This is my take on Stepehen Fry's captivating chat at today's packed IAB Engage 2009 event in London. I'll post a few more pictures soon. In a ‘fireside interview’ with IAB chairman, Richard Eyre, Stephen Fry had the Engage 2009 audience eating out of his hand recounting his years as a techno geek and posterboy for Twitter, where he has nearly one million followers.Fry explained that he first signed up to Twitter and expected nothing to come of it: “I was packing to go to Africa to film a doc... Read Full Story

ASHLEY HIGHFIELD SAYS “MICROSOFT WANTS TO BE A MAJOR PLAYER IN TV”Online has an “advertiser-funded future” says Microsoft chiefwww.iabengage2009.co.ukAshley Highfield, Microsoft’s managing director & vice president, consumer & online, outlined his vision for Microsoft to be a major player in television and how the back catalogue of TV programmes will increase through advertiser funding.Speaking at the IAB Engage 2009 conference, Highfield focused on the future for TV and online content. He t... Read Full Story

COI CHIEF CITES DIGITAL AS THE KEY TO SOLVING SOCIAL ILLSDigital is a "pivotal" media says LundThe IAB Engage lunchtime address by Mark Lund, COI chief executive, was entitled "Citizen 2.0 - how government can interact and engage in the digital age."Lund started by saying: "Levels of trust in politicians is at an all time low, because trust is at the heart of good communications and the health of democracy." He believes that "society faces serious ills as a result of our prosperous society a... Read Full Story

Brands need to understand “you are what you share and how you share it”www.iabengage2009.co.ukOpening keynote speaker at the fifth IAB Engage conference, Charlie Leadbeater, former Tony Blair strategy advisor, believes that “we’ve only just begun a new social and technological experiment that millions of people haven’t started playing with yet.” Making a metaphor of the growing move towards cloud-based technology, Leadbeater argued that “a cloud-based future filled with multiple forms of clo... Read Full Story

Today I was running the press office at IAB Engage 2009. What follows are the press releases I wrote:BRAND ADVERTISING IS THE FUTURE FOR ONLINE SAYS AOL’S JEFF LEVICKReality TV is making advertisers switch budgets www.iabengage2009.com Search has become ubiquitous and brand advertising is the future for online are the key points delivered by AOL’s Jeff Levick, AOL President, global advertising and strategy, at his keynote Engage 2009 address.Levick believes that “Now is the first real opport... Read Full Story

By Charlotte McEleny, New Media AgeOne in every seven web page views in the UK is on Facebook, according to new Experian Hitwise research, and reported by New Media Age.The web measurement firm revealed the social network accounts for 14.5% of all UK internet page views after it increased traffic to its site by 86.1% over the past 12 months.When compared to other social media sites, Facebook dominates, accounting for 49.2% of all UK internet visits in the category. It is followed by YouTube (... Read Full Story

Reposted from MarketingWeek.co.ukBy Branwell Johnson, associate editor Newspaper circulation failed to rise following the return to work after the summer break, with weekday popular titles dropping 1.71% in total month-on-month and quality titles sliding 0.27% in September on August, according to latest ABC figures.The Sun, which bucked the usual summer trend of a dip in August , saw its figure drop 1.57% month on month in September to 3,079,451 and a 2.53% drop year-on-year for the six month... Read Full Story

Spotify is a marvelous invention but it’s fast falling out of favour in the office as the ads get more frequent, invasive and irritating. We get interrupted more now on Spotify than our local Sunshine 106 station. So news that the Conservative party is to become the first UK political party to advertise on the music streaming service was welcomed as much as a visit to the dentist. Not only is it going to be dreadful listening to 40 seconds of plain speaking party chairman Eric Pickles (who ... Read Full Story

Last night Renegade Media was honoured as a finalist in the SW Business of the Year Awards 2009. More than 630 of the south west’s top business men and women, plus a smattering of MPs, media types and WAGs, congregated at Cheltenham Racecourse to watch BBC personality Jill Douglas present the gongs.Competition was super stiff from emerging tech companies, marketing services, dot coms and established hard industries. It’s easy to forget in the heart of this crippling recession that there is ... Read Full Story

"It's The Sun Wot Won It" screamed the front-page of The Sun on 11 April 1992 and in doing so become the political catch phrase of a generation. Yesterday The Sun switched its allegiance to Labour and the media, on balance, agreed. that it was all over for Brown and Co. But what influence the newspaper had on voters in the narrow Conservative victory is unclear. What is unassailable is The Sun’s pre-polling day campaign only culminated in an elections day headline that Murdoch’s mob milked ... Read Full Story