Apple Smashes iPhone and iPad Sales Records

Apple has beaten profit expectations for the three months to the end of June, thanks to big increases in iPhone and iPad sales. The Californian-based company sold a record 20.3 million iPhones over the quater, a rise of 140% on the same period a year ago, and a record 9.25 million iPads, up 183%.

Apple also saw sales of its Macs increase albeit by a much more modest 14%.
"We're thrilled to deliver our best quater ever, with revenue up 82% and profits up 125%, said Steve Jobs Apples Cheif Executive.

However, in the UK and several other countries, figures show Android-based smartphones - which tend to be cheaper than the iPhone - are selling faster than Apples hit products!

Twitter

The power of Twitter was evident yesterday when a certain couple posted a photo of their newborn daughter on the micro-blogging site. Victoria Beckham tweeted a photo of her husband David giving their newborn daughter, Harper Seven, an eskimo kiss with the caption 'Daddy's little girl'. Within minutes the snap had been retweeted by thousands of users across the world. While we don't have the exact figure of how many times the photo was retweeted below are a few more interesting statistics about Twitter:

• Twitter celebrated its fifth birthday last week


• The first ever tweet was an automated would and said "just setting up my twttr"


• The first ever human tweet was by founder Jack Dorsey and said "inviting coworkers"


• Over a billion tweets worldwide are sent each week


• Approx 460,000 new Twitter accounts are set up every day


• There are an estimated 250,000 users in Ireland


• On the day that Michael Jackson died 456 tweets per second were sent

Interactive Marketing Campaigns

One of the most successful interactive marketing campaigns in recent years is the 'Hunter Shoots a Bear' campaign for Tipp-Ex, the correction fluid. You may well ask what connection does a video of a hunter shooting a bear have to do with correction fluid. We wondered the same thing. The makers of Tipp-Ex uploaded a video to YouTube of a hunter supposedly about to shoot a bear. The video gets interesting, however, when the hunter refuses to do this. He instead reaches out of the video on the page, grabs a bottle of Tipp-Ex and covers over the word 'shoots' in the title. The user can then replace the word with one of their own and check out the hunter and bear carrying out whatever action they have chosen. The fun is also in seeing whether or not the suggestion works. At the time of writing this the video has had nearly seventeen and a half millions views on YouTube, making it the most successful viral marketing campaign. Check out the video at http://bit.ly/a9CqLH

Another recent successful interactive marketing campaign in the Irish market is the 'Bud ice cold index'. Participants downloaded an app to their smartphone. Then, if the temperature is between 16 and 19 degrees they could avail of a discounted pint of Budweiser. If the temperature is above 20 degrees they could receive a free pint. The success of this campaign won DDB UK a Lion in the Promo & Activation category at this year's Cannes Festival of Creativity. Publicans were also pleased with the campaign because it increased footfall into their premises without it costing them.

Considering the success of both of these campaigns, we believe that interactive marketing campaigns will become more and more popular from here on. We wonder what brands will be next to use such campaigns and what they will entail.