Rio Carnival History

The roots of Carnival trace back to the ancient Romans and Greeks who celebrated the rites of spring. Across Europe, including France, Spain and Portugal, people annually gave thanks by throwing parties, wearing masks and dancing in the streets. Such traditions were carried over to the New World.

The Portuguese first brought the concept of "celebration or carnival" to Rio around 1850. The practice of holding balls and masquerade parties was imported by the city’s bourgeoisie from Paris. However, in Brazil, the traditions soon became different. Over time, they acquired unique elements deriving from African and Amerindian cultures.

Groups of people would parade through the streets playing music and dancing. It was usual that during Carnival aristocrats would dress up as commoners, men would cross-dress as women and the poor dress up as princes and princesses - social roles and class differences were expected to be forgotten once a year but only for the duration of the festival.

Brazilians used to riot the Carnival until it was accepted by the government as an expression of culture. The black slaves became actively involved in the celebrations. They were able to be free for five days. Nowadays the slums' communities are still the most involved groups in all the carnival preparations and they are the ones for whom Rio Carnival means the most.

 By the end of the 18 century the festivities were enriched by competitions. People would not just dress up in costumes but also perform a parade accompanied by an orchestra of strings, drums and other instruments. These ever more organized competitions became the main attractions of the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, street carnival in Rio was musically a very euro centric affair - Polkas, Waltzes, Mazurkas and 'Scottish'. Meanwhile, the emergent working class (made up mainly of Afro Brazilians, along with some gypsies, Russian, Jews, Poles and etc.) developed their own music and rhythm. These people were mostly based in the central part of Rio, on a land that the rich did not want - on the hills and swamps behind the dockyards - an area which came to be known as 'Little Africa' now recognized as the cradle of samba.

The parades were halted during World War II and restarted in 1947. By then the main competition took place downtown on Avenida Rio Branco.

Carnival has gone a long way since it was brought to Rio, having become one of the biggest events in the World. One of the most important recent developments was that the biggest parade the Samba Parade moved from the streets downtown to the purpose-built Sambodromo.

Google Improves GDN Targeting With Bizo Audience Segments

As advertisers continue to require their digital marketing efforts accountable for results, the ability to deliver display advertising directly to your target market is essential. Each day hundreds of millions of impressions are shown below the fold or go ignored by non-relevant web surfers. Ad verifications tool shave helped decrease wasted impressions, but advertisers still waste impressions on users who are not interested in their products.

While behavioral targeting, lookalike modeling and content based targeted can help get your ads in front of you customer, there is still a significant amount of wasted impressions. Adding on third party data can increase the granularity of which you display ads are served. Guaranteeing you're reaching the right audience with the right messaging.

While Google has made strides in the past, until now, much of Google’s ability to target on their display network focused on content. While advertisers could control specific sites and placements, DSPs and direct to partner buys often provided superior targeting capabilities. Even networks such as Facebook and Twitter have email level targeting that can ensure impressions are delivered to the correct audience.

To combat this, Google is currently beta testing new targeting capabilities through a partnership with Bizo. Bizo has access to over 120 million business professionals across the world. Their B2B database can be leveraged across email, display and social. In this case, with their audience targeting layered on top of GDN buy, you can guarantee your ads are getting in front of the right audience. There is a wide array of audience segments available such as beauty, fashion, parenting, technology, music and many more.

Advertisers can select Bizo audience segments within Google AdWords for their display campaigns. Performance data of the Bizo targeted campaigns is housed directly in AdWords, which can lead to real time optimization and performance reporting. The audience segments available get quite granular so the transparency within AdWords for real time optimizations is a plus.

The audience segment targeting is applicable to both display and video targeting options through Google AdWords.

CPMs and CPCs for this type of advertising on the GDN will most likely be inflated compared to traditional display targeting options. This is due to the cost of Bizo and other third party data providers being baked into your advertising costs.

Your Smartphone Photos Could Make You Instant Money

Deana Valorose knows that each click of the camera on her smartphone could mean money in her bank account. Valorose, of Hollywood, Fla., said she’s made more than $300 from selling 68 of her pictures – from breakfast to sports and nature – through a free app called Foap. The app sells the photographs to big brands like MasterCard for use in their advertisements.

Each photograph on Foap sells for $10. The owner gets $5 and Foap gets $5. Related: Get more information on selling stock photos. The picture that I’ve sold the most of is parasailing – people parasailing, Valorose said. Business is booming, according to Foap, because it’s much cheaper for companies to buy stock photos from sites like Foap than from the professionals.

 Foap said that half of its users were making money and that half were raking it in. The app’s user base has grown 25 percent in the last financial quarter as the company seeks to win a share of the $4 billion market for stock photos, competing against longtime stakeholders iStock, Getty and The Associated Press. 

Duyum Dulom of California made almost $4,000 in less than a year by uploading his photos and winning competitions on Foap. Sony and MasterCard each have bought his images. And, he said, Heineken paid him $100 for an image.

Some big brands have even started sending users out on specific missions. MasterCard paid Foap user Adam Hamilton, 42, of Portland, Maine, $500 for this picture of his son playing in the snow. Sneaker and apparel brand Puma paid Hamilton $2,000 for an image. At first, Valorose said, she was skeptical about selling her images, she said, and got my money. … This is the real deal. Yep!

Top 10 Ways to Do Everything Faster

Some things just take too darn long. If you'd like to be more efficient at life's daily tasks, here are 10 tips that will have you living life like The Flash.

While you're at it, be sure to check out our list of 10 every day life hacks that take less than 10 seconds—not to mention how to get through your entire morning routine in 5 minutes, the Japanese game show way.

10. Cook Faster

There are a million ways to speed up dull tasks in the kitchen, whether its deseeding a pomegranate with a wooden spoon, peeling a head of garlic with two bowls, or peeling potatoes in one step with boiled water. Heck, even if you're just microwaving food, you can usually speed up the process (and get more even heating) by placing your food on the edge of the carousel. And on the flipside, you can chill a can of soda in about two minutes with some ice water and a cup or two of salt. Be sure to check out these 20 time-saving cooking tips from chefs, while you're at it.

9. Charge Your Gadgets Faster

If you charge your phone and tablet every night, you probably aren't too impatient waiting for them. But if you need a quick bit of juice before you head out the door, there are a few ways to charge your phone as quickly as possible. First and foremost, make sure you're using a charger with the correct amperage, since not all chargers are created equal. Then, if you're in a rush,put the phone in airplane mode or turn it off completely while it charges—the less battery it uses while it charges, the faster it'll get back to 100%. And make sure you plug it into the wall—plugging it into your computer will often charge it more slowly (depending on the device and type of USB port).

8. Get Dressed Faster

Getting dressed isn't that hard, but there are a few things that can really hold things up. For example, you can tie your shoes in just a few seconds by using the Ian Knot instead of a more traditional tie. Similarly, if your underwear bunches up when you pull on your pants, you canput your underwear in your pants first, then pull everything on in one fell swoop. And if your zipper isn't cooperating...well, we've got lots of solutions for that. Check out our top 10 clothing fixes for more.

7. Type Faster

Chances are you type an awful lot every day, and you can make that work go faster by...well, typing faster. Practice can get you pretty far, though if you have to look at the keyboard when you type, some basic typing classes can get you to touch typing faster.. If you're already a pretty good typist but want to take it to the next level, a new keyboard can help, but by far the best trick is to use text expansion for those oft-typed phrases and snippets. In some cases, an alternative keyboard layout can help, but for most people it doesn't justify the work of learning the new layout. While you're at it, learn to type faster on your phone, too.

6. Do Laundry Faster

Laundry is one of the world's most boring chores, but we also waste a lot of time on things that could be a lot faster. Check out this list of laundry-speeding tips, like ironing quickly with aluminum foil, folding clothes in seconds, or helping them dry faster with a towel. Being a "laundry master" may not be the sexiest title of all time, but when you're done...you'll be one, and it'll feel good.

5. Boot Your Computer Faster

It only takes a matter of seconds (or in some cases, a minute or two) to boot up your computer, but for some reason it always feels like an eternity. Thankfully, you can do a lot to speed up the process. Some tips are obvious, might be due for a retread: like cleaning out your start up itemsor upgrading your operating system, while others are a bit lesser-known, like tweaking your BIOS. By far, though, the best change you can make is upgrading to an SSD. It will make your computer boot (and your apps launch) very, very quickly.

4. Read Faster

Getting through work (or pleasure reading, for that matter) can be rough if you're a slow reader. Thankfully, you can teach yourself to speed read. Try tricks like pointing at the text as you read, looking at the words in the middle of sentences, and stop saying them aloud in your head. You can also try an app like Syllable or Outread, which will help teach you to speed read using articles you've saved.

3. Get Through Your Email Faster

Email can be a useful tool, but it can also be one of the biggest productivity killers around. Thankfully, you can do a lot to make it more efficient. First, get to know your email client: learn the shortcuts, learn the advanced features, and definitely learn how to use the search function—it's almost always easier than trying to browse through folders. Get rid of spam so you aren't constantly getting email you don't need. And finally, don't check it too often: set aside some time to check it periodically rather than as you get new messages, and if you can help it, don't check it first thing in the morning. You'll get a lot more done.

2. Fall Asleep Faster

If it seems like you spend half your bed time waiting to fall asleep, there are a few things you can do to help the process along. Get the lighting in your room right, create a good evening routine, and stay away from computer or gadget screens before bed. You can also train yourself to fall asleep faster if it's a regular issue, and if you're just having one of those nights where you can't fall asleep, these last-minute tricks can help. If it's a chronic problem, though, you may want to talk to a doctor.

1. Clean Your House Faster

Cleaning can often seem like an insurmountable chore, but with the right tools and plan of attack, you can probably clean your house in 15 minutes or less—especially if you clean regularly. The more often you do it, the less of a pain cleaning will be. Alternatively, if your house is too messy for such a simple plan, you can break each task into 20-minute chunks, and clean for 20 minutes a day—then after 30 days, your house will be spick and span. Make sure you aren't just moving stuff around, though. If you've got a clutter problem, the first step is to kick that habit and get rid of the stuff you don't need.

Singapore named the world's most expensive city

Singapore has topped 131 cities globally to become the world's most expensive city to live in 2014, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The city's strong currency combined with the high cost of running a car and soaring utility bills contributed to Singapore topping the list. It is also the most expensive place in the world to buy clothes.

Singapore replaces Tokyo, which topped the list in 2013. Other cities making up the top five most expensive cities to live in are Paris, Oslo, Zurich and Sydney, with Tokyo falling to sixth place. The EIU's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey is a relocation tool that uses New York city as a base. It looks at more than 400 individual prices.

Soaring Asia

The top 10 cities this year have been dominated by Asian and Australasian cities as well as some in Europe. Improving sentiment in structurally expensive European cities combined with the continued rise of Asian hubs means that these two regions continue to supply most of the world's most expensive cities, said the editor of the report, Jon Copestake. But Asian cities also continue to make up many of the world's cheapest, especially in the Indian subcontinent. Most Asian cities that top the list are there for predominantly higher costs of groceries. Tokyo is still at the top of the list for everyday food items.

Inexpensive India

However, not all Asian cities are tough on the wallet. India's major cities - including Mumbai and New Delhi - were found to be among the least expensive in the world. Mumbai's prices are kept low by large income inequality. The low wages of many of the city's workers keep spending low, and government subsidies have helped them stay that way.

Outside of the subcontinent, Damascus in Syria saw the largest drop, becoming the fourth cheapest city in the world as the country's ongoing conflict has led to plummeting prices.

Top 5 most expensive cities

1.       Singapore, Singapore

2.      Paris, France

3.      Oslo, Norway

4.      Zurich, Switzerland

5.      Sydney, Australia

While the EIU's survey takes into account the cost of living, other firms employ different research methods. Mercer conducts research to determine the most expensive cities for expatriate living.

It found that in 2013, Luanda, Angola was the hardest on expatriate wallets due to the difficulty of finding adequate secure housing, and the high price of imported goods.

8 Content Marketing Lessons From Improv

I recently finished my first level of improv classes. Three hours a week for eight weeks, I stepped on stage with a group of 15-some strangers and learned the techniques needed to establish a foundation for improvisation.

In the end, I realized I acquired skills that transferred off the stage and into the office. Here are eight lessons from improv that content marketers can apply to their practice.

1. Support the Group

One of the first things our instructor emphasized to us was: as improvisers, we were in this together. Everything we do on stage should be in support of one another. If someone has an idea, no matter how out there it may sound, we should agree and go with it.

Improv is a team sport and so is content marketing. Ensuring aligment of different departments, such as sales and marketing, will help seed solid content ideas and offer valuable perspective on the needs in the market.

Empower teams with the resources to make suggestions for new content topics and provide feedback on current pieces. Content marketers must clearly communicate that their initiatives are supporting shared goals of the company and that the support of the group will make strategies more successful.

 2. Yes AND

An improviser supports teammates by saying yes. But, agreeing isn't enough. The improv mantra is "yes and..." ¬This provides a way to move a scene forward. Contributions from players help build on an idea, turning that idea into a scene.

The greatest content ideas are usually derived from discussion and collaboration. Oftentimes one suggestion will spark another tangential thought, allowing ideas to build and morph into something new and exciting.

Disruptive and engaging content is achieved by taking risks***

. not by holding back. Marketers should come to the table ready to share, and in the brainstorming stage, all ideas should be welcomed and encouraged.

3. Be Honest

Improv isn't about being funny. In fact, trying to be funny will most likely backfire and not work. Real emotion is derived from the truth, and honesty should be the guide on stage.

Content marketers are storytellers. Successful content is compelling and offers a personal touch to draw the reader in and make a connection.

Authentic and relatable content resonates, so marketers should draw from experience and observations. Transparency builds trust with an audience and helps turn prospects into customers and customers into advocates.

 4. Listen

Whether on stage or waiting in the wings, the best thing an improviser can do is listen. Since dialog isn't scripted, improvisers must be able to adapt and react quickly to what's being said. If a player tunes out, even for a few seconds, he or she may miss a critical detail and the scene may stumble because of it.

Listening can be applied in two levels in content marketing:

·         Internally: Content marketers should keep their ears perked to what's happening in the organization. By doing so, they may discover that new products or services are being offered and should be promoted or that a new type of consumer is being actively targeted.

·         Externally: Listen to consumers and influencers – with what type of content and what topics are they actively engaged? These details will enrich content strategies and make them more effective.

5. Make Connections

Being a good listener enables an improviser to make connections. Lines heard in an earlier scene that the audience may have forgotten often make appearances later in the show. The magic happens when an improviser takes a seemingly mundane line and turns it into a memorable, recurring moment.

Marketers invest so much time in developing content, so they should embrace opportunities to repurpose it. Find ways to repackage existing content. Turn a detailed white paper into a digestible blog series or use it to inspire a webinar. The possibilities to extend the shelf life of content are endless!

6. People Before Plot

Scene work shouldn't be about advancing a plot; it should focus on the two people sharing the stage and their relationship. Within the first few seconds, the audience should get a sense of the mood on stage and the relationship of the characters, regardless of the "location" of the scene or what the characters happen to be doing. Relationships hook the audience and keep them interested.

Put customers at the center and develop content that speaks to varying audiences. Content marketers will benefit from devoting time to research and developing customer personas to help tailor messaging – no matter what the content topic.

 7. Understand the World Around You

During our last class, our instructor left us with some parting advice. One of the more unexpected things she told us was to read the news and stay on top of current events. Understanding what's happening in the world makes someone a smarter improviser; topical references will resonate with the audience.

Marketers should not develop content in a vacuum, but rather, they should follow industry trends and provide commentary or education on emerging topics as relevant. Content should not be forced to fit timely news or events, but if marketers can find inspiration that fits their organization's brand, they should seize those opportunities. Anytime marketers can naturally align content with topics rising in search volume, opportunity expands.

 8. Hone Your Practice

Week after week, I sharpened my skills by taking into account feedback I received. Debriefing a scene helped the group understand what worked, what could have been edited, and what other storylines and themes the scene could have inspired.

Additionally, I discovered that seeing other people do improv could help improve my game. I could watch shows with a more critical and acute eye and pick up on certain techniques the players employed in their work.

With time, content marketers can apply what they learn and refine their craft. Experience helps a writer find and develop his or her own personal style and point of view. Practice makes perfect so find opportunities to create content, even if small at first. And don't forget to keep consuming content – marketers can learn a lot from each other.

 Conclusion

Be sure to improvise as you nurture your content development efforts. Just like learning any new skill, building a content marketing strategy requires patience and a willingness to try new things. Watch out as content continues to take center stage for brands in 2014 and beyond.

4 Ways to Waste Great Marketing Opportunities

Most companies are really eager to talk about how great their products and services are. Guess what? No one cares -- unless those products and services address their needs in some way. If you want to deliver communications of value, turn the equation around: What need does the product I want to talk about address, and what does the story of that need look like from the customers' points of view?

CRM has always purported to be about relationships, but it's often used primarily for sales. That's kind of a good news, bad news situation. The bad news first: CRM got a bad rap when it didn't become a sales panacea (mostly for adoption issues). The good news: It exposed a void in the mix that marketing automation rushed to fill.

Marketing automation in tandem with CRM gives businesses the tools they need to build relationships. As any couples counselor will tell you, the key to successful relationships is communication, and marketing automation opens the gates to coherent, trackable and measurable communication with customers, without growing marketing department headcount in an unacceptable way.

Just because you can choose good tools, however, doesn't mean the final product is going to be great. I have a neighbor who's a DIY weekend warrior, and while he might be a great guy to borrow tools from -- because he buys the very best! -- his house looks like it's leaning to one side and the paint is patchy. It's not owning the tools -- it's what you do with them.

So having a good set of CRM and marketing tools at your disposal is nice, but it won't get you far if you use them wrong. As has always been the case when new technologies become available, businesses have found ways to misuse them. Luckily, these misuses generally follow the same path. If you're aware of these pitfalls, you can steer clear of them.

Following are four ways companies frequently fail when communicating with their customers.

Communicating Too Much

We all have friends who seem to live on Facebook or Twitter. Their constant posts are rarely about anything interesting, but through sheer volume they dominate your news feed to the point where you're tempted to unfriend or unfollow them, or at least filter them out so you don't have to see their blather. Over time, you learn to tune them out and skip over them as you scan your messages.

Guess what? If you're hitting your customers and prospective customers with message after message, they're tuning you out, too -- even if what you're saying has value to them. Just because you now have the tools to communicate with customer, it doesn't mean you should do it compulsively and constantly.

You're asking customers to give you the gift of their attention -- a precious and finite commodity. Abusing that gift is going to backfire, and it's unlikely you'll ever get their attention again -- at least, not through the media you've just proven you can't handle.

Failing to Communicate at All

The flip side of this is being so reticent that your tools go to waste. It's a smart thing to speak only when you have something to say, but that means you have to be on the lookout for things customers will want you to share.

This is where marketing needs free rein -- and perhaps an editorial calendar based on product releases, events and awards. Customers don't want a relationship -- they want the benefits that relationship brings them (as CRM guru Mitch Liebermanhas said many a time).

Thinking about what benefits the customer from communication with them can help you understand when to communicate as well as what to communicate. Which brings us to the next thing you should avoid doing...

Talking About Yourself Instead of the Customer

Most companies are really eager to talk about how great their products and services are. Guess what? No one cares -- unless those products and services address their needs in some way.

If you want to deliver communications of value, turn the equation around: What need does the product I want to talk about address, and what does the story of that need look like from the customers' points of view? Instead of talking about your solution, talk about the customers' problem: why it happens, how it can be resolved -- and how you can help with that resolution.

If there's no problem to address, it should tell you something. One, you don't need to communicate with the customer; and two, you may want to reevaluate what you're selling.

Doing this is easier said than done. It takes some talent, empathy and creativity to tear yourself out of the role of someone marketing something and to imagine yourself in the role of a buyer - if only because you spend most of your day in the marketer role.

However, your company is not the most compelling character in a story you share with the customer -- the customer is. If you can place a customer into your storyline as the main character and not as someone who stumbles in at the end of the story with cash in hand, it's a lot more likely your communication will connect.

Failing to Listen and Learn

If you've been paying attention for the last six or seven years, you know that communication in the social era is a two-way exercise. Simply broadcasting your messages is not enough -- you need to analyze the effects of those communications.

That's something marketing automation applications can help with, by tracking responses to marketing emails; it's also where analytics comes into play as you see the effects of your communications reverberate through social media.

Listening is a great thing. It allows you to understand if what you're doing is working (if so, do more things like that!) or if it's not (if so, stop it and try something else). You should treat it like the navigation system for your journey -- it will tell you if you're getting closer or farther from your target.

Amazingly, most companies don't do this -- they trust that their efforts are on target and they plod along, willfully unaware of whether what they're doing is of value to customers or not. The companies that have learned to listen and analyze have the ability to tune their communications for maximum effectiveness -- and to gain a competitive advantage.