A team of developer’s funded by Michigan State University and the Office of the Chinese Language Council International have come up with a browser-based MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that teaches players how to speak Mandarin Chinese.  Read more... (227 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

MSNBC have released a NewsWare site, which provides an interesting news spectrum which can also be customised into a widget to embed on your blog, social network profile, or desktop.

The news experience includes this spectrum which is very engaging.

There is also a Newsblaster tool which lets you read the news while you are playing an online game.

To promote this feature, MSNBC setup the world’s first interactive cinema crowd game.  Read more... (121 words, 1 image, estimated 29 secs reading time)

Google has just announced a new web based purchasing and analytics system that allows anyone to run television commercials.

The system has been available as a trial program for about a year, and this announcement now opens the system up for everyone to use using this simple process.

-  Select your target audience

-  Choose the networks, days and times, and  the specific programs you want your ad to run on.

- Choose the cost-per-thousand impressions you’re willing to pay  Read more... (262 words, 2 images, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

New interactive technologies can help to bring brands or big ideas to life.
Bullseye in partnership with 808South are pleased to announce Australia’s first client demonstration of the iBar™.

Speaking about the technology, Ian Farmer Senior Brand Strategist for Bullseye said

“The iBar™ has received many innovation awards in Europe and we are excited about the digital possibilities this technology can provide to Australia. Designing a creative set of interactive experiences is an integral part of producing a rewarding and engaging brand interaction”.  Read more... (309 words, 3 images, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

YouTube is introducing a new feature called YouTube Insight. The new feature will entail several new tracking abilities for those who want to advertise on the video sharing site.

YouTube Insight provides insight on how a video is doing over time and geographically.  YouTube Insight will show a breakdown percentage of the countries that viewers are coming from and how long a video takes to perform well  Read more... (187 words, 2 images, estimated 45 secs reading time)

Here are some notes I took from Brad Jakeman’s session which described the current lack of focus on getting the brand promise or big idea right.

Complicated communication channels as media became more fragmented and diverse.

• - There’ve never been more communication channels available and yet we are
• - So obsessed with the channel (the how)
• - And have lost focus on the Content (the what)

“The step that precedes action is Engagement”  Read more... (712 words, 1 image, estimated 2:51 mins reading time)

Brightcove have just published an excellent whitepaper on 5 keys to successful online video.

The 5 keys are :-  Read more... (152 words, estimated 36 secs reading time)

Mike Murphy VP Media Sales Facebook (x-Yahoo) gave today’s keynote address and spoke on the Power of Social Media for Brands.  Some key take outs.

Facebook Australia Statistics
- now have 2.2 million
- that is 1 in 5 Australia people online.

Mike talked around the frequency of how Brands are mentioned in conversations without incentives.
For example, there are
- 118000 mentions of McDonalds
- 7000 mentions of Ikea in their profile  Read more... (411 words, 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

A recent Nielsen study of more than 22,000 active mobile data users, shows gaining acceptance of mobile advertising in the US reports Marketing Charts.

23 percent of US mobile subscribers (58 million people) say they have seen mobile advertising in the previous 30 days.

Half of mobile data users (51 percent, or 28 million people) who recall seeing a mobile ad say they responded to the ad in some way.

 Read more... (328 words, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)

Mattel and Hasbro who the worldwide rights to the Scrabble game are suing the creators of Scrabulous, one of Facebook’s most popular applications for copyright infringement.

Scrabulous attracts over 600,000 daily users and nets the 20-something Indian brothers who created the application, $25,000 worth of advertising each month.  So Hasbro has asked Facebook to take down Scrabulous.

This is where Legal deparments don’t understand social networks.  Read more... (161 words, 1 image, estimated 39 secs reading time)

• The Scrabulous fans are passionate about the game and are not happy about Hasbro’s heavy handedness.