... it is "looking for bold, creative individuals who want to join us and be a part of shaping the future of Glass."

Google is also inviting people living in the US to use the hashtag #ifihadaglass to suggest ways in which they would make use of the headset.

The demo video deomstrates how Glass can be used to take pictures and record video, as well as share content directly via email or social networks.

Voice commands such as "OK, Glass, take a picture" are used to control the device.

Other Glass features include Skype-like video chats, and information such as weather reports and map directions - all of which appears in a small, translucent square in the top right of the wearer's field of vision.

Wearable technology is seen as a major growth area for hardware makers in 2013 and beyond.

Meantime, US trade journal AdWeek speculates that that Google Glass could "kill the smartphone, reinvent gaming and/or steal the second screen from tablets". Even entirely transform the landscape.

But such speculation is premature. AdWeek's transformational scenario is unlikely - in the immediate future at least - as Glass won't be commercially available until next year.

Stresses AdWeek: "It's important to understand what Google Glass is and is not—it is not a phone; it is a really extravagant expansion for your current phone, like a BlueTooth headset for your eyes. The product is wirelessly connected to your phone's GPS and microprocessor and so on; it uses all that power in your hip pocket to run recognition software and display hardware mounted on your head."

Nonetheless, industry experts predict the new product could be a game-changer along the lines of Apple's iPhone - a development that could send shockwaves across the worlds of entertainment, advertising, commerce, media and gaming.

Read the original unabridged BBC article.

Read the original unabridged AdWeek article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... aging demographics, the long-term shift toward services, increasing energy prices, high levels of consumer debt and greater inequality among consumers in advanced economies.

The forecast, Succeeding in Low Growth Markets, is published by WPP-owned consultancy The Futures Company.

Among its many conclusions, the report asserts: “The broader effect of digital networks has been to expose national economies to much more competition than previously.”

This, concludes the report, has resulted in “suppressing middle income wages and removing swathes of middle-income jobs.”

All is not gloom however. Digital technology is credited with spurring innovation which, the report believes, could help workers shift to more productive sectors of the economy.

However, “it’s hard to see at the moment where those new jobs will come from.”

Perhaps the most counterintuitive [not to say 'contentious'] factor cited by the report is the rise of digital technology, which has “stripped value out of economies.”

The report estimates that digital networks have accounted for 60% to 80% of productivity gains in advanced economies since 1995.

Read the original unabridged MediaPost article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... the United States and the United Kingdom.

In the UK, however, the CLIs point to "slightly weaker"growth compared to last month's assessment. Elsewhere the indicators suggest:

• In the Euro Area as a whole, and in particular in Italy and Germany, the CLIs point to a stabilisation in growth prospects. In France, however, growth is expected to remain weak.
   
• In China and India, the CLIs point to growth below trend compared with more positive signals in last month's assessment.
   
• In Canada and Russia the CLIs continue to point to growth below trend.
   
• In Japan and Brazil, signs of improved growth are emerging.

The unabridged OECD report including charts, and notes on methodology can be accessed here.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... the next developments for 'Big Data', and how the digital revolution will impact on consumer behaviour.

Key trends highlighted in the report include: 

• Social
  Blindly chasing fans or followers has rightly lost credence as brands realise that social sharing and referring has the biggest impact. As a result, simpler and more effective tools to measure social sharing will allow brands to refocus on creating meaningful social media campaigns.
   
• Search
  Search engines are becoming more like content portals and less like navigational tools. Consequently consumer queries from currency exchange rates to weather forecasts to celebrity appearances are being answered by search engines without the need for the user to click through to a website. This shift is set to increase consumers’ dependence on search even further this year.
   
• Mobile
  Only a third of websites are currently optimised for mobile, yet in 2013 not having a mobile optimised site will not be an option as consumers increasingly shift to mobile applications.
   
• Email
  Creating personalised experiences based on data and real-time insight will be key in 2013. Added to this will be the ability to update email content once it is in the inbox – essential as consumers become increasingly used to real-time engagement with brands.
   
• Data
  Big Data will continue to be a buzzword in 2013 and will be pivotal in digital marketing. Digital linkage across email addresses, mobile numbers, cookies, and device IDs will enable data to work to improve marketing effectiveness and engagement regardless of channel.

Says Experian Marketing Services' Jon Buss, managing director, Digital: “It’s clear that online and offline communications will continue to blur in 2013 as cross-channel marketing becomes the norm.

"Thanks to digital channels we’ve moved from a one-way flow of information to a two-way conversation. Omnichannel marketing is the next step, creating a seamless consumer experience across all channels by using real-time data to truly understand who a customer is.”

Read the original unabridged Experian article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... some signs of improvement, although significant downside risks remain."  

Given that global growth remains below trend at 3.3% in 2013 and 3.7 per cent in 2014, NIESR predicts that :

• World trade will grow only slightly faster and, again, below trend.
   
• The Euro Area will grow only slightly next year, while Japan is forecast to grow by 1.4 per cent, the US by 2.4 per cent, and China by 7.3 per cent.
   
• Interest rates will remain extremely low by historical standards, and inflationary pressures will remain subdued.

NIESR notes that despite some improvement in the financial markets, little has happened to address the debilitating factors that underly the world economy. It cites:

• An impaired and opaque banking system
   
• Severe fiscal austerity introduced in a synchronised way in Europe
   
• Persistent policy uncertainty despite recent improvements
   
• A widespread lack of confidence among households and firms, both of which which have been repeatedly disappointed following apparent short-term economic improvements.

Concludes the NIESR forecast: "So while risk aversion has clearly subsided in financial markets in the short term, it is far less clear that this has affected the risk appetite associated with household savings and firm's investment decisions.

"On top of this, world trade has slowed more markedly than expected, which will impede growth particularly in export-sensitive economies such as Germany and Japan."

Read the original unabridged NIESR report.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... the launch of self-help and financial advice video programmes.

According to AdAge: "It's not clear which channels will be part of the first paid-subscription rollout, but it is believed that YouTube will lean on the media companies that have already shown the ability to develop large followings on the video platform, including networks like Machinima, Maker Studios and Fullscreen. YouTube is also looking outside its current roster of partners for candidates."

AdAge also reports that the same sources expect YouTube may introduce the paid channels as early as the second quarter of this year.

One of these informants believes that the channels could be introduced to the public at the Digital Content New Fronts show in late April 2013, where digital-media companies such as YouTube, AOL and Yahoo host presentations to advertisers touting new online-video series.

The show, to be staged in New York City, aims to shape a new and practical marketplace for connecting the wealth of native digital content with brand marketers and their media and marketing agencies.

It will feature fifteen events by leading distributors, producers, creators and thought leaders in online video content.

Read the original unabridged AdAge article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... even more agency ingestions. 

The coalition, led by so-called 'corporate advisory boutique' Clarity Capital Partners [CCP], predicts a boom in mergers and acquisitions this year as the big holding groups step up their acquisition efforts, especially in digital and social media.

The biggest takeover in Britain last year was the £3.2bn purchase of Aegis by Japan's Dentsu, in addition to which there were a series of other deals, including the sale of Adam & Eve to Omnicom, BBH to Publicis and AKQA to WPP.

"We expect this level of activity to continue," says Marcus Anselm, partner at CCP, who described this trend of big groups using acquisitions as a means to grab talent as "acquahire".

Anselm cites the sale of Adam & Eve, on which he advised, as an example. Omnicom has used the agency, known for its acclaimed John Lewis ads, to inject energy into its existing subsidiary DDB, by merging the two shops to form Adam & Eve/DDB.

According to stockbroker Brewin Dolphin, more than 90% of takeovers in the advertising sector last year were for companies with a value below £30m, while roughly 70% were specialists in digital advertising.

Read the original unabridged independent.co.uk article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... advertising is a relatively small, low-key element in Amazon's core business.

But Baird & Company's senior research analyst Colin Sebastian estimates that (in 2011) selling third party ads on Amazon's own websites attracted around $500 million of Amazon’s $48 billion revenues. 

Since last year, the world's largest online retailer has been packaging information on what it knows about consumers, enabling approved marketers to use that information to make split-second decisions about where to buy ads online and how much to pay for them.

This automated process occurs on real-time ad exchanges that sell ad impressions as a person loads a web page.

Says Jeff Green, ceo of The Trade Desk, which helps guide spending decisions by ad agencies: "Today, if you’re browsing the web, you might see an Amazon advertisement based on Amazon’s data.

Tomorrow, you may see an ad from Coca-Cola based on Amazon data, and it’ll run through the Amazon [trading] platform."

Green points out that while Google might have more overall data about consumers, Amazon’s data could be more valuable for advertisers.

Amazon has “a pretty clear understanding of the things I buy. They’ve learned a lot about me. Every time I’m convinced I have another medical ailment, I go to Google. But Amazon, what they have is really about my purchase intent.”

Kip Voytek, digital innovation director at MDC Partners is of like mind: "For years, Amazon has put algorithms to work in order to recommend products to people who are on its sites.

"Now other companies are eager to find out exactly how Amazon’s knowledge about consumers can help them find the best audiences for their ads."

Read the original unabridged Mashable article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... all purchases made via tablets.

A separate Forrester study, which examines US mobile retail sales, estimates that m-commerce will increase from $12 billion in 2013 to $31 billion in 2017.

Nonetheless, the sector remains a minuscule part of overall e-commerce dollars.

Forrester's mobile payments forecast is divided into three parts:

1. Mobile proximity, or in-store, payments.
    
2. Mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) and remittances.
    
3. Mobile remote commerce, or m-commerce.

Proximity payments are expected to be the fastest-growing segment, increasing 137% to $41 billion by 2017.

In that time, such payments will mushroom from just 6% of mobile payments to 45%, while m-commerce drops from about 90% to 50%.

Read the original unabridged MediaPost article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... that whether tactics are digital or otherwise, they'll need to drive positive customer experience and interaction with their brand/s. 

Although companies have been investing in digital marketing for years now, Forrester posits that there’s now "an understanding that on some level, all marketing is inherently digital".

On this basis of this understanding, the forecast predicts that interactive marketing budgets in the USA will account for some $50 billion, or 20% of all marketing expenditures. This trend will almost certainly be replicated in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

Even though companies have been investing in digital marketing for years now, Forrester analyst Corinne Munchbach argues that the attitudinal shift is driven by the long overdue realisation that at some level, all marketing is inherently digital.

As a result, she expects interactive marketing budgets within the USA to account for some $50 billion, or 20% of all marketing expenditures.

Read the original unabridged MediaPost.com article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.