More Features articles

Privacy law is changing and the effect on personal data – key to the relationship between brands and consumers – will be monumental, says Colin Strong, Managing Director, GfK NOP Business & Technology. So what can brands do to ensure they don’t get caught out? Ensuring data issues are not ghettoised within a business is step one…

With so much news coming out of Google I/O, it’s inevitable some of the announcements won’t get the attention they deserve, so this week Simon Andrews takes a look at the lesser discussed, yet hugely interesting developments.

The latest RAJAR results report, along with the usual ups and downs, a potentially seminal moment in the life of digital radio: half of the UK adult population now listens to the radio on a digital platform. Unfortunately this is not ‘the’ 50% that has been touted by the Government as the tipping point for any digital switch over, but it’s still positive news says IPSOS MediaCT’s Andy Haylett.

Starcom MediaVest’s Steve Smith takes a look at the union between out-of-home and mobile and explains why it’s so important that brands optimise their mobile platforms.

In February 2011 Ofcom permitted limited liberalisation of UK paid for product placement. This was perhaps the biggest shakeup in the product placement market since 1984 when NMG introduced formalised free prop provision to an unstructured marketplace. So a little over two years since Ofcom’s changes, where can we see market trends going? NMG offers its predictions…

The most public of spaces is merging with one of the most personal, and the impact on the consumer is going to be profound argued industry leaders yesterday during a debate on the marriage of out-of-home and mobile.

Broadchurch was a huge hit for ITV, says Richard Marks of Research the Media – but will it be able to replicate that success? Whatever happens, at least we’ve learned that rather than ‘the Internet’ proving to be a threat to TV, in many ways it is just what it has been waiting for: digital technology propagating a buzz around a show, and then giving people the means to join the party – a rolling stone gathering digital moss.

There are unavoidable failings of execution when it comes to mobile advertising – from bad links to bad optimisation – and in this ‘year of the mobile’, brands must think beyond the desktop past of digital advertising if they’re going to be successful. Campaigns need to be relevant and responsive to devices while respecting the consumer, and this can pose a real challenge for brands and publishers, explains Vibrant Media’s Sam Pattison.

Greg Grimmer this month reports back on one of those crucial pieces of client liaison that doesn’t fall foul of the Bribery Act. Yes, the Media Jolly has survived the recession and remains an essential part of ‘The Business’. So how did he end up getting whiplash?

Getting people to talk in depth about a particular subject or piece of content can be useful, but we should never expect that sixty minutes of talking with a bunch of random individuals will uncover anything significant, and in the majority of cases, focus groups hold the potential to do more harm than good, says The Media Native. So how else should we expect to gain valuable insight?