Morning Update: Agency kickbacks heat up in US; Ugly unicorn triumphs; Google says APAC marketers ‘don’t get mobile’
Creativity Online: An Ugly Unicorn Triumphs in Animated ‘Grand National’ Epic for Channel 4
Channel 4’s 4Creative has created an animated mini-epic this year to promote its coverage of the U.K.’s most famous horse race, the Grand National.
AdAge: Media-Agency Kickbacks. Yes, They’re Real.
Kickback payments tied to U.S. media-agency deals are real and on the rise, according to Ad Age interviews with more than a dozen current and former media-agency executives, marketers’ auditors, media sellers and ad-tech vendors who said they’d either participated in such arrangements or had seen evidence of them. The murky practice — sometimes disguised as (undisclosed) “rebates” or bills for bogus services — is being motivated by shrinking agency fees and fueled by an increasingly convoluted and global digital marketplace. “It’s really ugly and crooked,” said one ad-tech executive who described receiving such requests.
NY Times: Rolling Stone to Publish Review of Disputed Rape Article
Rolling Stone magazine plans to publish an external review of a widely disputed article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia “in the next couple of weeks,” its managing editor, Will Dana, said on Sunday.
The 9,000-word article, which was published in November, was based on the account of a female student who described being sexually assaulted by seven men in a dark room during a fraternity house party.
M&M Global: The time is now to drive innovation in APAC’ – Omnicom’s CEO for the region, Cheuk Chiang
The time is now to drive innovation in Asia Pacific, according to Cheuk Chiang, CEO Asia Pacific, Omnicom Media Group.
Speaking at the Festival of Media Asia Pacific in Singapore, Chiang discussed how the APAC media landscape is shaping up in comparison to the rest of the world, and argued now is the time to celebrate the region’s innovation, success and creativity.
Mumbrella Asia: Google Singapore boss: Marketers in Asia still don’t get the value of mobile
The next batch of consumers in Asia entering the media market will only use their mobiles to access the internet, the Singapore country director for Google, Joanna Flint predicted today.
Talking at the Festival of Media Asia in Singapore this afternoon, Flint said that, according to a study, in Malaysia, 35 per cent of people asked in a recent study already only use their mobiles to access the internet.
