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The Guardian’s (@guardian) Style Guide (@guardianstyle) editor David Marsh (@davidrmarsh) has declared today to be International Apostrophe Day (#apostropheday).

For proper execution, see The Writing Kit’s tutorial, Using the Apostrophe, and the above poster (see it enlarged).

Read why the British bookstore chain Waterstone’s (@Waterstones) dropped its apostrophe earlier this year, then listen to two BBC commentators discuss its implications.

See The Apostrophe Protection Society and the blogs Apostrophe Abuse (@apostropheabuse) and Apostrophe Catastrophes.

For fun, see this apostrophe/comma Speed Bump comic by Dave Coverly. J

And remember that the popular Bible translation Common English Bible (@CommonEngBible) uses the apostrophe in its copious number of contractions (which are used where the text warrants an engaging conversational style, but not used in divine or poetic discourse).

Let Somersault’s (@smrsault) editorial expertise help you properly use apostrophes when communicating your brand’s message.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

This article by USA TODAY (@USATODAYtech)  tech reporter Jon Swartz (@jswartz) has implications for the future of bookstore retailers. Swartz writes, “The convergence of smartphone technology, social-media data, and futuristic technology such as 3-D printers is changing the face of retail in a way that experts across the industry say will upend the bricks-and-mortar model in a matter of a few years.”

"The next five years will bring more change to retail than the last 100 years," says Cyriac Roeding, CEO of Shopkick, a location-based shopping app available at Macy's, Target, and other top retailers.

Within 10 years, retail as we know it will be unrecognizable, says Kevin Sterneckert, a Gartner analyst who follows retail technology. Big-box stores such as Office Depot, Old Navy, and Best Buy will shrink to become test centers for online purchases. Retail stores will be there for a "touch and feel" experience only, with no actual sales. Stores won't stock any merchandise; it'll be shipped to you. This will help them stay competitive with online-only retailers, Sterneckert says.

Read this in full.

Below is a slide deck summary of psfk’s (@PSFK) report, The Future of Retail.

Also read about the possibility of Google providing same-day delivery and what IKEA is doing with Augmented Reality.

See our other blogposts tagged “Retail.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you navigate the revolutionary changes occurring in the world of books.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

MediaPost’s (@MediaPost) MarketingDaily lists the top 10 designated market areas (DMA) in which adults who personally own an e-reader reside:

  1. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA

  2. Washington, DC (Hagerstown, MD)

  3. New York, NY

  4. Boise, ID

  5. Austin, TX

  6. San Diego, CA

  7. Seattle-Tacoma, WA

  8. Denver, CO

  9. Philadelphia, PA

10. Salt Lake City, UT

Source: GfK MRI’s (@GfKMRINews) 2011 Market-by-Market study

See the Market-by-Market List of 205 DMAs (pdf).

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your brand’s content in today’s digital publishing environment.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Because we at Somersault (@smrsault) love words, we thought you’d like to know Nigel Richards, 45, a New Zealand security analyst who lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, won the 2012 National SCRABBLE Championship in Orlando, FL, that concluded today, according to the North American SCRABBLE Players Association (@NASPA) tournament website. This is his 3rd consecutive title and 4th overall, both unprecedented achievements. He is also the reigning World Champion.

Both Richards and the runner-up, 1994 champion David Gibson of Spartanburg, SC, won 22 games (out of 31), but Richards had accumulated a better spread (+1579 vs. +1563, a difference of only 16 points) after winning the final game against Gibson by 177 points (475 to 298).

During the tournament, one contestant was disqualified for cheating.

Some of the most creative words played in the tournament were: ZADDICK (a virtuous person by Jewish religious standards), ERYTHEMA (a redness of the skin), ORPHIC (mystical), and WAWL (to cry like a cat).

Also see The New Yorker's poem, Reflections on a Winning Scrabble Board.

Contact Somersault to help you in your writing craft and to connect you with readers.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard, created especially for publishing and marketing professionals.

Since August 2008, the Digital Bookmobile (@DigiBookmobile) has traversed America coast-to-coast, allowing readers of all ages in over 400 venues to experience digital audiobook, ebook, music, and video downloads from their public library and immerse themselves in an interactive learning environment.

Housed inside a 74-foot, 18-wheel tractor-trailer, the Digital Bookmobile is hosted by individual libraries in support of their download services and operated by OverDrive, Inc. (@OverDriveInc) [OverDrive Digital Library Blog (@OverDriveLibs)].

The traveling community outreach exhibit is an updated version of traditional bookmobiles but is equipped with Internet-connected PCs, high-definition monitors, a sound system, and a variety of portable media players.

See the national tour calendar of venues.

Also see our blogposts tagged “Library.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you digitally publish and market your brand’s content in ebook, pbook, and audiobook formats.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

On the ECPA (@ecpa) website, David Kinnaman (@davidkinnaman), president of Barna Group (@barnagroup), says new research shows pastors love books. “One of the nation’s most loyal book-buying audiences, 92% of all pastors in the US say they buy at least one book every month, and they average 3.8 books per month. That’s anywhere from 12 to 46 books a year. Compare that to the total population, where only 29.3% of American adults buy more than 10 books in the course of a year.”

·         Pastors, as a group, purchase between 8 million and 13 million books every year.

·         Pastors influence others — their staffs, boards, and congregants — to buy books.

·         Many pastors say they want to support the business and ministry of Christian retailers. But this sentiment — particularly for bricks and mortar Christian retail — is changing with the generations. Younger pastors are leading the shift to online buying, with 57% of Buster pastors (ages 28-46) expressing a preference for online.

·         When a pastor selects a ministry-related book, the most important factor, by a wide margin, is the topic. 58% of pastors say topic is the most important factor, while only 15% give top priority to the author of the book. This is consistent across all generations and across all church sizes.

·         By a large margin, pastors in the US prefer to read books in hardcover (55%). Only 24% prefer paperback, and 16% prefer digital.

·         E-reading devices have tripled in their penetration among pastors in the last 2 years.

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Study: Christians are Embracing Tablets & E-readers” and other posts tagged research.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you reach pastors with your book and brand message.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Research tab.

We think lessons can be learned from watching this 8-minute ESPN (@espn) documentary video. Consider how you’d go about turning customers of your brand into the kind of people who would identify themselves with it so strongly that they’d include it in their own send-offs.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Rest in Fleece: Woolen Coffins – Innovative Market.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you effectively communicate your brand’s message to create raving fans.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

A new global survey on faith and atheism released by WIN-Gallup International (not related to Gallup Inc., Washington, DC) says the number of people worldwide who call themselves religious is now 59%, while 13% self-identify as atheist — a drop of 9% and increase of 3% respectively compared with a 2005 study.

The poll  — based on interviews with more than 50,000 people from 57 countries  — asked participants, “irrespective of whether they attended a place of worship, if they considered themselves to be religious, not religious, or an atheist.”

The top 10 religious populations:

     1.    Ghana

     2.    Nigeria

     3.    Armenia

     4.    Fiji

     5.    Macedonia

     6.    Romania

     7.    Iraq

     8.    Kenya

     9.    Peru

   10.   Brazil

Top 10 Atheist Populations:

     1.    China

     2.    Japan

     3.    Czech Republic

     4.    France

     5.    Korea, Rep (South)

     6.    Germany

     7.    Netherlands

     8.    Austria

     9.    Iceland

   10.   Australia

   11.   Ireland

Ireland has the second greatest drop globally, in those claiming to be religious since 2005. In Ireland, only 47% of those polled say they consider themselves religious — a 22-point drop from the 69% recorded in a similar poll conducted in 2005. Ten percent self-identify as atheist. The only country that registered a steeper decline in religiosity is Vietnam, which has a 23-point drop from 53% to 30%.

Read this in full.

Read the report (pdf).

Also see our previous blogposts, “The Global Church: Shift in the Christian Landscape,”  “Christianity: World’s Largest Religion,” and other posts tagged “Religion.” Another resource of trending religion statistics is the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you identify and analyze market research pertinent to your brand’s marketing message.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Just for the fun of it, Adweek (@Adweek) has compiled a depiction of the television shows we all watched throughout our lives. Back when America’s collective entertainment was fairly limited and unified; and when interruption advertising was the name of the game. How many do you remember seeing? (See an enlarged version.)

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your brand’s content.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

On Fast Company (@FastCompany), Scott Stratten (@unmarketing), president of UnMarketing.com, says, “You can't make something go viral. You don't decide, I don't decide, the audience does.”

If you're hoping for your latest content to go viral, it has to do one thing: evoke strong emotion. Key word there is “strong.” If someone lightly laughs at something, or is slightly inspired, that doesn’t make them jump to the “share” button. It has to be to the level of awesome. Awesomely funny, upsetting, uplifting, offensive, whatever the emotion is – it has to hit it hard.

Read this in full.

Over on Ad Age (@adage), marketing pundit Bob Garfield (@Bobosphere) writes:

Though evidence is accumulating that brandedness suppresses passalong, that doesn't mean brands shouldn't be both creating and curating content for their various constituencies. In fact, as we edge ever further into the Relationship Era, in which trust is the most valuable asset, providing compelling and relevant content through multiple channels is an ever-more important way to sustain connections. For instance, Betty Crocker's cake videos, pure how-to content sought out by moms wishing to bake birthday cakes shaped like dinosaurs and princesses, have been clicked on 70 million times.

And, as I've mentioned before, there is a huge, untapped opportunity for a brand to pass along found video to its various circles, much in the way any friend would.

Finally, brands can be part of larger movements, when those enterprises reside in the common ground shared by the brand and its customers

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogposts, “The 3 Qualities That Make A YouTube Video Go Viral” and "Forget Product Positioning: This is the Dawn of the Relationship Era."

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you effectively communicate your brand message through strategic and creative video.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.