John Whittingdale’s BBC velvet glove at Edinburgh TV Festival masks a hand of steel August 26, 2015 John Whittingdale struck a conciliatory tone on the BBC at the Edinburgh TV Festival, saying "It was never our intention to create the impression that the BBC was under attack". The culture secretary explained that much would remain unchanged at the BBC of the future. The licence fee was still the only option because the [...]
Morrisons pulled up on Match & More price-match advert claims against competitors Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi and Lidl August 26, 2015 Morrisons has been told it must be clearer about its promise to match the prices of competitors, including Aldi and Lidl. The supermarket's Match & More scheme, which is the only one of the big four to match the prices of the German discounters, has been pulled up by the advertising watchdog for not clearly [...]
Ghost in the ad machine August 23, 2015 ZenithOptimedia’s Grant Millar talks stack-storytelling and AI WITH the rise of the algorithm in the advertising industry, it is becoming easier to tailor messaging around a consumer’s individual preferences. But as traditional segmentations are consigned to history and analytics continues its inexorable march, advertisers face pressure to defend their methods from criticism around privacy. Grant [...]
Mobile ads a privacy concern for Europe August 23, 2015 MOBILE advertising in Western Europe is growing sluggishly compared with Asia Pacific (Apac) and North America, according to a recent survey by location-based tech firm xAd. According to European marketers, their consumers have been rejecting mobile ads primarily on privacy grounds. So why exactly is Europe being turned off? Some have suggested this is a [...]
Dennis Publishing to launch free fitness magazine Coach August 20, 2015 Dennis Publishing, the company behind Men's Fitness, Viz, and This Week, is set to make its biggest gamble in years with a multi-million pound investment in a free, weekly health and fitness magazine, called Coach. Coach will cover a broad content mix of technology, careers, fashion and modern living, as well as health and [...]
OMG! LOL! NBCUniversal invests $200m in Buzzfeed August 18, 2015 US media company NBCUniversal has made a $200m (£127m) investment in digital media upstart Buzzfeed, valuing it at more than $1bn. In addition to the widely rumoured injection of cash, the pair will work together on content for television, movies and the Olympics. They'll also work on advertising content with brands – although neither side expanded [...]
Why BuzzFeed’s Yahoo joint venture should make it big in Japan August 18, 2015 BuzzFeed is on a march. Having already expanded into nine countries, including the UK, from its US base, it now has its eye on Japan. The digital media firm has announced a joint venture with Yahoo Japan to bring its popular brand of gif-fuelled stories, native advertising content and, increasingly, more serious news coverage [...]
ITV share price falls as Ofcom rules Britain’s Got Talent “misled” viewers over Jules O’Dwyer & Matisse and Chase dog act August 18, 2015 ITV has been forced to offer viewers a refund after its flagship show Britain's Got Talent was slammed for breaching the code over winning act Jules O'Dwyer and her performing dog Matisse. The broadcaster failed to ensure viewers were not “materially misled” around the act, in which a doggy double called Chase walked across [...]
Ahead of the curve: m/SIX’s Jess Burley on what your apps say about you August 16, 2015 It is thought to have taken 38 years before the radio reached an audience of 50m. Television took just 13 years, the internet four years, and Facebook two. New platforms like Periscope are emerging all the time and audiences are scaling increasingly rapidly. Advertisers must be able to adapt their strategy to engage with the [...]
Leading the fight-back against bot fraud August 16, 2015 In the age of digital advertising, there is a concern that the online adverts which companies have paid for aren’t reaching the eyeballs they’ve been promised. The problem is partly down to botnets, or “bots”, which get into users’ systems, interact with adverts and create fake impressions, making it seem as if the advert [...]