2013 – Page 123 – Impact Lab

Social media is spoiling the Super Bowl ad surprises

January 15, 2013

Super Bowl ad surprises ruined by social media.

There is a growing feeling that marketers’ use of social media is ruining the surprise of Super Bowl ads. Last Super Bowl, just one memorable ad bucked this trend last Super Bowl–Chrysler’s offering with Clint Eastwood–while other firms such as Honda made similar versions available on YouTube and Facebook. General manager-brand marketing for Audi, Loren Angelo, reckons that, with just 24-48 hours’ worth of Internet chatter about the Super Bowl, the reveal is worth everything, allowing an advertiser to have “a much longer conversation with consumers.”

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Analysis, App, Business, facebook

Instagram drops from 40 million to 17 million active users in one month

January 15, 2013

Instagram loses half it’s active users.

At the end of 2012, Instagram changed its Terms of Service (ToS) and it has proved far more calamitous for the Facebook-owned Photo app than first imagined. According to new data, Instagram appears to have lost half of its active users in a month.

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Education, Latest Trend

Students from Saudi Arabia flood U.S. colleges to study English

January 14, 2013

Saudi students can receive up to a five year visa, with scholarships covering tuition, housing and health benefits.

Meshari Albishi considers the University of Mary Washington his “second home” even though he is not a student there. He has made “a lot of friends,” and has access to the library, workout rooms and other campus facilities. The University of Mary Washington has offered him admission, on one condition: Before he can enroll, he must complete a non-credit program, called English for Academic Purposes.

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Analysis, Business, Science & Technology News

Top 7 free technologies libraries should be using

January 14, 2013

Free technologies libraries should be using.

There are a lot of free applications and software you can use in your daily life. Here is a list of some of the major free technologies that everyone could be using in their own libraries.

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Culture, government, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

Saudi King appoints 30 women to advisory council in historic first

January 14, 2013

Saudi King Abdullah

Thirty women were appointed to the previously all-male consultative Shura Council by Saudi King Abdullah in decrees published on Friday, marking a historic first as he pushes reforms in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

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Analysis, Business, Food, Globalism

Ending the global food crisis – we just need to make use of what we have

January 14, 2013

We could double our food supply just by making farming, shipping, and cooking more efficiently.

By 2075 the global population is set to hit 9.5 billion. It is widely assumed the world will eventually run out of food. According to one UN study, we will need to increase agricultural production 70% by the middle of the century, if we’re to cater to all the expected bellies.

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Analysis, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Brace yourselves for the worst flu season in a decade

March 4, 2013

The latest influenza activity update in the U.S. has just been released by the CDC and it’s not a pretty picture. First things first: GET VACCINATED. If you’re over six months old or someone you interact with on a regular basis is at high risk of flu complications (i.e. young, old, pregnant, immunocompromised, etc.): GET VACCINATED. This year’s flu virus has arrived early and it has health officials across the country bracing themselves for what could be the worst flu season in a decade.

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Art, Insects, Photo Perspectives

Russian artist makes collages from butterfly wings

January 11, 2013

Since he was a child, Russian artist Vadim Zaritsky has loved and collected butterflies. He knows many other collectors and it saddened him to see them throw away damaged butterfly bodies. Then he found a creative way of recycling them. Zaritsky uses the wings to make collages: (Pics)

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Analysis, Business, Culture, Latest Trend

If you want to hire a great Chinese engineer you will need to impress his girlfriend’s mother

January 11, 2013

Opportunities in China have generated high expectations from the elders and potential spouses of this new professional class.

China produces 600,000 engineering graduates every year. A former Google product manager thought hiring a good engineer would be easy when he launched his startup, Julu Mobile, in China in 2011. He learned hiring the best wouldn’t be easy.

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Analysis, Food, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Why the antioxidant myth is too easy to swallow

January 11, 2013

‘Blueberries best be eaten because they taste good, not because their consumption will lead to less cancer.’

Are people hooked on a fallacy that antioxidant is a byword for healthy? Is it because the truth is less appealing? A controversial Nobel laureate has stated in a peer-reviewed paper he described as “among my most important work”, that antioxidant supplements “may have caused more cancers than they have prevented”.

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Analysis, Business, Great Videos, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

How research misses the human behind the demographic

January 11, 2013

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR_UYx4vSPs&hd=1[/youtube]

Volkswagen recognized that our purpose as people is to lead better lives, not to consume their products.

The word “consumer” is an unavoidable term in marketing. But the label is counterproductive and misguided. The word is counterproductive and misguided and puts corporate interests over customer concerns. It presupposes a response you haven’t earned yet. Their purpose is not to consume your product.

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Analysis, Business, Latest Trend

Collaboration – the new competition

January 11, 2013

Even the best individual efforts of leaders and organizations can’t stack up against today’s complex and interconnected problems. They are collaborating to build a new civic infrastructure to advance their shared objectives. It’s called collective impact and it’s a growing trend across the country.

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