From Downunder, For Downunder – Guerilla Marketing at London 2012
Official LOCOG documentation on brand protection during the games claims that “It is evident that many people are eager to use the Games to boost their business activities by marketing their products in connection with London 2012. Ambush marketing…will, if left unchecked, each undermine LOCOG’s ability to generate revenue for the Games.” . But while [...]
Continue Reading →38 Days Later – How All’s Well that Ends Well in G4S Olympic Security
Friday July 6th 2012 was a good day for the world’s second-largest private sector employer, G4S, as Ian Horseman Sewell, managing director of Global Events, outlined his company’s prospects to Neil Maidment of Reuters in an interview. Not only did he assert that the security firm was “absolutely on track to deliver” on the London [...]
Continue Reading →Notes on a Scandal – The SNAFU with the LIBOR
To the layman, the task of understanding the intricacies of the banking system and financial markets is a challenging prospect not rendered easier by its confusing jargon. As Charlie Brooker recently put it, “ask me to explain what a credit default swap is and I’ll emit an unbroken 10-minute ‘um’ through the clueless face of [...]
Continue Reading →When Does Jeeves Become Big Brother? – Social Media and the Battle Between Privacy and Commercial Opportunity
From the debacle over SOPA and PIPA bills to complaints about privacy infringement by both Facebook’s Timeline and Google’s new privacy policy, control over personal user data stored by the internet titans is one of the most pressing issues of this online age. Data is rapidly becoming the most valuable commodity on the internet, as [...]
Continue Reading →“Like” IPO? – Does Old Facebook = New Facebook?
We recently witnessed the highest tech IPO in history, but did Facebook’s début on the stock exchange live up to its hype? Media buzz started picking up in early May, when Mark Zuckerberg ran several pre-IPO road shows. And while his choice of clothing seemed to draw more attention than the IPO itself, overall sentiment [...]
Continue Reading →Frocks, Rocks and Very Few Knocks – The Queen and a Royal Status Update for the Jubilee
In the run-up to her Diamond Jubilee celebrations, a poll published in UK newspaper The Guardian declared that the Queen is enjoying record public support. According to the British media, the monarchy is riding high at the moment on the back of last year’s royal wedding, buoyed up by a new generation of young royals [...]
Continue Reading →Fuel’s Gold II: Who Wears the Crown?
With renewed pledges from both the US and China to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, disputes between the Spanish and Argentine governments over biofuels and car manufacturers releasing a new generation of electric vehicles, sustainable fuel has been a prolific subject in the press during the last few months. Report International looked into media [...]
Continue Reading →‘Pretties’ Lighten Up Serious Business – Tales from the Bangkok Motor Show
The Geneva Motor Show, despite its glitz & glamour and overall positive press, ended on a slightly downbeat note, with grave concerns about the future of the European car industry being expressed by most major manufacturers. The 33rd Bangkok International Motor Show (BIMS to its friends) turned that on its head, gleaming as a beacon [...]
Continue Reading →UPS & TNT Deliver – A Major Takeover Without Much Criticism
Having analysed media coverage of a number of recent M&A bids, the most striking about the UPS acquisition of rival TNT was the lack of controversy. In contrast to, say, last year’s vilified AOL-Huffington Post takeover, the reaction was almost universally favourable. To some extent, it was good publicity for all four of the top [...]
Continue Reading →OLED or HTC by GDP? Does Regional Prosperity Determine Desirability in Tech Products?
It is difficult to overstate the importance of Asia in the world of tech. This year, China is forecast to overtake the US in becoming the leading global market for smartphones, already first place in terms of internet-connected TVs. The two global TV leaders, Samsung and LG are both South Korean companies. Along with Taiwan’s [...]
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