Brands hit the right note 13 December 2011 - Global adspend on sponsorship will reach $48.7bn by the end of 2011, according to GroupM’s sponsorship metrics and analysis unit IEG and compare that with GroupM’s overall global adspend prediction of $506bn, that’s a fairly decent slice of budgets being placed in sponsorship Plan your play tactics 13 December 2011 - Gaming has shifted from its niche as a young male pursuit to become much more of a mainstream activity. However, the temptation by marketers to view the medium as a way to solve business problems should be avoided at all costs. Instead, gaming needs to be part of marketers’ overall brand building strategy. FullSix: International Partners’ Meeting, Lisbon 29 September 2011 - Anna Watkins, group managing director, FullSix UK, heads to Portugal’s capital to hear about the network’s new incubator business and ambitions for the year ahead. With key country partners, she shares case studies and insights to help the network’s clients. R.I.P. Out-of-home 24 June 2011 - Out-of-home (OOH) is in danger of stagnation. Rigid packages, lack of accountability, over-saturation and a lack of format innovation are just a few of the ailments attributing to the demise of the platform and its going to take more than digital sites to bring it back to life. Running with the Olympic pack 23 June 2011 - Marketers will be sure to piggyback Europeans’ enthusiasm when the Olympic Games comes to their neck of the woods. New gold rush 23 June 2011 - Warren Buffett once said: "In the business world the rear-view mirror is always clearer than the windshield." New opportunitists and multinationals are now peering through the fogged-up glass at the markets most likely to follow the booming BRICs as the next big thing. The price of loyalty 23 June 2011 - If social media were an actual weapon, rather than a fi gurative one in the battle for marketshare, we would be running for cover. Brands are deploying social campaigns with zeal – often hitting their targets. My life in advertising: Matt Seiler 08 April 2011 - Josh Colley talks to Matt Seiler, Interpublic’s new chief executive for Mediabrands, on the breadth of skills needed to furrow a successful career in media and how digitisation has transformed media’s role Neighbourhood watch 08 April 2011 - As we enter an age of austerity, with cuts in government spending across many mature markets, brands have the opportunity to fill the vacuum created between society and government. Socially intelligent initiatives to put something back into local communities and engage with consumers are, so far, proving incredibly lucrative. A novel read 07 April 2011 - The author of the blockbuster book The Accidental Billionaires – on which the 2010 Oscar-winning movie ‘The Social Network’ is modelled – has spent the major part of his working life tracing the footsteps of ambitious and geeky young entrepreneurial men on their path to riches. So what makes someone entrepreneurial?