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Morning Update: Kanye’s Famous clickbait; Brexit ‘a failure of comms’; shoplifting video takes GP at Cannes

Flags of the United Kingdom and the European Union Divided Diagonally - 3D Render of the UK Flag and EU Flag with Silky Texture

Campaign Live: Brexit vote shows catastrophic failure of communications

The referendum result is a story of many parts but one of them is certainly the catastrophic failure of the communications industry to mount a coherent and powerful pro-EU message.

For the last couple of weeks we’ve waited and waited for the big debate-defining advertising image that voters would carry with them to the polling booth. Instead we had a confused and disconnected dribble of small ads that felt like the bland result of committee decision-making.

Ad Age: Harvey Nichols’ Shoplifting Ad Takes Film Grand Prix at Cannes

Security footage featuring real-life shoplifters edged out a legendary man for the Film Grand Prix at the 2016 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

A Harvey Nichols effort for its rewards app, created by Adam & Eve/DDB in London, took the top honour in the category. The film uses CCTV footage of people stealing from Harvey Nichols locations – but superimposes cartoon-villain heads over their faces, resulting in something far more funny than sinister.

The New York Times

The Guardian: Charging money to go ad-free? The New York Times meets the BBC

You can see why big newspaper managers – say Mark Thompson at the New York Times – grow indignant when “cynical”, “money-grasping” ad-blocking businesses demand money from papers in return for leaving their ads unblocked. That’s “unsavoury” with a Godfather twist. But brows may furrow a little when Thompson tells conference audiences that he’s preparing to sell readers a “higher-tier” ad-free digital package himself.

the financial times building

The Drum: The FT’s warning to its media rivals: ‘If you’re trying to play a game of scale, you’re going to lose’

As the Financial Times uploads animated GIFs onto its Instagram page while rapidly expanding its video production team for Facebook Live streaming and YouTube documentaries, it has a chilling prognosis for much of the rest of the British news business.

For although the FT is embracing social media as part of its Reach & Return programme of finding thousands of new readers and drawing them into subscriptions, the view of the Pink Un’s leading strategic thinkers is that news organisations chasing raw audience scale as a means to advertising income are on a perilous path. And in the UK, that’s much of the industry.

the real cannes lions neon

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