DIGITAL

Social media continues to challenge brand owners, marketers and researchers alike, all of them trying to understand and unlock its commercial potential as well as the business insight it can generate. The digital experts at Kantar – our insight and consultancy arm – collaborated recently on a series of thought-pieces entitled Social Media in Context covering a wide variety of topics relating to social media and their application. It’s a real treasure trove of interest and insight.

From next year, a whole new world of internet domain names will become available, ushering in the likes of .coke, .ibm, .pizza and .food. They are called generic top level domains - gTLDs for short - and represent a significant opportunity for brand owners to strengthen their online presence and defend against scams. It will be a fraught process, but one brand owners can't ignore. Here's the guide.

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• Social Business Development Roadmap in China

  CIC, 2013
  In the 3rd and final installment in the "From Social Media to Social Business” white paper series, “Social Business Development Roadmap in China”, is aimed at leading business into hitherto uncharted territory.

• Google "Shopping Ads"

  Mindshare, 2013
  In December last year Google announced plans for rolling out Google Shopping. These new and more distinct looking shopping ads are based on Product Listing ads (PLA) and appear both in a stand-alone shopping section and blend with traditional sponsored links. The change means an end to the free product listings, pulling in advertisers own product SKU feeds, that have been in place for years.

• Tout

  Mindshare, 2013
  Headquartered in San Francisco, Tout is a social media platform that allows users to shoot 15-second video status updates via smartphones and webcams.

• CES 2013 Summary

  Mindshare, 2013
  It’s extraordinarily difficult to capture the madness of the annual Consumer Electronics Show in one page. Here’s a quick take on some of the key talking-points and trends.

• Facebook Goes Into the Search Business

  Mindshare, 2013
  Facebook introduces Graph Search, a major new search feature that enables users to get information through their network of friends, or their “social graph”. Importantly it includes brand pages, thus encouraging marketers to invest in stronger fan hubs within Facebook as well as on the Web.

• Samsung’s Tizen-Based Phones

  Mindshare, 2013
  Samsung has announced plans to launch multiple devices using Linux-based mobile operating system Tizen. This represents a significant move away from the Google-owned Android operating system it has used in most, but not all, of its devices to date.

• CMOs and the mobile imperative

  TNS, 2012
  Significant opportunities emerge when a brand is invited into a consumer’s mobile world.