John Lewis' managing director Andy Street has claimed success on social media is now crucial to ensuring people are talking about its brand, particularly at important times of the year such as Christmas. Street said the retailer has a winning formula for its Christmas marketing with its combination of a big creative idea supported by social media activity. Some have questioned whether online popularity is important for a marketing campaign. But Street thinks it is.

In a move that could assuage some of the vitriol in the ad-blocking debate, Adblock Plus plans to release a new offering early this summer that will "reward content that is good, content that users like," according to Ben Williams, head of operations at the company. Details are still vague, but in an interview at SXSW Interactive, Williams said the new release could push platforms to reduce their reliance on ads for revenue.

"The Economist" has stressed the importance of social media, crediting its social activity as a "critical component" in doubling the profitability of its circulation business over the last four years. Figures released by the publication show that its social media following has grown by 44% over the last year to a total of 35.6 million. "The Economist" claimed this is more than any other major media brand except for "The New York Times."

RBS CMO David Wheldon has cautioned marketers against jumping on every new trend and tool and advised them to instead focus on the most important aspects of marketing -- building and maintaining a distinct brand and understanding the consumer. Speaking at ISBA's annual conference yesterday, Wheldon said marketers have become too obsessed with the newest trends to the detriment of focusing on long-term strategy.

London & Partners has launched a campaign starring "super fans" taking part in experiences ranging from the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Activity, created by The Brooklyn Brothers, is targeting the North American market and is being run by London & Partners, the Mayor's promotional company for London, in collaboration with the GREAT Britain campaign, British Airways and Hilton.

Sales of "The New Day" have tumbled below 100,000, or less than half its target circulation, amid signs that the publisher, Trinity Mirror, could drop plans to increase the cover price to 50p indefinitely across most of the UK. The mid-market, female-focused title had an estimated sale of 103,000 on Tuesday, 97,000 on Wednesday and 95,000 on Thursday, according to industry estimates. Trinity Mirror had been planning to increase the cover price from 25p after a two-week trial period to 50p next week.

The BBC is understood to have held talks with rivals including ITV about launching a Netflix-style video streaming service. The talks, which are understood to also involve NBC Universal, the owner of the producer of shows including "Downton Abbey," centre on the potential to develop a subscription TV service. The service is likely to mostly focus on providing older, archive TV content, not the first-run of shows, although it is understood there would be a certain amount of original commissions.

Disney is looking at ways it can gain more consumer insight and reach people more directly as the brand's CEO Bob Iger admits it has "no idea" of who went to see its Star Wars films at the cinema. Speaking during a Q&A at the Deutsche Bank 2016 media, internet and telecom conference Wednesday, Iger said the company will be increasing investment in technology to help it reach people more directly as all of its content is "distributed through third parties."

Mobile ad spend is set to surge 35% compared to 12 months earlier and surpass desktop media investment to hit GBP4.58bn in 2016, and account for 27% of total UK media budgets, according to eMarketer. The research firm has released the numbers, which show that the wider "digital" category will continue to take the lion's share of overall ad spend, generating 53% of the total sum, which will surpass GBP9bn.

National newspapers are hoping to remind the public of their ability to set the news agenda in a new ad campaign launching next week. The UK's six leading newspaper groups will launch the campaign on Monday, 14 March, through Newsworks, the trade association for news brands. The ads were created by Hobbs Holmes Marcantonio. In September 2015 the agency created an eight-week campaign for Newsworks with the slogan "nothing works like news works."