María Socorro Rosario | Managing Director | Intuic Puerto Rico 02/20/2012
MASH MY WEEK! Review of the outstanding Internet, Technology and Social Media news for the week 13-18 February
Hi! In this edition of mash My Week! We share the news that everyone is talking about in the online world.
Last week was St. Valentine’s Day, and to celebrate it Google designed an animated Doodle. For those of you who didn’t get the chance to see it, we share it with you below and also tell you about its creation.
Also, we present the new alternative QR Codes launched by the company QRawr, which convert real objects into digital conversations.
Lastly, do you want to advertise on Twitter? The microblogging platform has teamed up with American Express to offer a straightforward advertising space service
Google’s St Valentine’s Day Doodle
Google has taken on the design of original Doodles that appear on the home page of its browser to celebrate certain special occasions and anniversaries. For a while now, Google has been experimenting with animated Doodles; the first celebrated John Lennon’s birthday, and was then followed by Doodles dedicated to Charlie Chaplin and Freddie Mercury.
This year, St Valentine’s Day was no exception and Google captivated us with this short story:
The Doodles team had the task of creating the story and design for the storyboard, while the animation was done by Michael Lipman.
As regards the creation of the St Valentine’s Day Doodle, Lipman says, “It was the coolest thing, after working in online games for the last ten years, it was a wonderful return to storytelling. It felt like a Valentine for me.”
Apart from bringing life to this story of the highs and lows of young love, Lipman chose the background music. The song is a cover of “Cold, Cold Heart” by Tony Bennett, who is a keen fan of Doodles.
Lipman hopes that Google will continue making animated Doodles, and that, of course, they’ll call him to do the job
Tell us, did you like the Doodle?
Converting QR Code Stickers into conversations
The benefits and opportunities of QR Codes are unquestionable. The innovation in this field keeps moving forward, and more and more businesses are launching new products based on QR Codes to attract clients.
QRawr is a company that designs QR Codes that transform real life objects into digital conversations.
On reading the QR Code using the QRawr iOS ap, which was created by the same company, a wall similar to that of Facebook’s drops down where the user can leave messages and even add images and videos.
This function enables users to share recommendations, suggestions, opinions, evaluations and other things. The stickers can be stuck on objects such as restaurant menus, or at tourist attractions and shops, or just about anywhere imaginable.
The Twitter publicity business keeps growing
Many businesses want to advertise themselves on Twitter, the microblogging site has 200 million users, of which 100 million are active.
Two years ago, Twitter started to design a sales strategy for advertising space. But the companies that wanted to advertise on the platform had to overcome various barriers; big corporations could only do so through personal negotiations with Twitter representatives.
Recently, Twitter has joined up with American Express to offer a direct advertising space service using the company’s credit card. This new service, which will be launched in the United States in March, will enable small-to-medium-sized businesses to run adverts on Twitter. The service will expand internationally throughout the year.
Small businesses will be able to team up with Twitter’s self-serve platform, decide on a budget and divide their audience geographically. The adverts will appear as sponsored tweets in users’ Timeline news, and also as recommendations in the “Who to follow” section.
Businesses will only pay for the results obtained, that means, when there is an increase in the number of followers and the level of interaction between users and the brand.
American Express invites you to register here: https://ads.twitter.com.amex
I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Mash My Week!
See you next time!