A weekly roundup of media news and talking points, sans effort

Thought for the Week 

“[H]earing it over when you played it was like waterboarding I guess. ” Fox News pundit Steven Emerson, reacting to his own comments that Birmingham, UK, is a city non-Muslims are no longer welcome in, which sparked outrage amongst the reasonably-minded just days before another presenter on the network launched into a seven minute diatribe described by critics as Islamophobic. It’s not clear whether Emerson has ever actually been subjected to waterboarding torture methods, but nevertheless it’s proof that hot-headed public statements never help anyone.

Weekly High

Much as we don’t want to appear arrogant, this week we were delighted to see the New York Times ranked our hometown of Manchester at 26 on its list of essential global destination to visit in 2015- placing the city above the likes of Rome and Miami Beach. A great result for Marketing Manchester.

 

Weekly Low

Just when you think BlackBerry’s future couldn’t be any more precarious, a headline like this hits. Rule number one when promoting a smartphone brand that isn’t Apple- do not, we repeat, do not get caught tweeting from an iPhone. Massive fail.

 

Stories to keep an eye on

Trials are now taking place for Facebook’s new LinkedIn rival, Facebook At Work.
Following a similar move from Facebook, Twitter is expanding its video products in a bid to make it ‘the natural platform’ for moving images.
In somewhat surprising news, considering it wasn’t so long ago the coffee giant was blasted for not paying its fair share of tax, Starbucks has topped HootSuite’s list of most loved brands. 
 

Just in case you missed it

According to experts, 2015 will see an exponential increase in the number of major brands investing in creating unique mobile games. Here’s our take on why you shouldn’t ignore this trend.