Babies, not money, bring smiles to Aussie faces

Money can’t buy you love, The Beatles sang, and a new Australian study confirms that it can’t buy happiness either.

Ninety-four percent of people in a recent online survey of almost 1,500 Australians didn’t rate wealth or money as top on their list of things that make them smile the most.

Instead, children and babies were found most likely to bring a smile to their faces, with 33 percent of the vote, followed by family and friends at 28 percent, and then pets and animals with 22 percent.

Based on the idea that a smile is the universal symbol for happiness, the study found that people gain more happiness from their experiences than their purchases.

“We know that money doesn’t make people happy — it doesn’t make them unhappy, but the benefits of buying something or getting cash out can only be short lived, it doesn’t last that long,” said Timothy Sharp from the Sydney-based Happiness Institute.

The study, conducted by marketing research body AC Nielsen over three days, asked respondents to choose the factor that made them smile most from a list of five different categories, including money and wealth, and beautiful scenery or nature.

“The findings support my theory that happy people have more and better quality relationships than those who don’t smile, because it is an important non-verbal sign we give to others as a way of sharing and eliciting positive emotions,” Sharp said.

But the simple act of smiling could make you feel happier too, because it increases the level of serotonin, a hormone that plays an important role in regulating moods in the brain, Sharp told Reuters on Tuesday.

“One of the myths about happiness is that its this spontaneous thing that falls on your lap if you’re lucky,” he said. “If people engage in happy behavior, you increase your chances of being happy.”

Microsoft to change Vista after Google complaint

Microsoft has agreed to modify its Windows Vista operating system in response to a complaint filed by Google.

Under an agreement with the Justice Department and 17 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia, Microsoft will build into Vista an option to let users select a search program on personal computers running Windows.

The function, known as “Instant Search,” allows Windows users to enter a search query and get a list of results from their hard drive that contain the search term.

The agreement was made public as part of a joint report that the Justice Department and Microsoft filed late on Tuesday with the court overseeing Microsoft’s compliance with a 2002 antitrust consent decree.

The changes will be introduced in a service pack, or updated version of Windows Vista software. Microsoft said it anticipates a test version of the Vista Service Pack 1 to be ready by the year-end.

Under the agreement, Microsoft also promised to provide additional technical information to third-party developers, such as Google, in order to optimise the performance of their desktop search service on Vista.

Raj Kurup quits Grey Worldwide

Sajan Raj Kurup, regional creative director, Grey Worldwide, has put in his papers. He has been with the agency since 2004. His next destination will be known in a few weeks’ time. Kurup plans on sticking to advertising.

Confirming this, Kurup says, “Grey was an exceptionally great journey, and I have learnt much here. However, there are bigger challenges ahead, and I am looking forward to them.”

Sajan Raj Kurup

Kurup was brought to Grey in 2004 for the specific purpose of bettering the creative perception of the agency, post the renaming of Trikaya Grey as Grey Worldwide. Kurup feels he has achieved most of what he set out to do, after some noticeable campaigns for Appy Fizz (‘A cool drink to hang out with’), Frooti and Pantene, among others.

From newspaper boy to door to door salesman, animal caretaker, pizza maker, spoken English teacher, stage actor/ director, part time baseball player, masseur and even bartender, Kurup has donned various hats, the latest of which is advertising.

Kurup’s career in advertising started with Mudra more than a decade ago. Since then, he has worked with Orchard, Bangalore, which earlier was Leo Burnett in Bangalore, and Lowe, where he was till 2004. He then moved to Grey Worldwide, where he has been handling brands such as Frooti, Appy Fizz, Pantene, Anne French, Bell Tiles, Cera Bathware, N-Joi, CRY and Deutsche Bank.

Two-thirds of New Zealand Homes Online

27 April 2007

Two-thirds of New Zealand Homes Online

Almost two-thirds (or 1 million) of New Zealand homes are connected to the Internet, Statistics New Zealand said today. Results from the Household Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Survey: 2006 show that just over half the connections use broadband technology while the remainder are dial-up connections.

Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury have higher-than-average household broadband access, with Auckland having the highest, at 43.1 percent.

Almost 2.6 million people had personal use of a mobile phone. In the 15–24 year age group, 90.6 percent had personal use of a mobile phone. In the 12 months to the December 2006 quarter, 69.0 percent (2.2 million) of New Zealanders used the Internet. Over 900,000 people made an online purchase, with those aged 25 to 44 years being the most likely to do so (38.9 percent).

The Household Use of ICT Survey also revealed that most people used the Internet to email, browse the web generally, and obtain information on goods and services. The Household Use of ICT Survey is a sample survey of households in New Zealand and is conducted every two years.

Dallas Welch

Acting Government Statistician

ZenithOptimedia launches digital advertising arm

Chennai: ZenithOptimedia, a global media services agency, has launched Zed Digital India, its full service interactive and digital unit.

Zed Digital’s capabilities extend beyond interactive media buying into the full array of digital communications. The applications cover a range of services from online media, search engine and e-mail marketing, to technology development and hosting, interactive kiosks and signage, and e-commerce retail, as well as across the PC, mobile, OOH (out of home) and TV platforms.

The new entity will track all digital activities from conceptualisation to the execution stages and will provide for continuous monitoring and evaluation across each step with corrective action if required

According to Steve King, Worldwide CEO, ZenithOptimedia, “In an increasingly fragmented consumer mediascape where consumers are editors and not passive receivers of media, going digital is an obvious route to enhancing the ROI of our clients marketing budgets, in one of the most exciting markets of the new world.”

By virtue of its international alliances, the company already has HP, L’Oreal, British Airways amongst key clients, working in this integrated arena. Whilst taking advantage of its parent company’s positioning to ensure best in class service for common clients, the new entity is designed to create exciting opportunities for direct business.

Senior vice president Vineet Mathur who will report to CEO India, ZenithOptimedia Ambika Srivastava, will spearhead zed Digital India.

According to ZenithOptimedia recent forecast, global Internet advertising spend will grow by 28.2 per cent in 2007, at the same time ad spending in other media will grow by only 3.9 per cent. In other words, online ad spending will grow seven times faster. Zenith Optimedia also projects that the Internet’s share of worldwide total ad spending will increase from 5.8 per cent in 2006 to 8.6 per cent in 2009, overtaking other media such as radio and cinema.

In India, ZenithOptimedia predicts online expenditure will increase threefold to over Rs. 700 crores within two years.