Online-advertising budgets to keep growing

Online-advertising budgets to keep growing | CNET News.com: "Online display and search ad spending is projected to grow at an annual rate of 10 percent over the next five years, according to a new study.
The automotive, media and financial-services industries are expected to lead the way in total advertising spending. The annual increase in automakers' Web ad spending will be 24 percent, while the travel industry should see a 13 percent increase through 2010, indicated a JupiterResearch study released Thursday.
The research firm said advertising agencies and publishers who want to do well should be sensitive to each industrial sector's needs. Marketers, for instance, want an integrated approach to their online and offline campaigns.
'Agencies that can devise and manage integrated campaigns stand to gain more from rising ad budgets,' David Schatsky, a JupiterResearch senior vice president, said in a statement.
Agencies should also know which ad categories in which their clients are most interested. Companies selling consumer packaged goods, so far not big spenders on online ads, will spend 83 percent of their online-advertising budgets on display ads in 2010, JupiterResearch predicts. Companies selling health products, however, will focus their online efforts on search ads.

JH comment: Maybe this internet thing is catching on.

Follow up to cute blog from earlier...And the cutest iPod baby winner is...

And the cutest iPod baby winner is... | News.blog | CNET News.com

Disney site lets customers design products

Disney site lets customers design products | CNET News.com:

"Disney's online shopping site on Wednesday launched its first 'You design it' feature in a move aimed at riding the fast-growing trend toward giving choosy Internet shoppers exactly what they want.
Disney partnered with online customization site Zazzle.com, which licenses thousands of images from Warner Bros., Marvel Comics, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox, among others, and also allows users to sell their own art for use on personalized T-shirts, greeting cards and postage stamps.
It took Disney, which aggressively protects its copyrights, about two years to figure out how to open its vast art archives and still control how consumers could use its characters.
'Disney very much wanted to create the Disney experience and ensure products we ultimately sell to consumers protect the brand and reinforce a lot of what it stands for,' Zazzle co-founder and Chief Executive Robert Beaver said. 'That was our challenge from an engineering standpoint.'
Zazzle's Disney boutique, which can be accessed via disneyshopping.com and disneyinkshop.com, allows consumers to select a Disney character, T-shirt style and color and to add a name or phrase from an approved list.
The 4,000-plus Disney images can also be used on stamps or greeting cards on Zazzle.
Disney, which has long allowed customers to add their names to items sold at its stores and theme parks, is 'constantly looking to add personalized items for guests,' said David Barad, Disney's vice president of marketing for Disneyshopping.com.
'Everything we look at we are now looking at ways to let the guest make it their own,' Barad said.
Online holiday shopping was expected to reach $26 billion in 2005, an 18 percent inc"

Gen Y in the Workplace

Interesting article on the newest generation to enter the workforce.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2005-11-06-gen-y_x.htm?csp=1

Speak Up > The Aesthetics of Cute

With 2 children of my own, I am bombarded by cute. This article illustrates and has opened my eyes to the tactice of "cute" marketing. For example, my son and I were in Wal-Mart - yes designers go there - and we came across stuffed ponys for sale. We promptly grabbed one (brown with white spots) for my three year old. When we returned later that day - twice in one day? - we noticed a pink one and strongly considered exchanging, because it was even cuter.

After reading this article, I decided against it and now consider myself enlightened to the cutification of America. But you can decide for yourself.

: : Speak Up > The Aesthetics of Cute : :

Client's Guide to Design: How to get the most out of the process.

Here's a PDF put out by my professional organization, AIGA. If you are considering hiring a graphic design firm, I recommend reading this first.

Client's Guide to Design: How to get the most out of the process.