The M&M Global Awards is extending the deadline for awards entries until June 10 as it introduces two new categories: The Sports Performance Award and The Global Viral Excellence Award.

The explosion of casual gaming and mobile devices is pointing towards a perfect storm for advertisers. Oscar Diele, Vice President of Global Brands at Spil Games, looks at why brands need to be taking gaming seriously as a media channel.

The guys over at Crab Creative have produced a nifty infographic into social networking and device usage among adults - it's full of lots of great stats, so check it out:

Everyone’s talking about ’big data’ these days: politicians, academics and, of course, businesses – especially those involved in digital marketing and advertising. However, despite all the discussion it seems that a number of questions remain – with a main one being, who actually needs big data? 

The short answer is: we all do. But if you find yourself unsure of what it is and how to use it, perhaps you need to think of data as a raw material. Like any other raw material, data needs to be refined, processed and managed. Just as crude oil doesn’t power our cars, raw, unanalysed data will not propel our businesses forward. 

You try to frighten me. Admit so, sir. This is some new form of torture.

- Alex in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange

For the last 10 years, media watchers and content creators have been talking about how consumers are time-poor, and advertisers have to fight that much harder to get the attention of consumers. And yet media is not sold based on how much time people spend engaging with the content. I'm not talking about buying a 30-second TV spot, or a 15-second radio ad here. I'm talking about people reading an article and taking the time to comment on it or share, people playing a game and posting a high score, or watching a video – again and again.

You may have noticed an interesting trend recently - brands are enlisting musicians as creative directors. Justin Timberlake is at Bud Light, Lady Gaga has been at Polaroid for a while, and Swizz Beats is on the board at Monster while his wife, Alicia Keys, was recruited by BlackBerry for the launch of their saviour OS – BB10.

BlackBerry has chosen a strategy of trying to reach out to a certain kind of audience and target specific mobile technology users, such as musicians, writers, artists and other creatives with the "Keep Moving" campaign.

As one of those consumers who is constantly on the lookout for the newest handset, I find the campaign engaging in a way that makes me feel like I can depend and rely on BlackBerry to give me technology I need in my busy life. This is a handset that will help me with my creative objectives. This phone is a reliable mobile companion to successful creatives, such as Alicia Keys, film director Robert Rodruiguez and – unusually, fantasy author Neil Gaiman. BlackBerry make it clear in the ad that the phone is not a catch-all device, but instead is aimed at users who are interested at looking at the world through a creative lens.

By Mike Woods, Framestore

Intriguing new interactive pop promo for IO Echo by Barnaby Roper, RVHM and Jocabola. Lots of great ideas in here.

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/watch-io-echos-dazzling-new-interactive-video-for-ministry-of-love

Starcom Mediavest Group has been crowned ‘Agency Network of the Year’ at The Festival of Media Global 2013 Awards, held in Montreux, Switzerland on April 30.