WHAT HAPPENED IN 2013?
IN AN ALPHABETICAL ORDER: FROM A TO Z
© Parrot Drone

A for AUTOMATION
Or actually - robots. BMW was first, announcing the launch of a production line where - for the
first time in history - people and robots will be working side by side. Later scientists from
Oxford published a research showing that as a result of a widely understood computerization
nearly 50% of present jobs are at high risk of automation. What’s more, Google keeps taking
over companies (8 in all, including Boston Dynamics) that deal with robot manufacturing.
© University of Denver, flickr.com

B for BITCOIN
During the whole year 2013, we could observe a huge rise in the value of the Bitcoin (it grew
4 times just between October and November 2013). The current value of a Bitcoin is estimated
at $1300. Also media popularity of this cryptocurrency grew in 2013. In Canada they
introduced a first ATM for Bitcoins, and Richard Branson announced that it would soon be
possible to pay with Bitcoins for space flights with Virgin Galactic.
© antanacoins, flickr.com

C for COOKIES
On the 22nd March of 2013, the European Union obliged website owners in Poland to inform
their users that their website collects data via cookies. Something that was meant to help users
has actually backfired. A survey conducted in June 2013 by IIBR shows that the notifications
about using cookies haven’t increased the feeling of safety of Internet users. Some of them
find the information annoying, some of them neutral, and 25% felt in fact more invigilated.
©neil conway, flickr.com

D for DOVE Real Beauty Sketches
Just a month after its release the Dove Real Beauty Sketches video had over 114 mlm views
and was shared nearly 4 million times - making in the greatest viral of all time.

E for EDWARD Snowden
By revealing information regarding PRISM, Edward Snowden caused a worldwide discussion
about information safety on the Internet and the level of invigilation of Internet users by
governments and corporations. Naturally, the discussion was hot - but in the end Internet
users didn’t seem to care about the problem that much. People often post pictures of their
ID’s, credit cards and passports on Instagram, and the Wave 7 research shows that currently in
Poland 67,4% of respondents agree with the sentence: „I am concerned with the amount of
information available online” - only 5 per cent more than in 2012. Not so many, considering
the context.
© Wired

F for the FOX
Well, it looks like having bunch of people dressed in the animal costumes dancing and
producing strange sounds is something that will guarantee you a success on the internet. Over
320 mln views on YouTube in 3 months, over 700k comments, debut at number 29 on the US
Billboard Hot 100 top singles chart and no 1 on the iTunes Top 100 download chart in Norway.

G for Twitter GOING on stock exchange
On November 7th Twitter appeared on the stock market, with opening stock share prices 75%
above their initial offering price. The way they started was also remarkable - the ribbon was
cut not by Twitter CEO’s, but by its popular users.
© darkroom.baltimoresun.com

H for HARLEM shake
Proof of the short lifespan of Internet memes. In February 2013 we were all living Harlem
Shake, and now we don’t even remember it was this year. After the original video (with over 50
million views on YouTube), literally everyone engaged in Harlem Shake - from Facebook
employees to people in Warsaw subway.

I for INTELLIGENT watches
In the West it was said that 2013 was the year of the smartwatch. In fact we can see that the
wrist race has already begun. All the biggest players - Samsung, Sony, Apple, Google,
Qualcomm, and other businesses (such as Nissan) - are working on or have already launched
smartwatches. In the middle of the year Pebble informed that they sold over 275 thousand of
their watches. #goingmainstream
© http://hatalska.com

J for JEAN Claude van Damme and his epic split
The most striking – according to Anders Vilhelmsson, PR Manager, Volvo Trucks – the stunt
was real and was performed in just one take. Really impressive.

K for random acts of KINDNESS trend
In the recession economy simply beeing good is a rising trend. It started with banking and
insurance companies who failed our trust, but now it is spreading also onto the other
categories. Consumers expect and value all the brands show that they care.
©Ed Yourdon, flickr.com

L for LEAP Motion
A motion controller (connected to the computer via USB) that traces hand and finger
movements, enabling interaction in many apps like John Anderton had in Minority Report. In
other words - a new form of controlling the computer without touching the screen, keyboard
or mouse. It can be used in graphic software, presentations (maps, photos), web navigation - it
is more accurate than Kinect, but doesn’t analyze the body, only hands within an area of
approx. 1 m. Leap Motion has its own app store (Airspace), with currently about 140 apps. The
device had its premiere in July 2013 - it costs around $80. It fits the strong Human-ComputerInteraction trend perfectly. It can have a great future, especially considering the development
of 3D printing (ability to correct digital pictures with your hands).
© LeapMotion

M for METRO Trains Melbourne
Dumb Ways to Die, created by McCann Melbourne agency for Metro Trains was declared the
most awarded campaign of 2013 by Advertising Age. I believe it was a simple
acknowledgement of a fact, taking into account that the campaign won 5 Grand Prix Awards
during the Cannes Lions festival (for: PR, Promotion and Activation, Radio, Film, Integrated
Campaign), and over 20 other awards. In consequence, it is the most awarded campaign in the
history of this festival to date.

N for NOKIA bought by Microsoft
Not the whole company of course - „just” its part responsible for the mobile market (devices
and services). Microsoft paid over 7 billion Euros for that deal. Some comments compared that
deal to what Google did 2 years ago, taking over Motorola. The creators of mobile operating
systems are now also becoming telephone producers.
© Nicola since 1972, flickr.com

O for OREO Dunk in the Dark
One of the best examples of real time marketing trend (authentic marketing communication
delivered at the right time with the message linked to other popular stimuli) which was very
clearly seen among winners from 2013 Cannes Lions Festival.

P for POLISH start-ups
The topic of November issue of Wired magazine (UK edition) was „Europe’s 100 Hottest
Startups”. I bought it without even looking inside and I was very disappointed to find out that
not one single Polish start-up was mentioned. The editors of Wired showed a lot of ignorance,
as 2013 was really the year of Polish start-ups. First, Witold Mieliniczek designed B - in short: a
flying car and put it up on KickStarter, where he not only gathered enough funds to build a
prototype, but 30 thousand pounds more. The IntelClinic team gathered $100.000 - also on
KickStarter - to sponsor the NeuroOn mask. Finally, the boys of Estimote got a grant from
investors in the amount of $3,1 million. Way to go - fingers crossed!
© Estimote

R for ROYAL BABY
Or should I say never-ending story, as media have been serving us with each and every bit of
this soap opera. The birth frenzy and discussions about the unrevealed sex (which even
mentioned gender dicussion - see tweet below) of the royal baby took over the whole world.
On Twitter just the baby’s birth generated over 25k tweets a minute.
© Gene Hunt, flickr.com

S for SELFIE (selfie)
The Oxford dictionary gave the word „selfie” the title of Word of the Year 2013. In fact it’s not
so much about language, as a wide sociological phenomenon. One of the proofs of huge
popularity of taking photos of oneself is how much Justin Bieber invested in the service Shots
of Me - something like Instagram, but only with pictures of users themselves. In 2013 Star
Wars created an Instagram account, and the first photo published was a selfie of Darth Vader.
Within 2 days, this brought them nearly 150 thousand followers.
© Star Wars, Instagram

T for Miley Cyrus TONGUE & TWERKING
Miley Cyrus is currently in the first place in Google Trends in 3 categories: People, Actors,
Musicians. MTV awarded her with the Best Artist of 2013 award. Nominated to the title Person
of the Year 2013 of Time magazine (in the end she lost to Pope Francis). And who would have
thought that today, when everything has really already happened, it would be enough to show
your tongue… and butt.
© HypeBeast

U for UAVs
The year 2013 was a breakthrough in the perception of drones. They moved smoothly from
the category of war actions to civil use. The most famous ones include a Domicopter
delivering Domino’s Pizza, Land of Quattro - an Audi commercial spot filmed with drones only
or the Amazon Prime Air, which in 5 years time is supposed to deliver Amazon orders in as
little as 30 minutes. Apart from advertising and retail, drones are also used in businesses such
as health, agriculture, entertainment, telecommunication, media etc. It is estimated that only in
Europe there are over 500 civil uses of drones. In November 2013, TED organized a so-called
„drone week” focusing on the subject.
© Parrot Drone

W for WOW WOW, the doge
Many call it the meme of the year 2013. And, like every meme, it appeared suddenly and out
of nowhere. Wow. Wow. Such an amazing year. Such different projects. Such happy people.
© Facebook

Z for ZYNGA
In 2013 Zynga had to lay off hundreds off employees (18 percent of global workforce) and
closed their New York and Los Angeles offices. The official reason: shifting towards mobile and
away from the social browser games (they lost more than 25% of its loyal daily users in just
one quarter). It seems that the popularity of social gaming doesn’t go hand in hand with
making money out of it.

e: natalia@hatalska.com
@hatalskacom
©Rick E Dick, flickr.com
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