One step ahead: Liam Ward-Proud talks to ZenithOptimedia’s Belinda Rowe March 10, 2014 IN 1988, Zenith Media merged with the buying arms of Saatchi & Saatchi, KHBB, and BSB Dorland, forming what many consider to be the world’s first truly global media agency. By 2000, the group (now called ZenithOptimedia) had repositioned itself as the “return on investment agency”. Belinda Rowe joined the firm – part of Publicis – [...]
Shock tactics: What business can learn from charity marketing campaigns March 10, 2014 @AnnabelPalmer1 ANOTHER week, and another hard-hitting charity campaign causes public outcry. This time it’s Save the Children, with its “If London was Syria” video for its Syria Crisis Appeal. Before that, Pancreatic Cancer Action arguably torpedoed advertising boundaries with its “envy” campaign, which some condemned as “insensitive”. It’s hard not to feel a sense of [...]
Blurred lines: What the rise of branded content means for marketers March 2, 2014 @LiamWardProud WHEN is an ad not an ad? Last year, Channel 4 aired a daytime cookery show called What’s Cooking? It featured celebrity chefs including Jean-Christophe Novelli, and often drew an audience in excess of 200,000 according to Kantar Media. But there was something different about this programme: the food featured was mostly Sainsbury’s own-label [...]
Why audience targeting may hold the key to the future of TV adverts February 23, 2014 @LiamWardProud TELEVISION has long reigned as the dominant force in global advertising, accounting for almost 58 per cent of international ad spend in the first three quarters of 2013. But its crown may be slipping. In many digitally-advanced markets, TV’s share of ad budgets has already been eclipsed by online – the transition happened as [...]
Don’t fear the rise of the algorithm – humans still rule media buying February 16, 2014 @LiamWardProud THE RISE of programmatic and automated media buying has been as controversial as it’s been rapid. Take real-time bidding (RTB), where ad space is purchased through automated bidding programmes milliseconds before a web page loads. It’s expected to grow from 14 to 41 per cent of US digital spend between now and the end [...]
The tipping point: Why smartphone advertising may be set to soar February 9, 2014 @LiamWardProud MOBILE is the future” – we’ve heard it so many times it’s almost become a platitude. But while consumers have flooded into the smartphone market with haste (the chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau recently forecast that UK penetration will reach 75 per cent this year), ad spend is making the transition at [...]
Digital advertising on the street: Why posters are no longer static February 2, 2014 @LiamWardProud WITH online marketing campaigns accounting for an ever greater share of advertising budgets, digital posters and billboards are catching up fast. There were over 79,000 digital out of home (OOH) advertising sites in the UK in 2013, according to a recent report by OOH specialist agency Kinetic. This figure is set to grow to [...]
Content saturation: The issue on every advertiser’s mind January 26, 2014 @LiamWardProud IN AN increasingly crowded media landscape, how to reach through the morass of content and connect with the audience? The question is a pressing one for everyone working in the media, but particularly so for advertising and marketing professionals. “People are absolutely bombarded with content these days,” says Mindshare’s chief client officer Nick Ashley. [...]
A pioneering approach to internet advertising September 23, 2012 WHAT DOES APPNEXUS DO? AppNexus is today’s most powerful, open and customisable advertising technology platform. The largest and most innovative companies in advertising (like Microsoft and eBay) build their businesses on AppNexus. We’re trying to establish a new standard for advertising technology, and we’re leading the charge to make online advertising a “force for good”. [...]
Good marketing can be as impossible as trying to read minds June 10, 2012 THE blond haired, middle-aged PR guru slouched back in his armchair and confidently announced his “stunning” idea to me. The little girl, Madeleine, had recently disappeared in Portugal and there was massive public sympathy and frenzied press coverage. To my sensitive agent, struggling to justify his hefty monthly fees, this represented a fantastic opportunity. “A [...]