UK advertisers spent over £4.2bn in the first quarter of 2007, a year-on-year increase of 3%, according to research published by the Advertising Association. But Internet adspend continues to rocket - it bucked the overall trend and grew a massive 42% to £648m.

Carat said digital investment continues to be the single biggest driver of adspend growth in every region and country, but it singled out the UK as one of the most sophisticated online advertising economies, with display accounting for only one quarter of total investment.

Interesting read in Business Week : Children Of The Web - How the second-generation Internet is spawning a global youth culture--and what business can do to cash in.

And to end the week on a bit of creativity: the winner of the Young Creative Competition Cannes 2007 for Film. The brief:

MTV Networks has launched a new climate change campaign called MTV Switch. The campaign aims to inform, entertain and encourage climate-conscious behaviour amongst global youth, driving traffic to www.mtvswitch.org. Competitors were asked to produce a 30 second commercial to be used on TV, mobile and the web that encourages 15-25 year olds to adopt new energy-saving lifestyles, making it cool to be green.

I just spent two as always hectic days in our London office; did a presentation on why we are in the ad business for Intellect, had nice dinner with HR directors from EMEA and even met charming Y! people on the way out. Coming back on Eurostar I thought I needed to post a quick afterthought on the Cannes festival. Because things have been so fundamentally different this year. They really were. On the last night of Cannes Lions, the Dove Viral won the Grand Prix for Film – a digital campaign...! The first time a viral has won the Film award that has always been the realm of Broadcast. And the Xbox Burger King game won the Titanium Grand Prix for Integrated Marketing. In addition almost every single seminar this week had a digital element. The digital advertising industry really became more influential than traditional media throughout Cannes this year. This is a real milestone for not only the advertising industry but also for our business.  Our Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions’ presence in Cannes was truly phenomenal. Advertising Age was quoted as saying that’ this year’s Cannes was brought to you almost exclusively by Microsoft’ also commenting on how we had supported the ad industry more than our direct competitors and traditional media. Thanks for the compliment. In any case I had a super time with our 500 customers. Thanks a lot for all your engagement. 

The scoop: at the same time a highlight of my week was the fact that we have signed an extension to our exclusive sponsorship of the Cyber Lions for an additional three years. This means that our relationship with the IAF will have been ongoing for 9 years and underlines Microsoft’s commitment to the advertising industry. I remember when we first launched our sponsorship, 6 years ago, people were confused about why we were investing in the advertising industry, we were almost apologetic about our presence and we got looked on as a company in an identity crisis. I even remember Emma, our marketing manager at the time said ‘the one thing we are not going to do is try to out party the party people.’  Reflecting on our presence this year and some of the comments that were made to me during the week, not only do people understand and appreciate our investment in the festival, but our Wednesday night party is one of the hot tickets of the week. Not too bad for a software company... Anyway, I, for one, am looking forward to our continued involvement and have already started the detox in preparation. 

The last Cannes pics...

On Tuesday we had a full packed day that was kicked off with the Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions ‘If you Can think it, you can do it conference’. 500 Microsoft clients and agencies gathered at the Hilton hotel to hear the latest from Microsoft on where the business is headed – there were great demos of some really cutting edge new technologies that we are developing including Silverlight and Seadragon. And for some it was the first opportunity to see the Photosynth technology in action which I have written about before. 2 agencies presented the real innovative campaigns that they have worked with us on – Nokia and Philips, whilst OMD presented the groundbreaking McDonalds research study. Yusuf Mehdi joined me on stage for an interview about our recent acquisitions – Massive, aQuantive and ScreenTonic and highlighted that these 3 areas – gaming, mobile and supporting agencies with better measurement and buying opportunities are key areas that we are focussed on as we extend our advertising opportunities for brands.

Later in the afternoon Blake Irving took part in the Wunderman panel. More than a fashion statement: ethics, marketing and the modern brand, alongside David Sable from Wunderman; Jonah Bloom - Executive Editor, Ad Age; Tamsin LeJeune - Juste, Ethical Fashion Design/UK; Mitch Kanner - Principle, 2 Degrees Ventures and Craig Kielburger - Founder, Chairperson, FREE THE CHILDREN, Co-founder, Leaders Today.  The discussion was passionate with some key guidance coming from the participants on ethical marketing – including – be authentic and transparent – its about increasing awareness of a cause. And don’t do something to benefit the business – do it to benefit the cause. Mitch Kanner and Craig Kielburger closed identifying specific brands who have done this well – Home Depot and The Body Shop, and Specsavers in their activity sending glasses to the third world, as well as Starbucks for their reforestation work. And whilst there has been a mixed response to the Red Campaign, spearheaded by Bono – they all praised the campaign for raising awareness of a specific issue.

One of the seminars that is worth mentioning is the one we took part in with the Starcom MediaVest Group Seminar on Ad Avoiders.

Kate Sirkin from Starcom and Microsoft’s Stephen Kim – Head of Global Research took to the stage to share with the audience the findings from a recent study that sought to discover and uncover the new currencies of message receptivity in an era of ad aversion. According to the research, there is a select group of consumers today who use various methods to avoid messaging and therefore are often overlooked by advertisers. Dubbed “Ad-Avoiders” this is an elusive segment of 17 to 29-year-olds who hold less than favorable attitudes toward media content designed to influence them.

It seems that there are two different kinds of Avoiders: the Ad Averse and the Ad Ambivalent. The Ad Averse is a passive segment that has limited energy with regard to advertising. They simply want it to go away and marketers find it difficult to get their attention at all, whilst the more active Ad Ambivalent segment is comprised of people who have more extreme attitudes about advertising; they love what they like and hate what they don’t.

The study established how we engage those who are disinterested giving us five insight-driven action steps for marketers to these Ad Avoiders.

1. Don’t be a “marketer over shoulder.” Marketers must remember that it is the consumer’s space. Advertising that enters this private circle is usually not welcome. Once welcomed, be courteous. Ad Avoiders believe that ads are becoming increasingly aggressive and guilty of crossing sacred lines of privacy. Be respectful of their rights.

2. Don’t expect something for nothing. Ad Avoiders are well aware that their attention is a valuable currency. Time and attention, particularly in rare leisure moments, are a precious resource with a price tag to match. Consumers are much more likely to ‘transact’ with advertisers today than ever before, exchanging their time for free or brilliant content.

3. Do be a welcomed surprise. Consumers find delight in discovering some remarkable, relevant, helpful content in an unexpected location. Instead of being everywhere and easy to find, mix in an element of discovery or individuality in advertising content and placement. Be where consumers want to be rather than everywhere they might be.

4. Do let go. Ad Adverse individuals appreciate space to make a brand “their own.” They want to personalize it, shape it, own it. Brands that can let go can engender a new level of devotion and brand advocacy.

5. Whatever you want to say, say it well. Ad Avoiders are savvy and understand the work involved in making advertising interesting and entertaining. Investing, financially and creatively, in your communications can mean the difference between “bad advertising” or something worthwhile.

Concluding, Kate and Stephen encouraged the audience to think about the ad averse - not as a niche group - extreme in their opinions and behaviour and beyond the perimeter of mainstream marketing. But rather as a group which other consumers may follow. If we stay close to the consumer they went on, we can connect with the ad avoiders - they are an extremely important group to engage with - they are independent thinkers, opinion leaders – the future – they will become the new majority. If the key rules of engagement are remembered and adhered to then they could lead the advertiser the ultimate reward - their loyalty and brand recommendation.

Some food for thought.

It's the 4th day of the Cannes festival and I haven't had a minute to post a couple of my ideas. Life has been hectic but fun. We all have been entertaining 500 guests - by far the largest corporate delegates list of the festival of 10.000 participants. Breakfast meetings, lunches, cocktails, business seminars, press interviews - you name it. This morning our guests left Cannes - I am leaving Saturday, so a couple of nice events are still on my agenda. I did do some blogging for the Belgian newspaper De Standaard. If you understand Dutch that is the place to look for the detailed update. Couple of snapshots:

Vincent & Sam from Boondoggle & Wunderman, our cool branding everywhere, and me and Mathias from Farfar and winner of a Grand Prix.

I sometimes state that customer feedback is a present you can get for free. Every day. As an account manager/exective/director, listening to your customer is the most precious of gifts you can agree to accept. Free and yet priceless. On top of that this company spends a fortune on 'orchestrated feedback'. Telephone interviews, surveys etc - that give us an awfull lot of insight into what we need to change or adapt, where we need to focus on or not. Most of the time it actually confirms what we know already - but it gives us the scientifical and statistical evidence for change.  One of the elements we focus on a lot is on how we service our customers. Do we come up with good proposals, can we deliver on them, can we serve and service them appropriately. Funnily enough when talking to groups of sales guys price is the first issue that comes to the table. Our rate cards are too high - our discounting system not flexible enough - you can imagine the sort of feedback. I was thinking about all this when reading Seth Godin’s blog.

maybe the reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about

So you are probably having price discussions because there is no difference and there is nothing else to debate. Maybe you should charge more, 'decommoditize', discuss service levels, quality of execution ?

Today Microsoft Office  and MSN UK are joining forces to unveil what was called the most innovative online ad - ever:  for 24 hours today, Tuesday 12^th June, the MSN.co.uk website will be strikingly transformed to take the form of a Microsoft Office Word 2007 document, allowing customers to try the Live Preview for themselves in a very familiar environment.  

This initiative is driving awareness and demand for the 2007 release of MS Office by encouraging people to experience the product for themselves. The trial available can actually convert to a full product if the customer decides to purchase at any time during the trial. This activity forms part of the It’s a new day. It’s a new office. advertising campaign which supports the 2007 Office system launch, and shows great collaboration between Microsoft Office and MSN to create an advert that allows customers to interact with our brands in new and exciting ways.

This ad ran already on MSN.com in April and achieved exceptional results. I am looking forward to see the results on this one. MSN.co.uk receives an average of 3.5 million unique visitors per day, so big potential for success.

It was fun last week.  Overbusy but fun. We had our own internal Microsoft Digital Advertizing Solution Leadership teams of all our EMEA markets in Brussels for a Strategy event. And on top we had IAB Interact. For once we probably had most Digital Marketing talent available in EMEA in Belgium. At least for two days that was :-)

I thought IAB was a nice event - maybe not as much real "interaction" as I would have liked to see - but I got the impression guests liked it and there were connection points. Things are moving nicely and obviously EIAA and IAB working together is a nice premiere. In the meantime you'll get presentations, videos, pictures and more on the Interact website. I personally was particularly pleased to see and meet Jaap Favier, Ester Dyson and Bernhard Glock. And was obviously good fun to see my friends and collegues Bart Becks from SBS and Javier Zapatero from Yahoo!.

Digimedia has all the presentations and a couple of nice interviews. My own little interview here.  And in this world of "be carefull what you say because everything you say is on tape anyway".... so no escape - full PPT... 

PS: Somebody wrote me a tease mail on my "bahama's shirt". I promise I go "back to black" as of this week.

It's been a VERY hectic last 10 days - and i'll certainly find some time to update you on all the exciting stuff that happened over that period. While I am still in a leadership meeting as we speak  I get this friendly reminder of somebody asking me about my promise to post the details on Photosynth - the demo I showed at Interact yesterday

So here you go. The software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next. Just play around with it !