SOCIAL MEDIA  As a digital advertising agency, despite all of the hype that surrounded branded Facebook applications in 2008-2009, we were surprised to find that few brands had the budget or inclination to fund these marketing activities even if they saw the fit with their customers. This raised an important question for us: 'How do we create the opportunity for brands to engage their customers within Facebook on an ongoing basis and a limited budget?' Read on

TECHNOLOGY  Picture this: you're sitting on the couch at home watching TV and dreaming about your next holiday when out comes a 3D image of a woman being massaged in the Maldives from the TV screen. The television set is intuitive. It knew you were considering a trip overseas. It even has an approximate itinerary of what you planned to do when you get there and what your basic budget level would be. The year? 2050? Actually it's more like 2011 and could be a standard feature in most households by as early as 2015. Read on

SOCIAL MEDIA  Watching a surprisingly good Adam Sandler film last week (I can't believe I said that either) I saw a very astute and funny scene about YouTube. The film is centered around a group of young stand up comedians trying to make it big. As such, all of them see YouTube as a channel to help showcase their abilities to the masses. One comic cunningly disguises his stand up material under a more popular search title of 'Kittens' so that, to the detriment of the viewer, they will be shown random, interjecting clips of his material while the kitten footage is being streamed. Read on

SOCIAL MEDIA  Womens groups and general consumers alike are outraged at AMP's latest social media move, releasing an iPhone application that assists males to pick up women. Named, 'Amp up before you score', the application classifies women into one of 24 categories and then based on this classification provides one-liners for men to seduce their targets. For PepsiCo, the parent company of AMP energy drinks, this move continues a long running association with male targeted advertising, encompassing extreme sport, mate ship and womanising. This short sighted move however, could be a key turning point for PepsiCo leadership position, with blogging sites rife with previously satisfied customers vowing to now boycott the brand indefinitely. Of course PepsiCo is not the only company to push the gender boundaries, with many brands using the boys club as a way to reach a specific audience. So, were they wrong? Like most, I believe so. Read on