WPP agency Mindshare’s UK boss Mark Creighton on wearable technology and collaboration between agencies November 9, 2014 It's no secret that the media business is changing irrevocably because of digital technologies. But while some agency execs yearn for the age of bulk media contracts negotiated over a long, boozy lunch with TV bosses, Mindshare’s Mark Creighton comes across as positively electrified by the new digital frontier. He talks to City [...]
A digital billboard revolution: The top out-of-home advertising sites changing the face of London November 2, 2014 In creative terms, advertising mediums can be split into “hot” and “cool” media. This distinction was first put forward by Canadian media critic Marshall McLuhan 50 years ago. The difference is that hot media grabs you, whereas people actively choose to get involved with cool media – the audience does the grabbing. Print, cinema, [...]
EARN Media’s Jamal Benmiloud on how content marketing can help build brand love October 19, 2014 Marketers have long distinguished between paid-for, owned and earned media. With the explosive growth of content marketing (brands producing their own videos and shows, rather than paying for conventional ad slots), the latter two have attracted ever-greater portions of ad budgets recently, partly with the aim of achieving that Holy Grail of digital marketing [...]
Beware programmatic advertising: Big brand ads are cropping up on illegal websites – here’s how to stop it October 19, 2014 Advertisers have been drawn in like a moth to a flame by programmatic buying’s ability to increase ad spend return on investment and improve targeting. According to the IAB, in 2013, 28 per cent of the £1.86bn spent on display advertising in the UK was traded programmatically, and it has been forecast that the proportion [...]
Going viral: Teads chief Jeremy Arditi on the rise of video advertising October 12, 2014 In the world of online advertising, the video format is still a relative minnow. According to figures released last week by PwC and the Internet Advertising Bureau, it accounted for less than 6 per cent of UK digital ad spend in the first half of 2014, with 55 per cent going to paid-for search ads. [...]
Total Media’s Guy Sellers on the strengths of independent media agencies October 5, 2014 In an age of unprecedented consolidation in the media world, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the smaller, independent agencies must be struggling to compete, clinging on for dear life amid a flurry of dealmaking by the industry’s giants. Outfits like Total Media, however, call this assumption into question. Its income grew by 14.6 per [...]
David Cameron’s anti-immigration rhetoric spells doom for London’s creative firms October 5, 2014 David Cameron’s Conservative party conference speech last week was in many ways a great success. Passionate and compelling, he gave easily the best performance of the party leaders so far. But for all the strong messages on the economy and popular tax giveaways, the government’s continued and deepening anti-immigration rhetoric, now directed squarely at Europe, concerns [...]
The creative obsession: Leo Burnett London’s Katie Lee talks heritage and innovative adverts September 28, 2014 Few agencies are as steeped in history as Leo Burnett. One of the godfathers of advertising, Burnett founded his eponymous creative shop in depression-era Chicago, placing a bowl of apples in reception as a marker of the agency’s values: rosiness and hospitality. It quickly became known for bold, image-led work, later creating Tony the Tiger [...]
On the right track: KBH On-Train Media’s Ian Reynolds talks train adverts September 21, 2014 If you commute into London on an overground train, chances are you’ll have seen dozens of ads placed by KBH in recent years. The UK’s largest rail media specialist, it claims to reach around 6m consumers a month, 4m of which are in the lucrative commuter bracket. These figures look set to grow. The [...]
Darin Brown of WPP agency POSSIBLE on digital-focused advertising and the rise of gamification September 14, 2014 WPP has been rapidly building up its digital presence in recent years, partly by acquiring smaller agencies worldwide and folding them into POSSIBLE. Darin Brown, POSSIBLE’s Europe, Middle East and Africa chief executive, talks to City A.M. about creating digital-focused advertising, and why brands are increasingly looking at interactive campaigns. You’ve worked on both [...]