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A peculiar move when all other retailers seem to be fully optimising their sites for mobile browsing and developing apps ahead of the festive rush. But eBay’s pop-up store is also utilising QR codes; a reasonably creative technology but we’re still waiting to see whether it will burst into the mainstream.

Branching out into two brand new formats of retail during the Christmas shopping period may seem risky, but it’s only a five-day experiment. So if anything, the pop-up novelty should be enough for eBay to ride on, or even up eBay’s stature for its ambitious digital gamut.

eBay’s five-day shopping experiment will begin on December 1st in Dean Street, Soho, near Oxford Street. It will feature 200 items on sale and shoppers simply scan the desired item into their smartphone, a downloadable QR code reader is needed here. Or, if you’re yet to enter into the smartphone arena, eBay has partnered with HTC in order to lend out devices to make your purchase on.

Once the users scan their favourite product they are then directed to the checkout page of the product on eBay’s main site, where they complete their purchase online.

“We are opening the store to cover the ‘Super Sunday’ weekend at the beginning of December, which traditionally sees the most number of people shopping online,’ said Laura Williamson, eBay’s head of consumer PR. She expects to see more than 5m visitors to eBay’s website on Sunday 4th, buying up to 30 gifts per minute.

Again, the selling point lies in the novelty. I say this because eBay have partnered the inconvenience of physical Christmas shopping on the high street with the rigmarole of an online check out service, (incorporating a mobile payment feature would eliminate this hassle). Aside from the tangible benefits of seeing something before you buy it, the advantage of this lies in it being a great PR stunt.

On top of this, the wider public are still not completely comfortable with using QR codes, potentially impacting on sales.

So, it will be interesting to see what kind of results this latest service generates this Christmas.

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Google+ is still in beta but, having already amassed substantial hype for gaining more subscribers in the shortest amount of time, do Twitter and Facebook have something to really worry about now G+ has opened the gates to brands? A quick skim of this infographic will break down the vital statistics of the two major market players and will lend a bit more understanding as to how each can help your business.

Bjork isn’t one to remain in musical stasis for too long. She’s often placed in similar categories as artists like Bowie and Madonna in terms of constantly recreating their sound and challenging boundaries. Her new album is no different.

At a UTalkMarketing presentation on digital trends at Disney yesterday I was introduced to Bjork’s latest app album. She is flying the flag for the music industry in trying to create an experience which is so much more than an isolated oratory occurrence. Harkening back to the heyday of the vinyl – where listening to music was more of an immersive experience – Bjork commands full sensory attention in this project.

But this viral can give you more of an idea of Bjork’s vision.

An interesting study dropped into my inbox this morning. Being a journalist I get sent studies day in day out, but this one caught my eye for two reasons. Firstly for the fact that according to the study UK consumers (61% of them anyway) don’t want to be bugged by brands on social networks.

The second thing to catch my eye was the fact that TNS, which carried out the survey, did its homework on this one, surveying 72,000 consumers in 60 countries to look at a range of attitudes to the presence of brands on social networking sites.

According to TNS 61% of Brits (and 57% of people across the developed world as a whole) aren’t interested in engaging with brands via social media. “Misguided digital strategies are generating mountains of digital waste, from friendless Facebook accounts to blogs no one reads”, TNS sighs.

So why am I surprised? Not because I am drawn in by the angle that TNS is pushing – in fact quite the opposite. I’m quite surprised that the stat means that 40% of consumers DO want to be “bothered” (as TNS puts it) on social networks. In marketing terms, I find that a pretty healthy statistic. Because you’ve got two in every five people willing to engage with brands on Facebook, Twitter or whatever, and the rest – well it’s your job to persuade them!

It does appear that we are on the back foot here in the UK though – only a fifth of the 2,093 Brits surveyed agreed that social networks are a good place to buy products, compared to a global average of 40%.

Perhaps we need to look to the Chinese for inspiration on how to get consumers interacting with brands on the likes of Facebook – according to TNS 74% of Chinese consumers comment regularly about brands online compared to only 33% of Brits.

It appears that fast-growth markets are in general far more open to brand interaction on social networks – just 33% of Columbians and 37% of Mexicans said they don’t want to be bothered by them, while 59% of people across fast-growing countries see social networks as a good place to learn about brands (compared to only 44% of consumers in developed markets).

So the survey might suggest that there is a work to be done in persuading Brits that social networks are as good a place as any to engage with brands. Regardless, brand presence is creeping ever more quickly into Facebook’s pages, as demonstrated by the launch of its Open Graph a few weeks ago (something I wrote all about earlier this week).

Apparently news broke last week that there are 900 million users of mobile phones in India. Nokia’s dominance in Asia and the Americas is never been stronger. Couple this with the population recently surpassing the seven billion mark, and it makes sense why many CMO’s turned their attention to mobile marketing a while ago. This infographic has a look at where advertising budgets are being spent, taking special interest in mobile marketing. Of particular resonance is the statistic that US mobile advertising spend has increased by 75% since 2009, and is predicted to reach $2.3bn by 2013. If this is anything to go by then the growth in mobile marketing is far from reaching its plateau.

Want to hold Rihanna in the palm of your hand? All you need is the new Nivea foundation, thanks to augmented reality and Blast Technology. This week an app went live offering users this truly interactive experience. By scanning the lid of the Nivea product Rihanna appears to emerge from the lid of the cream, singing her latest hit “California King Bed”. Particularly thrifty enthusiasts are able to scan the Nivea website and avoid actually buying the product to see the super star come to life. There’s more to learn from this campaign than that Nivea users are foundation-wearing Rihanna fans.

This post serves several purposes; firstly, and I may be a little late to the party, but I want to introduce you to a great blog I’ve only recently discovered. I eventually stumbled on this at the end of a trying day and I was venting frustration by scouring the web and looking for bloggers who dedicate their web time to criticising ad campaigns.

My search got cut short (so let me know if anyone has any suggestions in case I need to indulge in some more cathartic therapy??) because I got distracted by 12 Most. Like a butterfly from a caterpillar, venting my vexations has actually turned into sharing something fun and wonderful.

The site catalogues a top twelve on any given subject, usually under five broad headings of which the most applicable in this case are business, media, and leadership and management. It originated from charming beginnings, with a group of friends writing bite-sized nuggets of information on their chosen areas of expertise, and has since grown in huge proportions.

Which leads me to the second purpose of this post; to introduce and extoll @OccupyKlout. As you’ll imagine this arose from a blog post on 12 Most named 12 Most Hilarious Strategies for Leading an Angry Twitter Mob Against Klout.

This post coherently and describes and explains the common dissatisfaction and mistrust surrounding Klout in these uncertain times, and as such, finds this ground enough to associate “the standard for influence” with capitalism. (Of course there may or may not be other similarities between the two, but I’ll not speculate here). Either way, I applaud 12 Most’s activism against an algorithm that I find myself rely on, without fully understanding. So go on, Occupy Klout!

There’s a feeling that us Brits tend to begrudge the American enthusiasm for Halloween. Is it because it’s so close to our very solid, historical Guy Fawkes celebration? Maybe we’re more comfortable lauding the festivals that throw up ambiguous religious conflicts? Or that call up anarchist anti-royalist sentiments? Or is it the burning people alive that we’re more into partying?

It’s always a bit of a shame that over the Atlantic they are far better at throwing a real bash-out Halloween festival. Paritcularly in the costume department.

Halloween costumes in America reflect national sentiment or more recently topical current events, rather than the classic Blighty witch’s hat or white sheeted-ghost. This opens up a whole new world of creative license. That’s why last year I went as Lady Gaga in the meat dress, (if you can believe it?) And what better way to have your brand endorsed than by having American civilians dress up as it? Think of the myriad Apple products that made an appearance on Monday night as an accompaniment to many a Steve Jobs outfit?

Thanks to Mashable, here are a few pictures of amazing tech mascots… sorry….I mean inspired Halloween costumes that get my stamp of approval. Check out that guyPhone!

Towards the end of last week we published a news story on the UTalkMarketing site, titled “Digital advertising ROI overtakes TV,” which incited some heated comments among our readers. The story referenced independent research, the findings of which pointed to online marketing generating higher revenue when compared to TV. The implication that this information suggested caused some alarm.

The comments on the site cited a number of research findings that either confirm or deny this claim. Because of this the argument was never able to progress from a back-and-forth rally of either side quoting statistics. As a response this seems woefully incomplete.

This is clearly a broad and provocative subject that requires more probing then we were able to give it last week. Hopefully in the future we can examine it further and bring up wider, more three-dimensional arguments on either side; social implications, future predictions, earlier case studies.

I was surprised to see during this particular instance anyway, that no one was willing to venture the potential partnership between digital and TV. Numerous studies have shown the vast numbers of consumers who browse an online device while watching TV – particularly here a more societal approach would be interesting; the depletion of our attention spans based on a dependence of instantly gratifying devices. Similarly, executives on both sides of the fence have spoken out publically on the prospects that could be unleashed by collaboration.

One recent orator in this was Disney’s Anne Sweeney who boldly tried to ease the minds of many concerned TV execs by highlighting the desire for TV to become more personal, therefore a less passive experience, citing that “that watching is addictive to our linear channels, not cannibalistic.”

I want to see more engagement in this debate aside from the launching back and forth of statistics. The myriad problems with research methods and findings can be called upon to invalidate any study. US X Factor’s recent Twitter voting last weekend proves that this topic is on the cusp of explosion, it invokes enthusiasm in many individuals and will be impossible to ignore, so lets look forward to engaging in it.