Eczema-ridden hands, old men in diapers or a good old-fashioned butt plug are just three of some 30K motifs that “my-handy-design” was hawking to users. Up until a few days ago, the uncouth motifs were available on Amazon, and also caused quite the stir in the international press. OMR found out who’s behind the coup and also explains just how the “my-handy-design” phenomenon is indicative of the current state of Online Marketing.
Last week, Hamburg took center stage in the world’s media consciousness—first as host of the much-anticipated G20 Summit, and then as a playground for marauding rioters to clash with police, set fire to cars and plunder local businesses. The coverage garnered significant traction on social media especially, where the at times terrifying videos were shared several million times. But like the old saying goes, every Molotov cocktail has a silver lining (Is that right? Yeah, that’s right.) And marketers loose on morals recognized the chance and pounced to earn money as affiliates. OMR presents the questionable practice.
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Lonely hearts searching for a flirt, or the man or woman of your dreams has long since been relocated to the digital world. Online dating / matchmaking / hookups is a billion-dollar industry dominated by dating apps like Tinder. But while the major mobile players reap the lion’s share, smaller portals with archaically designed forums continue to persist, exist and thrive in their niches. Joyclub is one such example.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Snap. First Facebook straight up jacked several functions from Snap, then chief executive chosen one Evan Spiegel reported massively disappointing quarterly figures and user growth leading to the collapse of its share price. And now Snap’s top influencer, DJ Khaled, is set to launch his own show on Instagram, i.e. the competition. The show has some hefty backing, too, receiving funding from a media company that is a part of the extended Disney family—and which previously was exclusively active on Snapchat, and is now only on Instagram. Whether it’s a sign of the beginning of the end or merely a bump in the road, it’s not optimal.
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Amazon Echo has officially been available in Germany since mid-February—and with it, Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant. The device opens up a new realm of marketing opportunities for companies through voice-automated apps called “Skills,” which anyone can develop and distribute on the mother platform. We spoke to several first movers to learn more about the current opportunities and challenges facing players on the fledgling platform, and to get a feel for the current reach figures popular skills can expect to achieve.
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He has amassed over 7 million subscribers on YouTube, sold his company for USD 25 million and relaunched the Vlog that propelled him to fame. Casey Neistat is one of YouTube’s biggest stars and he sat down in the OMR Podcast to explain just how he built his massive reach by publishing daily content and why brands—without exercising any control of content—jump at the chance to work with him.
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Hashem Al-Ghaili holding his keynote address on graduation day at Jacobs University in Bremen (source).
Actually, Hashem Al-Ghaili was supposed to be farmer. Today, though, the 26-year-old Yemeni holds two degrees and informs his six million plus Facebook followers on the latest scientific developments and technological advancements with science videos. In less than a year, his videos have generated more than 2 billion impressions. Al-Ghaili told OMR the details of his story, shared some secrets to his success and what’s essential for science videos to be successful.
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Videos boasting risqué titles, thumbnails teasing gobs of bare skin and steamy sexual indiscretions—all of which end up being more hot air than hot stuff. Katja Krasavice has teased, baited and badgered her way to a bulging fan base: 800,000 Youtube subscribers and 200 million views. The aspiring sex star has milked the shady practice for everything it’s got—and spread it to other platforms in increasingly dubious ways. OMR got down and dirty for a closer look at the budding fauxporn star.
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Happy faces at Codewise (source: Codewise.com)
Revenue growth north of 13,000 percent (no, that’s not a typo) from 2011 to 2015 and a purported “annual run rate” of USD 50 million: figures that would impress no matter the market—but even more so when you find out that online startup Codewise isn’t based in Silicon Valley, but Krakow, Poland. Is there a hidden champion in central Europe poised to explode? We took a look to find out if the hype is real or just a bunch of smoke.
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Andrew “Boz” Bosworth on the Conference stage at OMR Festival 2017.
He was once Mark Zuckerberg’s teaching assistant at Harvard and later followed him to Facebook as the 9th employee ever after a two-year interlude at Microsoft. In his time at FB, Boz has left an indelible mark on the company developing Newsfeed and pushing mobile ads. Today, he is VP of Ads and Business Platform Silicon Valley behemoth. After delivering the opening keynote at OMR Festival 2017, Boz sat down with German marketing trailblazer and VC magician Florian Heinemann (Project A Ventures, Thrillist, Trivago and many more) to talk about the past, present and future at Facebook.
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