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Weekly Top 10: Fastest rising search terms from South Africans on Google

With the help of Google Insights for Research we are publishing the top 10 searched for phrases (minus the sexy stuff of course) by South Africans on Google over the previous seven days.

We really did see this one coming. The fastest rising web search term on Google by South Africans last week was for the magazine which published the topless pics of the Duchess of Cambridge (or Kate as you will). Kate Middleton was the second fastest web search term. The interview with Julius Malema on CNN meant both ‘CNN’ and ‘Malema’ emerged as fast rising search terms. South Africans celebrated the contribution made against Apartheid by Steve Biko on the anniversary of his death on 12 September 1977 in police custody.

Simfy Africa & the day the music arrived

by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) A decade after iTunes demolished the traditional music industry the arrival of Simfy Africa finally gives South Africans a legal equivalent.

The music industry, for all its culture of revolution, has always resisted change, and almost always to its enormous cost. When a program called Napster arrived at the end of the 1990s to allow online sharing of digital music files between individuals, the industry took to the courts to shut it down.

The music industry succeeded, giving it the confidence to resist any attempt to embrace the concept of digital, or to find new ways to add value to a disenchanted public. It insisted on sticking to a business model that was decades old: selling an album of about 10 songs to give fans access to the one song they wanted to hear.

Then came iTunes, an online music service integrated with Apple’s iPod, a digital alternative to the Sony Walkman. Apple’s charismatic CEO Steve Jobs was able to convince most major American music labels to allow digital tracks to be sold on iTunes, and also played on computers.

Overnight, the album died.

Individual tracks at a dollar a time made so much more sense to consumers. But it also meant that the music industry imploded – from a $33-billion business in the 1990s to $16.2bn in 2011. In the USA in 2011, digital sales overtook physical for the first time, taking 50,3% of the market. Ironically, along with that landmark, album sales grew for the first time since 2004, as new artists like Adele gave the mass market a more compelling reason to buy a full set of songs.

Weekly Top 10: Fastest rising search terms from South Africans on Google

With the help of Google Insights for Research we are publishing the top 10 searched for phrases (minus the sexy stuff of course) by South Africans on Google over the previous seven days.

The fastest rising search web term was for ‘Michael Clarke Duncan’ following the death of the actor best known for his role in the movie The Green Mile. The Woolworths BEE furore placed it second, followed by check-ups on the weather. The 2012 Paralympics also featured in the top 10 as did Multichoice which relaunched a number of satellite TV channels and expanded its HD offering.

The connected CEO: From iPads to social media, enabling rather than dictating

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Added Value Saffron Hill recently released results from a study, commissioned by MEC and CNBC, looking at digital technology adoption by Asia’s CEOs. The study found that “Top executives are taking up digital technology, but the extent of the embrace appears to be tempered by their need to remain in control of their business ecosystem.” It goes on to reveal interesting insights on the relationship between technology and senior executives – including how the iPad has emerged as a game changer that makes execs, in the words of one, feel less like a salesman hidden behind a laptop. We caught up with the authors of the report.

MarkLives: What kinds of technology have been embraced by the CEOs in your study?

Saffron Hill: Anything to do with information and communication technology is valued as they are seen to be business performance enhancers. If you are talking about specific devices, these would include laptops, phones (BB and iPhone) and iPads.

MarkLives: What do they want to get out of technology?

Saffron Hill: Efficiency first and foremost. Also knowledge and, now more than before, entertainment.

MarkLives: An interesting aspect of your research centres on how distracting technology can be and how well CEOs recognise this – which is why they for example hand their mobile phones over to secretaries during meetings.

Saffron Hill: Yes the philosophy of these C Suites is that technology (as with other resources) should enable not dictate their lives. They are very conscious of not being enslaved by gadgets and very much value human interaction. They are still gentlemen in that sense, they feel it is most rude to place more importance/focus on a device than a real live person in front of them

MarkLives: Some comments in your research suggest CEOs prefer iPads to say laptops which make them feel like ‘sales people?’ So is the iPad a status symbol as much as a useful tool even in CEO circles?

Saffron Hill: I wouldn’t say the iPad is seen as a status symbol by these senior and very affluent people (it doesn’t cost much more than a phone). What is has though is more ‘cool factor’ compared to a laptop because of its aesthetics (typically with a nice cover) but also because of its novelty and the fact that it is embraced by young people. When a CEO whips out his iPad for a presentation, it is a subtle signal that he is forward looking and he is in tune with the latest developments. The CIO of Standard Chartered Bank was very proud to say that the bank was the first to issue iPads to all their senior people. For him, this move shows that the bank is technologically savvy but also open minded, willing to try new things.

Weekly Top 10: Fastest rising search terms from South Africans on Google

With the help of Google Insights for Research we are publishing the top 10 searched for phrases (minus the sexy stuff of course) by South Africans on Google over the previous seven days.

High cost of cheap tablets

This story was reprinted from online magazine Gadget with which MarkLives has a content partnership. As copyright holder Gadget has requested the story be withdrawn pending resolution of factual discrepancies. We will keep readers updated on the resolution of these discrepancies as they become available.

Red, Blue & Yellow — how Quirk Education and Red & Yellow could shake up advertising education

by Herman Manson. Quirk Education and ad school Red & Yellow are merging in a move which could have a significant long-term impact on the skill sets and quality of trainees entering the advertising industry.

Weekly Top 10: Fastest rising search terms from South Africans on Google

With the help of Google Insights for Research we are publishing the top 10 searched for phrases (minus the sexy stuff of course) by South Africans on Google over the previous seven days.

News that Lance Armstrong are to be stripped of his seven Tour de France wins and banned for life by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency caused a massive spike in searches from the cycling mad public in Western Cape. A butt naked Prince Harry and the site that published the photos, TMZ, also spiked. Not sure why the surge for Dischem unless the country is coming down with flu.

Brand reinvention: Oral B and the new word of mouth

by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee). The most personal mass-market gadget of all, the toothbrush, is being reinvented at the high and low end of the market.

We all imagine that there can be no gadget that is more personal or intrusive than a cellphone. But move your focus ever so slightly and you come across an even more invasive device – and one that is not usually regarded as a gadget at all: the toothbrush. But ever since the first electric toothbrush was invented by the Swiss in 1954, this household object has become ever more closely associated with gadgetry.

Now, just as phones have given way to smartphones, electric toothbrushes have been taken to a new level, with the “smart toothbrush”. Oral B may not be as cool a brand as Samsung or Apple, and certainly won’t appear in as many headlines, but it also has a shot at revolutionising a routine task.

It has produced a toothbrush that costs more than R1700, which is a huge mouthful in its own right. But then, the Oral B Triumph 5000 is not your common or bathroom toothbrush.

Allan Kent leaves Saatchi AtPlay for Primedia Broadcasting

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Allan Kent, Head of AtPlay at Saatchi & Saatchi, has left the agency to join Primedia Broadcasting where he will head up the digital division.

Kent has spent close to twelve years at Saatchi – first as an ‘external resource’ (his words) then from 2006 as an employee.

Primedia Broadcasting, a client of AtPlay, consists of really passionate people, says Kent, who has grown to know the business well. When the new position came up he felt it would be a great opportunity to spread his wings at a business where he “already knew what I’d be getting myself in for,” says Kent.