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WPP Doubles Down On Digital In AKQA Buy
The Guardian
AKQA, founded in 2001 by UK entrepreneur Ajaz Ahmed, is one of the few global independent advertising agencies that so far resisted being snapped up by one of the major marketing services giants. The move, which has stunned the advertising industry, values the company at almost GBP350 million. The deal is arguably the most significant in the digital advertising market since WPP's rival, Maurice Lvy's Publicis, bought Razorfish for $530 million in 2009. General Atlantic owned an 80% stake in AKQA, with the remainder held by management.
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HotelTonight Checks Into London
TechCrunch
The last-minute discounted hotels booking app, is bringing its service to the UK, with an initial service in London launching today. In addition, Heather Leisman, most recently of the troubled Jetsetter travel startup, has joined as MD for Europe. The company has also opened its London-based office in the Shoreditch area of East London, widely acknowledged to be home to the largest single cluster of tech companies in the city. Additional cities in the UK and Europe are being planned. So far the partners signed up include hotels such as Belgraves, Blakes Hotel, Chancery Court Hotel,The Cadogan and The Langham, among others. The app launches at an auspicious time: just ahead of the London Olympics.
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40% Said To Prefer Print Magazines To Digital
The Drum
Media website, Press Gazette, reports that the YouGov SixthSense research questioned participants on several aspects of their magazine consumption habits. And it found that women in particular have a "strong affinity for print", with 45% plumping for the physical format over digital; 41% said they liked the look and feel of printed magazines; and 36% said they liked the "convenience" of print magazines. Nevertheless around half of all those surveyed said they were buying magazines less frequently - 27 % of men and 34% of women attributed this to expense.
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Nike Campaign Is First To Be Banned From Twitter
Red Rocket Media
The sportswear firm has been ordered to stop a Twitter marketing drive involving England football stars Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere following a complaint, according to guardian.co.uk. For other organisations planning their own social media initiatives, the case provides some clarification as to how brands are able to use prominent Twitter users to spread their message. The ASA told Nike the problem was that tweets were not clearly identifiable as promotional material; for instance, by including '#ad' in the messages.
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U.S. TV Shows Find Online Success Abroad
GigaOm
Shows like House, Grey's Anatomy or Mad Men have been a hit around the world. But for every House, there's a Sons of Anarchy: An edgy cable show that doesn't always translate well for the average European, which means it can be challenging to get enough people to tune in. Unless you take them online. That's the lesson to be learned from a new strategy used by Germany's ProSiebenSat.1. The country's biggest not publicly funded TV company recently started to use its YouTube cloneMyVideo to exclusively stream some U.S. TV shows, and instantly hit a nerve with viewers: Its online-only showing of Sons of Anarchy clocked some 4.5 million views, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's TV blog.
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'Atlantic' Digital Move Threatens 'FT,' 'Economist'
The Independent
Quartz, which will launch in September, is primarily aimed at tablet users and is free of charge. It will target the international business class that lives life on the move. "If you look at the business people operating in this new economy, they are people who are in a sense post-national," Justin B. Smith, president of the Atlantic Media Company toldThe Independent. "They spend more time outside their own countries, they are on aeroplanes all the time, they're borderless and living mobile existences." Other news organisations will watch Quartz as a potential model for digital news provision.
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