CardMarketing 2.0

Shopping for blinds is something no man should suffer, is a truly desperate fate, but my excuses — and there were many of them, believe me — had run out. So, there I was, on the last Sunday of September, being led around Peter Jones like a corpse on a skateboard, having to cope with alien terms like 'fine perforation' and 'twizzle'.

The amount of money spent on online advertising in the UK during the first half of 2007 was up 41.3% year-on-year, taking the sector to a half-year high of £1,334.3 million. This compares to £917.2 million last year, and means online now accounts for just under 15% of total UK ad spend. At this rate, it's predicted to reach a potential new high of £2.75 billion by the end of 2007. The figures were released today in the biannual internet advertising spend study commissioned by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

If you've got a lunch or coffee break spare, check out this podcast on web 2.0 and the financial services industry. OK, you'll have to put up with an aussie drawl — the stars of the podcast are Charis Palmer, editor of Brisbane-based Online Banking Review, and Simon van Wyk, founder of Hothouse, an Oz-based web company — but the content is good to firm. Beats talking to Brenda at the coffee machine. (I love the aussies really, but it's rugby world cup time and nobody wants the men in gold to win that — again).