Measurement, or its absence, is frequently held up as a reason to hold back on Social Media Marketing. CXOs will wave their hands in the air reluctant to embrace a dark art, an unmeasurable activity that will take up resources but, as many articles cite, is more about being there than actually delivering measurable results. [...]

Last year the number of ‘online’ ads overtook traditional ads for the first time. But should we have been surprised? The really outstanding takeaway from this is the fact that we’re still differentiating between the two media types. Folks in the Creative Services  are demons for putting approaches into boxes. Online versus traditional. Social media as [...]

As anyone with a lapsed gym membership knows, New Year’s Resolutions have a tendency to, well, not show much resolve. So we thought we’d make blur Group‘s resolutions not easy, but eminently achievable by ourselves and by other businesses who want to ensure that 2011 is an exciting and successful year. Let’s go! 1) Engagement [...]

2010 draws to a close and everyone is predicting the most obvious outcome of 2011: that social media is going to be big for business. What still seems to be brushed under the carpet is that as companies embrace the social media trend, leap on the bandwagon, go twitter-crazy or Facebook themselves up they’re still [...]

2010 has seen blur Group’s Creative Crowdsourcing approach gain sizable momentum with large corporate clients, new startups and Crowds of Crowdies. Stirring up the world of advertising, it’s time to consider what’s going to happen in 2011 and what will win out. 1) Marketing will return to its first love: creativity. This year, new platforms [...]

‘We plan to take Crowdsourcing further than it has ever gone before….. We want media companies to engage users as citizen journalists, and NBC2 is just the first step toward this. We want to enable local governments to encourage users to report about hazards on the road to help keep our roads safe. We want major [...]

Blogging’s been around for just over a decade. There are something like 200 Million blogs in the ether. 43% of businesses in the US are expected to blog in 2011. It seems there’s a writer in all of us. And yet the blog hasn’t really changed that much. It’s still basically a date stamped, comment [...]

There’s something going on in agency land. The tectonic plates seem to be shifting. Some say a revolution is under foot. Clients are looking for something new. Big brands are voting with their feet and backing the Crowdsourced Creative Agency.

Making a profit in the stock market is a tough test at the best of times- especially in the past two years, during a period of global recession. There is rarely a safe way to make a quick buck in the temperamental crowded world of share trading.

Feeling a bit strapped for cash this autumn (I’m sorry, but September 1st marks the end of the summer in my book) but intend on getting hitched before Christmas? Are you gay/lesbian and understand social media? Would you like to have an all-expenses-paid wedding, thousands of feet above the Atlantic Ocean?

As the finishing line to another month draws ever closer, our blur Group writers continue to bust their gut to give you the latest from the world of Crowdsourcing. From road-trips to London’s 21st century smart-phones, we’ve covered every mile on the long journey to the weekend. Have a great one!

This video about says it all. blur Group’s roots. Tomorrows organization with todays trends – design-driven, Crowdsourced and social media marketed. All in the cloud – defining and driving Agency 3.0. Why blur Group turns more than a few heads. Join us.

In 2008 Maurice Levy, the Chief Executive of the world’s fourth largest advertising and marketing company, Publicis, dropped a marketing bombshell upon his fellow professionals. “The very model of our industry is being called into question,” said Levy. “The model today is no longer valid, no longer relevant.” He was right.

Social Media. Is it just a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? Watch this brilliant video (which is even more dramatic with sound) and decide for yourself. Happy Friday!

Pepsi is skipping this year’s SuperBowl ads, instead banking on Crowdsourcing and Social Media with its Refresh Project. But why? “Why did Pepsi trade their $20-million Super Bowl commercial for a $20-million social media campaign? Because their Refresh Everything project promises a superior return on investment.

“I don’t have enough time for twitter, Facebook or blogging.” What if it paid back 200% of your time invested? Photo by Marchin Chady via Flickr ‘Not having enough time for social media’ sounds like the title of a summer song. You listen to it again and again, without asking yourself why. Maybe we should [...]

Have you looked into Facebook Advertising to promote your business? Photo by ugo90 via Flickr There is an untold story about Facebook Ads. While most businesses are focusing on Google Adwords for PPC, truth is that those experiencing Facebook are getting positive results. Seomoz.org recently looked at the benefits of ‘in-depth’ targeting and re-published Nielsen’s [...]

You decided that you need a blog to get your brand out there. You’ve figured out how to promote it. Now the time comes to get real productive and post regularly. Where do you get ideas for your next post and the one after that and on? Photo by zetson via Flickr Developing a content plan [...]

Hey singers, actors, artists and performers – are you getting your Facebook promotion right? Photo by carbonated via Flickr We recently launched Human Brands which we’re kinda excited about. It combines the vibrant visual effects of our design agency, blur Designs with the strategic influence of our digital agency, blur Marketing. Expanding a bit on [...]

P Diddy speaks out about artists need to develop and control their personal brands on and offline – inc social media. “Before, it was just at live shows, now you have to be able to do a great live show, you have to be able to do a great online interview, you need to have [...]

P Diddy spoke with Mashable about his perspective on artists need to develop and control their personal brands on and offline – inc social media. “Before, it was just at live shows, now you have to be able to do a great live show, you have to be able to do a great online interview, [...]

It’s the buzz word of the moment. Some see it as an opportunity, others as a threat. Some think they are experts, others actually are. Truth is that little is known about Social Media. We are all learning about how masses use media, but mostly we are gaining knowledge about ourselves. Because Social Media is [...]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/4av2pWhkaVw" width="440" height="270" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /] What is ‘blur’? ‘blur’ is a way of looking at things differently. It is a philosophy and reflection of contemporary times and the future that beckons or betrays. ‘blur’ is the most modern world. ‘blur’ best describes the nature of everything to be and that is. The planet [...]

As blur Group gets more of a following we increasingly get asked why what we are doing is important. It is both a fundamental and complex question to answer. I have spent the last ten years building large communities and marketplaces on the Web – consumer facing, business facing and some that mash both up. [...]