World Cinema Panorama

The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival is one of the most high profile events in Ireland and screens over 100 film premieres and hosts many popular forums throughout the 10 days. It invites and hosts a number of high profile guests and provides an attractive and diverse selection of the best in contemporary world cinema.

The programme of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival spans the world of cinema, providing Irish audiences with an opportunity to see a wealth of new international cinema. Some of these films will be released in Ireland, but many others will not be seen again after their festival screening. This year’s festival includes movies from Taiwan, Finland, The Netherlands, Italy, New Zealand, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Australia, China, Hungary, Austria and Japan. Chartbusters, the Irish video and DVD rental and retail chain that carries a wide array of international productions, proudly sponsors the World Cinema Panorama at this year’s festival. Among the many highlights in the World Cinema programme, here is a selection of just 12 worth noting - one unmissable film for each day of the festival.

Start Date: Friday, February 15, 2008. End Date: Sunday, February 24, 2008.

Mark Kilbride joins Elevate PR

Mark Kilbride has recently been appointed an account executive at Elevate Public Relations. Mark holds a post-graduate Diploma in Public Relations and Event Management from the Fitzwilliam Institute and previously worked for O2 Ireland. In his new role, Mark will work on a wide range of accounts including Aqua, BP, Edward Dillon and the MCR Group.

Digital Marketing vs. Online Advertising Breaking waves for marketers to catch

The Internet marketing landscape has grown rapidly over the past few years, spreading out over the Internet like warm saltwater in the sea. Initially focused on banner advertising and search engine submissions, the environment has grown considerably in terms of tools and sophistication of the techniques that Internet marketers are employing.

Jupiter Media Metrix has spotted a recent shift in advertising/marketing dollars into online channels that deliver less expensive distribution, greater personalization, and higher response and tracking rates than traditional marketing dollars are able to capture.

What is emerging in the online marketing space is part digital marketing and part online advertising. Online advertising is an online marketing model based largely on traditional metrics and thinking. Online advertising learns its lessons from television, print, and radio. Examples of online advertising are banner ads and website/content sponsorships.

Digital marketing is a model based on the possibilities created by tightly networked markets. For example, in the next 24 hours web surfers will search for "used cars" an estimated 36,507 times. Marketers are able to insert themselves into these online markets in ways they never could before. Even in a world filled with spam, consumers and businesses are finding each other on the Internet in unobtrusive ways.

Companies employing digital marketing tactics are actively working to ensure their customers are getting the best and most relevant information that they need to make purchases. Digital marketing consists of search engine optimization, permission-based email marketing, and online coupons.

Marketers were led into online advertising first because it most matched the traditional marketing channels they were accustomed to and the tools for effective digital marketing didn’t exist yet. Like exploring new coasts with dated maps, it was only a matter of time before those marketing online gained better tools and information to make them more successful.

As marketing online matures, we continue to learn a tremendous amount about how people are conducting themselves online. Traditional models didn’t grasp how powerful combining hyperlinked information and marketing tactics could be.

Driven quickly through hyperlinks to information, context becomes an important factor for success. Varying levels of trust are created depending on where information is found.

Companies must ensure they are being found in search engines in order to attract a captive and interested audience. A study from the NPD Group found that search listings are more effective than standard banner or button advertisements when it comes to brand recall, favourable opinion rating and inspiring purchases. The study found:

- In unaided recall, search listings outperformed banners and buttons by three to one

- More than twice as many people gave a more favourable opinion of companies in the top three search positions than those featured in ads

- 55 percent of online purchases were made on websites found through search listings

- Only 9 percent of online purchases were on websites found through banner ads

These studies suggest that people are inclined to trust services like search engines much like they trust a librarian, a trust that people would not be lead wrong by those who would choose to lead them. Search engines work because they are a passive tool, awaiting input from the user to find what they want.

Email works because it takes the concept of direct marketing and turns it into an active communication channel driven by valuable information and transactions. Research released from DoubleClick indicates that over 88 percent of online consumers have made a purchase as a result of receiving permission-based email, up from 61 percent the previous year. The research also found that 37 percent had clicked through an email and purchased immediately, up from 20 percent the previous year.

Digital marketing, like search engine optimization and email, fills your belly and growls at you because you’re hungry for it. It’s what you want… not what someone perceives you to want. When a person searches on a search engine for a specific product or service, they are qualifying themselves as a potential customer.

Online advertising reminds you that a company has not faded away, sticking to a one-sided, high-frequency push of information it believes will draw people to it like a lighthouse. Digital marketing looks to meet you up on scenic deck #2, where mutual conversations drive transactions and relationships. In a shifting sea of choices, marketers’ budgets will soon reflect where the real money and conversations live.

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Microsoft Clashes with Google Very Soon

Microsoft will be displaying the latest update of adCenter’s test version on the MSN Strategic Account Summit that involves more than 700 million people from the fields of technology, advertising, communications and entertainment and will be discussing online media trends.

The underlying event to watch out for in the summit this year will be the up and coming battle between Microsoft and Google as both jockey for position in a lot of overlapping fields, like desktop search, online video delivery, browser plug-ins, social networking and Web e-mail.

Microsoft in a statement said that adCenter will give an instant benefit in the space when it will be launched in June. Microsoft has tested adCenter comprehensively overseas and lately in the U.S. adCenter’s online advertising ordering and delivery system is set to outperform the presently existing offerings by providing advertisers more power over where their advertisements go. Microsoft ensures that it will be able to more precisely provide consumers with the relevant ads.

Since adCenter is now preparing for its launch come this June, some are asking whether advertisers will be ready for the narrowed-down approach or whether they prefer to the wide audience size that Google is able to offer via its existing links to more than thousands of content pages on the Web.

Microsoft counters on such advantage by Google by its announcement of investment plans that are geared towards technology development in the next 15 months, putting much emphasis on the online advertising space.

A number of analysts speculate that MSN adCenter will take more time than expected for it to gain some footing as it switches now to a new platform and it will consequently put on a slow growth to the advertiser network, at least for the moment.

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FD Buys PR Firm K Capital Source

Global PR firm FD has strengthened its presence in the Irish market with the acquisition of K Capital Source, a four-year-old niche PR company.

Founded in Dublin in 2003 by Mark Kenny and Jonathan Neilan, K Capital Source advises Aer Lingus, C&C Group, Smurfit Kappa Group, United Drug, Independent News & Media, Iona Technologies, Horizon Technology Group, Newcourt Group, McInerney Holdings and Quinlan Private among others. Declan Kelly, chairman of FD in Ireland, said: “K Capital Source is a company we have long admired. As with all of the acquisitions we have completed around the world, we have a long standing knowledge of the strength of the K Capital Source business and the excellent reputation the company has, not only in Ireland, where it advises many of the country’s leading companies and business leaders but also in overseas capital markets where FD has a market leading presence, including New York, London and Hong Kong.”

Working in tandem with FD’s Irish team led by Paul McSharry, K Capital Source provides us with a significant market advantage through the ability to offer all of our clients a complete range of services.

The specialist capital market communications knowledge and experience which Mark, Jonathan and their colleagues bring mean that they will also be a very valuable resource for FD’s clients outside of Ireland.” K Capital Source’s founder Mark Kenny said, “Our partnership with FD and its parent, FTI Consulting, provides us with a logical platform to accelerate our growth." FD employs 660 staff and advises more than 900 clients worldwide through its hub offices in London and New York, as well as its network of wholly-owned offices in Bahrain, Beijing, Bogota, Boston, Cape Town, Chicago, Dubai, Dublin, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Johannesburg Los Angeles, Manchester, Moscow, Panama City, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sydney and Washington, DC.

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