Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Countdown of Awesome. A lofty and overly-ambitious attempt at a chart that subjectively counts down the most interesting stuff from the last week (or thereabouts).
This week’s top five includes a cunning use of augmented reality within retail from IBM, a Facebook insight to make you sound irrefutably smart, and perhaps the most brilliant piece of self-promotion to grace YouTube from an irreverent country not too far away …
Number 5) Google Docs Demo: Masters Edition
Jostling its way into the Top 5 we have Google Docs Demo: Masters Edition from Goodby Silverstein & Partners. What better means of explaining Google Docs’ ability to collaborate with others than enabling you to do so with some of the finest scribes who’ve ever lived?
Looks like Dostoevsky’s attempts to pimp up this blog’s intro text to include a psychoanalysis of the author – deep stuff...
Number 4) Facebook’s diminishing scale of organic reach.
This chart from Edgerank Checker may not look like it belongs here at first glance but the insights that lie behind promise to make you immortally awesome.
Edgerank Checker analysed 14,000 pages over the last 30 days to see their average organic reach per post. Check out how this figure reduces drastically with community size – might call for a timely paid, earned and owned Facebook strategy if you don’t have one already? (If you want to know about this stuff here’s a handy piece from March which might help.)
Number 3) Hot Wheels: Double Loop World Record Stunt
Enough cerebral stuff – here’s a ridiculous stunt for toy brand Hot Wheels which seeks to break the world record by doing a double loop. “Team Hot Wheels drivers, Tanner Foust and Greg Tracy set a Guinness World Record racing two vehicles through a six-story double vertical loop at the 2012 X Games in Los Angeles! It's Hot Wheels for real!” That it certainly is.
Number 2) IBM Research: AR retail product chooser
IBM Research have developed a prototype of a mobile app that acts as a personal shopping assistant in store by pointing out the stuff you may actually want through augmented reality. “For example, a shopper looking for breakfast cereal could specify a product that’s low in sugar, highly rated by consumers and on sale. As the shopper pans the mobile device’s camera across a shelf of cereal boxes, the augmented shopping app will identify cereals that meet the criteria”.
Via Mashable
Number 1) Axis 2011: The most creative country in the world
In the glorious position of Number One this week we have perhaps the most brilliant piece of self-aggrandising publicity YouTube has witnessed, thanks to our irreverent Trans-Tasman neighbours.
Aggrieved something isn’t featured? Think an entry just isn’t up to the correct threshold of awesomeness? Then let us know in the comments below. If you’d like to share anything for inclusion next week and get a nice little credit in return, just ping an email to james.filmer@umww.com.
James is Chief Innovation Officer at UM.