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Cut&Paste 2009 Digital Design Tournament

It’s that time again. The Call for Competitors is open for entries! Got skills in 2D, 3D, or Motion? You could be one of the designers selected to represent London in fast-paced, single-elimination rounds, each with a unique design theme and set time limit.

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Easy Listening: Radio and the Web

Radio as we know it is changing. With more and more Internet radio channels cropping up and multiple platforms with which to consume them, choice for the listener has arguably never been wider. With its public seminar on the future of radio upcoming later this month, New Media Knowledge spoke to one of the participants about his experience.

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The Rise and Rise of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

‘Word-of-mouth’ marketing is set to become big business in 2009, according to industry analysts. NMK spoke to one analytical firm helping a number of firms maximise their word-of-mouth potential and therefore react quickly to changing market demands.

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Made by Many and Used by High-Flyers

BA has launched a social site called Metrotwin.com which acts as a travel guide to New York and London.

The airline seeks to cement its brand association with the London - New York route and hopes the site will help with that.

Chris Davies, British Airways Digital Marketing Manager, told NMK that the site had a branding purpose, above all, though it might be used to advertise the airline's services in time. On the former, he said: “British Airways is a company which connects people. Social media is essentially about connecting people. We fly more people between London and New York than anyone else. Creating a community website about the best of what’s on offer in the two cities we know best feels like a credible and useful tool.”

Metrotwin combines controlled editorial input - the places that are listed and the articles it offers - with brief user reviews and voting. The main idea is to extend the idea of twin towns to individual places within each city. Kew Gardens in London is twinned with the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. The same principle is applied to things like bars and restaurants. The idea is that you know you like (say) Cafe Kick in London - what places are like this in New York? Users can suggest twins and either vote up or down these alleged similarities. Users can make their own maps and lists to help plan journeys - they can also 'follow' other users whose recommendations they trust.

Over time, the site comes to learn something of your tastes and is able to come up with Amazon-style recommendations based on the places you've already said that you like. It also creates aggregate scores for places to give them an overall ranking, hopefully revealing the best of what the two cities have to offer in a 'crowdsourced' manner. New places can currently only be added by the site's managers, to avoid spam and maintain the quality of the listings. The site takes a pragmatic approach to the possible issues that can arise from user-led sites. Its editorial content brings together articles from approved blogs and online magazines published about the two cities.

The site was created by Made by Many and Headshift, working alongside Agency.com and BBH. It was made using Agile methods and the Ruby-on-Rails web development framework. This bore fruit, BA claims, during the initial development period, with a working 'beta' version delivered in 12 weeks - rather less time than the typical new website production period for a FTSE 100 company.