Microsoft became the "leading business-facing brand" in the Business Superbrands Top 500 survey pushing Google to the fifth place from the first. The survey, conducted by the Centre for Brand Analysis (TCBA), reported that media brands - the Financial Times and the Economist - reached the top 25 category, with the Financial Times rising from the 31st to the 17th place and the Economist going up from the 58th to the 25th place. The Times and The Sunday Times, plummeted from the 56th to the 55th position. The Guardian took the 188th place with The Observer taking the 234th position, and The Telegraph/ The Sunday Telegraph taking the 116th place. Among media companies, BBC Worldwide dropped to the 31st position from the 15th position.

Tagged: brand media

An international shareholders coalition has written to 86 companies, listed under the UN Global Compact, insisting them to report regularly on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. The 86 companies which failed to comply with the required reporting mandated by the UN Global Compact, have now been urged to meet the requirements. While 2008 witnessed 33% of companies submit their reports after the follow-up, 47.6% responded in 2009. The coalition reported that over 50 companies had been removed from the Global Compact in 2009 as a result of their failure to produce ESG reports.

Tagged: governance

The Financial Times has announced plans to sell its digital licenses direct to end-user organisations. This is part of its strategy to connect directly with its customers, and comes after various moves by other media organisations, aggregators and the UK's NLA. the changes are scheduled to come into effect 1 July 2010.

Tagged: brand media

The IPA/BDO Bellwether survey for Q4 reported a decline in marketing spend during the period, however, at a lower rate. The report suggested that companies looked “most optimistic” about the financial outlook and indicated that the UK was out of recession in Q4 2009. As 35% of the companies surveyed believed to witness improved prospects, the report showed that companies were also planning larger ad budgets for 2010 as compared with 2009. While internet advertising budgets were enhanced for second consecutive quarter, companies also planned to raise direct marketing budgets. Commenting on the survey, BDO’s Head of Media Andy Viner stated that: "After nine consecutive quarters of reduced marketing spend, it appears that the rate of decline is at its slowest in nearly two years. Marketing budgets in 2010 are now set to grow, with companies re-thinking their budget allocation, for example, the spend in areas such as online advertising are due to increase significantly".

Tagged: brand media

The ABC circulation figures for December 2009 showed that the Daily Mail and the Daily Star were the only UK national newspapers to have shown a year-on-year circulation rise, reported the Press Gazette. While the circulation for Daily Star increased 8.2% to 784,958, the Daily Mail showed a 0.17% year-on-year rise for the month to 2,113,134 copies. Circulation for The Times dropped above 13% year-on-year with an average daily circulation amounting to 521,535 copies. The Guardian also recorded a 12.38% year-on-year fall in circulation to 300,540 copies. Among other UK newspapers that recorded a decline in year-on-year circulation were The Sun and the Daily Mirror with 1.25% to 2,862,935 and 9% to 1,225,502 respectively.

Tagged: brand media

The Outdoor Advertising Association has launched a two-week campaign ‘Britain Thinks’ to display the effectiveness of outdoor advertising. The campaign has included controversial ads, which state ‘Career women make bad mothers’ and ‘1966- It won’t happen this year’, with the aim to draw response from people that will in turn elevate the necessity of offline activity to invoke people online. With 11,500 billboards and posters put up across the country, OAA CEO Alan James states that the campaign will exemplify the “the power of outdoor advertising as a direct response medium with the ability to drive people online”. The concept of the campaign has been based on Google’s research that demonstrated - “offline activity is essential to driving people online”.

Tagged: brand media

The recent IFRS 8 ‘Operating Segments’, which was introduced with an aim to bring more clarity to investors with respect to a given company’s performance in the area of profit, assets and liabilities, was reviewed by the Financial Reporting Review Panel. Following the review, the panel asked companies to supply more information in cases where: only one operating segment was reported, but the group was diverse with respect to different businesses or operations in different countries; the operating analysis in the narrative report varied from the operating segments in the financial statements; and the titles and responsibilities of the executive management team implied an organisational structure which was not reflected in the operating segments. As the standard calls companies to define their operational activities and the practical management of these operations, the panel called the management of companies to make a check on whether reported segments were consistent with their internal reporting.

Tagged: finance investment

ForeSee Results has reported a 6% year-on-rise on its customer satisfaction index for UK’s top 40 online retail websites. ForeSee found that Amazon UK was the best online retailer for customer satisfaction. Play.com and QVC.com followed in the second and third position respectively. CEO of ForeSee results Larry Freed stated: “While these numbers are certainly a huge step in the right direction, companies who saw improvements run the risk of being lulled into a false sense of security. There is still a long way to go with the UK’s numbers still trailing the US by 10 percent”. Ticketmaster and B&Q were found among the worst online retailers.

Tagged: brand media

A recent study FutureProof, conducted by Kantar Media, indicated that TV-based VoD services will surpass PC-based VoD services such as YouTube, given the potential in new developments such as Project Canvas. The study which comprised of 2,429 individuals aged over 12 years, found 90% of respondents aware of VoD, with 26% planning to “trial” the service. 75% of the 453 Virgin Media households were found to be using TV VoD service in a four-week span as compared with 45% using PC VoD services during the same period. Commenting on the findings, Kantar Media director Charlie Gordon said that “new developments such as Project Canvas will boost consumer appetite for TV-delivered VoD, with three-quarters of consumers now owning a high-end TV, often with the internet connectivity needed that will deliver VoD”.

Tagged: brand media

Guardian.co.uk retained the title of being Britain’s most-visited national newspaper website after ABCe released traffic figures for November, reported Press Gazette. The website is reported to have drawn 35.8 million global unique users during the month, with 12.9 million unique users from within the UK. Guardian director of digital content Emily Bell attributed this rise to its World News and Environment sections which posted a mass of articles related to climate change issues. Mail Online took the second place with 31.2 million unique users, while Telegraph.co.uk took the third place with 30.8 million visitors. As Times Online took the fourth place with 20.9 million global unique users, The Sun reported 20.2 million unique users to its website, taking the fifth position.

Tagged: brand media