W3Kids

Digital Santa Claus: online toy sale doubled

December 17th, 2008

While trips to shopping are every time more rare and inconstant, Hitwise, a research UK company, has revealed that searches for toys online doubled during November compare to the same period last year.
On the top of the most searched toys is Lego, and is followed by established brands which have been around for decades.
If the identification with the brand is quite nostalgic for parents, the toy itself have been changed to please the kids too. Some examples are Lego which now a days is a major games publisher and Meccano which is integrating the latest WiFi internet technology into products. The Meccano Spykee WiFi Robot is the fastest growing product, according to the research.

Our new office wall!

December 11th, 2008

preview of our office wall which is being painted by the artist Vê Lacerda. In a few weeks, once the wall is finished we will post the making of!

Noddy 60th aniversary

November 21st, 2008

Even at 60, Noddy is still one of Britan’s favourite fictional characters among kids.
To celebrate his anniversary, Enid Blytons’s granddaughter, Sophie Smallwood will launch a new Noddy picture book called “Noddy’s Birthday Surprise”. Following in the steps of her grandmother, Noddy’s creator, Sophie will use her experience of working with children to write the new book.
The last Noddy book published was “Noddy and the Aeroplane” in 1963, 45 years ago.
The drawings in the new book will be the same as in the original, and illustrated by Robert Tyndall, who drew the first ones in 1953. “Noddy has been part of my life for so long and I am delighted to draw him again”, said Mr Tyndall.
The new adventure is schedule to be launched in the last quarter of 2009.

Digital ad spend still growing in the credit crunch

October 20th, 2008

The International Advertising Bureau (IAB) published a report which shows that online ad spend in the UK grew by 21% to £1.68bn in the first semester of the year while the total advertising market was down by 0.7%.

This shows how advertisers are embracing digital as a more effective means of returning their investments in these times of economic difficulties. Online, with an increasing audience online, is proving itself and we believe this market share of the adspend it is taking up will not be given up in the future - it’s here to stay.

According to the report, technology was the highest-spending sector, with a 18.7% of the market share in internet display ads, just 0.6% behind total press display (19.3%) and 3% behind TV (21.7%). The majority of online display ad spend is still via major portals and online publishers, but sales networks - representing thousands of smaller sites - have increased their volumes and accounted for 41% of all display expenditure.
IAB chief executive, Guy Phillipson, predicts that online ad spend could reach more than £3.2bn in 2008, as advertisers look to maximise their budgets and take advantage of new display advertising formats, such as video.

Brand Licensing 2008 - London

October 8th, 2008

We went to visit this years Brand Licensing event in Olympia, London. The show was packed with the latest licensing news and properties. All in all, a very good event with many interesting seminars. We would like to thank everyone we met there, we had a great time - see you there again next year!

Ad:Tech 2008

September 26th, 2008

Lot’s of events happening this time of year in London. We are trying hard to keep up! This time it was the ad:tech 2008 event in Olympia. A showcase of the latest digital developments in advertising. There we got a chance to have a look at new ideas to advertise and monetize all the new digital habits people are quickly adopting.

Mobile, Social Networks, Search Marketing. All relatively new stuff, but in the digital world pretty old technology! Mobile seems to be picking up traction after the alignment of a few stars: Bandwidth, hardware capacity and ubiquity of smart phones. Lots of ideas for monetizing Social Networks, from ads, to product placement to branded content. Advertising is at a cross-roads trying to figure out ways to advertise to an audience with a small tolerance for interruption. Branded content seems to be one way, contextual advertising another (i.e. Google Adwords). 

Overall, some pretty good seminars and workshops. Although it does seem that Google is pretty dominant in every way in digital advertising.

Next week we are off to the Brand Licensing Event - also in Olympia. Please get in touch if you will be attending!

Digital Design Day

September 26th, 2008

We were at the one day Digital Design Day, part of the London Design Festival 2008 held at the SouthBank Center. There, we had a chance to look at interactive projects and all things digital. At the end of the day, aspiring designers and advertisers got a chance to catch up with and talk face to face with the pros from leading agencies and design shops. We managed to sneak in and have a chat with Ben and Steve from Ico Design and have a look at the great stuff they are doing for exhibitions in and around London. 

3 Mobile with Facebook Button

September 5th, 2008

Mobile operator 3 will be offering a mobile phone with a Facebook button which will enable the device to connect to the site at any time.  The deal with Facebook will launch in time for Christmas

The handset will be the first to incorporate a social networking button, and will be followed by an array of new handsets with different online functionalities.

It will become extremely difficult to control how kids and adults access the internet as portable devices become internet friendly.

Ben 10 on NMA

September 4th, 2008

NMA, the UK’s weekly magazine, covering the business of interactive media has picked up on our Ben 10 microsite created for Cartoon Network and MV sports and created a news article

Click here to see the article