Posts made in January, 2016

on Jan 26, 2016

By John Glenday Consumer electrical goods provider Dixons Carphone has enjoyed a bumper Christmas trading period after sales over the crucial holiday at its Currys, PC World and Carphone Warehouse branded stores beat forecasts. The retailer had been expected to pull in a pre-tax profit of £440m for 2015-16 but a late jump in sales could see that figure rise as high as £450m, smashing the equivalent figure of £381m made in 2014-15. This followed a five per cent rise in like for like sales in the 10 weeks to 9 January, exceeding forecasts for a three per cent rise. The promising sales figures come as Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Jan 26, 2016

By John Glenday Payment products provider Visa is riding the crest of a contactless payments wave in Europe after the firm reported a 250 per cent surge in transactions across the UK. Recent growth in the industry has seen the total share of contactless payments rise from just 1 in 25 a year ago to 1 in seven today – with no sign of the growth abating. Contactless payment demand has been driven in no small part by Transport for London with commuters in the capital notching up 1m transactions between them each and every day. Overall Visa recorded a 9.6 per cent increase in UK Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Jan 26, 2016

By Patrick Collister An overview of this year’s The Big Won Directory results by Patrick Collister. Little and large For very different reasons, the two stand-out agencies of 2015 are BBDO New York and Leo Burnett Beirut. BBDO New York is a large agency by anyone’s reckoning. But it appears to apply ‘the work, the work, the work’ mantra equally across all its portfolio of brands. Put it this way, the agency won 129 separate awards for 45 separate pieces of work on behalf of 16 different brands. The No.2 agency, R/GA, by contrast, picked up 58 awards for 17 campaigns. Grabarz Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Jan 26, 2016

By Stephen Lepitak BBDO has once again been named as the Top Network for Creativity by The Directory Big Won 2015 rankings, having recieved the most creative awards last year while Leo Burnett MENA’s Bechara Mouzannar was the most awarded chief creative officer. BBDO has topped the list for a second year, beating Leo Burnett, DDB, Ogilvy and Y&R respectively while WPP was the Top Holding Company ahead of Omnicom, Publicis, IPG and Havas. The Top Media Agency Network was Starcom Mediavest, ahead of Mindshare, OMD, Mediacom and UM, while BBDO New York was best R/GA New York to be named Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Jan 25, 2016

By Minda Smiley Adidas Originals has rolled out an edgy global spot that encourages viewers to challenge the status quo and stray away from the norm. Created by New York-based agency Johannes Leonardo, the video continues the brand’s ‘challenger’ theme and builds off of its ‘Superstar’ campaign that launched last year, which featured Pharrell Williams and encouraged viewers to re-think what fame means. The short film (above) features a number of diverse artists and ‘cultural influencers’ including Cleveland Cavaliers player Iman Shumpert and model Aleali May. In the film, these creators walk right past many of the things that define our society’s selfish Read full story › Source: The Drum...