In a year of political upheaval, Britons were anxious to know how the UK’s uncertain international position would affect them personally, as ‘exchange rates’ became the most searched finance-related issue on Yahoo UK during FY17.
With more financial turmoil ahead, Yahoo UK today reveals a list of the top 15 specific financial searches from the last fiscal year, painting a picture of the personal finance concerns facing British consumers. Yahoo’s list is based on data from billions of searches made on Yahoo Search over the course of the past year.
As predicted by the Bank of England, the Brexit-weakened pound’s effect on prices is causing rising food and fuel costs, pushing inflation to its highest level in over three years. Brits wanted clarity on how the government would try to handle the situation, as ‘The Budget’ was the second most frequently searched term.
With the average property price expected to rise by 2 percent this year, housing and the property market have been playing on many people’s minds, as ‘house prices’ and ‘mortgage rates’ were the third and fifth most searched financial terms respectively.
Other searched-for queries include student finance, car tax, universal credit, and the new £1 coin. The full list of top finance-specific searches in the UK is as follows:
Exchange rates
The Budget
House prices
Student finance
Mortgage rates
Car tax
Universal credit
Pension changes
New £1 coin
Lloyds share price
New £20 note
ISA rates
Minimum wage
Housing benefit cuts
Gold price
About the Yahoo Methodology
To develop the top financial searches of the past year, our editors analysed Yahoo Search queries based on a number of factors, including absolute volume and growth from previous periods, to see which themes and trends bubble to the surface. Individuals and their Search queries always remain anonymous. This list is constructed without navigational searches – i.e. searches where the intention is clearly purely to navigate to a site rather than to discover information.
Yahoo today revealed the results of a content partnership with Bose which delivered over 154 million impressions. Bose and its media agency MediaCom worked with Yahoo to build awareness of Bose’s sponsorship of the Mercedes-AMG Formula One team. Through a branded takeover of the Yahoo Formula One hub in the UK, France and Germany, Bose successfully strengthened its association with Formula One.
The aim of the campaign was to increase public perception that Bose has similar principles to the Formula One race teams, and to improve the association of Bose with its Get closer message across a broad audience.
Yahoo re-designed its Formula One site, making it the perfect hub to promote the Bose/Mercedes partnership. Using data-led insights from Tumblr, Yahoo Answers and Yahoo Search, Yahoo was able to work out what F1 fans were most interested in and developed a content strategy inspired by the most-asked questions to help fans get closer to their sport.
The Yahoo Sport Formula One hub’s demographic mirrored the demographic of the Mercedes Formula One team, making it an ideal place to host the campaign. The content was also distributed widely on Yahoo’s social pages as well as via Yahoo Gemini Native Ads, video ads via Yahoo’s BrightRoll product and CRM emails.
The campaign generated page views 126 per cent above target and altered perceptions even amongst people who were not F1 fans. In addition to research conducted by Millward Brown, the post-campaign analysis found that 59% of those who’d seen the campaign associated Bose with the Mercedes-AMG Formula One team, an uplift of 43.8%.
Other results included:
49% said Bose embodies the same focus as the F1 industry (10.6% uplift)
30% of respondents exposed to the content associated Bose with the ‘Get Closer’ message
59% of those who’d seen the campaign associated Bose with the Mercedes-AMG Formula One team, an uplift of 43.8%
Overall Click Through Rate (CTR) 0.33%
Yahoo Gemini Native Ads CTR 0.94%
In all markets (UK, France and Germany) traffic over-delivered by 25%
Formula One trended on Yahoo UK for 48 hours during campaign
“Don’t let the fox guard the henhouse,” the old adage goes. But for our bug bounty program, we’ve flipped this conventional wisdom on its head to yield some strong results for the security of our online properties.
Since its inception three years ago, our bug bounty program has increasingly helped to harden the security of our products. Over this short period, we’ve received thousands of submissions, and, as of December 2016, the bounties awarded for reports that resulted in real bug fixes has now surpassed a total of $2 million. Just last month, a security researcher helped us identify and patch a vulnerability in Flickr.
In 2016 alone, we awarded nearly 200 researchers around the world. These bounties helped to fix vulnerabilities of varying severity across our web properties. Most bounties accounted for less impactful vulnerabilities, but some were more substantial.
Yes, this all comes with a degree of vulnerability. After all, we’re asking some of the world’s best hackers to seek out soft spots in our defenses. But it’s acceptable risk. The right incentives combined with some hackers who actually want to do some good has resulted in a diverse and growing global community of contributors to our security. Currently, our bug bounty program sees more than 2,000 contributors from more than 80 countries.
Visual representation of the locations of researchers who have contributed to Yahoo’s bug bounty program.
In 2017, we’ll look to continue to foster this healthy marriage in security. Attracting the highest skilled hackers to our program with meaningful bounties will continue to result in impactful bug reporting.
Cross-device audience ID matching will be used in 58% of total UK online ad spend by 2020, compared with 28% in 2016, according to a new report from Yahoo and Enders Analysis. These ‘audience IDs’ are the online identity profiles created from anonymous identifiers in order to recognise and match the same user across different channels, devices or both.
The report, People, not devices: Audience buying in a Cross-Device World, shows that ad spend based on audience IDs will almost triple in the next few years, reaching €7.9 billion by 2020, compared with €2.7 billion in 2016. The trajectory to growth will see this ad spend reach €4.33 billion in 2017, before hitting €6.22 billion in 2018 - a 226% increase from last year.
When the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect in 2018, growth in the volume of ad spend which uses audience IDs will slow down, as the advertising industry works to ensure compliance with the new regulations. It will, however, continue to grow, as the industry responds and adapts to the new regulatory requirements.
By 2020, the proportion of display ad spend that uses audience IDs will be slightly higher than for paid search, accounting for an estimated 68% of display spend, compared with 55% of paid search. Most of this growth will come from mobile display and mobile search growth.
The report attributes a large portion of future growth to the recognition from advertisers that using audience IDs will give them a better picture of who is seeing their ads across devices, the ability to better understand and manage frequency exposure and more accurate information about total campaign reach. In addition, cross-device ID based advertising allows for improved attribution, as these IDs can be used to attribute purchases and conversions to show concrete ROI for campaigns.
Nigel Clarkson, managing director, Yahoo UK says “In a world where the number of connected devices per person is increasing at pace, cross-device campaigns should be the norm. Yahoo is already enabling these kinds of campaign, with datasets across search, email and social that allow us to accurately match 89% of users across devices. This level of insight benefits consumers as well as brands and advertisers as it helps get the right message in front of the right audience, making it a win for all.”
Matti Littunen, senior research analyst, Enders Analysis adds “Providing an interface between media, marketing, retail and services, audience IDs are at the heart of the data economy and increasingly important for the online consumer experience. In advertising, they have promise in addressing perhaps the single biggest issue of a changing industry: how to accurately attribute value to ads in a complex online media market? 2017 will be the year media owners, advertisers and agencies come to terms with the full significance of audience IDs.” ()
The use of audience IDs allows marketers to get closer to the notion of having a ‘single view’ of the consumer. Data from loyalty programmes, payment technologies, beacons, ecommerce and in-app trackers can be connected with the IDs used to serve ads, and attribute purchases to prior ad views, further bolstering the importance of audience IDs in the coming years according to the report.
The appeal of cross-device IDs is further increased by the problems of fraud and non-human traffic in online advertising. While not a complete solution, cross-device audience buying at its best can help distinguish between real and fake ad views, and help test claims of ad effectiveness.
Consumers also stand to gain from the growing use of audience IDs. A more sophisticated understanding of the consumer will mean individuals are shown more relevant advertising, that’s less intrusive, as advertisers will be better able to tailor both the creative and delivery methods. This will also mean lower overall ad loads, as the ability to better measure the number of times a consumer sees a particular ad across all of their devices will enable ‘frequency capping’.
NOTES:
Definition of cross-device audience buying:
On a practical level, the shift towards audience buying consists of a number of related trends, referred to in the industry with terms such as “cross-device”, “cross-channel” or “people-based” advertising, or audience buying. While these three have slight differences, they all share the use of online identity profiles or “IDs”, which can be used to identify the same user across channels, devices or both.
We use the term “cross-device audience buying” to refer to all advertising which makes use of IDs advanced enough to identify the same audience segment on multiple devices with a high degree of accuracy.
As was noted by Enders’ Programmatic advertising in the mobile era [2016-018] report, the mobile revolution in online usage has not only made this type of ID more necessary for online advertising, but enabled them to be more robust regardless of device. This makes the growth of cross-device audience buying so important for the industry: as we will outline in this report, it changes what is possible in both the planning of advertising as well as the attribution of value to it.
Types of cross device identifiers:
Cross-device identifiers fall into two main categories – deterministic and probabilistic:
Deterministic identifiers refer to known, ‘people-based’ information that can be linked to a specific profile. These anonymised identifiers are already in use across the major ad platforms, including Facebook Ad Manager, Twitter Ads, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Gemini and BrightRoll.
Probabilistic identifiers refer to speculative information, drawing on behavioural models drawn from different types of data. These data sources are then used in concert to map probable identity across devices. There are still some challenges in probabilistic modelling, as well as the difficulty in encouraging collaboration across the industry. Greater sharing of information is needed between advertisers, media organisations, and middlemen, in order for verification measures to be effective.
Yahoo today announces a partnership with location specialist Statiq, which will see
Yahoo refine its ability to offer location-based targeted advertising for
brands in the UK. As a result of its enhanced capabilities, Yahoo and Statiq’s
first mobile location campaign for O2 increased store footfall by 2.3x for
customers exposed to advertising.
Yahoo leverages Statiq’s comprehensive location insights to create a
unique, accurate and scaled view of consumer behaviour. Applying these insights
across Yahoo’s product suite will allow brands to buy programmatically and
implement cross-device campaigns at scale.
This time last year, 66% of marketers told the
IAB that location-based advertising would be the
‘most exciting’ mobile opportunity for the industry. Yahoo and Statiq’s new
agreement will provide these marketers with the means to understand how their
customers’ location can have a positive impact on campaign performance and
measure increases in store footfall as a result of campaign exposure.
With 55 million device IDs and 5.8 million ‘Places of Interest’ mapped
in the UK, Statiq is a market leader in location targeting, and Yahoo’s device
data has a 99.7% match rate with Statiq. Brands will benefit from rigorous
performance prediction and analysis, before, during, and after campaigns.
Yahoo has the ability to build optimised audience insights and
addressable segments, drawing on a combination of search intent, social passion
insights from Tumblr, and app usage information from 86 million UK devices from
Flurry Analytics.
Shan
Henderson, director of mobile, Yahoo UK, said: “The ability to identify and target a user based on their location is
not new. However, understanding the relationship between people, devices, and
places over time, and using these insights to create meaningful, holistic
campaigns marks a significant evolution in the accuracy and depth of the
location market. This is an area Yahoo is focusing on in 2017”.
At Yahoo, we are excited by client briefs that look at habits and places
of interest, and we’re committed to reaching users at the correct moment -
whether that is on a smartphone, tablet or desktop PC.”
Ben Smart, Activation Director, Havas UK, said: “As an agency we’re always looking for innovation and new
ways to work with established partners. Linking sales between online and
offline is a business problem that we are working to solve with O2. In this
instance, Yahoo lent in to provide us with solution that moves us nearer to solving
it. They have shown us statistically how important digital is at driving
footfall and we’re now looking to incorporate this into future campaigns as a
performance measure.”
Nigel Clarkson, UK MD, Yahoo UK adds: “What we’re
offering here is different because it’s based on proper scale, using 33 million
unique first-party data signals every week in the UK. We have the ability to
take mobile signals and use them to deliver ads cross-screen, safe in the
knowledge it is going to a highly relevant customer, not just an anonymous
phone ID. Data and scale are the two key pieces that Yahoo will offer to the
market to complement Statiq’s accuracy of location to provide an
industry-leading location marketing proposition.”
Good magicians depend on a few essential pieces of kit to successfully execute their craft: a wand, a rabbit, a top hat and an audience to wow. Similarly, when it comes to video, marketers need a screen, creative, eyeballs and accurate measurement to track performance.
Since the debut of the television, the medium of video has cast a spell that works wonders for marketing. Today, it remains the content format du jour for advertisers and marketers of all shades, and encompasses TV ads, VoD, OOH display, and numerous forms of online content. It spans multiple marketing disciplines and environments, and expertise is claimed by everyone from creative agencies to analytics firms.
While the format seemingly finds its way into every area of marketing, we still don’t necessarily have clear definitions of what video marketing encompasses and who should ‘own’ video - or if we even need this clarity.
One thing is sure though: Brands are eating up all forms of video. This is hardly surprising, given the vast proportion of internet traffic that it accounts for. Last year, Cisco predicted that video would represent 82% of all internet traffic by 2020.
Whether it’s pre-roll, in-stream, auto-play, skippable, viewable or cost per completed view, an ad that moves seems to be more desired - and has more cut-through - than a static ad. A third of today’s UK and US digital video viewers already watch more than 4 hours of digital video every week. But the consumption route is changing, as more consumers become ‘mobile-first’.
At this year’s Ad Week Europe conference, I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how video fits into the mobile strategies discussed. Will all of the brands be using mobile video, and - more importantly - should they? Which video marketing strategies will be mobile-first? And what changes and innovations can we expect in this space in terms of creative, delivery, and measurement?
While the pace of change accelerates, the most prominent challenge will continue to be the rapid shift of video consumption to mobile. Despite this clear trend, many marketers are still repurposing landscape, TV-style content for mobile ads. Rather than creating mobile-first content, they’re simply recycling existing video or trying to squeeze TV and web content into a mobile environment.
As an industry, we need to re-think mobile creative. It must be short, punchy, and engaging. The brand needs to appear as soon as possible in the video, particularly for skippable ads, in order to register a brand impression. In broad terms, we need to change the mindset from that of creating video for the ‘digital world’ in general, and think specifically of creating video content for mobile consumers.
Discussion of impressions also reminds us that digital marketing campaigns live and die by targeting and measurement, and video is no exception. Digital videos are a form of performance marketing, and their success is judged in a binary, quantifiable way. Was the ad seen? How long for? Was it the right kind of viewer? Was there a click-through? How many shares? These are the metrics that dominate the plans and reports of digital marketers.
But one trend I’m seeing emerge is the growth of digital campaigns as branding exercises. Rather than a hyper-targeted approach, some brands are beginning to see their digital campaigns as ‘brand broadcasts’. In line with this, just a few months ago Procter & Gamble’s chief brand officer, Mark Pritchard, announced that the company was diverting spend away from much of its targeted digital marketing, and turning back towards broad reach.
No other media is measured in the same way as digital campaigns. Print ads and billboards may well lead to sales, but these can’t be quantified. Having stuck rigorously to the idea of hyper-targeting and inflexible metrics, it seems that digital marketers may now be more willing to accept that certain ads are ‘brand ads’ rather than simply a hard driver of sales leads.
The best magicians stay ahead of their peers, always coming up with new ways to amaze. Similarly, marketers must constantly find ways to keep their audiences impressed. Newer ideas, like short-form and interactive, encouraged marketers to be better storytellers, and they continue to do so. Meanwhile, advanced measurement tools help marketers better track performance and success, however the brand defines it.
Video is always evolving, and the best ‘video magicians’ don’t just have the best wand or the smartest top hat. They have the right knowledge and a finger on the pulse of a format that’s continuously evolving. Enjoy your Ad Week!
Reaching consumers when they’re in the right mood could increase the impact of digital advertising by as much as 40%, according to new research from Yahoo.
The Receptivity of Emotions study examined consumers’ emotional states and how receptive they are to advertising throughout the day, finding that US and UK consumers are ‘upbeat’ 46% of the time – the most common mood. Crucially, the research found that when these consumers are upbeat they are 24% more receptive to content in general, but 40% more likely to be receptive to digital advertising specifically.
Yahoo’s research represents one of the most comprehensive studies ever conducted into the role that emotions play in consumers’ receptivity to advertising.
Based on a recognised emotional measurement framework, Yahoo gathered over 18,000 mood
data points during a week-long study of consumers in the US and UK, using a specially developed smartphone app. This was supported with additional insights from a dozen in-depth interviews and an online survey of over 4,000 people across the US, UK, Germany, and Canada.
Examining the success of different forms of marketing across these four countries, the Receptivity of Emotions research found that when consumers are upbeat, they are 30% more likely to engage with native video content than in other emotional states. They’re also 28% more likely to engage with content marketing, and 21% more likely to engage with direct marketing.
In fact, a consumer’s mood was found to have almost the same effect on their likelihood to engage with digital ads as what they are doing at the time, meaning emotional context is almost as important for digital marketing as current activity. While 71% of consumers in these four countries would click on or read digital ads if they better reflected what they were doing at the time, two thirds (67%) would do the same if they better reflected how they felt.
Nigel Clarkson, managing director, Yahoo UK says, “Digital marketers all appreciate the importance of reaching the right person, on the right device, at the right time. But the ‘right time’ should be about more than the webpage they’re viewing at that moment. We should be striving to take a consumer’s emotions into account as well.
“The idea of aiming to engage with consumers when they are feeling upbeat may seem obvious
at first, but never before have we been able to appreciate the extent of the impact it can have on a campaign’s success. Nor have we had concrete insight into when during the day this emotional state is most likely, and what types of marketing will benefit most. These new insights reinforce the importance of context in marketing, and take it to a whole new level.”
In the UK and US, the time of day when the most consumers are upbeat was found to be between 11am and 2pm, making these the optimal hours for digital advertising. The study also showed that these hours of the day coincide with when consumers are most likely to be managing their lives, finding answers or looking for inspiration.
The Receptivity of Emotions research is particularly encouraging for mobile marketers: Upbeat UK and US smartphone users are 15% more likely to immediately follow up on digital advertising on their smartphones than those in other emotional states. Upbeat users are also 25% more likely to say that digital advertising on smartphones provides them with inspiring prompts.
- ENDS -
Methodology:
The study used both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative research involved gathering over 18,000 data points from 600 people between the ages of 16 and 54 in the US and UK. Respondents used a custom-developed smartphone app to complete a week-long survey.
For the qualitative research 12 in-depth, two-hour interviews were conducted in New York and London and 4,000 people (1000 per market) were interviewed via a 15-minute survey across the UK, US, Germany and Canada.
With billions of photos on
Flickr, finding the ones you want by searching based on tags and descriptions
only gets you so far. Today, we’re introducing similarity search, which uses
advanced technology to allow you to discover visually similar photos without
much work on your end. After your initial search, whether you’re looking for
your favorite succulent or the perfect image of a ‘67 Mustang (not the horse),
just click the “…” in the upper right of the photo you’re excited about.
We’ll surface similar images for you.
Say you want to find pictures of
tabby cats. You can search for the keyword “cat” and filter by color, but
you’ll likely have to scroll through pages and pages of images before manually
picking out the photos that match what you’re looking for. Now, simply hover
over an image of a cat and click the “…” menu. From there, we’ll show
you photos that look similar. No more guessing the search terms that would give
you the most relevant results!
Do an image search and give this
new similarity tool a try! Please let us know what you think on our community forum
- we’d love to hear what you think about it.
For
the second time ever,
Flurry Analytics released its report on the state of mobile app usage across
key markets in Europe. Flurry is a tool used by developers and marketers to
measure and analyze consumer activity across their application portfolios.
Flurry currently supports iOS and Android operating systems; as well as Apple
TV and the Apple Watch. For more, see here.
Over
the last year, the global Flurry footprint grew to track more than 940,000
applications, across 2.1 billion devices, in 10 billion sessions a day. In this
context, we define app usage as a user opening an app and recording what we
call a “session.”
Top European
Trends
The usage we’re seeing across the region maps back to the global figures we saw approximately 6 months ago.
Phablets adoption is growing in markets where Android is the dominant operating system.
Perhaps seeing an opportunity to ramp-up their business chops following the Brexit vote, German and French mobile users turned to their Business and Finance apps more in 2016 than in 2015, with session growth up 69% and a staggering 106% respectively.
Overall app usage (by sessions) grew 28%
Much like the global mobile community, British mobile users turned to their phones to perform a combination of social and professional tasks. Messaging and Social application sessions increased by 46% and Utilities and Productivity application sessions were up by 45% in 2016
Overall app usage (by sessions) grew 16% (mapping closest back to the global average of 11%)
After hosting the Euro Cup last year, Sports app sessions increased by 190% throughout 2016.
Overall app usage (by sessions) grew 25%
German got a lot more social on their phones in 2016, with Messaging and Social application sessions up an impressive 96%.
Germany has biggest market share for phablets, with Samsung securing 44% of the total active devices in the country.
Across
Europe, Flurry Analytics is used by over 35,200 companies, installed on over
189,900 apps, with 460 million monthly active users.
When
looking into mobile usage locally, one major trend emerged in our report:
European mobile usage looks a lot like global usage did 6 months ago, still
ascending on the growth curve, but slowing considerably.
In
2016, app usage across the three key markets of the United Kingdom, France and
Germany grew by 23%.
Sports and Messaging and
Social apps saw the most year-over-year session growth in Germany and the UK,
with 96% and 46% increases respectively. While French mobile users were,
perhaps, inspired by the Brexit vote and chose to become more business savvy,
as seen with the session uptick of 106% in Business and Finance app sessions.
Mobile
users in the UK hop on their phones almost as soon as they wake up, around
7:30AM. Not to be outdone, Germans tend to wake up about 30 minutes before
their British brethren with mobile usage ramping up around the 7am hour.
French
users wake a little later and are slow to turn to their devices in the morning.
The first big jump in activity actually happens around the hours of Noon and
1:00PM, where they look to be spending more time with their phones than in the
office, with their co-workers.
Perhaps
most interestingly British phone usage continually climbs to its apex starting
at around 4:00 PM, continuing through the “peak-pub hours” and dropping
dramatically off at around 10:00 PM.
Top Global
Trends
The burgeoning trend of ‘Communitainment’ (or, social sharing of media) is driving mobile consumers to spend more than 2 hours/day on Social and Messaging apps.
The average mobile consumer spends just under 5 hours a day on their smartphones.
Shopping applications saw over 17 billion sessions in 2016; effectively changing retail window shoppers into mobile impulse buyers.
Compared
to 2015, global app usage grew by 11% in 2016. In previous years, we’ve seen
all app categories grow in tandem; however, for 2016 year the story is
different. In 2016 mobile apps started eating their own, with session and
time-spent growth in some app categories occurring at the expense of others.
While Messaging and Social apps use rose year-over-year by 44%, Personalization
apps (like emoji keyboards) declined by 46%. One possible reason for the steep
decline is that Personalization features were increasingly included in
operating systems throughout the last year.
Application Category Deep Dive
When we looked into 2016’s most notable
categories, here’s how time-spent trends shook out both globally and in Europe:
2016: The Year Social Ate Media:Time spent in Messaging and Social apps grew by
44% globally, proving to be the driver that helped mobile achieve its
year-over-year time-spent growth of 69%.
All of this is the result of a trend we call “Communitainment”, or the social sharing of user-generated content and media, from
articles to video. But there is only so much time in the day, meaning minutes
spent on Social and Messaging apps are minutes not spent in other app
categories like News. In other words, “Communitainment” is eating the lunch of
legacy media, and of many pure digital publishers.
Sticky Apps Tied to Daily Habits: Some of the most successful app categories throughout the years have
tapped into the mobile addict population. They’re also apps that rely on live
data, such as Business and Finance (up 43% globally in time-spent) and Sports
(up 25% globally). The Sports category was especially popular across Europe,
with app sessions increasing by a whopping 90%. The Euro Cup and the super-buzzy
Olympics in Rio were most likely the driving forces behind this bump in this
category.
Video Killed the Gaming Star: Gaming, the app category once known as “the darling of the mobile
industry,” saw time-spent decline by 4% globally, compared to a 11% decline
across the UK, Germany and France.
One reason is user habits - rather than play through
obstacles, users are just paying their way through games. This may explain the
strong increase in gaming revenues reported
by Apple’s app store. Also, gaming remains a
hit-driven industry. Last year’s main hit, Pokémon GO, faded relatively fast, as consumers lost daily interest in the game, only
returning for marquee holiday events. Another notable hit, Super Mario Run, was
released too late in the year to make a difference in the overall engagement
numbers.
Shopping Apps Spell the Doom and Gloom of Brick
and Mortars: It was hard to miss the disappointing post-holiday news from major retailers. This story looks to be a split decision in the
mobile world, with Shopping apps continuing to gain global popularity, growing
31%, however European consumers weren’t as fast forgo their local shopping
centres. Mobile users across the continent stepped away from their shopping
applications, causing a 15% decrease in sessions throughout the last year. This
anomaly isn’t shocking, when you look at the political and economic shake-ups
that occurred in the last year across the region.
Form
Factor Refresh
As forecasted in last year’s
global report, phablets (devices with screens between 5” and
6.9”) are becoming the dominant form factor around the world, capturing 41% of
market share. Harking back to earlier findings, here is where we see Europe
trailing behind global usage trends again, with medium phones still reigning
supreme, with 47% market share in the UK, 44% in Germany and 46% in France.
Notably, across Europe, we see phablet adoption is growing in
markets where Android is the dominant operating system. This is led by Germany,
which saw 44% of the total active devices in the country captures by Samsung.
Throughout the next year, we expect phablet share in iOS-dominant countries
will continue to eat away at medium phones, completely eliminate small phones.
10
Years of the Smartphone
As the iPhone celebrates its first decade, the mobile app industry
has grown into a dog-eat-dog world. The decelerating rate of global growth
could signal market maturity, saturation or simply the end of the app gold
rush. Especially considering Europe’s 6-month mobile trend delay, there’s no
better time for local developers to innovate, and possibly lessen the
inevitable industry pause seen broadly on a global scale throughout most of
2016.
We
are excited to see what app developers do in the next decade and watch which
industry they chose to disrupt, again. Whatever it is, the Flurry and Yahoo
EMEA teams will be by their side, providing everything they need to build
better apps and stronger businesses.
The
worlds of film, fashion and technology will collide at a special exhibition
curated by Tumblr in Paris on March 7th 2017 as the cutting edge in
fashion forward wearable tech is showcased in celebration of the release of
Paramount Pictures’ Ghost In The Shell.
Featuring
creations from designers using technological advances to innovate the world of
fashion, the exhibition features garments that react to adrenaline, display
video content, adjust the temperature of the wearer or change shape when they
sense different sounds. Tumblr will showcase highlights and original content
from the event online from March 10th.
The
event will feature a headline performance from Viktoria Modesta, the ‘Bionic
Pop Star’ who’s single Prototype inspired elements of this event through
its exploration of fashion, art and technology. Modesta, who is also the face
of Channel 4’s Born Risky disability initiative will be performing live
to some the industry’s biggest opinion formers.
The
Latvian born singer and model wears an extensive range of alternative
prosthetic legs, regarding them as fashion items. Her approach to her
disability makes her perfectly placed to explore the intersection of wearable
technology and humanity – prevalent themes of Ghost in the Shell.
Hollywood
costume designers, Chromat will also be at the event to exhibit their Adrenaline
Dress. Powered by Intel the piece is composed of printed panels interlinked
into an expandable carbon fibre framework which mimics the body’s ‘fight or
flight’ reaction and changes shape to empower the wearer.
Other
exhibitors include:
Wise
Wear
WiseWear,
is an award winning boutique engineering and design firm that develops
innovative products from “end-to-end.” WiseWear “fuses fashion with threads of
technology” by seamlessly integrating proprietary biosensing and wireless
communication technologies into everyday items. The industry refers to WiseWear
as the first “FASHION-FUSIONISTS” which strive to make electronics invisible –
a balanced blend of fashion, form and function. Fashion icon Iris Apfel is an
avid spokesperson for the Socialite Collection.
Cutecircuit
The
internationally renowned fashion house has been attracting fans to its
interactive designs since its launch in 2004. With celebrity advocates including
Katy Perry, Nicole Sherzinger and Sarah Brightman, the brand innovates through
the use of smart textiles and micro-electronics to create both ready to wear
and haute couture collections. Pieces include a Kinetic Dress which reacts to
the wearers surroundings and mood to a dress which can receive and display
tweets in real time.
EMEL+ARIS
Creators
of the ‘Smart Coat’, which uses Far Infrared technology to warm the muscles of
the wearer, improving circulation to allow the wearers whole body to feel warm.
The luxury jacket for men and women is designed to bridge the gap between
fashion and function with six of the garments available to trial at the event.
Silvia
Fado
Shoe
designer Silvia Fado’s work explores the relationship between the movement of
the body and fashion footwear design on the one hand, and high performance
Sports footwear and body movement on the other. Her Kinetic Traces collection
of Hydraulic Heels brings Sports footwear fundamentals to high-end fashion to
create an arresting anthology which uses springs, rubber balls and pneumatic
hydraulics to absorb shock.
Ying
Gao
Designer
Ying Gao will present her project Incertitudes, two interactive garments which
use dress makers pins to create motion. The pins are activated by the wearer’s
partner in conversation and create an engaging display to the spectator.
The
event will be held during Paris Fashion Week on March 7, 2017 from 6-9pm at Le
Dôme, Eléphant Paname. The restored Napoleonic mansion fuses history with
innovation to create a unique space which will bring the themes of the event to
life.
Ghost
in the Shell opens
in UK cinemas on March 31st 2017.
Ghost
in the Shell opens
in France on March 29th 2017.
