Connecting the Dots / An Agency Blog

Stimulant recently asked Engine Digital to submit 5 examples of random things that inspire us on a daily basis. The only caveat was that we couldn’t choose anything related to advertising in any way, shape or form. You wouldn’t think it would be that difficult but since almost everyone here at Engine lives and breathes advertising and nothing else the job ultimately fell on me. I’m a well-rounded guy and frequently have conversations that have absolutely nothing to do with advertising of any kind so I thought it would be a fun little project. But you know the old adage about assumptions right?
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SoDA 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook – released today!

The Society of Digital Agencies released their 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook today and it’s packed full of great survey data from hundreds of executives from major global brands, traditional and digital agencies, and vendor / service providers. Some key stats and points of view that have caught my eye so far:

• 81% of brand execs expect an increase in digital projects for 2010
• “The most effective digital platforms have shifted from ‘disruptive’ to ‘productive’ by providing a service or utility…[they] fundamentally change the approach from “how we reach our customers” to ‘how we make their lives better.’” K. Blitz
• 59% of respondants say that cost-per-click, conversion, and ROI are the digital marketing metric they’re least interested in
• Most important technical skill sets to hire / contract in 2010 (in order): Flash, ActionScript, CSS, PHP, iPhone SDK – showing that the microsite is indeed still alive and kicking

Get the report after the jump…

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We’ve been following Foursquare on this blog since it was introduced to Vancouver because we knew that even if Foursquare isn’t around in the future, location based digital experiences will be.

As we said earlier, this technology is in its infancy, and it’s evolving. On November 16th, Dennis Crowley from Foursquare announced in Amsterdam that Foursquare would be teaming up with the Augmented Reality app, Layar. Now you’ll be able to hold up your phone to a real world setting and have the benefits of both apps at your fingertips. Get all the details here.

Inevitably, this story will be continued.

Check it out. The band Editors recently released an impressive campaign for their new album In This Light And On This Evening that integrates a fully functional Google Street View of London along with music and images from the band. We often experience the city with music via our headphones or car stereos so this makes perfect sense, and man, London is gorgeous.

I’m kind of using London to talk about Vancouver though, since Vancouver was just inducted into the Street View canon along with a select few other cities in Canada. Since it became available just last week Vancouver blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts here have been abuzz with this new way of experiencing the city.
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So Foursquare has been up and running in Vancouver here for awhile now and most of us here at Engine have had an opportunity to take it for a test drive.
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