Most people will probably have noticed the black-out that Wikipedia imposed on their English-language pages on Wednesday, either from the huge media coverage that the event received, or from having to have looked elsewhere to find the answer to that question that’s been annoying you all day.

For those not up-to-date with the situation, there is a legal bill to be voted on currently in the American House of Representatives and another to be deliberated by the American Senate, the ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ (often abbreviated to SOPA) and ‘Protect IP’, which seek to clamp-down on online copyright infringement.

However, there are questions being raised over the amount of power that the legislation would give both the government and corporate world in America, with critics calling it unconstitutional. This has ignited debate throughout the world, with a great deal of it having ironically taken place on internet forums, social networking sites and message boards.

With lobbyists from Silicon Valley on one side and Wikipedia, with their break from their normal ‘passive’ stance, on the other, the debatable issues of the morality and ethics of piracy and also of the potential threat to the ‘freedom of speech’ ethos (which the internet was founded on) remain at the centre of the debate.

It seems to me that legislation of this nature could potentially hinder on the organic and innovative internet ‘culture’ that we have seen developing so quickly over the last decade.

It also occurs to me that legislation of this nature, while fair in a basic moral sense, may give rise to a potential ‘dark age’ in the development of the internet, should steps not be taken to preserve the freedom internet users currently have.

Definitely an issue to watch and I’m sure its one that will not slip far from the public’s thoughts for some time…

Ever wondered where the creative hub of Honolulu is or who’s producing the best design work in Warsaw? I have. Partly out of geek like curiosity but mainly so I can benchmark where Studio North sits globally.

When I come across a decent agency I usually bookmark them for future reference, but I recently thought maybe it would be a good idea to share those bookmarks. Putting what I consider to be the best agencies from around the world all in one place.

The Creative Shelf is a simple click through site where you can link to some great agencies that you probably wouldn’t otherwise come across. And it’s not about who’s got the biggest budgets, won the most awards or has the most celebrated ego. In fact the only self imposed criteria I have is that they have to have one piece of work or idea that I’d love to have done. If there is I put them on the shelf.

So if you’re a curious design geek or a student wanting to know who you should be looking at, then when not check out http://thecreativeshelf.com or follow it on twitter @creative_shelf

In September I hopped down to How-Do’s Future of Media Engagement conference at Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry.  Figures from across the UK’s media industry were on-hand to talk about new research and technology that was shaping the way people were consuming and engaging with modern media.

One of the topics of discussion was the way in which many people are now consuming media in a two-screen environment – the most common being while watching TV and being on a laptop/smartphone/tablet at the same time.  This has allowed an entirely new level of engagement whereby viewers are playing an active role in what they’re watching.  For example you might have either sent a Tweet to Alan Sugar during The Apprentice, or done my personal favourite and put a virtual million on the line during Channel 4’s Million Pound Drop.

A similar trend is also being encouraged by brands in their advertising, with more and more Twitter hashtags being spotted at the end of adverts in the hope that people will create/join a discussion around whatever product is being sold, adding that extra level of engagement.

However, the talk that stole the show was from Sky’s Nick Milligan, who pointed us towards the future of television advertising.  In his talk he introduced Sky’s AdSmart technology – a service that will bring TV advertising into the Internet age and deliver tailor-made adverts, specific to your home, based on the information they have about you.

If it works, TV will finally be able to give brands the option to target extremely specific demographics with their adverts in the same way online can, even specifying the number of times they want each consumer to view each ad.  And even more importantly – no longer will I have to sit through adverts for dentures and Clarks shoes.

I can’t wait!

Poor Frankie Cocozza. not only has he been axed from the X Factor but he’s also been cut from the M&S Xmas Ad too. It really hasn’t been his week.

But from M&S’s point of view is aligning their brand to a group of people that are clearly not their ‘target customer’ a clever tactic or a case of just jumping on the bandwagon?

I must admit, from a brand perspective I’m struggling to see the logic, the two clearly don’t go hand in hand despite the soft focus filming and scenes of happy children and families. But the X Factor has become a promotional tactic that many businesses are using almost as an ‘off the shelf’ concept. It’s easy, current, in the public eye and everyone knows about it.

But I do wonder what damage and expense this could cause people like M&S. The X Factor is notorious for being steeped in controversy. Some may say this is part of the appeal but to a brand like M&S who have traditional values and traditional customers I think this is a risky card to play.

I’m an M&S shopper myself (maybe one of the younger ones) and the Ad really left me with a conflicting view of what the brand was trying to say.

Then I had a chat with my Nan (one of their older shoppers) who told me quite plainly that she didn’t like it.

“ I can’t stand that Girl Group, why didn’t they do something with Shirley Bassey again?”. Fair point, they have gone from one extreme to the other.

I’d love to know what was in the M&S Ad brief, because if they asked for something controversial, that didn’t appeal to their core market and pushed the boundries of their brand then they got it spot on!

Lets just hoped none of the other contestants get the boot otherwise it’s going to become a pretty short and expensive TV commercial.

A mini-Studio North contingent ventured to Liverpool earlier today to attend TedxLiverpool at the excellent FACT venue on Wood St in the city centre. The theme of this year’s event was ‘A Mobile Future’ and it had proved that popular beforehand that both the main event and a ’simulcast lounge’ downstairs had both sold out. It did not fail to deliver.

First up was Ian Wharton of software start-up Zolmo who as I already knew from a recent Northern Digitals/BLAB night is a superb speaker. In this environment, Ian was similarly entertaining and shared some of Zolmo’s finest moments with us, mainly their work producing apps for brand Jamie Oliver. As he departed the stage he left us with the inspirational last thought “In this industry, if you’re pissing a few people off, chances are, you’re doing something right”. Superb stuff.

If this was a tough act to follow then it needed the cool head of Stephen Mellish (Radical Company) to pick up the baton. Stephen’s talk was mainly future focussed, offering his thoughts on where mobile goes next or as he more appropriately suggested…the device with no name. With no stone unturned Stephen lent his thoughts to how ‘mobile devices’ could be practically used in every way from treating health conditions to voting live on political issues (who needs MPs he quipped).

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Some rather filling campaign creative for Stagecoach UK Bus and their ticket product Easyrider. The creative was provided by Mr Sean ‘Smoothy’ Booth, with a big thank you to Mrs Booth for allowing her kitchen to become a photography studio and Hey Little Cupcake for a huge helping hand in preparing the cake.

Our digital team are extremely proud of their recent work in developing multi-platform mobile applications (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) for our client UBM Aviation Routes Ltd. The apps were developed for the 17th World Route Development Forum in Berlin, the global meeting place for every airline and airport.

With a record number of delegates attending this year’s event, World Routes offers an unrivalled platform for airlines and airports to do business face to face with the people in the industry who really matter.

Our digital strategy and planning for Routes identified the opportunity and benefits of producing a mobile app for the event to work alongside their traditional communication channels. A number of impressive functional benefits were served up to those who downloaded the app, including event news, information about Berlin, programme guide, delegate listings and full social media interactivity.

With additional features now planned for ongoing development and future events, this initial foray into the world of mobile apps was loved by both client and delegate alike.

As anyone with a Blackberry phone will know, and much to the amusement of iPhone and Android owners, last week saw tens of millions of users lose their messaging, internet and email services – twice.

Blackberry themselves were condemned for the outages, with users flocking to social media sites to vent their frustrations.  However, the outbursts were not only aimed at the service’s downtime, but were also related to the lack of communication from Blackberry themselves.

When asked whether he thought Blackberry’s communication was good enough during the outages, Managing Director Stephen Bates stated that they “didn’t spend enough time thinking about communication”.  Considering the purpose of their products is to help people communicate you have to love the irony.

Lack of communication during a crisis, however, isn’t anything new.  A classic example occurred during the 2010 BP oil spill.  During the cleanup operation, BP gave very few updates of their progress, and some photos they did release of their efforts were found to be Photoshopped.

In response, a fake Twitter account was created under the BP moniker, providing extensive and hilarious updates throughout the spill.  As a result, the handle gained over five times as many followers as the official page, a statistic which must have deeply saddened BP America’s Head of Communications.

The moral of these stories can be summarised pretty easily.  With mass communication inevitable with the advent of social media, brands need to either play an immediate and active damage limitation role in a crisis, or be prepared to deal with the aftermath of letting others do the talking for them.

However, Blackberry and BP would probably rather think of their PR at the times in the the following way:

So this week saw that UK unemployment figures were at a 17-year high, with youth statistics setting an all time record.  News channels were almost inundated with discouraged school leavers and graduates sharing their anguish at not being able to find work.

Having only graduated myself in July, I know how they feel.  Coming out of a university environment where you are constantly doing something in the day, be it lectures or group study, (or at least playing Ultimate Freebie), to being sat back at home, mindlessly filling out tens of applications a week, can quickly become frustrating.

Add to this the fact that when you do find the confidence to apply for a job you feel you are suited for, the large number of applicants means that not only are your chances of securing the place slim, but it’s unlikely that you’ll even get a reply.  After a few times of going through this process it’s easy to take it personal and become disheartened, forgetting that you are in the same boat as nearly one million others.  I know I did.

The problem for this generation is that we are not necessarily competing against each other anymore, but instead are competing against those who have lost jobs and bring with them a wealth of experience.  As many companies are struggling enough in the present climate, it’s unsurprising that they will want to hire someone who can hit the ground running, freeing up valuable hours for existing employees.

With this in mind though, I often get surprised when asking friends if they have considered applying for work experience at companies.  A few say they’ve toyed with the idea but most seem to feel as if it’s a step backwards, as it doesn’t offer long term security and is often unpaid.  While these are of course valid points, continual rejections from companies quickly showed me that all of the qualifications in the world don’t make up for a lack of experience in the present job market.

Now I’m not saying that the search for employment should be abandoned in favour of looking for work experience, I regard myself amazingly lucky to have been able to stay at Studio North for 2 months after initially applying for some, but I do think it’s an option that many people don’t consider as much as they could.

For me, applying for work experience as the best thing I’ve done since graduating.  Wanting to begin a career in branding/marketing, I’ve learnt a lot about the industry, met some brilliant people, and, perhaps most importantly, learnt a lot about myself.

I do miss Ultimate Frisbee though!

Being a mum, the days of spending ridiculous money on clothes, handbags and shoes are long gone. Reluctant to completely let go of my life before children I am still a faithful Grazia reader, keeping up to date with the latest fashion collections, who is wearing what and where I can buy it. In a recent issue I came across a full page spread advertising Clarks shoes. The old media buyer in me had to question the placement of the ad. Clarks? In a fashion magazine?

My mum, who is in her early 60s has a slight obsession with Clarks, every time she is visiting from Sweden she has already checked out the website and has a long shopping list for herself as well as half of her friends, because ‘ They are just such good quality and very comfortable’. And I suppose this is the image I have of them, good quality and comfortable, but hardly fashionable?

In the current climate more and more brands see the need to branch out, looking at new segments of the market, but how do they do this without alienating the old ones?

Marks and Spencer, who traditionally are considered an ‘older’ fashion brand, are very good at this. They always include a range of women at different stages of their lives in their TV advertising. In fact, their most recent campaign is of two women, one older and one younger both getting ready for their dates. They also work hard making sure that their fashion collections are in fitting with their respective segment.

In a bid to follow suit Clarks has teamed up with Mary Portas, the ‘Queen of shops’, to create a new shoe collection, as well as a complete re-vamp of their other women’s shoes collections. The results? The excited noises from my female colleagues when checking out the website speaks for itself. They have a range of very fashionable shoes and boots that most fashion conscious 18-35 year olds would most definitely consider wearing. And teamed with their traditional brand values of good quality and comfort, puts them onto a definite winner! Perhaps the next time my mum is visiting I might even join her on her trip to Clarks?