The African Media Initiative (AMI) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) have launched an ambitious strategic partnership to provide professional training and other form of technical support to develop media businesses across the African continent.

The partnership will include a series of joint projects aimed as strengthening media business in Africa, expanding access to finance and development of new revenue streams, harnessing the digital revolution through technological adaptation and innovation, and building a competent leadership of the media sector through a commitment to improved ethics and management.

The two organizations will work together specifically on developing digital innovation for the African media industry, the development of pan-African curricula and training in media management, joint research activities, and advocacy of press freedom, quality reporting and other areas.

WAN-IFRA is the global organisation of the world's press, representing 18,000 newspapers, 15,000 online sites and more than 3,000 companies in 120 countries.

AMI is the continent's primary umbrella association of African media owners, top executives and other key industry stakeholders.

“We are delighted to enter into this strategic partnership with WAN-IFRA, one of the most trusted media development institutions in the world,” commented Amadou Mahtar Ba, the CEO of AMI.

“Our industry is undergoing profound changes that redefine the ways news and information are collected, distributed and consumed around the world, particularly in Africa. It is therefore essential for AMI to partner with the best available knowledge sources in order to fully fulfill its mission to support the emergency of a professional and sustainable media landscape on the continent,” he added.

Christoph Riess, the CEO of WAN-IFRA, said: "AMI has emerged as a thought leader in Africa for top-level media executives, and is active is defending press freedom and the professional interests of media. We are looking forward to working together to further the development of strong media companies in Africa through a joint and coordinated effort that engages stakeholders, especially in the private sector. Cooperation is a key to success."

Among other initiatives, AMI conducts the African News Innovation Challenge, which provides seed funding and other support for creative solutions to challenges facing Africa media. WAN-IFRA will provide media management training to the project. The Omidyar Network, Google, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, and the U.S. Department of State have all pledged either funding or technical support for the initiative.

AMI also organises the African Media Leaders Forum, the only gathering of media owners, operators and senior executives on the continent.

Amsterdam : Leading Global sports brand ASICS has appointed 180 Amsterdam to create yearly global advertising campaigns starting in January 2013.

180 has been briefed to drive awareness of the ASICS brand globally and create an emotional connection with consumers around ASICS’ ‘True Sport’ positioning.

ASICS is currently working with 180 Amsterdam on its 2012 international brand marketing initiative, covering Europe, Japan, Australia and Asia, but the agency won this new brief after a competitive pitch.

180 will now create global campaigns covering television, print, online and outdoor advertising as well as retail and event marketing and public relations.

Kevin Dundas, Managing Partner at 180 Amsterdam, said: “180 Amsterdam and ASICS have worked together in Europe for the past year. This pitch win provides the opportunity to extend our relationship to a global scale. The ASICS brand has ambitious plans and is well poised in the marketplace, we are looking forward to playing our part.”

Katsumi Kato, Senior General Manager, Global Sales & Marketing Division, at ASICS said: “180 really understands the ASICS brand and our ‘Anima Sana In Corpore Sano’ – meaning a ‘sound mind in a sound body’ – philosophy. After the great creative work executed by 180 for our 2012 “Made of Sport” campaign, we really look forward to working together at the global level to strengthen our unique “True Sport” positioning all over the world.”

Football Federation Australia (FFA) has announced the appointment of MediaCom as their Media Agency of Record for all media and search.The account will move from Universal McCann immediately.

Ben Buckley, CEO of FFA, said: "It's a great opportunity to work with one of Australia's leading media companies in 2012 and beyond. FFA is the guardian of one of Australia's most powerful sports brands in the Qantas Socceroos and has positioned the Hyundai A-league as challenger brand in the sports marketplace. Our core constituency is the 1.7 million football participants who are truly representative of Australian society. We have many exciting opportunities for the game, which is a fabulous growth story.

We were attracted to MediaCom given its intelligence and scale in this market along with its broad array of client and category experience. We are confident that MediaCom will provide FFA with the right platform to help us to continue building the popularity of the Qantas Socceroos and the Hyundai A League. I would like to thank Universal McCann for all their hard work on our business over the past few years."

Mark Pejic, COO of MediaCom Australia added, "We're delighted to be working with FFA, they have taken the time to understand the breadth and depth of the MediaCom offer and the benefits this will bring to their business. As a passionate football fan, I'm thrilled that we have been given the opportunity to work with Ben and his team."

The FFA business will be housed in The Entertainment Division (TED) MediaCom's newly created in house entertainment division which houses an ever expanding portfolio of entertainment brands including Universal Pictures, Universal Music, ACP, 7, Carnival and Electronic Arts.

This caps off great year for MediaCom which has won in excess of $100m of new business including; Westpac Banking Group, Electronic Arts and Bayer.

New York : The New York Times has released The Collection, a fashion app for iPad, which houses all fashion journalism from NYTimes.com, Thursday and Sunday Styles, T Magazine, The Moment and the International Herald Tribune (IHT). The Collection app is available now on the App Store.

Created exclusively for the iPad, this highly visual app arranges content by representing each story as a photo. Photos are displayed in a grid to form a collage comprised of dozens of fashion stories readers can swipe through to browse. Tapping each photo pane reveals more detail about the story and its content; whether it’s a photo slide show, video or an in-depth review of a collection by Cathy Horyn, fashion critic for The Times, or Suzy Menkes, fashion editor for the IHT. A second tap leads to the full content.

Features of The Collection fashion app include a single hub for all of the fashion news from The New York Times – The app seamlessly merges fashion coverage from across The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, including reviews, blog posts, T Magazine content, articles, video and photo slide shows. The Collection is edited by Simone S. Oliver, senior fashion producer for The Times.

Simple content organization and navigation – The Collection is an innovative and visually rich app that displays The Times’s essential fashion reporting and criticism, as well as the stunning photography in a format ideally suited for the iPad. The app is organized into five sections, with the option to view “All” or filter content according to category: News, Trends, Street and Runway. Each section generates a new grid to explore.

The Street style section captures up-to-the-minute trends and is anchored by Bill Cunningham’s “On the Street” videos. In addition, readers will find T’s Look of The Moment and a new weekly slide show that features reader-submitted photographs from all over the world that focus on one particular hot trend in fashion.

The Collection’s Runway section will feature the full collections from more than 150 designers each season. Readers can browse the most recent shows or search by designer to see what is happening on the runways in Milan, Paris, London and New York.
Social features – The Collection offers one-tap sharing of content, allowing readers to post articles right to their Facebook or Twitter accounts or share stories by email.

The Collection is available for free from the App Store on iPad . Access to all content will be free until December 31. Beginning January 1, 2012, readers will need to sign up for a subscription through In-App Purchase to continue to receive full access to content. A limited amount of content will continue to be available to users for free.

The competition is organised by the Swedish press organisation 'Sveriges Tidsskrifter'.

Anki Kujansuu, a Media Planner at MediaCom Sweden, has been named Media Advisor of the Year by Sveriges Tidsskrifter, the Swedish Press Organisation.

Anki was voted for by a panel of 400 media owners based on how knowledgeable, well prepared and easy to work she is.

Anki said "I'm delighted to win this award, not just for myself but for the agency as a whole. At MediaCom, we believe that by putting people first, we can generate better results. Hopefully this award goes some way to showing that we really do practise what we preach."

London : NIVEA and Draftfcb London have launched ‘Your Skin. Your Rules’ a new campaign to drive awareness of NIVEA’s Daily Essentials range in the UK.

The strategy behind the campaign recognizes that women in the UK have busy lifestyles and fit skincare into their lives and not vice versa. It reinforces skincare expertise and makes the Daily Essentials range relevant by demonstrating an understanding of consumer lifestyle needs and encourages women to reclaim authority over what is rightfully their decision – how to use skincare.

The creative makes skin the focus and builds on the simple yet iconic blue NIVEA circle.

“Our target audience appreciate the value of skincare but don’t let it get in the way of other priorities,” said Mark Fiddes, Draftfcb’s executive creative director. “With ‘Your Skin. Your Rules’, we wanted to show that NIVEA understands this and Daily Essentials lets women choose their own routine while letting them enjoy the things that really matter to them in life.”

The campaign includes print, outdoor and digital elements and will run until the end of this month.

Draftfcb London “Fuelled by Blue Barracuda” is part of Draftfcb, the first fully integrated, global marketing communications agency to operate against a single P&L.  Its network spans 96 countries and employs more than 9,200 people. The agency is driven by The 6.5 Seconds That MatterSM, an operating system that recognises the brief period of time marketers have to capture consumers’ attention and motivate them to act. With nearly 140 years of combined expertise, Draftfcb has roots in both consumer advertising and behavioural, data-driven direct marketing.  It firmly believes there is no way to separate creativity from accountability, which it refers to as Return on IdeasSM.

Hamburg:Building on  the success of its billion-euro “100 Years Skincare for Life” global campaign for NIVEA, the largest skincare brand in the world, Beiersdorf has launched “Uncovered” — a new fully integrated, global campaign for NIVEA Repair & Care body lotion, hand crème and body crème.  The work was developed by Beiersdorf’s global business partner, marketing communications agency Draftfcb.

The campaign stays true to the values that have been associated with NIVEA for generations: trust, honesty, reliability and quality.  It captures the feel-good confidence the body lotion and crème can give to dry skin sufferers for up to 48 hours, with TVCs centred on the idea: ‘love it, show it, share it’.

“Our global insight indicates that dry skin actually makes people withdraw from life; we wanted to show that with NIVEA Repair & Care, you can feel better about your skin and yourself,” said Erika Darmstaedster, Beiersdorf global account director for Draftfcb. “The creative shows the important role that skin plays in helping to create and enhance a moment of closeness between individuals. When we feel good in our skin, we feel better about ourselves and others.”

Led by Draftfcb along with other partner agencies, the integrated campaign spans TV, print, digital, outdoor, PR and point of sale.

The global campaign will roll out to countries in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, North America and Asia-Pacific over the next weeks and months.

“After the launch of the ‘100 Years Skincare for Life’ campaign, work for Visage, Body and Deo followed. To build upon the success of these campaigns our goal has been to continue showing the depth of the NIVEA brand and build brand equity by sticking to NIVEA’s most celebrated and core products,” said Gaby Bell, Beiersdorf global planning director for Draftfcb. “The new spots build upon the classic brand while showing how these separate products impact the lives of skincare users and help create their moments of closeness.”
 

The Financial Times and Pearson today announced the launch of FT in education, an initiative that will make the FT’s world-class journalism more easily accessible for customers of Pearson, the world’s leading learning company.

FT in education allows Pearson’s educational publishers to search a new republishing database hosting over 100,000 FT articles, special reports and features that are highly relevant to students and professors. A new trademark licence agreement will allow Pearson to use this FT content across its products and services for the education market around the world.

John Fallon, CEO of Pearson’s international education business, said: “This collaboration will bring a richness to study in many areas, from mastering business or understanding financial markets to seeing political economy or international law in action. With Pearson’s approach to learning design, assessment programmes and contact with teachers and students, we can turn the FT’s world-class content into world-class learning.”

John Ridding, FT CEO, said: “The FT’s authoritative coverage of global business, finance and politics has been in demand from the world’s leading business schools and universities for many years, and has been a ‘must have’ for many within the business education community. This new approach widens Pearson’s access to our quality journalism so it reaches additional educators and students, opening the FT up to new readers and subscribers and creating unique value for Pearson’s customers across the globe.”

The new licence and database will initially be used by Pearson UK, including Higher & Professional Education, ELT, Schools & College and Edexcel.

In addition, FT.com is shortly launching MBA Newslines, a new product aimed at business schools that offers enhanced functionality and enables students, faculty and practitioners from around the world to create and share annotations on FT articles.
 

New York:The rapid growth of Facebook and Twitter will push worldwide social network ad revenues to $5.54 billion this year and nearly $10 billion in 2013, according to a new forecast by eMarketer.

“Social networks have cemented their place in advertising,” said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “More marketers than ever believe their brands should be engaging with consumers on social networks—and advertising is an increasingly successful tool for doing so.”

 
The bulk of these dollars, in the US and around the world, will go to Facebook, while a much smaller share will go to Twitter and other social networks. eMarketer's first forecast of ad revenues for LinkedIn predicts the site will account for 3% of worldwide social network ad revenues this year. The site has more than tripled its ad dollars in two years, though growth is tapering off.

“Facebook will get nearly seven out of every 10 dollars spent on social network advertising worldwide in 2011,” said Williamson. “Twitter’s share will be around 3%.”

 
Social network advertising spending in the US will reach $2.74 billion this year, but more rapid growth elsewhere will mean spending outside the country will account for a slightly greater share each year, eMarketer estimates.

By 2013, non-US revenues will make up 51.9% of the total. In the US, social networks will make $4.81 billion from ads that year.

eMarketer had previously forecast in January 2011 that social network ad revenues worldwide would reach $5.97 billion in 2011, up 71.6% from $3.48 billion in 2010. This downward revision is mostly the result of eMarketer’s slightly lower estimate for worldwide ad revenues at Facebook—which comes as some advertisers are still cautious about Facebook’s low clickthrough rates and others feel they can successfully engage consumers without advertising on the site.

“As with eMarketer’s Facebook forecast, the revision should not be taken as a sign that social network advertising in general is losing momentum,” said Williamson.

Social network ad revenues worldwide are expected to grow 55.6% this year, eMarketer estimates, and 8.8% of online ad dollars in the US and 6.9% worldwide will go to social networking sites. By 2013, social network ad revenues will make up 11.7% of all online ad spending in the US and 9.4% around the world.

 
eMarketer forms its estimates of social network ad revenues based on a meta-analysis of estimates of consumer usage, marketer usage, ad pricing and impressions, as well as revenue estimates from research firms and other sources, and from interviews with industry executives.

London: SapientNitro, part of Sapient (NASDAQ: SAPE), is involved in a new online initiative to make the regulation of health and social care more transparent.

The Quality and Risk Profile (QRP) Online Service has been launched by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the statutory regulator that has a remit to inspect the standards of service of health and social care providers in England.

 QRP Online allows NHS providers to view and analyse the information that CQC uses to estimate the provider’s risk of non-compliance with the standards.

 The launch marks the first time that NHS providers have been able to access this CQC standards information online, and significantly improves the ability ofproviders to identify and respond to issues highlighted by CQC’s analysis. It is a significant step towards increasing transparency and information sharing in the regulation of the healthcare sector in England.

SapientNitro has helped CQC produce an Online Service that is cost efficient. It has also been delivered in less than eight months, an incredibly short time span for such a project.

 Richard Hamblin, Director of Intelligence at the Care Quality Commission, said: “The success of the QRP Online Service has been a boost to our ongoing digital programme and we look forward to working further with SapientNitro.”

 Bradley Gamage, Director at SapientNitro, said: “Helping to improve the way that healthcare providers can access their own information is an important development in the way that CQC regulates healthcare. We are delighted to have been part of the development of this vital Online Service.”