Two opportunities for students and grads to break their way into the industry with The Eleven and BRAND-SOCIAL, either by way of a summer internship or more long term placement.  See below for available positions as a Youth Marketing Consultant or Business Development Manager (scroll a little further down the page!).

YOUTH MARKETING CONSULTANT:

The Eleven (www.theeleven.co.uk) is a leading youth marketing consultancy.

We use our understanding of young people and their world to help brands engage a youth audience. We’ve been privileged enough to have worked with some awesome clients… from Adidas, MTV and Nintendo to Timex, Urban Outfitters and even Reggae Reggae Sauce!

As young marketers ourselves – the Directors are 22 and the business is built on the principle that young people are best at understanding young people! – we are passionate about helping enthusiastic and aspirational students/graduates to enter the industry.

It is increasingly challenging for those interested in pursuing careers in marketing/advertising/PR to find valuable, meaningful experience in organisations that are committed to helping them grow. We have developed an internship program that covers a wide variety of areas, ensuring that you have the opportunity to apply your ideas in real world scenarios.

Your time will be spent on two different areas, both designed to help us help you:

For one “half”, you will dictate and lead on relevant and interesting projects that you want to complete. We provide you with the time, guidance and resources necessary to achieve your goals. It might be that your passion is film and you want to make a documentary on an area of youth interest. Or perhaps you can come up with a system to “measure” the effectiveness of youth campaigns. Innovation is encouraged and we hope to be the hub for some really exciting ideas.

On the other hand, you will receive practical and hands on experience within the following areas of The Eleven:

BRAND-SOCIAL: our social media agency managing brands and fan communities online
INSIGHT: researching, justifying and reporting on youth consumer behaviour and what young people think of brands
CREATIVE: helping conceptualise, develop and in some cases activate creative promotional ideas for our clients
PITCHING: identifying new business opportunities, preparing a pitch document and developing a strategy that solves client challenges
One of our motivations behind offering this opportunity is to identify the next wave of talent that can take the agency forward. In that vein, the potential for permanent roles is a real one.

We will cover your expenses up to a monthly cap.

Applications are ongoing and we hope to provide some flexibility with timings.

There will be a minimum time period commitment.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Google CEO Larry Page has reported that Google+, the company’s social network, now has 90 million users. The details came within a press release for Google’s fourth quarter, in which Page said, ‘I’m very excited about what we can do in 2012 – there are tremendous opportunities to help users and grow our business.’ Back in October their user base was estimated at 40 million, while in December some claimed it was up to 62 million users. Experian Hitwise have recently predicted that the network will have 400 million users by the end of this year. Whatever the figure will be, no-one can doubt that the network has seen an incredibly quick growth since October, however one still wonders how Google+ is going to convert the average Facebook user.

Nike launches FuelBand for tracking physical activity

They had been promoting this launch for the past couple of weeks, claiming to be about to release something for everyone which will change all physical activity. Well now Nike has unveiled the Nike+ FuelBand, a product that fits around your wrist and hopes to provide a common metric for tracking all physical activities. Building on from their 2006 product, Nike+, the FuelBand will allow users to compare the difference between various activities, such as a football match and a dance class. The band itself, through oxygen kinetics, can determine when a user is performing high intensity activity, or just sitting at their desk, and lets users set daily NikeFuel score goals to encourage people to stay fit. There will also be Facebook and Twitter integration so that you will be able to share your Fuel score with friends.

The Big Chill festival 2012 cancelled

This summer’s The Big Chill festival has been cancelled due to the Olympic Games. Festival Republic managing director Melvin Benn, who organises The Big Chill festival, said that he thought long and hard about changing the date of the festival, but due to fans’ desire he couldn’t. ‘Sadly, the artist availability and confirmations we were achieving led me to conclude that I couldn’t risk going ahead with the event as an outdoor event this year.’ Benn has said they will be trying to host some smaller events indoors this year, taking the festival back outdoors in 2013. Fans who have already bought tickets for the festival will be given a refund.

Mercedes-Benz turns to social media for younger appeal

Mercedes-Benz’s have been looking to connect with a younger audience for some time, and they are now planning on sharpening up their social media presence. They are already active on social media, but mainly through the connection they have with Fashion Week, and want a more long-term integration strategy. The company is currently looking for an agency to devise a three-year social media strategy, allowing it to connect with 25-44 year olds.

Song of the week from King Charles

Today’s music comes from King Charles, called ‘Ivory Road’… enjoy!

Yesterday saw nominations for the Brit awards announced, with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran leading the way with four nominations. Sheeran has been nominated for best male, breakthrough act, best single for ‘The A Team’, and best album for his debut record, which is called +. Jessie J is up for three awards, with organisers also announcing that Adele will perform live at the ceremony. The performance will be her first since recovering from throat surgery, and she has also been nominated in three categories. The best album category will see Sheeran and Adele compete with Coldplay for Mylo Xyloto, Florence and the Machine for Ceremonials and PJ Harvey’s Mercury Prize-winning Let England Shake.

Google tells Twitter ‘We don’t index the @ symbol’

Google searches are increasingly recognising Google+ pages as a part of their results, giving an unfair advantage over those brands not on the social network. It means that, according to Twitter, Goggle aren’t providing the most relevant social results by promoting Google+ pages, although Google say they would promote Twitter pages more if they had better permission to do so. Google has also confirmed that they have never indexed the ‘@’ symbol.

Facebook launches ‘Listen With Friends’ service

It has been revealed that Facebook have launched their new ‘Listen With Friends’ service. Facebook users will now be able to listen to music at the same time as their friends are, with the ability to discuss the tracks using Facebook Chat. It has been reported that up to 50 people will be able to listen and talk about the tracks at the same time. Whenever a Facebook user is listening to a track a musical note will appear alongside their name to notify their friends, who will then be able to click the ‘Listen with’ button to get a slice of the action. While it all sounds good, the service will only work if both parties have access to the same online music libraries, such as Spotify and Rdio.

Liam Neeson returns for Taken 2

There aren’t many films that excite us more than ‘Taken’, so you can imagine our joy at hearing the launch of a sequel which will again star Liam Neeson and Maggie Grace. The co-stars have reunited for the sequel to the 2008 thriller which saw Neeson travel across Europe to find his daughter, who was kidnapped on a trip to Paris to be sold into prostitution. The new plot reportedly takes place in Istanbul, seeing retired CIA operative Bryan Mills (Neeson) and his wife taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter.

Music from Maz Totterdell

New music for the day comes from Maz Totterdell performing Counting My Fingers during her session at Maida Vale Studios for BBC Introducing.

Yesterday saw Facebook rolling out ads onto people’s news feeds, calling them Featured Stories, as opposed to their original Sponsored Stories. The new format within the news feed will work in exactly the same way as Sponsored Stories, showing a user’s interactions with brands within the ad. The new posts will be flagged as ‘Featured’ to notify users that the ad has been paid for and that they are seeing it because either they, or their friends, have already interacted with that brand. A spokesman for Facebook said, ‘Since people can see marketing messages from both pages they have and have not Liked elsewhere on Facebook, we want to make it clear that marketers can only pay for stories to be featured in your news feed if you have explicitly liked the page.’

Volunteers for London Olympics have Twitter and Facebook use restricted

Volunteers for the London 2012 Olympics have been banned from posting updates and photos to their various social networks including Facebook and Twitter. The London Organising Committee has revealed that Games Makers, who will total around 70,000 people, will not be allowed to post their roles, locations, or details about the athletes and other VIPs online. A spokesman has said, ‘We understand that many of our Games Makers will want to use social media to share their exciting experiences… We have provided some practical guidelines to give basic advice on interacting in a social media environment with the aim of protecting the interests of our workforce and operation.’

Diet Coke launches new ‘Love It Light’ initiative

Diet Coke’s ‘Love It Light’ fashion-focused activity is set to move into its latest phase, which will feature another high profile TV campaign and its first connection with Benefit cosmetics. The TV campaign that has been created by Mother, Diet Coke’s long-standing creative agency, sees the brand’s ‘fashionista’ puppet ambassadors discussing how bad their days have been, and therefore who deserves the final can of drink left in their fridge. Diet Coke is also launching three new pack designs, that include money-off vouchers and limited edition make-up packs, along with a dedicated Facebook page, encouraging consumers to ‘Get Glam’ with Benefit make-up.

YouTube grows, Facebook doesn’t

As social networking continues to diversify, Facebook’s dominance of UK visits to social sites is diluting, while YouTube is experiencing steep growth. This comes from new data from Experian Hitwise. Facebook’s share of total visits to social networks in December dropped from 58.5% in 2010 to 51.3% in 2011, however experts have suggested that this doesn’t mean they are losing visitors, just that the market is diversifying rapidly. The number of visits to Facebook from Britons during the year remained static at the 1.3 billion mark, while YouTube, which accounted for 23.6% of total visits to social networks in December 2010, has grown its share to 25%.

Video and Song of the day merged into one

A few months ago we had this song by ‘Gotye’ as one of our favourites for the day, and now it has been covered and twisted around in a pretty impressive way. Enjoy!

According to research by two firms, most top brands do currently have Google+ brand pages, but few have many followers or visitors. BrightEdge reported that only 77 of the top 100 brands (based on Millward Brown’s Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2011 list) have Google+ brand pages, while 93 of the 100 have Facebook pages. Having said this the total number of followers for these 77 brands is now 222,000, which is up from last month’s total of 147,000. Starbucks quadrupled their number of followers, while H&M and Pepsi both reached over 20,000 followers. It seems that most brands are testing Google+, wanting to make sure they are not left behind in case the social network should rise in popularity.

Military Wives single is fastest selling in six years

The Military Wives Choir look almost guaranteed to land the Christmas Number 1 this week after they became the fastest-selling single in six years. So far 242,000 copies of the single, ‘Wherever You Are’, have been sold, with still many more days to go for that figure to rise. Back in 2005 Shayne Ward, The X Factor winner at the time, sold 313,000 copies of his single, and the choir has so far outsold this year’s X Factor winners, Little Mix, by 6:1.

Lastminute.com hires Adam & Eve

Lastminute.com has announced they have hired Adam & Eve to its £6m creative account. The move comes after a strategic re-evaluation which will lead to the brand returning to its heritage of providing ‘value’ and ‘last-minute booking’. Recently the brand have tried to create an online entertainment portal, aiming to promote the idea of shared stories. Adam & Eve will be responsible for developing a new brand vision and creative direction as of next year across Europe.

Strada owner looks to consumer content to drive others in-store

Tragus Group, the owners of Strada, Bella Italia and Cafe Rouge, is encouraging consumers to share their restaurant experience through images and video in a bid to attract more users. In return those who do share their experience on social platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, will be rewarded with money-off vouchers. The idea is hardly revolutionary and is reliant and social savvy users, however it is a suitable reward and incentive for those on social platforms to continue to engage with the brand.

Trailer for ‘The Hobbit’ is released

Facebook’s new look was rolled out worldwide yesterday, with users being able to see a visual personal history of themselves, similar to a digital scrapbook. Users can either wait until they are prompted about installing Timeline, or can simply head to www.facebook.com/about/timeline now to get it. Users now have seven days in which to edit their timeline profile, meaning that any embarrassing images or posts can be cleared before Timeline becomes the default look on your profile page!

AllSaints look to drive high-street sales through UK bloggers

AllSaints, in an attempt to build its digital strategy around more content and advocacy, have announced that they are going to expand the number of UK bloggers they work with. The number of editorial partnerships in the UK they are connected to is expected to grow dramatically, with the focus being on nurturing partnerships with the ‘fashion-fanatic who blogs about their passion to a dedicated audience’. The news comes after the appointment of performance agency Affiliate Window, who, along with Profero, will work to foster new online connections during 2012. The move also follows Topman launching an online multi-platform magazine last month, ‘Topman Generation’, perhaps a sign of a shift of strategy from fashion brands.

iTunes Match launches internationally

iTunes Match, Apple’s latest service that allows you to access your music library from Apple’s cloud, has started to be rolled out worldwide, with the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and France some of the countries reportedly seeing the service live. The feature, which launched last month in the US, allows users to access their entire music collection from up to 10 PCs and iOS devices for $24.99 a year.

New music from Sam Garrett

This week’s new music recommendation comes in the form of Sam Garrett who looks set to have a big few years ahead!

The past few months have seen the show go to incredible lengths to maintain its audience, which has been dwindling week by week, highlighted with the fact that yesterday’s final was watched by 13 million viewers, down a staggering 4 million on last year. We’ve seen drug scandals, fix claims, judge’s arguing, and the claim that some contestants were simply actors hired for the show. So what has caused the switch off: the judges, the acts, the formula, or, perhaps more importantly, the way people consume their media?

Ever since Simon Cowell announced that he wouldn’t be retuning to The X Factor there were warning signs. Gary Barlow did aright; Kelly Rowland was annoyingly American; Tulisa Contostavlos totally unqualified; and Louis Walsh still somehow manages to keep his seat on the panel despite only being able to tell every act that ‘they are what this show is all about.’ Cowell’s manner as a judge led you to believe that the show was all about the audience’s entertainment on a Saturday night, without it the show carries the air that it believes it is generally good for the music industry. This may be why so many have switched off as the acts have simply not lived up to that belief. Florence + The Machine and Coldplay’s performances on the Results shows go to highlight not only how poor the quality of this year’s contestants have been, but more importantly that the industry doesn’t need X Factor.

That’s not to say The X Factor has lost its power, after all why did Florence and Chris Martin feel the need to go on the show in the first place? The show gets you in front of a mainstream audience on a Sunday night, and if you look at the current charts the number of songs in it with a link to X Factor is staggering. By my count 14 of the current top 40 songs have this link (that’s being conservative as well), whether they are from past contestants, songs that have been covered, or from artists who went on the show. Clearly the show still has a huge effect.

So what about the formula? Are we all suddenly bored? One thing that hasn’t helped is that the show appears to have become too big for its own good. The X Factor package has grown out of control, with tours, charity singles, and even brands signed up. Seeing the Finalists in an advert for M & S was certainly a different approach, but perhaps one that has backfired for the show – we now see too much of these people. Due to the way we consume media today, with social media and the numerous other platforms, the acts seem to crop up everyday, meaning there is less need to tune in on the weekend.

More importantly though the next generation, who are the predominant audience for the show, are now more discerning and can tell an X Factor sob story a mile off. Given that these litter the show every weekend this may be a reason for the drop in numbers. We’ve seen all these stories before, we recognize them, and they’ve lost their pulling potential. In this respect their tried and tested formula is now outdated and doesn’t recognize their audience’s desires, and the evolving nature of the way people are consuming media.

Overall it is impossible to highlight one reason why The X Factor has lost its viewing figures, in reality it is probably all of the above. Either way there will need to be a drastic realization of a change in the way people consume media for The X Factor to have a continued life span. The show mustn’t go on, but, in all likelihood, it will.

Following its post-IPO quiet period on Wednesday, Groupon have expressed defiance after recent negative press trumpeting holiday sales success with their continued stock comeback. In a blog post the site said that they had sold more than 650,000 holiday deals over the last weekend showing a 500% increase from last year. Groupon’s stock has since risen to $17.50 at close on Wednesday for a 9.3 percent increase, and that rise continued yesterday with shares trading at almost $19 in the afternoon — still below the company’s $20 IPO price.

Clarkson complaints over strike comments reach 21,000

It has been reported that the BBC has received over 21,000 complaints following Jeremy Clarkson’s recent comments saying that striking public sector workers should be shot. Trade union Unison had called for Clarkson to be sacked, while the man himself has apologised for his remarks, with Unison welcoming the apology and inviting Clarkson to spend a day with a healthcare assistant. The deputy general secretary of the UK’s largest union, Karen Jennings, said: ‘He’s recognised that he went too far in saying what he said and what we’re doing now is extending our hand to him to come and work with a healthcare assistant to see just how they work and the healthcare they deliver.’

Coca-Cola supports (RED) charity with $5m commitment

Coca-Cola is set to lend its marketing weight to the (RED) charity initiative that raises funds and awareness to help remove mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The company is backing the programme with a financial commitment that will span a number of years and which will fund marketing awareness campaigns activated through Coca-Cola’s global music programmes. Coke will also donate a minimum of £1.9m to The Global Fund charity, helping purchase anti-retroviral medicine and distribute literature to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS. It is hoped the partnership will help benefit the Global Fund’s aim to have an AIDS-free generation by 2015.

Google+ multi-admin capability for brand pages ‘coming soon’

Google+ have announced that they will allow multiple admins to manage a brand page before 2012. Currently, brand pages are only able to have one admin account controlling the page and profile which has been a source of frustration for social media managers who have multiple team members updating their company social profiles. Two weeks ago Google gave select third-party apps early access to the Google+ API, however before then the only solution was for a team to share one login or for one person to maintain the Google+ page alone. Google representatives have also said that analytics, widely-available Hangouts on Air and mobile page management are in the works.

Presale tickets for Reading, Leeds, The Big Chill and Latitude Festivals onsale today

Presale tickets for Reading and Leeds Festivals, Latitude Festival and The Big Chill are being released today at 2011 ticket prices. Festival Republic, who run the Festivals, have placed the tickets onsale until December 31, and have confirmed their dates for next summer. Reading and Leeds Festivals will run from August 24 – 26, Latitude Festival will take place from July 12 – 15 and The Big Chill will be from August 2 – 5 2012.

However all the good stuff ends there. Sadly for Nokia they promised a live stream that didn’t work, with quality and lag bordering on terrible. Reading the comments on their Facebook page is almost painful… ‘Epic fail… Loosing faith in Nokia’, ‘poor performace Nokia… if your streaming knowledge is as good as ya phone I’ll stick to my HTC thanks’, and, ‘disliking this page right after I see the mau5 for real. Nokia is now confirmed to be complete trash.’

So how did a tech brand get it so wrong? Now the more gentle among you will argue that there will always be technical problems which such a large concept and streaming, and the fact that the performance was free means you can hardly complain. However Nokia’s real target market may be slightly more vociferous, especially given that the company needs to convert many loyal iPhone, Blackberry and HTC users. If you promise so much socially you simply cannot let it fail otherwise your mistake is laid out in the ever expanding and communicating social media world. It was a concept that promised so much for Nokia and potential customers, sadly for Nokia they were left rather embarrassed, and even worse were left with credibility at an all time low.

Starbucks, who claim that one in five of its two million customers do not use cash to pay in store, has announced the launch of their first iPhone mobile app payment system after growing weary with the slow rate of development of mobile NFC technology. Customers of the brand who have registered Starbucks Reward Cards will be able to pay for their bill in all of the 700 Starbucks stores from January. The company will role it out onto Apple products first, with the hope that an Android app will be developed early 2012. Brian Waring, the Vice President of marketing and category for Starbucks in the UK, says: ‘There’s no doubt that mobile payments are going to be the future of shopping, but it’s not clear how it’s going to develop. We just didn’t want to wait. Ours is so simple and it enhances the whole experience for customers.’

Barack Obama joins Google+

Barack Obama has officially joined Google+, gaining a ‘verified account’ tick mark. The account, which is being run by Obama’s reelection campaign, had its first post in the past few days: ‘Welcome to the Obama 2012 Google+ page,’ shortly followed by, ‘We’re still kicking the tires and figuring this out, so let us know what you’d like to see here and your ideas for how we can use this space to help you stay connected to the campaign.’ Obama is known for being socially savvy, and his latest move to Google+ may well be an important coup for the network, although given the relatively low commotion about the President’s arrival it perhaps suggest the network has a way to go to develop a large audience.

Beckham blindfolded for first Sainsbury’s advert

New brand ambassador, David Beckham, has been seen in his first Sainsbury’s campaign wearing a blindfold while playing football with the British Paralympic team. The advert is the first of a two-month campaign that will lay the foundation for the supermarket’s sponsorship of next year’s Paralympic Games. Beckham, who is reportedly being paid around £5million in the deal, is seen supporting the brand’s Million Kids Challenge, a programme that highlights the level of skill and commitment needed in Paralympic sport.

Spotify hits 2.5m paid subscribers

After a successful US launch, followed by launches in Belgium, Switzerland and Austria, and their integration with Facebook, Spotify has announced that it now has 2.5million paid subscribers. After an aggressive monetising strategy which saw its free service scaled back in May, the company can be fairly happy with their current subscribers. Spotify currently have two levels of paid-for premium subscriptions and an ad-funded free digital music service. The service’s main rival, We7, has adopted a different approach, boosting its ad-funded service as part of a relaunch.

BBC launches Olympic programmes

BBC have announced a number of programmes which will form their Olympic campaign for next year, including Shakespeare, live music and the history of London., hoping to provide ‘something for everyone’. The Shakespeare season will feature several documentaries, while the Proms will be part of the 2012 Festival, a Festival which is being termed as the largest live music event ever staged by the BBC. Florence + the Machine, Leona Lewis and Plan B are all set to perform, while music for the BBC’s Olympic coverage will be provided by Elbow, who have composed a song for use throughout the games.

Friday viral: Benton/Fenton the Labrador

If this doesn’t make you laugh on Friday we don’t know what will – introducing Fenton the Labrador!

New music: Gotye

Here’s the music video for ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’, the new song by Goyte featuring Kimbra. Goyte’s new album Making Mirrors is currently out in Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.