Probably the biggest irony of my day-job is that in the course of booking digital media I am routinely left to resort to technologies that have long since been improved upon.

Whilst I’m sure the traditional fax machine has played its part in share-shattering business deals (not to mention being one of the best ways for film and TV cop dramas to reveal the identify of the killer) I tend to look down on the humble facsimile with a little disdain, because, surely, in this day and age, there’s a better way of doing things.

In my experience of booking digital media I’ve only come across a handful of companies that don’t require a faxed document to make a booking. It won’t surprise you that one of them is Google, who of course, digital acolytes that they are, decided that making multiple physical copies of a paper document (including reams and reams of rainforest destroying Ts & Cs) was a little on the silly side given the available technology. The world leader in online problem solving instead opted for a check box and a nifty piece of HTML verification. Simples.

I guess the odd fax now and then doesn’t really pose me too many problems. It’s a nice illustration though of how digital is still not being used to its full potential. It’s still an add on for many people: support for TV ads or a funny little distribution channel that brings in money at the expense of bricks and mortar stores.

Digital is far from either of those things – it’s a revolution in the 4Ps of marketing (or the 7Ps if your a more recent graduate of Jobber et al). Digital is fundamentally driven by technology that makes thing s easy and enhances communication. Fax machines do not belong in the digital world as much as digital isn’t a way to whack a TV or press ad online.

The technology is there to used folks, so use it. It’s not exactly rocket science is it.

Like Photobox.com…

When you empty your basket, they want to keep you on the site. They want to counter the reason you emptied your basket. They want you to find what you’re looking for. They want you to be happy avoid your day being unfulfilled.

They, like all retailers, don’t want you to go home empty handed.

Which, in a nutshell, is what marketing is all about.

Reducing conversion drop off: When you clear your basket of items at the checkout stage Photobox serve this clever little screen to tempt you to stay on the site and purchase

LinkedIn are conducting an election poll and the results seem to confirm a few assumptions I’d already made about the electorate:

• Creative types are more liberal and idealistic (and I think this applies to social media and digital geeks too)
• Business leaders have lost confidence in New Labour and will turn to David Cameron
• The lower down the food chain the worker is the higher the propensity to vote for Labour

There’s a few things that the poll suggests which seem to make sense in the current economic climate:

• Small and very large businesses are more likely to vote Tory

And there’s one major factor that I think may have already decided the outcome of the 2010 General Election this year, and that’s is:

• Age!

Younger people have the power to keep David Cameron out of power – but have they all registered to vote?

Labour’s anti-Cameron PPC (plus #UKelection display ads by Conservatives and the Google Chrome party)

Lots has been said and written about the impact of social media on politics. Barack Obama surged to power on the back of a Facebook campaign; Stephen Fry brought the strife of Iranian voters to the attention of millions; whilst Westminster has been opened up with tools such as Tweetminster , They Work For You and Vote For Policies.

Tweetminster has helped bring Westminster to the online community (or vice versa?!)

The 2010 UK general election may be the first time the political scene in Britain has been able to fully immerse itself in online communications on a grand scale (although some would argue it’s been a missed opportunity). YouGov polls are making way for blogging polls (I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve ‘voted’ already on various different websites). David Cameron became the most defaced man in Britain as the Tories offline media buy turned viral via a quickly fashioned spoof website. Unlike his Tory counterpart Gordon Brown has avoided sending personal emails to voters, opting instead to focus on the viral effect of accusing people of bigotry, whilst Nick Clegg has been expertly backed up in the live TV debates by the Liberal Democrats twitter feed, who posted Lib Dem policies in real-time as they were discussed on the telly.

Countless blogs and articles will no doubt analyse the social media prowess of the political parties (we shouldn’t forget that the Green Party have also made great use of Twitter and even the BNP have embraced 140-character updates). But it’s not all glamourous activities such as tweets, viral and status updates…

More traditional forms of offline and online media have also deployed and the success of will be equally as difficult to measure as social media. It also seems that the main parties preferences have been to pay for offline media whilst utilise ‘free’ (although time consuming) online channels. You haven’t left the house in the last month if you’ve not seen Gordon Brown or David Cameron’s face on 92.6% of billboards in urban areas, but I’ve not seen a single leaderboard or skyscraper placement for either leader.

Labour however haven’t been avoiding paid online media. The incumbent majority have been quietly plugging their anti-Cameron campaign with good old fashioned search marketing. And to top it off they’ve been using the Google Content Network. Here’s an advertiser who really does benefit from those free contextual impressions, every one potentially another slither of doubt in floating voters minds.

Don't Risk The Tories: Labour's contextual PPC campaign the day before the UK general election

It all seems a bit underhand compared to integrated social media feeds and interactive manifestos. But it’s (potentially) a very cost effective way to add to the overall effect of electioneering.  I’d be interested to know if they have a negative keyword/site exclusion strategy. It’s a subtle approach and clever, but will it really do much more than create a few headlines on a handful of geeky blogs?

And as I type some news just in: I’ve just heard that the Conservatives have block booked YouTube tomorrow (polling day). The homepage placement (I’m told reliably by Google) is only available on a daily takeover basis and what a day to select! Potentially impeccable timing from the Tory marketing machine. OPn top of that this week has seen my inbox littered with personalised emails from a variety of Tory MPs which mean there’s no hope of avoiding the fact it’s election week (I’d love to know how they got my email address too, care to explain Mr Cameron?). On the face of it, their strategy looks much more influential than Labour’s adoption of content ads. I guess time will tell.

In case you missed it there...!

Funny how two buses come at once. In the process of writing about Labour’s use of paid search I stumbled across Google Chrome following Ann Summers onto the election bandwagon. Piggybacking politics is a bit of a minefield but both brands have done a decent job here. Probably better than the politicians have…

Apps are the buzzword of the moment. Whether on your iPhone, desktop or bolted on to your browser, ‘add-ons’, ‘applications’ and ‘clients’ are the tools that help us get what we want from technology.

I’ve compiled a list of a few apps that have significantly changed the way I do things online, whether at work, blogging or browsing. Whether I’m searching for information, referencing media or managing my workload these little applications have completely changed the way I go about a particular task or project:

Screenjelly

Screenjelly revolutionised the way I could share online ads

So I see an online ad that inspires me to write on this blog or show to a colleague or client. But of course you can’t save a flash ad from the page easily in a format that shows you it’s full capability. Screenjelly lets you record what’s happening on your screen quickly and easily, allowing me to record ads (particularly useful for showcasing expandable and video formats) but crucially also record a click, the landing page and the journey beyond.

+ simple to use, you can log in with your twitter account

- quality not great for recording fast moving video or flash, java app can be slow

Twhirl

Twhirl makes running multiple Twitter accounts a doddle - as long as you type into the right window!

Probably nothing new to many but Twhirl is the best Twitter client I’ve found for me. Most of that is down to it catering expertly for multiple accounts, vital as I have my personal twitter account plus I manage most of the tweeting for the blog me and 2 mates run, Real-Ale-Reviews.com.

The ability to keep tweets separate in two windows and the easy to use buttons for the various sections of Twitter: @replies, DMs, search, followers etc make Twhirl great to use. It lacks the ability to sort your incoming tweets by custom filters as TweetDeck does, but that’s no great loss for me personally.

+ multiple accounts easy; small, attractive interface; not just Twitter either

- no complaints from me; no list compatibility…yet

Charles

I’ve no experience of another debugging tool, but Charles is a beauty. Officially it’s a web debugging or HTTP proxy – it allows you to view what’s happening in the background when you view and interact with a web page, helping developers find errors and get them sorted.

Charles HTTP proxy lets you see behind the rendering of a website page

It has other practical uses though. We recently saw some of our clients’ ads on a site we didn’t expect to see them. With Charles installed we clicked on the ads, recorded all the page interactions and browser requests and identified firstly, our ad sever, then the publishers ad server and the ad servers of our network partners. Some quick deduction and the culprit was spotted and the ads swiftly removed (with a ticking off!). Charles saved hours of wrangling with media partners over who had served it (they were all run of network blind buys so if no-one had owned up we had trouble).

It’s hugely useful for understanding how the internet actually works each time you load a page. It regularly amazes me how many people who work in online media roles fundamentally don’t understand what the internet is and how it renders information.

+ easy to save sessions and turn recording on and off

- licensed, not free

Readefine

Readefine makes browsing regular blogs easy - but doesn't detract from actually going there to comment

Whilst I can’t say I prefer using Readefine to reading posts on the actual blogs, Readefine does help me not miss new blog posts. It’s billed as an Adobe AIR application which makes it easier to read blogs. This isn’t it’s strongpoint for me though, I revel in the ability to login via Google Reader and easily check out the latest posts from blogs I love to read. I follow quite a few, which makes trawling them all a ridiculous task.

Using Readefine I can scan the latest articles and select the ones that I want to visit and perhaps comment on. Readefine doesn’t stop me visiting blogs that I would have visited, it enhances my ability to see more blogs and actually increase the amount of blogs that I comment on as I find posts I would have otherwise missed.

Whilst Google Reader and RSS may be being overtaken somewhat by social media as a source of news, Readefine has given me a reason to use RSS and I’m looking forward to a long relationship with it by my side.

+ free, saves lots of time trawling blogs

- slightly odd navigation, lack of filtering options

Four apps, not all new, but ones that make a genuine difference whilst at work and play.  Some honourable mentions should go to DropBox for file storage (which I’ve been recommend so many times and started using this week), Minitask (simple as hell ‘To Do’ list app for your desktop, but rightly so) and MoTweets, the only twitter client worth bothering with if you have a Windows Mobile phone (the only negative of my HTC HD2 being the scantily populated Windows Marketplace app store).

If you have other suggestions please comment and let me know about them!

This post was 100% inspired by James Poulters “5 Web Apps I would never be without in 2010“, well worth a read (I’ve been trying Focus Booster today!)

Todays definitely a snow day. If I take twitter as a reputable source then there’s been anywhere between 4 and 8 inches across Leeds this morning. And it’s still going strong.

Most of the UK will be making snowballs instead of working today, or just maybe hiting the world wide web for some shopping

What does this mean for the economy?

Buses can’t get anywhere, the post will be delayed, schools are shut, people won’t get to work and productivity will be as bad as on Tyneside when an ex-Real Madrid and England striker signs for Newcastle.

Not to mention the high streets who will have to endure wet umbrellas and slushy entrances all for a handful of bedraggled punters who braved the conditions or are stuck in the town centre.

All round, snow days are probably slow days, economically.

But I wonder whether the same applies to online retailers? Surely a day when many people are usually cooped up at work shouts opportunity to those flexible enough to move on their feet. There’s potentially a lot of people at home today with a little more time to turn the PC on whilst the kids are watching the box and have a browse for the replacements for those unwanted presents or a holiday to get away from all this weather?

If you’ve got some spare budget and are willing to take a punt, I’d be tempted to take a gamble and capitalise on this theory, ensuring PPC visibility, a burst of display and maybe even a well-worded, quick-thinking email, and maybe just turn a slow snow day into a blizzard of online enquiries or sales.

The last few weeks have been a bit bonkers and hugely exciting for me, with some great successes personally and for people I know.

Just over a week ago I attended the British Guild of Beer Writers dinner in London and put faces to the names of many bloggers and beery folk I’ve met through the internet over the last 6 months, spending a day rambling around London with some great people and seeing some new friends pick up well deserved awards.

At work we scooped a DMA award for the Best Online Display Advertising for our campaign for Republic, fighting off competition from some really fantastic campaigns, brands and agencies (you can see the best online display ads here on the link above)

Rick Harrison who works with me at AWA also scooped the top prize in the National Trust and Sunday Times photo competition for his shot of a walker descending a steep path in the Lake District. I’m deeply jealous of his new Nikon D90 but my claim to fame is that the winning shot was actually taken on my camera (albeit by Rick before he sold it to me!)

Golden Twit Award commendations for Real Ale Reviews: I'm a commended social media practitioner now I guess!

And to top it all off, I recently found out that my beer reviews blog, Real Ale Reviews, had won two commendations from the inaugural Golden Twit Awards organised by The Drum magazine.

The award makes the Real Ale Reviews team particularly proud because of the categories it is in: ‘Writing’ and ‘Information Service’. These nicely describe two of the pillars that the blog was built on – to help add to the great beer blogging and writing that is out there, but to also make beer reviews accessible to a wide audience and to provide useful information.

I’m hoping that the next few weeks and months will be just as exciting, although there’s a lot to live up to now!

Spotted an interesting online display ad from Auto Trader yesterday, the basic premise being that you could draw your own car in the ad (as you can see I was going for a kinda Ford Fiesta Mark I meets Delorian model, as opposed to the 2004 style sitting on my drive!).

The ad leads you to then sell your car, which is a nice way to get people interested in the banner ad but also ties in nicely with Auto Traders desired outcome. I quite like the way the robot man jumps up and turns just before the landing page appears – nice touch!

In fact since I took the video the landing page has changed to this, which improves the string of relevance a little with stronger calls to action on selling your car:

Landing page for Auto Trader's 'Draw Your Car' display ads

This is a nice little idea, but I’m going to have to be very biased in favour of my employers and point out that we’ve done something similar before. (I’ll let you be the judge of which you prefer!). These ads promoted Republic’s mix ‘n’ match promotional offers for men and women and showcased some clever use of the drawing API in ActionScript and external serving of product images into the banner.

With both ads I’d love to actually see the drawings that are input by online users. No doubt there’s been a few more salubrious designs and potentially some very nice artwork, but the cost of tracking this would probably undermine what arte both ultimately direct response campaigns.

Both these ads show just a little more of what we can do with the internet, and also highlight how much online advertising just doesn’t make use of a medium that offers not just an advertising platform, but the opportunity to revolutionise supply chains, business processes, customer interaction. These ads are only a tiny step that show break the mould of banner ads simply being ‘online wallpaper’ or outdoor ads on computer monitors. Whilst I’m sure there’s a role for that, it isn’t on my computer screen thanks, I’m ready for the next generation of ads that actually amke use of the technology we use every day.

By the way if you like the Republic ads you can see the whole portfolio on the AWA website. I think they’re bloomin’ brilliant, and the IDM thought so too!

AWA is the agency that I work for and they specialise in web development and digital marketing.

I stumbled across two great finds today, firstly a great ad for Land Rover, and secondly a great little tool which will allow me to show you this ad!

From what I can see Land Rover took over the MSN (UK) homepage today with an expandable format in the typical leaderboard position and a central above-the-fold MPU to complement it.

Rather than use a load of screengrabs or try to describe the ad, I’ll just show you it and you should see what I mean (this being the great little tool I found (courtesy of www.screenjelly.com).

So this ad has ‘wow’ factor, and rightly so. How many brands can take over MSN with such bold and exciting creative?

But beyond the spinning landscapes and fancy rich media, there is a strong emphasis on response, particularly to ‘book a test drive’.

There’s no doubt this media placement and the ad development were pricey (not to mention the rich media ad serving costs) but when Land Rover’s products costs what they do, and in times of not only economic recession but increased ‘green’ awareness and a backlash against ‘gas guzzlers’, there’s surely a need to wow and fascinate your audience. And, whilst doing so, also leading them towards conversion via the immediacy of the interweb.

It’s certainly one of the more interesting ads I’ve seen recently and one that’ll be having my brain whirring on overtime as I’m considering media options for upcoming campaigns.