Morning Update: Start-up opens VR store in space; Burger King disses its own fries; car-wrap counts public ad views
When you’re a smartphone startup competing in a world dominated by Apple and Samsung, how do you stand out? You go out of this world.
For last month’s launch of the OnePlus 3—the third flagship smartphone created by OnePlus—the China-based company created a virtual reality experience that brought viewers to a space station where they could learn about the latest features of the flagship phone. Around 60,000 people tuned in, and within the first hour, 10 percent of those who viewed the video bought a phone.
Burger King has dared to call into question the quality of its own product with a social media post featuring a cartoon french fry who is upset by comments from haters.
A gif was uploaded to Facebook yesterday where the chip becomes distraught because of comments, in Singlish, suggesting that Burger King fries are too soft.
Ad Week: Zipcar Can Now Track How Many People See Its Rolling Ad Campaign in Seattle and D.C.
Zipcar is rolling out a campaign in Seattle and Washington D.C. that blends an old-school advertising technique with new technology—it’s wrapping ads around cars and tracking how many people see them.
The company partnered with Wrapify, a San Diego startup that pays drivers to cover their cars with branding and data-tracking technology. Each car is equipped with sensors that feed live analytics to clients so they can see where their ads appear on the road, and how many people can see them.
Ad Age: Quartz Said to Near $30 Million in Revenue, Without Clickbait or Standard Ad Units
Many digital media businesses chase readers on the largest scale possible, all the better to attract advertisers that want to spread their messages widely. But big reach comes at a cost – in quality, in resources – that isn’t always justified by the ad rates online.
Unfortunately the niche game isn’t much easier, just as rife with competition and demands on limited resources. So it’s good news for smaller publishers that Quartz, the Atlantic Media brand primarily dedicated to covering the global economy, seems to be on the cusp of making it work, at least according to a person familiar with the business.
The Guardian: The Trump/Pence logo is undeniably erotic. Can it be accidental?
At last, Donald Trump has chosen his understudy for the baroque, jaw-droppingly idiotic drama that is about to unfold for the next four months of so-called democracy: Indiana governor Mike Pence.
And what is a presidential campaign without a cool logo? Our sitting president, Barack Obama, changed the logo game back in 2008 – making him less a candidate and more a newfangled flavor of soda pop.
Poynter: The Boston Globe sells its headquarters
Boston Globe Media Partners, the parent company of The Boston Globe, announced on Saturday the sale of its headquarters. The buyer and the purchase price were not disclosed. The sale fits into a national trend: Newspapers liquidating real estate holdings acquired in better times as print revenue continues to decline.
The building, situated in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, has been home to the Globe for more than half a century.
Buzzfeed: A Newspaper In Brazil Accidentally Had The Worst Ad Placement Ever
Twitter user vmz80 was among the first to notice the extremely unfortunate placement of an ad in Friday’s edition of Folha de São Paulo, one of the biggest newspapers in Brazil.
The ad, which features a large truck, reads “Get Ready Brazil” and is RIGHT next to a piece on the attack in Nice on Thursday night — in which a truck was driven into a crowd of people — that killed 84 people.
