100% Media Roundup: 21 Feb- 25 Feb

Introducing today’s round-up of stories from around the media world, updated by The Media Leader team, to ensure you’re 100% up-to-date.

Friday, 25 February

Discovery reports global ad revenue growth of 10%

Discovery CEO David Zaslav said 2021 was “an exceptional year” for the company as its global ad revenue grew 10%.

In its fourth-quarter and full year results published yesterday, the company also reported its global direct-to-consumer paying subscribers grew to 22 million, gaining two million subscribers since the end of Q3.

The entertainment company highlighted its “in-language and locally relevant content” with its broadcast of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games and the Summer Olympic Games across Europe as factors to its success.

Total revenue for the three months up to December 2021 increased 10% to $3.19bn, with ad and distribution revenues increasing 5% and 17% respectively. This is compared to revenues for Q4 2020 of $2.89bn.

Read more on the Beijing Winter Olympics here:

Brits ‘among least interested’ in Winter Olympics

Online Safety Bill additions to address anonymous trolls and online abuse

New measures to protect social media users from anonymous trolls have been added to the draft Online Safety Bill today.

The new “duties” in the draft bill will require “category one social media companies”, those with the highest numbers of users and reach, to give users ways to verify their identity, control who can interact with them, and opt out of seeing harmful content.

In a post on the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport website, it said ID verification on these platforms could include verifying profile pictures, using two-factor authentication to a mobile number or government-issued ID.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries commented: “Tech firms have a responsibility to stop anonymous trolls polluting their platforms. We have listened to calls for us to strengthen our new online safety laws and are announcing new measures to put greater power in the hands of social media users themselves.”

Read more on action on social media abuse here: 

What action has social media taken after CAN’s demands over online racist abuse?

Start-up Joice seeks to disrupt Jewish media market

VCCP Group launches global gaming proposition VCCP+

GroupM launches Premium Marketplace to reduce ad fraud risk

Thursday, 24 February

IPA, Epic Games and Collective to provide Unreal Engine workshops

The IPA, Epic Games and digital agency, Collective, will deliver interactive workshops and one-on-one consultations to help the advertising and marketing industry use Unreal Engine.

Unreal Engine is the world’s most open-source and advanced real-time 3D creation tool.

It is free to use and means ultra-high quality content and assets can be created quicker across all mediums, saving time and money.

The workshops and consultations will focus on examples of other industries successfully using Unreal Engine and how to implement it successfully in advertising.

The link to sign up to the Unreal Engine Workshop can be found here.

Reddit launches Discover Tab

Reddit has rolled out a Discover Tab that makes tailored suggestions for new communities and content for its users.

This is the platform’s first new surface in nearly two years and works by tapping the compass icon at the bottom of the app to show content suggestions based on Redditors’ current communities.

They will also be able to filter specific topics in this tab and be able to provide feedback to show more, less or hide specific content.

“We’re ushering in a new era of discovery on Reddit, with images and video top of mind,” said Jason Costa, director of product for content and communities at Reddit.

Ocean Outdoor official ParalympicsGB partner 

Ocean Outdoor has become Paralympics GB’s first official out-of-home media partner.

The digital out-of-home media owner will show previews of the ParalympicsGB Impossible to Ignore campaign featuring 25 athletes across 26 large format screens in London, Birmingham, Glasgow (pictured, above), Edinburgh, Bournemouth and Manchester in the runup to the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.

Once the games start on Friday 4 March, the outdoor screens will show 10 second daily updates, medal moments and messages to Britain’s Paralympians until March 13.

Ocean Outdoor says this will deliver more than six million impacts in that time period.

Global announces Tonight with Andrew Marr  on LBC 

Global has announced Andrew Marr’s show on LBC will debut on Monday 7 March at 6pm.

“Tonight with Andrew Marr” will then air Monday to Thursday between 6pm and 7pm and will also be televised live on Global Player.

Marr (pictured, above) will also write a regular column for Lbc.co.uk.

He said: “I’ve always thought journalism is about breaking stories, ruffling feathers and having some fun on the way. My new LBC show, Tonight with Andrew Marr is perfectly timed at 6pm, the end of busy political days, and stuffed with great guests, and will do just that.  Anyone wanting bland, safe, wearily predictable journalism is strongly advised to look elsewhere.”

Selco becomes national sponsor of drivetime on Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio 

Selco, the builders merchant, has announced its sponsorship of sport on Greatest Hits Radio drivetime show.

The company will sponsor Sport with Matt Williams across Bauer’s Greatest Hits radio England Network on Simon Mayo’s weekday 4-7pm show (pictured, above).

The sponsorship will feature Selco on integrated sports content  every hour from 4.30pm as well as a weekly editorial highlight of the week’s sporting and Selco “Real Deals”.

This six-figure campaign will run for 12 months and was planned by independent media agency, Love Sugar Science, in collaboration with Bauer to develop Selco’s existing affiliation with sport.

OOH bounces back in Q4 with 65% growth

The UK’s out-of-home (OOH) sector grew by 65% in the fourth quarter of 2021 to £336m.

The strong Q4 figures, reported by OOH trade body Outsmart and collated by PwC, drove a 29% year-on-year growth in the sector to £901m.

However, revenue in 2021 was still significantly down on 2019 (before the Covid-19 pandemic), when total revenue was £1.3bn, and is roughly equivalent to 2011 figures.

Digital OOH grew by 70% year-on-year between October and December 2021 and accounts for just under two-thirds (66%) of overall revenue for the sector.

“Classic” OOH, meanwhile, was up 55% in Q4 and 14% for the year.

Good-Loop secures £4.5m Series A funding

Good-Loop, the ad tech company that converts people’s attention to ads into donations to good causes has closed a Series A round of £4.5m.

The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s product roadmap, including the development of new solutions aimed at reducing digital advertising’s substantial carbon footprint.

The company also plans to expand its international teams, including opening new offices in New York and Chicago to serve its growing US markets that currently comprise 33% of total revenue.

Good-Loop was founded by CEO Amy Williams and chief technology officer Daniel Winterstein (pictured, above). The company has raised more than $5m for charities such as Save the Children, WaterAid and GOSH, while its clients include Unilever, Nestlé, and Nike.

GroupM hailed as ‘very strong’ in WPP annual financials

WPP CEO Mark Read hailed “an outstanding year” for the group as its media-buying division Group M reported a 16.1% surge in like-for-like revenue.

In today’s prelimary results for 2021, WPP reported a 6.7% growth in revenue for the full year, or 13.3% growth on a like-for-like basis, to £12.8bn.

GroupM, which represented 38% of WPP’s revenue less pass-through costs in the fourth quarter, was up 12.3% like-for-like. The group, which includes media agencies MediaCom, Essence and Mind Share, was described as delivering “very strong” 2021 performance.

WPP also reported a £951m profit before tax (compared to a £2.79bn loss in 2020).

The company expects to grow its like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs by “around 5%” in 2022, and another 3-4% growth from 2023.

The UK was particularly strong for WPP, having grown revenue by 14% to £1.87bn in 2021.

Wednesday, 23 February

Reach and Google create in-house email innovation lab

Reach is working with Google to “turbocharge” its newsletters and share digital learnings.

The Daily Mirror and OK! publisher will send new daily bulletins in Bristol, Lancashire, London, Manchester and Nottingham funded by Google Digital News Initiative.

Reach and Google News Initiative’s Innovation Team will also worth together to study the analytics to help shape wider newsletter strategy.

Read more from our columnist Bianca Barratt: Newsletters are here to stay. But media brands must fight to keep their writers

WACL hosts ‘Menopause in the Workplace’

WPP CEO Mark Read will speak about  menopause in the workplace in a panel hosted by WACL on 3 March.

Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, Dark Horses agency founder Melissa Robertson and menopause specialist Dr Clare Spencer, will also appear on the panel.

The panel will focus on improving awareness of menopause in the workplace and removing stigma around the subject as well as supporting policies that can help businesses.

Facebook rolls out Reels globally

Meta is rolling out Facebook Reels for iOS and Android alongside new monetisation and editing tools for creators in more than 150 countries.

Creators can make money directly from these short-form videos using ad revenue share and fan support, alongside Facebook Reels Overlay Ads which comprise of semi-transparent banner ads at the bottom of a Reel and sticker ads that can be placed by a creator anywhere in the reel (see main picture).

New editing tools and brand suitability controls are also being brought in from 60-second Reels and options to save drafts, to publisher lists, inventory filters and delivery reports for banner and sticker ads in Facebook Reels.

Reels have already been rolled out on Meta’s other platform Instagram.

Seedtag receives IAB Gold Standard 2.0 certification

Seedtag has just received the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) Gold Standard 2.0 Certification in sell-side support.

This is the highest certification available in UK digital advertising standards.

The contextual advertising specialist had to show its commitment to reducing ad fraud, improving digital ad experience, helping compliance with GDPR and ePrivacy law, and upholding brand safety.

Tuesday, 22 February

Media.Monks appoints new global chief diversity officer

Digital marketing agency Media.Monks has chosen James Nicolas Kinney as its global chief diversity officer.

He joins from Ogilvy where he was global chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer and North America chief people officer and has also had roles at Mother and Giant Spoon.

Yahoo launches contextual ad solution

Yahoo has expanded its “id-less audience solution”, Next-Gen Solutions for web.

It is an advanced contextual targeting solution using machine learning and real-time data signals to target across channels and buy non-addressable inventory in Yahoo’s display side-platform.

It will be available across the web to publishers that have adopted Yahoo’s cookieless identity solution, Yahoo ConnectID.

Next-Gen Solutions for web was first launched for in-app environments in summer 2021.

IAB UK appoints hew head of ad tech

The Internet Advertising Body (IAB) UK, the industry body for digital advertising, has appointed Chloe Nicholls as head of ad tech.

Nicholls (pictured, above) joins IAB UK from Mediahub (IPG) where she was technology director and prior to that held roles at Dentsu media agency iProspect.

As IAB UK’s head of ad tech, she will focus on preparing for the deprecation of third-party cookies next year, developing industry best-practice guidance in ad tech , and improving supply-chain transparency.

Nicholls replaces Tina Lakhani, who will now work between IAB UK and IAB Tech Lab as an ad tech consultant.

Global poaches more BBC broadcasters

Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, two of the BBC’s most senior broadcasting journalists, are joining Global in an exclusive deal.

The duo (pictured, above) will front a new podcast for Global Player as well as co-host a show together on LBC. The move follow’s Global’s signing of Andrew Marr, who is set to launch a show on LBC soon.

Maitlis hosted Newsnight and Sopel was the BBC’s North America Editor. The pair also hosted the BBC’s Americast podcast, which explored the state of US politics.

As part of the deal, Dino Sofos, the founder of audio production company Persephonica, also joins Global as the podcast’s executive producer.  Sofos is the former head of BBC News Podcasts and created Brexitcast, Newscast and Americast formats.

UK ad spend fraud set to reach nearly $3bn this year

Juniper Research forecasts that total lost revenue through advertising fraud in the UK will reach $2.7bn this year.

Read more on this story here.

What’s Possible Group appoints new creative director

What’s Possible Group has hired John Warwick as creative director.

Warwick (pictured, above) will focus on growth of What’s Possible Creative Studio which serves different agencies within the group like media agency The Specialist Works, Hubble, Pintarget and Connections.

He joins What’s Possible Group from Awkwards Works which he founded and also worked at VCCP, LIDA/M&C Saatchi and MRM McCann.

UK Govt and Snap launch first AR Career Fair

The Department for Education has launched England’s first augmented reality (AR) Career Fair with Snapchat.

Snapchat users can open their camera and choose “Get the Jump” Skills for Life icon on the carousel to enter the virtual career fair until the end of March.

It will include all education and training options supported by video content with a particular focus on technical education routes like T-Levels, traineeships, apprenticeships and Higher Technical Qualifications which are less well-known.

Monday, 21 February 

VaynerMedia London appoints new head of strategy

VaynerMedia London has chosen Allan Blair as head of strategy.

Blair (pictured, below) will start today reporting to managing director Sarah Baumann and joins from Engine Creative London where he was head of strategy.

Blair previously held strategy roles at DDB, Tribal Worldwide and J Walter Thompson.

Another senior hire from Engine Creative London, Daisy Domenghini, also joined VaynerMedia London as head of client partnerships.

Trump’s new app fails to launch

Donald Trump’s new social-media app, Truth Social, has failed to launch after listing on Apple’s App Store last night. Users trying to sign up have reported error messages and being added to a growing waitlist whose number appears to go up instead of down over time.

Trump vowed to launch a new social media app after being banned from Twitter last year for breaching rules around inciting violence. He appointed Devin Nunes, a former US congressman with no software engineering, media sales, or corporate leadership experience, to be the chief executive officer of Trump Media & Technology Group.

The former US president, known for repeatedly lying while in office and running his inherited real-estate business into multiple bankruptcies, is under multiple civil and criminal investigations for defamation, tax evasion, fraud and money laundering.

Heinz launch campaign with full page ‘apology’ in The Guardian

Heinz has launched a campaign to promote its new pasta sauces with a full page in The Guardian (pictured, below) apologising to the British public that it has taken 150 years to make “the pasta sauce they deserve”.

The campaign will also run across digital, social media and TV with 30-second spots and 20-second videos focussing on the seven new pasta sauces.

There will also be out-of-home activations including a billboard in Leicester Square showing the strapline: “150 years late. 7 ways to apologise”.

Creative was by Wunderman Thompson Spain and media planning and buying was by Carat UK.

Starcom and Channel 4 launch new episodes of Brave Stories 

Publicis agency Starcom and Channel 4 have launched two new episodes of Brave Stories focussing on experiences of pregnancy and maternity and mental health and addiction.

The series aims to address stigma in the workplace and show how media can be more inclusive with Channel 4 representatives interviewing select Starcom employees.

The 20-minute films can be found on Starcom UK’s YouTube channel and 4Sales website.

The next episodes in the six-part series will focus on ageism and ethnicity.

Ofcom finds Takeover Radio Leicester ‘failed to fulfil Key Commitments’

Ofcom has concluded that Takeover Radio (Leicester), whose licence is held by Takeover Radio Children’s Media Trust, breached its key commitments.

After an investigation into a complaint, Ofcom found the community radio station did not provide original output for a minimum of 11 hours a day, and did not provide enough of a specific service for children and young people in Leicester, which its Ofcom license depended on.

Ofcom said in its report: “We expect the Licensee to rectify these issues immediately. Ofcom will monitor this service to ensure that Takeover is complying with the Key Commitments.”

TfL ban on junk food ads reduces Londoners’ calorie intake

Transport for London’s ban on junk food advertising has been associated with a 1,001 calorie decrease in average weekly household purchases of “unhealthy” foods, a new study has estimated.

Researchers compared nearly two million weekly purchases of high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products by households in London and the north of England from June 2018 to December 2019.

This worked out at 385 calories per person per week, or every Londoner in the study buying one and a half fewer standard-size bars of milk chocolate every week.

Talon Group’s Plexus to work with Mediaplus Group

Plexus, an independent global out-of-home network part of Talon Group, will provide services to Mediaplus clients to create cross-border campaigns.

Mediaplus is an independent and partner managed agency based in Munich.

Plexus already plans and buys international campaigns in more than 75 markets for clients such as HSBC, Chanel, Bacardi-Martini, Airbus, Diageo, Virgin Atlantic and Peroni.

Lloyds Bank launches multichannel campaign

Lloyds Bank’s latest ad campaign will run across TV, out-of-home, digital, social, cinema and video on demand in multiple bursts throughout 2022.

Creative was by adam&eveDDB and the media agency is Zenith.

MPs urge Boris Johnson not to sell Channel 4

Senior Conservative Party politicians wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday urging against Channel 4’s privatisation.

The group included former culture secretary Karen Bradley, two former ministers, and chair of the foreign affairs select committee Tom Tugendhat. They wrote “Channel 4 isn’t broke, and doesn’t need fixing.”

They also maintained selling the public broadcaster would go against Margaret Thatcher’s vision for the channel when she founded it, as well as the government’s “levelling up” agenda.