OHMYGOSSIP — Prince William and Duchess Catherine are backing an auction raising money for Syrian refugees. The royal couple have penned a note to the Rotary Club of Cambridge to wish them “great success” at the auction, which will be held at St John’s College on Monday September 26.
Stephen Hawking has also given his support to the organisers and the auction backers, Ridgeons, Coulson Building Group and the News. Tony O’Mara, who is responsible for supervising the event, said: “We’ve seen with dismay the tragic images of the bleeding and lost little 5-year-old boy in the Syrian ambulance. Could this poor child in other circumstances have been a member of one of our own families?”
A post about the auction on the official website reads: “The funds raised through your generosity will be used to buy equipment for dispatch direct to Syria or the camps on its borders as well as to aid refugees who are in Cambridge.
“The supplies will be sent by the international charity SHELTERBOX and funds will also be used to support the CAMBRIDGE REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT CAMPAIGN sponsored by the Cambridge City Council to help Syrian refugees in Cambridge in a practical way. (sic)”
OHMYGOSSIP — The Interactive Advertising Bureau and Edison Research today are releasing new stats on how consumers listen to podcasts and respond to audio-based advertisements.
The new report gives marketers a peek at sentiment about podcast advertising from a poll of roughly 1,000 listeners. More brands and media companies than ever are investing in podcasts, but they’re not getting the same types of metrics about audio advertising that other types of digital ads provide—like clickthrough or view rates. While advertisers can see how many people download a podcast, they don’t know how long people spend listening or whether they skip over the ads.
Per the report, 65 percent of listeners said podcast ads increase purchase intent while another 45 percent said that they’re likely to visit an advertiser’s website after hearing an audio promo. Another 42 percent of listeners said they would consider a new product or service after hearing a plug for a brand, while 37 percent use podcast ads to help research brands.
When it comes to how consumers listen to audio programs, 70 percent said that being able to listen to them on-demand is “very important,” and 58 percent said they like being able to listen to exclusive content they can’t get elsewhere.
The IAB is releasing the stats in conjunction with its second annual Podcast Upfront event in New York, which features presentations by popular podcasters Malcolm Gladwell, Ira Glass and Marc Maron, and companies including NPR, HowStuffWorks and Panoply.
OHMYGOSSIP — Condé Nast is now tapping into Watson, IBM’s super computer, to help build and strategize social influencer campaigns for brands. Through a new partnership announced today with IBM and the influencer platform Influential, brands advertising with the media company’s properties—publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker—will be able to use big data to better know which social media celebrities might make for a good match for any given campaign.
Using software built by IBM and Influential, Condé Nast’s clients will be able to know which influencer’s demographics, personality traits and more best align with a marketer and the audience it’s targeting.
“Within the dating sense of the word, we are matching people based on different data points,” said Influential CEO Ryan Detert. “We’re a matchmaker—just with multiple points of vetting.”
For example, if a brand wants to find somebody who’s adventurous, Watson—which can analyze the last 20,000 words and emojis an influencer has published—helps weed out those that are more prone to doing vlogs from their couch. If a brand wants to pitch an action film, they might input key words like “action” and “explosion” to see which influencers have used them the most. Once the data analysis is complete, Watson then picks out five, 10 or a few dozen candidates for humans to choose from. (A competitive analysis by Watson also looks at whether an influencer is already pitching products for related brands or if a person has ever been arrested.)
It all comes down to better understanding the consumer experience, said Stephen Gold, vp of IBM Watson. Every reader has countless options for where to consume content. Watson considers 52 unique attributes for each person: Are they open-minded? Are they dutiful? Are they outgoing? The more Watson knows about an individual, the more it can help brands know what will resonate.
Until recently, computers were unable to reason deductively like humans by inferring truths based on a series of other facts, Gold said. While computers like Watson have made large strides in deductive and inductive reasoning, Watson can now begin to add abductive reasoning by making suggestions for an answer based on already available facts.
“The way I think about it, and maybe this is too simplistic, but you used to only have so many levers you could pull,” Gold said. “Some of those are foundational, others about style, and the techniques that are employed, but you quickly run out of things that you can change. This starts to open up some new levers that people can pull and say ‘Oh, we can take the personalization of content based on the reader, aligned to the influencers.’ It’s creating markets of one.”
OHMYGOSSIP — The NFL regular season starts this week, and Sports Illustrated wants to load up your podcast apps with football commentary all fall. SI is launching three new weekly podcasts with DGital Media today, audio extensions of its Monday Morning Quarterback (MMQB) website that covers football. MMQB editor Peter King will host one of the shows—The MMQB Podcast with Peter King—featuring interviews with the likes of John Elway, Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett and Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians.
In addition to King’s show, there are two other football-themed podcasts: one with MMQB.com reporter Albert Breer and another one called The Ten Things MMQB Podcast.
Sports Illustrated is backing up its investment in audio with stats. Streams for its existing shows, including the SI Media podcast hosted by Richard Deitsch and the basketball-themed SI’s Open Floor, have increased 200 percent in the past year with downloads up 150 percent.
“As time goes along, we’ll introduce some non-MMQB podcasts, but with football starting this week, this represents the best opportunity to fill the richest conversation from the start,” said Chris Stone, group editorial director at Sports Illustrated. “Even anecdotally, we sense that [this] is beyond the football space.”
He added, “We saw this summer in particular basketball around the NBA finals—we saw massive spikes in people who were engaging and downloading our podcast.”
At launch, King’s show will be sponsored by Blue Apron, FanDuel, SeatGeek and Harry’s with preroll and midroll ads.
Unlike other podcasts that prerecord ads with a separate voice, all of Sports Illustrated’s ads will be read by the hosts.
“It allows a premium influencer like a Peter King to talk through what that sponsorship is, whether it’s a 60-second or 30-second midroll or preroll spot,” said Chris Corcoran, chief content officer at DGital Media.
OHMYGOSSIP — Procter and Gamble is on the lookout for a new Mr. Clean. After 60 years with the same mascot, the brand is shaking things up—over the next month, it will look at audition reels and host two casting sessions in New York and Los Angeles as part of a contest to find a new face for the squeaky-clean brand.
To introduce the contest, the brand has a new 60-second spot with actor Kellan Lutz spoofing an audition reel for the Mr. Clean role. It is part of a new push from Leo Burnett to “revitalize the brand” by bringing back what made it resonate with consumers in the first place—its iconic jingle and mascot.
“This is the second in our series of efforts to go back to our roots,” said Kevin Wenzel, associate brand director for Procter and Gamble North America. “The first was the new modern version of our jingle television spot, which we launched July 1. It was a well-known jingle that was used to launch the brand. We used it for decades, and it was brought into a more modern context.”
Wenzel added, “The jingle ad gives us the perfect time to reintroduce the man because it’s bringing up great memories of the brand itself, and he is inextricably tied with the brand.”
Though there will be a new face in the fold, Mr. Clean the iconic character is not going away, according to Wenzel.
“We will still have our iconic Mr. Clean, but this will be a chance to let a consumer have a little bit of fun and let us have a little bit of fun as well,” Wenzel said. “That next Mr. Clean will be helping us generate content, including appearing in a calendar which we’ll be showing online.”
Mr. Clean will announce the contest winner in mid-October.
OHMYGOSSIP — Creative design agency ModOp has a client roster full of well-known and hip brands like Sony Pictures, PlayStation, Fender and Belvedere Vodka. And the agency (it has locations in New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Panama City, Panama) has offices that are just as cool as the companies it serves.
Recently its Los Angeles outpost relocated to new quarters, and president and co-CEO Jeff Suhy saw the move as the perfect opportunity to display his numerous collections. The former record label exec used mementos like fan mail, folk art and radio show props to personalize every corner of his new space. “I’ve been lucky enough to have had several careers from music, architectural design and technology and now advertising,” he said. “I’m a collector and I wanted to share some of my artifacts with our clients and employees.”
OHMYGOSSIP — Prince Harry is reportedly eyeing up a £3.6 million mansion. The 31-year-old royal is said to have set his sights on Water Hall in Norfolk, a seven-bedroom luxurious abode complete with a pool. A resident told The Sun newspaper: “It’s away from any neighbours, so would be the perfect party pad.”
The 5.5 acre site comes complete with a tennis court and games room as well as luxurious grounds, perfect for holding summer parties in.
Describing the property on their website, Savills estate agents said: “Water Hall is an exceptional family home, enjoying a wonderfully private and peaceful setting within the Stiffkey Valley, with the River Stiffkey meandering along the western boundary and with fine views across the water meadows and the delightful 5.5 acres (est) of gardens and grounds.
“The extensive property, set at the end of a long drive, includes a detached cottage, annexe, garage block with games room and studio above and a traditional Norfolk barn with planning consent for conversion to a five bedroom dwelling.
“Over the past 15 years the property has been the subject of a thorough and sympathetic programme of restoration, renovation and extension alongside landscaping of the gardens, the creation of an impressive walled garden housing the swimming pool and pool house, and the substantial garaging adjoining the house … All bedrooms enjoy fantastic views of the gardens and water meadows beyond.”
Featured image: Ohmygossip.com
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OHMYGOSSIP — Prince Harry has made a “personal donation” to a campaign to help purchase Rio 2016 Paralympics tickets for local Brazilian kids. The flame-haired royal has dug deep in his own pockets to give the #filltheseats initiative some money to enable youngsters in Rio de Janeiro the chance to watch some of the Paralympics unfold in their city.
A post on the Kensington Palace Twitter read: “Prince Harry has made a personal donation to #filltheseats so Rio kids can see Invictus & Paralympic competitors in action. Enjoy the games!”
At the time of writing, the campaign has raised more than $53,000, 18 per cent of its $300,000 target.
It’s not known how much Harry has donated to the cause. A promotional video on the campaign’s fundraising page urges people to donate to turn empty seats into roaring crowds.
It then asks: “And what if those invited were the kids of Rio?
“Come on world. Donate. #filltheseats”
In August, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee got behind the campaign, which aimed to make up to 10,000 tickets available for kids in Rio to attend the Paralympics.
Coldplay have also endorsed the initiative.
The #filltheseats campaign originally aimed to raise $15,000 to send 500 children to the Games, but after raising more than $20,000 in one week the IPC and Rio 2016 asked the initiative to remain open so more tickets could be donated to local Brazilians from the world.
Featured image: Prince Harry (Ohmygossip.com /Helena-Reet Ennet)
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OHMYGOSSIP — Prince Harry has wished the 11 Invictus Games competitors aiming to win a medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympics good luck. The 31-year-old royal – who is patron of the Invictus Games Foundation – told the paralympians, who are representing five nations, to “have fun” and thanked them for “inspiring millions” in their bid for glory.
He said: “To those Invictus Games competitors representing your five nations, all I have to say to you is what an incredible achievement – well done for your selection. You have trained harder than ever, but the fight to the finish line won’t be easy.
“You all know this better than anyone. Cherish this moment as you get to serve your country again. Absorb the applause and atmosphere for inspiring millions, but most importantly – have fun!”
Harry also admitted he is “incredible proud” of what the paralympians have achieved so far.
He added: “I remember watching these competitors at the 2014 and 2016 Invictus Games. And now they’ve been selected for the Rio Paralympic Games. I can’t think of a better example of showing how important sport can be for recovery.
“I know they’ll compete with the same Invictus spirit that we saw in London and Orlando – motivated not just by winning, but by pushing their bodies and minds to the absolute limit to prove to the world there is life beyond injury.
“They will lift everyone around them and whether you’re watching in Rio or on TV around the world, they will inspire you. I’m incredibly proud of what they’ve achieved and will be cheering on every single competitor during the Games.”
The 11 going for gold in Rio are made up of Team GB’s Dave Henson, Micky Yule, Joe Townsend, Mikey Hall and Nick Beighton. Australia’s Curtis McGrath, Canada’s Christine Gauthier and Italy’s Monica Contraffatto will also take part in the Games, as will Americans Elizabeth Marks, Jennifer Schuble and Shawn Cheshire.
Featured image: Britain’s Prince Harry (Ohmygossip.com /Helena-Reet Ennet)
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OHMYGOSSIP – Let’s talk blogging etiquette. While we like to say there are no “rules” to blogging, as each person’s blog is unique to their life and voice, there are some unspoken guidelines all bloggers should take into consideration. Most of these seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised how often we see these etiquette guidelines broken!
1. Don’t steal photos.
Simple enough right? Don’t take photos from another bloggers blog, Facebook page or instagram and say they are your own! You shouldn’t take photos from Pinterest and edit them to look like they aren’t from Pinterest. It’s just plain wrong to take another bloggers photos!
2. Don’t steal content.
Often times you will see similar ideas for posts on different blogs. This happens, especially with things like holiday post, recipes and craft ideas – hey there are only so many ideas out there, right? But, to blatantly copy-paste from another blogger’s post? That is just a huge no-no!
3. Post your disclosures.
If you received product or monetary compensation, you must disclose this information in your post. This is more than just etiquette, it is actually an FTC guideline. Be sure to disclose that you received free product or compensation in exchange for your post and use the hashtag #ad when you post about said products on social media. Remember, these are not blogger “perks,” they are considered payment for your services as a writer.
4. Give credit when credit is due.
If you do use someone’s photo, with permission of course, be sure to give credit to that person! The same goes for content ideas- it’s courteous to say you were inspired by so-and-so’s post or recipe or even to link over to them if you are using one of their ideas in your post!
5. Act professional.
If you are making money as a blogger, you are a professional. Even if you aren’t making money you are building a brand around yourself! How do you want others to see you and your brand? Be proud of your work and demand to be treated as a professional by acting like it!
What are you tips for blogging etiquette? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Source: northeastbloggers.com
