So it’s official, online ad spend has overtaken TV. We’ve all been talking about it for what seems like forever but now the day hath come. At the Golden Stiletto Awards last night some innovative examples of advertising in the digital space were out in force, it seems there’s no end to the possibilities for this medium. Now we just need to see an improvement in measurement and digital really will be ready to take over the world.

Where: Getty Gallery
46 Eastcastle St, W1W 8DX
When: Thursday, 29th October, 7-10pm

OCTOBER EVENT | GETTY IMAGES PRESENTS THE 2ND ANNUAL GOLDEN STILETTO AWARDS
While there are plenty of creative awards out there, the Golden Stilettos stand alone as the only awards to celebrate the best of women’s creativity in the industry.

With a distinguished array of female judges, some great prizes and the first ever wearable award, we hope to inspire more women to kick up their heels and join is in digital!

Please RSVP to shesays.uk@gmail.com so we know how many to expect http://www.shesays.org.uk/missing-out.aspx

For those of you that work in digital advertising there’s a ray of sunshine today from Brand Republic who say that internet adspend is holding up better than predicted in these tumultuous times, while newspaper adspend continues to decline. Apparently global internet advertising will grow 10% this year due in part to “its transparency, accountability and flexibility”. Take a look at the article which also has some interesting facts about which countries have the largest ad markets and most growth.

It was very sad when twitter stopped their service, no more sending SMS updates to your phones , BUT , thanks to vodafone, its back…….  We can twitter straight to your mobile.

So for all of you who have been following us since our first twitter in 2006 will have our jobs coming straight into your pocket, how great is that!!!!!!!!!!

tweet tweet away…….

Is it just me but did the latest research reported by NMA that 1 in 7 people are spending up to 5 hours , FIVE HOURS , on social networks seem like a rather long time

FIVE HOURS man FIVE HOURS  ………………….

for the full article you can read it here

Brand Republic have an interesting article this week with some encouraging stats for those of us who work in the digital media market and have an eye on the economy

Online adspend up 21% while total ad market falls

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 07-Oct-08, 09:00

LONDON - Internet advertising expenditure grew 21% year on year in the first half of 2008 to £1.7bn as the total ad market fell by 0.7%, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau.

 If you have a spare two seconds its an interesting read, not just the article but the comments too

Roome are wetting their yellow pants with happiness to be sponsoring Brief2008

This semi-serious social event will bring together teams of young planners, account people, designers and creatives from digital or integrated agencies to answer and present back a brief in two hours, probably under the influence of alcohol.

Brief2008 will be held on Thursday 17^th July 2008 at the Design Council on Bow Street, and has the following confirmed judges:

Iain Tait (Founder, Planning/Creative Partner, Poke)

Amelia Torode (Head of VCCP Digital)

Ben Milligan (Head of Planning, Holler)

Richard Knight (Creative Partner/Founder, Mission21)

Rachel Lawlan (Director of Integrated Strategy, DLKW)

This event will be a chance to discover what kind of thinking comes from people from different backgrounds as well as a good excuse to socialise with like-minded keeners.

The bare faced cheek of some people is astounding

Recent web stalking has revealed a number of bloggers talking about an advertising trend in Japan based on search engine results. Instead of typing a URL into the address bar a simple sign ad tells people to type a search term instead.

 

As Stuart at Fenton Benton, Benton & Fenton points out you can try this for yourself in Firefox, but I’ve found it’s also possible to change your settings so that the result isn’t simply what you’d get if you hit the Google I’m feeling lucky button - the default option will load the number 1 ranking website of the keyword searched, instead of listing matching websites, so if like me you never rely on a lucky feeling, you can change it like this: 

In the Firefox address bar, enter about:config and then press Enter. 

In the Filter: field type keyword.url 

You should see a preference name of keyword.URL in the list. Double click it and an Enter String Value input box will appear. 

Replace the string with http://www.google.com.my/search?q= 

Click the OK button and you’re done.

Thanks to the lovely guys and girls at   for the invitation to BIMAs , had such a great night, met some really wonderful people, just so lovely to speak to people who are so passionate about what they do. Well done to all the winners, GT really did well along with some other large players and great to see some of the newer and the lesser known agencies being rewarded.

Particular congrats to all those who managed to put up with listening to the presenter…. not sure where they found him but wish they’d left him there.