Month: December 2010

Social networks going global

NEW YORK: Social networking penetration remains highest in markets like the US and UK, but sites such as Facebook and Twitter are also proving popular in nations from Brazil to Poland.

The Pew Research Center surveyed 24,790 people living in 22 countries to gauge current behaviour in this area.

It found 46% of the potential US audience belong to at least one social network, while 36% have opted against joining these properties and 18% do not regularly surf the internet or send email.

In Poland, 43% of interviewees commonly accessed social media, 15% directed their online attention elsewhere, and 41% did not have a web connection.

Totals stood at 43%, 41% and 16% in turn for the UK, the leading European representative.

In South Korea, one of Asia’s most mature digital markets, 40% of the possible user base had signed up to date, with Cyworld the pre-eminent social offering at present.

France somewhat bucked the wider trend, as 36% of netizens frequently logged on to platforms like MySpace and LinkedIn, measured against 42% yet to adopt parallel habits.

Uptake hit 34% in Spain, where 36% of the panel were uninterested in this emerging channel.

This gap peaked in Japan, given 44% of consumers avoided social networks, an amount 20% larger than those using sites including Mixi.

Germany saw an 18% difference between these figures, as 49% of the local sample were non-users of the available services.

Around half of connected Chinese consumers, 23% of the potential total overall, have registered on Kaixin001 or an equivalent, and 22% had failed to do so thus far.

Three times the number of Indians used social networks than ignored them, but as figures came in at 12% and 4% respectively, there is clearly considerable room for further growth.

More than 80% of 18-29 year olds participate in social networking in Germany, the UK, Poland and South Korea, as do approximately three-quarters of their peers from the US, France and Spain.

Two-thirds of young Russians, and an equal proportion of their Japanese counterparts, also engage in this pastime.

A majority of 30-49 years olds in the US, UK and Poland had followed suit, as was the case regarding a third of the same segment in Germany, Russia and South Korea.

Americans over 50 years of age were most likely to have joined these services, on 23%, beating Britain’s 16% and France’s 13%.

In terms of the difference between the oldest and youngest members, Germany posted 78 years, South Korea yielded 75 years and Poland recorded 70 years.

This gap reached just 17 years in India and 14 years in Indonesia, and a modest 29 years concerning Egypt.

The US constituted the only country where women displayed greater enthusiasm than men, as 52% of American females are active social networkers, compared with 41% of males.

Data sourced from Marketing Charts; additional content by Warc staff, 22 December 2010

As we predicted last week, for the first ever time Facebook received more UK Internet visits that Google UK on Christmas Day. As the chart below illustrates, on Christmas Day (December 25th) facebook.com accounted for 10.50% of all UK Internet visits, while the figure for google.co.uk was 9.77%. This was the first time that Facebook has ever been the most popular UK website, but the social network is unlikely to maintain its position for reasons we have outlined before.

“In the first three decades of its publication, Popular Science used very few images. In fact, if we compare Science and Popular Science in the 1880s, we discover that the latter was at first more “scientific.” While photographs and illustrations accompanied Science articles, Popular Science used only occasional graphs. Over time the two magazines reverse their visual strategies. Science banishes photographs and illustrations as they come to be considered inappropriate for proper scientific discourse. Popular Science moves in reverse direction becoming highly visual.”

Crockery rarely makes an appearance on the CR blog. But with a royal wedding set for next year, we’ll make an exception for KK Outlet’s recently unveilved ‘unofficial’ Wills and Kate souvenir plates…

With only four months to go until the big day, royal wedding fever has already gripped parts of the creative community – largely those involved in ceramics, unsurprisingly, as Majesty magazine reveals. (Just the $70 for the ‘tankard’ then.)

And in an attempt to combat the tidal wave of tack that accompanies any decent royal wedding the Lord Chamberlain, Earl Peel, has already issued a formal memorandum indicating that tea towels, for one, are right out.

So London-based creative agency KK Outlet decided to create some of their own souvenir plates for the more design-conscious fans of British royalty.

Many of the sentiments may not be wholly endorsed by The Palace, but we love the fact that April 29 2011 is already proving to be a special day for millions of fans of that other UK institution: the public holiday.

The plates will be available to purchase from KK Outlet from January 15. See kkoutlet.com.

 

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Our last project is about simplicity and we try to find alternate simple versions for some package samples of the international brands. We think almost every product needs some review for minimal feeling.

What is your choice in these 3 different variations?
1. Original variation
2. Simple variation
3. More simple variation

External Source:
High Resolution Images
Microsoft Ipod Package
LOST labels for your DHARMA Initiative needs
Derek Stroup, Unbranded Project
Josef Schulz, Sign Out

P.S. This project is only a design practice for showing minimal feeling of some international samples. It is an article about unnecessary items on the global brands, any of them, second or third variations are not new packaging proposals!