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Lucre News: ‘Appy Days All Round

We’re delighted to announce that yboo, a free-to-download app designed to find a user’s best mobile contract deal, is the latest addition to The Lucre Group’s ‘Tech and the City’ division.

 

Putting UK consumers at the heart of what it does, yboo is the first app in the world to offer personalised network recommendations based on price and signal strength in the areas where users live, work and hang out. Using powerful big data insights, the ambitious technology company is currently disrupting the mobile industry with its innovative service and is changing the landscape for how consumers purchase mobile deals in the process

Appointed on retainer within the growing ‘Tech and the City’ division, The Lucre Group will support with yboo’s pioneering plans of kickstarting a mobile bill saving revolution. From experiential event planning through to driving awareness across consumer media, trade and digital channels, our work will ensure that yboo is known and used by mobile customers across the UK.

 

Martyn Gould, CEO of yboo said: “With more people realising the cost saving implications of switching their mobile contract, our app provides consumer clarity on what the best network provider is for them based on price and signal coverage – a first in the UK market. The Lucre Group really understood what our brand was about and what we hoped to achieve, in addition to being armed with creative ideas on how to inform and excite the public. This is the next step in growing the company, and we can’t wait to start working with the team.”

 

Sophie Spyropoulos, Lucre co-owner and Director added: “It’s an exciting time for yboo and we’re delighted to be chosen as the trusted PR partner. The business has gone from strength to strength in a very short space of time, with ambitious growth plans, and we look forward to supporting them on that journey, building brand awareness among the UK public and in the mobile industry.  It’s a fantastic new addition to our rapidly expanding ‘Tech and The City’ division.”

What Will Drones Deliver Next? by Dylan Verity

The 2015 we were promised in Back to the Future (Part 2) appears to have arrived… two years later. Whilst we don’t have hoverboards or self-drying jackets, earlier this month the Dubai Roads and Transportation Authority announced plans to make drone taxis available for consumers as early as July of this year, making flying cars a reality (well, sort of)!

The EHang 184 drone is currently being tested for commercial use over the city of Dubai. Passengers will simply touch a destination on a touchscreen and then they will be whisked away into the sky. The drone can carry one passenger weighing up to 100 kg (220 pounds) and their suitcase. With a current range of 30 miles, and a top speed of 100 mph, you could travel across the city in no time – unless you encounter a drone-jam that is!

This exciting news follows a string of drone technology stories with everything from Amazon’s drone delivery, flame-throwing drones and Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl drone show all drawing attention in the media. As PR consultants, we’re terribly excited by all the potential practical uses drones are still to offer us in the future.  From drone-powered press trips to speedy sample deliveries, we’re champing at the bit to make more use of our flying friends.

We’re also looking forward to seeing what drones can deliver in terms of creative campaigns and content too. Just this week, biscuit brand Oreo created a lovely piece of video content called The Drone Dunk to support the launch of its Oreo Dunk Challenge competition on social media. As ‘call to action’ content goes, this video was entertaining and fun. Capturing the nature of Oreo’s campaign perfectly, and inspiring further contest entries in the process, this video is the latest in a number of great examples of how drones will play a part in our industry going forward and we can’t wait to see what comes next!

Instagram unveils its new look

Instagram1

 

Instagram has unveiled big changes to its logo, moving away from the highly recognisable polaroid-camera style icon in favour of a new, flatter and multi-coloured design. The app has also been tweaked, now sporting a black and white look, in a move Instagram’s head of design Ian Spalter says was made to reflect the aesthetics of its users. The brand’s other apps, Boomerang, Hyperlapse and Layout have all been given the same treatment.

Instagram.jpg 2

 

The new look is undeniably more minimalistic and sleek; a big departure from the retro style Instagram was known for. In a world where sharing a picture of your smashed avocado on toast with your friends is no longer the sole purpose of the app, some changes were expected, but this complete image overhaul has come as a surprise to many.

There’s a few mixed opinions on the new look flying around the office so it’s safe to say the jury’s still out on this one.  Instagram will be hoping, however, for a favourable reaction.  No brand wants to emulate the Gap logo disaster…

Tech and Innovation update as Google proposes new set of female emojis

emojis

Photograph: from unicode.org website

 

The tech and innovation sector has taken a step forward, according to reports in the Guardian and elsewhere; Google employees have proposed a new set of emojis designed to promote workplace gender equality.

These emojis would include female engineers, plumbers, farmers and chemists.The Google team presented the designs of 13 new emojis on Tuesday at the Unicode Consortium, a Silicon Valley not-for-profit group that runs an “emoji subcommittee” overseeing the creation of new emojis. (Who knew?)

Turns out there is a whole world dedicated to emojis and their creation.  You can read the full proposal here, and it makes for fascinating reading.  Here at Lucre Towers we’ve been going through Emojipedia and finding out if we’re right about the meaning of each emoji (the answer is yes, because we’re all about tech and innovation PR here).

Jeremy Burge, the founder of both the online resource Emojipedia and World Emoji Day (yep, that’s a thing and it’s on July 17 2016, so don’t miss it) was reported as saying: “It’s pretty clear that female-oriented professions are under-represented in emoji, and this approach is a clever way to address the issue now, rather than pushing it down the line.”  We couldn’t agree more. And… about time.

taylorswiftdurr

 

 

How much fun is this? make your own new London Tube line sign

Well this has whiled away the time at Lucre Towers, as we made our own new London Tube line signs.  Our lovely friends at BuzzFeedUK really know how to hit the spot!

Naturally, we had our own take on it.

There was the fairly literal approach:

washing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And:

jack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although some were more sporty.  Our resident tennis buff gave us:

tennis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some went slightly off-piste:

balls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And (there’s always one) went her own way entirely:

 

judging you