Five things on Friday #261

If you don’t know what Blockchain is – AND IT’S OK IF YOU DON’T – Reuters recently put together this rather smashing overview of exactly what it is, how it works, and just how well it can be applied across multiple uses (outside of crypto-currencies).

Simple to read. Simple to understand. Good job.

Feeling good? Good.
Feeling OK? OK.
Feeling low? That’s OK too.

If sometimes you struggle – and hey, we ALL do, then maybe take a look at this thoughtful self-help step-by-step guide that I counsel all of you to take some time to look through.

I have it saved now.

You should do the same.

I have strong reservations about this Buzzfeed article, that reads like a PR puff piece (sorry not sorry), for Twitter. The author manages to write 2000 words on why Twitter is profitable when literally one word will do.

That word is only used twice in the whole piece but it is hella called out in the comments.

I’ll give you a clue: it rhymes with DUMP.

eg:

In a rare sub-280 character moment, Wallman wrote this piece for Marketing Week this week, extolling the virtues of giving agencies space for their individual creative process. Understanding that ‘the work’ isn’t always FOR YOU and that testing isn’t always (if ever) right.

It’s a good read.

Did you know that last month, Pokemon Go generated over $104m in revenue? That’s up 174% YOY. Source.

Did you know that 147m people played Pokemon Go last month ALONE? Not bad MAUs at all. Source.

And, to top it off, Niantic – the makers of the eponymous title – not only have other, similar games in the pipeline (Harry Potter has been announced) but is also working on improving the AR tech and making it all a lot less floaty. They call it ‘occlusions’ and it looks a little like this.

The reason I’m telling you this? Basically, anytime ANYONE talks about AR, eventually, Pokemon Go will come up in conversation and, as sure as day follows night, someone will say ‘Yeah, but that’s dead now, right?’. Now you can put them right.

Right?

Right.

Three this week: 

• Terry Crews says why he didn’t push back. Christ. TERRY CREWS. 
• I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the men being called out. This NYT piece is about what happened next to the women who said ‘Me Too’ – and it is this edition’s essential read. 
• 414 (and counting).

• Some Instagram TV stuff: I contributed to two pieces, one for the Ogilvy website (pre-formal announcement of IGTV) and again, after, for WIRED, after the fact – this time with a broader look at the online video landscape.
• The Feynman Technique.
• A bit late to the news cycle now but this two-year-old Quartz pieceprovides some good background on the whole LUSH COSMETICS thing that kicked off a while back.
• Oh! This is important – AD TRANSPARENCY has arrived, both on Twitter and Facebook. For the former, you can go to its new Ads Transparency Center and for the latter, well, it only just announced it - so go read. This is a good step in the right direction towards combatting the spread of fake news but it’ll be a lot more effective once it applies to ads that have ran, vs those that just happen to be live now.
• Another latecomer - Wadds did a good write up of the Meeker trends that matter (worth a read – as ever).
• This Neville Southall interview is FANTASTIC.