A survey commissioned by Yahoo and Starcom Mediavest Group (PDF) found that  96 percent of women say that they frequently feel positive emotions while online. If your marketing doesn’t elicit a positive emotional reaction, then you’re missing an opportunity.

1. Digital Cowgirl – the internet pioneer

• 51 percent of women say they love finding new and exciting websites on the internet
• 42 percent say they will go online even if they are not looking for anything in particular
• Where to find her: games websites

1. Digital Cassandra – the influential predictor of “what’s next”

• 43 percent of women say they tell all their friends about websites they like
• 22 percent claim they are usually the first of their friends to discover an interesting website
• Where to find her: news, finance, home & family and food & entertainment websites

1. Digital Diva – uses the “smartest” sites

• 16 percent of women say they use the Internet to buy luxury items.
• Where to find her: shopping, travel, health & beauty, entertainment & gossip and finance websites

1. Digital Debutante – new to the internet, but not a novice

• 20 percent of women state that although they are relatively new to the internet, they are constantly learning about new applications and websites.

1. Digital Detective – internet researcher

• 82 percent of women say the Internet is the first place they go if they need to conduct research
• 58 percent can spend hours on the Internet researching every aspect of an issue that they are interested in.
• Where to find her: news, weather, finance, home & family and food & entertaining websites

1. Digital Voyeur – uses the internet to anonymously observe

• More than 20 percent of respondents use the internet to look up old friends or boyfriends
• Where to find her: news, finance, games, home & family, food & entertainment and astrology websites

1. Digital Socialite

• 12 percent of women agree with the statement: “I use the Internet to help me plan my social life”
• 15 percent say they have used the Internet to meet new people
• Where to find her: travel, entertainment and gossip websites

1. Digital Shopkeeper

• Just over 10 percent of women say they have started an online business or have used the internet to generate income.
• Where to find her: news websites

Evensys and APG Romania put together a very interesting event dedicated to planning. As you can see from the picture, the main speakers are experienced and distinguished planning and marketing* professionals.
I'm very excited about the event. Looks like the APG Romania is on the right track to become what Romanian planners always wanted. An association able to raise the professional standards of planning, to educate and inform.
Good luck guys! I'll see you on the 9th and 10th of October in Bucharest.

*Update - Unfortunately, Miel Van Opstal wont come to Masterplan

"…Overall planning has continually become more exciting. So many of the normal rules don’t apply, and there are now more opportunities to consider anything to be the answer for a brand. Just as creative teams are no longer restricted to a 30-second TV commercial, planning isn’t restricted to any particular way of thinking about brands or how they should express themselves” - Guy Murphy, Global Planning Director at JWT

A major trend, and one which will undoubtedly impact on all marketing communications agencies depending on how prepared they already are, is the increase in demand from clients for better customer insights. This tallies with our own experience – the improved new business performance of agencies that embrace this point speaks for itself. Agencies should develop keener customer insights and communicate these energetically to their prospect-base.

According to Rainmaker Consulting’s “Intelligent New Business Survey,” the main factor for choosing one agency over another is "Quality customer insights." Not size, not creative capabilities, not client list, which are ranked down below.

This clearly shows the need for people with planning skills, with a keen eye and able to come up with quality insights.

If Marketing 1.0 was mostly about print collateral, then Marketing 1.5 moved to the web brochure, and Marketing 2.0 is about the entire online experience. In Marketing 2.0, you no longer have tight control of a polished, coherent message stream.

In effect, marketing is turning into a myriad of interlocking conversations between people inside and outside the company. Blogs and online communities give individuals a loud voice in conversations about products and brands, while keyword-based marketing is changing the way corporations disseminate their messages.

In truth, the conversations were always out there, in coffee shops, book club meetings, over the garden fence, at the corner store; millions of conversations are going on about hundreds of topics relevant to your company every day. The extraordinary thing today is that you can literally watch these conversations as they unfold online.

The attitude of Marketing 2.0 is one of openness, authenticity, trust, and responsiveness. This attitude is powered by a set of manipulable dials and switches that connect an organization's conversations about its products and its brand directly to the market, and to sales. The bottom line for marketers: evolve or fail, because consumer behavior is changing.

I've just got back from the Idea Forum, a 2 days event about innovative theories in marketing, advertising, digital and media. Thanks to Cristi, I've had the opportunity to listen to the likes of Faris Yakob, Russell Davies, Iain Tait, Keith Lewin and Chris Jackson. Also there where a bunch of Romanian advertising professionals talking about their view on the shift happening right now on the way brands communicate. Or should, at least.

This was, probably, the best conference I've been in Romania so far. There were less PR presentations and lots of little things that inspired me a great lot. A wonderful experience!

At the conference I've got the chance to meet some bloggers I've already knew and meet knew ones which blogs I read but didn't get the chance to meet offline. A very fresh and pleasant experience. I will come back later with some notes from the event.

The emergence of the new 'ubersexual' man presents a potential goldmine for global manufacturers and marketers according to the latest research from Euromonitor International.

Cosmetics companies, health clubs, retailers and travel companies all look set to profit from the changing male image, as men become more image-conscious. The ubersexual man is defined by Euromonitor International as 'more complex, more thoughtful, more culinary and better groomed than macho man, but more traditionally masculine than the metrosexual'. They are, therefore, more likely to prepare and research meals, buy cosmetics and toiletries, and join health clubs.

Groomer	Shaving, hair care products
Skin consciousness	Moisturising lotions, face masks
Fitness seekers	Health clubs, home gym equipment
Gourmet cook	Cookery books, video
Shopper	Image brands of consumer electronics
Fashion follower	Fashion clothing, home furnishing
Hedonist traveller	Food and wine tourism

The Ubersexual man is a more complex and thoughtful Generation Y male, essentially a more masculine version of the metrosexual with a wider set of interests. This label creates a role model in terms of lifestyle, appearance and buying habits, which men are willing to aspire to. As the boundaries between genders continue to be broken down, global companies are expected to find increasingly innovative ways to profit from the evolving characteristics of the male consumer.

Who fits the bill? Advertising agency JWT, says the Top Ten ubersexuals are Jon Stewart, Guy Ritchie, Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor, Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, George Glooney and — at No. 1 — U2 rock star and world peace activist Bono.

comScore Networks today announced the launch of comScore World Metrix, the first true estimate of global online audience size and behavior based on activity from the world’s largest online behavioral research panel. The comScore World Metrix panel has active representation from countries that comprise 99 percent of the global Internet population. In launching comScore World Metrix, the company announced that 694 million people, age 15+, used the Internet worldwide from all locations in March 2006, representing 14 percent of the world’s total population within this age group. This number marks the first worldwide universe estimate based on a consistent methodology across all countries.

Israel, Finland and South Korea Lead the World in Online Engagement

comScore also released the top 15 countries ranked by average hours spent online per visitor for March 2006, as a measure of engagement. Israel led the list, with the average user spending 57.5 hours online during the month – twice as much time compared to the average person in the U.S, which did not rank in the top 15 countries. Rounding out the top 5 were Finland, South Korea, the Netherlands and Taiwan – all countries with high broadband penetration.

Until now, we've had to rely on Alexa for worldwide numbers. Now we've got numbers with some real work and QA behind them. Internet users outside the U.S. now account for 80 percent of the world's online population, with rapidly developing countries experiencing double-digit growth rates year-over- year.