Clare Townhill

Everything Is Data

This is just wonderful. Utterly utterly lovely.

Tropical Cat Paradise

There is so much to enjoy about this that I just don't know where to begin: the music, the blinking cat, the services your beloved feline has to enjoy (and I quote):

• Twice daily individualized play sessions and exercise in the toy filled play area
• Daily brushing along with cat massage
• Cat videos to keep your feline friend entertained
• Classical music played throughout the day to help create a relaxed atmosphere
• Medication administration if needed
• Access to veterinary care 24 hours daily in affiliation with local veterinary hospital
• Individual diets can be accommodated
• Food, litter and toys provided along with lots of TLC

What is cat massage? Do cats like classical music? What is on the cat videos? Perhaps I should write to them and find out. Do let me know if there are any additional queries...

Palm-Meow 'A Tropical Paradise for your Cat'

Hot or Not?

Every minute, 10 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. While that figure is a source of pride for the Google-owned video-sharing site, for marketers and amateur video creators attempting to get their video found, it's downright daunting.

That's why a cottage industry has cropped up around optimizing and analyzing online video and, increasingly, that industry includes YouTube itself. The company has introduced a suite of tools called Insight that provides more clues into how people find videos and what they do once they find them.

This week, the company will launch a new feature called HotSpots that allows video creators to monitor how viewings rise and fall within a video.

For those of you without a calculator at hand that's 14,400 hours of video a day. A useful stat to offer to clients who still believe that a digital strategy is putting a TV ad onto YouTube.

AdAge: HotSpot feature tracks when audience watches

Fuzzy Front Ends and Rattley Tummies

Good stuff from Idris Mootee today on the processes of Innovation plus a great example of how a defunct medium (the cassette tape) has found a surprising niche audience:

Innovation Playground: The Four Areas of Innovation just beyond the Fuzzy Front End

And rattley tummies...

A dog had to have 13 golf balls removed from his stomach after eating them on walks near a golf course.

Oscar, a five-year-old black Labrador, was taken to the vet after his owner noticed a rattling noise coming from his pet.

The vet, Bob Hesketh, was stunned: "When I went into his stomach I was expecting one or two balls, but they just kept coming." One of the balls had been in Oscar's stomach so long, it had turned black.

Oscar's owner, Chris Morrison, takes the dog for regular walks near Pitreavie golf course in Dunfermline, Fife. Oscar is thought to have swallowed the balls over a period of months.

Morrison said: "He normally picks up golf balls and brings them home but must have been swallowing some all along. I take him out early in the morning and late at night, normally around the areas of the ninth and 12th fairways.

"He hunts them down like truffles. He finds them in all sorts of places where golfers lose them."

Oscar has recovered from his operation and is said to be in good health. His food is being watered down to help repair his digestive system and he is wearing a muzzle during walks to break his habit.

Chris said: "He does get a bit frustrated now and again. He couldn't go running around straight away but he is now off the lead again."

Guardian: Dog Eats 13 Golf Balls

TV + Online: Better Together

Not much time today so please excuse the smash-and-grab. The full report (link below) has some good data on concurrent media usage:

'A research piece from Thinkbox and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has shown that using TV and online together in advertising campaigns is significantly more effective for advertisers than using either in isolation. Their combined use produces major benefits for advertisers, including dramatically increased positive brand perception amongst consumers – some 50% higher – as well as significantly greater likelihood of purchase.

The sample focused specifically on ‘digital consumers’; people who own a digital TV and use broadband internet, and are medium to heavy users of each. Because the study focuses on the most ‘tech-savvy’ of the UK population – around 25% of its total – these results provide an indication of how future media consumption and consumer behaviour may develop.  In terms of their precise media usage, 64% of the sample stated that they sometimes watch TV while using the internet, whilst  48% stated that they did this most days.  

Key findings from the study include:

• Using TV and online together results in 47% more positivity about a brand than using either in isolation


• The likelihood of buying or using a product increases by more than 50% when TV and online are used together


• 48% of the sample group watched broadcast TV while online, most days


• Two thirds of this group have watched TV via online providers, primarily as a way to catch-up with broadcast TV and mainly from TV broadcasters’ websites


• Both TV and the internet are used for entertainment (TV, 80%; online 56%) and both have a significant influence on driving purchase (75% and 52%)


• The findings reinforce the need to  ensure creative synergy between TV and online advertising and identify best practice for better effectiveness, which requires more than simply putting TV ads online'

ThinkboxTV: TV + Online

Social Networking in Furs

Yup, this is DoggySpace:

Time: Social Networking for Pets