The JAM Jar

In the next 60 seconds the internet will explode with data activity, and it’s hard to comprehend just how much. What might a 60 second snapshot of our online lives look like?

Facebook Messenger, to pick one of the biggest data sharing platforms, sees 216,302 photos being shared each minute. Let’s sit and think about that for a moment. That’s huge. Perhaps not surprising, however, as Facebook has seen a 22% increase in mobile users already this year and over a billion people check their mobile Facebook app every single day.

Moving on to YouTube, an eye-watering 400 hours of video is shared by users in only 60 seconds. This is made even more incredible when you consider the fact that, in 2010, the world was shocked to find out that users were sharing 35 hours per minute. Oh, how things change.

Snapchat next. A relative newcomer to the social media neighbourhood and yet an explosively popular one, Snapchat users watch 6.9 million videos each minute. That’s a whole lot of Snapchatting.

What about Twitter? One minute sees 9,678 emoji-filled tweets being sent. Netflix? 86,805 hours of video is streamed in the same timeframe. Oh, and just under 160,000 pieces of content are viewed by Buzzfeed readers. The list goes on.

To help us digest these staggering stats, business intelligence service, Domo, shared an infographic this week titled “Data Never Sleeps’, which reveals exactly what kinds of content we’re sharing and how much.

According to Domo, multimedia messaging is rising exponentially, which has got to have been helped along by the constant stream of new apps and software hitting our app stores each and every day. According to them, the global internet population has grown by 60 percent in the last five years alone, and there are more mobile devices on our planet than people.

Here at JAM, we love statistics. They are a huge part of PR and the lifeblood of the news we all share and consume. We also love a good infographic; they make statistical data that much more fun to display and much easier to digest. Not only that, but they’re incredibly popular with audiences the world over, with infographic search terms increasing by 800 per cent in just two years.

Combining statistics and fantastic graphics is a science, and one we’re good at. Our design gurus at JAM Creative can help transform our clients’ exciting news into an even more exciting piece of visual content.

Give our team a shout at hi@jamcreative.co.uk and we’ll show you what we can do.

One last thought before you go. In the time it’s taken to write this blog post, Tinder users swiped left or right 50.3 million times.

Here at Jam towers, Pokemon Go and Polaroid Swing have both been a welcome distraction as we’ve sweated it out in this week’s hot weather.

But it’s got us thinking about how quickly internet crazes come and go.  Who remembers how obsessed we all became with Draw Something, Words With Friends and Temple Run? Countless hours up and down the country were no doubt once spent sketching amusing pictures on our phones, challenging our mates’ knowledge of two letter words or running though endless jungle landscapes. http://bit.ly/2abCzQ9 

Something else we’ve been pondering though is “Whatever happened to Tumblr”?

Back in 2007, the social network and microblogging platform looked all set to be the latest web craze taking our worlds by storm.

The dashboard was incredibly visual, and we loved that fact that its users could post just about anything. Whether that was a video, a full blog post, a cool gif, or just a crazy cat photo. More recently it became famous as the site that launched the dress debate and we discovered whether we were BBs or GWs.

Bought by Yahoo in 2013 for £758 million ($1 billion, the company’s biggest purchase to date), at the time, chief Marissa Mayer famously promised ‘not to screw up’.

Its figures certainly look impressive. Today it’s home to 30.58 million blogs and 137 billion posts.

However, this week Yahoo announced that it was writing down the value of the company it bought just three years ago by £541 million. This news came after last quarter’s decision to write down £174 million from Tumblr’s value. In total, this means that the beleaguered site’s market value has been cut by two thirds of its original asking price. CNN money reports that these moves now render the site “effectively worthless.”

So what’s gone wrong? It’s been late to market with advances like live video which was only revealed in June, months after Facebook and Twitter launched their services. Plus, its lost valuable audience share to the likes of Snapchat, GIPHY, and Medium.

And Meyer herself admitted that while Tumblr has an ever-expanding inventory, and great ad engagement rates, there’s just not enough demand out there from advertisers willing to pay for the space.

The ultimate irony in all this is that Tumblr is now turning to the Facebook Audience Network advertising service for help and will be using the social networking giant to shift its unsold media.

What will happen remains to be seen, but in the meantime, we’re going to head back to catching Pokemon. If only we could catch that Vaporeon…

At Jam, we love creating digital campaigns for our clients, whatever the platform. To find out how we could support your business, get in touch with our MD, Jaime@jampr.co.uk or call 0161 850 0565.

Here at JAM we’re celebrating two client wins, having been appointed by Escape Travel Card prepaid Mastercard® and charity, Disabled Living.

With activity taking off immediately, we have been briefed to raise awareness of the Escape Travel Card, targeting national consumer travel and lifestyle media, as well as conducting blogger outreach, managing competitions, and handling social media activity for the brand.

Escape Travel Card is the consumer brand of Tuxedo Money Solutions, based in Chester, which provides prepaid payment solutions for the B2B market – a client of JAM’s for the last four years.

Disabled Living, a charity supporting disabled adults, children, older people and the professionals who support them, runs a series of Kidz to Adultz events around the country,  and after successfully working on the Midlands event in March this year, the charity briefed JAM on the Kidz to Adultz Wales event in Cardiff on 7th July.

Kidz to Adultz are the largest, free UK events dedicated to children and young adults with disabilities and additional needs, their families and the professionals who work with them. JAM will raise the profile of the events in their regions targeting local newspapers, TV and radio stations, as well as bloggers and the wider community to drive footfall and educate target audiences on the benefits of attending.

Our managing director, Jaime Gee, says: “It’s a real honour to be invited to work on brands and organisations that we have delivered successful campaigns for previously and the Escape Travel Card and Disabled Living contracts have been awarded to us based on the great results we have achieved so far.

“We’re delighted to work with both organisations and we look forward to delivering even more impressive results to help drive their overall objectives. They add to our expertise in travel, finance, charity and events – sectors in which JAM is well-versed.”

Rob Darby at Escape Travel card says: “The JAM team really understood our proposition for Escape and connected with our team perfectly, which allowed them to deliver a highly creative and engaging solution to the brief.

JAM has a proven track record at delivering results and innovative campaigns for travel money products and we were impressed with the team’s strategic approach, forward planning, creativity, media contacts and overall enthusiasm for the brand.”

Carmel Hourigan, senior manager at Disabled Living says: “JAM impressed us with the coverage achieved for the Midlands event earlier this year and we’re keen to replicate the same success for future events to raise awareness, drive footfall and promote awareness to our visitors on the products and services on display at our events. 2017 is a landmark year for us and we’re looking forward to working with the JAM team on the celebrations.”

They join our impressive client roster, including Argos for Business, Carl Kammerling International, JST Jodie and EHL Ingredients.

We take a look behind the lens of Swing Polaroid

As #selfie obsession reaches an all time high we were excited to find out about a new app that combines the all time favourite Polaroid picture, with all the mod-cons of today’s technology.

Tuesday saw yet another new photo-sharing app unveiled which allows users to create ‘moving photos’, available from the iTunes App Store.

Swing Polaroid has been branded as a rival for other selfie snapping apps such as Instagram and Facebook and allows its users to create 3D images, which move as you swipe up or across them.

As the media becomes much more interactive, with the likes of The Daily Mail and The Mirror Online incorporating Instagram posts and videos onto their websites, we are intrigued to see whether this app will be picked up by journalists.

If the app does take off, it may become another medium for our clients to share content, meaning that many public relations practitioners may need to become Swing Polaroid experts.

Click here to check out JAM’s Swing Polaroid

Images on the app move because the shutter button on Swing Polaroid captures an astounding 60 frames in one second. The app then adds more frames in-between those frames so that the image smoothly flows.

Much like other apps that have become a must have for selfie lovers; Swing Polaroid also lets users flick between different flattering filters. There is also the option to like other users’ creations.

Images from Swing Polaroid can be shared on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and once you’re set up you can also follow and un-follow your friends and other Swing Polaroid users.

We love the app because it’s interactive; if you’re on your phone you simply swing it around to see an image come to life in front of your eyes, hence its name.

With a flick of the wrist you can move the image up, down, left, right and as quickly or slowly, as you like.

Swing Polaroid is just one of many similar photo-sharing apps, so it will be interesting to see whether it takes off and becomes a regular part of our daily routine, or whether it ends up joining MySpace in the list of forgotten social media sites.

If you’re interested in finding out how JAM can help build the reputation of your brand contact our MD, Jaime Gee at Jaime@jampr.co.uk, to discuss what JAM can do for you.

Not content with a muddy meadow full of sweaty revellers, British music fans are now looking for festival fun further afield.

According to IQ’s European Music Festival Report published this year, attendance was up 6.8 per cent in 2015 compared to 2014, and this figure looks likely to increase as the European festival market continues to grow in popularity. Live music lovers are abandoning summer showers and heading for the sunnier climes and exciting line-ups at festivals in mainland Europe.

The explosion of new, smaller festivals in European countries like Croatia is providing the ideal solution for festival-goers with 16 new events launched last year including Unknown, SunceBeat and Echo. Poland offers OFF Festival in Katowice, while Hungary is staging Sziget in Budapest with Rihanna, Muse and David Guetta headlining, and Flow festival is hosting Iggy Pop, Chvrches and Sia in Helsinki, Finland.
Live music lovers can also head to events in Holland, Germany and France for sunny summer festivals with great headliners. 

Top tech for festivals:

•Find My Friends app – locate lost festival buddies via GPS on your smartphones, as long as they accept a text invite from you (stalking averted)
•Glow sticks – perfect for raving and moshing, but also a handy dim light for in the tent late at night
•Escape travel card – forget carrying wads of cash, just withdraw what you need from the ATM each day or pay using card and contactless machines where possible
•Pocket mobile phone charger – juice up your phone to stay charged all day to communicate with your group and to capture the most memorable moments

Escape travel card is a new client of ours; so if you’re heading to a music festival in Europe this summer, visit http://www.escapetravelcard.com and sign up for yours.

It’s important to harness ‘fan power’ and, with festival-goers connected, Tweeting, checking in, live streaming, and more, it’s important for brands to ensure they communicate with their audiences, wherever they may be in the world. 

At Jam, we are experienced in creating strong digital campaigns for our clients, including developing their social media presence. To find out how we could support your business, get in touch with our MD, Jaime@jampr.co.uk or call 0161 850 0565.