ITV has reported a 40% rise in pre-tax profits to GBP250m in the first half, fueled by the World Cup that resulted in a TV ad revenue surge of 13% in the second quarter. The broadcaster increased total revenues across its business by 7% to GBP1.2bn. Within this, ad revenue rose by 7% to GBP795m and online, pay and interactive revenues surged 20% to GBP67m. ITV said it will "significantly outperform" rivals this year, with TV ad growth to the end of September expected to be 6% year-on-year.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo sees a "big opportunity" in logged-out audience who visit after seeing tweets on the news. "We feel like we provide limited content to those hundreds of millions of other users who are unique visitors to our properties and we see a big opportunity to serve them just as well as the other two audiences. "You get a great signal for the kind of content they like to consume and we think those signals will provide the data that we need to deliver the right kinds of monetisation experiences to that audience."

MediaCom and Google are creating a training programme designed to prepare the agency's planners and strategists for all mobile-centric opportunities, including wearable tech. The scheme, Mobile Ignition, will launch in the UK this September, before rolling out to other territories including the US, EMEA and APAC regions. MediaCom staff will be trained on topics including the foundations of mobile advertising, search and analytics, along with opportunities in wearable tech.

Kew Gardens has kicked off its first ever digital out-of-home (OOH) campaign to encourage overseas visitors to check out London's "Most Beautiful World Heritage Site," The four-week campaign from Arena, launched yesterday, will promote activities at Kew Gardens, including the Xstrata Treetop Walkway in a video which will be shown on screens at London tube stations with heavy tourist footfall as well as at Westfield shopping centre in White City.

The country's largest garden centre chain, The Garden Centre Group, has appointed Now to handle its national rebrand. The group will change the name of all its 140 centres to Wyevale Garden Centres to offer a stronger national identity. The brief includes strategic positioning, brand identity creation and retail communications. The company was previously known as Wyevale Garden Centres until 2009, when it was rebranded as Garden Centre Group.

Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) has hired its first digital boss as it embarks on a five-year transformation plan aimed at "getting smarter" in digital and expanding its reach globally. The charity, which looks after royal palaces including the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace, is undertaking a "comprehensive review" of its digital strategy. This includes the visitor journey, digital asset management, customer data and insight, IT infrastructure and marketing.

Out-of-home specialist Outdoor Plus has launched two new sites as it announces a GBP10m investment page for 2014. The new sites, on the A41 Hendon Way and Purley Way Fiveways, will be launched today with adverts from Sky, Audi and Ikea. Jonathan Lewis, managing director, said: "We're continuing to add to our network, giving brands access to the best sites in and around London, allowing them to tap into upmarket commuters, as well as people working in the heart of London."

In a move that will add to doubts about the viability of the government's ambition to have locally focused stations in cities around Britain, London Live has asked the broadcasting regulator to cut original local television programming. It is required to show 18 hours per day of programming that is focussed on the capital and eight hours must be new or "first run." However, ratings have struggled and the channel wants flexibility to buy in other programmes and run repeats

Unilever is running its first "consumer-facing" hackathon as it looks for new ways to work with the start-up community and to be at the forefront of digital innovation. The event will be held on 6 and 7 August and will ask invited participants to come up with original ideas on how Unilever can influence decisions before shoppers reach a retailer's Web site. It is being run in conjunction with its start-up platform The Unilever Foundry, which is currently looking for ideas around the Internet of Things.

Digital subscriptions of the "Financial Times" have increased by 33 percent year-on-year to 455,000. The newspaper today claimed a record total circulation -- up 13 percent in a year -- with 677,000 readers across print and online. According to the financial results for its owner, Pearson, nearly half of the paper's traffic comes from mobile.