More Features articles

China’s GDP is predicted to grow by around 7.5% this year – far above that of most Western economies – so the opportunity to do business there remains enormous; but this poses challenges for those that wish to penetrate its complex, powerful, fragmented and rapidly changing media landscape. By Millward Brown’s Managing Director in Shanghai, Jason Spencer.

The time we spend with newsbrands is increasing says Newsworks’ chief executive Rufus Olins – which is great news for advertisers as they look to ensure they hold our attention in an age of mass distractions.

Last year Greg Grimmer had to pretend to be a plumber to mask his allegiance to advertising – but this year, as Ad Week finally comes to the UK – with Media Playground a partner event – he wants us to stand proud and finally celebrate his beloved industry.

The digital ecosystem is becoming increasingly complex, as brands split their video budgets between online, mobile and connected TVs. So what’s the optimum mix? Rhys McLachlan, Director of Corporate and Business Development at Videology investigates.

As a term, big data is now a jargonistic cliché, says Dominic Mills. It’s over-used, mis-used and abused. It’s become the prerogative of people who peddle snake oil in the form of hugely expensive consultancy and software, luring in the suckers…and now marketers have got some major hurdles to overcome.

Given the price of Superbowl ads this year, you can hardly blame an advertiser for trying to maximise the bang/buck ratio by generating as much pre-game chatter as they can, says Dominic Mills. But is this making advertising strategies cynical as they compete to be talked about before kick off?

Do you have any idea of the difference between something ‘overtly’ sexy and something ‘mildly’ sexy? It’s not easy, is it? My ‘mild’ might be your ‘overt’. So it’s both interesting and amusing that the ASA has knocked down complaints that M&S’s new lingerie ads were ‘overtly sexual, degrading to women and reinforced sexual stereotypes’.

Dominic Mills argues that while tablets may accelerate the death of print, they may actually be the saviour of publishing – and there is a clear chain of links to follow if we want to predict the ways things are going to go this year…

Channel 4, Group M and, most importantly, its clients, will be mighty relieved the trading dispute between the broadcaster and the media agency was resolved last week – but such high-profile stand-offs make a nonsense of media agency claims about the importance of strategic and channel planning.

So here we are, in that listless post-Christmas netherworld…and the ads are the usual flotsam and jetsam. I’ve often wondered why more advertisers don’t go for something special during this time…