Is it just me or does releasing a press release about your latest endevor online that hasn't even started yet seem like talking up how you're "totally gonna root that person at the xmas party". Ok, let me know after the party and give me the sticky details, just don't waste my time now.

The latest offender is Naked who reports "Intern Gavin Chimes' first day at work at Naked Communications is one he is unlike to forget after being packed off on a 10-day European tour courtesy of holiday firm Contiki." there's even a link to the Youtube channel.

Not even a video expaining the stunt, or a word from Contiki. They had enough time to write a PR and take photos but not enough to actually get the ball rolling on the actual blog. What if I wanted to blog about this amazing new innovation in marketing? Well I'd be blogging "vaporads". I'll have to bookmark it and then check in a week, maybe 10 days? Or wait for the next PR release. By that time I'd be following some other phantom campaign.

I did find the channel honours interesting though.

I've been a big supporter of Youtube but the stats below are a bit sad. This is Australian stats. I can imagine other countries fare differently.

If 0 subscribers = #2 then what about the other channels?

Oh...

It's weird as Sprite Truth Hunters (the best Aussie example of a Youtube channel) doesn't appear in this list?

Here's a channel I had a hand in working on. Whoops!

I don't want to bag Youtube as I love it. I've also been a strong supportor of it to clients, but you'd think they'd be bending over backwards to make their sponsors channels go through the roof and then try and bilk them for cash when they are happy.

P.S. I'm claiming ownership over the term Vaporads. Adding it to my lexicon of claims including unforghetti and poolates.

VIRGIN Blue has been left red-faced after being forced to scrap an advertising campaign which urged people to "chuck a sickie" and jet off on holidays.

The controversial online "chuck-a-sickie sale" campaign urged frequent flyers to take time off work and take advantage of "top sale fares".

But Virgin Blue chief Brett Godfrey moved to axe the campaign just 29 minutes after first seeing it, following a media inquiry over the slogan.

Read the full article on News.com.au

Here's a good article on the Art of the Sickie from the BBC.

P.S We'd love to see the actual ads. So if someone want's to slip us the swf files we'd be great appreciated.

What I love about having a vested interest in companies on the share market is it makes it easy to follow. When I was a kid all the numbers and numbers in (brackets) didn't mean anything. I had no idea how some shares were worth $25 and others 2c.

Which I why I find following the listed digital agencies in Australia so interesting. I can compare EBDIT's, profile ratios and billings with the others and my own.

While the DOTCOM boom maybe over people are still forking out wads of cash and people are still losing money, CEO's are being fired, companies liquidated, assets written off, profits not being met and much more.

It's sad to say there hasn't been a success case. There isn't any shining light to say this is how it's done. I'm basing my opinons purely off the share prices. Some companies may be running very well but for investors it's been painful.

All this is happening while digital is in a boom with money pouring into the sector from the other mediums.

I first covered this in January of this year and maybe I should have gone on record as things have gone downwill for every major player.

Here's where the shares were as of Jan 3, 2008. (approx)

SGN: STW COMMUNICATIONS: $2.38
HYO: Hyro: $0.18
BLU: Blue Freeway: $1.14
CQU: Commquest: $1.10
QXQ: Q Limited: $0.05
MCU: Mitchell Communication Group: $1.05

And this is where they are now. Just 6 months later in what was/is one of the biggest years in our industry.

SGN: STW COMMUNICATIONS: $1.47
HYO: Hyro: $0.046
BLU: Blue Freeway: $0.069
CQU: Commquest: $0.175
QXQ Q Limited: $0.015
MCU: Mitchell Communication Group: $0.55

Ouch! That's a tough lesson for investors and for those companies that recently sold themselves. I hope you took the cash offer!

Here's the slippery slope in graphical form.

In January I said you'd have been better off buying Apple shares. That was bad advice as shares have dropped from $199 - $170. Even with the Iphone!

Winning the battle against boring banners by easing content integration.

New York, New York (April 16, 2008) - Eyeblaster, the global leader in integrated digital marketing solutions, and Dapper, a leader in the emerging content mashup space, announce a strategic partnership to create the next generation of online ads. MashupAds will enable campaigns with dynamic content from external sites. Providing a platform for the delivery, management and analysis of the new MashupAds, Eyeblaster once again shows its commitment to deliver a complete range of ad campaign management services to its clients.

Until now, the only way advertisers could integrate content into online ads was using XML feeds. XML, however, requires coding on both ends - content provider and ad designer. Because of this limitation, most of the Web's content was not readily available and integration was often costly, lengthy and risky.

With MashupAds, designers will be able to make advertising dynamic in ways never thought possible using powerful, user-friendly mashup tools. Ad creators can move text, images and even interactive forms from existing websites into online ads and:

- Integrate advertiser's content into the ad.

- Include third party content into ad.

- Contextualize the mashup by analyzing the data to target the ad.

MashupAds are an extension of Dapper's proven core feed-creation engine at dapper.net. Through a simple, point-and-click online interface, advertisers and publishers can "unlock" their content to create live feeds that are used to create relevant, compelling ads with no programming. The end result is an ad that behaves like a site feature, combining the advertiser's site functionality with a publisher's context. MashupAds make the difference for advertisers because they:

- Increase relevance through live, updated content beamed directly into the ad.

- Increase interaction, conversion, CTR and ROI.

- Build higher brand awareness.

"Content plays a big role in brand advertising. But content alone cannot connect a brand to its audience," said Gal Trifon, co-founder and chief executive officer at Eyeblaster. "MashupAds will deliver relevant, engaging content closer to the consumer by taking it from the website to an interactive ad campaign."

"We are very excited at this opportunity to work together with a global leader such as Eyeblaster. MashupAds will transform display ads into becoming more engaging, interactive and relevant, and most importantly, enhancing the end-user's browsing experience" said Eran Shir, co-founder and chief executive officer at Dapper.

About Dapper:

Dapper is a U.S. company with offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. Founded by Eran Shir and Jon Aizen in late 2005, Dapper aims to make it easy and possible for anyone to extract and reuse content from any website. By doing so, Dapper hopes to allow others to realize their creativity and implement new and exciting services and applications. For more information, please visit https://www.dapper.net.

About Eyeblaster

In 1999, Eyeblaster was among the pioneers in rich media communication. Today, Eyeblaster extends its inventive heritage in digital advertising through Ad Campaign Manager (ACM). ACM enables interactive agencies, advertisers and publishers to manage campaigns across digital media channels, including online, mobile and in-game, and a variety of formats, including rich media, in-stream video, display and search. ACM is a robust, integrated and easy-to-use platform that allows customers to focus on campaign strategy, creativity and media efficiency without having to worry about the technical complexities associated with managing global advertising campaigns online.

In 2007, Eyeblaster delivered campaigns for nearly 7,000 brand advertisers serving approximately 2,500 ad agencies across over 2,500 global web publishers in over 40 countries worldwide throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East.

Learn more at https://www.eyeblaster.com.