AdAge reports today on an interesting survey from the Consumer Electronics Association in the US, which offers some evidence that consumers no longer see new technology as a discretionary purchase – but as an intrinsic part of their everyday lives. And they are sacrificing clothes and food to pay for those smartphone upgrades. (Sort of.) [...]

We’ve had a deluge of Xmas eCards in our inboxes over the last few days. Which is lovely of course. My favourite has to be this effort from BBC Worldwide.

Seasons greetings.

Stuart

Essential is of course platform-neutral, independent and impartial when it comes to media. But as a Virgin Media customer, I am almost salivating with excitement about the announcement today of this potential tie-up between Virgin Media and TiVo.

Although the FT describes it as a ‘rebuff to Project Canvas’, I’d imagine this has got [...]

I’ve just been reading this Research Live contribution from Forrester analyst Tamara Barber, entitled “Market research catches up with Web 2.0”. Tamara confidently asserts that “it’s time for the industry to embrace online communities as a research tool.”

I’m constantly irritated by this assumption that the research industry has yet to wake up [...]

It’s been nearly 2 months since the London Paper closed, and the London Lite is set to go on Friday. And quite frankly, aren’t we glad to see the back of them? Did we really need them in the first place? Was there ever such demand for scurrilous gossip about B-list celebrities that couldn’t be [...]

I’m just back from speaking at the BBC’s Open Access Forum – a meeting of the multiple organisations involved in driving or facilitating internet adoption in the UK – from the BBC, BT and Google to mentors from local grass-roots initiatives.

The event was introduced by Mark Thompson and hosted by Gavin Esler, who could teach [...]

Innovation and originality in advertising should never stop at the ‘big idea’ moment, the execution is equally demanding, if not harder – that’s my personal opinion. Although the idea of a funny ‘playface’ is not revolutionary, its execution in this particular campaign for the new PS3 console definitely is (again, personal opinion). Timothy Saccenti directed [...]

Every now and then I find myself mourning the loss of those national icons that have fallen by the wayside as media has changed and evolved: Grandstand, The UK Top 40, a dog-eared copy of the AA Roadmap of Britain, Teletext, the lingerie pages of the Freemans catalogue.

But typically something quickly shakes me out of my [...]