More Opinion articles

Whenever I think of tobacco companies and advertising, I think of cockroaches: however hard the government stamps on their efforts to promote themselves, they keep coming up the drainpipe and inserting themselves into your life, says Dominic Mills.

Over 50% of the population now has a smartphone. Digital ad revenue is over £5.5 billion and more than £500 million of that is on mobile. Facebook has 15 million mobile users every day, and 50% of all internet sessions on mobile are on Facebook or from Facebook links. These are big numbers. So what’s everyone waiting for?, asks Addictive! founder Simon Andrews. It’s time to experiment and start learning.

“It’s like porn: hard to describe but you know it when you see it,” said Cameron Yuill, founder and CEO of AdGent Digital, when asked what makes a good video advert. And Yuill is certain that it won’t be long until all online advertising is video, and even has a name for this prediction – ‘Cam’s Law’. Newsline caught up with him to discuss the implications for brands and advertisers.

18 months ago Greg Grimmer caused some distress with his column, poking fun at a certain – newly re-branded – media trade body. Has he changed his mind since then? After an awkward lunch with the CEO and some interesting conferences, things may have turned a corner…

Appointing James Harding as director of news and current affairs of the BBC is a courageous move by director-general Tony Hall, says Raymond Snoddy. It’s a tough job being in charge of 3,000 journalists, so what is Harding going to be up against in the new role, and how would he have handled the most recent kerfuffles at the BBC? Pens ready; its time for an exam…

Alarm bells rang when YouGov reported that almost one third of young adults say they have not read a newspaper in the last 12 months, however people seem to have forgotten that this means that 70% of young adults do read newspapers. The young are not abandoning newsbrands and newsbrands are far from dead, says Carat’s associate director Stephanie Arlett.

Two-timing the TV has been going on for years – from getting up during the adverts to make a cup of tea, to grannies doing their knitting during an episode of Corrie. And now, advertising brands have mobiles and tablets to contend with as well. However, instead of brands seeing these as a threat, they should be using dual screening as an opportunity to get people talking about them, says Starcom MediaVest’s Steve Smith.

Mobile advertising is facing a serious crisis according to many experts and the issue has dominated recent Newsline editorial and MediaTel conferences. So what advice is being given to mobile marketers? Here, Millward Brown’s Hannah Walley shares her thoughts…

I do like a nice advertising spat, says Dominic Mills, and the row between BT and Sky over the latter’s refusal to take its ads to promote BT’s Premier League broadcasting, has all the hallmarks of turning into a real ding-dong…

Simon Andrews takes a look at ‘Home’ from Facebook and find it’s…interesting. Because of the limited range of android handsets that Home will work on, its initial impact may be a little muted he says – and as a sort of modern equivalent of a Google Toolbar it’s likely to only really appeal to hardcore users. But with a billion users you don’t need big percentages to make a big impact…