Welcome to your Digital Classroom

Welcome to your Digital Academy Lessons: a great way to boost your knowledge and skills

2012-12-30T17:35:18Z

All of us here at Digital hope you'll enjoy your Digital Training Academy, but we also hope you'll instantly be able to achieve more in your firm.

Learning the tools of the digital networked economy can take time, and your Academy has been created to give you a sudden boost in knowledge, and practical tips and models for how to implement it. Many of our Academy Authors have been teaching digital media and marketing for more than a decade, and by sharing our experiences we can help you learn the fast way.

This briefing tells you more about how your Digital Training Academy works, what will happen in the face-to-face part of your Academy, and what happens after graduation. Your Academy Manager will be in touch with more specific details about topics and specific learning outcomes.

Think again about learning

2008-11-19T15:53:16Z

This is another video lesson for us to work up. Let's look at it together ...

This video by Michael Wesch called "a vision of students" is a great snapshot of how the world of classroom learning has changed. When you're joining us for a Digital Training Academy we hope you'll be able to complete exercises and activities before, after and during when we are all online. Take a few minutes to watch this first and let us know what it makes you think.

Digital Market Context Academy: Understanding the scale of change

2008-08-05T16:45:00Z

Each month the team at Digital publish a digest of news and research about the size of the market and the current stages of the growth of online media and marketing, and the scale of consumer activity on the internet. Digital Intelligence has been published since 2000, and here we've collated a few of the facts we've covered that underline the scale of change in behaviour.

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Lesson: Your Digital talking points? A few quick facts about the market

2008-03-11T15:41:30Z

Whatever your involvement is in internet marketing, it’s useful to have a few great facts at your fingertips, so here are a few we put together based on the UK online media industry. Read through them and share them with colleagues. If you are taking part in a Digital Training Academy then we might have a few more for you as well. Read through them and think about additional cool facts that reflect the growth of internet media or marketing in your sector.

]]> Here are some cool facts about web media and marketing we collected together in early 2008. They are based on the UK online market but they might be relevant for you if you are attending one of our international Digital training Academy courses.

Access booms, and broadband saturates

90% of our audience is on broadband
32 million people online in the UK (Nov 2007)
The average UK speed is 4megs

Audience time with media

Online second only to TV

Wireless internet access in the UK

A third of people used wireless within the last 12 months

There’s a feiminisation of the internet

Women 25-34 spend more time online than men of the same age

Internet audiences are getting older too

30% of time online in the internet is the over 50s

MySpace

Growth continues, and now120m people are members worldwide (that would make it the 5th largest country in the world)

Online advertising’s market share of all advertising

14.7% share in the UK
10-12% Scandinavia
9% in the US
6% average across Europe

The search boom in the UK

£1.6bn(e) in search alone 2007
Google $2.5bn in the UK
Remember that search is poorly counted in most countries and much spend misse

Download the first banner advert

2008-03-06T18:55:33Z

Back in the Autumn of 1994, HotWired.com was looking for ways to monetize their website and content. They created a graphical space at the top of the page: 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels deep. AT&T were the first to take the jump into cyberspace. It was October 25 1994.

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Think differently about content

2008-02-29T17:15:03Z

This great little video opens up some of the principles of web content and what they mean in practice. In other media content and form are inextricably linked together, but in digital channels, after the first generation of web pages, they were uncoupled, creating a model of flexibility in publishing that would enable the repackaging and re-purposing of content in ways never before viable. This removed barriers to design and structure. Once you’ve watched the film, think about three implications for your content. List them (quickly – the first three that come to mind), and then reflect on what they imply. Be ready to discuss with colleagues.

Shift happens: Did you know?

2008-02-28T15:57:09Z

If you're joining one of our Academies you might like to watch this short slide show first. Switch your sound on to get the most from the content.

We’re living in exponential times. Created by a North American teacher, the Did You Know video is a marvellous way to explain to kids how society is changing and the scale of media and technology change. Sometimes in the digital media industry we are so close to the change and the technologies that we fail to appreciate the scale of the change happening around us. This little video is a great reminder of the scale of change.

]]> About this activity

Technology is shrinking the world and speeding up connections between people. Today’s internet landscape is simply a momentary snapshot of much greater changes in the structures of the media landscape. This short film reminds us of the scale of changes so far and hints at what is yet to come. Think about it through the lens of the changing demands that will be placed on media businesses if they are to maintain engagement with audiences in a new era of competition.

Activity instructions

Activity time: 7 minutes
Activity status: Optional before your Digital Training Academy
Activity structure: Simple slideshow with sound track. Sit back, relax and enjoy.
Activity equipment: You'll need a good internet connection for online videos or slide shows. If you don't have access to a good connection then move on, but if it's almost fast enough then start the download and leave it for a minute to complete.
Activity support: Email your Academy Manager

Take a few minutes to watch this great little montage that reminds us how fast the world is changing. The digital channels are accelerating this even further, and sometimes in the media and marketing industries we are so close we forget the scale of this. When the story about the growth of technology is drawn together, it’s paints an incredibly powerful picture of change: a society tumbling into the most rapid and unpredictable period as social networks switch through digital channels and information becomes universally accessible. Consider about your own life and what this could mean for you, your family, and your friends. Then think about what it means for the consumers of your brand and the implications for how to reach them.

Shift happens: Did you know?

2008-02-27T15:56:30Z

When the story about the growth of technology is drawn together, it’s an incredibly powerful picture: a society tumbling into the most rapid and unpredictable change as social network explode and information travels at the speed of thought. Just think about your own life and what this could mean for you, your family, your business and the people you work with.

1953: The first TV commercial - Gibbs SR toothpaste

2008-02-26T14:58:41Z

Pioneering days at the start of commercial television, this ‘tingling’ commercial from the SR toothpaste brand was the first to air on the small screen. Watching it today, the style grates against what we know and have grown familiar with, yet dig deeper and you can feel how that generation of creative directors and marketers were wrestling with how to use the format. This is exactly what the internet industry had to do since the web started to go mainstream in 1995. Along the way, many of the models of media were simply imported from other channels; not the digital natives of FaceBook and Google. The early generation of internet sites were analogous to the early generation of television shows: ‘radio with pictures’. Watch it and think about whether the digital communications you see are native to the medium, or modems crudely imported from other channels: the imports may work okay, but the digital natives are where communication starts to fly.

Exercise: What Rocks and Flops in online marketing

2008-02-25T13:50:50Z

This is a quick exercise to compete before your Digital Training Academy. It's to get you started in thinking about these issues and it should only take you ten minutes. We'll be using your comments in the Academy and they'll form a resource for all of the team. This briefing gives you the details...

]]> Digital Exercise - Let's play 'Rocks & Flops'

What 'rocks'?
Think about what makes online marketing powerful; more powerful than marketing through traditional channels. think about the techniques and principles that make it so successful. For example how online advertising can be targeted to a specific time of the day or capped so that someone only sees it a certain number of times. This doesn't have to be campaigns that you've been involved in, it can be anything you;ve seen out on the web...We regularly look at issues that are real successes (Rocks) and real failings (Flops) in online advertising. By applying this knowledge you can gain much more insight into how to develop and build a more successful business. In readiness for this exercise, we would like you to think about...

Pick any type of online marketing

Make a list of 5 simple points

Include any recent examples you can think of that did this

Paste it onto your online classroom

This is your list of what 'Rocks'

What 'flops'?
Be honest, not everything you see on the web is great. There are still some sites that over-use the 'pop-up' format, others that disable the user's back button, and that annoying spam that you have to delete every morning. Think about what doesn't work, what annoys or irritates you, what opportunities are there that advertisers missed. This doesn't have to be campaigns that you've been involved in, it can be anything you've seen out on the web...

Pick any type of online marketing

Make a list of 5 simple points

Include any recent examples you can think of that did this

Paste it onto your online classroom

This is your list of 'Flops'

Once they've been pasted into your online classroom we'll look at what we feel 'Rocks' in online advertising, and things that, if we're honest, 'Flop'. By helping brands harness the 'rocks' and steer away from the 'flops' they'll produce more powerful communication and enjoy even better results. Remember, it's still a new media for many people and this can help marketers make smarter decisions...

The exercise shouldn't take more than ten minutes.

Come to the Digital Training Academy ready to tell us about your 'Rocks & Flops'.

What rocks and flops in online advertising?

2008-02-24T16:46:14Z

In this space we're listing things from the Academy that we feel 'Rock' in online advertising, and things that, if we're honest, 'Flop'. By helping our clients harness the rocks and steer away from the flops they'll produce more powerful communication and enjoy even better results. Remember, it's still a new media for many people and this can help marketers make smarter decisions...

Lesson: Digital’s Web Advertising Conversion Funnel

2007-08-09T13:20:16Z

Introducing a simple framework for best practice in online advertising and media planning. We use this model to explain the relationship between online advertising, traffic and sales. The advertising process in digital channels mirrors what marketers know from classic channels, and by unpacking the advertising effect into a funnel that describes the steps from ad attention, through advertising persuasion to sales results, marketers can better see the role advertising and the web plays in generating increased business.

Download the lesson handouts | Upcoming public training events you can join | Digital Media Planning Academy | Ask Danny a question about his talk | Ask about in-company training

Academy handouts | Falling in Love 2.0 | Relationship marketing for the Facebook Generation

2007-08-08T15:46:00Z

TFM&A Technology for marketing and advertising 2008
Keynote lecture summary notes for participants

The rules of the marketing game have changed. The command and control television era where big brands delivered heavyweight messaging every night to the nation, has finally melted away. In its place a radically new structure has emerged that will dominate the next twenty years of marketing. Cultural evolution, catalysed by technology and typified by the web, has empowered media-savvy consumers with the tools to filter and select in a way never before possible. Customer expectations are huge and brands are failing. Trust has switched from institutions to friends, and the barriers to the flow of information have melted. The smallest of customers can have the loudest of voices. Society will never go back.

Read and download the lecture handouts | Upcoming public training events you can join | Digital Social Media Academy | Ask Danny a question about his talk | Ask about in-company training

Academy lesson | Digital Creative Academy | Understanding the real impact

2007-08-08T15:45:43Z

We live in a media saturated world. Audiences have become experienced in advertising. Many media are at risk of being screened out; television commercials not seen when they are fast forwarded, sections of newspapers going unread… Yet on the web the advertising is delivered the very moment the viewer requests the next page of content. Rather than an ‘opportunity to see’ that’s a guaranteed view. This means the impact of online advertising can be that much greater.
Download_A _lesson _from_the_Digital_Creative_Academy

Academy Lesson | Digital Social Network Academy | Themes and issues

2007-08-08T14:48:10Z

Social networking is a rapidly evolving publishing model. Although its origins trace back to the early years of the internet way before the web made it a mass medium, the techniques, models and recipe for success continue to unfold. Permission models are emerging as critical for control, national differences are becoming stronger, and the barriers between the virtual and real worlds are melting away. In this seminar we review some of the key issues publishers and brands need to take on board to successfully harness social networking.
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