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.

You best bet is to give up now.

Need social media training? Contact Furthr’s Andy Pemberton today

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The on-demand boom is over; there will never be another Uber

March 29, 2016

My friend is a pilot. He travels all over the world. Yesterday he was telling how shocked he was to realise he could use Uber in India – to travel from the airport to his hotel.

Not only was it more reliable than local taxis, he gaped, it was cheaper too.

Terrible new logo aside, Uber is a phenomenon. The ride-hailing company that is valued by investors at more than $60 billion began as a luxury service. The magic of Uber was that it used its growth to keep cutting its prices and expand its service. Uber shifted from a convenient alternative to luxury cars to an alternative to taxis to, now, a credible alternative to owning a car.

Pretty soon others thought they could use the same model for a whole range of services. Thus bag the on-demand app boom. A battalion of companies were founded in the last few years to get stuff done for customers in the real world, like food delivery, grocery shopping and parking.

But now, according to the New York Times, that dream is over.

Across a variety of on-demand apps, prices are rising, service is declining, business models are shifting, and in some cases, companies are closing down.

Why?

Uber’s success was in many ways unique. For one thing, it was attacking a vulnerable market, says The New York Times. In many cities, the taxi business was a customer-unfriendly protectionist racket that artificially inflated prices and cared little about customer service.

But how many other markets are there like that? Not many.

Last year the grocery-delivery start-up Instacart lowered prices because it thought it could extract extra revenue from supermarket chains, which were attracted to the new business Instacart was bringing in.

Instacart’s revenue grew by a factor of six since the start of 2015, and it has been able to use data science to find efficiencies in its operations. But the revenue from supermarket chains wasn’t enough to offset costs, so in December, Instacart raised delivery charges to $6 from $4 for most orders.

The median American wage is around $20 an hour, so a fee of even a few dollars is a costly premium.Or put another way, this is not a mass market business. You are paying a premium for a convenience – which is hardly an innovation. That is the way the world has always worked.

Instacart has also reduced pay for some of its workers.

Need social media training? Contact Furthr’s Andy Pemberton today

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Google has just entered the live streaming war against Facebook and Twitter

March 28, 2016

Google is building YouTube Connect, a video live streaming app to take on Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook Live.

Right now, only 1% of U.S. Internet users actively use Twitter’s Periscope app.

In contrast, almost one in three Internet users watches YouTube or has a Facebook account. So the future of livestreaming – like the larger online video space – will likely end up as a duopoly.

Google’s YouTube may be late to the game but they have an advantage – its impressive roster of vloggers, who enjoy a baffling popularity with U.S. teens that outstrips the popularity of celebrities.

In turn, these influencial vloggers have an impressive power to drive content: Estée Lauder videos featuring vlogger Chriselle Lim receive three times as many organic views if she links to them from her channel

Youtube’s vloggers could boost app usage in a similar way, providing the app with a built-in fan base.

Does your business need digital training? Contact Furthr without delay

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Turns out Pepto-Bismol is brilliant at search engine optimisation

March 28, 2016

Pepto-Bismol rules when it comes to SEO.

64% of unbranded organic search traffic comes to Pepto-Bismol from users typing in the symptoms listed on the product label- heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, nausea, and diarrhea.

For four of those terms, Pepto-Bismol controls nearly 100% of the traffic.

Even for the most competitive term in the sector (“heartburn”), the brand captures 13% of traffic.

That is a low cost, highly effective ad solution.

Need digital training for your business? Contact Furthr’s Andy P now

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Forget e-commerce. This is the age of e-influence

March 28, 2016

There has long been a debate about the return investment generated by brands’ social media activity.

Put simply: there were no numbers that suggested social media sold product.

One of the most amusing writers on this topic is the Ad Contrarian. Here’s a great piece about what he calls “incrementalism”, namely chasing the tiny audiences of Facebook by brands eager not to miss out.

But now, even social media boosters are admitting that social media doesn’t directly lead to conversions.

Forget E-commerce. This is the age of E-influence.

The argument goes like this: Back in 2013, one in six consumers going into stores had been touched by digital. Now it’s two in three.

The big mistake marketing managers make is sizing their digital spend to their e-commerce business.

Instead, they should size their digital spend to their overall business. That’s how important digital is to consumers.

We just can’t prove it.

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One to watch: Hotel Tonight is under-valued

March 28, 2016

Travel app Hotel Tonight is blowing up.

Given a four and a half out of five iTunes star rating, the app is ranked the number one travel app in 38 countries.

Hotel Tonight has achieved success with a mobile-first strategy, devoting 100% of its ad budget to mobile ads, app-based retargeting and email.

In February, it raised more funding that valued the company at $320m. Even at that rate, it looks under-valued.

Furthr says: one to watch.

Need digital training? Email Furthr now.

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Pinterest is struggling to attract users outside the US

March 28, 2016

Pinterest is struggling to attract users outside the U.S.

Less than half of Pinterest users are international, so the app is of little use to advertisers not focused on American consumers.

In contrast, Facebook and Twitter both had at least 70% international users at the same stage of growth.

The problem is the very concept of Pinterest feels foreign to many users. In Brazil, The Wall Street Journal points out, the word “pin” brings to mind a diaper fastener rather than a corkboard attachment.

Global brands could reach more users through local social platforms, such as LINE in Japan and Kakao in South Korea.

To engage users on these platforms, brands don’t have to start from scratch. Instead they could combine centralized content with locally-created assets.

Benefit Cosmetics recently used a similar blend to good effect: Facebook cover photo and campaign videos were syndicated globally, while influencer content, editorial  and tutorials were all made locally.

Need digital training? Contact Furthr’s Andy P now

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One in every six investors meditate

March 24, 2016

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen made a big decision last week. Instead of a new interest rate hike, she changed course, delaying the increase and instead extending the Fed’s stimulus campaign.

Yellen described her choice as “slightly more accommodative,” but soon afterwards the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index soared and closed up 0.56 percent for the day.

For investors, Yellen’s decision and its impact were a big relief.

Exciting as it was – and hugely stressful too – the upshot of Yellen’s choice registered as nothing more than a blip in the market’s long-term path.

But if your living depends on the gyrations of the stock market, how do you keep cool?

Many prominent investors and business schools have begun regular meditation programs.

One study found 16% of CFA Institute investment professionals practice meditation. That’s about one of every six investors.

Investor Jason Voss lists four obstacles that meditation helps investors manage: stress, over-ambition, behavioral biases, and ethical dilemmas. “Science demonstrates that meditation is a potent antidote to each of these obstacles,” he says.

Even in times of lower stress, meditation offers tremendous benefits. For investors and other key decision-makers, it helps develop the patience, awareness, and emotional regulation needed to make clear-eyed choices, less clouded by ego. In the face of volatile and unpredictable market swings, such clarity could be a precious commodity.

Of course, there is a catch: Nobody who took the survey knew that any of their peers meditate. Most investors simply do not talk about their meditation practice.

Yet in the face of constant stress and high stakes decisions, they don’t dare abandon it either.

Interested in mindfulness? Contact Furthr now.

Posted in: Infographic of the day, Mindfulness | Leave a Comment