Hasta La Creative!

We posted in January about the fall in digital stocks in Australia. It seems a lot can happen in a month with two of the biggest players having more troubles and management changes.

And it seems Blue Freeway has continued to be hit hard. Their share price was $1.11 when we posted and now sits at $0.44c. This from a high of $2.44. Ouch! Richard Webb their CEO has stepped aside after just 12 months and management are fanning the fires by announcing restructures and top level job cuts.

All this noise about Blue Freeway covered the fact that Hyro’s share price dropped from 16c to 9c in a day and their CEO step aside the day after.

Ashadi pointed out that Apple shares have also dropped since January (down form $199 to just $136) so anyone heeding my investment advice would have been screwed either way.

But the share market is for the long term and it will be interesting viewing watching these local tech stocks as they keep their head above water.

LONDON – Broadsystem is to launch a business-to-business marketing consultancy division offering clients services in customer data management, prospect targeting and communications channel management.

LONDON – TNS has established a preferred partner relationship with Livra Panels to offer online access panel research services across Latin America.

People have never been so intune with technology. Mobile phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and computers are now central parts of everyones lives. And the race to innovate and be different has always been the easiest way to gain market share. Look at the iPhone as a prime example.



This year the race to “one up” other camera manufacturers has taken a another step forward at the recent PMA conference with the announcement of the Casio EX-F1. It’s the first time I’ve ever been excited by a Casio camera.

2007 was the year of anti-dust sensors and image stabilization and face detection. 2006 was all about Mega pixels with 5,6,8 then 10 becoming the norm.

Now it’s high speed recording (up to 1200fps) and high speed burst modes (60 fps) and HD recording 1920×1080 all in a prosumer digital camera for less than $1000 USD.

Check the rest of the demo videos and tell me this won’t make your average camera buyer excited.



The high speed feature is also easy to explain. Just show stuff exploding in slow motion. Anti-dust and image stabilization is a harder sell and face detection is hardly exciting.



Sony’s 2008 innovation is a live preview system on their Alpha DSLR range. Which means you get the ability of a DSLR but with freedom of a standard digital camera’s LCD preview. While a great feature it’s hardly going to excite your general consumer like the high speed videos will. Sony also did the full sensor 24.8MP thing to try and blow Canon out of the MP race once and for all but people seem to have lost interest in MP lately.



This need for speed was first started by LG with their Viewty (photo. Capable of capturing 120fps video on your phone.



Here’s the viral clip for the phone which I think over estimates what 12-fps video looks like but is very well done







And here’s clip of what you can do with the humble mobile phone.







If automotive technology was advancing as fast as cameras (or even toothbrush technology) then we’ve all driving around “Back to the Future 2” style.



Automotive in 2007 saw fuel economy become a main selling point for cars. I wonder what 2010 will hold for automotive advertising?

LONDON – Taylor Nelson Sofres is launching a one-day turnaround omnibus service, dubbed Nightline, in an attempt to give clients an instant snapshot of consumer opinion and behaviour.

LONDON – Honda solves a series of impossible puzzles such as the Rubik cube to highlight its green credentials in a TV ad that launches today as part of the second phase of its ‘Problem Playground’ campaign.

LONDON – ITV’s share price has rallied weakly by 2.2% to 78.2p following an Observer report that three private equity groups are working together on an offer of around 100p a share.

SANTA CLARA, CA: Sun Microsystems reported its growth in net income for the second quarter, simultaneously with its acquisition of iconic Swedish open-source software company, MySQL, for $1 billion.

A social networking site aimed at London’s tube-traveling commuters has brought in PR support in advance of its launch this month.

Tech agency Lewis PR is losing its public affairs chief Clive Booth to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).