Written by Mihai Dragan on Friday, April 30th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: digital elections, intenet, politics
IAB UK publishes a fine report on the state of politics and elections in the Internet Era.
It’s interesting to see that the web brings power back to the mases and politicians down to ground level in the fight for power. What will the future bring? A total democracy? Rise of social power? Who knows…
What we do know is that the internet is changing all aspects of human interactions. Including structures of power and long lasting written and unwritten laws.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 ( 3 responses )
Tags: adobe, apple, flash, thoughts on flash
You may have heard that Apple has made quite a vocal comment on Flash. They actually posted it on their front page. In case you haven’t read it – here it is: Thoughts on Flash.
In my opinion these views are clearly biased. Of course Flash runs badly on mobiles. Of course it’s not suited for the iPad. But that doesn’t mean it’s actually “bad”. It’s just useful for a particular set of things.
Is Flash perfect? Probably not. How about useful?
There is a whole industry built on top Flash technology. It does its job. Some things built in Flash are masterpieces of art and programming. For example – what would you call these things? They don’t use HTML 5, they are not open, they probably don’t support touch. But we like them. They are expressions of human creativity. And maybe, just maybe, Apple should not be so quick to label and dismiss a technology that proved itself useful so far. Not perfect, just useful.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 ( One response )
Tags: growth, Mobile, search, social networks
If you are anything like me you check your Twitter DM’s and Facebook news before you get up in the morning. Aaand…I guess you are. Most of the millennials are. They spend so much time online that they cannot be disconnected. Enter: the mobile.
Mobile traffic has had an extraordinary growth in the past years. It grew so fast that it is estimated to exceed it’s current value 66 times by 2013. Yes, that would be 6600%. Not only that but it will account for almost 64% of all online traffic. In the world.
This has huge implications on all kinds of business. It affects advertising, it affects consumer behavior (no more over-priced tags as one could easily check online with friends or recommendation services). It also affects individual behavior and social norms.
But where did it came from?
Blame Facebook for this one. Not just Facebook actually. Reports show that most searched for terms are names of social networks. While this may be inconclusive I would ask you to analyse user behavior post-Google. Users search instead of tapping URLs. It’s easier and faster.
We are not just looking at correlation here. We are looking at the cause of the mobile growth. Peer pressure, constant need to update and stay in touch with online friends and followers pushes the mobile traffic forward.
Therefore - ask not what the mobile traffic can do for you, but where can you actually find this traffic useful. And the answer is – social networks.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: certification policy, google adwords
Google has “modernized” the certification policy for its AdWords Platform. Smaller agencies might take note in the fact that the required spending was lowered to just $10000 for a 90 day period.
This is surely to affect the AdWords professionals landscape through increased competition.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: adwords, economy, facebook, future, itunes, online markets
I studied economics in college. We used to learn a lot about the way things used to work and I remember even now that we had only 10 or 15 pages, at the end of the international economics manual, describing the future economy, the perfect economy, the Internet economy.
Reading the fact that during a recession Amazon had a 68% boost in revenues, I can’t help but wonder why would business even bother going the usual “brick-and-mortar store” way.
I strongly believe that online market business will continue to thrive – Google did (AdSense and AdWords), Apple did (iTunes and the App Store are basically online music and software markets), Amazon did, even Facebook did (social gaming market – mostly built on Facebook’s infrastructure – is estimated to reach $5 Billion by 2013).
The internet is full of these success stories. When you look beyond the marketing, the products delivered and the different brands, all the big guys are just huge online markets, delivering streams of 1 and 0.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 ( One response )
Tags: bigger office, new office
We moved into a new office. It’s bigger, better, and we even have a (potential) fun room 
.
I was the one prospecting the market and I had to say I’ve seen almost 30 offices before settling on this one. I had some ups and downs, I’ve met a couple of unfriendly / not very trust worthy owners but I guess we’ve nailed the right combination of space/light/positioning.
The fact is we took advantage of the new low the real estate market has reached. So guess what – recession has its perks.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: cfw, cluj fashion week, finlandia
Finlandia decided to endorse Cluj Fashion Week. We thought about the Pure Vision concept turning interactive. The Pure live stream is now the connection to the fashion week for all those at home.
Want more interactivity? Tweet using #CFW, Cluj Fashion Week, and #CFW2010 and we make sure your tweets are seen live on the interactive screens in the location. Here’s a preview. More like a visual type of guy / gal ? Add a Pure Photo on the Flickr Group and get your picture shown on the wall.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: experiment, facebook, myoritza, share, social media, twitter
My friends, today we made art. Mixed art. Transmedia art. Call it whatever but we took one of the oldest Romanian poems (Miorita – romanian for The Sheep – an allegory of life and death, crime and betrayal), mixed it with a little twitter API voodoo, added some cool and fresh design, social media sharing features and made it sparkle: I give you Myoritza 2.0.
The four characters in the Poem were given Twitter accounts and through a little programming magic we made sure they say their part just when they were supposed to.
It was really successful but stay tuned for this result. We had fun doing it, I know people had fun watching it.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: Agency Work, launch, music, Nokia, Roton, website
We’re all about the new media. Also old media turning new. Just before the big-bada-bum launch of KO Video we had launched MusicNonStop.ro, in Romania.
Music Non Stop was a partnership between one of the major Romanian record label (ROTON) and Nokia. The partnership included a 30 tracks voucher for Nokia buyers. All they have to do is just go here and register for their free tracks.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Monday, March 8th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: Agency Work, audio video, kovideo, launch, lyrics
Today we’ve launched KOVideo, a new and innovative audio, video and lyrics platforms that makes use of newest technologies to make sure users get a seamless experience. Read about it here.
