Over a year in the making, the project has been dubbed "Slide" and was mysteriously unveiled by Lexus back in June. Details slowly trickled out, leading to global headlines that Lexus was gearing up to sell a Marty McFly, Back To The Future-style hoverboard (it's not), while the skating community speculated about who the legs in the teaser might belong to. The brand has finally revealed "Slide" is actually the fourth project in its long running "Amazing in Motion" series created by CHI&Partners.

Professional social network LinkedIn has released a tool enabling members to measure how well they are building their brand on the site. The data-driven score called the 'Social Selling Index' rates just how effectively users are engaging other members. Monitoring users across four categories -- professional brand, finding people, engaging with insights, and building relationships -- the site gives users a score out of 100, encouraging better usage of the tool.

Reddit has announced that it received record page views in July despite suffering a revolt from sub-Reddits now restricted by new rules. Following Reddit chief executive Ellen Pao stepping down from her role last month after seizing back control of wayward communities with a new line of anti-hate regulations, the site -- against expectations -- saw an 890% increase on its monthly growth. According to figures released by the company, in July, Reddit had over 195m unique visitors who viewed a record of 8.06bn pages.

Sir Martin Sorrell has indicated his interest in the business opportunities available in Iran. In a LinkedIn post titled 'Iran & Cuba: Open for Business?' Sorrell discusses Iran's appeal as a great business opportunity. He points out that the 80 million strong population is roughly the same size as Germany's, while highlighting the GDP estimates which rank it among the world's 30 biggest economies.

Operating profit margins at the UK's top 50 advertising agencies are at their lowest level for seven years, according to research from accounting firm Kingston Smith W1. Its Marketing Monitor report, based on accounts most recently filed at Companies House until 30 June, found margins fell to 10.6%, the lowest it has reported since June 2008. It is the fifth consecutive fall in reported margins in the report, which is conduced twice a year. Margins are calculated by dividing an agency's total operating profit by its total gross profit.

Starcom won the account following a competitive pitch involving five agencies, including the incumbent, M2M. When revealing the review in June, Campaign reported that Lidl's media business had more than doubled in size since its GBP21 million account was awarded to M2M in 2013, making it the Omnicom agency's largest-spending client. In fact, the account is expected to be worth GBP70 million this year. Other agencies involved in the pitch were Maxus, Initiative and ZenithOptimedia.

The publisher of the "Daily Mirror" has agreed a pair of commercial deals with Mike Ashley's Newcastle United and his clothing chain, Sports Direct, at the same time as the paper has won a series of exclusive interviews with the football club's leading figures. The "Times" has learnt that the "Daily Mirror" will pay an estimated GBP250,000 for its "branding" to be displayed at the Newcastle United academy for youth players. In a second move, Sports Direct has committed to increase its advertising with the Mirror titles.

Pinterest is deepening its relationship with brands, offering access to more data and information on trending topics ahead of a major advertising rollout in the UK market. Pinterest has been working with brands including Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Manchester United, on "trial partnerships." Pinterest's brand partnership team approached the companies about a closer working relationship, but no money has changed hands Pinterest introduced advertising in the US in February 2014, with the first campaigns running from May.

Mumsnet is making a big push into mobile as it looks to widen its appeal and expand beyond its core "busy mum" audience. Speaking to "Marketing Week," Mumsnet CEO Justine Roberts said the company has had an app for some time, but never spoke about it much because it was a "bit embarrassing." She admits its design and build was outsourced to an agency but that the relationship was "frustrating" because there was no incentive for them to make it as good as it could be.

O2 is the long-term sponsor of England Rugby. Being a team rather than tournament sponsor will mean O2 will have to give way to brands including Heineken, DHL, Emirates, Coca-Cola, Societe Generale, Land Rover and MasterCard. England Rugby's sponsorship is handled by the RFU, while the Rugby World Cup is handled by World Rugby. O2's logo usually features on the England team shirts, but that has been dropped for the Rugby World Cup. The operator also loses access to the team's home ground, Twickenham.