Full service: The & Partnership boss Johnny Hornby on changes in marketing June 16, 2014 Liam Ward-Proud talks to Johnny Hornby, chief executive of The & Partnership It's easy to forget that media buyers and creative agencies haven’t long existed as separate entities. As late as the 1980s, the archetypal agency was “full service”, overseeing all aspects of a campaign. Johnny Hornby, chief executive and founding partner of new agency [...]
The week in brief June 16, 2014 Instagram rolls out ads in UK, Canada and Australia Facebook’s photo and video-sharing service Instagram last week announced that it will introduce advertising in the UK, Canada and Australia, after a successful trial in the US last year. The service claims 200m users worldwide, with just 34.9m based in the US according to advertising consultancy [...]
How to give a TED-style presentation June 16, 2014 Embrace the power of storytelling and always remember that practice makes perfect The TED conference is considered the gold standard in public speaking. Limited to 18 minutes, the presentations have been viewed more than 1bn times online. After analysing 500 talks (150 hours), and interviewing the most popular TED speakers for my book, I’ve discovered [...]
City & Gild: Catching a cab, or catching up? June 13, 2014 I wrote recently about the sharing economy and the fact that hotels in New York are in court with Airbnb. Surprise surprise, now the black cabs are on strike because of Uber. As the hoteliers of New York claim their grievance is with Airbnb not paying hotel tax, the cabbies are apparently upset because they [...]
Bank of England’s Mark Carney – Prepare for interest rates rise June 13, 2014 Bank of England governor Mark Carney shocked markets last night by revealing that interest rates might be hiked this year – a stark turnaround from his usual position of talking down the possibility. Addressing an audience of City grandees at the annual Mansion House dinner, the 49-year-old Canadian said the Bank could start to bring [...]
Why Rolex’s Tudor Heritage Black Bay watch is best for the beach June 12, 2014 Why Tudor’s handsome devil tops our chart of this summer’s best beach timepieces Passport? Check. Boarding pass? Check. Embarrassingly garish new swimmers? Double check! Watch? Oh, hang on… It always seems easy enough slipping from boardroom to board shorts, but come the summer, deciding on what to wear on your wrist poolside is a different [...]
Boost efficiency with a weekly plan June 12, 2014 Ride the Tuesday productivity surge and use the 80/20 rule for a better working week We are what we repeatedly do,” said Aristotle; excellence is a habit, not an act. It’s common to think of productivity as purely a function of on-task effort, but successful chief executives and political leaders often rely more on a [...]
How B&M Retail IPO nearly beat Prada June 12, 2014 A budget department store founded by a shopkeeper in Blackpool during the late 1970’s has today become the biggest retailer to come to the stock market since fashion house Prada three years ago. According to fresh figures released this afternoon B&M Retail, which started life in the seaside resort in 1978, raised £1.1bn ($1.8bn) in [...]
Pay by swiping your hand: Quixter makes a splash at PayExpo June 12, 2014 The rise of smartphones, cryptocurrencies and a host of other technologies has brought a vast amount of innovation to the world of payment systems. However, a new product invented by Swedish engineer Fredrik Leifland, has made quite the splash at London’s PayExpo conference. Leifland’s device turns the customers hand into a physical basis for payment. [...]
How to make a good first impression June 11, 2014 There’s more to showing your best side than a winning smile or the right footwear RECENT Princeton University research found that the window of opportunity to impress is even shorter than previously thought: humans make judgments on someone’s trustworthiness within the first 500 milliseconds of hearing their voice. So if it takes a mere half [...]