INJECT’s objective is to transfer new digital technologies to news organisations to improve the creativity and the productivity of journalists, in order to increase the competitiveness of European news and media organisations.

To achieve this objective, INJECT will extend and aggregate new digital services and tools already developed by consortium members to support journalist creativity and efficiency, and integrate the services and tools with current CMSs and journalist work tools in order to facilitate their uptake and use in newsrooms.

The services will undertake new forms of automated creative search on behalf of journalists, using public sources (e.g. social media) and private digital resources (e.g. digital libraries of political cartoons) to generate sources of inspiration for journalists who are seeking new angles on stories. The tools will provide new interactive support for journalists to think creatively about new stories and reuse news content in new ways to increase productivity. To transfer the new services and tools to Europe’s news and media organisations, INJECT will establish a new INJECT spin-off business, build up and expand multiple vibrant ecosystems of providers and users of new digital technologies, and exploit its position at the heart of Europe’s journalism industry to raise market awareness and take-up on the services and tools.

Following the guiding principles of Horizon 2020, the EU framework Programme for Research and Innovation, INJECT will increase the competitiveness of one of Europe’s most important creative industries – journalism – by stimulating ICT innovation in SMEs, by effectively building up and expanding vibrant technological ecosystems that will meet the emerging needs of new and existing news and media organisations.

More details are available at INJECT's website at the following link: http://injectproject.eu

You can follow the development of INJECT on Social Media: facebook.com/injectproject/ and on Twitter @inject_en

While virtual reality (VR) might still be finding its place on the hype curve, 360 video content is exploding. There are thousands of 360 videos on YouTube and Facebook, and the number increases day by day. A few large publishers have gone heavily for the format, the most well-known example being The New York Times with their Daily 360 covering breaking news around the world. Publications as diverse as USA Today, Euronews, and Germany‘s Bild have all made significant experiments. So where does the money come from? Is there a new format possible with the medium? Can we make ad experiences inside the video that do not involve a 15- or 30-second pre-roll delay before the user sees the editorial content?

With funding from the Google Digital News Initiative (DNI), WAN-IFRA worked with Mediahuis, parent of the daily newspaper De Standaard, and developers Exozet to find out how we could create new, easily repeatable ad experiences within 360 video.

Although there have been some minority objections, for the most part, advertising hoardings or billboards are an accepted feature of urban life. It’s easy to envisage similar advertising in VR environments. And indeed, our first concept for this project was based on VR billboards in 360 video – hence the title. So, there are many lessons that can be learned from outdoor advertising. The closest comparison points are the billboards in video games. As part of the project, WAN-IFRA defined and built the a number of specific ad units:

1. Ad billboard: A simple 2D-graphic plain picture or logo placed in a suitable 3D space to blend with the existing 360 video content, e.g. against a wall or on a desktop flat-screen. This could be interactive or non-interactive.
2. 3D object: Off-the-shelf 3D model with some branding applied, with the possibility in future for creative to be supplied by an agency, e.g. a new cereal packet. After some experimentation, we realised the simple 2D pop-up above the object was the most effective interaction.
3. Video: 2D video that can be played on click or “gaze control” (the act of selecting an option by centering the gaze in the VR viewer / Google Cardboard).
4. Hotspot: Invisible elements triggered on mouse-over or gaze control in Google Cardboard.

We learned a number of lessons from this project:

• High-quality creative is important. The DTM logo was a good choice, since they sponsor Minerva already. But of course it does not look great as an image. By contrast, our mockup IKEA catalogue blended in and looked very sharp.
• The size of a hotspot or clickable area is tricky to define. Too small and nobody sees it, too big and it’s difficult to move away.
• Pop-ups can be intrusive. And website links are just as intrusive as on mobile if clicked accidentally.
• The best formats look natural but grab attention. Example: the IKEA catalogue in the Eva Mouton video.
• Clever placement of video, e.g. on a depicted computer screen, makes a huge difference in quality.