Havas Group Media has picked up Giffgaff as part of Telefonica merging the media accounts for O2 and Giffgaff. According to "Campaign," the combined account is likely to be worth around GBP70m. Havas already held the account for O2.

"Marketing Week" research reveals that three months after GDPR was introduced, consumers are not feeling any benefit. One in four say things have gotten better, but two in three say they have noticed no change. The remaining 8% think their experience of brands collecting their data has actually gotten worse.

The Virgin loyalty scheme is being relaunched with the aim that it will encompass all Virgin-branded services in one scheme, "Marketing Week" reports.

The Competition and Markets Authority has launched a formal investigation into the merger of Sainsbury's and Asda, saying it will be blocked it if it adversely affects shoppers. The Times reveals the decision to investigate has come after it has published a week-long series of articles predicting job cuts and difficulties for suppliers.

"Press Gazette" reveals the Barclay brothers have been forced to insist The Telegraph is not up for sale after repeated rumours of interest from Amazon owner, Jeff Bezos, and "Evening Standard" owner Evgeny Lebedev.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition, has suggested a British Digital Corporation should be set up with access to public archives and materials, complete with its own version of Facebook, "The Guardian" writes. The corporation would sit alongside the BBC and publish online news and television to ensure that the media is not dominated by US tech giants.

Mediatel has details of a plan by Google to enter the programmatic digital outdoor space. The strategy is to launch in Germany and then, soon after, target the US and UK.

It may sound odd, but "The Drum" is backing up Reach, known as Trinity Mirror before the purchase of Northern & Shell titles, when it claims that, with 45m unique users per month across its national and regional papers, the group has the largest, for want of a better word, reach in the UK.

Publicis Media and Group M have earned IAB Gold Standard certification, "Campaign" reports. The title also points out that six other agencies are in the process of being certified.

BBC Good Food has launched an Alexa skill for people who are "elbow deep in flour," The Drum reports.