Omnicom CEO John Wren told delegates at JP Morgan’s media and tech conference on Tuesday that his company would hasten its plans to cut ties with LiveRamp after the latter agreed to be acquired by Publicis. Wren said that the company was already working on its own ID solution and planned to stop working with LiveRamp in 2028. But now the ‘drop dead date’ has been moved to 18 May 2027.
Horizon Media’s chief data officer, Domenic Venuto, has also told Ad Age that the agency is ‘evaluating’ its relationship with LiveRamp, now that the latter is no longer independent.
Honda Motor Europe announced that it had picked WPP Media’s EssenceMediacom as its lead media partner on Monday. According to data from Comvergence, Honda spends around £50m per year on media in Europe. EssenceMediaCom will start work on the account in August. UM — which has now been shuffled into Omnicom Media Group — was the incumbent.
Media owners:
Ofcom’s incoming chair has vowed to take on ‘tech bros’. During his pre-appointment hearing in front of MPs, Sir Ian Cheshire said that he wants to ‘probe and understand’ tech platforms because of the perception that Ofcom has been ‘complacent, slow or both’. Safety campaigners welcomed the former Channel 4 chair’s comments, with one telling The Guardian they hoped it indicated that the media regulator would be more ‘robust’ in enforcing the Online Safety Act under Cheshire’s leadership. Ofcom also criticised YouTube and TikTok directly this week, saying in a new report that their content feeds are ‘not safe enough’ for children.
James Murdoch’s holding company reportedly reached a deal to acquire half of Vox Media on Wednesday (20 May) for $300m. Lupa Systems will take over New York magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network and Vox. It marks the biggest acquisition by Murdoch since he received $1bn as part of a settlement that saw his brother Lachlan gain control over the family’s media holdings. Media commentator Simon Owens has tipped him to be a good steward of Vox Media. ‘Whatever else can be said about the Murdochs,’ Owens said, ‘they genuinely care about the media business.’
Spotify news this week that isn’t about its iffy disco-ball rebrand. The platform and Universal Music Group have announced a partnership that will allow Spotify Premium users to create AI-powered remixes and covers of songs within the app. It’s part of Spotify’s vision of a more interactive platform.
It’s become standard practice for big films to promote themselves on Fortnite through mini-games and skins. But Disney went a step further this week and offered fans the chance to watch the first 10 minutes of The Mandalorian and Grogu in Fortnite on Tuesday. It demonstrates the important place games like Fortnite and Roblox now have in reaching Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences.
This week also saw Fortnite return to the Apple App Store as its developer Epic Games signalled confidence that it would receive a favourable outcome from its ongoing lawsuit against Apple. The two have been embroiled in a legal battle since 2020 as Epic alleges that Apple’s practice of charging a 30% commission on in-app payments goes against US antitrust rules. Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney said: ‘We see this as the beginning of the end of the Apple Tax worldwide.’
Rape allegations from cast members of Married at First Sight UK (MAFS UK) has plunged Channel 4 into crisis. An investigation by BBC Panorama heard from two women who accuse their on-screen husbands of rape, and a third who alleged a non-consensual sex act. All the men deny the claims.
The broadcaster has commissioned an external review into welfare on the show, expected to be completed later this summer. In the meantime, the future of MAFS UK — one of Channel 4’s most popular and lucrative programmes — is in serious doubt after the broadcaster removed all episodes from streaming services and sponsor Tui announced it had cut ties with the show.
Meta laid off 8,000 employees — roughly 10% of its workforce — this week and a further 7,000 employees are being shifted into AI-related roles. It’s part of a drive from the trillion-dollar company to prioritise the development of AI models and tools, which Meta says it will spend $135bn on this year.
Businesses are saving up to 80% on labour costs by hiring offshore LinkedIn posters in places like the Philippines rather than local social media managers, according to an article by the Rest of World. Contributor Michael Beltran spoke to six Filipino ‘virtual assistants’ who are being paid up to $7 an hour to write LinkedIn posts on behalf of Western companies, often relying on generative AI to churn out content. One worker told the publication that LinkedIn is now ‘all AI comments by fake people answered with fake replies by other fake people’. Others told the title some key giveaways that a LinkedIn thought leader’s account is managed offshore: daily posting, a sudden surge in followers and replies to every comment.
Brands:
The Advertising Standards Authority(ASA) has banned a TikTok advert for La Vieille Ferme wine. The ad claimed that good health requires three cartons of wine: one ‘to erase today’, one ‘for emotional support’ and one ‘to resurrect my soul’. The ASA stated that the latter two slogans suggest that wine offers emotional benefits, while the first suggests that alcohol can help people handle stress and encouraged drinking to the point of memory loss. The ruling also objected to the wider message of the ad associating wine with self-care and health. The objection seems obvious, and it’s likely that the same advert would never have been greenlit for a more regulated environment like TV or OOH.
Carling Black Label has joined the Guardian, Hovis and other brands in reviving an ad from its archives: its 1990s squirrel TV spot. The new version, which Carling hopes will usher in a new era for the brand, features returning voiceover actor Stephen Frost. The new squirrel, Skige, was also taught to run an obstacle course by the same trainer (Trevor Smith) as the original.
Tesco has won £1m of free advertising in Channel 4’s tenth annual Diversity in Advertising competition. The winning ad is called Now We’re Cooking and was created by BBH and EssenceMediacom. The 60-second spot features deaf twins Hermon and Heroda Berhane of the ‘Being Her’ Instagram account, deaf dancer Sarah Adedeji, and blind TikToker Kitty Hinde. It premiered during an episode of Taskmaster on 21 May, and will continue to run across linear TV, CTV and YouTube. The campaign is further supported by the launch of an accessible section on Tesco’s recipes hub, as well as a new range of adaptive cooking tools available via the Tesco Marketplace in partnership with Parkinson’s UK.
John Lewis has signed Boston United FC striker Lenell John-Lewis in a move he must have expected to come much sooner, having had ‘his name is a shop’ chanted at him at every match of his 20-year career. John-Lewis (nicknamed The Shop by fans) will appear in a summer ad campaign by agency Earnies for John Lewis (the actual shop). The multi-channel rollout includes a TV spot, an earned media push, social media takeovers, and a partnership with LADBible. The striker will advise fans on how to upgrade their home entertainment setups with recommended products like TVs and sound systems for the best summer viewing experience.
John Lewis, Boots and Debenhams were all found to have overstated Black Friday price drops in their advertising, after the ASA used AI monitoring to track prices and deals offered by the brands. A MacBook Air advertised by John Lewis for £699 at a £150 saving was found to have only been priced at £849 for one day in July.
