Obviously, we couldn’t let 2013 end without a round up post of the year. Whilst we’re standing here asking where the heck the year has gone, companies such as Google and Twitter are high fiving because they aced 2013. Dance craze wise, just when we thought that we were free of Gangnam Style, the Harlem Shake took the internet by storm and twerking became a verb.
So, without further ado, let us here at Kwasi Studios take you on a journey back into the past, back to the early stages of 2013 before we knew what a Hummingbird was, before Twitter was padding out our investment portfolios and before we had ever contemplated the word Sharknado.
January
A Panda More Famous Than Wang Wang and Funi: Google started 2013 off with another Panda update, saying ‘Happy New Year!’ to spammers with a giant middle finger in the form of an algorithm.
February
Goats Screaming: Goats became an internet sensation in 2013 with their hysterical screams becoming one of the funniest memes in a very long while. This video especially had us in stitches.
Goats have been the animal of the 2013, something that is just as weird to type as it is to say.
Oreo Won the Superbowl: Superbowl XLVII was plunged into darkness and whilst the world blamed Beyonce, companies thought fast on their feet (faster than most of the 49ers that day, but hey) – especially Oreo with this off-the-cuff campaign:
Score one for Oreo.
Other brands launched into action too, taking digs at the location, sponsors and even the Seattle PD got a boot in:
It was a Superbowl where football was the last thing that people noticed: Beyonce showed her halftime show predecessor Madonna how it was done and reunited Destiny’s Child, whilst Raven’s player Chykie Brown made the entire world jealous not with his new shiny trophy, but when he made a confetti angel on the ground after winning:
Awesome.
The Harlem Shake: The Harlem Shake meme was originated in Queensland and in February and quickly went viral. People everywhere were dancing to the song from the 80’s and soon, it was a worldwide sensation.
You’re welcome, world.
March
Monopolised by Microsoft: The European Commission fined Microsoft a whopping 561 million Euros for not providing alternative web browsers than Internet Explorer to the European Union. That’s got to hurt.
Oh, Bill.
Supercomputer Put to Pasture: Once the world’s fastest supercomputer, IBM’s Roadrunner was decommissioned. RIP Roadrunner.
April
When Woj Met Paddy: Our head honcho Woj interviewed author and Distilled SEO consultant Paddy Moogan, which was pretty cool. Have a read of that interview here.
Paddy Moogan, author, Distilled SEO consultant and all-round nice dude.
#BostonStrong: An act of terrorism at the Boston Marathon resulted in over 27 million tweets regarding the event, the ensuing manhunt and the Boston spirit that was carried globally. Whilst some companies, such as Epicurious, tried to capitalise off the tragic events over Twitter, the terror was brought to an end with this tweet from the Boston Police Department. That lone tweet spoke volumes about just how far social media has come and how reliant we are on it for breaking news.
(Image Via Boston Police Dept. Twitter)
May
Yahoo Bought Tumblr: With Tumblr CEO and founder David Karp remaining a shareholder, Yahoo approved the purchase of the image sharing platform. We here at Kwasi Studios were looking at acquiring the business, but couldn’t scrape the US$1.1 billion dollars from our couch cushions. Next time.
Google & Grammar: In May, we posted a blog entry titled It’s Time: Google & Grammar which named and shamed Google for dissing the apostrophe and creating even more stress for copywriters the world over.
Armed with some mad paint skills, this is one post that points out one of Google’s major flaws. Have a re-read and ask yourself: Has Google murdered grammar?
Our paint skillz, yo.
Moz Rebranded: Also awesome in May? Moz rebranded to the company we know and love today, relaunching their website at Moz.com.
Sayonara, SEO.
How Animals Eat Their Food:
Fact: There is nothing funnier than animals being awesome.
Animals behaving like humans is an amazing compilation of, you guessed it, animals behaving like humans. That’s pretty much all that you need to know because if that isn’t enough to make you watch this video, then we’re not too sure how to help you, to be honest.
June
Instagram Videos: Instagram launched its video function, now giving users the option of posting 15 second videos rather than just photos. From this, people all over the world learned to keep their phones on silent whilst checking instagram on public transport.
Introducing Video on Instagram from Instagram on Vimeo.
July
The Great Sharknado Record Breaker: The mockbuster movie starred a girl from American Pie, a guy from the original Beverly Hills 90210 and another guy from Baywatch. Somehow, it generated more than 600 000 tweets during its broadcast, equivalent to roughly 5000 per minute which broke television Twitter records.
Piggybacking off its success, Sharknado’s network Syfy then started a competition for naming rights to the sequel, with the winning entry being…. drumroll please…
Sharknado: The Second One.
Will you watch Sharknado: The Second One or has the mockbuster had its day?
And the Academy Award goes to…
August
The Great Hummingbird Legerdemain: According to Google, Hummingbird was executed on the 30th August; however Google only announced the change in September. They’re tricksters, those billionaires.
Placing bets on the next animal in the Google stable…
Twerking:
Ugh.
Miley Cyrus trying to prove that she isn’t a child anymore twerked her way into headlines when she took to the stage at Video Music Awards. Looking like a mixture of Keith from the Prodigy and someone three seconds away from a drug test at the airport, she very quickly put twerking onto the dance map.
Breathe the pressure.
Thankfully, according to Time, ‘Twerk’ is the word that we most want banished from the English language in 2014.
We’re not going to embed the Miley video because, well, it’s gross and weird and we prefer not to relive things that make us want to stab our eyeballs, k? If you have seen it, you get it. If you haven’t – you’re lucky.
September
Australia Got Itself a New PM: All politics aside, whether you were Team Rudd or Team Abbott during the election, we broke down their social media stats in September. Comparing their levels of engagement, relevance and likability, it was decided that Rudd came out on top… though he didn’t fare so well in the polls.
Teaching Obama about selfies? Yeah, that’ll end well…
Google’s 15 Year Old Doodle: Google turned 15 and celebrated with another awesome Google doodle. When were 15, global domination wasn’t even in the cards (Now that we’re older, however…)
What Does The Fox Say?:
Honestly, we’re not too sure.
Originally produced for a Norwegian TV show, this video by two brothers went viral – gathering more than 11.4 million views and 57 000 comments within it’s first week on YouTube. That success caught the eye of Warner Music, who offered the duo a record deal which allowed the song to be played on US radio.
We’re not too sure what the fox says, but we’re pretty sure it’s laughing all the way to the bank.
October
Insta-Ads: Instagram announced that they would be integrating ads into users’ streams. Having been bought out by Facebook, this was a predictable move. Though so far, our feeds haven’t been jammed with horribly designed ads so we’re giving this move the benefit of the doubt.
November
Twitter Made A Public Spectacle of Itself: Twitter launched into the New York Stock Exchange and gave the public an excuse to surf their site frequently: They’re checking their stock. Riiiiight.
Batkid: Miles Scott, a 5 year old boy and cancer survivor was granted his wish of being Batkid by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The events that unfolded touched millions of people around the world as San Francisco became Gotham City for the day, the San Francisco Chronicle joined in with a cover story proclaiming that Batkid had saved the day and the thousands of helpers, actors and supporters made the rest of the world proud.
Miles was given a key to “Gotham” city (of San Francisco) by it’s mayor Ed Lee and even President Obama left Miles a video message.
Throughout the day, Batkid picked up worldwide press and 406,960 tweets were sent on the day of the event with more than 21,683 Instagram and Twitter photos posted by Friday afternoon. #SFBatkid became one of the most tweeted hash tags of 2013.
December
This infographic pointed out the epic social media failures of 2013: Sometimes, making a stir on social media is great for businesses. Then again, sometimes, there isn’t. This infographic released in December shows companies who got it so, so wrong: Between JPMorgan Chase’s Twitter free-for-all, HMV’s play-by-play firing and The Onion’s choice words for Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis, these were the social media calamities of 2013.
(Image via Masters in Marketing)
Hey, hey, hey – You’re My Wrecking Ball: YouTube released this video, a hilarious mash up of the top YouTube moments of the year. Anything with goats in it gets thumbs up here at Kwasi Studios.
Some of our favourite 2013 roundup posts from around the globe:
- What’s happened at Google in 2013?
- Hubspot presents: the best commercials of 2013
- Marketing Land’s top 11 email marketing columns of 2013
- 6 Worst Tech Blunders of 2013
- Mailchimp’s interactive 2013 Annual Report
- The Top 20 Interactive Visualizations of 2013
- The 20 Most Powerful Storytelling Videos of 2013
- The Future of Content: Upcoming Trends in 2014
…and finally, a graphic “Here’s to 2013”:
So there you have it, some of the weird and wonderful bites of 2013, wrapped up into one Kwasi parcel. What were your highlights of 2013? Sound off below!
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