Politics
Obama Used Mobile Advertising to Target Youth [MocoNews]
Beyond texting their VP pick, the Obama campaign used mobile advertising to target youth and voters in key battleground states in the month’s leading up to the campaign. Called “Vote Early,” the ad campaign was used to encourage voters to cast their ballots early, where polls opened before election day. Banners ran on Boost Mobile and text ads at the bottom of SMS messages sent from ChaCha. Users could respond “OBAMA” to receive more information on where to vote. Click-thrus were up to 2% in some states, much higher than the typical campaign.
Twitter, Digg, YouTube, Times smash records on election day [Web Scout]
Not only was this past Tuesday a historic day, but the 2008 Election day will also go down in the record books as the highest Internet traffic day ever, averaging 8.5 million worldwide visitors every MINUTE. This easily topped the previous record of 7.3 million, which was set in June 2006 when Ghana beat the U.S. in the World Cup. Not only were Internet users browsing news sites for election updates, but social networking sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Digg also saw huge boosts in visitor numbers. A Digg post, asking users to “Digg This If You Voted for Barak Obama” received over 33,000 Diggs, the second most Diggs ever.
Teens
The Mashup Syndrome [On Teens Today]
Previous generations had the mumps and the measles, do today’s youth have the mashups? Some are categorizing their “constant urge to take-apart, change and combine separate ideas into one” as a
syndrome.” Forms range from IKEA hacks and DIY tees to Lipdubs and Video remixes. Vanessa Van Patten correlates it with thinking outside the box and expecting customization.
Studies
PC Web sites aren’t adapting to mobile [TelephonyOnline]
Bango finds that while 3%-10% of total web traffic comes from mobile devices, “half of the most trafficked PC Web sites aren’t adapting to mobile browsing experiences, [leaving] sites that are either not user-friendly or not working at all.”
Mobile Advertising Awareness Skyrockets [Mobile Content Today]
According to GfK, mobile ad awareness is growing. While this may be no surprise to many, it is worth noting that, for the first time, awareness passed the 100 million person mark in a given quarter.
Sports
Sprint prepares to phone-cast entire NFL games, starting tonight [Engadget]
Starting on Thursday, Sprint customers with TV-capable handsets and the Everything Plan will be able to watch the Cleveland Browns vs. Denver Broncos on their handset. Last night’s game was the first of eight games this season to be televised solely on their NFL Network.
Music
iPhone Apps Are a Trojan Horse for Music Pricing [Wired]
A music industry often at odds with the digital world has found a new way to get around iTunes’ strict pricing policies. Labels have begun to bundle their songs into iPhone app and price them higher than the 99 cent requirement on iTunes. David Cook has already managed to sell his song “Light On” for $1.99. Beware ex-Idols bearing gifts …
Location
Using Pictures to Give Directions [Springwise]
BreadCrumbz is a new Android powered application that lets users create directional routes on the go. The application uses the Google G1’s GPS and camera to create geo-tagged pictures of the user’s route while Android’s location APIs and Compass sensor track progress as they navigate.
Arts & Culture
“The Devil and George Bush” becomes first mobile opera [MobileMarketer]
“The Devil and George Bush” is slotted to be the first opera composed specifically for the mobile Internet. It is aimed at people who intend to download the opera to MP3 players and mobile phones. The hope is to make opera available more easily to people and to create something more contemporary.
