It appears that there’s light at the end of the advertising and marketing tunnel, at least to those attending this week’s Association of National Advertisers conference in New York City.

According to Advertising Age’s Jonah Bloom, major players like Dole Food Co. and Dunkin Donuts have plans to ramp up their advertising spending in the latter part of the year, focusing primarily on rebuilding their respective brands.

“The cost of raw materials is going up, and marketing is the only thing that offsets those increases,” said Richard McDonald, the senior VP-global marketing of the musical instrument brand Fender, according to Bloom’s article. “You have to build brand value and spend on marketing.”

To read the entire Advertising Age article, available until May 20, click here.

Happy Wednesday to everyone!

OK … really? It’s a cool, cloudy day. Kind of depressing. So, why not have some fun to get us through the mid-week doldrums, right?

This post is the first of a semi-regular Wednesday series to help us all keep conversation going and our minds thinking as we reach the halfway point in our workweek.

So, let’s start with the seemingly “trendy” topic of the moment in social networking. First it was MySpace, then Facebook and LinkedIn. But now it seems like everyone is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.

Here’s the conversation starter:

How are you currently using or see potential in using tools like Twitter in your workplaces? If you’re using it already, have you discovered any benefits or drawbacks?

Or, if you have questions about Twitter or any other aspect of social networking, feel free to ask them here as well. We’ll do our best to find an answer for you!

My thoughts? I’ve found Twitter to be remarkably useful, as it’s essentially created a “help network” for me. The people I follow on Twitter have a wide variety of interests, work in a wide range of professions and in multiple neighborhoods in and around the Pittsburgh area. It’s great to have people at my fingertips that can help me find a unique place to eat with a client or get better directions in a neighborhood that I’m not as familiar with.

So, what are your thoughts? Leave a comment on this post to continue the conversation.