More Weekly Columnists articles

Last week ITV announced that it will become the first commercial broadcaster to give mobile viewers the option – at a price – to watch catch-up content without ads. It’s an interesting test of an increasingly important part of the media eco-system, but is it really going to work? Whatever happens, you can bet ITV’s competitors will be watching like hawks says Dominic Mills

Last week ITV announced that it will become the first commercial broadcaster to give mobile viewers the option – at a price – to watch catch-up content without ads. It’s an interesting test of an increasingly important part of the media eco-system, but is it really going to work? Whatever happens, you can bet ITV’s competitors will be watching like hawks says Dominic Mills.

As Greece’s national broadcaster is pulled off the air, there have been warnings the BBC could suffer a similar fate. Should we be worried? In the obvious sense, there is no danger – but there have always been pressures and they could be about to get worse says Raymond Snoddy.

After a peaceful, media-free week in Turkey, Dominic Mills is back with a Tango flavoured war-cry as he takes a look at the latest campaign from the black sheep of adland, BBH. So, can the new ads match the genius of Howell Henry’s 1990 classics? Perhaps, but it’ll take time and money to make it really work…

In his latest Mobile Fix, Simon Andrews, founder of Addictive!, looks at the growing battle between Google and Amazon as they go head to head – despite such different business models – in both advertising and delivery.

If advertisers find the hard work of getting the right celebrity and the right script for an ad too much, then the result will be a lazy, counter-productive mess, says Dominic Mills. So which two high profile actors have been lured into the latest car-crash ads?

As Twitter announces a new TV advertising platform and Facebook comes under fire for driving users away with ‘irritating’ marketing strategies, what does the future hold for the social media giants? Raymond Snoddy investigates, and warns that social media networks have to be very smart and careful if they are not to put at risk what has been achieved…

Aside from a few notable exceptions, too many ads these days fail to capture, exploit or celebrate our unique sense of Britishness argues Dominic Mills. Where are all the witty, self-deprecating, self-doubting, cynical or just plain surreal advertisements? Marketers are really missing a trick here, especially post-Olympics when we’re still – just about – celebrating our nationhood…

In the second part of our series examining the findings of a ground-breaking study from The Future Laboratory, News International’s Abba Newbery investigates ‘Authoritative News’ and the ways that newsbrands can present confident leadership and a strong point of view for their audience to align with

Following the Competition Commission’s “brutal” ruling for Global Radio yesterday, Raymond Snoddy argues that there could also be severe repercussions for Local World as the OFT examines David Montgomery’s regional newspaper initiative.