Want to catch up with what happened in the digital world this week? Our weekly Cheat Sheet fills you in on everything you missed while you scrambled to meet deadlines and put out fires.
Read about the YouTube Music Awards, Scribd’s subscription service for ebooks, Home Depot’s newest mobile app and what Snapchat Stories is all about.
1. Announcing the very first YouTube Music Awards
On November 3 in New York City, YouTube will be hosting its very first Music Awards with Jason Schwartzman as the host. Eminem, Lady Gaga and Arcade Fire are just a few of the mainstream artists who have agreed to perform at the event. With YouTube being a platform where many people can go to check out music and find the newest artists, it makes sense for the company to launch its own live awards ceremony. Nominations will begin on October 17, and YouTube is asking viewers to judge and determine who will be the winner. The YouTube Music Awards will be airing around the world including Rio, Moscow, London and Seoul – so this might mean that Psy will make an appearance.
2. Scribd launches subscription service for electronic books
Scribd first launched in 2007 as a digital library in which users could upload and share documents and other written content. Now it has launched a book subscription service in partnership with HarperCollins that gives users unlimited online access and an offline library of 20 books at a time for $8.99 per month. Scribd has more than 40 million free book titles and other documents in its online catalog and nearly 80 million monthly unique visitors accessing content on the site and apps each month. The website features book ratings and reviews, including the number of times the book has been read, liked and shared. The deal with HarperCollins will present an opportunity to generate revenue from electronic books of older titles and help facilitate book discovery.
3. Home Depot creates mobile gaming app for college football fans
As part of its sponsorship with ESPN College GameDay, Home Depot has launched an app that lets college football fans challenge hosts from the sports show to a game of virtual cornhole. Users must first create an account via Facebook Connect and then challenge hosts from ESPN’s College GameDay, such as Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, Desmond Howard and Kirk Herbstreit to play a game. Players must toss virtual bean bags, which are branded with the Home Depot logo and other brands that sponsor ESPN’s College GameDay, at the cornhole board for a chance to win weekly prizes. Grand prize winners will be chosen from the top leaderboard for a chance to win a post-season College GameDay VIP trip. In addition to the gaming feature, the mobile app links back to Home Depot’s website to let consumers learn how to build their own cornhole boards and shop for products. Home Depot took an interesting approach to show that brands can leverage sponsorships within mobile gaming apps to stay in the forefront of a consumer’s attention.
4. Snapchat’s newest feature called Stories
Snapchat has just rolled out an update — Stories — that allows users to build feeds of shared content that can be viewed an unlimited number of times during a 24-hour period. Photos and videos can be added to the end of a story cycle, but each clip will eventually vanish after they hit the one-day mark. Each snap in a Story timeline includes a list of viewers, so with Stories being pushed out to friends through the platform, users will be able to see the added content as it comes in. This new feature provides better opportunities for brands, in terms of advertising, pushing offers and running marketing campaigns.
