Digital advertising firm behind Piccadilly Lights floats on London Stock Exchange January 10, 2019 Shares in the company behind major outdoor advertising spaces such as the iconic screen at Piccadilly Circus started trading on the London Stock Exchange today. Ocean Outdoor, one of the UK’s largest out-of-home advertising firms, relisted this morning after a lengthy takeover process. Read more: TfL orders £1.5bn Piccadilly Line upgrade The company, which manages major [...]
Digital finance technology is wonderful, but we must design it with consumers’ best interests at heart January 10, 2019 Every morning, I browse my phone as I commute to work. I check my emails, the news, Twitter, and increasingly I open my various finance apps. I recently logged into my investment platform app and made a new investment – £1,000 in a startup Swedish retailer. Once the money was invested, I was applauded with [...]
DEBATE: Is HSBC’s ‘we are not an island’ advert an effective strategy? January 10, 2019 Is HSBC’s ‘we are not an island’ advert an effective strategy? Brendon Craigie, co-founder and managing partner at Tyto PR, says YES. HSBC has denied that its adverts are explicitly Brexit-related, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the campaign’s underlying message. Given the social media response, this denial is probably intended to highlight that, [...]
Murdoch’s media empire stung by losses at The Sun and The Sun on Sunday January 9, 2019 Rupert Murdoch's media empire took a hit today as the publisher of The Sun and The Sun on Sunday saw losses widen last year amid a continued squeeze in the print market. News Group Newspapers reported a pre-tax loss of £91.2m in the year to 1 July 2018, an increase from £24m the year before. The [...]
Olivia Colman’s Golden Globe award acceptance speech is a masterclass in public speaking January 9, 2019 We may not all win Oscars or Baftas, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot learn from the best acceptance speeches made by the world’s top performers. This week’s Golden Globes ceremony is a prime example, as British stars Olivia Colman and Christian Bale scooped up awards for best actress and actor respectively. In light [...]
The Brexit film was fun, but don’t mistake fiction for history January 9, 2019 I expect, as a piece of history that the vast majority of viewers will have lived through and probably voted in, that Brexit: The Uncivil War was highly entertaining to most people who caught it on Monday night, irrespective of which way they had voted in the EU referendum. There was some impressive acting and [...]
Sport and betting: Why Brexit could pave the way for a wider levy, the role of live data rights, and how the $5bn US market can change the game January 7, 2019 The UK betting industry’s voluntary “whistle-to-whistle” advertising ban during live sports coverage has been widely welcomed but broadcasters – and, by extension, the media rights fees they pay to sport – will take a hit and some sports, such as horse racing, are deemed to be so reliant on gambling that they are exempt from [...]
Brexit, ad fraud and #MeToo – what does the future year hold for the marketing industry? January 7, 2019 We are out of the cold December of 2018, and have now entered the, well, even colder January of 2019. Last year was a momentous one for the marketing industry – there was the fall and rise again of adland stalwart Martin Sorrell; the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) finally came into force; [...]
Hobbycraft benefits from Christmas boost as celebrities go big on homemade gifts January 7, 2019 The popularity of personalised gifts and decorations helped Hobbycraft deliver a strong Christmas boost with robust growth in both online and offline sales. The store pointed to celebrities leading the push for personal gifts as like-for-like in-store revenue grew 7.1 per cent, with a 28 per cent bump online. Read more: Debenhams share price plummets [...]
FA Cup talking points: Giantkillings, QPR arrest their slump, Watford avoid Woking slip-up, Blackpool’s plight and 7-0 thrashings January 6, 2019 Where else to start than with the upsets? They are what makes the FA Cup such a unique competition, and as ever the first involvement of Premier League sides brought some giant killings. Oldham and Newport County led the celebrations today after beating Fulham and Leicester respectively, while Accrington Stanley, Gillingham, Barnet, Bristol City and [...]