Today is a momentous day folks. M&M Magazine has brought media and marketing news to the world since 1989 has entered a new era with it's brand spanking new shiny website. 

Go and have a look for yourselves. The team have put a lot of work into it, and we're all really proud of the end result. The amount of information and insight available is astonishing.

 
 Brand heritage is very much a double edged sword. Some brands make succeed because they're able to leverage a rich and illustrious history, while others are quick to shed an outdated image in an attempt to remain relevant to the modern consumer. 

The dilemma facing brands is that their customers age, while the brand doesn't. It remains fixed, not only in time but in the memories of its consumers. In the first of a series of articles in which Cream examines the life cycle of a brand, Robin Lauffer from The Bank offers her views on the value of providence. 

Sometimes of course, brands need to move with the times, and while they don't necessarily need to act their age, they do need to age their act - or at least their marketing messages. Read Robin's full article here. 

Where are you? I don't know. I'm looking at the map and all I can see are Wal-Marts and HSBCs. 

As Google gets ready to introduce a new feature on its Maps service, which will allow advertisers to pay for a logo, this could be the future for iPhone users. Currently, Google Maps only show generic gray icons that indicate the type of businesses on the map, but with the sponsored map icons, companies can promote themselves with their logos prominently visible when users zoom in on an area while searching.

Google said that advertisers won’t be able to pay for increasing their visibility and that their search algorithm will itself place the logos according to what users are looking for. 

For the benefit of our non-UK readers, or for younger UK readers who do everything online, the Royal Mail is the national postal delivery service for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Once upon a time this was a government department, but like most former nationalised British industries - the Royal Mail was eventually privatised by Thatcher in the 80s, and the resulting company has lurched from crisis to strike and back to crisis ever since. 

Famously backward looking and resistant to change, the Royal Mail has gone all 21st century and released it's first intelligent stamp, (all it needs now is some intelligent postman!).

In a neat touch, the new intelligent stamps will activate unique digital content when viewed using a iPhone or Android device. 

Given the wealth of digital possibilities available to Royal Mail and it's intelligent stamp, you have to wonder why they've settle for a video clip of Bernard Cribbins. Yes, he might be a national treasure and well loved actor, but given that most smartphone owners are under 50, you'd think they would have come up with some slightly punchier content? 

On the plus side, my having a dig at Royal Mail provides a good opportunity to promote this rather brilliant case study on Cream featuring Japan, Postcards and Kit-Kats. 

They're stealing readers and stealing ad revenue - mp3 blogs have got the upper hand because at the end of the day you can't stream music off paper. After a valiant fight, US music magazine Paste has just gone under, despite having 200,000 subscribers.

This is, seemingly, a win for new media, but is a print-free world really the future? Which music magazine will go under next? Rolling Stone? SPIN? Buzzband Magazine? Gorilla Vs Bear Weekly Zine? It's a sad trend, but nostalgia aside, one that can provide advertisers with extremely efficient targeting, if used correctly.  

The past:

The future:

Online-Offline hits the breakfast table with a new mug you can order, featuring all your very own Facebook friends. (Number seven on How to build a social media campaign perhaps)

This is the brainchild of California-based CrowdedInk. CrowdedInk's Friends social mug can be embellished with the customer's friends from either Facebook or Twitter. The ordering process begins when customers sign in to whichever of the two social sites they're interested in. From there, they can select up to 184 friends to go on their mug. They can also choose the mug style, colour and size—ceramic, stainless and glass options are all available—as well as customizing it with the images or text of their choice. 

We're still at the beginning of off-on integration but the trend for creating one-of-a-kind embellishments on real-world goods from user's online content is growing.  

For a generation who grew up with Tamagotchi's and engage with programs like Foursquare, it's no surprise that the idea of having a virtual girlfriend is pretty normal for them. But this isn't Sims. This is Love Plus+. 

Imagine playing World of Warcraft where the player needs to leave your home and travel to a place where you have to catch five fish in order to complete the quest. Here the player must chose one of three female cartoon characters – goodie-goodie Manaka, sassy Rinko or big-sister type Nene (see below) – to be a steady girlfriend. 

To keep the girlfriend, the player must tap a sylus on the DS touch-screen where they can then walk hand-in-hand to school, exchange flirtations text messages and even meet in the school courtyard for a little afternoon kiss. Through a built in microphone, the player can even carry on sweet, albeit mundane, conversations. By completing tasks like homework or exercise, more “boyfriend points” can be earned. The prize is a trip to Atama, a real-life holiday destination. Here gamers can finally walk around the city and see the sights familiar to them from playing the game.

The girlfriends will give players the silent treatment if they are not interacted with enough and games can by synched up to an actual calendar and clock, so if you if you have to stay late at work, the girlfriend may already be asleep when you get home. The dream holiday then comes to an end as the imaginary characters have to eventually return to school.

The lines between the virtual and physical world are becoming more and more blurred. Wii Sports would gain a whole new level of immersion by allowing players to go to a batting cage and play ball with a full roster. Augmented reality is something things brands would be foolish to ignore. 

 Steve Jobs, big fan.                                                         

Someone drowning in a cesspool, reaching out to grab the palm fronds of safety? No. This is Brazil's attempt at showing how the 2014 Fifa World Cup will unite the country, and help the environment, apparently.

Whatever the case, it's pretty bad and Brazilians are in uproar. 

“It’s poorly done, unfinished, the curves are not well drawn, the hands are distorted and it’s childish,” was the damning indictment of João de Souza Leite, a leading figure in the Brazilian Association of Graphic Designers.

But then, I guess, if someone had leaked this four years ago, it may have received the same reaction.