By Media Team

December 28th, 2009

What the world was 'tweeting' about in 2009

What the world was 'tweeting' about in 2009

Twitter Chief Scientist, Abdur Chowdhury announced Twitter’s top trending topics of 2009, reminding us of some of this year’s most notable events.

Michael Jackson topped the micro blogging site’s trending list of people, while Harry Potter and the Twilight saga’s, New Moon led the pack for movies. The swine flu made a few appearances across multiple categories, Google Wave led the tech category (Tweetdeck came in third, and Windows 7 came in fourth), the New York Yankees (Woot!) made the top ten in the sports category, and #musicmonday was the most used hashtag in 2009.

Click here for the complete lists.

By Vicki

December 22nd, 2009

Beauty of the Geek

Beauty of the Geek

In a recent blog post for the New York Times, Steve Lohr talks about how psychology professor Dr. Anderegg proposes that “nerd” and “geek” are derogatory terms and should be banned. He claims that these words cause young people who identify themselves as nerds and geeks to “sabotage themselves” and cause “the nation’s work force to suffer.” Surely the only way to prevent this is to eliminate these words from our everyday vernacular altogether. Right?

Well, the good doctor may be correct in saying that the idea of a “cool” nerd only exists in a few areas, but with the advent of exciting new technology and a revival of previously “geeky” entertainment options, nerds and geeks are primed to take over the world. Just ask Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, famous nerds who have become household names because of their amazing contributions to society.

Another great example is Star Trek. In its 53 year history, the franchise has grown to include six separate incarnations on television, 11 feature films, dozens of video games, hundreds of novels, a theme park in Las Vegas and countless conventions attended by a huge fanatical cult of members who, I admit, have probably had to suffer from the negative effects of being labeled nerds and geeks.

Fast forward to 2009’s Star Trek, the latest feature film based around the characters from the original TV series. Not only was the film praised by critics and viewers alike, but it was also the highest-grossing film in the Star Trek series and the tenth highest grossing film of the year. In the past, the series may have seemed campy and inaccessible to the masses, but with the latest installment featuring some of the most beautiful young actors in Hollywood, it’s reaching a wider audience of viewers from various age ranges who are realizing it’s actually an incredibly entertaining franchise. And while you would still be hard pressed to find a geekier or nerdier subject in all of pop culture, you’d have a hard time finding a more well-loved series as well.

More examples of the rise of the geek include Beauty and the Geek, “Nerd Pride Day“, nerdcore hip hop (a fantastic example of this musical genre can be found here), The Big Bang Theory, MythBusters, Napoleon Dynamite… Do I need to go on?

I agree with Dr. Anderegg in that words can hurt and damage, but words only exist because of the meaning we give them. So instead of going through all the trouble of encouraging censorship and banishing a few words that in the past might have been hurtful, why not take that effort to change the meaning of them? For nerds and geeks the tide has already begun to shift in their favor. Just ask Rosario Dawson (a self-proclaimed ‘trekkie’) and Zoe Saldana (an admittedly proud geek).

By Hazel

December 18th, 2009

Prompt completes Corizon video project

Prompt completes Corizon video project

Prompt Productions, our own video unit, has completed a video to outline Corizon’s enterprise mashups.

Video is an ideal way to explain a complex value proposition to audiences. The combination of sound, vision and animation makes it a powerful medium. In this Web 2.0 world it’s simple to pass it along and share it with others. It’s also measureable, with the ability to track interest and viewers.

Prompt worked with Corizon to agree messages and storyboard the video. We shot and recorded the video created custom animation and voiceovers, and handled all editing and post-production. Last, but certainly not least, we worked with Corizon to prepare the video formats, working out all the ‘geeky’ formulas for compressing it for popular video hosts – and not just YouTube.

That said, you can see the final finished video on YouTube here.

By newswire

December 11th, 2009

Prompt survey finds Facebook more popular than email or SMS to keep in touch with friends and family

Prompt survey finds Facebook more popular than email or SMS to keep in touch with friends and family

96% of respondents use Facebook to communicate with friends and family; 52% claim they couldn’t last a week without social media. Three-quarters said they didn’t want their boss to see their profiles

Boston, MA – December 11, 2009 – Prompt Communications, a specialist in digital PR, marketing and social media communications, has revealed the results of a new survey analyzing modern communication trends. Prompt asked a sample of 300 consumers in Boston to explain how they use social media tools and more traditional communications in their daily lives.

Phone calls remain the most common method of communication, with 99% of respondents regularly using the phone to connect with friends and family. Facebook (96%) is now the next most popular communication tool, followed by SMS (93%) and email (91%). When asked which method they used most frequently, most participants chose SMS (37%), followed by Facebook and then the phone (28%). Although respondents clearly feel that email is now less important than social media, only 20% said they could live without it entirely. Many people have nagging concerns about their employers seeing their personal information, with nearly three-quarters (73%) worried that their bosses will view their profiles on social networks. However, they were far less hesitant to allow their families access, with only 27% saying they would not want family members to see the same profiles.

Perhaps surprisingly considering rapid rates of adoption, people overall believe that advances in technology have created a negative effect on their lives and interpersonal communications in several ways. The majority (60%) believes that it relies too much on technology, while 71% believe social media is making communication less personal. But despite these reservations, people are still using social media regularly. An astonishing 28% of respondents claimed that they could only go one week without using social media, with a further 24% worried about just a few days. These figures compared to just 27% who felt they could live offline indefinitely.

Hazel Butters, CEO of Prompt Communications, said: “Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, with over 350 million users, so it should come as no surprise to discover that people are using it as a primary tool for communication. However, our survey results also show that people are still using more established methods of communication, from the phone to email. It is important for organizations to understand these trends if they want to reach their customers exactly where and how they would like to be reached. As attitudes change and new methods of human interaction develop, businesses must stay ahead of the trends.”

About Prompt Communications
Founded in January 2002, Prompt Communications is a communications agency with European offices in Chiswick, London and US offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California. Prompt Communications offers expertise across all marketing disciplines, teaming its consultants’ extensive knowledge of start-ups, technology market with experience of pan-European and American media, analyst and marketing campaigns. Using highly targeted marketing, PR, analyst relations, social media
and corporate copywriting initiatives, Prompt helps its clients gain the visibility they need to achieve their business objectives, from increasing sales to enhancing reputation with stakeholders.
For more information, visit www.prompt-communications.com

By Media Team

December 10th, 2009

Facebook is more popular than email or SMS to keep in touch

Facebook is more popular than email or SMS to keep in touch

Today, we announced the results of our survey on trends in communications [read the whole release here]. Our findings were surprising to say the least.

First, Facebook was the most common tool for communication with friends and family, with 96% of users citing their use of it to stay in touch – slightly edging SMS and email. In just the few years Facebook has been around, it has become a central part of many people’s everyday lives.

Yet, people are ambivalent towards the way that technology and social media are impacting society. 60% of people believe that they rely too much on technology, and 71% believe social media is making communication less personal. This indicates that even though they are using social media more, they feel they are having real human interaction less. But they are addicts – over 52% claim they couldn’t last a week without social media.

It is important to be aware of these trends when working in communications. Even though social media tools are growing and are a great avenue for interaction, people still crave real in-person human interaction. We like hearing each other’s voices and seeing expressions on faces. So don’t be afraid to pick up the phone, call an old friend or a journalist, and meet with them. And then you can let your friends know how great it was on Facebook when you get back.

By Media Team

December 10th, 2009

Google Goggles gets going

Google Goggles gets going

Google has been hard at work developing new ways to search for information in the mobile realm. The latest development in the evolution of search is Google Goggles, a search application for mobile phones that interfaces with Google Android cameras in order to visually search the web.

When a user takes a photo of an object, Goggles processes it and looks through Google’s databases for a match. It will also look at information such as a user’s location to find the most relevant results, from images to text and businesses. Currently, it can identify tourist landmarks and images, although it processes images in black and white. It has facial recognition, but that feature hasn’t fully been fleshed out yet, especially because of the privacy ramifications of implementing it.

Google Goggles at the moment is described as “rudimentary.” However, in the near future, it seems likely that smartphone cameras will make the search for information faster than ever. Imagine you’re traveling around a city and see an interesting site, and you wonder what it is. With the click of a button Google will search for you and tell you its history, interesting things about it, and show any communities relating to it. Or if you see an interesting ad for a movie, you can point your camera at it and see the trailer.

When fully fleshed out, a concept like Google Goggles could alter our view of the world. Our mobile phones go with us everywhere, and the cameras on our phones could be used to both send and receive information online. With proper use of crowdsourcing, tremendous amounts of knowledge and views of the world could potentially be uncovered.

By Media Team

December 5th, 2009

CIC party of the decade

CIC party of the decade

Well, Prompt Boston is absolutely thrilled to be in attendance at the CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center) 10th anniversary party and there are several floors filled with interesting people and things to do.

It’s no wonder, because the CIC is full of high-tech innovators, many with MIT roots. A small sample of what the CIC and the companies here are doing to celebrate its birthday:

• Lego building
• Massages
• Tarot card reading
• Free food, drinks, and desserts
• Belly dancing
• Guitar Hero
• A mini Twestival (courtesy of Prompt) :-)

Congratulations CIC on a great party and happy 10th anniversary!

By PromptLondon

December 1st, 2009

Can the logo be larger?

Can the logo be larger?

As a designer I hear this a lot – not just website design but across a range of printed and online collateral, brochures, letterhead – you name it, someone at sometime has probably asked me to give the logo some steroids and pump it up a notch. This is not what I could consider good design.

So why do we hear this request so often? What drives any vendor or organisation to want to have their logo taking up half of the screen or a much larger amount of a brochure than is necessary? Do they need to see their logo at 100 paces?

Don’t get me wrong – the logo is a crucial part of any design, and of any brand. But sizing has to be appropriate – a larger logo does not mean it is automatically more memorable. Just think, when did you last time judge a site or a piece of artwork purely on the largeness of its logo?

It can be difficult for vendors to look at their logos from the outside. All they see is their beautiful piece of branding squashed into a tiny corner of the screen by a mean designer (that’s me). In reality, the designer has (usually) made a well balanced page that suits its purpose (again, yours truly).

So what can we designers do to assure your client that their logo is just the right size? Firstly, review some sites together – well-presented sites don’t have logos that engulf the screen. The best sites also share another admirable trait: they are well-designed to incorporate a vendor’s branding by using elements such as colour and typefaces consistent with said brand. You can point out all of these things to your client and help them realise that their entire site’s identity doesn’t rely on the 100×200 pixels in the corner of the screen. It’s all about branding beyond the logo.

Another point that to discuss is the layout of the page. An overly-large logo can wreak havoc on the balance of a design. A client may not fully comprehend this (everybody’s taste is different) but it’s possible to explain the design perspective – and how a weak design reflects poorly on their business and can lead prospects to assume the business is of similar quality and move along to find another vendor that ‘seems’ more reputable.

In the end, as a design consultant, all any of us can do is present all the reasoning and logic possible, and if all else fails resign to your client’s beliefs and pull out that scale tool.