An invasion of giant chipmunks at the turning-on ceremony for Stockholm’s Christmas lights has shocked residents and city officials alike. Read the full story

The combined Nordic  consumer agencies are investigating whether advertising laws have been broken on the social networking website, Facebook. Read the full story

A Swedish mustard company has been slammed for being chauvinist after releasing an advertising campaign about what constitutes a ‘real man’. Read the full story

Representatives of some of the biggest online brands on Earth will be in Reykjavik this Friday for the 8th annual Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference — or RIMC. Read the full story

Consumer ombudsmen in the Nordic region are looking into social networking sites such as Facebook to decide whether they are engaging in illegal marketing. The watchdogs are planning to investigate whether social media websites contravene advertising laws in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Iceland, Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Read the full story

This morning begins a very high profile weekend for the internet in Iceland with today’s Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference and the accompanying high-tech expo which runs until Sunday. Read the full story

The Internet marketing agency Nordic eMarketing has entered a very successful partnership with the American National Football League (NFL). Read the full story

The 2008 Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference & Expo brought together more than 300 online experts, marketing managers and other interested parties along with a crop of world class speakers and workshop managers. Attendees’ online evaluation rated the event very highly. Read the full story

Sterling Airlines, a low-cost carrier based in Denmark is launching a bold new retail strategy with a new director of in-flight services at the helm. The airline’s chief commercial officer Michael Hansen recently outlined the strategy in an interview with DFNIonline.

Veteran airline executive Lars Hjartbo is the newest addition to he Sterling Airlines executive team and the airline has high hopes for him. Hjartbo will be reviewing the in-flight retail program with a view to radically overhaul how Sterling does business in the air.

Hansen said: “I look forward to Lars joining and working with him to improve our product on board and take retail to the next level.”

According to Hansen, airlines need to find new ways of bringing in revenue, particularly in light of falling fares. With regards to the airline’s retail potential he said: “We have not been very aggressive in the past, but now we will try to bring some innovation to in-flight retail. Lars is joining us and we have changed our supplier to In-flight Service, these are the first steps. Once Lars arrives we will look at a more detailed retail strategy.

“We’re pretty good on retail but we want to take it to a new level. We have a lot going for us as an airline; for example we have passengers in their seats for an average of two and a half hours. We want to turn in-flight retail upside down.”

The marketing group Loewy, today announced that it has acquired branding consultancy Branded. The boutique strategic branding consultancy was founded by ex-Sky Marketing Director Philip Ley and is made up of top industry brand strategists.

A Loewy news release said the acquisition of Branding, would boost the marketing groups branding capabilities and add to its focus in telecoms, media and technology and the public sector.

Branded has an impressive industry standing, counting some of the biggest names in the UK as its clients including AOL, BBC, Boden, BT, Codemasters and Setanta. Branded has a growing body of international clients across Europe, the Middle East, the US and Russia.

Loewy has already built up a creative powerhouse, bringing together specialist and complementary businesses across the branding, design and communications industries, bucking the industry trend of advertising-led Groups. The Branded acquisition is the first for Loewy this year and the sixth investment for the company since it announced its ambitious plans. It joins recently acquired communications.