Very High Exposure

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NIKON LAUNCHES 'SELFIE STICK'

Nikon is the first prestige brand to grant its seal of approval to the international phenomenon that is the ‘selfie stick’, by launching its own model for use with its handheld range of Coolpix point-and-shoot cameras.

The N-MP001 is a far-cry from the cheaper models which have hitherto been available to buy online.  It is capable of supporting cameras twice its own weight, comes with a tripod socket, has a foam grip for comfort,  extends to 28 inches in length and comes with a pan-head which will allow selfie fanatics to change the position of their camera when it is attached to the stick. Despite this impressive range of features it remains to be seen whether or not this high-profile endorsement will be enough to persuade the naysayers!

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FIRST GLIMPSE OF INSTAGRAM ‘CAROUSEL’ ADVERTS

Last month Instagram announced to great fanfare that it would allow companies to feature sponsored posts with multiple images, which users would be able to swipe through.

The format of these pinned posts is similar to that of a multipage print campaign. In Instagram’s words, ‘Carousel ads give brands more flexibility in telling their stories by allowing people who view their ads to swipe left to see additional images and link to a website of the brand’s choice.’

This gives advertisers the ability to transpose print campaigns online, with the added benefit of driving clickthrough to websites and online stores by embedding links in  the images. 

Following the announcement, several brands revealed this week how they will be using Instagram’s new feature to shape and expand upon their digital narratives.

Old Navy chose to describe a serialized ‘day in the life’ at the beachfront, Samsung gave a photo tutorial for the Galaxy S6 Smartphone in a scenic woodland whilst Tiffany & Co. called attention to its men’s watches with a sequence of noir-ish cityscapes. 

This initial run of adverts suggests that the ‘carousel’ is a promising vehicle for introducing sponsored content into a users feed without overly muddying the experience of using the social platform itself. This is especially important for Instagram, given how much consideration users give to maintaining the purity of their feed’s content.

The challenge for brands going forward is how to stylize their sponsored posts in a way which makes them blend into Instagram’s unique aesthetic.

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HONDA CREATES WORLDS FIRST ‘NEVER ENDING FILM’

Honda has once again produced a visually enthralling piece of creative work which breaks the mould of the car industry. The ‘Endless Road’ commercial portrays the new Honda CR-V travelling in a seemingly endless, Escher-like spiral - with the tagline that ‘The Road to Better Never Ends’. The advert, which was modelled on the Harry Potter soundstage at Shepperton Studios, makes ingenious use of the ‘Droste effect’ or Mise en Abyme which is more commonly achieved by placing two mirrors opposite one another.

Honda regards the innovation and engineering which went into the production of the CRV to be an ‘ongoing proccess’. They were seeking an execution which would communicate this level of dedication to a wider audience.

The campaign also includes ‘the Worlds first truly endless advert’ on the official Honda YouTube Channel - which detects the visitors location and then adjusts the weather and lighting of the clip accordingly.

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OFF THE SPECTRUM: INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY

In his ongoing project ‘The Unseen’ photographer Ed Thompson is committed to rendering the invisible, visible. By shooting familiar subjects with the last ever rolls of Kodak’s recently discontinued Aerochrome film Thompson produces uncanny images which bring the boundaries of ‘documentary photography’ into doubt.

Whilst the results are often otherworldly and disconcerting, the process he uses to achieve them is surprisingly simple. Thompson discovered that if it is filtered correctly infrared film can reveal light wavelengths between 750-1000 nanometers, unlike conventional film which is restricted to capturing the ‘visible’ range of light between 400-700 nanometres. So through his images, alongside those of photographers such as Richard Mosse, we are offered a tantalising glimpse into the imperceptible aspect of the world around us—from claret—red fields in Kent to the eerie condition of the most radioactive forest in the world, Chernobyl.

Thompson has said of his work that ‘"Although the infrared photographs in The Unseen look strangely sensational, they are not constructed or manipulated. This is documentary."

The Unseen can be seen at Four Corners Gallery, London, until 18 April 2015. Prints of the work are available.

For more information and to see his other work, go to www.edwardthompson.co.uk

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SMARTPHONE SALES, OFF THE CHART

These two graphs give a striking illustration of how dramatically smartphones have affected the camera market in recent years. Using data from the Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA) the graph was put together by marketing svengali Heino Hilbig of Mayflower Concepts. Although it would be unwise to posit to strong a correlation between the decline in DSLR and Compact sales and the meteroric rise of Smartphones, the relation is nonetheless a revealing one.

As the full graph below shows, in this context ‘literally off the chart’ isn’t just hyperbole!

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NIKON PARTNERS WITH THE TELEGRAPH

Nikon and The Telegraph recently partnered up for a campaign titled “I Am Different.” It’s a series of short videos showing how 5 different photographers are using their Nikon DSLR's in various niches of photography.

David Gilliver, featured above, uses light painting to create ethereal light sculptures in night-time photographs.

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WORLD'S LARGEST GIF

Artist INSA is known for creating mesmerizing animated GIFsusing street art and photos. He was recently recruited by the scotch whisky brand Ballantine’s to create “the world’s largest animated GIF,” one that was created with gigantic paintings on the ground and photos from a satellite camera.

INSA and a group of 20 helpers gathered at a location in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in late 2014. The team painted giant patterns on the ground, doing one design per day over the course of four days. Each of the four paintings measured 14,379 square meters, meaning the project required a total of 57,515 square meters of paint.

You can watch behind the scenes of the project here.

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INSTAGRAM IMAGES COVER THE NYT

The printed edition of the New York Times on the 28th of January appears to have been the first time the paper has published audience-submitted photographs on its front cover.

The headline story focused on the snowstorm affecting large parts of the Northeastern United States. Accompanying the article and dominating a large portion of the page were 9 Instagram photos of the snow as captured by Times readers.

On Monday, the paper published an article that asked readers to share their Instagram photos from the snowstorm by tagging them with #NYTsnow. Two days later, it selected 9 of the tagged images for featuring on the front page.

The newspaper didn’t inform the photographers of the usage and It seems that by tagging their photo with #NYTsnow, readers are giving the paper permission to republish the submitted images on its website and its printed edition. This may just be the way things are done as more media companies are diving deeper into the world of User Generated Content. Interestingly, the NPPA reported earlier this week that people can tell the difference between a professionally captured photo and a UGC photo 90% of the time.

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BUD LIGHT SUPER BOWL 2015 - REAL LIFE PACMAN

Bud Light is taking its #UpForAnything campaign to the next level, with an incredible new experiential viral. In its Super Bowl XLIX commercial, an unsuspecting bar hopper is promised a free beer if he’s down to do whatever comes next. He agrees without hesitation, and before you know it, he’s thrown into a massive party complete with DJs and beatboxers.

The unsuspecting party-goer is then put into a real-life version of Pac-Man where he’s dodging ghosts and running through the white dotted trail of the game. The stunt has definitely struck a chord with the fans with the ad shared over 10 million times on You Tube so far, serving as a reminder of how powerful a captured experiential event can be.

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SNAPCHAT INTRODUCES DISOVER

Discover is Snapchat’s big new feature. It’s a special tab in the app powered by content publishers such as VICE, YAHOO, MTV, National Geographic and the Daily Mail. The section offers daily long-form content with videos, articles and, of course, advertisements.

Brands can buy advertisements against these Discover “Editions,” which play every three or four swipes. The section functions much like a futuristic magazine, with a simplistic and intuitive user experience. It remains to be seen how the publishers will continue to evolve content over the coming months and what the engagement rate of users will be with the new section. Given Snapchat’s user base of 100 million monthly active users coupled with the sleek design of the new section, it looks to be an exciting new area for advertisers to operate.

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FAMOUS GAY DADS FROM INSTAGRAM NOW STARS OF NIKON COMMERCIAL

Gay couple Kordale and Kaleb Lewis gained unexpected stardom by posting a photo of themselves and their daughters – taken on an iPhone - getting ready for the day ahead on Instagram.

The post went viral, with many lauding their obvious love and care for their daughters while others were less than enthused. Despite the debate, the Lewises teamed up with Nikon for an endearing look at their family and to explain their experience of viral fame.

The spot comes off as a well-shot home movie, but is still an insightful glimpse into this modern family's life. Despite the fact that the original image was shot on iPhone, Nikon have steered the message to align with the campaign message: “I am generation image”

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SOCIAL BUDGETS TO INCREASE

A survey by Salesforce of 5,000 marketers at the end of last year suggests 70% of them plan to increase social media advertising budgets significantly in 2015, including mobile ads on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

70 percent of the marketers also plan to increase their dollars for organic social or content marketing. “One of the fears I had was that since social media advertising grew, you might see some brands fail to recognize you have to support the organic side of it as well," said Jeff Rohrs, VP of marketing insights at Salesforce. "Otherwise, those advertisements won't perform. But it looks like the advertising will be complemented by the organic side."

Here are some other highlights from Salesforce's 47-page "State of Marketing" report: 

71 percent said mobile marketing is core to their business.

68 percent have integrated mobile into their larger marketing strategy.

58 percent have a dedicated mobile team.

73 percent think email is core to their business.

66 percent believe social media is core to their business.

66 percent have a dedicated social media team.

56 percent said their corporate websites are their most effective digital technologies

As further brands begin to exploit the digital space it will be more important than ever for communications to push boundaries and innovate in order to stand out and impress on an increasingly clustered median.

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CRASH THE SUPERBOWL

Once a year, Doritos hosts the Crash the Super Bowl contest, a chance for independent filmmakers to try their hand at creating a spot for TV advertising’s biggest day. After receiving almost 4,900 submissions from 29 countries, the snack food brand has narrowed the field to 10 finalists. Fans are now invited to vote for their favourite until January 28th.

The winner will receive coveted airtime during Super Bowl XLIX on February 1st; currently going for a whopping $4.5 million per 30 seconds.The winner will also take home $1 million and a contract job with Universal Pictures.

Interestingly the competition has been hijacked by SumOfUs.org who have created the spoof featured above to highlight Doritos parent company PepsiCo’s palm oil policy. It serves as a reminder of how brands must be aware of ethical issues relating to parent companies when creating communications. 

You can watch the 10 finalist videos here.

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TOSHIBA UNVEILS THE WORLD’S FIRST SD CARD WITH BUILT-IN NFC

Toshiba has announced the world’s first SDHC card that has near field communication (NFC) built in. The technology allows you to see what’s on a card without having to plug the card into a camera or card reader. Instead, you’ll be able to ‘preview’ the contents simply by bringing a smartphone close to the card.

You’ll need an NFC-enabled Android smartphone to take advantage of the feature, and you’ll also need to have a social “Memory Card Preview” app installed. Previewing data will be as simple as loading up the app and then bringing the smartphone in contact with the memory card.

The app will reveal how much free space the card has, as well as 16 thumbnails of photos stored in it. This new system will make it easier for photographers handling multiple memory cards to find exactly the one they’re looking for without the hassle of plugging cards into devices.

Toshiba says the new SDHC cards will be available in capacities of 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB starting in February 2015, and that the Android app will hit the Google Play Store at exactly the same time. Pricing has yet to be announced.

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NIKON. A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.

Nikon have continued their I AM DIFFERENT campaign by featuring the different perspectives captured by Andrius Aleksandravičius. Through his lens, Andrius captures the world in a different way. From Seville, to Morella, Valencia and finally to Barcelona, he uses a glass ball to create images that surprise and intrigue.

The ad was created by Director David Holm and Photography Director Simon Richards who followed Andrius through his road trip to capture his unique vision.

See the whole story here. 

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APPLE OVERTAKES NIKON ON FLICKR

Now that 2014 is in the past, photo sharing service Flickr has done some serious crunching on EXIF data to figure out which cameras were the most popular among its users over the course of the year.

Canon was still No. 1 in 2014 with 13.4% of photos posted but the iPhone is closing the gap. With 9.6% of photos posted in 2014, it overtook Nikon (9.3%) and drew within a few percentage points of Canon (13.4%). Canon’s share actually increased from 13% the year before whilst Samsung has surpassed Sony when compared to 2013 rankings.

In terms of cameras owned by Flickr members, iPhones remain the most popular by far.

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TINDER FOR TRAVEL

Tripnary, the new Travel startup, has a solution for the people who don’t know where to go next, involving a combination of data and personal preference.

The app has a Tinder-style interface, to select attractions from around the world that interest them. With a simple user experience: Swipe right if the attraction is interesting to you; swipe left if it isn't. It is the modern, fast choice for budding travellers.

Tripnary founder Abhishek Ghuwalewala had "accumulated many travel ideas over several years… Places to visit, restaurants to eat or unique hotels to stay at. However booking sites only offered an airfare search that is dependent on picking a location. As leisure travellers, people are flexible with destinations and so Tripnary was created with price-conscious leisure travellers in mind.”

When a user swipes right on different attractions, they are saved and grouped by destination (when a user swipes left, those attractions are discarded). On the "Flights" screen, a list of destinations is shown with airfares. The attractions in which the user has expressed interest are listed under each destination.