For many years I have found a good rule of thumb is never to eat at establishments that display pictures of the food they serve. The types of fayre pictured appeal only if you adopt the junk food habit, or in the case of the kebab shop, drink the prerequisite amount of fluorescent RTDs.

But there is also another factor involved. Even in an extreme state of intoxication the buyer is likely to notice the difference between the images displayed and the assembly of beige and brown offerings they find they take ownership of. But they don’t care.

"Edward Thompson have created, produced and helped implement Promotional games for over 35 years. During this period the company has built up an unrivaled reputation in this field."

The following summary of UK and European Policy & Legislation by the Advertising Association, highlights some of the prospects for the industry in 2007.

The sales promotion industry is currently evolving and the driving force behind this can often be attributed to the wider mix of media at the industry’s disposal. Digital in particular has affected how we work and not just by supplying new media. There is another way in which technology is supporting the progress of sales promotion and that is the software that’s available to brands and agencies to help manage the more complex tasks.

Long gone are the days when investing in the right software was considered a luxury and any marketer who cuts costs by not investing in the right products is short-sighted.

A recent Christmas Shopping Survey carried out by Deloitte has revealed that gift vouchers have jumped from ninth to third place in the nation’s top ten gift choices for 2006. As a result, I am very pleased to report, they were dubbed as ‘the rising stars’ of retail. This is a fantastic accolade for the gift card and voucher industry.

2006 saw the launch of the ISP Diploma on-line resource and an important change in the way the course is run.

Candidates now have 24/7 access to the papers, case studies and other resources and that is particularly important when they are studying in their own time, at home and at work. No longer does a bag full of stuff have to travel everywhere with them.

Gill Dunsford, Managing Director of experiential agency Impetus, discusses the recent brand makeover behind the rising profits at M&S.

It’s no secret that UK retailers have seen better days: total like-for-like sales were up at only 1.3 percent over the year. So the news that the troubled Marks and Spencer brand has just reported its highest first-half profit in nearly a decade comes as a welcome rest bite from the doom and gloom forecasted by retail experts. This follows the entry of chairman Stuart Rose in 2004, whose efforts of brand rejuvenation have produced such outstanding results that as Christmas approaches, M&S shares now stand at the record price of 716p.

So stability is back with the brand; but how did this British shopping institution manage to fall so dramatically from grace that prior to Stuart Rose’s entry in 2004 it was facing a second take-over bid?

The stars of the big Christmas movie Happy Feet, are featured in a giveaway promotion developed on behalf of Coca-Cola Enterprises.

innocent Drinks has appointed LoewyBe to handle a new experiential campaign for its range of smoothies, following a competitive pitch.

Below-the-line agency BD-NTWK has been appointed by Nintendo UK to develop and implement a high profile experiential campaign to support the launch of its new console Wii.

Fiat Auto UK is supporting the launch of its new Ducato van, with a witty campaign created by integrated agency Arc Worldwide. The direct mail campaign has been designed to break through the B2B marketing clutter to raise awareness of Fiat’s new ‘flagship’ LCV and its class-leading features.

RPM group have launched Phiz as a new independent field-marketing agency. It will offer traditional field marketing to complement RPM’s successful experiential offering.

Liquid Communications has developed a knock-out, online snowball fight game with flight ticket giveaway on behalf of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) to encourage travel to Scandinavia to enjoy its winter delights. The game goes live from early December and runs until the end of January.

Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe's Home Taping Tour of the UK is to feature an experiential campaign as part of Sony Ericsson's sponsorship leverage with the new W950i Walkman mobile. The sponsorship deal and all experiential activity have been devised and created by iris experience.

Media agency ZenithOptimedia last night won Pathfinder's Media Employer of the Year Award for its innovative approach to inspiring its employees. The award was presented at a ceremony held at W'Sens in London.

Intelligent Marketing’s Amy Grundy has taken the DMA’s 2006 Young Sparks Award in a final that saw her pitted against young rising stars from Tullo Marshall Warren, Ogilvy One Worldwide, WWAV Rapp Collins, Claydon Heeley, WDMP and Navigator.

Experiential agency RPM has created a through-the-line campaign for Baxters fresh soup range, “Fresh Ideas from Baxters”.

The campaign focuses on three key cities: Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester and the activity will reach consumers at several key touch points throughout the day both through the use of live and traditional media.

Last month Ofcom published its Communications Market: Digital Television Progress Report for the second quarter of 2006. The report shows that by the end of June 2006 70.2% of UK television households (17.7 million) were watching digital television on at least one set in the home - up from 69.7% at the end March this year. In addition to this, in a recent survey by the BBC, only 37% of respondents knew that analogue TV is to be switched over to digital between 2008 and 2012. Considering some of the opportunities that digital TV represents are the all marketers aware of this?

A senior member of a food and grocery magazine recently remarked to me that he was of the opinion that consumers were fed up with on pack promotions offering merchandise. I was shocked! In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Most of what you will read in this magazine is aimed at people running consumer promotions or what is traditionally thought of as Sales Promotion. Motivation however is a very different activity and is seldom directed at the consumer but aimed at employees.

Earlier this year the ISP embarked on a repositioning of the organisation. This started with a new logo and a new strapline…“when promoting sales is your business”. By motivating staff (in particular sales staff) it is hard to see that it does not “promote sales”. A survey conducted by Incentive Direct earlier this year stated that 36% of respondents cited increased sales performance as the primary reason for using an employee motivation scheme, and 35% cited increased staff commitment and loyalty. An additional 26% stated that increasing employees’ happiness with their jobs was the main factor in implementing such a scheme.