Hunt was speaking at a Q&A session at the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) last week.

“When you start to look at what we have, we are probably the second best country in the world at the creation of digital content”, he said.

According to Hunt, the government is dedicated to helping businesses exploit the opportunities provided by the internet and he stressed the commitment to providing the infrastructure to allow that to take place.

“If we want to maintain our lead as the country where all the most exciting advertising innovations are happening, then we need to have a superfast broadband network that is able to cope,” he said.

“We need to get this right, so we’ve made it our objective for Britain to have the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015.”

Source: New Media Age

The aim of this mobile briefing is to give some insight and inspiration into the next generation of mobile devices, techniques and technologies that will shape the future of mobile marketing.

The mobile landscape continues to develop at a lightning pace, and with the smartphone explosion driving user behaviour into uncharted territory, it’s critical for brands not just to stay afloat in the present mobile environment, but to be ready for the future.

As well as a look at the stats you need to convince any business that a mobile strategy is key to engaging the next generation of consumers, and how different demographics are found in different parts of the mobile landscape, we’ll look at 5 of the most important trends for 2011.

The mobile web

What’s the scale of mobile web usage, and how should you approach it? Are there any special tips and techniques to deploying to mobile web when phones are now equipped with full HTML browsers?

mCommerce

How are consumers finding and purchasing with their mobiles? What new technologies and services are they discovering to get them the products they want, and how can brands get in early with them?

Augmented Reality

What might seem like the ultimate techy fad is set to gain real cut-through in 2011. We’ll define what AR is on mobile and look at brands who are making the most of it already

Mobile Advertising

With recent acquisitions from Google and Apple in the space, mobile advertising continues to be big news. However, of equal interest is the emergence of genuinely engaging ad formats, location and targeting that will take the industry way beyond banners and buttons

Location Based Communities

With the increasing convergence of social and mobile, Location Based Communities offer an opportunity to place brand messaging right into the heart of the user’s mobile lifestyle. What will propel these services into the mainstream, and what kind of campaigns are possible?

The cost of the briefing is £75 (20% discount for Econsultancy members) and can be booked online here.

For further enquiries please call 020 7269 1470 or email training@econsultancy.com

via Vision+Media Events calendar.

Social Media Advertising will bring together social media companies, marketers and brands to discuss the latest tools and techniques for running effective social media advertising campaigns.

This one day conference offers expert-led guidance on how to engage with customers via advertising and promoted content in social media, including tips on how to maximize the impact of your campaigns, insights into new tools and services, how to monitor and measure the results, and trends to watch out for.

We will explore how social media advertising can be combined with “earned media” and “sponsored conversations” to enhance results. This is the ultimate event for anyone interested in social media advertising.

“Together, earned and paid media are far more effective when the programs are humanized. The difference between social network advertising and marketing and traditional online campaigns are the ecosystems where engagement is fostered” – Brian Solis

Topics we will cover during the day include:

* The Science of Social Media Advertising
* How to Create Highly Effective Ad Campaigns
* Expert Reviews: Facebook & LinkedIn Ads
* Twitter Advertising: will it work?
* Advertising through Apps
* Case Studies and Best Practise Examples
* B2B & B2C Social Media Advertising
* Blog Advertising and Sponsored Posts
* Tools and Trends to Watch in 2010

The conference will be fully interactive with presentations, case studies, Q&A sessions and panel discussions. There will also be an Exhibition Area showcasing social media advertising tools and services. The ticket price includes refreshments, lunch and a handbook. There will also be networking drinks at the end of the day.

Use code chinwag and get 10% off

Organiser:
Influence People

Contact:
0845 463 1435

Website:
http://www.influencepeople.com

via Social Media Advertising – London | Chinwag – the UK’s leading community media company for the new media industry.

On 13th and 14th September at the Lowry, Salford Quays, the 3rd annual WorkTech North is attracting some of the biggest and brightest names in the region to debate, discuss and divulge the latest thinking on work, workplace and technology.

In association with the BBC, this seminal event offers a unique blend of ideas, case studies, workplace innovations and visions of the future – including:

* BBC North: The vision and reality, Mark Harrison, Head of Production, BBC North and Alan Bainbridge, Portfolio Director will reveal more about the vision for the BBC at MediaCityUK in terms of production and how they are redefining workplace through innovations in design, support and sustainability

* Relocating to reduce cost – from London to Manchester, Garry Gordon, Head of Property, British Council

* Technology in the New Century City, Dr Adrian Woolard, Project Lead R&D North, BBC

* ‘Whitehall the North’ – a vision for the future of Mayfield, Julian Lipscombe, Director, Bennetts Associates

* The Future of Innovation & Work: new research, Professor Ian Miles, Professor of Technological Innovation and Social Change, Manchester Business School…. plus much, much more. See main programme brochure attached.

* In addition to the conference on 14th September, a Tour of the BBC and MediaCity UK will take place on the 13th September and masterclasses will cover topics including:

* BBC Case study: Redesigning the FM and procurement process, Peter Mathieson, Balfour Beatty and Scott Fortune, CEO, ScottFortune.co.uk

* Property efficiency through workstyle based planning, David George and Mark Bradshaw, Capita Symonds

* Measuring the benefits of workplace change, Tim Allen, Director, Johnson Controls

* The added value of workplace ergonomics, Lillian Antonio, Herman Miller

Places are limited. Three ways to book your place today, either: book online, email registrations@unwired.eu.com or call 020 8977 8920. For more information about the event, click here.

Organiser
Manchester Digital

via WorkTech North | Chinwag – the UK’s leading community media company for the new media industry.

Augmented reality (AR) is at the heart of the advertising campaign for the new Volkswagen Golf Match.

Created by Tribal DDB London and Proximity London, the campaign features an augmented reality version of the car which can be examined by the consumers in 3D space.

The augmented reality experience is activated by showing a card containing an AR code to a webcam on consumer’s computer. The card is recognised by the webcam and becomes a road with the AR car travelling along it. The user can tilt the road to make the car move faster or slower.

A number of spots appear around the car highlighting the various features via pop up text panels detailing the cruise control, parking sensors and all other features of the car. This interactive feature enables consumers to have something close to a real life experience of the car.

Volkswagen is hoping that augmented reality will help to give consumers a better experience while researching online. Augmented reality enables consumers to have a closer look at the key technological features in a 3D space from the comfort of their own home.

“The advantage of using augmented reality is that it really delivers a closer and more engaging experience with Volkswagen”, Josie Taylor, communications manager at Volkswagen, said.

Victoria Buchannan, creative director at Tribal DDB added that augmented reality was not used just for the sake of it.

“On the surface it is a straightforward use of augmented reality, but in terms of overall user journey it is a big step closer to the levels of experience we want Volkswagen prospects and customers to have with the brand”, she said.

“This isn’t AR for the sake of AR, it has a practical application of the technology which is very useful for prospects.”

Feature article

Everyone keeps talking about it. And the internet is buzzing with different demos of all the cool things you can do with it. But what does Augmented Reality really mean for marketing? And what do you need to know about it? Read more…

Augmented Reality – what is it and where is it taking us?

Augmented reality (AR) is by definition something that adds to reality. For example computer-generated content mixed with images from the real world.

So far, augmented reality has been scarcely used by companies in their marketing. Real return on investment is yet to be demonstrated and at the moment augmented reality tends to be something only forward-thinking brands are experimenting with and is often thought of as  being tricksy.

But is that a bad thing?

Adam Broitman, partner at a New York based agency Circ.us, is a big augmented reality gospel.

“People say it seems like a gimmick. It’s not a gimmick. And so what if it is? Since when was it wrong to have some gimmicks in marketing? Rich media banner ads – what were they?”

QR codes made redundant?

At the moment, the most common way for a brand to engage in augmented reality seems to be an interactive video that involves customers by using a webcam. Computer-generated images appear superimposed over the real world image captured by the webcam.

This is all good fun and engaging, but the novelty will wear off soon, Broitman says. According to him, the way augmented reality is used now is not what it will be like in the future.

“What this really means is we’re moving toward a new model. QR codes are simply a stepping stone to an augmented reality future. But we seem to skip steps. If augmented reality technology takes off, why do you need a QR code?”

QR codes, those funny looking black squares on products, which direct users to relevant websites, provide product details and so on, have brought immediacy to the process of finding information, but in the augmented reality future Broitman is talking about, there would be no scanning or sending. All you would need to do is hold up your mobile phone and a layer of information would be displayed on the real world image about the objects in the picture.

This is already the reality if you’re a smartphone user in search of a metro station in Dubai.

Using an augmented reality platform called Layar, the London-based software developer Howard Ogden created an AR app for the Dubai metro. Through the phone’s camera and information from the Roads and Transport Authority and Dubai Metro websites, the app displays data on an interactive screen enabling the user to, for example, locate the nearest metro station in a flash.

Making it simple

While the technology itself has been around for a while, the rise of smartphones has seen augmented reality made readily available to consumers – and lucrative for marketers.

The possibilities to engage are bigger than ever; virtual tours while car shopping, trying on sunglasses, 3D business cards with talking heads – the list goes on. The real challenge is a practical one.

“That will be the coup here, the ability to make it simple,” Broitman said.

“We’ve seen a lot of cool technology but consumer adoption is so low because no one wants to do the work to get it done. We’re trying to make it real simple.”

Augmented reality also changes the game for marketers touching some of the industry’s core concepts, Mike Moran, an internet marketing consultant, points out.

“Augmented reality threatens to further erode a marketer’s advantage in information. Economists talk about how markets crave perfect information, but marketers have traditionally known more about their products than customers have. The Internet has already diminished the marketer’s information edge, but augmented reality swings the pendulum even farther.”

Case study

And have a look at our case study – Volkswagen Golf goes augmented

Set up by North Shields-based Ben Dures and Alistair Sutherland, reliabletradespeople.co.uk uses a strict evaluation system to help consumers find reputable tradesmen based on their location and area of expertise.

The site was set up after research revealed the North East to be the top region for rogue tradesmen.

Ben Dures said:  “I met up with Alistair at Christmas last year, we’ve known each other for years, and we started talking about dodgy builders and sloppy workmanship and came up with the idea for Reliable Tradespeople On-line.

“What is so distinctive about www.reliabletradespeople.co.uk is that it sets such high standards for contractors and service providers who wish to register with us. This is important to me because I’m very interested in ethical trading, the use of local labour and protecting the public.”

Following their success, the company is planning to expand. New markets are already in production and the plans to expand reach even beyond UK borders.

According to Oxford University Press, the demand for the print version has plummeted while online hits are blooming around 2 million a month. The current print edition, published in 1989, has sold about 30,000 copies.

Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press, said in an interview with the Sunday Times that the print market is disappearing, “falling away by tens of percent a year”.

According to Portwood, it’s unlikely that the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary will be printed.

While the complete shift to digital marks the end of an era for the dictionary, which had its first edition published in 1884, the online version brings along a much-welcomed flexibility.

While updating the print version with a team of 80 lexicographers revising the content takes years, the online version is updated every three months.

The online version, launched first in 2000, will be relaunched in December to include a historical thesaurus to make cross-referencing easier.

Source: Stuff.co.nz

The two companies are set to run a test programme from September until the end of the year in New York area.

Using small chips installed in smarphones, the system sends short distance radio signals between customers’ smartphones and point-of-sale devices in stores to collect bank account details and complete the purchase.

The programme is one of many attempts to introduce mobile phones as a primary means of everyday purchasing in the US.

According to Visa spokeswoman Elvira Swanson, the pilot programme could potentially have a powerful impact on the market.

Source: Stuff.co.uk

Gmail’s new ‘Priority Inbox’ feature tackles cluttered inboxes and sets a new challenge for online marketers.

Launched last Monday, the new feature uses an algorithm to sort incoming emails into three categories; Important and unread, Starred and Everything else.

The ‘adaptive algorithm’  works based on factors such as frequently used addresses and frequently opened messages. Users can also mark some recipients and senders as automatically important and, with time, the system will “learn” what kind of message the user deems important.

Google has boldly stated that the new feature works so well that once you start using it, you never want to go back.

More engaging and relevant than ever

If it proves popular among users, Priority Inbox will change the way email marketing works.

Elliot Ross, senior creative designer at e-Dialog London, told Marketing Week that the new feature calls for more engaging and relevant content in email marketing than ever.

“The key to getting into the priority inbox is relevance. The user is now actively teaching filters what they want to read, so every mailing should be as useful and engaging as possible.

“This means segregating your lists, following design and HTML best practice and cutting out irrelevant ’blanket blasts’ to everyone. It might even mean mailing people less sometimes.”

The value of email marketing has been a hot topic after ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry recently announced that they’re scrapping email marketing and focusing on social media platforms instead. Priority Inbox could be the final push towards a similar decision for other companies.

Mashable impressed

Priority Inbox has impressed writers of social media blog Mashable. After a few days of testing they wrote:

“Our inboxes get filled with hundreds of e-mails daily, but only a few of them require our immediate attention. Even with dozens of Gmail filters, important messages often get lost in the pile, leading to lost opportunities or missed meetings. Priority Inbox, while not perfect, is a dramatic step toward solving that problem.”