By Jennifer Faull Advertising giant WPP has agreed to pay $19m to the US Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations of bribery. The behemoth holding company had an “aggressive business growth strategy” until 2018 which saw it acquire agencies in India, Brazil, China and Peru. According to the SEC, these local subsidiaries failed to adopt WPP’s “internal accounting controls and compliance policies” which allowed “the founders and CEOs of the acquired entities to exercise wide autonomy and outsized influence” allegedly including the bribery of government officials and falsifying financial records. The holding company declined to admit or deny the SEC’s findings but agreed to pay a Read full story › Source: The Drum...
Read MoreBy Konrad Sanders ‘Tis the season for retailers to start thinking about their extra-special Christmas taglines. The tagline that will get their customers feeling all merry and fuzzy inside. It can be a teeny bit pressurizing to get it just right – especially with the busyness of the holiday run-up to handle at the same time. Taglines are there to inspire. They exist to create a desired feeling and motivate your customers to emotionally invest in your brand. It’s no secret that the retail market becomes super competitive around the holidays. So to stand out, you need to create a tagline that resonates with your target audience. Let’s Read full story › Source: The Drum...
Read MoreBy Eleanor Lim In today‘s digital landscape, marketers can do more than ever before. The Drum Awards for the Digital Industries seek to reward the companies and people behind the most effective, innovative marketing – those that stand out in a crowded landscape. Formerly known as the DADIs, this global competition is one of the longest-running events in The Drum Awards calendar, first launched in 2006. Since then it has attracted remarkable marketing and advertising from around the world, tracking the seismic transformations of a vital and dynamic industry. Each year, the work is judged by senior figures from international brands, global consultancies and fast-growing Read full story › Source: The Drum...
Read MoreBy Jenni Baker Cast your mind back to April 17, 2020. It’s a bit of a blur and perhaps a time you’d happily forget – but you might recall the bold, unified message carried on newsstands and news sites across the UK: ‘Stay at home for the NHS, your family, your neighbours, your nation, the world and life itself’. 18 months and 70 briefs later, the ‘All Together’ campaign from the UK government, news brands and OmniGOV is still going strong. It marks the news industry’s single biggest collaboration – a united ‘Team Nation’, which brought together more than 600 national, regional, local and Read full story › Source: The Drum...
Read MoreBy Charlotte McEleny In a tough year for most businesses, agencies have also had their share of ups and downs amid frequent lockdowns, patchy consumer demand and tighter speeding. Like many other industries, the advertising agencies are also amid consolidation. There has been a flurry of action, keeping the M&A counters buzzing. The Drum spoke to Hattie Marsden, director, at SI Partners, Scott Spirit, chief growth officer and executive director at S4 Capital, and Vuki Vujasinovic, CEO at Sling & Stone on a mergers and acquisitions panel at The Drum’s Agency 4 Growth festival 2021. The panel discussed what buyers want from agencies Read full story › Source: The Drum...
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