OMD FWD w/c July 18th
In a week that political resignations, leadership battles and market turmoil dominated news headlines, a certain monster-hunting mobile game was busy making waves online. While Twitter remains a firm favourite for political chatter, Pokémon Go now has more daily users on Android phones than the social media giant. Not only is it the most popular game in US history, but it is also breaking records when it comes to retention of users. According to Survey Monkey Pokémon Go is seeing retention rates at more than double the industry average, pulling in revenues at twice the average rate for casual gamers. It therefore wasn’t long before Pokémon Go explored paid for placement from brands, especially as retailers are already paying to set Pokéstop “lures” to draw players in. With Duane Reade pharmacies in the US and Vodafone in Germany already chomping on the bit to be sponsored “portals” the game looks to set to build on its current momentum. But brands do need to be careful to not put players off with big sponsorship deals as well as draw mobs of users to various locations. With brands getting in on the action it will be interesting to see how their involvement affects retention rates, and whether Pokémon Go is here to stay, or just another fad. As ever, please share anything you spot with #OMDFWD
HEADLINES
- With more daily users than Twitter and delivering amazing retention rates, it wasn’t long before Pokémon Go had to explore paid for placement from brands
- Instagram adds much-welcomed moderation to the platform
- With more than 90% of the world’s online audience regularly using emojis, this is how brands got creative on world emoji day
INSIGHTS
- Hands up if you recognise yourself in one of these tech induced metal states
- Mobile is now the video viewing platform of choice
- A look at how Twitter monitored Xenophobia after Brexit
COOL
- Netflix introduces Flixtape, a TV ‘mix tape’ to share your viewing loves
- It’s not all clever tech in FWD. The residents of the Faroe Islands have taken a retro approach to get themselves onto Google Streetview
- Staying on the retro theme, Nintendo is releasing a mini nes in time for Christmas
DEEP READS
- Facebook comes under fire for censoring newsfeeds
- A look at the data-sharing collaboration of Google’s DeepMind division and the UK’s National Health Service (NHS)
- A deep listen rather than a deep read this week. Are algorithms ruining the Internet?