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 [...]
Five lesser-known tricks to successful negotiation January 11, 2016 It's the time of the year when we evaluate what we have achieved and work out how we can accomplish new goals in the 12 months ahead. You might be building up the confidence to go for a promotion and a pay rise, a new job or a big business deal. For any of these [...]
President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address will be streamed on Amazon, YouTube, and the White House’s own website January 11, 2016 US president Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address will be available to stream on Amazon Video, YouTube, and the White House’s own website. The move comes in response to dwindling figures for the annual speech; while 52m people tuned in to Obama’s first address to Congress in 2009, figures for last year's speech slumped [...]
Total value of derivatives held FTSE 100 companies rises to £1.1trillion, almost two-thirds of UK GDP January 11, 2016 The value of derivatives held by FTSE 100 companies increased by 27 per cent in 2015 from £890bn to £1.1 trillion-worth of assets, according to data from Banc de Binary. A derivative is a financial product with a price determined by the value of another asset, such as stocks, currencies or commodities, which can be [...]
UK Weather: Storms Desmond, Eva and Frank have already cost insurers £24m, with the total bill looking like it could be £1.3bn January 11, 2016 Insurers have already forked out nearly £24m in emergency payments to deal with the aftermath of storms Desmond, Eva and Frank. Statistics released today by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), which is a trade association for insurers and represents over 250 companies, revealed that these emergency payments comprised of £9m to domestic customers and £15m [...]
Smaller businesses are less optimistic on growth January 11, 2016 Confidence among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has dropped, according to new survey figures published this morning. Of over 1000 SMEs surveyed by Bibby Financial Services (BFS), 36 per cent said they expected to grow in the first three months of 2016. It compares with 46.4 per cent who expected growth in the last release [...]
London house prices: First-time buyers pay £91,000 deposit as fewer get on the property ladder in 2015, according to Halifax January 11, 2016 First-time home buyers needed an average deposit of £91,409 to buy a house in the capital last year, according to figures from a major British lender. The figures, published this morning by Halifax, showed London deposits were nearly three times the national average at £32,927. The deposits paid by first-time buyers nationally rose 13 per [...]
London leads the UK’s economic expansion January 11, 2016 London's economic growth is outpacing the rest of the UK, according to new survey figures published this morning. Lloyds Bank’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) – compiled from a survey of businesses – scored 56.9 for the capital. Scores above 50 signal growth. The second and third fastest growing regions were the East and South East while the [...]
New EEF survey shows only half of UK manufacturers think Britain is a competitive place to do business, saying strong sterling, volatile markets, EU referendum pose big risks for 2016 January 11, 2016 Britain is “losing its gloss” as a global leader in manufacturing, according to a new poll out today from the EEF. The annual survey, conducted by the EEF and Aldermore, found that just 56 per cent of British manufacturers view the UK as a competitive location for manufacturing, down dramatically from the 70 per cent [...]
Adam Smith Institute (ASI) wants to get rid of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and replace it with a rule tied to nominal GDP January 11, 2016 A leading free market group has proposed scrapping the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and replacing it with a rule that would trigger policy action. In a radical new paper out today that is likely to raise eyebrows among many economists and policymakers, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) says the Bank should get [...]