If you live in a major metro market, then you know what it’s like to walk down the street and see 90% of the people with their heads down buried in their phone. I was one of those people, until I found myself standing in the middle of the street in Manhattan writing a text and nearly getting hit by a taxi. From that point on, I made sure that I was always looking up. But I am definitely in the minority. And this post is not about the safety, or lack thereof, when it comes to texting. It’s about how marketers can capitalize on this Head Down Revolution.

According to Statista, the U.S. mobile phone penetration has reached 81%, representing 223 million consumers. And those consumers spend an average of 4.7 hours per day glued to their smartphones. More importantly, is the role that texting now plays in our everyday lives, especially when it comes to marketing. For an eye-opening example, texts have a 99% open rate compared to 20% for email*. Pretty amazing, huh? Now I imagine that smartphones are currently in the midst of fine tuning their hardware to introduce features that can block such correspondence. But who knows when that will come?

So until that day, marketers have a humongous opportunity to take advantage and focus their outbound efforts on the behaviors of the smartphone user. A behavior that is now second nature, and while receiving a text from a brand may seem like a nuisance at first, it is certainly less of one than an email. Also, if you’re sending info or content that isn’t selling, but more serving them something of value, then you’re more likely to be able to maintain that dialogue.

And isn’t a dialogue what we want? It opens the door, and leads to traffic. And when you have enough traffic, ultimately it will lead to transactions. It’s this approach to marketing, partnered with the aforementioned tactics, that can build the awareness and engagement you’re looking for.

Now how about a little “social experiment”: The next time you’re walking down the street, take note of how many people’s’ heads are down. It truly is a sight to see. Just think, those eyes could be engaged in your brands message. And if the message is “timed” to when your customer is in the market for a new product, it becomes relevant and timely — a very powerful combination.

*Credits: Jack Loechner — Editor of The Center for Media Research; SinglePoint; Statista

Between censorship and hackers overreaching data collection, there is a huge demand for products that increase users’ privacy online. Two days ago, August Germar introduced a router designed to work alongside your internet router, that anonymizes internet activity. The project rasied more than half a million, surpassing it’s initial pledge of $7,500 on Kickstarter.

According to it’s developer, Anonabox is a tool for freedom of information and privacy concerns. The Anonabox works by redirecting your internet data through the Tor network, software designed to allow anonymous web browsing. It hides information such us current logged-in user name and last-visited URL, IP address and other information disclosed through regular browsers. So, you can browse anonymously and even overcome censorship regardless of what program you are using. Anonabox is an open source and will be sold between $45 to $51.

What Sparks Our Fire: A device that helps us increase our privacy on the Internet.

The Anonabox is still on Kickstarter, if you are interested, you can back it here. It will be quite interesting to see where this goes in the next few weeks.

Sometimes you find yourself in need of a little help. And when your network of friends who are skilled enough and willing to lend a hand runs out, you need another resource on where to turn. Fiverr has raised around $30 million for their website that can simply lend a hand when you need it.

Fiverr allows you to hire someone to help you with a specific service, starting at just $5. Need someone to design your business a logo? Record a jingle for you? Or review your resume for you? All of these services can be found on Fiverr. If you choose to pay more than just $5 you can get even more extensive services.

We aren’t suggesting you rely on Fiverr for every service you need. But, it’s great to know that for just five bucks, you could easily find someone to lend a hand.

What Sparks our Fire: Seeing new services that can ultimately help with anything

What would you use Fiverr for?

It’s nothing new or surprising to learn that traditional newspapers are struggling. Online news sources are both cheaper and more efficient for consumers. But, there is still something to say about the quality and trustworthiness of old-school newspapers, especially the likes of The New York Times or The Washington Post.

There are reports that The New York Times may soon introduce another subscription, a shorter newspaper, to try and keep it’s print business as profitable as possible. The newspaper would be offered at a lower price point and likely include a digital subscription. This version could have a positive influence on the younger audience who want a quick-to-read newspaper that fits their lifestyle of needing information in the most efficient way possible.

It will be interesting to see the influence this change will have on print newspaper advertising.

What Sparks our Fire: The New York Times looking for new ways to continue engaging consumers and addressing the shift to digital.

Would you be interested in a shorter version of The New York Times?

There are countless apps out there that offer great location-based services. Yelp and the recently redesigned Foursquare are two of the best out there when you are looking for something to do nearby. But one of the giants has entered the market and is poised to take them down.

Google announced a new feature for its Google Maps app for iOS and Android that allows you to explore your area. The feature offers you suggestions on what to do based on your location, the weather, and time of day. For example, by just tapping the explore button while at my desk in the morning, it suggests the best nearby coffee shops, but when I check it before I leave work it recommends restaurants, bars, and movie theaters instead. When it’s raining out, you can be sure it won’t recommend that you go to the nearest outdoor swimming pool. If you aren’t looking for something right now, you can easily just enter the time of day that you are looking to go and explore.

What Sparks our Fire: An easy way to explore your city.

What do you think of Google tackling the nearby recommendation category with this update?

We love music. At Canopy we are constantly searching for new and different ways to access it. Streaming services, such as Spotify and Pandora, have become increasingly more popular. But, when it comes to curating personalized playlists and sharing our music, there are some limitations.

Bop.fm, which is still in beta, is an awesome service that streamlines the process of sharing songs and playlists. Instead of signing up for each service individually, you can use Bop.fm to play music from Spotify, Beats Music, Rdio, Soundcloud and/or YouTube. Playlists can be shared through social media, and unlike other streaming services, these playlists can be enjoyed by anyone, with or without an account. The playlists are embedded into Twitter and can be played without leaving your feed.

We’re excited to announce we’ll be sharing our office playlists on social media starting this Friday, be sure to check them out!

What Sparks our Fire: An easy way to share music with our dedicated followers.

Will you share your playlists using Bop.fm?

We all know the internet today is not nearly as secure as it should be, especially with all of the private information we share such as credit card and social security numbers. It seems ever more frequently we hear of another data breach, where personal online data has been hacked. Maidsafe is here to create a new internet – one that removes the issues of the internet today and creates one that is safe, secure, and free.

Maidsafe is a new internet that doesn’t rely on external servers to store data – instead it takes advantage of the enormous amount of unused space on everyone’s computers. The data is distributed in bits and pieces randomly through a complex algorithm and then is stored on different computers across the network, which can only be accessed by you through a password. No one knows where the data is stored – making it unaccessible to anyone trying to steal it. Maidsafe also removes all third parties from the management of the internet by steering clear of using the Domain Name Service that controls URLs. This makes the internet safe from hackers.

What Sparks Our Fire: A more secure and safe internet, so we no longer have to live in fear of our information being stolen.

Do you think it’s time for a more secure internet?

It is not often a member of the Social Generation takes a hard, self-aware look at the culture, or lack thereof, that is building around smart devices. While we at Canopy are all about social media and smart devices, it’s important to realize these advances are meant to accentuate our lives, not overtake them. Take a look at your social use and ask yourself, how much is too much?

What Sparks Our Fire: It is only by realizing our faults that we improve our lives.

Why aren’t you going outside right now?

Personally, I’m not worried about Heartbleed, the recently exposed encryption flaw that has affected the majority of the internet. I don’t have a lot of important information on the internet except for my Stumbleupon preferences and a very respectable Candy Crush score. However, for those of you with stock portfolios and blackmail photos of local politicians, here’s a rundown of the things you need to be concerned about with regards to your internet security.

Who should be concerned? Everyone who uses the internet for more than funny cat pictures. Estimates are two-thirds of the internet has been affected, and so it’s more than likely you’ve been directly or indirectly affected by the leak. The downside is there’s not really much you can do about it. The damage at this point is done. However, Mashable has made this great list of passwords that may have been compromised. As well, password security firm LastPass has set up a Heartbleed Checker, where you can enter a URL and see if it could have been compromised.

Feeling stressed? Take a break and read this. 

Okay, feeling better now? Let’s continue.

It’s important to wait until a particular website has given the “all-clear” before you change your password on it, because changing the password on a compromised website is like changing the oil in a burning car. Facebook, Google, WordPress, Amazon Web Services and Akamai have all reportedly issued patches for the leak. Otherwise the only thing you should be doing is keeping an eye on sensitive accounts like email and online banking and make sure there are no odd changes.

Still stressed? Watch this.

By the way, who is branding this leak? It has a logo and everything.

What Sparks Our Fire:  Our fire isn’t particularly sparked, but as our valued readers, we feel this is something you should know.

Are you concerned by this breach?

In the past few years, a certain type of internet journalism has become more and more prevalent in certain Generation Y circles. There are numerous sub-genres of this trend, but they all fall under a category that for simplicity’s sake I’ll refer to as “Clickbait Articles”. With titles like “22 Reasons Why Having A Quiet New Year’s Eve Is Secretly The Best“, “America Could End Homelessness in One Year by Doing This“, and “23 Food Things Only Chinese-American Kids Would Understand“, these articles reflect the changing nature of internet writing and the way we share information.

The reason this kind of article is written is for the most part, internet authors are paid for the amount of visits their article page receives. This means these articles need eye-catching, attention-grabbing titles and shareable content, to grab and multiply visits, or clicks. This ties into the concept of the internet as an information niche market. People want information customized to them, to their interests and likes, and will click on  and share pages they believe suit them and their internet persona. However, since there are so many person-specific niches, these articles tend to be broad in appeal and have minimal content, often to the point of lists: the author makes a point in a sentence or two, adds an accompanying picture or GIF, and moves on. As such, these articles are often short, light on content, and are in essence disposable. Buzzfeed.com alone sees a turnover of dozens of articles a day.

This kind of directed content sharing springs from multiple motivations and thought processes, but there are three main thought processes that stand out: “This is so relatable/worth sharing”, “This is something the world needs to know about”, and “This describes my niche demographic”. This is obviously a simplification, but in essence these are the three motivations that tend to stand out.

Articles that are relatable tend to have subject matter regarding large demographics the author has ascribed certain common experiences to. For instance, articles relating to the experience of being a 20-something woman in NYC are common, as well as others listing reasons why Jennifer Lawrence is a wonderful person. These articles will often be shared with comments along the vein of “So true” or “Too real”, which in turn lead followers and friends to click on the link to see if they too relate. The problem with these articles is they tend to lack any real content, and are akin to horoscope predictions or zodiac signs, which seem to be very specific to you, but in fact are broad statements that almost anyone can apply to themselves.

The second type of shared link are those that take up some sort of cause or social issue. This type of article isn’t new, but rather the positioning of the internet cause article is very removed from pre-internet articles, especially in the way they are titled. These post authors have perfected the art of writing a title that gives away next to nothing about their content, but demands viewer attention. Examples include, “A Fashion Designer Uses Her Mannequins To Send A Message That Hurts” or “A Gut-Punching Ad Shows 2 Perspectives On Your Last Years. Which Describes Where You’re Headed?“. These titles give the user a reason to click, and once they absorb the content, they share it. While effective, a critique of these methods might show that this positioning may lead to an alarmist tendency, as well as misleading content. One of the articles mentioned above claims to have found the cure to homelessness if only America would listen. However, it is simply an article on how houses can be built from plastic bottles, and doesn’t show how those houses will be built, who will build them, or how this solves a homeless problem on any spectrum except that of “more houses”.

The third type of article targets a niche demographic with content related specifically to the experience of that demographic. For instance, I am an American of Chinese decent, and I grew up in suburban New York. Therefore, the above article about experiences Chinese-American kids share involving food was immediately applicable to me, and I shared the article with the rest of my friends and family who also had those experiences, and the article resonated with all of them. The drawback of this sort of article is it can marginalize the members of the audience who don’t belong to that niche. For instance, no one outside of my demographic understands the rite of passage that is learning how to use chopsticks, or that my Grandmothers’ jook is better than anyone else’s and I will defend that statement to death. These are exclusive articles that can only be written by those who have directly experienced the subject matter, and as such cannot be applicable to large audiences.

In essence, this type of article is one of the most popular formats of current internet content, and it’s not going anywhere for now. Like all forms of journalism, this format has its drawbacks, but also appeals to a great number of internet users, and it will be interesting to watch Clickbait Articles and how they evolve in the future.

What Sparks Our Fire: Emerging forms of journalism exclusive to the internet are extraordinarily interesting, especially to those of us in advertising, where it is our job to watch trends.

Do you enjoy these types of articles?