Posts made in March, 2015

on Mar 30, 2015

By Staff Writer For our final Ad Week Daily Digest in partnership with Starcom MediaVest, The Drum’s editor-at-large Dave Birss turns the tables on series interviewer Cameron Clarke to sum up Advertising Week. From the wrap party on The Drum bus, the pair discuss Jimmy Carr’s claim that British advertising isn’t as funny as it used to be, the battle of the marketing disciplines and why the Ad Week audience are sceptical about smartwatches. You can revisit all our Advertising Week Europe coverage in our dedicated news hub. And if you missed any of our Ad Week Daily Digests, you can recap now: Day one: <a target=_blank Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Mar 30, 2015

By John Glenday Labour have kicked off the official countdown toward the general election by taking out a full page advert in today’s Financial Times in which they warn of the economic threat presented by a potential British departure from the European Union. It comes as the party launched a 22-page business manifesto designed to articulate its support for British business. Here is Labour’s advert in today’s FT pic.twitter.com/99EcjgH3t2 — Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) March 30, 2015 The party is seeking to get on the front foot with the business community by citing its commitment to keeping the UK within the continental Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Mar 30, 2015

By John Glenday A survey of audience attitudes conducted by the BBC has found that viewers are fed up with the sight of reality TV ‘stars’ on their screens and would increasingly prefer to see ‘normal’ people recruited instead. The most significant demographic to express dissatisfaction with the status quo were women over 55, who feel marginalised by broadcast schedules which favour younger women, a trend particularly evident in news and documentaries. A scheduling gender imbalance currently sees two men appear on screen for every one woman, despite women accounting for 55 per cent of all viewing hours. Across the board there is a Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Mar 30, 2015

By Jessica Davies Given how much Google is diversifying into areas such as health and auto, do you see a time when you will stop calling yourselves a search engine? Inside Google we don’t see ourselves as a search engine, though of course it’s our most ubiquitous app. We see ourselves as provisioners of technology and great computer science solutions that can improve people’s lives. So yes, the health science is in there. It’s a tiny initiative relative to the size of Google today but we are investing in it. We hired the former chairman of Genentech [Art Levinson] and he is running Calico Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Mar 30, 2015

By John Glenday The growing importance of digital to the global advertising industry is reflected in the latest ad forecast compiled by Carat, which predicts that digital spend will account for 25 per cent if the sector in 2016 courtesy of a surge in mobile. Digital has been given a further fillip with all global markets ring-fencing digital media spending, even in the teeth of economic headwinds, with the biggest rise to be found in Asia Pacific following the election of India’s BJP party fuelling double digit growth of 11 per cent this year. In China growth is set to remain steady at 7.9 per Read full story › Source: The Drum...