Digital Forum

A light at the end of the tunnel at last

TOBY THWAITES — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:53:10 GMT

There are many different ways of measuring the state of the economy and the rate at which it is improving. If recent reports from the Bank of England are to be believed then we should all feel that we are a million miles from anything resembling a steady pace of recovery but I’m happy to say that in the creative industries we seem to be bucking the trend.

We have noticed a number of significant indicators to suggest that confidence is growing, not least because the permanent recruitment market, which suffered the most earlier this year, is back with a vengeance. The freelance market has continued to show steady growth but it is the change in the permanent market which we are taking heart from. We were finding, up until the past three months, that clients were taking far longer than normal to make decisions but things are moving along much more quickly now. Also, in our experience there is now competition between employers for the best candidates on the market and we haven’t seen that for a while. We recently appointed a Project Manager who was in the fortunate position of being able to choose which job to accept from three different offers made to her.

Talented individuals are in demand again across the board and the best developers, project managers and designers are enjoying higher levels of interest from clients. Those people who have been hanging on to the security of their existing jobs are seeing this as a good time to begin browsing the market again.

Although no-one can say for certain that the recession is over, all the companies that we deal with (in the advertising, design and marketing sectors) are still cautious but definitely more optimistic. We’re aware of design agencies which belong to the bigger networks, now being allowed sign off to spend money on recruitment in 2010.

While the North of England has seen a slower rate of recovery than other parts of the country, our Leeds office is also now enjoying more movement.

All of the above are reasons why we believe that 2010 is going to be a better year for candidates, agencies and hopefully for us too. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. http://www.purple-consultancy.com

Finding Brand Republic and sister sites on Twitter

Gordon Macmillan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:47:28 GMT

If you want to follow Brand Republic and our sister sites on Twitter this is the place to find all the relevant account names and the low down of what kind of tweets you will be getting.

Brand Republic

@Brandrepublic - Brand Republic's main home on Twitter. This is not an RSS feed. Here BR will post the biggest news stories and try to share other material we like as well as respond and chat.

@Brandrepublic2 - This is our full automated RSS feed that includes all news stories published on Brand Republic including those from Campaign, Marketing and Media Week.

@BRjobs - This is Brand Republic's main job feed and the one to follow if you are looking for a job in advertising, digital, marketing or media.

Brand Republic staff and editors

@RichSutcliffe - Brand Republic's editor

@GordonMacMillan - Social media and international editor at Haymarket and former editor of Brand Republic

Campaign magazine

@Campaignmag - This is where you will find Campaign on Twitter delivering the latest advertising news, new ads as well as comment.

Marketing

@MarketingUK - The home of Marketing magazine.

Promotions & Incentives

@P__and__I -The of home Promotions & Incentives magazine for the latest new and views on promotional marketing, POS, vouchers, campaigns and merchandise. Published by Haymarket.

Marketing Direct

@Mdirectmag - The home of Marketing Direct on Twitter with the latest news and opinion from the world of direct marketing.

Revolution

@revolutionmag This is where Revolution magazine posts all of its news, comment and acts as the official voice of Revolution.

We supplement this by retweeting from our personal Twitter accounts to add personality to the Revolution brand.

@GJ - Gareth Jones, editor.

@Andrewmccormick - Andrew McCormick, deputy editor.

@lil_liz - Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh, reporter

Good social media courses in London?

Rosie Foster — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:40:29 GMT

Hi!

I'm an assistant at a music management company and maintain our artists websites and social networking sites, (facebook/myspace/twitter/blogs etc) and I'd like to go on a day/couple of days course that will help me get better at this/teach me loads of new stuff/get me bang up to date with ll the current trends...does anyone know of any good courses, I've been scouring the net but there's a lot of stuff out there!

Thanks, Rosie x

#BRBallot - As Rupert Murdoch delays his plans for paid content will it happen?

Gordon Macmillan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:34:06 GMT

Rupert Murdoch has delayed his plans for paid content, talks about banning his sites from Google, and the New York Times admitted it was struggling with the issue, is there a future for newspapers and paid content? Tell us what you think and vote now in our poll.

[Poll]

Working in digital media

Kerry-Ann Eustice — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:55:11 GMT

The demand for digital skills and roles in the media remains high - unlike other disciplines - print for example!

And there's lots of people out there keen to find out how to get their foot in the virtual door yet are still struggling.

So how can you improve your chances?

I'd say making sure your online reputation is clean is very important. Don't be leaving a snail trail of negativity across the net that employers can use against you.

Also, do you have a presense online? To prove you want to be a part of and belong to the digital media industry, you should be active and have a presence on the net.

I'm not talking expensive websites but certainly blogs, interesting and relevant Twitter accounts, be active in the forums.

A panel of creative executives and recruitment specialists working in digital media will be joining the Guardian Careers forums this Thursday, 1-4pm

Question the experts here: http://tiny.cc/BIDUe

Are you buying an Apple iPhone?

Gordon Macmillan — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:20:18 GMT

This is easy enough: no chance. Having gone through the hassle of changing networks once why would i do it again. The iPhone looks great, granted, but it is still just another phone. Seriously that's what it is incase anyone out there was confused. Oh yes, it also costs £269, which a culture where phones have traditionally been free with contracts could be a huge stumbling block for all but those diehard Apple fans.

Mozilla's Firefox 3.6 will take advantage of accelerometers.

nikon jems — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:34:16 GMT

because of in built accelerometers firefox 3.6 will be able to detect wheather ur pc or laptop is in vertical or horizontal position.
what is ur opinion about this new cool version?

Yep, Sorry! Another Student In need of help from the experts!

Ricky_D83 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:23:37 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I'm currently in the process of pieceing together a research project for my final year as a Advertising student.

The Subject im looking at, although quite vague at this early stage is Consumer Online experience versus In-store Experience, and how e-commerce brands can use Emotion online as a technique to compete with stores and create customer loyalty to their online brands.

I was just wondering what everybodies thoughts were on this and who they consider to bethe current brands that are failing to offer more to the consumer other than just an online catalogue to just drive sales.

Any help or thoughts will be appreciated!

Thanks

Ricky

iPhone Apps - what are best ones out there?

Brand Republic — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:45:00 GMT

There are tens of thousands of iPhone applications out there including some very amusing ones (Puma and stripping models we're thinking of you), some must have ones (come on down Spotify) and some pointless ones (yes Noel Edmonds and Cosmic Ordering we are thinking of you), but what are some of your favourite?

Dissertation (grrrr)

sarah robertson — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:53:57 GMT

Hi there.

I am currently researching for my dissertation and was wondering if I could ask you good people for some help!

My topic is about the changing trends in public relations recruitment (ie. how pr's need more technical skills now). As you can see, I don't even know how to exactly describe my title, probably due to the fact I have yet to find a decent article (why do this topic do you ask? my supervisor guided me to!!)

Does anyone know of any good articles / blog pieces, etc then please let me know!!

Discuss my topic to if you like! It might get me thinking!!!

Direct Response Creatives

Chris Yew(twitter: chrisyew) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:36:47 GMT

Hi Guys,

Just thought i'd pick your brains about 'what makes a good DR creative'. I'm currently doing some research which would be interesting to share with you, but i'm looking for any opinions and ideas or research you have on 'good DR creatives'.

From things like the creative call to action, to the ad format size, does anyone know how cultural and regional differences affect the approach to display advertising? How about colour? Is it true that you should always optimize your ad from left to right to go with eye-tracking? How important is the strength of the brand in generating a DR response?

I thnk this is all information we need to consider so it'd be great if anyone has something to share.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter (chrisyew)

Cheers,

Chris

The attraction of The Internet and Social Media like Twitter ...

Paul Ashby — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:13:29 GMT

is that it is a return to the prehistoric human fascination with telling tales!
Since the beginnings of any civilised society the market place was the hub of civilisation, a place to which traders returned from remote lands with exotic spices, silks, monkeys, parrots, jewels - and fabulous stories. Interactive Communication, properly executed, more resembles an ancient bazaar than fits the business models companies try and impose upon it.

People respond to interactive opportunities like Twitter because it seems to offer some intangible quality long 'missing in action' from modern life. In sharp contrast to the alienation wrought by homogenised broadcast media, interactive opportunities provide a space in which the human voice would be rapidly rediscovered. Unlike the lockstep conformity imposed by television, advertising, and corporate propaganda, interactive communication gives new legitimacy - and free rein - to play.

People long for more connection between what we do for a living and what we genuinely care about. We long for release from anonymity, to be seen as who we feel ourselves to be rather than the sum of abstract metrics and parameters. We long to be part of a world that makes sense rather than accept the accidental alienation imposed by market forces too large to grasp; to even contemplate.

Remember the market place, of old. Caravans arrived across burning deserts bringing dates and figs, snakes and parrots, monkeys, strange music and stranger tales.

The market place was the heart of the city, the kernel, the hub.
Like the past and the future it stood at the crossroads. People worked early and went there for coffee and vegetables, eggs and wine, for pots and carpets. They went there to look and listen and to marvel, to buy and to be amused. But mostly they went to meet each other...to talk and interact! Markets are conversations...as is Twitter and the Internet!
It is all there in my book “Television Killed Advertising” detailing where we have gone wrong in the past and where we could still go wrong in the future. Would you like to discuss the further? paul.ashby@yahoo.com

Firefox button

Bacchisio Valdo — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:18:05 GMT

Hallo,

I often use the saved passwords of my Firefox browser to see and sometimes erase the passwords...only everytime I must go to Tools - Options - Safety - saved password.
I was arguing if there is a way to insert a link in the toolbar to simplify and speed up this task.

Thank you and hallo to everyone.

__________________
You have never see ideas for gift like these? (articoli da regalo on italian or cadeau homme on french), traduzioni giudiziari

Etre Get Together 2009 - with Steve Krug and Lou Rosenfeld

Daniel Griffin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:22:11 GMT

Spend two days in the company of the leading lights in the field of user experience, Lou Rosenfeld and Steve Krug. Learn everything there is to know about site search analytics and usability testing from the blokes who wrote the books on it.

WHO?
Lou Rosenfeld and Steve Krug - that is, the fellas who (respectively) wrote Information Architecture for the World Wide Web - aka "the information architect's bible" - and Don't Make Me Think - aka "the usability engineer's bible".

WHAT?
Two day-long hands-on workshops on Site Search Analytics and Discount Usability Testing.

WHERE?
The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, UK.

WHEN?
Wednesday 20th to Thursday 21st May 2009.

WHY?
To learn how to dramatically improve the performance of your website by observing how people *really* use it

HOW?
http://events.etre.com/events/2009/etre-get-together/

Register now...or miss out!

Sign Up!
http://events.etre.com/events/2009/etre-get-together/

dissertation topic - "can digital advertising build brands?"

kim button — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:49:02 GMT

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone with relevant knowlegde and experience, within the advertising/marketing industry, could share their opinions regarding my dissertation question: "can digital advertising build brands?"

The case study I have chosen to focus my research on is the Cadbury gorilla campaign, which I know has mixed reviews. Due to the 'hype' it has received on internet sites such as YouTube, I feel that it is a relevant case study for my dissertation.

Do talking presenters on websites work?

Andy Vee — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:20:04 GMT

Has anyone seen these video presenters which you can put onto web pages?

Do they work? Are they are a way of reducing bounce? Or are they just annoying?
I'm looking at ways of making a clients site more appealing using digital media.

Interested in your thoughts.

Cheers,
Andy

What are the European equivalents of Revolution and New Media Age magazine?

Daniel Griffin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:38:01 GMT

The change of media trends in digital broadcasting

Ross Hemsworth — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:36:56 GMT

US market reserach agency Abitron, recently reported that over 60 million Ameriacns a week listen to online radio stations and yet the UK advertising industry remains slow to bring clients to online broadcasters.

Whilst online digital radio is still relatively small, it is a massive growth area and our stationb for example has attracted two former BBC Radio ONe DJ's and a top comedian as presenters in recent weeks.

We will be in a large Winnebago backstage at this year's Glastonbury Festival entertaining the great and the good and yet still the larger sponsors and advertisers are not being pushed in our direction.

Perhaps some of you good people out there would like to consider us as an experimental option!

We get over 5 million hits a month to our website and our audince is surfing the web whilst listenng into Glastonbury Radio, with a credit card in their hand ready to spend money! We are not about just "brand awareness" like FM radio, we are about ACTUAL SALES!

Glastonbury Broadcasting Ltd shares have increased in value ten fold in the past three months - so somehing must be right! Tune in at http://www.glastonburyradio.net

Rock on people!

Ross Hemsworth
Managing Director
Glastonbury Broadcasting Ltd
http://www.glastonburybroadcasting.net

How To Write A Good Masters Dissertation?

julie jamson — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:07:41 GMT

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In conclusion we can say that one important technique that should always be used while writing a good dissertation is the format or structure of the dissertation should always be kept in complete synchronization. The dissertation topic should first be introduced in the introduction section. It should be further discussed in the proceeding chapters and should be thoroughly summarized in the conclusion finally by using the above discussed useful techniques the student can produce a comprehensive dissertation in the least required time.

Digital agency team structure

Jon Exley — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:16:02 GMT

Can anyone supply me with a typical team structure chart for a digital agency? I've got a growing, multi-talented team of designers, developers, project managers, account/campaign managers... but the strategic direction is now difficult to manage as everybody does everything - I've got 3 front-end developers who also act as account and project managers... it's probably quite a common story in our industry out of small team necessity, but we now need to evolve.

Day 2 - TFM & A

Joe Bloggs — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:19:57 GMT

Much better. Queues shorter. Much learnt. Sean, was that you walking around with the bubble machine?

Marketing 2.0 Conference in Paris in March 30/31 - Does anybody go?

finn bergström — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:22:39 GMT

Before being banned from this site as spammer - just wait :-) - My BBDO colleagues all talk about the Marketing 2.0 Conference which will take place in Paris - Does anybody know more about it? It just viralize in our company like crazy - so if anybody has more info on that I would be happy to get some infos if I should go!!! Thanks Finn

Understanding why we shouldn't advertising on the Web!

Paul Ashby — Thu, 24 May 2007 08:14:52 GMT

The Internet is part of a revolution that is causing business a lot of headaches. With its networked communities, based on trust and candour together with a huge contempt for corporate smugness.

The fact of the matter is that assumptions about consumer behaviour never related to how people lived their lives.

However corporate greed is now busily investing huge amounts of money in the Internet; Microsoft $6 billion, Google $3 billion, WPP $650 million, all in the space of a few weeks.

Their return will come through eyeballs, get enough eyeballs, shown them enough advertisements, and that will make nice profits for everybody involved.

In the past this formulae has produced a ton of money. However we have paid a price, it has produced television programming where one programme is indistinguishable from everything else together with a rising blizzard of commercials – called clutter!

Nowadays however we do have a choice, the Internet. And people, you, me and the guy around the corner, having been treated for so long as mere eyeballs, are moving to the Internet in our millions.

We have no loyalty whatsoever to the Old Media, who, together with their handmaidens, The Advertising Agencies, have treated us with contempt, as nothing more than demographics, dehumanising and depersonalising us in their rush to get their hands on all those lovely advertising big bucks!

Initially marketing ignored the net, then they had an awakening, and are now rushing headlong onto the Web thinking that this is the New Medium.

As a result Corporations, ably aided by their minions, the Advertising Agencies, are treating the Internet as a source of a mass market – which it isn't!

Frankly people go on line on their way to going elsewhere, and most people are looking for (dirty) pictures; jokes and the latest home made video joke – they certainly do not want to look at advertisements!

And what do Google and Microsoft and WPP want?

They want to deliver advertising to you – as much as possible because it is worth a bucketload of money to them. The Google, Microsoft, WPP investments represent the ultimate goal of mass Media and mass Marketing, they want to become as big as possible so that they can tie up the mass market! Because all they care about is making more money for their investors.

We must never forget that Mass Media existed to serve the marketing needs of Corporations – the Net was never created for that purpose.

Because Mass Marketing has never, for once, treated the consumer as an individual, and because of this, have practically ruined our perfectly good media system. The needs of advertising agencies are dictating that we neglect a perfectly good media environment and move elsewhere – well advertising is not working now and it will never work on the Web!

So perhaps, for once, Google, Microsoft and WPP have got it all wrong. the internet takes to advertising like a fish out of water!

Sadly however, marketing and advertising executives regard us as fools! For years they have become used to preparing ads, and sponsoring programmes that fit all their pie charts.

But their simplistic formulae's will not replicate on the Web, how do you, after all, sell advertising to billions of sources each with a handful of viewers?

Digital Blog

Neil Potter — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:26:37 GMT

Hi, I have recently started a blog about working in the new media industry on ning. I'm no designer, and it's kind of a work in progress but I hope some of the posts may be of interest...! http://runningblind.ning.com Cheers,

What factors make a company hosted community successful - do you have any examples?

katie brunt — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:14:31 GMT

I'm a student researcher working on a research project on ‘online communities’ at the Manchester Metropolitan University. I would very much appreciate your opinions on the following question. The question refers to businesses or brands which have created a community for their consumers, on or around their website. (for example. Lonely Planet, Dell) I realise the question is very open ended, but the aim of the questions it more to gauge what you feel are the most important factors rather than explaining them in detail.