We are looking for people with strong experience in any of the following areas: PR, online marketing, account management in an agency setting.

You will be interested in working on a freelance basis, from home to support our work in providing an online marketing solution to our clients.

This may include:

• Researching websites that reach our clients’ target markets
• Developing content for those websites and pitching the content to editors and journalists
• Project management of campaigns

You don’t need to have specific online experience but you must have a good working knowledge of the internet and the wealth of information and social opportunity that it offers.

If you are interested and would like more information, or to discuss it further, please email us on jobs@ikontakt.co.uk

Sport Relief 2010, a fundraising initiative from Comic Relief, is calling on digital media owners to lend their support to this year’s campaign by donating online advertising inventory or editorial space. The Sport Relief Weekend is taking place from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st March and the whole of the UK will come together to get active, raise cash and change lives.

Ads are a crucial way to get the British public to do their bit and will be calling on people to enter the Sport Relief Mile or rise to another fundraising challenge.  There will also be ads available to promote the Play section of the Sport Relief site to children.

The ultimate challenge for the public is doing the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile on Sunday 21st March where hundreds of thousands of people across the UK will take to the streets and go the distance for Sport Relief. And a host of famous faces from the world of sport and entertainment will be rising to the challenge this Sport Relief including Christine Bleakley who will be doing the Thomson Sport Relief Water Ski Challenge across the English Channel and Rugby international Lawrence Dallaglio cycling around the Six Nations.

But because they promise that every penny raised directly by the public will be spent to help change lives, Comic Relief relies on other people’s generosity to help cover their costs: they need donations of online inventory and editorial space to help them encourage the nation to support Sport Relief 2010. Any offer, no matter how big or small, will make the world of difference to people living incredibly tough lives.

Comic Relief has challenged iKontakt to recruit media owners willing to run banners, leaderboards and MPUs for free between now and 21st March.

An iKontakt spokesman says: “For Red Nose Day 2009 we were blown away by the generosity of media owners, who donated thousands of impressions in what added up to a very substantial campaign.  And it’s not just the large networks, we had offers from a huge cross-section of the digital community, ranging from specialist sites such as Enterprisenation.com and Tri247.com, right up to networks like IPC Media and Conde Nast – everyone’s support really makes a difference.

The future of social media is extremely bright, taking internet users to a point where social sites “cease to become a place on the internet and start becoming the internet itself”.

That’s one of the key conclusions from an authoritative report on the social media industry, “End of the beginning for social media”, published this week by social media agency Yomego.

The report suggests that the sheer momentum behind social media is unlikely to slow down anytime soon. It also points to the convergence of a number of critical factors creating a pivotal moment for the online phenomenon.

According to Steve Richards, managing director of social media agency Yomego, the end of the beginning is nigh – and more importantly the future of social media is starting to take shape.

In the report, he explains:

“We have mass adoption, ubiquitous technology and considerable investment into social sites. These key factors, which are now all converging, will force the changes that will see the last barriers knocked down and the final challenges overcome: cross-compatibility, and profitable business models.

“These trends will lead us to a point, where social sites cease to become a place on the internet and start becoming the internet itself.”

The report explores how social media has developed over the past few years, charting the critical factors that have now created an industry valued at over $70bn – three times the size of brewing giants Anheuser Busch and ten times the size of Sun Microsystems.

It goes on to predict that that the industry will evolve into something even more pervasive than anyone could have imagined five years ago and how its popularity and its technology will affect marketing budgets over the next 24 months.

He summarises:

“More and more conventional websites are now incorporating social aspects such as user- generated content or social bookmarking. It is not a huge leap from here to the point where the entire internet is based around social sites and functionality.

“In this new world, niche social networks will proliferate, brands will ‘do’ rather than simply ‘say’ and the internet will be defined by your preferences.

“As these social spaces become our gateways to more and more content and interaction, a traditional approach to online brand advertising no longer applies.

“Banners are out. In come advertorial-style content, branded apps and brand-led community sites.

“Furthermore, brands will need to embrace new technology in tailoring their message to the right audience. If they get it right, the benefits in terms of brand engagement and mass advocacy are mouth-watering.

“Platforms such as Google Wave and Netvibes are already giving us a glimpse of a future where users choose what information and data they want; a world where users filter data before it’s delivered to them, and customize the way it’s presented when it reaches them.

“The next phase of the social media revolution offers huge potential for brands who get their strategy right, as well as pitfalls for those who fail to adapt. For end users, the good can only get better.”

The full report can be read online www.yomego.com/end-of-the-beginning.html

Having worked in a similar way with Sport Relief and Children In Need, we have found the digital community to be very supportive of good causes. Even though we recognise many media owners are under extra pressure in these uncertain times, we are hopeful of a positive response in 2009.

Please contact us if you would like to get involved, or have inventory that you can donate.

See our appeal ‘Free banner space sought for Comic Relief ads’ on Brand Republic

A new Facebook application dedicated to celebrity sightings has tapped into the popularity of the ‘cult of celebrity’, with amateur spotters from London to Sydney keen to brag about their brushes with the rich and famous.

The Spotted! Facebook application is for anyone who sees, kisses or shares an ‘experience’ with a celebrity (thoughtfully categorised into A, B, C and Z list). Users can post their ‘spot’ together with a description of what happened and a photo (if available) in order to earn points and move up the rankings. Other users can question the authenticity of the sightings if they seem dubious.

Spotted! is proving particularly popular amongst the advertising agencies of Soho, with other hotbeds of celebrity activity such as New York, LA and Sydney also registering strong followings.

The application was created by iKontakt client Picasso Pictures, whose MD Jane Bolton comments: “One day in a flash it occurred to me that I could bring my twin loves of Facebook and celeb-spotting together, and Spotted! was created. I secretly love celebrities, and I less secretly like hearing stories about which celebs my friends have seen out and about. I have no shame, well I do, but not that much.”

In the latest Top 10 Most Spotted!, Hot Fuzz actor Simon Pegg is currently sitting top, having been reported at various London venues, whilst the ubiquitous Amy Winehouse in second place has been recorded by witnesses visiting prison in Suffolk and scoffing a bucket of KFC in London. In sixth place Rhys Ifans is most often sighted in pubs, while parties and shops are the best place to catch Peter Stringfellow, according to the chart.

Spotted! Top 10

1. Simon Pegg

2. Amy Winehouse

3. Eddie Izzard

4. Suggs

5. Noel Fielding

6. Rhys Ifans

7. Ronnie Corbett

8. Peter Stringfellow

9. Will Smith

10. Andrew Lloyd Webber

About Spotted!

Spotted! Is a Facebook application that allows people to share their celebrity-spotting experiences with friends and the wider world. It allows users to share the news, discuss who spotted whom, question the authenticity of the sightings and compete on the leaderboard with their friends, their network or the World.

The application was the brainchild of Jane Bolton, director of Picasso Pictures, and was produced in association with Nudge London.

To start registering your own brushes with fame visit Spotted! on Facebook

Spotted! does not attempt to authenticate celebrity sightings submitted by its participants – each submission can be rated for believability by other visitors.

See this article ‘Spotted! Facebook application’ on creativematch