Friday 5 — 10.30.2015

By Friday Five

cards

  1. In the early 90s, corporate marketing departments produced physical brand books, illustrating dos and don’ts for print, TV, signage, trade shows, etc. Fast forward a couple of decades, and the digital world requires a wide-ranging brand treatment that enables variations in volume, and concepts like stacking. See this gorgeous Netflix brand rollout for a best-in-class example.
  2. I’m a longtime fan of Nuzzel, a useful service to see what your friends and colleagues are sharing online. Pro tip: try the dropdown that allows you to sort content by timeframe. This week Nuzzel rolled out a new automated newsletter to attract audiences other than superusers (the polite term for addicts) of Twitter.
  3. How (and where) are we using the internet of things? A study by Accenture found security (hello, dropcam!) and quantified self apps topping the list of applications. A bigger takeaway comes at the end — rather than connect just our homes there’s a greater opportunity to connect ourselves to the context of the physical world as we move through it.
  4. Organizations are adjusting their tactics as digital capabilities become more broadly distributed. Hence the New York Times recently shut down its City Room blog, citing DNA [that] has spread throughout the newsroom.
  5. 68% of U.S.. adults now own a smartphone — double the number who did back in mid-2011. And iPhone growth naysayers be damned: Ben Thompson explains that the ever-increasing importance of smartphones in people’s lives means that the market size of people willing to pay a premium for their smartphone is actually growing.

Weekend fun: If the pumpkins weren’t enough of a tipoff, the sheer number of inbound Snapchats of costumes remind us that it’s Halloween. Spruce up your digital self with Halloween icons from the Noun Project, and check your actual costume’s popularity using Google search data. But if Halloween is just not your thing, hide at home this weekend watching all of Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting on Twitch (well played, Adobe!).

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.

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