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Reuters blog archive
from Global Investing:
It’s all adding up – emerging markets to drive global spending
The world's leading ad agencies are positioning themselves in Brazil, Russia and China -- countries that are expected to provide almost a third of the growth in global advertising over the next three years. That's according to a report by S&P Capital IQ Equity Research, a unit of publishing giant McGraw Hill.
Most major advertisers already have a foothold in these BRIC economies, where the advertising market is projected to grow by an average 10.7 percent a year over the next three years -- more than three times the growth rate in the developed world. Over the next 15 years, big emerging markets will add $200 billion to the global ad spend, S&P Capital IQ reckons.
Hopes, unsurprisingly, are pinned on the soccer World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Olympics, both hosted by Brazil. Russia hosts the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi and Football World cup in 2018 and both these events are expected to boost ad spending. The behemoths of the ad world have prepared for this, says Alex Wisch, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ:
The global agencies have already developed a solid foundation in the BRICs, so the heavy lifting on the investment ramp is largely behind them.
from Photographers Blog:
Countdown to Sochi 2014
Sochi, Russia
By Kai Pfaffenbach
There are a few things you expect as a German photographer from cozy Frankfurt when your boss sends you to cover the test events for the upcoming 2014 Sochi Olympic winter games in Russia.
Will it be heavy snow and cold you have to brave? How difficult will communication be (as I don't speak Russian)? How will the general feeling of Russians be about Germans a few days after they celebrated the anniversary of their big victory over Hitler's sixth army in Stalin-(Wolgo)grad during WWII in 1943? Well, after nine days within the 70km (43 mile) perimeter of the 2014 Olympics I can say it is a bit of everything but it is definitely a balancing act between extremes.
from The Great Debate UK:
It is clear Britain got a ‘bounce’ from the Olympics, but much more is needed to secure long-term economic legacy
--Andrew Hammond is an Associate Partner at ReputationInc. He was formerly a UK Government Special Adviser, and a Senior Consultant at Oxford Analytica. The opinions expressed are his own.--
Six months since the London 2012 games began, a flurry of research has indicated that the UK’s international image has received a boost from hosting the Olympics and Paralympics. Most recently, the latest Anholt GfK Roper Nation Brands Index, released on January 17, showed that the United Kingdom edged up from fifth to fourth place since July 2012 in the survey’s overall country reputation rankings; only the United States, Germany and France currently have a more favourable nation brand.
from India Insight:
Voluntary reform is the only way out for Olympic pariah India
The outrage has simmered down, cricket has cast its usual mammoth shadow and there are burning, more important, social issues to deal with.
No wonder, there is simply no trace of the gloom that had descended on India after the world's second most populous nation was kicked out of Olympic family earlier this month.
from Left field:
Greg Rusedski blog: Murray still my tip for Sports Personality glory
With Britain's BBC Sports Personality of the Year approaching fast, it is going to be one of the most difficult years to win because of the brilliant performances of so many British athletes.
I cannot remember a year with more British sporting success. Andy Murray has had the best year of his career, becoming the first British man to win a major in 76 years. On top of that, he won Olympic gold at Wimbledon in singles, silver in the mixed doubles and also reached the Wimbledon singles final.
from MacroScope:
Olympics provided gold for Team GB, but not the economy
Britain's Olympic and Paralympic teams may have brought home more medals than organisers had dreamed possible but the Games themselves have probably failed to lift the economy as much as the government had hoped.
The country's gross domestic product will grow 0.6 percent in the current quarter, according to the latest Reuters poll, revised down from a 0.7 percent prediction in an August poll.
from The Great Debate UK:
We need an ‘Economics Team GB’ to secure London 2012 legacy
--Andrew Hammond is an Associate Partner at ReputationInc, and was formerly a UK Government Special Adviser, and Senior Consultant at Oxford Analytica. The opinions expressed are his own.--
With the Paralympics now concluded, the curtain has come down on a remarkable London 2012 and Diamond Jubilee Summer that has more than delivered on the “like no other” tagline given to it. Now, significant, urgent effort is required so that the once-in-a-generation opportunity for meaningful economic and reputational legacy is not lost - we need an 'Economics Team GB'.
from Full Focus:
Images of August
The Republicans held their convention in Tampa, Florida, against a backdrop of Hurricane Isaac which hit the Gulf Coast on the seventh anniversary of Katrina. The Summer Olympics wrapped up in London with Usain Bolt comfortably defending his title as the world's fastest man.
from John Lloyd:
Britain basks in its jingoistic achievement
The British like to think of themselves as self-deprecating, and normally they’re right, even if much of that is a self-compliment. But now, with Britain winning more Olympic medals than it had since 1908, self-deprecation has been jettisoned. It ended the games on Sunday with the third-most gold medals after the U.S. and China, and the fourth-most medals overall, with Russia just ahead.
This was good for a midsize, broke country. As the third spot seemed increasingly like the final result through the last week, the Brits became increasingly delirious. BBC commentators, normally schooled in judicious and balanced commentary, were shouting their larynxes out as the medals rolled in: When Sir Chris Hoy, the cycling tyro, won his sixth gold medal in the keirin (speed-controlled) race last Wednesday, the “commentary” melted into a stream of hysterical liquid sound.
from MediaFile:
Data shows thousands circumvented NBC Olympics coverage
At least one company benefited from Olympics fans in the United States who tried to circumvent NBC's television coverage during the London Games. AnchorFree, the Mountain View, Calif.-based startup released data to Reuters on Monday showing a major bump in users who installed a product that gives U.S. users an anonymous IP address in the United Kingdom. Presumably the people who signed up for the product, called ExpatShield, used it to watch BBC's online streams of the Olympics.
According to the data, the number of installs of the free software surged 1,153 percent in the United States during the games. The company, which recorded an average of 220 installs a day before the Olympics, saw the number of installs increase to 2,753 installs during the 17-day event.
