ADVERTISING & MARKETING  What is marketing about if not engagement? But what it is and how do you measure it? The fact is that the most important metric is the most poorly defined word in the ad industry lexicon. Watching an ad, talking to a call centre, wearing a label, tasting a cool beer on a summers day, chatting with friends about a product, using a branded app, all are engagements and all matter, yet most of them happen outside of the view of any reliable measuring technology, at least those I know about. Read on

TECHNOLOGY  We are told that very soon we'll be living in a world where everything we do in computing, including data and applications on our mobile phone, will come down from the cloud when we turn on and go up to the cloud when we switch off. Google apps are just the beginning. Not only that, but that any single user can in theory draw on massive storage capacity or processing capacity available in the cloud. What do you think the major developments and implications will be arising from cloud computing? Read on

WEB  Welcome to Digital People where this time we profile LinkedIn Managing Director (Aust & NZ) - Cliff Rosenberg. Cliff offers insights into the world's largest professional network including their position and plans for this region after establishing a presence late last year. He shares his views on our current market pointing to the early start of the social networking wave and forecasts growth in mobile e-commerce. Overall he sees digital becoming a more localised and personal user experience. He also warns us to stop selling ourselves like traditional and starting taking advantage of the medium - good advice. Please enjoy Cliff's views..... Read on

TECHNOLOGY  There's no question, the traditional content industries are experiencing unprecedented disruption to their business models. The Internet has brought not only a new way to distribute content, it has now begun to shift consumer attitudes towards content consumption generally. This presents a number of challenges to existing media organisations, but also a whole new range of opportunities to create value. Read on

ADVERTISING & MARKETING  Your media kit is a key decision making trigger for potential buyers when assessing where to place their advertising investment and is often a first introduction to your brand. To maximise your chance to either appear on their buying schedule, be asked for further information or to produce a proposal, it's important the information in your kit gives an effective overview of the features and benefits you provide. Here's 10 tips to consider when producing your media kit as a showcase to potential advertisers - Read on

TECHNOLOGY  We've seen a lot of coverage generated recently about the importance of broadband and differing opinions on how high speeds will be delivered to Australian households in years to come. But what will it mean to you and me; to our average, everyday lives. Sarah Greenaway time travels to 2018 to give you a glimpse of what's to come and asks you the question: "What are you doing in 2018 if you have access to 100Mbps broadband?" Read on

INDUSTRY TALK  The online world creates new opportunities to collect data about visitors, consumers and customers - and therefore opportunities to mine and interpret that data, as well as opportunities to build a deeper relationship with individual consumers. Read on

SOCIAL MEDIA  According to a recent Comscore search report, 10.29 billion online searches were conducted in the US alone in June 2010. Fortunately, Comscore also includes some choice local and mobile search data, incredibly relevant for real-world businesses. It's possible for us to extrapolate what this means for local businesses. I'll give you the short version: local search is on the rise. Read on

WEB  Most people agree that good usability is a crucial factor of success for web sites. However many business owners and managers do not conduct usability testing of their Internet projects because they are afraid that it costs them a fortune and they just have no budget for it. Until recently it has been true, but nowadays, thanks for emerge of crowd-sourcing model, budget is not a big issue anymore. Read on

PEOPLE  Welcome to Digital People where we present profiles of people in our industry through a regular series of Q&A's. This time we feature Peter Bray - General Manager of fully integrated agency The Brand Shop. Peter's background is placed strongly in the digital arena - as he points out he is the first person from this background to run an integrated agency where he is able to offer a unique perspective. He shares his opinion on the prime position creative holds for clients - idea first, media channel second. Peter also puts the digital industry on notice asking us to take heed of his advice regarding the us and them attitude of digital verses traditional agencies and offers particular thoughts on social media in this mix. He also quite rightly recognises the many roles and services beyond the creative idea which are involved in the digital media industry. Thank you Peter for sharing your views.... Read on