Possibility of retaining position beyond maternity cover, dependent on individual.

Spicerack are looking for a designer from an agency background to work at our new studio at Bristol’s Paintworks.

Ideally you’ll have 2 years’ digital agency experience, but we will consider an outstanding individual with less.

You should be familiar with the digital scene and relish working with big brands.

Working as part of a small team, you’ll be conceptualising, and designing creative executions for digital, mainly web-based, projects.

You will be experienced in producing creative for a wide range of online media.

The successful applicant should:

• be degree qualified in a graphics discipline

• have at least 12 months’ experience of working at a digital agency

• be a team player and confident communicator

• present a slick portfolio of highly creative and polished projects

Salary between 22K – 32K, dependent on experience.

Please send a covering letter and CV to: iwannabepartof@spicerack.co.uk

No recruitment agencies please.

Junior developer:
We will be looking for an outstanding individual to take up a developer position, working closely with our head of technology Jez Summers. The role will offer exposure to a range of creative and social projects across digital platforms.

Junior designer:
At the same time we are hoping to employ a highly creative individual who has recently graduated with a degree in a graphics based discipline. We will be looking for someone who can demonstrate a flair for digital communication through an enviable creative portfolio.

Both positions will offer an exciting learning curve, working on innovative interactive campaigns for our diverse clients who include Clinique, Stylist, LG, Clarks and L’Oréal.

Full details of the roles will be advertised in October. But if you think you might fit the bill, you are welcome to get in touch beforehand.

The great news is that advertising on the internet increased by 14.4% to a new high of £4,784 million in 2011, up £687 million year on year. Indeed, despite the backdrop of a depressed UK economy, in 2011 the online sector experienced its biggest increase in five years.

Summary breakdown:

Total online | £4,784m | +14.4%

Search | £2,767m | +17.5%

Display | £1,128m | +13.4%

Classified | £785m | +5.2%

In more detail, drilling down into the figures, strong growth in the display sector as a whole meant that it passed the £1bn barrier. This increase was fuelled in part by bigger, richer and more dynamic ads that spiked display spend by 13.4% to a high of £1,128 million (£945 million in 2010) and a 24% share of online ad spend (23% in 2010).

Meanwhile video advertising continued its incredible growth and now accounts for 10% of all online display advertising. Expenditure on online video doubled year on year to £109 million (£54 million in 2010).

The figures are just as encouraging in social. In 2011 banners and embedded formats on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, increased by 75% to £240 million – an eight-fold increase since records began in 2008.

Looking at individual sectors, UK ecommerce shoppers helped Retail make the largest gains in the second half of 2011 as it became the third biggest display advertiser. Consumer Goods (FMCG) moved to second place, while Finance just held on to top spot.

Elsewhere, online is still the preferred direct response tool as search soared by 17.5%; Consumer and B2B Classifieds reached half billion for the first time; and of course mobile continues its remarkable upwards trajectory with advertising on mobile devices rising by 157% in 2011, to a new high of £203 million.

Want more information?

The full press release with all the relevant facts and figures is available here. All IAB members can http://www.iabuk.net/research/library/2011-online-adspend-full-year-results (you’ll need your login details for the site to hand). You can also watch a video here featuring key figures from the IAB, Google, Microsoft and MindShare discussing the figures and offering their insights into what they mean for the industry.

All round then, this has been a very strong year. But of course this growth has not been achieved without hard work by everyone involved in this sector. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took part in the survey and extend our gratitude to every one of our members.

The £5bn barrier is not far off. Let’s all work together to make it happen in 2012!

Spicerack are now looking for a designer from an agency background. We are ideally looking for someone with over 2 years’ digital agency experience, but would consider an outstanding individual with less.

You will be familiar with the digital scene and relish working with big brands.

You will be working as part of a small team, conceptualising, designing and producing creative executions for digital, mainly web-based, projects.

You will be experienced in producing creative for a wide range of online media, especially display ads, rich media and emails.

There will be great scope for career development and growth for the right person.

The successful applicant should:

• be degree qualified in a graphics discipline
• have at least 12 months’ experience of working at a digital agency
• be adept in designing with Flash Actionscript and timeline animations
• be a team player and confident communicator
• have a slick portfolio of highly creative and polished projects

Salary will be dependent on experience, but competitive. The successful candidate will also be offered free membership at our excellent on-site health club.

Please send a covering letter and CV to: iwannabepartof@spicerack.co.uk

No recruitment agencies please.

The IAB’s move to re-evaluate the file-size standard for display ads has been welcomed by some agencies because it will increase efficiency and lower costs for clients, while others think it is an old debate that no longer has relevance.

The current 40K standard has not been reviewed by the IAB for a number of years, in which time bandwidth has become faster and technology has improved. As such, some media owners now accept more than 40K, meaning creative agencies could have to build multiple variations of the same MPU in order to deliver the best possible ad for their client.

Dave Harrison, digital agency Spicerack’s founder and creative director, said, “I would like to see things become more standardised. Some media owners now have a file size limit of 50K for all display media and if an ad is submitted even slightly over that then the system will reject it, but others are more flexible and although they say they have a 40K limit, you could send them a 47K or 48K ad and it will be accepted.”

As the standard is not being monitored regularly and in line with development, Harrison believes it has forced creative agencies to take matters into their own hands. If an over-sized ad is accepted by a media owner, he said the agency will then continue to supply ads in that size because they know it has been accepted before.

But it means agencies are having to build multiple creatives in order to satisfy the demands of different media owners, which increases the cost for the client.

Jack Wallington, IAB head of industry programmes, said, “The fact that broadband speeds are dramatically faster than when the standard came into place means that we do need to look at it and address it.”

The standard hasn’t been reviewed sooner, he said, because there are ways of getting around the problem.

Digital agency Amaze uses polite loading, which allows the frame of the ad to be loaded at 40K, before the server “polite loads” the rest of the ad without affecting usability or speed.

Amaze CEO Natalie Gross said, “By using a third-party ad server, such as Mediamind, to ad serve any non-standard display creative, we can build ads to a larger file size, which can be served as a polite-load ad. This does have price implications in terms of increasing the cost of ad serving, but results in less creative hours and trafficking time, which often works out as the less expensive option for the client.”

The IAB has just updated the standard in the US, taking into account different ad types and formats.

“There are different file sizes for different formats, but if all the media owners and networks stick to those standards, it does simplify and standardise the market,” said Wallington. “We’re taking into account what the US has done to bring consistency to the UK and Europe.”

Gross said that if the IAB enforces standardisation across all display ad units, it will help the industry as a whole, but she reckons it will be difficult to get all publishers, networks and exchanges to agree to the ideal of a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

Nick Suckley, Agenda21 managing partner, doesn’t think file size standardisation is a particularly big issue any more, because although the spec is often ignored by creative agencies, as long as it is in the region, he said media owners aren’t generally that draconian about it.

However, he can see the benefit of having more stringent standards on a practical level. “If we’re getting different file formats from different publishers, there is more administration to deal with,” he said. “And from a creative point of view, the production costs are higher. If clients can save money from having standardised ads, that can only be a good thing, and it would be easier for us to deal with as well.”

Geoff Gower, AIS creative director, said although he agrees with the argument to some extent, the debate is out dated. “It’s not that relevant any more,” he said. “Yes, it would be nice if it was easier for us to work with one set of standards, but that by its very nature means we’ll continue to deliver the same type of ads. Sensible, forward-thinking brands should be looking at bigger, more flexible sponsorship and partnership models, rather than just buying more space and shouting at people.”

The IAB has so far surveyed media owners and networks and is in the process of getting the demand view. The results of the research will be revealed at the end of Q1.

http://www.nma.co.uk/news/display-ad-file-size-debated-as-standards-come-under-review/3033808.article

‘It’s exciting to re-connect with our old hunting ground, having been a member previously as a Profero board director. During that time we were heavily involved in the creation of the Creative Showcase, alongside the IAB, Glue and the Guardian. I was a judge on that panel over its first year.

I met some great individuals, many of whom are still heavily on the scene. They have helped shape the digital media landscape over the years, and we’re looking forward to contributing again in this evolving space as part of such a respected trade body.”

Dave has been selected to be part of the Display Steering committee for his significant experience across online media. His knowledge over 14 years across new ad formats, brand metrics and engagement models will be highly sought after across the IAB membership.

The online interactive campaign will evoke the Clarks First Shoe experience featuring the ‘crawling and walking’ stages that takes place in the early years of a child’s development. This online display campaign will be featured on a number of high profile parenting sites including Annabel Karmel, Netmums and Bounty.

Spicerack Creative Director Dave Harrison said, ‘We were honoured to work on this project, sharing the rich heritage of Clarks and using our digital media experience to demonstrate in a fun way a key milestone in a parent and child’s life.’

Quote from Michelle Evans, Digital & Direct Marketing Manager at Clarks International
We were very impressed with the creative ideas when we first met Spicerack. It has been a pleasure working with them and we are very pleased with the outcome.

Note to Editors:

Company Description
Selling more than 40 million pairs of shoes each year in some 50 countries, Clarks is the world’s number one casual shoe brand. The firm is a UK favourite, with a range of fashionable men’s, women’s and children’s shoes available through a large network of stores, department stores and the internet. Founded in 1825 as a sheepskin company, Clarks is still owned by descendants of co-founder James Clark.

Company Description
Spicerack (www.spicerack.co.uk) is an interactive creative agency operating from London and Bridgwater. Clients include L’Oréal Paris, Garnier and other FMCG brands (Client NDA protected). The company was founded in 2004 by Dave Harrison, previously Creative and Board director at Profero, where he was responsible for some of their biggest accounts, including Disney, COI, CNN and BT.

You will be familiar with the digital scene and relish working with international brands.

You must be comfortable with dealing with clients and managing your own projects.

You will be working in a small team, moving things forward as an integral part of an agency with ambitious growth plans.

The successful applicant should:

• be degree-qualified in a graphics discipline

• have a digital agency background

• be adept in designing with Flash and timeline animations

• be a team player and confident communicator

• have a slick portfolio of highly creative and polished projects

• possess meticulous attention to detail

• ideally have experience in forward-thinking technologies such as handheld, apps, web and social media

• be keen for career growth

Not asking for much, are we!

A competitive salary will be dependent on your experience. The successful candidate will also be offered free membership at our excellent on-site health club.

Please send a covering letter and CV to: iwannabepartof@spicerack.co.uk

No recruitment agencies please.

Location: M5 J23 – 30 miles south of Bristol

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Permanent

Salary: Negotiable