GOOD reports that during the first three quarters of 2010, numerous businesses spent more than  $94 billion on advertising fees alone. P&G leads the pack at over $2 billion.

There's a lot of rubbish spouted by a lot of people about social media. In a desire to appear connected, some brands go into social media overdrive, and before you know what's happened, your social media strategy has turned into a mass of disconnected tweets, posts and likes that bare little relation to the brand or its messaging (and yes, we're looking at you Cadbury with your Spots Vs Stripes nonsense!). 

There is a very good campaign video from Dagens Industri which illustrates this point perfectly. But we recently discovered this brilliant video from last year's Ignite 2 event - "When flashmobs go wrong", presented by Tom Scott. 

If social media had been around in the heyday of the disaster movie genre, this would have been a two-hour blockbuster starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren - probably called "Mob!".

Ignite is an evening of presentations about - well just about anything, so long as it takes 5 mintues of 20 presentation slides of 15 seconds each. Imagine a turbo-charged, slightly deranged version of TED...

Over the coming weeks we'll be publishing a number of our favourite presentations ahead of Ignite 4 in February. 

Well it soon might. Spending on debit and credit cards in the UK overtook cash for the first time last year, and the technology industry is gearing up for the battle. Apple is considering heavily subsidising payment terminals for shops as it prepares to take on rival "Near Field Communications" (NFC) systems from Visa and Mastercard, which allow shoppers to simply wave their credit card at the checkout.

Remember Shazam? That app that lets you identify songs anywhere just by having your device listen. Essentially an impressive gimmick people use once, because it's called 'asking a friend'. So Shazam is taking the concept a step further and applying it to television. The new app will let viewers tag episodes of SyFy’s new show Being Human (a BBC remake about a werewolf, vampire, and ghost who live together) and allow them to get exclusive web content, enter into contests, and eventually even purchase music heard on the show. While the tech (especially from Shazam themselves) has been tested on TV before, this will be the first time “TV Tagging” will be used for an entire series. Blake Callaway, senior vice president of brand and strategic marketing at Syfy said this:

"The audience reaction to ‘TV Tagging’ on Syfy with Shazam was immediate and impressive, providing new opportunities for our advertising partners. After researching the viewers’ reaction and their willingness to engage with this new technology and embrace a whole new behavior – tagging the TV – we knew we had to extend the concept to a whole series."

Shazam and Syfy partnered in September last year to pilot the ‘TV Tagging’ concept with season finales of Warehouse 13 and Eureka.  Shazam has also extended the concept to work with TV advertising, partnering with companies such as Levis’ Dockers, during the SuperBowl, but this initiative is the first series-long commitment by a broadcaster. 

Hopefully this will pave the way to a more interactive TV experience akin to those shown on TV shows.

It's nice to know that despite the absence of those surreal B&H creatives of the 80s and 90s, there is still very much a place for wry humour in the advertising world.  

Back at the start of 2010, Cream brought you "No Apples" - a collection of the 100 most innovative companies from the around the world. Successful entries were inducted into the Cream 100, and exclusive club of innovation and excellence.

For 2011, Cream is searching the globe for the 100 best marketing campaigns. Any campaign that took place during the last 12 months, anywhere in the world is eligible: Big, small, online or offline.

Does your campaign demonstrate some particularly innovative strategy? Did it use pioneering new technology - or find new uses for traditional media? Perhaps it helped an established brand embark on a new challenge, or take on a new market?

Or maybe it was just one of those brilliant ideas?

Nominations are free. Any agency, creative shop, digital house, or production house can nominate a campaign they were involved in. Cream wants to know about your brilliant branded content, inspired virals and sexy social media strategies.

To enter, simply  an entry form from the .

All submissions will be reviewed by the C Squared editorial panel, and include input from the Festival of Media judging panel.

The final 100 campaigns will be published in a hardback book, launched at the Festival of Media Global, 8-10 May in Montreux.

An accompanying "Cream 100" directory of the agencies, creatives and digital shops who shaped the 100 best campaigns in the world will be also be available.

For more information the Cream editorial team.

The News:

Korean netizens have protested against a Chinese ad campaign for the online game World II.

In features Chinese pop singer Han Geng, who launched his successful career in Korea (for those of you who follow Asian pop, his band was called “Super Junior”).

In a video promoting World II, Han is yelled at in Korean by a bossy lady from Korea. Thanks to World II, the singer gets revenge on her in the virtual world of electronic games, boosting his self-confidence. He then returns to reality, puts on an incredible gig and becomes a superstar. The video ends with a shot of the Korean lady, lost in the crowd, looking up to Han in awe.

Picked up by Korean netizens, the video has upset many Koreans.

"I used to be a loyal fan of Han but now I feel betrayed," said a typical post on a Korean discussion board. "He became a star in Korea but now obviously he has forgotten about that."

Behind the News:

World II provides an interesting cross-cultural twist on the now familiar “geek turns rock star and gets the girl” theme. Not only does the main character of the ad turn a woman’s prior rejection into admiration, he also seems to turn his back on his initial Korean success and potentially alienate fans and potential clients for the brand. This may be an act of personal retribution, as following a number of lawsuits, Han’s contract with his Korean record agency ended unhappily.  However what may be seen as humoristic in China has turned into a recipe for negative brand buzz abroad.

While 2011 is The Year of Mobile (yes, really this time) it is also, as far as Cream is concerned, The Year of Gaming. You heard it here first. 

Branded games have been about for years, but recently there have been some excellent examples of the genre. Thanks to the social network revolution that you might have heard about, online gaming is no longer the preserve of teenage boys and the IT crowd. 

So in this self-proclaimed "Year of Gaming", the first branded game to grab our attention was this brilliant retro arcade style space shoot'em up from Foot Locker. Obviously, we were rubbish at this - but I'm sure many lunch hours spent practising will lead to an improvement...