In an acquisition that is reported to be worth $150 million, Under Armour is adding MapMyFitness to forcefully inject itself into the quantified self movement. MapMyFitness has over 20 million registered users, 700,000 of which use the service daily. It puts Under Armour squarely in competition with Nike, Jawbone, and FitBit – but whether they take the service to a device-based level to really go toe-to-toe with these services remains to be seen. That traditionally clothing-centric brands continue to invest in quantified self and fitness trackers points to the potency of this trend. Consumers want to track their daily activities, and if clothing companies can expand their business into this area before anyone else they’ll be poised to capitalize.
Category: Percolate
Russian Subways Take Squats As Payment
In a clever campaign in anticipation of the 2014 Olympics, Russian subways have begun accepting squats – yes, like squats at the gym – as a genuine form of payment. The machine, which presumably uses a Kinect, can tell if you’re cheating and requires 30 proper squats before letting you through. It’s another example of innovative, out-of-home interactive experiences engaging with different populations, even if it’s for a government-sponsored program, and plays into the larger health and fitness trend of keeping people fit.
Netflix Redesign Cuts Across Platforms
In the biggest revamp in its history, Netflix addresses cross-platform integration and overwhelming title search by deeply integrating social and recommendation engines into the new platform. It provides users with the show’s relation to their – and their friends’ – viewing habits, as well as provides helpful synopses for the shows at hand. Searching is also new, integrating show results as well as names of actors and others affiliated with the shows. The most important upgrade is its uniformity across different platforms; in the past, users faced a slightly altered Netflix interface on, say the PS3 and the Roku. But now, no matter where you use it, it looks exactly the same and functions in the same way. Neflix is pushing harder and harder to make itself the go-to, on-demand media channel across all platforms, and this is a big step in that direction.
Roku Adds Live Disney and ESPN Content
As Americans begin to abandon cable TV providers in favor of streaming services, and those streaming services being to gain a foothold in the living room environment, content providers are aiming to distribute to the widest variety of services possible. Set-top box manufacturer Roku added new live broadcast programming to its selection in the form of WatchESPN and WatchDisney channels. These networks are available widely to tens of millions of digital cable subscribers, and represent an effort on the part of content providers to accommodate varying user tastes to ensure they aren’t left behind by rapid developments in how people choose to consume media.
Kate Spade’s Shoppable Ad
Shoppable ads are hardly new, but Kate Spade’s HTML 5 offers a novel take on ecommerce video. The fashion ad includes a rolling display of products featured in the video with a link to the product page. The ad unit makes use of Google’s Lightbox format and will run across the internet giant’s Display Network.
Makerbot Aims To Put A 3D Printer In Every American School
3D printing has been touted (in big block letters, no less) as THE FUTURE (of everything) for some time now, and Makerbot, an American leader in the consumer 3D printing sphere is ready to make the push towards this reality by placing a Makerbot in every school in America. The effort is being funded by a crowd funding campaign at DonorsChoose.org. Makerbot CEO Bre Pettis calls Makerbot “manufacturing education in a box,” which hints at the greater ambitions of the presently small 3D printing industry. If Makerbot achieves its goal and places a printer in every school in America, could we be headed for a greater shift, leading to a full industrial revolution that forever changes how we think about making products?
See IPG Lab’s Makerbot in action, currently making a turkey head (’tis the season): http://instagram.com/p/gYGwQBoeYp/
Sony Opens PlayStation Network Store
In a big announcement about its next-gen gaming system, Sony is opening up its PlayStation Network (PSN) Store to directly compete with Valve’s Steam software system by allowing online retailers to launch their own storefronts for PS3, PS4, and PSVita titles. Amazon already has its US PSN store up and operational, and is offering a $5 PSN credit on digital orders. So users are now in the drivers seat for finding new and improved deals, just as they were with physical copies of the games. It’s a step in the direction of consumer control, as gamers are no longer locked into Sony’s ecosystem.
Google Glass Adds Music Playback
This seems like a natural integration move by the Glass team, one that makes effective use of the listening capabilities of the device as well as its potential interaction with the environment around it. Google will sell stereo headphones with Glass to completely integrate the user into the listening experience. It’ll function through the command “Play Music,” and will include a spotify-like mp3 service to stream the files for you on demand. It will be important to see what this means for both the music industry, as well as streaming services more broadly. Could this launch a new competitor to Spotify?
Russia Announces Mobile Photography Ban For 2014 Winter Olympics
The Sochi Winter Olympics, coming this January, are reportedly coming with a ban on any mobile photography by journalists. In fact, the ban extends to all non-professional equipment, ruling out the possibility for reporting via Instagram, Vine, Whatsapp, Frontback, and any other media-creating platform presently shaking up what it means to broadcast information and media online. This attempt at placing tight controls on the flow of news out of Russia during the games is not new – London tried to ban social media during its turn hosting the Olympics in 2012 – but the question remains, how effective can it be? Will journalists and news outlets be willing to risk their credentials to reach consumers faster, more effectively, and more intimately than ever before during one of the world’s testing grounds for media coverage?
Netflix & YouTube Make Up Half of Peak Internet Traffic
Sandvine, a data analysis service, released upstream, downstream, and aggregate traffic statistics for North America during peak usage hours. As it turns out, Amazon and Netflix make up 50.31% of downstream traffic during those hours; Amazon Instant Video and Hulu only got 1.61% and 1.29% respectively. It’s further confirmation that most Internet users are spending their time on these services, away from the “traditional” social networks. Indeed, Facebook finished with a paltry 1.31%. It’s important for advertisers to note this big shift in digital that’s trending towards streaming and content consumption, rather than always-on-sharing.
