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Evernote, a Web software client that captures data online, data scanned in and even recognizes handwritten notes, could be just what you need to organize your business cards. Evernote has software for Windows and Mac users that allow people to download photos, notes scribbled on scrap paper and business cards among other things, and then search for phrases or words on those real-world items on their computer or phone.

For those who are used to the “Search” and “Find” features giving instant gratification, Evernote will alleviate your frustration in not being able to search your magazine clippings and business cards. Your brain only has so much capacity for remembering things; Evernote is like an external hard drive for your brain.

You can clip part of a Web page or take a photo of a wine label, upload it into the software where it’s archived, then you can later search for whatever terms were on the wine label, such as “milk sake.” Even if you handwrote “milk sake” on the wine label, Evernote will recognize the text and bring up that wine label. Evernote even reads cursive writing. Awesome.

Here’s how Evernote works:

1. You capture what you what to remember by using your computer, phone or camera, and uploading it into the software.

2. Everything is run through Evernote’s recognition technology and Evernote synchronizes it across all of your devices. You can organize your info into notebooks and create tags for items so that they’re easier to find later.

3. Later, you search or filter in Evernote for whatever words are associated with the item you’re trying to remember, and Evernote brings up the photo, Web page, etc. that you uploaded.

You can even record audio and listen to it later! This is so good. You don’t have to type anything from your handwritten note into the software – its image recognition software can read just about anything. I would think if you have really bad handwriting, it wouldn’t work, but from this photo it looks like it does!
 

That’s CEO Libin holding on to that ticket.

You can keep track of receipts, business cards, anything that has text on it. You can actually keep track of photos with no text as long as you add a tag to describe it.

Once the software is on your phone, anytime you take a picture it automatically goes into the Evernote software – you don’t have to do a thing after taking the picture unless you want to add tags to it.

So, once you scan or take photos of all your business cards, you can later go into Evernote, type in the name or business name and get the card you scanned or photographed earlier in its entirety. The only caveat with this software is that it can’t read PDFs, so you’ll have to save your images as JPEGS or PNG files.

The Evernote interface looks pretty simple to use and gives you nice details, such as the dates you made the notes. Pretty handy if you get into a habit of taking a pic of a business card the same day you receive it.

A 1-year premium subscription costs $45 which gives you more security and higher uploading limits than the free version. Still, the free version gives you 40MB per month which is probably plenty for your non-business needs. 

So the average number of Web pages Google had available to index in 1998 was about 25 million. As of summer 2008, do you know how many unique Web pages Google had available to index? A record-breaking 1 trillion unique Web pages. That’s right 1 trillion.

Also, 65,000 new videos are added to YouTube on a daily basis.

In 2005 (the most recent year available), almost 40 billion product catalogs were published. That equals 134 catalogs for every person in the United States. Who needs that many catalogs?

The American Association of Advertising Agencies says people are only able to absorb, at most, 100 ads per day out of the 2,000 to 3,000 we are exposed to.

And, people just don’t trust advertisers. In an old Gallup poll from 1998 that rated honesty and ethical standards against a range of professions, advertising pros were near the bottom of the list, between lawyers and car salespeople. Ouch. 

So who do people trust? “‘Word-of-mouth’ [is] the most powerful selling tool…78 percent of consumers say they trust the recommendation of other consumers.” - Nielsen, Trust in Advertising, 2007 Global Consumer Survey Report. This is especially true of the young generation of 14-24 year olds. This age group spends more than 16 hours online (that’s more than they spend watching TV!). They also like to send IMs – 56 percent say they spend more than an hour each day texting or instant messaging. A full 25 percent prefer social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace than actually hanging out in real life with their friends. And, finally, 96 percent use a social networking site every day.

That means their friends mean more to them and have more communication with them than your ads ever could.

What does this mean for you?

You need to get on the social networking sites and fast.

According to a Prospectiv survey conducted in early 2008, 87 percent of those polled (800 users of social networking sites) felt that targeted ads on social networking sites didn’t match their preferences. This means that you actually have to put some thought into the ads you use on social networking sites. Using blogs and reviews might actually work better in the long run than just advertising on these sites. By actually creating a relationship with people, you’ll earn their trust.

The ads that did work on social networking sites were one-off coupons and discount offers from brands and products that users already purchase. Take the time to really target your ads by using technology that lets you read more about the user. Knowing their occupation or interests is key to getting a targeted ad that will get a click-thru.

By getting on social networking sites as a user and an advertiser, you’ll create memorability and trust. By users repeatedly seeing your ads, they’ll be more likely to click on them.

Despite the rough economy, digital marketing is still going strong and is actually growing. According to eMarketer data released in August 2008, advertisers will spend $25 billion online in 2008 in the United States alone. This is about 17.5 percent more than 2007. eMarketer projects that the recession will cause growth to slow a bit in 2009, with projected spending at “only” $28.5 billion.

eMarketer is expecting the economy to recover by 2011 coupled with an increase in online video advertising to push the online ad spending to more than $40 billion that year. They then expect online advertising to grow by about $10 billion each year after that to 2013. eMarketer gets its projections by benchmarking against the Interactive Advertising Bureau numbers.

Digital marketing doesn’t only include online advertising – it includes everything from online video ads to search media to in-game and mobile advertising. A report from analyst firm Parks Associates also forecasts growth in digital media advertising segments. Parks Associates gives a breakdown of everything from Internet display, rich media, search, DVR, mobile and in-game advertising. New categories, such as in-game ads and mobile ads will have the highest gains because they’re starting from lower bases than other forms of digital advertising like online ads.

Parks Associates projects digital media to compose 10 percent of overall ad spending or about $24 billion by 2010. eMarketer predicts a higher number for 2010 of about $33 billion.

Of course, these are all just predictions, and each research firm has its own numbers that tell a different story.

JupiterResearch, for instance, forecasts display ad spending to reach $7.2 billion by 2010, while Parks Associates forecasts display ad spending to reach only $2.4 billion.

JupiterResearch believes by 2010 search marketing will reach $7.5 billion in revenues. Parks Associates sees search marketing growing more than that – up to $9.7 billion. 

New categories like rich media, in-game and mobile advertising shows the most growth according to Parks Associates. Internet rich-media ads are projected to bring in an estimated $5.7 billion by 2010. In-game ads will grow at least 50 percent according to the study, bringing in about $430 million annually. Mobile advertising is expected to grow to $2 billion in the same time period.

Even though all the numbers are different, quite different, actually, they are all projecting an upward trend for digital marketing. The Parks Associates report says that media is moving from mass to niche, forcing advertisers to adapt to new content and ad formats. “We believe that advertising over the next five years will go through some changes,” said Parks Associates Research Analyst Harry Wang in a Webcast presentation of the report. “For content providers as well as media publishers, they have to provide content in a form that the audience prefers.”

Magazine advertising is still a viable vehicle for print advertising, according to the Magazine Publishers of America. The MPA is even currently campaigning in print and online ads to show that “advertising in magazines encourages consumers to consider buying products — a phenomenon known as purchase intent — and stimulates them to go online to shop or to learn more about items they might want to buy.”

The campaign includes ads that show people who have bought too much stuff, being “Under the influence of magazines” (the tagline). The campaign started in early September and is included on Magfacts.org. According to a New York Times story, “The campaign offers “third-party, independent research” on the power of magazine advertising, “none of it commissioned or paid for by us” Nina Link, president and chief executive at the MPA in New York said.

Despite dropping numbers of magazine advertisements, the MPA wants to communicate to people that magazine advertising is still strong – by advertising online and in magazines. Somewhat paradoxical, yes? And no. Magazines ads are used to drive traffic to Web sites, which are precisely what these ads are designed to do – drive traffic to Magfacts.org.

The number of magazine ads fell by 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008 when compared to the same quarter in 2007. These numbers come from the Publishers Information Bureau, an affiliate of the association. The second quarter of 2008 was even worse: numbers fell 8.2 percent compared to the second quarter in 2007.

Of course, the economy is somewhat partly to blame for the low numbers. Ad revenue for newspapers is falling fast (faster than magazines) and even online advertising growth has slowed. Several magazines such as Golf for Women, Quick & Simple, and Stuff all recently closed or announced plans to stop publishing.

Of course, how many Web sites have closed in the same time period due to low or non-existent advertising? A higher number than the magazines that have closed, I would bet. I couldn’t find any stats online, believe it or not.

So, what is the basis for the MPA’s campaign that magazines are still an advertising vehicle of choice? Here are the stats (you can get the research findings by visiting Magfacts.org).

Magazines are:
• #1 in driving search among 18- to 44-year-olds
• #1 in influencing automotive purchase intent. 2/3 more effective than TV. 1 ½ times more effective than online.
• #1 in influencing purchase intent of packaged goods. At nearly 2x the rate of TV and 3x the rate of online.
• #1 in driving word of mouth.
• #1 in driving brand favorability. 2x the impact of TV and 4x the impact of online.

Also,
• People were 2 times as likely to visit a website after seeing a magazine ad.
• Seeing a magazine ad increased web traffic by more than 40 percent.

These sound pretty good for the magazine industry, no? To underline the power of magazine ads, Anne Bologna, chief executive at Toy (the agency who created the ads), said the three brands featured in the first stage of the campaign — Adidas footwear; Häagen-Dazs, owned by Nestlé; and Mini Cooper, part of BMW — “are all winners of Kelly Awards.” (Kelly Awards are given annually by the MPA for best magazine ads.)

I don’t know many people who have an Apple Mac computer, but I know plenty that would love to own one! Why is that? It’s not for familiarity – most people are more comfortable on PCs. It’s not for computer speed – PCs can have just as much memory as a Mac. So why do so many people cherish their Macs and others envy those people who can cherish their Macs?

It’s marketing, baby.

Apple has marketed its Mac and MacBook computers as being in style. And it doesn’t hurt that Apple actually backs up that claim with computers and accessories that look modern and stylish. According to Steve Chazin, former Marketing Executive for Apple, “Style is Apple’s brand.” Good job, Mr. Jobs! Whoever thought a computer could be stylish?

PCs, or at least PC laptops are starting to look much more sleek and stylish, but they still don’t have that same “air of quality” and coolness that a MacBook has. It’s all in the marketing.

Apply does something better than any other computer company does: it makes complex things easy and elegant at the same time. By doing this well, Apple commands a fiercely loyal following of customers. Marketing is much more powerful when your customers are doing it for you. Apple simply gives its customers the right words and concepts to let others know about their great products (at least “great” in their current customers’ eyes). People are proud to let others know they own a Mac and people even have bumper stickers and car window stickers showing the famous bitten apple.

Apple even markets its products a little slyly – the MacBook has the Apple logo on it upside down when facing the user; it’s right-side up for all those who might be looking at the user and the MacBook. That simple little detail of flipping the apple is what makes Apple marketing great. It’s subtle, and it works.

Apple’s advertising even has its own Wikipedia page, there’s so much to say about it! Check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._advertising.

On the other hand, Apple has been in trouble for false advertising in the past. Just recently in Britain, the Advertising Standards Authority has brought a formal complaint against Apple for its iPhone advertising claim that people can access “all of the Web” from the iPhone. The issue is that the iPhone can’t run Flash and Java, which are common Web technologies used on many Web sites. Apple contends that its claim is that it reaches all available Web pages on the iPhone, and that claim doesn’t mean the iPhone can display all of the available Web pages properly. Is it just me or does this seem trivial and ridiculous?

Even with Apple’s advertising lawsuits, Apple is still highly regarded in the advertising world as a company that “gets it”.

According to the Beijing Times, the fireworks seen on television in the opening ceremony of the 2008 summer Olympics were computer generated. Twenty-nine fireworks were lit for the ceremony, one each second, and in a 55 minute sequence from Tiananmen Square to Birds Nest Stadium. The fireworks were in the shape of footprints to symbolize the 29th Olympic games arriving in Beijing. 

The design team spent a year on the digital fireworks, according to the United Kingdom report in The Telegraph. Apparently the Olympics event organizers were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to film the fireworks, that it would be too dangerous to film from a helicopter and impossible to film from the ground. The impressive display used both previously recorded fireworks along with digitally generated fireworks. Only the last firework in the line up on screen was real. An impressive fake haze was added to mimic China’s polluted skies. The graphics team also created a shaky appearance to make it look like the ceremony was being filmed from a helicopter. The head of the visual effects department, Gao Xiaolong, said that the mission of creating a believable film was successful.

The actual ceremony was authentic. The marchers lit real fireworks and walked to the stadium. What people saw on TV, though, wasn’t live footage. Many opinions on both sides seem to be floating around. Some viewers think it’s another event that reveals why we should not trust China. Others think that everyone is being too hard on China. Many more believe that if China had just been open and honest about the computer generated fireworks in the first place, no one would have cared, at least as much as they seem to in the current situation.