WHAT HAPPENED IN 2013? IN AN ALPHABETICAL ORDER: FROM A TO Z

© Parrot Drone

Or actually - robots. BMW was first, announcing the launch of a production line where - for the

first time in history - people and robots will be working side by side. Later scientists from

Oxford published a research showing that as a result of a widely understood computerization

nearly 50% of present jobs are at high risk of automation. What’s more, Google keeps taking

over companies (8 in all, including Boston Dynamics) that deal with robot manufacturing.

A for AUTOMATION

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During the whole year 2013, we could observe a huge rise in the value of the Bitcoin (it grew

4 times just between October and November 2013). The current value of a Bitcoin is estimated

at $1300. Also media popularity of this cryptocurrency grew in 2013. In Canada they

introduced a first ATM for Bitcoins, and Richard Branson announced that it would soon be

possible to pay with Bitcoins for space flights with Virgin Galactic.

B for BITCOIN

© antanacoins, flickr.com

C for COOKIES

On the 22nd March of 2013, the European Union obliged website owners in Poland to inform

their users that their website collects data via cookies. Something that was meant to help users

has actually backfired. A survey conducted in June 2013 by IIBR shows that the notifications

about using cookies haven’t increased the feeling of safety of Internet users. Some of them

find the information annoying, some of them neutral, and 25% felt in fact more invigilated.

©neil conway, flickr.com

Just a month after its release the Dove Real Beauty Sketches video had over 114 mlm views

and was shared nearly 4 million times - making in the greatest viral of all time.

D for DOVE Real Beauty Sketches

E for EDWARD Snowden

By revealing information regarding PRISM, Edward Snowden caused a worldwide discussion

about information safety on the Internet and the level of invigilation of Internet users by

governments and corporations. Naturally, the discussion was hot - but in the end Internet

users didn’t seem to care about the problem that much. People often post pictures of their

ID’s, credit cards and passports on Instagram, and the Wave 7 research shows that currently in

Poland 67,4% of respondents agree with the sentence: „I am concerned with the amount of

information available online” - only 5 per cent more than in 2012. Not so many, considering

the context.

© Wired

F for the FOX

Well, it looks like having bunch of people dressed in the animal costumes dancing and

producing strange sounds is something that will guarantee you a success on the internet. Over

320 mln views on YouTube in 3 months, over 700k comments, debut at number 29 on the US

Billboard Hot 100 top singles chart and no 1 on the iTunes Top 100 download chart in Norway.

G for Twitter GOING on stock exchange

On November 7th Twitter appeared on the stock market, with opening stock share prices 75%

above their initial offering price. The way they started was also remarkable - the ribbon was

cut not by Twitter CEO’s, but by its popular users.

© darkroom.baltimoresun.com

Proof of the short lifespan of Internet memes. In February 2013 we were all living Harlem

Shake, and now we don’t even remember it was this year. After the original video (with over 50

million views on YouTube), literally everyone engaged in Harlem Shake - from Facebook

employees to people in Warsaw subway.

H for HARLEM shake

I for INTELLIGENT watches

In the West it was said that 2013 was the year of the smartwatch. In fact we can see that the

wrist race has already begun. All the biggest players - Samsung, Sony, Apple, Google,

Qualcomm, and other businesses (such as Nissan) - are working on or have already launched

smartwatches. In the middle of the year Pebble informed that they sold over 275 thousand of

their watches. #goingmainstream

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J for JEAN Claude van Damme and his epic split

The most striking – according to Anders Vilhelmsson, PR Manager, Volvo Trucks – the stunt

was real and was performed in just one take. Really impressive.

In the recession economy simply beeing good is a rising trend. It started with banking and

insurance companies who failed our trust, but now it is spreading also onto the other

categories. Consumers expect and value all the brands show that they care.

K for random acts of KINDNESS trend

©Ed Yourdon, flickr.com

A motion controller (connected to the computer via USB) that traces hand and finger

movements, enabling interaction in many apps like John Anderton had in Minority Report. In

other words - a new form of controlling the computer without touching the screen, keyboard

or mouse. It can be used in graphic software, presentations (maps, photos), web navigation - it

is more accurate than Kinect, but doesn’t analyze the body, only hands within an area of

approx. 1 m. Leap Motion has its own app store (Airspace), with currently about 140 apps. The

device had its premiere in July 2013 - it costs around $80. It fits the strong Human-Computer-

Interaction trend perfectly. It can have a great future, especially considering the development

of 3D printing (ability to correct digital pictures with your hands).

L for LEAP Motion

© LeapMotion

Dumb Ways to Die, created by McCann Melbourne agency for Metro Trains was declared the

most awarded campaign of 2013 by Advertising Age. I believe it was a simple

acknowledgement of a fact, taking into account that the campaign won 5 Grand Prix Awards

during the Cannes Lions festival (for: PR, Promotion and Activation, Radio, Film, Integrated

Campaign), and over 20 other awards. In consequence, it is the most awarded campaign in the

history of this festival to date.

M for METRO Trains Melbourne

N for NOKIA bought by Microsoft

© Nicola since 1972, flickr.com

Not the whole company of course - „just” its part responsible for the mobile market (devices

and services). Microsoft paid over 7 billion Euros for that deal. Some comments compared that

deal to what Google did 2 years ago, taking over Motorola. The creators of mobile operating

systems are now also becoming telephone producers.

One of the best examples of real time marketing trend (authentic marketing communication

delivered at the right time with the message linked to other popular stimuli) which was very

clearly seen among winners from 2013 Cannes Lions Festival.

O for OREO Dunk in the Dark

The topic of November issue of Wired magazine (UK edition) was „Europe’s 100 Hottest

Startups”. I bought it without even looking inside and I was very disappointed to find out that

not one single Polish start-up was mentioned. The editors of Wired showed a lot of ignorance,

as 2013 was really the year of Polish start-ups. First, Witold Mieliniczek designed B - in short: a

flying car and put it up on KickStarter, where he not only gathered enough funds to build a

prototype, but 30 thousand pounds more. The IntelClinic team gathered $100.000 - also on

KickStarter - to sponsor the NeuroOn mask. Finally, the boys of Estimote got a grant from

investors in the amount of $3,1 million. Way to go - fingers crossed!

P for POLISH start-ups

© Estimote

Or should I say never-ending story, as media have been serving us with each and every bit of

this soap opera. The birth frenzy and discussions about the unrevealed sex (which even

mentioned gender dicussion - see tweet below) of the royal baby took over the whole world.

On Twitter just the baby’s birth generated over 25k tweets a minute.

R for ROYAL BABY

© Gene Hunt, flickr.com

S for SELFIE (selfie)

The Oxford dictionary gave the word „selfie” the title of Word of the Year 2013. In fact it’s not

so much about language, as a wide sociological phenomenon. One of the proofs of huge

popularity of taking photos of oneself is how much Justin Bieber invested in the service Shots

of Me - something like Instagram, but only with pictures of users themselves. In 2013 Star

Wars created an Instagram account, and the first photo published was a selfie of Darth Vader.

Within 2 days, this brought them nearly 150 thousand followers.

© Star Wars, Instagram

Miley Cyrus is currently in the first place in Google Trends in 3 categories: People, Actors,

Musicians. MTV awarded her with the Best Artist of 2013 award. Nominated to the title Person

of the Year 2013 of Time magazine (in the end she lost to Pope Francis). And who would have

thought that today, when everything has really already happened, it would be enough to show

your tongue… and butt.

T for Miley Cyrus TONGUE & TWERKING

© HypeBeast

The year 2013 was a breakthrough in the perception of drones. They moved smoothly from

the category of war actions to civil use. The most famous ones include a Domicopter

delivering Domino’s Pizza, Land of Quattro - an Audi commercial spot filmed with drones only

or the Amazon Prime Air, which in 5 years time is supposed to deliver Amazon orders in as

little as 30 minutes. Apart from advertising and retail, drones are also used in businesses such

as health, agriculture, entertainment, telecommunication, media etc. It is estimated that only in

Europe there are over 500 civil uses of drones. In November 2013, TED organized a so-called

„drone week” focusing on the subject.

U for UAVs

© Parrot Drone

Many call it the meme of the year 2013. And, like every meme, it appeared suddenly and out

of nowhere. Wow. Wow. Such an amazing year. Such different projects. Such happy people.

W for WOW WOW, the doge

© Facebook

In 2013 Zynga had to lay off hundreds off employees (18 percent of global workforce) and

closed their New York and Los Angeles offices. The official reason: shifting towards mobile and

away from the social browser games (they lost more than 25% of its loyal daily users in just

one quarter). It seems that the popularity of social gaming doesn’t go hand in hand with

making money out of it.

Z for ZYNGA

e: natalia@hatalska.com

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