The Friday Breakthrough: Remember AOL?

The Friday Breakthrough is Ottawa's weekly roundup of some of the internet's best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office.

Remeber AOL? It's been many years since this online portal has been central to anyone's internet experience, but the company is trying to change all that with a new logo and branding strategy. I like it! AOL Revamping Its Logo, in Hopes of Reviving the Brand

Apple's iPhone is dominating the smartphone web market, with 55% of mobile internet traffic in the United States coming from the popular touch-screen device, according to a recent report. Google's Android mobile platform takes second place with 20%.

A group of magazine publishers are planning to launch a service that may become a one-stop shop for digital magazine content, much like iTunes has for digital music. Time Inc., Condé Nast, Hearst and Meredith will join forces to distribute their content, much like different broadcasters have contributed to Hulu. If successful, it could mean a major breakthrough for paper news publishers. including newspapers. Group of Magazine Publishers Is Said to Be Building an Online Newsstand

And finally, here are two excellent articles examining the perils on hopping on the social media bandwagon. Before you launch your next blog, have a read!

Are Twitter and Facebook evil?

When politicians tweet

What do you think of the new, simplified AOL logo? Let us know! Leave a comment or send us a tweet @marketingottawa.

The Friday Breakthrough: Pizza Hut Keeps Its Customers 'Appy

The Friday Breakthrough is a weekly roundup of some of the internet's best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office.

Pizza Hut recently announced that more than $1-million in sales have been completed using its iPhone application. A lesson to all fast food chains out there: The easier food is to order, the more of it people will buy.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was named Fortune magazine's CEO of the Decade. The article mentions his control-freak nature, commitment to excellent products (rather than profits), and marketplace foresight (see: iTunes), but fails to mention his long-standing commitment to nerdy black turtlenecks.

Should Canada be more aggressive in its H1N1 awareness campaign? Here in Ottawa,we see the plain and simple ads in newspapers and on TV, but in Britain, their ads really play into people's fears and paranoia.

Should Canada's H1N1 ads be more frightening? Let us know! Leave a comment or send us a tweet @marketingottawa.

The Friday Breakthrough: Subaru smacks Snuggies and GQ gets an iPhone app

The Friday Breakthrough is a weekly roundup of some of the internet's best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office.



This Snuggies/Subaru commercial is truly innovative. It's the best ad I've seen this month.

Thanks to some carefully constructed legislation, high-speed internet is now a right for all 5.3-million citizens of Finland. Wow, lolcats must be an important cultural commodity over there... Broadband Internet is Now a Legal Right in Finland.

Are these pants in style right now? Well there's no need to run home and check GQ magazine anymore, because its publisher is now offering individual issues of GQ in an iPhone app for the price of $2.99. Conde Nast Launches iPhone Platform With GQ App.

Don't forget to tweet your favourite online marketing articles to @marketingottawa for inclusion in next week's Friday Breakthrough. Thanks to all those who submitted this week!

Public broadcasting, now hand-held

Some folks may complain that CBC is increasingly irrelevant in our modern 24-hour news and Internet world. Everyone seems to blog constantly, CNN reports more news than any person would ever want to know, and Twitter is delivering information directly into our cellphones. How can Canada’s public broadcaster possibly compete with that?

Well, they’re giving it their best shot, and the results are quite pleasing. The CBC was an early adopter of podcasting, creating the internet-only CBC Radio 3 (also available on satellite radio), and released it to great success in the iTunes store. Now they’re moving into new avenues for mobile devices.

Now the CBC has jumped onto the iPhone bandwagon, creating a website, specifically for mobile devices (and especially the iPhone). Readers in Canada’s capital will be happy to hear this includes the Ottawa regional news website.

On Aug. 1, CBC debuted its radio app, allowing iPod Touch and iPhone owners to stream Radio 1, 2, and 3, and access on-demand audio programs.

The app has risen to #14 in the iTunes Canada store, clearly demonstrating a demand for this kind of product, at least among Apple enthusiasts. The app is so easy to use, even a person with no iPhone experience could figure out how to stream the local Ottawa station. And best of all, it’s totally free.

If the CBC continues to embrace new media and mobile technologies, there may still be a place for it in the hearts, minds, and cellphones of Canadians after all.

Birdhouse App Video Ad: A Notepad for Twitter

I heard about this through Wired Magazine's Twitter account.

Birdhouse is a new iPhone or Ipod Touch app to update your Twitter account. Techcrunch has said you don't need the app, but you should watch the video.

I agree that you should at least watch the video (I have not yet tested the app). With that said, here's the video:



This video also makes me really want an iPhone. Again. As soon as Canadian companies stop charging ridiculous amounts for wireless Internet service, I will so get one. (After I get a Kindle, of course.)