To qualify that, it’s not worth entering if you’re a small agency…. Yes, I’m probably as sour as three-day old Château de Saint-Martin because we didn’t win a single Lion after entering five categories at a cost to make your ...
Read More »Adland’s brightest star: Cannes and the cult of David Droga
It’s hard to remember a time when one figure was so dominant in the advertising industry, but David (don’t ever call him Dave) Droga has taken on official guru status. He was the king of the Croisette last week, and ...
Read More »When Sorrell met Whipple: the rumble on La Croisette
In the blue corner, barefoot Brian Whipple, global CEO of Accenture Interactive, kicked off his shoes and sipped a pint of beer. In the red corner, Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of S4 Capital, drank water with a slice of lemon ...
Read More »Boys, boys: Sorrell tries to hijack Read’s WPP again
Another day, another WPP AGM and a release pings in from old boss Sir Martin Sorrell’s spanking new S4 Capital. WPP AGMs seem positively soporific these days, compared to the good/bad old days of SMS. There isn’t even a shareholder ...
Read More »Roy Jeans: how the ad industry actively underpins “surveillance capitalism”
In the regional Chinese city of Rongcheng, the ruling one-party state is perfecting its soon to be nationwide “Social Credit System”. Starting with 1,000 points, every citizen has points deducted – or added – for their historical (and current) behaviour. ...
Read More »Levy’s tech start-up challenges Amazon for Sizmek
Maurice Levy’s French tech start-up Ycor is tweaking the mighty Amazon by the tail, saying it will outbid it for Sizmek, in Chapter 11 since the end of March. Sizmek is a DSP with an ad server and optimizer. Asking ...
Read More »Sorrell’s in the money again as S4 Capital (MediaMonks et al) hits £600m market value
Is Sir Martin Sorrell’s new S4 Capital – proud owner of MediaMonks and MightyHive – motoring as fast as his Martin-ness would like? Here’s what he said at the AGM (there’s a lot of it but it’s instructive.) “2018 was ...
Read More »Is a new dotcom crash on the way? It’s a danger for ad holding companies too
Is another dotcom crash on the way? Shares in recently listed Baidu and Pinterest both plummeted yesterday, China’s Baidu after it posted its first loss as ad sales slowed and Pinterest because it lost more than expected. Uber’s float was ...
Read More »All pals at Publicis as we wait for results of Sadoun’s “transformation” – Dentsu stutters too
A picture is worth a thousand words, they say and this one’s a peach. It’s Arthur Sadoun and Maurice Levy of course, celebrating Levy’s induction into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame. On which Levy has chosen to remind ...
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