Ad agencies need better advertising: 101’s Laurence Green on why positioning should be more important than pitching June 20, 2016 Our industry conversation has swung too far from long-term to short, from strategy to tactics, and away from the alchemical power of great creative,” says Laurence Green, founder of creative agency 101. He has been critical in the past of the fact that pitching has become the default method for procuring agencies’ services. And he believes [...]
2016 London mayoral election: Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith gets housing boost from Prime Minister David Cameron January 4, 2016 Prime Minister David Cameron has given Conservative candidate for mayor of London Zac Goldsmith a boost today by announcing that he will amend the national government's housing bill to address concerns over a lack of affordable housing in the capital. Cameron said that he is incorporating an amendment put forward by Goldsmith to create a binding [...]
London mayoral election 2016: London’s next mayor must put broadband connectivity at the top of the agenda May 4, 2016 This Thursday, Londoners have a pretty important decision to make. One that will shape the way the city operates for years to come. The pressure is definitely on for London’s next mayor to improve the state of the current broadband infrastructure across the capital once elected. If the city is to continue being one of [...]
UK house prices: The UK needs a million more rental homes in the next five years February 2, 2016 The UK needs more than a million new rental homes by 2021, a new report has suggested. The government has a target to build 400,000 new affordable homes for sale over the course of this parliament – but that's ignoring the needs of renters, the research, by Savills, suggests. Sluggish economic recovery, low interest rates – [...]
US recession risks are rising, so where does that leave the Federal Reserve? February 17, 2016 Since the Federal Reserve in the United States raised interest rates in December (albeit by a very modest 0.25 per cent), concerns have been mounting that the momentum of the US economy is fading, and that the US is in fact facing recession in 2016. What is clear from recent data releases is that the [...]
UK house prices: Housing indices like the ONS and Rightmove just aren’t in line with reality February 23, 2016 For those of us involved with the prime central London (PCL) residential property market, last week delivered some ‘good’ news; where the latest ONS housing data showed an annual increase of 9.4 per cent. That lead Rightmove to announce that the capital has seen the biggest rise in asking prices, year-on-year, than any other region in the UK, increasing by [...]
New buyer registrations for prime London homes jump as buy-to-let landlords rush to beat stamp duty hike February 10, 2016 New buyer registrations for prime London homes soared in January as buy-to-let landlords scramble to complete their purchases before the stamp duty hike comes into effect in April. Figures from estate agency Marsh and Parsons today show that the number of new buyers registering in January 2016 was 24 per cent higher than in the [...]
Tobacco companies remain an addiction for stock market investors – and Brexit gave them a boost too June 29, 2016 Cigarette companies have been under the cosh for years as Western governments try to stamp out addiction to cancer sticks. But the anti-smoking lobby has failed on one count – to sufficiently dent the fortunes of tobacco companies on the stock market. Despite the battering the UK stock market has taken since Friday’s Brexit announcement, shares [...]
Bumper year for Bovis Homes as house price growth boosts profits by 20 per cent February 22, 2016 Housebuilder Bovis Homes said house price growth helped it deliver bumper profits in 2015. The figures Revenues in the year to the end of December rose 17 per cent to £946.5m, from £809.4m last year – while pre-tax profits rose 20 per cent to £160.1m, from £133.5m. It said it had been bossed by a strong increase in average sales price, which grew seven per [...]
Women and advertising: J Walter Thompson’s group planning head Rachel Pashley explains why ads should stop resorting to crude stereotypes June 27, 2016 "As a woman working in the marketing industry, I was continually confronted by creative briefs which referred to women as Busy Working Mum,” says Rachel Pashley, group planning head at J Walter Thompson (JWT) London. Pashley is behind the agency’s Female Tribes insight study into women around the world, so that they may be treated by [...]