Facebook Ads At 15...

This week we had a visit from a 15 year old girl named Tess, she was meant to do some job shadowing for the week as a part of her Gr. 10 curriculum. So we had her write a blog post, below you will find the opinions of a 15 year old on Facebook advertising.

Image Source.

I am a big Facebook fan for multiple reasons. First of all,  I moved to Toronto but all of the friends I grew up with still live in London. Moreover, all my family lives in France. For me, Facebook is a great way to communicate and keep contact with those family and friends that I'm missing. I can see what they do, how they change and send them messages.

 Another reason I love Facebook is that it’s easy to communicate with your local friends. For example, each year, my class creates a private group so we can post the homework, help each other and meet up. Another really cool thing about Facebook is that you can find people. Recently I founded a primary school mate I hadn’t spoken to for at least seven years and I learned, via Facebook,  that she lives in Toronto now. It’s absolutely crazy! 

I might use Facebook a lot but I absolutely never pay attention to their ads. For me, internet is not a place to look at ads.

Sometimes I look up ads on YouTube when I’ve seen something that interested me in a store or on TV. I will also look up an ad if a cute guy is in it; I love ads for mens cologne, they are guys are always so handsome! Then, if YouTube suggests some other similar ads that draw my attention, I will look at them too.

Some other places where I pay attention to ads are on the bus, the subway, in magazines, on TV and in movies. However, most of the time, I’ll just look at it and that’s it. Nevertheless, if after seeing an ad I feel I would like to have the product, I am going to look it up. Once I have more information on it, I’ll see if I would like to buy it.

Becel Ride For Heart

The Becel Ride for Heart is a favourite pastime for the CapC crew. Becel is a great client to work with and there's nothing that makes us happier than helping them with the Ride for Heart. We enlist a lot of cheerleaders and create a team of cyclists to hit the DVP, raising money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Despite the early Sunday morning wake up, it's a highly enjoyable day.

There's a great sense of peace found riding the empty DVP and there's opportunity to network with other agencies and corporate teams.

Taking pictures on the iPhone, using Camera+ to manipulate them into something cooler and Instagram to share them across networks kept me busy (I'm a seasoned no-hands rider). The shot that accompanies this post was taken as I approached a CapC team member deep in conversation with a Becel rider. They were likely discussing how badly they wanted those little muffins made with Becel available at the the finish line, little muffins almost always taste better than big muffins.

A great day all around!

- Jon

A Photogenic Generation

Image courtesy of Google.com

In early April Google announced Project Glass,the creation of augmented reality glasses. Although Project Glass isn't exactly stylish in a category dominated by apple the technology is both forward thinking and incredibly exciting.

The augmented reality glasses are multi-functional allowing hands free interactions through the glasses and Google promises eventually contact lenses. The lofty concept video demonstrates functions that are currently not official applications of the glasses: answering e-mails, displaying reminders and GPS mapping. Despite the fact that these unofficial apps are not currently part of the project, knowing Google we can expect that at least some of this functionality will be fully blown out in future.

Currently, Google has confirmed that the first model of glasses will enable the user to take photos. Although this appears to be a minor progression; the difference between the augmented photos and regular camera photos is what makes Google such a leader in the tech segment. The glasses will not only be able to take photos, but take them and share them from our OWN perspective and point of view.

Twitter and Facebook have given us the ability to share our lives but to literally be able to share our view point, now that is a revelation. And if the 250 million photos uploaded daily to Facebook are any indication our voyeuristic side will win out over any qualms we may have at sharing something as intimate as our view of the world.

As Google announced their 'Project Glass' in April, Facebook, almost simultaneously, announced the acquisition of Instagram. Google and Facebook seem to have competing, but similar photo apps.

The difference between Google's Project Glass and Facebook's new photo platform is the interest of the user. While Project Glass takes photos from one's personal perspective, Facebook's picture apps allow the user to alter their photos to suit their perception of the image.

Every day more and more users take photos to upload on their social channels, both private and public. But what drives this behaviour?  Is it the desire to share photos that are perfected and altered to suit our perception or do we simply want people to see the world through our eyes? While there is no obvious, or forthcoming, answer to this question it is worth thinking about. What is it that makes people want to share so much of themselves so often.

When Google releases Project Glass I think that we will see a split between those users who choose to share raw images from their view point and those who prefer to lend artistic license to their vision.





- Erica - Erica is currently an intern with the Cap C team and we are delighted to have her input on our blog.