Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker join media ad pact
The latest move by publishers and TV powerhouses to compete with the likes of Google and Facebook in digital advertising now sees Condé Nast join NBC Universal and Vox Media to sell ads across their combined digital properties. According to AdAge, the addition of Condé Nast builds on what NBCU and Vox have already been doing over the past year, when they partnered to create 'Concert', an advertising marketplace for high-quality content and its audiences. While the three major publishers are all competitors, the move helps them better compete against the big ad platforms that are snaring the budgets. The addition of Condé Nast to Concert gives advertisers access to content and audiences from brands such as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Vogue. So far the content has been display only, but video is now set to be part of the offering.
Condé Nast brands
Ex-Ooh digital head joins Carat
Brendon Cropper, the former digital strategy at outdoor company Ooh Media, will join Carat Australia as chief data and experince officer. The newly-created role will see Cropper lead Carat's data strategy across Australia and New Zealand, working with Dentsu Aegis Network chief data officer Phil Zohrab. The role also entails driving a more consultative style of client relations across the agency. “We aim to ensure that our clients receive the kind of thinking and expertise that connects a strong narrative with customer experience, delivery and content," Carat CEO Paul Brooks says. Prior to Ooh Media, Cropper ran his own digital communications training organisation, Digital Training. He has held senior leadership roles at McKenzie Partners, DDB and Starcom, where he was GM of digital for six years. Cropper previously worked at Carat in 1998.
Ex-MediaCom MD joins LinkedIn
LinkedIn Australia has bolstered its agency team within its Marketing Solutions business with the hiring of ex-MediaCom managing director, James Sneddon, working alongside Lara Brownlow and Helen Girdlestone. Sneddon joins LinkedIn as a national agency lead. Based in Sydney, his main areas of focus will be building and executing partnerships across the core agency holding groups, scaling LinkedIn's programmatic offering and running core programs like LinkedIn's Agency Influencer program. More recently, Sneddon has been working as an independent consultant focusing on new and emerging technologies and opportunities. He has also spent over six years at MediaCom.
News Corp’s Cannes Young Lions open for entry
News Corp Australia, the Official Australian Representative of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, has announced that entries for the 2017 Cannes Young Lions competition are now open. Now in its ninth year, the competition searches for the best young talent in media and creative industries to represent Australia at the 2017 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The award categories are print, media, cyber and marketing. To apply, go here.
Stamping out “unethical” political advertising
The inventor of the worldwide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has called for tighter regulation of online political advertising, which he says is being used in “unethical ways”. In an article on The Guardian, he said: “We urgently need to close the ‘internet blind spot’ in the regulation of political campaigning,”. Writing in an open letter marking the 28th anniversary of his invention, British computer scientist Berners-Lee described how political advertising has become a sophisticated and targeted industry, drawing on enormous pools of personal data on Facebook and Google. This means that while campaigns create precisely targeted ads for individuals, this can become unethical when voters are pointed to fake news sites and messaging is used to discourage people from turning out to vote. “Targeted advertising allows a campaign to say completely different, possibly conflicting things to different groups. Is that democratic?” Berners-Lee said.
Topshop launches dedicated Australian site
Having arrived on Australian shores almost six years ago, Topshop Australia has announced the launch of a dedicated online store for the country. Following in the footsteps of online stores like The Iconic, Topshop will offer same-day delivery and feature localised editorial-style content. The site also promises a product range which will be curated for the Australian market, as well as new styles each week which are concurrent with the Topshop UK flagship store. It will officially launch in April. In March last year AdNews reported how Myer's in-store launch of Topshop and Topman created a "halo effect" to other brands, helping the retailer increase sales by 1.8% to $1.79 billion in the first half of fiscal 2016. Visit the new Australian site here.
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