The IET has issued a call for papers for its System Safety conference that will be held in Manchester, UK on October 2010. Abstracts are due in by 1st April, with final paper submission by 4th June 2010.

Tags: Call for Papers, IET, UK

It’s frustrating to be told that the counts you need for a direct marketing campaign will take a day or two because getting counts is “not that easy”. Well credit to Findlay Direct Marketing, whose new website will give you immediate counts based upon your criteria, which can include job title, products specified, location, and other demographic information. By speeding up the process of getting counts, and making it very easy to see the criteria that can be used to segment their data (and the impact of applying the criteria), Findlay makes DM campaign planning a breeze, and I’m sure they’ll win some extra business simply because they provide the fastest and most flexible service.

Tags: Direct marketing, Findlay, UK

In December Electronics Weekly and EE Times Group announced they would partner on a UK show in 2010, and that show has finally got a name: Embedded Live. In our industry it’s nice to get a simple name that is real words and not an abbreviation. Although the UK is probably the toughest market in Europe for trade shows, I really hope that the combination of EW and EE Times group will be strong enough to make this event a success.

Tags: EE Times, Electronics Weekly, Shows and Events, UK

The latest ABC figures are out (ABC issue annual figures, whereas BPA audits are published when the audit is completed), and I’m pleased that many titles continue to invest both in circulation and audits. It’s particularly pleasing when smaller publishers, who don’t have a huge circulation machine like some of the bigger publishers, are able to get good audited circulations. Perhaps the best example of this is MMG, whose title Electronics Sourcing UK is now 98.09% requested, with 86.37% of these readers have requesting ES within the last twelve months. Congratulations to MMG and all publishers who recently achieved an ABC audit.

Tags: Electronics Sourcing, MMG, UK

I was delighted that the next Silicon Southwest event will be just down the road from Napier at NXP’s Southampton campus. The event will be held on 19th March 2010, and is titled “The Future is Analog!”. Representatives from NXP, EDA Solutions, Cascoda and Intralink will be speaking, and the delegate fee is just £10.00. Registration for “The Future is Analog!” is available online.

Tags: Shows and Events, UK

The German association of data protection authorities have ruled that tracking using IP addresses breaches German law. The ruling and the implications for marketers are covered on the Marketing Law website, which highlights that:

IP-addresses are considered personal data.
The storage of IP-addresses will be found non-compliant with German data protection.
The use of web analytics tools based on IP-addresses will be found illegal and can be sanctioned with a fine up to €50.000.

Tags: Germany, Misc Marketing, UK

The Marketing Law website does a great job of highlighting the issues of running international marketing campaigns based on parody. Although parody is protected in countries such as France, Germany, Australia and the USA, the UK Government has chosen not to exempt it from copyright law in the UK. The site warns that “marketeers need to take care when using parody, caricature or pastiche in advertising, packaging or branding in the UK”. We are not amused!

Tags: Advertising, France, Germany, Misc Marketing, UK, USA

An interesting case study that will be of interest for the many companies marketing their eco-credentials: the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints about adverts that claimed flying with Finnair is “eco-smart”. Of particular concern is that the ASA said that companies should not make an absolute claim – choosing Finnair is “eco-smart” – when flying does have a detrimental effect on the environment. I can see companies in our industry running into similar problems if they are not careful – e.g. “the green power supply for data centres”.

Osbourne Clark’s Marketing Law website has an excellent in-depth discussion of the Finnair case (registration required).

Tags: Advertising, Misc Marketing, UK

I’m delighted to see that Electronics Weekly has launched a blog about test and certification that is written by our client TRaC. The engineers at TRaC have superb knowledge about this subject, which is not surprising considering they are the leading UK test and certification company. They’ve been supplying posts to EW for some time, so the blog already has some fascinating posts.

Tags: Blogs, Clients, Electronics, Electronics Weekly, News About Napier, Online, UK

MTE has launched a new website, which has a nice layout and great content. But more interestingly the site is branded Embedded News (www.embeddednews.co.uk). The old MTE URL, www.MTEmag.com still works, redirecting to the new site. The new URL is surely going to help attract a wider range of readers and advertisers, and it will probably be a great benefit for SEO, but I hope that the new branding doesn’t reflect a lack of focus in the magazine.

Tags: Europe, Micro Technology, Online, UK

I’m told that the joint venture electronics show organised by Reed and EE Times Group (formerly TechInsights) will soon have a new name (I’m betting it will include “ESC” and “Live”). The two companies have already been working on the show, which thankfully will move from Farnborough to Earls Court, and I was particularly interested in the plans to encourage exhibitors to take seminar rooms to run presentations, tutorials and labs. ESC has always has a good conference, and if vendors can run their own tutorials, hopefully this will not only encourage higher attendance, but also mean that more visitors spend time on the show floor.

Tags: Electronics, Electronics Weekly, ESC, ESE, Reed, Shows and Events, TechInsights, UK

After the decision by EE Times Group (formerly TechInsights) to hold on to ESD Europe, rather than include it in the recent sale of EE Times Europe and Microwave Engineering Europe, I was disappointed to see the recent decision to move to all-digital distribution and cut frequency. Initially a 10-issue 2010 editorial calendar was produced, then an announcement was posted on Embedded.com/Europe and a new media pack issued telling of the change of strategy.

The European website www.embedded-europe.com has been closed, with all content integrated into www.embedded.com. Although I can see the logic of this move it’s disappointing that European visitors to the site will have to search for local content rather than the site using geo-targeting to highlight European stories along with the global content, nor is the site offering a URL with a European-orientated feed of news. I’m told we can expect this to be added in the future.

The magazine has also switched from 10 issues to 5 issues in 2010, with entirely digital circulation, although I’m told that the editorial content will be specific to the European edition with minimal re-use of material from the US ESD. The layout will be changed completely, moving to a screen-optimised format on the Nxtbook platform similar to recent EE Times special editions. The layout is nice – similar to ED Europe in some ways, but offering full page adverts as well as leaderboard and MPU fractional ads. It’s great to see a publisher recognise the need to optimise the layout for the readers, whilst allowing advertisers to use familiar formats with high visual impact. We’re also promised special editions, which will be driven by sponsors.

The digital magazine circulation is a little confusing. The new media pack promises:

The digital issue goes to over 100,000 subscribers and will be seen by over 50,000 European web users.

25,000 ESD global digital subscribers via email link.
30,000 ESD Europe subscribers via email link.
50,000 EETimes and TechOnline European subscribers via email link.
50,000 unique European visitors to Embedded.com every month.

So in addition to the European subscribers, anyone currently receiving the digital version of the US title who is based outside of Europe and the US will get ESD Europe – i.e. they’ll get both the US and European digital issues. The EE Times and TechOnline European database will also be used to deliver unrequested copies, and there will be links to the digital title on Embedded.com.

So what circulation should we assume for the title? To me the circulation we can be sure is really valuable are just the 30K requested European subscribers. Although there may be other high-quality recipients, at this stage they’ve not requested the title and it remains to be seen whether the move to a large headline circulation is clever move, or whether it will just dilute the quality of the existing ESD Europe database.

ESD Europe has also quietly slipped in a rate increase (full page rates were $2100 last year, and are now $3000: an increase of about 40%). The extra circulation might go some way to justifying this increase, and there are no surcharges for flash or video adverts, but most advertisers I know value digital magazine less highly than print.

The European Embedded email newsletters will increase in frequency, appearing twice a week, which will hopefully increase loyalty to the brand, as well as ensuring the database is well maintained.

It will be interesting to see the success of the new publication. In merging ESDE and ESE, It’s not clear to me why there is value in circulating a European title outside of Europe, but if the format is as good as the EE Times specials, and with Colin Holland remaining in the role of Editor in Chief, I believe that the quality of the editorial and the easy-to-read layout will ensure good readership. From the advertising viewpoint, TechInsights acquired a significant number of UK-orientated advertisers who presumably will be unenthusiastic about the broader reach of the title, and may choose other UK, whilst global advertisers might question why they need to advertise in both the US and European brands to reach people outside of these two geographies. As a believer in the eventual move of most magazines in our industry from print to digital, however, I’m hopeful that ESD Europe will be a successful title.

Tags: Advertising, CMP, Digital Magazines, ED Europe, EE Times, Electronics, Email, ESD, ESE, Europe, IET, Newsletters, Online, TechInsights, UK, Video