Watch this short video about Google real-time search:

What does this mean for brands and marketers?

Although in constant use by the technorati and celebrities galore, Twitter has yet to fully enter the mainstream. As marketers we know the potential of Twitter to reach out and engage, but for most people, its still an unknown. At MTD, we look to create innovative ways of integrating Twitter into our campaigns. Our recent Christmas campaign for Jarlsberg allows anyone to post a message about their best bit of Christmas on the Jarlsberg Sweet and Nutty Season website via Twitter. This encourages a deeper interaction with the brand and keeps the website fresh and interesting.

Real-time search will also encourage brands to start using Twitter more as a channel in its own right to promote products and services. Twitter, of course, knows this. It’s soon to launch a set of paid for business services which should hopefully make it a more professional tool for marketers.

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The re-plenish charity is operating an Oxford food bank, which takes unsold food from local supermarkets and suppliers and redistributes it to existing community food projects. Following a pilot phase the project is now up and running in and around Oxford taking surplus and ‘at sell by date’ food from local Sainsbury’s and Co-Operative supermarkets. This simple system provides healthy, wholesome food to people who need it and reduces the amount of unsold food that ends up in landfill. Currently approximately 20 million tonnes of food waste goes into landfill every year!

MTD got involved with this project about 18 months ago when we met Steve Moralee, the Chair of Trustees. We shared his belief, vision and infectious passion for this cause and quickly realised that our marketing expertise could help. You can read more about it in our latest news.

We have been overwhelmed by the dedication and effort that those involved have shown to get to this point, all volunteers, often holding down full time jobs. They are all to be congratulated for making this real and I hope that everyone that can, finds a way to get involved. After all, it affects every one of us.

Can MySpace Music innovate to avoid being overtaken by Spotify

But now I use Spotify. Lovely Spotify allows me to listen to all the tracks available by the artist, in their entirety, for free. What’s more it’s fast, uncluttered and very easy to use.

If Spotify can secure its future via subscription based mobile apps (most importantly that of the iPhone) it will not only challenge MySpace Music but other internet-radio services such as Last.fm, Blip.fm and Pandora. They’ll have to rely on their social networking attributes to stay in the game. More traditional niche internet-radio stations such as NME.com could also be affected and they’ll need to maximize their original content and new music credentials to retain listeners. The other potential loser in this is, of course, Apple’s iTunes – although a significant number of people will always want to own the music they listen too, rather than just subscribe.

I’ve always been a fan of MySpace, but if it’s to survive, I believe it needs to offer better integration with Twitter and Last.fm type services. This would help the pages achieve more repeat visits by making them a hub for everything related to a band. Improved design and a good clear out of the clutter that plagues the artists’ pages wouldn’t go amiss either. But the most pressing issues such as access to more music and shorter load times would vastly improve what is increasingly looking like a tired web format. MySpace Music could also do more to help break new bands through a ‘new music’ streaming service – now that’s something I’d listen to!

To a captive audience, the message is sublime

Through a stroke of pure memorable relevance and then personal intrigue, I was drawn in to the Blog site of Christian Braun and his family who, having had no success through Estate Agents, are trying to sell their home privately online.

I’m not in the market to part with £1.395M for a slice of England’s not so green and pleasant juxtaposed A4 despite the buildings beauty, but you have to applaud this chaps strategy and passion for promoting this house. It’s certainly drawing a crowd. Good luck Christian.

Check out RememberTheWindow.com and also see the coverage he got in The Sunday Times.

Banksy; painting a False Picture – The Guardian Guide offered readers an interview on Saturday with famously reclusive street artist Banksy, who shared his thoughts on Rolf Harris, Top Gear’s Stig and his ambition to paint a “giant comedy cock” on the walls of the Guide if he ever broke into its offices. If only. As the Guardian’s readers’ editor said today: “An interview purporting to be with Banksy in last Saturday’s Guide (One last thing … , 18 July, page 98, the Guide) was, it transpires, conducted with someone impersonating the graffiti artist. We apologise to Banksy for this error and for any offence and inconvenience caused.”

Thanks to the launch of a new Go To Market packaged marketing service, SMEs now have access to tried and tested, affordable marketing. Ideal for single or multiple campaigns, it could even act as an annual marketing strategy. It eliminates the need for the some of the traditional marketing campaign planning that determines the marketing strategy and deliverables, saving SME’s time and money.

If you were running a seasonal marketing campaign in summer for example, the package can be easily re-skinned for an autumn winter and spring offer to give you one campaign per quarter, all for

Similarly, it is ideal for event driven marketing campaigns such as promotional periods (Christmas, New year, Easter, Mothers Day etc.) or product promotions.

For more details, packages and prices go to www.go-to-market.uk.com.

Read this interview with Erik