Thinking contextually April 7, 2014 Liam Ward-Proud talks digital with Starcom MediaVest’s Stewart Easterbrook AFTER heading up Starcom MediaVest’s UK business for five years, Stewart Easterbrook moved into a pan-European role as executive director of performance and digital development in 2008. Now focusing on innovation and growth across the region, he tells City A.M. about the importance of context, and [...]
The week in brief April 6, 2014 Advertising Week Europe draws to a close This year’s conference came to an end last week, after a roster of the industry’s best-known names gathered to discuss themes including native advertising, programmatic buying and the importance of young talent. Among the stars in attendence were Idris Elba, James Corden, and Sainsbury’s outgoing chief executive Justin [...]
Our crowdfunding rules don’t limit innovation – they protect consumers April 6, 2014 ROHAN Silva’s piece on the FCA’s rules in City A.M. last week unfortunately confused our approach to peer-to-peer lending and securities-based crowdfunding. In the UK, market practice currently leads to lower risks for investors on most peer-to-peer lending platforms than on securities-based crowdfunding platforms, so we have drawn a distinction, adopting a disclosure-based approach for [...]
Another FCA blunder: Draconian crowdfunding rules threaten innovation April 3, 2014 HERE’S a question for all you clever City A.M. readers. What did the UK’s financial regulator do recently to provoke the following quote? “On a day like today, one has to wonder whether the Financial Conduct Authority is the worst regulator in the Western world.” You might well guess that it was the FCA’s cock-up [...]
Why ultra-modern P2P lenders are starting to look like old-style building societies April 3, 2014 Peer to peer lenders are getting big. And as they grow, they are pushed into a new way of doing business – a way of doing business that looks increasingly like banks and building societies. P2P lenders have boomed since the crisis, as banks cut back lending and savers looked for a better return on [...]
Competitive edge March 30, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks tech with Vizeum’s managing director Richard Morris VIZEUM is one of eight companies in the Dentsu Aegis network. While iProspect does digital performance media and Posterscope Out of Home media, Vizeum provides integrated media planning services. When Richard Morris, then at sister company Carat, was offered the role of managing director, he [...]
Creativity and automation make better bed fellows than you might think March 30, 2014 @LiamWardProud IF YOU talk to any media agency executive about the current state of the industry, two themes are certain to come up: automated ad buying and branded content. On the one hand, marketing is being transformed by the rise of ad exchanges, with automated bidding replacing humans to ensure ads are pushed only to [...]
The week in brief March 30, 2014 Soft drink adverts a success Britvic’s annual Soft Drinks Review found that “heavyweight marketing campaigns” helped low-sugar soft drinks like Coke Zero and Pepsi Max to post a rise in the value of sales last year. While the rest of the diet soft drink segment saw a marginal decline, high-budget advertising was found to have [...]
The week in brief March 23, 2014 Advertisers welcome chancellor’s SME Budget helpThe chancellor’s decision to double the Annual Investment Allowance to £500,000 could spark an increase in ad spend by smaller firms, according to the trade body ISBA. Its director of public affairs Ian Twinn said, “this revision will free up cash and encourage smaller businesses to invest more money in [...]
Crest of the wave March 16, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks strategy with UM’s Russell Place RUSSELL Place was a landscape gardener in Melbourne before he returned to London and delved into its fast-paced media world. Today, he is managing director at UM – a media and communications company whose clients include Microsoft and H&M. Place tells City A.M. about the transformation of [...]