Thank you for visiting our 4D blog. Here you’ll find thoughts and comments from our global colleagues about the digital world. From a campaign that inspires us to how we see the digital world changing to a new gadget we just love, you’ll find it here!

Archive for September, 2009

Online ad spend overtakes TV

See that hideous thing up there? Well that’s the world’s first banner ad , created by AT&T and served in 1994. Let me tell you my reader friends, things have come a long way indeed. A recent report from the IAB has suggested that online ad spend rose 4.6% in the first half of the year, giving it a 23.5% market share and edging it ahead of TV spend. What makes it even more impressive is the context within which that 4.6% growth occurred: the overall advertising sector declined by 16.6% in the same period. Now remember that it’s not all down to lovely banners such as the one above. In fact, much of the growth came from search and online classifieds. We think you’ll agree that this is all very excellent news.

Posted September 30, 2009 2:18 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

Filed under: Online Advertising, Trends | Tags:

Peugeot launches a new tie-in with Spotify

Time to give ourselves a little pat on the back – our brand spanking new Peugeot Drivesexy campaign has launched! The idea is simple: find the UK’s favourite Drivesexy song. Visitors to the site are asked to cast their vote by rating submissions or suggesting their own tracks. But here’s where the clever bit comes in – we’ve integrated the site directly with Spotify using their API (which hasn’t even been officially released yet). What this means is that clicking on any song link will open that track directly into the Spotify app. And users can submit their own choice of track by copying and pasting in a Spotify URI. Notice how the Artist and Track name appears as soon as you paste in the URI? That’s the magic of their API at work and it’s never been done before.

Posted September 24, 2009 4:40 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

Filed under: Campaigns, Our Work | Tags: ,,

Over half of UK population will shop online by 2013 – is that all?

Anyone else surprised that by 2013 only just over half of the UK population will be online shoppers? And that figure only represents 75% of the online population at that point in time. What could be holding all those people back we wonder? Fear of phishing? FEAR OF INTERNETS?

Posted September 14, 2009 4:20 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

Filed under: Trends | Tags: ,

Cheese. Burgers.

Cheese websites. Probably not the most interesting things you might think. We’ve probably all come across a similar situation: how to give a low-interest product a captivating online presence. Wisconsin Cheese have gone down a pretty intelligent route: don’t focus on the product, focus on the delicious things you can do with it. Because everyone likes a juicy burger right? Have a flick through the exquisite looking burgers, learn how to make them yourself and share them on facebook. Our favourite? Number 18: The Pioneer.

Posted September 1, 2009 1:37 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

Filed under: Campaigns, Online Advertising | Tags: