Transport for London said it has experienced a "quantum leap" in its thinking after realising it is also an advertising company. John Pizzamiglio, the lead for advertising strategy at TfL, has said that the coming months will see a step-change in the way the London transport provider will deliver marketing communications. Writing in The OutLook, the first report on the outdoor ad industry by trade body Outsmart, Pizzamiglio said TfL would bring a "bold new approach" to how it does business in London.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is trying to help publishers to get people to turn off ad blockers with the release of new guidelines plus an "open source detection script" that can be used on any IAB member's Web site. The combination of both tools, says the IAB, will help publishers identify and then talk to people using an ad blocker with the ultimate aim of persuading them to whitelist the site.

A new report by shopping centre operator Westfield claims that customers increasingly expect retailers to use technology to intervene in the shopping experience. It finds that 41% of UK shoppers are interested in using virtual reality (VR) headsets to experience products or services, while around a third would like stores to offer experiences that appeal to senses such as sound, smell and taste, in addition to sight and touch.

Gawker begins the legal fight of its life today with opening statements in a lawsuit between the New York media company and the moustachioed wrestling and reality TV star Hulk Hogan over the publication of his sex tape. At issue is a post Gawker ran in October 2012 that included a video showing the wrestler, then 58, appearing to have sex with a woman called Heather Clem, who at the time was married to Hogan's best friend, talk radio DJ Bubba "the Love Sponge" Clem.

An analysis of British brands bought between 2005 and 2014 by Markables found that while the proportion of a transaction attributed to brand value was 25% in 2005, this had decreased to just 13% in 2014. Over the same period the value of customer relations increased from 12% to 24%, overtaking the role of brands in acquisitions. The move reflects a shift in marketing strategy that has seen businesses move more toward CRM and personalised messages and away from more traditional mass media.

The UK's competition watchdog has cracked down an online marketing company that wrote more than 800 fake reviews between 2014 and 2015. The company, Total SEO & Marketing, has agreed to stop writing fake reviews and will take steps to remove those already posted. It published the fake positive reviews for 86 small businesses across 26 different Web sites. Yhr CMA has written to Total SEO's clients to warn them that third parties writing false reviews on their behalf might lead to them breaking the law.

Last week, Videology released the results of a new study it commissioned from Forrester entitled "TV And Digital Video Evolve As Complementary Allies." The study was designed to take the pulse of buyers and sellers about the current video and TV advertising landscape. The results -- with the rise of cord cutting, over-the-top platforms, and mobile viewing -- are fairly surprising. Around three in four respondents expect full-length videos, smartphone videos and smart TV videos to increase.

British Gas is reviewing its estimated GBP55 million planning and buying account in one of the biggest UK media pitches so far this year. Dentsu Aegis' subsidiary, Carat, has held the account since 2002, when it picked up the consolidated business after a pitch against ZenithOptimedia and OMD UK. OMD had previously handled the bulk of the business. In 2010, Carat successfully defended the account after a final shootout against ZenithOptimedia and Mindshare. Carat's sister agency, iProspect, handles digital.

Netflix is in talks with the BBC to air the revamped "Top Gear" in a deal that could see the show go head to head globally with Jeremy Clarkson's new Amazon Prime show. Driven by Chris Evans, with co-hosts including Matt Le Blanc and Eddie Jordan, the BBC show is understood to have gone down well with overseas buyers when a clip was aired at a showcase in Liverpool last month. They included executives from Netflix, which already airs old episodes of the hit BBC2 show and has 75 million subscribers.

The government is likely to delay publishing the white paper on the renewal of the BBC royal charter until after the EU referendum, causing further delay and uncertainty for the corporation. A Westminster source told the "Guardian" that the chances of the proposed legislation being unveiled after June 23 were about "80%," partly because of political considerations as well as the huge public response to the green paper launched last summer.