RIP GIFs, holographic video calls in offices & Google’s AI video generator ??
Hey there!
Happy Halloween!???Spooky season has crept up on us. Just like the news of GIFs being a dead art form, holographic video calls becoming the norm in some offices and most frightening of all…Google’s AI video generator.?
Read on for more global video news / bad Halloween puns.
\\ THIS MONTH
??It’s ALIVE:?Just write a few words and it will appear. Or rather, ‘Imagen’ it.
??Dead accurate.?Call of Duty footage is making the rounds on Twitter.?
???Web of lies??Social media experts grade apps on their misinformation handling.?
??It's not all frightening.?Pressure is being applied for tech brands to step up their CSR.
Don’t miss our October chart toppers - this month we find out what both marketers and consumers are anticipating when it comes to brands utilising the metaverse/VR/AR in their social strategies. ??
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\\ SNIPPETS
RIP GIFS.
Remember Leonardo DiCaprio raising a toast in 2013’s?The Great Gatsby??Or Steve Carrell in?The Office?yelling for everyone to calm down while he runs around panicking? Soak them up while you can, because apparently the GIF is dying - RIP.
Tumblr sparked the widespread use of GIFs back in 2009, when the platform had somewhere in the region of 1.5 billion users - crumbs! Just a few short years later in 2012, Oxford Dictionaries named GIF ‘The Word of the Year’. But ten years on, the looping images that have become our go-to responses on Slack and WhatsApp are being described as ‘cringe’ by younger generations. As older generations (even Millennials count as old these days) start using the same GIFs as their children and grandchildren, the format seems to have lost its cool factor according to research from?The Atlantic.?
Just when we thought there couldn’t possibly be any more bad news in the world, we get hit with this. What do we do now? How do we stay cool? Shall we keep using them in our newsletter regardless!?
Warning. The time has come.?
Netflix has announced ‘Basic with Ads.’ a new and cheaper subscription plan that will introduce adverts for the first time since it launched in 2007. ‘Basic with Ads’ is being rolled out in 12 countries around the world this November including Australia, the US and the UK (The Guardian).?
It’s eerily lifelike.?
Google is planning on testing its holographic video-calling booths (Project Starline) in the offices of Salesforce, WeWork and others over the coming months. Project Starline is a new video-calling booth?that uses?3D imagery, high-resolution cameras, custom depth sensors and a breakthrough light field display - all to create a realistic experience for callers on both sides of the screen — and no headset required?(TechCrunch).?
Want a virtual mask?
Big beauty brand L’Oréal has teamed up with Meta and French business school HEC Paris to launch a startup acceleration program dedicated to creativity in the metaverse. The programme will support at least five startups that specialise in 3D production, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality, avatar creation, portability in user experience, token economy and other topics related to the metaverse and Web3.
TikTok has recently updated their app to virtually allow users to whiten their teeth and wear makeup, a stretch further than its usual filters. What are your thoughts on AR beauty? Spooky? Or is this just the world we live in now?
“AR beauty and makeup is growing everyday. More and more consumers are using it,” says L’Oréal chief digital and marketing officer Asmita Dubey?(voguebusiness).
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\\ HOT TOPICS ??
??It’s ALIVE : Just add a few words and it will appear.
Or rather, ‘Imagen’ it. Within a week of Meta launching ‘Make a Video’, Google unveiled its own AI video generator. Google’s AI technology ‘Imagen Video’ simply needs a short text prompt to create a high-resolution HD video clip. You can type, “Frankenstein eating birthday cake '' and boom, you've got a 16-frame video at three frames per second. It then predicts additional frames and boom again, a 128-frame HD video appears.
While the technology is startling, Google AI technology still has a way to go. The clips are fuzzy and not quite up to scratch with what we expect from the video world today, but with the way AI- based tech is developing… it’s only a matter of time before it becomes mainstream. Visit the website here to see more about it:?Imagen: Text-to-Image Diffusion Models (research.google)
Source:?thefederal.com
??Dead accurate.
Another viral video is making the rounds on Twitter;?this time it’s gaming footage from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which spotlights a mission set in Amsterdam. It’s so wildly detailed it looks almost indistinguishable from reality. Classic Twitter banter has people saying it almost looks even?better?than actual photos, somehow. The accuracy stands in sharp contrast to the advent of the metaverse, where a recent point of controversy has been how underwhelming Meta’s Horizon graphics have been, even with the promise of upgrades coming. More traditional video games continue to sprint forward with their graphic developments, while VR seems to still be playing catch-up, with rare exceptions like?Half Life: Alyx.
If there’s one thing amiss about the Call of Duty game, it's that the realism of the human characters do not quite match the realism of their environments, from their awkward motions to their appearance. They’re not?completely?dreadful, but they’re not great either. Our expectations of VR are so high, it apparently needs to look?better?than real life. You can see the gaming footage here.
Source:?forbes.com
???Web of lies?
Literally.?By the end of the year, no question about it, TikTok will overtake YouTube as the social media platform users spend the most time watching. This year it became the most downloaded app in the world and danced its way to the top, surpassing long-standing favourites Instagram and Twitter.?
However, that title comes with a lot of issues. A new?Guardian US series?investigates TikTok’s meteoric rise, focusing on concerns surrounding the opaqueness of its algorithm, its effect on our brains, its ties to China and its role in spreading election misinformation.
Safe to say, issues are mounting. And while all those things are genuinely haunting - misinformation about the war in Ukraine, elections in Kenya (experts found 130 videos on TikTok viewed over 4 million times featured hate speech or misinformation related to the vote), and even just political opinions on the new Prime Minister of the UK - it’s all being consumed at an alarming rate. It’s all too easy to lie, or misinform in a place where information is easily absorbed with little context or evidence.??
How much trust can we put in the information shared on socials? Social media experts evaluated TikTok, Twitter and other platforms on their ability to handle the danger of misinformation about the coming US 2022 elections compared to their 2020 plans.
领英推荐
Check out their grades below.?
(D means dreadful and it goes up from there.)
TikTok: D?
Facebook/Meta: C?
Twitter: B?
YouTube: B-
Source:?The Guardian?&?Scientific American
??It's not all frightening.?
Tech is sort of having the halo effect for consumers as they begin to prioritise climate action.?As we approach 2023, the trends influencing a new era of smart tech and software come at a tipping point for our industry and the planet’s future. Hakan Bulgurlu, chief executive officer of Ar?elik, recently emphasised?the need for brands to focus on sustainable manufacturing and economics?in his keynote at consumer electronics show IFA. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business-critical theme and smart brands are already investing in sustainable-focused business goals.?
Speaking of sustainability not being possible in today's world without digital technology, do you know the most sustainable and cost efficient style of video? It’s animation. Our video experts at Wooshii just released a new insight report:?B2B MARKETING: YOUR GUIDE TO ANIMATED VIDEO CONTENT.?
What will you find?
?? How to draw your audience in and inspire action
??How to create impactful, cost-effective content
?? The versatility and scalability of animated video
??How to write the perfect animated video brief
?? The production process
?? Tools and techniques for your next video project
Read it here:?https://woo.link/3D9ewOn?
\\ CHART OF THE MONTH
Time to stand out, even if it’s scary. Marketers today say it serves no brand to stand still in the middle of an ever-changing landscape like social media.
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\\ STANDOUT VIDEOS OF THE MONTH
?? ♀?Viral video:?This one is a no brainer.?Stranger Things?took over the world again this year, so it’s no surprise that people are getting creative this Halloween. Maybe too creative? What do you think of this?controversial TikTok of floating Max?
??Trending TV trailer:??This one goes to?The Peripheral.?A thrilling dystopian adaptation of William Gibson's novel. The series?posits a near future in which virtual evolution has outpaced societal development. Sounds annoyingly relevant, and it’s created by the talented bunch who gave us Westworld.?
??Hottest music video:??It’s hard to beat the greatest spooky video of all time,?Thriller.?Nothing comes close. But?Sam Smith’s?Unholy?is currently trending on YouTube and is featured in almost every TikTok right now. It definitely fits in with the spooky season.?
??Our?video ad inspiration:?Ghosted?- and not in the way we use it nowadays when someone doesn't reply to your whatsapp message. M&M’s keeps it humorous as usual in its 2018 ad. Spot on music and M&M’s being thankful to not having been eaten.?
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\\?WHATS HAPPENING AT THE WORLDS MOST CUTTING-EDGE VIDEO AGENCY?
Black Friday is creeping closer, so we thought we’d treat you to a new blog post.?
You’re probably aware by now that video is the #1 content type used to sell products. It works like magic and with two of the biggest shopping days for ecommerce retailers quickly approaching, namely Black Friday and Cyber Monday, now is a perfect time to get your videos in production. Read more about what product videos can do for you or skip it and just give us a bell.?
What else? Halloween BTS from our team? Of course, we wouldn't disappoint you like that.
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