The space to create: Ogilvy & Mather UK’s Annette King on New York and the South Bank January 18, 2016 "If you have all the research, all the ground rules, all the directives, all the data – it doesn’t mean the ad is written. Then you’ve got to close the door and write something…” Few would question David Ogilvy’s contribution to advertising. But the idea of closed doors seems anathema to the creative process today [...]
Sky’s helping fund London’s Garden Bridge and will name part of it January 13, 2016 Sky has been named as one of the private backers of the controversial Garden Bridge, and will name part of the new structure. The undisclosed donation to the Garden Bridge Trust is part of £85m raised from private sources in an effort to fill the funding gap between public funding allocated to it and the £175m it [...]
DMGT boss Martin Morgan is stepping down at the end of 2016 January 13, 2016 The boss of the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) has announced he is leaving the publishing group at the end of the 2016, after eight years in charge. Martin Morgan, who joined the group in 1989, said he will spend the year executing 2016 priorities, Under his tenure, the website of the Daily Mail newspaper MailOnline [...]
Deceptive demographics: Attitude matters more to marketers January 11, 2016 Here's a shocker for you. There are actually 19 year-old guys who watch Dance Moms, and 73 year-old women who watch Breaking Bad and Avengers,” Netflix’s Todd Yellin told the SxSW conference in Texas last year. Marketers have long recognised the limitations of segmenting consumers demographically. Finding out a customer’s age and gender data, Yellin argued, [...]
Shooting for the stars: The7stars co-founder Jenny Biggam on Iceland and independence January 11, 2016 There is a consensus among marketers that “content is king”. In traditional media, however, the division between programming and advertising has always been quite clear. But on Saturday evening, Suzuki began a £20m two-year deal to sponsor Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, using skits in the style of the show to promote the car [...]
Yahoo and Marissa Mayer under renewed pressure from activist investor Starboard Value January 6, 2016 Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer has come under renewed pressure over her leadership as activist investor Starboard Value once again called for a shake up of management and strategy at the troubled internet media business. The hedge fund warned that it may seek to oust board directors if it does not accept "that significant changes are needed". [...]
Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife and Eastenders: Here’s how much timeshifted Christmas TV we watched on catch-up services January 4, 2016 It may have been the classic Queen’s speech which got us tuning in on Christmas day, but it was Downtown Abbey and Call the Midwife which we settled down to watch on catch-up in the days afterwards, as we continued to stuff ourselves with festive food. Britain’s on-demand TV habits meant that both the popular dramas, on ITV [...]
The biggest marketing trends for 2016 according to the industry’s leading figures January 4, 2016 MESSAGING WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY PERSONALISED – Matthew Heath, chairman and chief strategy officer at Lida. Messaging will become more and more personalised. Our ability to target consumers in segments of tens or hundreds of thousands, right down to the individual, has been something marketers have long talked about. But the right technology hasn't been available. Now, [...]
Advertising Association chief: Why banning sugary food advertising won’t tackle obesity January 4, 2016 Ministers were urged to impose a “sugar tax” and crack down on the marketing of sugary products to children in a Public Health England (PHE) report, published in October. Since then, many have questioned whether tougher regulation of marketing would really help to tackle childhood obesity, and whether UK advertisers should be made the whipping [...]
Downton Abbey and Strictly Come Dancing beaten by Queen’s message to top of Christmas TV ratings December 26, 2015 Downton Abbey pipped Strictly Come Dancing to the title of most watched Christmas Day TV show this year – although neither programme could match the audience for the Queen's speech. The final of hit ITV period show Downton Abbey received an audience of 6.6m from its 8.45pm showing, beating competition from the hour-long EastEnders Christmas special which was [...]