Manchester:Serial entrepreneur Paul Yates has brought together four Manchester-based digital companies to launch the Online Ventures Group. Following his previous entrepreneurial successes, Yates’ ambitious goal is to float the group on the London Stock Exchange within just three years.

This is full circle for Yates who is returning to his entrepreneurial roots having been at the helm for the last 18 months of Swedish listed company Getupdated as group CEO. He took the company from a £9 million loss to a projected £2 million profit this year. Online Ventures is the next chapter in Yates’ triumphant career. He initially experienced unrivalled success after starting SEO company Just Search in 2004 and selling it for £14.8 million, after only three years.

“I have created Online Ventures to bring together four fantastic companies with great potential. With my roots firmly embedded in SEO and digital, I am keen to use my expertise and experience in this space to put together a full service company that can act as a ‘one stop shop’ for all of our clients’ needs; whether that’s web design, SEO or online PR. What binds each of them together is their high standards of service and great relationships with clients, and these shared values are what will make the group a success,” comments Yates.

Each business within the group covers a different sector. Rococo is an established PR/marketing agency that deals with everything from branding to event management. It’s impressive clientele includes huge companies such as Nike, Budweiser and Nestle while also representing a number of celebrities including Michael Owen and Amir Khan.

Search Innovation specialises in SEO and has developed a reputation for creating great exposure for client brands, generating traffic to their website and increasing customer engagement. The business sets itself apart from competitors due to its vast industry experience and flexible contracts. This flexibility means that all Search Innovation clients can alter their strategy without being tied to a rigid contract.

Via Studios is a leading multi-discipline web design and development studio. It has been around for over ten years in which time the range of services available has grown and grown. It offers a range of managed services and hosted products that help clients connect to their audience. Every web design need is catered for from mobile app development to user experience and usability design, which allows the business to treat every job individually to meet each client’s unique goals and aspirations.

Mobedia is the final digital agency of the Manchester quartet. It is filled with creative designers who deal with animation, social media and bespoke content management systems. Mobedia’s ethos is to create designs that will turn heads and generate great results for their clients. Each of these businesses, along with Online Ventures, have already created 25 jobs in the local community since August.

Online Ventures’ turnover is currently £2 million and Yates confidentially expects this to grow rapidly over the next year.

MediaCom Worldwide has launched a new global sports division, MediaCom SPORT. It will be headed by Global Head of Sports Marcus John, who was previously SVP & Managing Director of IMG Consulting Asia/Pacific.

The new division has been created as a result of the increasing power of sports with consumers and MediaCom’s understanding of the need for clients to skilfully position and market their brand in this space at a global level.

MediaCom SPORT will offer four key areas of services: Strategic advice, rights negotiation, rights activation and measurement. Marcus’ remit will be to work with MediaCom’s Global Account Directors, to manage the relationship with key sporting bodies and to provide clients with first hand access to these opportunities in order to help them meet their ever-more complex marketing challenges. He will also work closely with the MediaCom Beyond Advertising team and GroupM’s Entertainment & Sports Partnerships group to communicate client engagement in sports across all consumer touch points.

Prior to joining MediaCom, Marcus spent 10 years at IMG completing his tenure as SVP & Managing Director, IMG Consulting Asia/Pacific. He was responsible for some of the biggest deals in Asia including the Beijing Olympics’ first deal to exceed the USD100million mark. In addition he advised a wide range of clients over the past decade in this area such as Visa, GE, Phillips, Hyundai and Johnson & Johnson.

“Both consumers and clients are increasingly interested in what sports can deliver. MediaCom has previously focused its sports expertise at a local and regional level but we realised that our clients now require a more global and deeper understanding of the sports arena as their budgets continue to shift towards investments in this area and with it a much greater sensitivity to achieve solid returns. We need to be able to offer our clients the very best in advice and are therefore delighted to welcome Marcus to MediaCom’s global team. Marcus’ brief is to build the scale of our offer, establish strong ties with right holders and make the best opportunities available to our clients,” said Chairman and CEO Stephen Allan.

Christian Schmalzl, Global Head of Investment, added “Marcus truly lives and breathes sport. He is passionate about what we do and has a clear vision for how sport fits with our clients’ needs and how it can provide a strong ROI. With client interest at an all-time high, we envisage having to quickly add additional resources to the great team already in place”. “I am very excited about building a standalone sports business for one of the world’s most powerful media agencies and adding significant value to its large and diversified client base. Establishing sports expertise within a media agency will ensure that brands who invest in sports rights also activate these properties to their full potential and integrate them across all their communication channels”, said Global Head of Sports Marcus John. 

London: Hearst Corporation has announced that it has completed the U.K. portion of its international transaction with Lagardère SCA.

The deal unites National Magazine Company, Hearst Corporation’s principal U.K. business, and Hachette Filipacchi UK Ltd. The new organization has been rebranded as Hearst Magazines UK.

With the acquisition of Hachette Filipacchi, Hearst Magazines UK has the U.K. publishing rights to global media superbrands ELLE and ELLE Decoration, along with Psychologies; and the ownership of Red, All About Soap, Inside Soap, Digital Spy and Sugarscape.

The combined business, comprising 26 magazines, 22 digital assets and other branded properties, will make Hearst Magazines UK one of the biggest media players in the country, reaching more than 16 million adults in print and 20 million monthly unique users online.

The new company will provide clients with an integrated service and offers them effective engagement with consumers through its expanded portfolio of print, digital and other branded properties.

This U.K. deal is part of Hearst Corporation’s acquisition of Lagardère’s international press and magazine business, which includes nearly 100 titles, 50 websites and numerous mobile and tablet applications in 14 markets including U.S., Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, U.K., Japan, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Mexico, Taiwan, Canada, Germany and China (which will close later this year).

Arnaud de Puyfontaine, chief executive, Hearst Magazines UK, and executive vice president, Hearst Magazines International, said: “This move consolidates our status as a leading U.K. media owner. NatMag and Hachette Filipacchi have built a stable of world-class brands, and this combined portfolio gives us a unique opportunity to develop and expand our commercial potential. We very much look forward to working with our new colleagues on this exciting venture.”

New York : Brilig today announced the public availability of its audience commerce platform and open transaction marketplace beta version. Starting today, audience data sellers will be able to list their data for sale on the system and data buyers can browse the data catalog, make selections, combine data sets to find increased campaign lift and acquire data. The company estimates that online campaigns will perform two to three times better using the platform.

General availability of the platform is scheduled for the fall of 2010.

Brilig claims that it has solved three of the most vexing problems in online advertising today:How to identify audience members across multiple data sources,how to tap into the vast, but highly fragmented and non-interoperable universe of audience data, most of which is unavailable to advertisers, and how to create an open and transparent transaction marketplace for audience data to enable buyers to negotiate pricing and terms, and publications to sell data without risking cannibalization of premium ads.
Prior to Brilig tracking audience members across multiple databases was virtually impossible. By deploying the Brilig Pixel, the system can identify multiple instances of an audience member without any personal identifiable information (PII), enabling highly accurate segmentation, creative direction and advertising delivery.

The Brilig solution recognizes and normalizes many types of audience data – search data, contextual data, behavioral data, profile data, commercial data, and campaign data, so they can be mixed and matched to create new and novel segments.

As of today, 2,100 unique segments listed, more than 50% of which has never been publicly available for targeting purposes before.

The company expects to have over 10,000 segments listed by the end of 2010.

Unlike data exchanges, Brilig oversees but does not participate in the marketplace. By taking on a organizing and oversight role, rather than being a data reseller, Brilig has no inherent conflicts of interest with data sellers or segment makers. The Brilig transaction marketplace is an open, transparent and predictable audience data “shopping center” for buyers and sellers.

“Brilig combines the best elements of a financial-style exchange with the flexibility and rapid evolution that the online ad targeting business demands,” said Paul Cimino, Brilig’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our mission is to create an open marketplace where unique audience ‘recipes’ can be created and tested – just like in a test kitchen, and then used in the real-time world of ad targeting.”

Montreal : OgilvyAction, the brand activation arm of Ogilvy & Mather, has officially launched its Quebec operation in Montreal, joining Ogilvy & Mather Montreal, OgilvyHealthworld, and OgilvyInteractive operations in the historic Old-Port sector of the city.  As Canada’s second largest metropolis, its variety of cultural influences make Montreal the ideal launch pad for effective activation campaigns across the province of Quebec.

The Montreal office joins OgilvyAction’s 64 existing offices around the world and will be managed by Jeanlouis Gusiew, former Managing Director of OgilvyAction Rio de Janeiro.  Gusiew admits that “it is a rare opportunity to have the chance to launch an operation within a framework as innovative as that of this city.  It is a creative crossroads in which OgilvyAction can contribute by exploring new strategies that strengthen the existing disciplines of Ogilvy & Mather Montreal. I sincerely believe that Montreal will become a standard for the integration of brand activation.  Integrating shopper behavior optimizes the promotional investment at point of sale. OgilvyAction is investing in local talent to be in harmony with the expectations of our clients.”

After attending the formal opening of the office, Sheila Hartnett, CEO, OgilvyAction North America stated, “I am very excited about our new Montreal office. The team is extremely committed to growth and new business development, and I know that they will continue to help our clients’ businesses grow by doing great things, extending brand building to creating purchase behavior.”

Under the direction of Jeanlouis Gusiew, and given OgilvyAction Montreal’s wealth of brand activation expertise, there is every reason to believe that this new OgilvyAction operation will not take long to thrive.

Paris: Havas Worldwide, the largest unit of communications group Havas, has announced the creation of Havas Design+. This new global network will initially launch in ten key cities including Paris, New York, London, Lisbon, Madrid, Dubai, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Dusseldorf and Prague, and will include well known brands like W&Cie, BETC Design, Euro RSCG C&O, Euro RSCG Portugal and Conran Design Group. Initial clients include the likes of Peugeot, Tesco, Natixis, Santander, Aeroport de Paris Shell, Sodexo, Sulwhasoo, Arkema, Credit Agricole and Thales, among others.

“Design has increasingly become a defining element of the success of some of the world’s largest brands. The launch of Havas Design+ is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us to bring together some of the world’s leading design companies and unite them under a powerful global umbrella,” said David Jones, global CEO of Havas Worldwide. “In addition, as business becomes more socially responsible and sustainable design becomes more important, it will unite some of the world’s best expertise in socially responsible design in a single global network”.

Recent work coming out of these five founding agencies includes the design of the Tck Tck Tck logo and branding for Kofi Annan’s Campaign for Climate Justice, which attracted more than 15 million climate allies; a redesigned logo for the French Presidency of the European Union; the branding for Euro 2004 (2004 UEFA European Football Championship); and the logo and identity of One Young World, the world’s first youth summit of its kind taking place on February 8-10 in London.

“Brands are an important element of the local realities of globalization. Many of them have to undergo a metamorphosis in order to become more respectful of their local environment, more focused on specific cultural identities and more relevant to the consumer. We’re launching this network on a single value: “positive design,” because we are convinced that design can re-engage and seduce brands, and therefore the whole economy,” adds Denis Gancel, Founding President W&Cie.

The network will offer the full spectrum of design capabilities from brand management to brand creation and promotion. Havas Design + will take a multicultural approach to design, delivering relevant and localized solutions in each market. The initial launch will include more than 400 employees globally across ten different cities. The Group’s leadership team includes Denis Gancel and Gilles Deleris (W&Cie), Jane Simmonds and Nigel Forsyth (Conran Design Group), Christophe Pradere (BETC Design), Eugenio Chorao (Euro RSCG Portugal) and Juliette Mutel (C&O).

Christophe Pradere, CEO BETC Design, says, “Havas Design+’s objective is to create a network that is focused on a global and multicultural design offering. This platform will first be rolled out with the sister agencies in the Havas network. The second phase will be to welcome new agencies into the Havas Design+ network that share our same quality and vision of the future of design. Our business model is different from anglo-saxon networks because it is agile, decentralized and based on tools and processes that will evolve and be enriched by each agency’s skills. We are also focused on the importance of cultural diversity and recognize the importance of localization, this compared to the mono-cultural and fully- centralized networks that we compete against. We are creating a more collaborative approach to design where each agency will keep its name, its business model and its clients. We will redefine the well known ‘think global, act local’ model into ‘think local, act global”.

Washington, D.C.:Voice of America (VOA) has unveiled a new Web application that will allow users in Iran to download and send content to VOA’s Persian News Network with their iPhones.

“This new application gives Iranians a unique opportunity to get the latest news on their mobile devices and to share with the world the news as it happens in their country,” said Acting PNN Director Alex Belida. “It is a groundbreaking way to expand our reach inside Iran and deepen our relationship with a key VOA audience.”

The application will enable users of Apple iPhones and Android phones to get the latest news from PNN and, with a single click, to send links to VOA stories via Facebook and Twitter pages and email accounts. The application will be available shortly in Apple’s online store, PNN’s Web site (http://www1.voanews.com/persian/news/) and on PNN’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The application, designed by the Washington-based company Intridea, also gives Iran’s “citizen journalists” the opportunity to use their iPhones and Android phones to send video and still pictures taken on their devices to a secure Web site where VOA’s PNN editors can download the images and review them for possible broadcast use and Web posting.

“This Web application empowers Iranians at a time when the government is staging a crackdown against opposition protesters,” Belida said. “As with the disputed elections earlier this year, VOA’s Persian service continues to be a leading source of news and information for Iranians.”

VOA has the largest combined radio and television audience in Iran of all international broadcasters, with one in four adult Iranians tuning in to a VOA program once a week. PNN broadcasts seven hours of television daily, repeated in a 24 hour format, and five hours of radio. Programming is also available around the clock on the Internet.

London :comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the French launch of comScore Ad Metrix, a breakthrough service for digital media campaign planning and buying that provides comprehensive insight into where display ads are viewed online and the demographic composition of the audiences reached. The service captures multiple varieties of display advertising, including static banners, rich media and video ads. A total of 61.6 billion display ads were viewed online in France in September 2009, reaching 38.6 million Internet users.

“With 38 million French Internet users viewing more than 60 billion display ads online in September alone, it’s clear that the Internet represents a powerful marketing channel for brands,” said Delphine Gatignol, business development director for comScore in France. “The evolution of Web 2.0 technology has helped the Internet evolve into an attractive home for display advertising, both in terms of creative execution and measurability. In order to continue to facilitate the flow of ad spending online in Europe, brands will require a robust ad measurement platform to validate the delivery of their ads against campaign objectives. Ad Metrix meets that need.”

Facebook.com ranked as the top French display ad publisher in September with 6.4 billion display ad views (10.3 percent market share) reaching 18.2 million people online. Microsoft Sites ranked second with 5.7 billion ad views (9.3 percent share), while French social networking site, Skyrock, ranked third with 2.5 billion ad views (4 percent share).

The ranking of the top 10 display advertisers features brands from a variety of advertiser categories. French media giant, Vivendi, was the leading online advertiser in France in September with 925 million ad views (1.5 percent market share) reaching 31.3 million people. Other top display advertisers included German retail property Otto Gruppe with 890 million display ad views (1.4 percent), MeetIC – Match with 706 million ad views (1.1 percent share), and Orange Sites with 702 million ad views (1.1 percent share).

The BBC Arabic network has reinforced its look and content across platforms – on TV, radio and online – with clean, crisp, dynamic visual and audio branding, stronger interactivity and dynamic news presentation. Its re-designed news studios and new graphics underpin its pan-BBC identity while also keeping a very distinct Arab flavour.

The emphasis of the redesign is on clean and clear on-screen graphics. The BBC Arabic television news and current affairs programmes now have a new look and colour scheme – white, red and gold. The globe features strongly in the design, representing the truly international scope of the BBC’s newsgathering operation.

On TV and radio, BBC Arabic has introduced the theme music used by the rest of BBC television (composer, David Lowe), thus emphasising the channel’s BBC identity. The revamped graphics of the TV news updates, with light, white title sequences, makes them easier to read.

Neil Caldicott, Creative Director, BBC Global News,comments: “This is a fantastic opportunity to bring BBC Arabic right up to date in terms of look and sound. The clean, simple and crisp approach to our graphics aims to bring to the fore the work of our teams to fully reflect the excellence, the dynamics and the modernity.”

While the redesign brings the television channel’s brand into line with its online offer on bbcarabic.com, the BBC Arabic network has also introduced major changes to its programme content, enriching the news bulletins with daily press reviews from Arab and international media and more in-depth analysis.

The daily news programme, Hasad Al Youm Al Ikhbari, has been enhanced with a stronger interactive element, encouraging viewers to contribute with their questions and opinions on topical issues.

The BBC Arabic news bulletins are now jointly delivered by newsreaders and broadcast journalists, who present the news summaries from a pod in the newsroom before the cameras switch back to the news reader for the rest of the programme.

Liliane Landor, Head of BBC World Service Middle East Region, says: “BBC Arabic teams love the new look and sound of our multimedia offer. Sharing a common visual and aural brand with BBC television news can only build upon the excellent work all our teams are doing in bringing high quality international news to as many people as possible, on as many platforms as possible.

“The BBC Journalism brand distinguishes the BBC Arabic network from any other in the Arab world. We will continue to broaden our journalism and address issues no one else can, and we will continue to bring to our audiences the most distinctive and independent journalism, modern in style and incisive in content. This work is ongoing for all of us in BBC Arabic.”

Hamburg: Google is testing a new social search function to make it easier for people find their friends’ blogs and twitter feeds.

The only catch is that users of the service need to have an open profile with Google that includes personal contact data.

Once those conditions are met, the user can access the service at the Google Labs. Typing in “New York” will yield a list of friends in the user’s social network who have posted items from the Big Apple. Settings can be altered so that only postings from close friends and acquaintances are included in the “social graph.”

Google Germany spokesman Stefan Keuchel says the new social search function is separate from a recently launched service allowing real time searches of Twitter feeds. Social Search works quickly, but not in real time. It is currently only available in English.