Cocktail Hour: June 29, 2012

Has this heat wave made you thankful for the cool confines of your office? If only Apple would spend more time on creating a water-proof laptop (was Ping really worth the effort?). All we would need is a kiddie pool, Wifi and an inflatable desk, and our dream of a floating workstation would be complete.

Maybe you weren’t feeling the heat this week, but CNN and Fox made us glad for planning, strategy, concepting, brainstorming and the seemingly thousands of revisions that happen prior to hitting the publish button. Google’s I/O conference introduced us to Jelly Bean, a Kindle Fire rival, glasses that will run you $1,500 and the long awaited release of Chrome for the iPhone and iPad. And in an obligatory nod to Facebook news, the site changed over all users to an @facebook.com email addresses, allowing the spammers of the world to gain access to email addresses for nearly 900 million people — I guess its our move Zuckerberg.

Get Your GIF Fix

The GIF — that now lovable bitmap image format invented in 1987. What once was used to create dancing hamsters and spinning globes, the GIF has transformed into the highest form of art for internet memes. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the graphics interchange format, here are some of our favorite GIF blogs:

• This Advertising Life
• Lulinternet
• #WhatShouldWeCallMe
• Brother Brain
• I Heart Cat GIFs

Did You See?

Show up your friends by introducing them to these great creative campaigns and sites.

• Snapdragon’s retro rap promo video
• Airbnb’s Pinterest-style travel wish list site
• Chrome’s Build with Lego site
• The Martin Agency’s Twitterich project

Chat It Up

Need to catch up on your marketing news this week? Here’s some of the best in industry-related articles for your weekend reading.

What effect does price have on the shopping behavior and decision making of consumers? Surveys on comparison shopping show how product pricing and the way in which marketers frame the comparison of items can result in vastly different consumer decisions and attitudes. Time, useless price points and charm prices are explored this post from KISSmetrics on psychological studies on the way consumer perceive and evaluate value.

Nielsen recently reported that people in the US spend “5.8 hours on average watching online video.” And the recent surge in original, online video being launched on Hulu and YouTube showcase that more and more viewers are asking and sticking around for longer video content. GigaOm explores the rise of original online programming, audience retention and how certain providers have changed the expectations of video viewers.

In a world going mobile, how are content publishers working to monetize and tap into this audience where there is still a disparity in the amount of traffic, advertising spending and revenue? These are just a few questions currently posed to marketers trying to understand the opportunities and limitations of the mobile web, native apps and web applications and targeting. The PandoDaily outlines four paths for digital publishers to capitalize and monetize the mobile experience.

Cool Down, Drink Up

We’re also celebrating the one year anniversary (June 28) of Google+. So create a drinking circle and toast to a real, or even virtual, hangout.

Vanilla Vodka Root Beer Float

You will need:

• Root Beer
• 2 ounces Vanilla Vodka
• 2 Scoops Vanilla Ice Cream

Fill half the glass with root beer and add in vanilla vodka. Top with ice cream.

Please drink responsibly. Recipe courtesy of Fashionably Bombed.

Find a cool place to hide this weekend and remember to send us your top reads of the week.

Cheers!

[Cat GIF Source: Animatur]