Intel Corporation (not to be confused with the Tyrrell Corporation, but you would be forgiven – this was science fiction writer Phillip K Dick’s idea) have unveiled digital signage technology that recognising shoppers age and gender and automatically tailors advertising to the individual. Is this just the start of something…?

Most companies are now looking to take advantage of the ever growing number of social platforms in their marketing mix. But the problem with many social media marketing strategies is – a lack of basic strategy. Let’s face it, throwing together a Facebook page and encouraging friends and colleagues to like it or become a fan is not exactly a focussed use of the social media channel.

Nobody likes filling in forms. In fact I would go as far to say I despise any kind of form filling, online or off. Most of us have a natural aversion to giving away our personal information or contact details, especially if we don’t want to be contacted and we just want to learn more on our own terms.

But the law of the internet holds firm. If you want to receive something, you have to give something back.

A flash slider can add an enticing element of engagement to a homepage. Whether you are looking for a random image generator, banner rotator or featured content gallery – Cu3er offers something unique.

Image carousels are nothing new, which is why yours should be capture your audiences attention with something your user hasn’t seen before.

You have to admire the intense fever pitch buzz EMI have created around the marketing of the Gorillaz third album. Their “Stylo” video and various atmospheric teasers released around the Plastic Beach album launch generated over 1 million YouTube hits within a week of release, so what is behind the cult popularity of this anti-pop virtual band?

There are a few open source image editing options out there featuring some of the goodness of Photoshop for free.

Gimp and Krita both offer solid alternatives to Adobe’s flagship image editing software, but involve a lengthly download and install when all you need to so is quickly edit an image on the fly.

It’s been nine years since the the worlds first virtual hip hop band spawned from the imaginations of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. The Gorillaz are back with their latest installment, Plastic Beach.

Their last release, Demon Days was the 5th biggest selling album of 2005, so this has a lot to live up to.

Having project managed a couple of corporate Wordpress magazine theme builds recently, I loved the end result and the lack of technical headaches even more. So I thought I’d get my head under the bonnet and set up this site. I’ve worked with a few heavy duty content management systems and have to take my hat off to Matt Mullenweg and all the open source contributors – Wordpress is a triumph.

Wordpress magazine theme resources

I’m not quite sure if I’m a fan of homepage takeovers.  A homepage take over is a media planner’s  sledge hammer by allowing the digital marketer to take over 100% of a website’s real estate . Yes they can entice decent click through rates, hardly surprising when your entire page is filled with a giant red animated button bullying you into signing up, clicking here or downloading the free trial. But the annoyance factor can’t be ignored.  Your search is basically hijacked in much the same as Zango adware advertisements …

If you have missed “The Hero” viral campaign recently, then you must be ignoring your peers’ social networking updates. With over 14 million interactions in just 8 weeks, the agency behind the viral campaign, DraftFCB, are claiming the most successful viral campaign in history. You have to admit, this is beautifully done.

Viral marketing