-> 3.6 million units in the first day -> 6 million units in the first week -> $500 million in sales in the first week
Absolutely massive. A true blockbuster.
Random commenter Danny writes, "Call of Duty 4 sold 1.5 million units in its first month, and has sold 7 million overall since November. Halo 3 sold 3.3 million copies in its first 12 days, and has sold about 9 million since then. So GTA is destroying all sales records."
If GTA IV were a movie, it would be the 2nd highest grossing movie ever ... in its first week!
I'd expect the new Hollywood releases targeting a similar audience to do relatively poorly this week. When Halo 4 came out, it was a bad week for the theaters. And GTA IV has sold twice as many games in half the time. Despite a killer opening,
Ryan Spoon writes, "To put this in perspective, last weekend’s opening of Iron Man brought in a record-breaking $201mm globally… GTA IV did 2.5x that. Of course unit prices are drastically different - but these are massive numbers."
Look for box office figures for "Speed Racer" and the latest "Iron Man" numbers to be well off the mark.
So, is it Game Over for Hollywood? I doubt it. But I'd guess that piles of Grand Theft Auto scripts will be landing on Hollywood producers' desks over the coming months.
Here’s a look at Nokia Beta Labs, a brilliant use of digital to gather free opinion and insight as well as grow natural advocacy amongst core target groups and opinion leaders. Business Week's European editor Jack Ewing writes:
For Nokia, which is obsessive about consumer research, the site is an alternative to the focus groups and surveys that are usually used to gauge consumer reaction to a new product. But, though the cost of managing the site is negligible, saving money is not the main motivation. "It's not the cost we're looking at, it's how we are making the application better for the consumer," says Jari Pasanen, whose title is Nokia vice-president for innovation acceleration.
Beta Labs is part of a broader push by Nokia to harness customers and partners in the service of innovation. At Nokia.com the company allows users to share and rate applications they have created such as screen-savers or games. And over the past year, Nokia designers have traveled to the developing world to ask users to sketch their own dream cell phones. By yearend, more than half the world's population is expected to live in urban areas, so to exploit this mega-trend Nokia's researchers visited shantytowns in Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, and Accra in Ghana. (See slide show (BusinessWeek.com, 4/30/08.)
Specifically, the article explores Nokia's SportsTracker, an application from the labs that over one million people have downloaded.
The response to Sports Tracker was overwhelming. Eventually more than 1 million people downloaded the program and used it for sports the developers never dreamed of, such as paragliding, hot-air ballooning, and motorcycle riding. More importantly, the users avidly provided criticism that Nokia (NOK) then used to make improvements. Based on reader feedback, for example, developers added the capability to create online groups where users can share favorite routes and even photos they took along the way. "People were misusing the application in creative ways," says Jussi Kaasinen, a member of the team at Nokia Research Center in Helsinki that developed Sports Tracker.
The wider point about the labs is clear: Like VW’s Drivers Project and Virgin Mobile’s Insiders programs, these organic initiatives “feel” right and enable people to influence the products and companies they care about.
Sports Tracker is an example of how Nokia has begun experimenting with user-generated innovation. That's the premise behind Nokia Beta Labs, a Web site where the Finnish handset maker lets users test the latest smartphone software. Instead of people recording silly Web cam videos for YouTube or inventing frivolous advocacy groups on Facebook, they can help make the mobile Internet more useful.
I’m sure many more of these are on the way.
How Nokia Users Drive Innovation Through online aps such as Sports Tracker and Nokia Beta Lab, the Finnish handset giant gathers customers' ideas from around the world—virtually free by Jack Ewing
I think the R/GA site is a bit rubbish. It isn't shit, but it ain't great. I can hear them saying, "We've got better things to do than work on our own site" To which I'd reply, "I doubt it took Modernista that much time to do something incredibly creative." Honest, I can hear them ...
Hal Riney & Partners site might be interesting, but it isn't very useful. The fact that everyone knows that they didn't build it (Clusta did) says a lot about how much they know. They're saying, "But we do know. We do. We do." ... We'll, I say they don't.
Almost missed Barbarian's web site. How did they get in there? I guess Ad Age wanted some old-school credibility. Their new site is plain, effective, and requires tons and tons of time to update and keep fresh. The site says, "We spend a lot of time to keep this cool." Yawn.
Grey's site is incredibly poor, in particular from a technical perspective. With the exception of the characters, this "redesigned" site feels so out of date. As in, "Hi, I'm your design from 2002, remember me?" Check out the floating balls in the "Capabilities" section. So embarassing. Forget it.
As most of you know, Modernista is a favourite of mine: They walk the talk. Simple, effective, and savvy. It says "We understand how this digital thing works." It does. It says it right on the tin.
We saw Dawn open for DeVotchKa at Scala a couple weeks ago. Her voice is strong and luscious. Like Nora Jones if she had more fun. K spoke to her after her set and said she was very nice.
Mark Kingdon, CEO of Omnicom Group digital agency Organic, is leaving to become CEO at Linden Lab, the company that owns Second Life.
From a distance, I liked Mark Kingdon. I never worked with him at Organic. He arrived after I had left. But from what I read on Organic's Three Minds blog, he seemed like a smart guy. So, this news really has me confused.
So, how about some multiple choice ...
Very poor move. It has career disaster written all over it.
As Second Life continues to fail due to piss poor user experience, an unstable platform, a lack of true technical innovation, and competitive threats, Mark will struggle (and in my mind fail) to help them turn the corner. People are already abandoning the service in droves (the place is always empty) and nothing will help bring the buzz back once it is gone.
The comments below the announcement are priceless:
Grid Stability is the catch cry, but the “proof of the pudding is in the eating”, and the Grid is NOT stable, and not just the Havoc project, thats one side of the coin, the whole Grid is abysmal. Fix it. Everything else is just moving the deckchairs on the Titanic. (Alf Lednev)
So the head of a digital advertising agency will be the head of Linden Labs. Banner ads, targeted search, clickstream analysis, sl traffic analysis, are these coming to our sl world soon? (Cookies are already here unless you know to turn them off) Are my avatar’s behavior patterns going to be sold to Coke or Proctor and Gamble? Hmmmmmm……. Very interesting…. (Ishtar Writer)
You are walking into a huge mess, and there is a great deal of expectations residents have of their new CEO.. I just hope that your zest, fervor and commitment to success remain.. Its not hard to get sucked into the Linden Tao of “Really, who gives a sh!t” …(Suhana)
I worked for Organic Inc when Mark Kingdon became CEO there at the SF head office. Wasn’t long after that when most of the satellite offices got shut down…with our London Office (the one i worked in) being one of the last. (Rene Erlanger)
For the second year running, Google tops the BrandZ list with new research estimating its value to be $86bn (£43bn), a 30% year-on-year increase in its value.
Millward Brown's annual BrandZ research takes into account the financial performance of a company combined with a measure of brand equity determined by a 100,000-strong global consumer survey.
MediaPost notes that "the BrandZ is dominated by technology oriented companies, and has only a few pure play media brands on the list. Among them are Disney, which rose 5% to a brand value of $23.7 billion (ranked No. 23), and Yahoo, which fell 13% to $11.5 billion (ranked No. 62)."
Strong brands have the power to create business value. They impact much more than revenues and profit margins. Strong brands create competitive advantages by commanding a price premium and decrease the cost of entry into new markets and categories. They reduce business risk and help attract and retain talented staff.
Millward Brown Optimor created the BrandZ Top 100, a ranking that identifies the world's most powerful brands measured by their dollar value. Our brand ranking provides key insights and actionable information for finance, marketing and business professionals on how to manage and grow their brand assets.
"Google's rank has been driven by fantastic financial performance and equity value," said Peter Walshe, the global account director at Millward Brown, continues the The Guardian continues in a nice summary:
Google beat General Electric to the top spot, with the NBC Universal owner's brand value estimated at $71.4.
The next most valuable brands are Microsoft at $70.89m, Coca-Cola at $58.2m and China Mobile at $57.2m, according to Millward Brown.
The top five remained unchanged year-on-year, with each company recording an increase in brand valuation by between 15% and 39% compared with 2007.
Apple was the biggest mover in the top 10, and a new entry, moving up nine places to rank seventh, with a massive 123% increase in brand value to $55.2m.
"Apple's 123% rise has proved to be from a mix of a slue of innovative products such as the iTouch, iPhone, Leopard and computers for which consumers have given the brand a lot of credit," said Walshe.
Mobile operator Vodafone was the top-ranked British brand, up 12 places on the back of a 75% increase in value to $36.9m (£18.5m).
For the record, I’ve been enjoying the Sony “Like No Other” campaign. Balls, Paint, Bunnies, and so on … Best group of spots I’ve seen for a while.
This time, however, the hype certainly does not live up to the end result. I find this spot a complete let down. And the tie-in to “images” is rubbish. To say nothing of the fact that I have begun to expect colorful things from Sony, and the white foam is just that. Just plain white foam.
A Fishy Social Networking Campaign - ClickZ Telus looked to Toronto-based creative agency Teehan & Lax and media strategy firm Media Experts to create a social networking application reflective of My Faves' key characteristics. Facebook was the network of choice.
Bypassing Carriers for Mobile Content Sales of ringtones and games through phone makers and the Web are way up, another sign service providers are losing their grip on the industry
At iris, we like to do things a bit differently, and Under The Influence is our take on the traditional industry speaker event.
Held in 5 pubs around Borough Market (next to London Bridge), it is a chance for members of the industry to come down, have a pint and soak up some of the inspiration on offer. The theme of this years event is “Where Next?”- i.e. What’s round the corner for us all.
I’m hosting ‘The Dip Inn’ (aka The Market Porter) which will focus on short-form content and "media snacking". We've got one helluva line-up for ya:
Speakers at the other pubs include John Grant, Fallon's Chairman Laurence Green, Contagious Magazine's Paul-Kemp Robertson, Poke's Iain Tate, and the legendary George Parker. Can you imagine George Parker speaking about advertising and marketing whilst having pints in a pub? He'll think he's died and gone to Heaven!
There’s plenty more on offer in addition to what is sure to be an excellent party after. The event is free, and the full line-up is over on the Under the Influence web site.
So, come have a few pints and learn something new.
One of the key points being discussed allover theplace is the restriction on the length of the videos that can be uploaded. They're limited to 90 seconds, at least for now. Arrington get's it and so do others, including NewTeeVee: Less crap to sift through, lower bandwidth costs and content that ends up being closely tied to the photos surrounding them. It would seem that, at least for now, the idea is to carve out a defined niche of the video market.
Seems smart to me, and that's not a surprise given that it is coming from Flickr.
Iain posted this ad on his blog, and it reminded me of “Washes Whiter” which is re-running on BBC4 before Mad Men, which just keeps getting better and better by the way. … The entire episode of "Washes Whiter" called "She's Not a Moron - She's Your Wife" was full of this sh*t from JWT, Lintas, and a bunch of other shops … Fascinating to see that nothing has changed in 60+ years.
Agencies have been making spots like this since the 40’s, and it is really f*cking sad that people (women in particular) haven’t rejected it outright. FFS, are we really that stupid? Scary to think that the answer could be “yes”.
That’s to say nothing of the agencies that keep churning out this completely uninspired crap to clients who keep buying it.
In a speech at the N.R.A.'s annual convention in 2000, he brought the audience to its feet with a ringing attack on gun-control advocates. Paraphrasing an N.R.A. bumper sticker ("I'll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands") he waved a replica of a colonial musket above his head and shouted defiantly, "From my cold, dead hands!"
Here on i-boy, we try to be as politically agnostic as possible. Why? Well, I have no idea. But in this case, it is really difficult. Ben-Hur was a very cool film . One of the best. But being the President and lifelong supporter of the NRA is just shit, and we're glad that there is now one less gun on the streets.
As part of being Polar's new AOR, we completed the redesign of their web site (concept, architecture, imagery, design, flash, and template production) in late 2007. The dev team in Finland has just finished the back-end, and it is great to see the work online.
0 comments
