Today is apparently 'Cyber Monday', the name given to the busiest online shopping day of the year. The trade body for online retailers (IMRG) expect that we'll spend more than £5billion online this year which is up 14% from last year, with today delivering £350million of that.  All of that said online retail still only accounts for about 4% of total retail sales!

I wonder if zazzle.com are expecting bumper sales of this T-shirt today.

I really hope not. 

 (UPDATE: 1.43pm on Monday 7th Dec 2009 was the busiest online shopping minute ever with £1.4million spent online in just that minute.)

A decent PR coup for Artemis today. At Cowes last week Artemis had their two boats in the Artemis Open 60 Challenge race. The Artemis Ocean Racing sponsorship is not a cheap exercise, but it engages potential investors and influencers at a different level to conventional advertising. (Or even the rather unconventional advertising that Libertine does for them). Certainly it can create coverage in places beyond the norm.

So last week we have rock boy Bryan Adams on one boat (keen sailor and raised decent cash for his charity), and Zara Phillips with big boyfriend Mike Tindall on the other, Artemis The Profit Hunter. This led to a five-page well branded spread in Hello! magazine. It's easy to knock sponsorship, and it can be slow burn. However coverage like this (to a readership of around 1.9 million women and 22 men) provides strong support for the Artemis brand. It's not better or worse than advertising, it adds value in a different way, and the two together contribute powerfully to the media multiplier effect.

Today hmv launched possibly the most exciting reward card in history!

The purehmv card allows customers to collect points from every purchase, which are then redeemable against exclusive money can’t buy experiences.

Ranging from backstage passes and tickets to live events, to movie premiers and exclusive limited edition content, the purehmv card really does bring you closer to the things you love!

Find out more at pure.hmv.com

Money or rather the lack thereof is probably uppermost in people's minds at the moment. Which brings us to William III who, in 1694, passed the Bank of England Act, thereby establishing the Bank of England as the world's first national bank.

Although thought to be invented by the Chinese in the 7th Century, the first modern printed paper note appeared in Britain in 1855 and it bore the immortal line 'I promise to pay the bearer the sum of...'

Early bank notes were rather uninteresting affairs: one-sided pieces of paper with a promise to pay the relevant sum.

Then in 1914, there came the Currency and Bank Note Act which introduced the ten shilling and one pound note.

Designs were improved upon thereafter and the 20's and 30's saw the design of some beautiful bank notes.

1961 saw the appearance of Queen Elizabeth II on the one pound note and it was designed by Professor Robert Austin, the then Professor of Engraving at the Royal College of Art.

Britannia, who hitherto appeared on the front of bank notes, was put on the reverse, to be replaced in 1970 by a different historical figure on each denomination.

But what's really remarkable about money is the very idea of money itself. Its value is illusory. Its worth as a medium of exchange depends ultimately on a consensual agreement that it has value. So any chance of a loan? www.bankofengland.co.uk