Channel 4 has announced that it is to axe its T4 brand this December, replacing it with a new music-driven format.

The T4 brand has targeted the 16-24 demographic since it launched in 1998 on Channel 4’s weekend morning slot. However as it failed to compete with the viewing figures for the network’s sister station E4, which also targets the youth market, Channel 4 took the decision to axe as it seeks to completely refresh its youth programming.

Dominic Bird, head of formats at Channel 4, is now looking for three music shows to pilot in the new year, which will be broadcast on Friday nights and designed to appeal to the T4 audience.

He said: "This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to develop a credible popular music show for Friday nights. The pilots reflect our continued ambition to provide our younger audiences on Channel 4 with a range of entertaining music content.

"Whilst T4 has historically been a much loved destination for our young audiences, its popularity has been incrementally diminished over time by the digital revolution.

"In a landscape where Channel 4 now provides E4, the nation's most popular channel for 16 -34 year olds, T4 has been fighting incredibly hard to maintain the cut through it once enjoyed, and now is the right time to look at more appropriate ways to serve our younger viewers."

Kerrang Radio is preparing to launch a new Smart TV app as part of a partnership with digital agency TBC.

Smart TVs are capable of connecting to the internet and downloading apps such as iPlayer or Sky Now, allowing for a consumer the experience very similar to that of a smart phone.

Kerrang’s offering will be previewed at the opening of the new Samsung Academy in Kidderminster, a new facility which will train up to 1000 16-18 year olds in the design and creation of apps for smart phone and smart TV devices.

TBC Digital Chairman Nick Brown said: “When my team at Sky was developing the Red Button we started the convergence of television and digital content. It is incredibly exciting to see interactive TV develop to the next level, especially with the opportunity for significant numbers of students learning to produce content for this medium.”

Back in August The Drum revealed that animal rights activists were calling for country life magazines such as Shooting Times and The Field to be relegated to the top shelf of magazine racks, sparking comparisons in the 'graphic' content to that of pornography.

And it would appear their cries have been heard by Britain’s largest newsagent, WH Smith, as it has taken the decision to introduce an over-14s age limit on magazines including the Shooting Times, claiming that is the age when a firearm licence can be legally obtained.

The announcement has received mixed reactions, as many sports enthusiasts have pointed out that there is in fact no minimum age for holding a shotgun licence in Britain, although children below 18 cannot buy or own a gun themselves and under-14s must be supervised by an adult.

They have also suggested the high street then limit the sale of magazines such as Top Gear to those old enough to drive.

In addition, those against WH Smith’s decision have added that there are no formal legal restrictions on magazine purchasing and that pornographic magazines can be sold to customers of any age, with newsagents displaying them on the top shelf only by convention.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Christopher Graffius of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, commented: “It is extraordinary that in WH Smith you can buy a car magazine at any age, despite the age limit of 17 for driving"

“You can also buy war magazines which depict the killing of people, yet WH Smith is concerned about children buying shooting magazines, a legal and Olympic sport.

“At the recent party conferences, frontbench spokesmen and government ministers sang the praises of shooting sports for the sense of responsibility and discipline that they encourage in the children who take them up," Mr Graffius added.

“Yet W H Smith is trying to keep the magazines that encourage that approach out of children’s hands."

A W H Smith spokesman said: “As part of our commitment to operate our business responsibly, we have a till prompt on shooting titles. It asks our store teams to check that the customer is 14 years old or over, based on this being the legal age at which someone can possess a firearms certificate."

Ahead of his key note speech at The Drum’s 4 Minute Warning: Think the Unthinkable event, Nick Consantinou, CEO at strategic-led creative agency Collective London has revealed that he believes brands cannot rely on current technology to make a connection with consumers, instead 3D printing will shape the way consumers and manufactures interact.

He commented: “I believe that reaching people is not about technology. It’s about understanding how people live their lives to help us produce experiences that embrace and experiment with new technologies.”

For Consantinou this focus on new technology has predominantly been on 3D printing, something he considers to be the next digital revolution.

He explained: “3D printing is one of these new technologies and I’m certain that it will kick off an industrial revolution and change the way people will connect with brands.”

3D printing is the process whereby a user can upload a 3D file to computer. The software then breaks down the file into thin layers and each layer is printed using a solid material (eg. plastic). This results in a solid object.

This technology has heralded the arrival of mass-personalisation for brands and manufacturers, whereby they will be able to offer, at a low cost, the personalisation of products which can be produced by consumers at home of via a third party. In addition, Consantinou suggests the way brand use social media, brand ambassadors and how they develop brand equity will also be influenced by 3D printing.

Constantinou will be discussing more on what 3D on the development of affordable 3D printing and home manufacturing, and what this will mean for products, brands, marketing and advertising. He has also confirmed he will perform a live demonstration of the world’s cheapest 3D printer.

As Skyfall, the 23rd Bond film of the series, prepares to hit our cinema screens marketers will be breathing a sigh of relief as critics have already dubbed it “the best Bond to ever.”

The much publicised and highly lucrative deal Heineken struck, which saw Bond swap his traditional Martini for an ice cold bottle of The Netherland’s finest, will now be viewed as £28 million well spent with critics such as The Independent's Geoffrey McNab saying: "If not a full blown triumph, this is certainly one of the best Bonds in recent memory."

Fashion and Lifestyle magazine GQ also gave collective thumbs up to the subtle yet effective product placement, with its critic stating: “The product placement is not as prominent as you'd think. There are a number of Sony Vaios, a glance at an Omega timepiece, a conspicuous bottle of MacCallan Whisky, the occasional Coke Zero and two beers that cost Heineken around £14m each.

“For all the talk however, there's more gratuitous shilling in your average R&B video and it never gets in the way of the story.”

Indeed, the men’s style guide said: “This may be the most fallible, human and downright believable Bond we've seen on screen. He also looks terrific - he'll sell a lot of Tom Ford pinstripe suits and knitted ties.”

Sony marketers will also be taking a break from ongoing Apple battles to watch Bond do their work for them, as two hours of "the most beautiful in Bond's 50-year career," see Bond give the Sony Xperia Smartphone his seal of approval.

In addition, brands such as Omega took out print advertising to coincide with the films launch, and thanks to reviews hailing Daniel Craig in Skyfall as the most stylish and sexy Bond yet they can expect to sell a few more timepieces to men looking to seduce their own Bond girl or defeat the forces of evil.

Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror has announced a restructure of its management team and consolidated its national and regional divisions in order to create a new model entitled ‘One Trinity Mirror’

One management structure will now oversee both the national and regional divisions, which the company has said will allow it to accelerate the rollout of digital products across its portfolio in order to drive revenue, while Mark Hollinshead, who becomes chief operating officer and executive director, will oversee the consolidated operation.

The company has revealed that Hollinshead's annual base pay will continue to be £375,000, and he will continue to have a bonus potential of 75 per cent of his salary, half of which is payable in cash and the other half in restricted shares, the release of which will be deferred for three years.

Recently appointed CEO Simon Fox will now oversee the digital product development and specialist digital businesses, which includes recruitment, property and digital marketing, as well as its contract printing operations.

As a result of these changes to the management structure, Georgina Harvey, managing director of regionals and Nick Fullagar, director of corporate communications will depart.

The recently launched daily deals site Happli will also close, as the company has decided that it is ‘unlikely to reach sufficient scale to become profitable’.

Fox commented:"It has very quickly been confirmed to me that Trinity Mirror is a business with great brands, passionate and dedicated people and significant unrealised potential. What has become clear in my first few weeks is that realising this potential requires a flatter and more efficient management structure that connects strategic decision making more closely with the journalistic heart of the business.

“I believe the changes we are making today will create One Trinity Mirror with a unique portfolio of national and regional brands and the best structure from which to develop our longer term strategic direction. I will provide a strategic update in early 2013."

BAA is to drop its name, with its airports across the UK set to operate under their own brands.

The decision to drop the BAA brand has been explained as being due to the organisation no longer seeing itself as a group, meaning that its airports Heathrow, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Southampton and Standstead will operate under their stand-alone brands.

Colin Matthews, chief executive of Heathrow, said: "We are a different company today from when BAA was formed. Over the last few years we have sold our stakes in Gatwick, Edinburgh, Budapest and Naples airports and we are in the process of selling Stansted Airport. The BAA name no longer fits. We do not represent all British airports; we are not a public authority; and practically speaking the company is no longer a group as Heathrow will account for more than 95% of the business."

"Dropping the BAA name marks a symbolic break with the company of the past. We want Heathrow's focus to be on its customers, to continue to improve its operational performance and to carry on investing billions of pounds in new passenger facilities. This summer, the Olympics and Paralympics showed the UK and Heathrow at their best, delivering a welcome of which the UK could be proud. Now we have to build on that welcome still further, providing a better experience to our customers every single day."

Microsoft, Apple and Samsung are set to engage in an almighty advertising battle this Christmas with some analysts forecasting their combined expenditure could rival that of a Presidential election.

They are expected to splash out a combined $5bn during the run-up to the all-important seasonal market with Microsoft setting aside an estimated $1.8bn for the launch of Windows 8.

Samsung meanwhile is expected to dole out $2.7bn to plug its Galaxy series of mobile devices this year whilst arch rival Apple spends just shy of $1bn.

Marketing budgets have increased by over 50% at a host of digital firms in recent years, notably at Amazon and Google, which both splashed out $1.4bn in 2011.

This has led Enders Analysis to speculate that global budgets for mobile promotions could top $5bn.

Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis said: “One and a half billion for Windows 8 sounds like a lot of money, but in the context of these companies it seems reasonable and appropriate. Microsoft need to communicate a fundamental change in their platform that is hugely strategically important to them in terms of driving their business into mobile."

As many as three and a half thousand Muslims have reportedly demonstrated outside Google’s London HQ to complain about an anti-Islam film hosted by YouTube.

‘The Innocence of Muslims’ has sparked global protests by members of the faith who have been outraged at its mockery of their views.

They are calling for the film to be banned, a move which Google has thus far steadfastly refused to do, pointing out that the video sits ‘within its guidelines’.

Protest organiser organiser Masoud Alam said: "Our next protest will be at the offices of Google and YouTube across the world. We are looking to ban this film.

"This is not freedom of expression, there is a limit for that. This insult of the Prophet will not be allowed.

A YouTube spokesperson said: "We work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions.

"This can be a challenge because what's OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere. This video - which is widely available on the Web - is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube."

Sainsbury’s has launched its ‘Active Kids For All’ initiative, to help make sure that disabled children in schools are included in PE.

The identity for the campaign, which forms part of the retailer’s ‘Paralympic Games Legacy’, was created by INITIALS Marketing.

Lucy Savage, director at INITIALS Marketing, said: “The Active Kids For All creative is designed to have synergy with Sainsbury’s Active Kids, but with a more adult feel to appeal to teachers and other professionals, who are serious about learning how to work with kids of all abilities. We combined creative cues from the London 2012 Paralympic Games logo with the Sainsbury’s brand to serve as a lasting legacy of Sainsbury’s commitment to support inclusive sport.”

The campaign creative, which will feature on all training materials, has been designed as to compliment the wider Active Kids campaign; with the aim to instill confidence in teachers and support staff to include disabled children within PE lessons and sport activity.

Jat Sahota, Sainsbury’s head of sponsorship, said: “Eighty percent of all disabled children in education currently attend mainstream schools and many may not be fully included in PE classes and sports lessons. Our Active Kids For All scheme is one of the ways we’re looking to tackle this issue by helping to grow the confidence of teachers in schools.

“It was important for the identity to retain a level of recognition of the Active Kids campaign while marrying this with a little spirit of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, which we have in the design from INITIALS Marketing.”

HP Sauce has unveiled a push to promote the brand to a male audience, including its first TV ad in five years.

The campaign by M&C Saatchi, which will also include radio sponsorship with TalkSPORT from 27 October, social media and in-store activity, focusses on ‘man truths’.

Lucy Clark, senior brand manager, said: “As this is the first HP TV advert in five years, we wanted to implement a high-impact multimedia campaign around it that’s packed full of attitude and grabs the attention of younger male consumers, reminding them that the big, bold flavour of HP Sauce is the ultimate sauce of manliness for a bacon sandwich.”

The HP spokesman featured in the ad will be the face of the campaign, which aims to appeal to men between the ages of 25 and 44.

Carrie Hindmarsh, CEO at M&C Saatchi, added: “At last, after a five year absence, HP is back with a brand new campaign – to reveal the simple, unvarnished truth about modern men. This ad neatly sums up what modern manliness means – a love of sport, mastering DIY and of course, HP Sauce.”

Shazam, the media engagement firm, has announced a partnership with multi-platform advertising network Adforce to offer in-app advertising as well as Shazam for TV to the Irish market.

Shazam for TV has been integrated into advertisements in the US for over 18 months; including campaigns for companies such as Sony, Pepsi and Toyota; the latest deal would extend this to the 500,000 or so Shazam subscribers in Ireland.

It provides on-screen prompts for viewers to glean additional information and special offers for products and services and has now been integrated with over 140 campaigns worldwide.

Miles Lewis, Vice President of Ad Sales at Shazam, said “We are delighted to work with Adforce.ie to bring Shazam-enabled ads to the Irish market. This will empower leading consumer brands to connect with our millions of fans who will be able to experience an extended engagement using the second screen - one of the newest and most convenient and innovative ways possible.”

Kevin Foley, Commercial Director at Adforce.ie added, “Working with Shazam means we can once again bring innovative advertising options to the market in Ireland. Shazam offers the ability for greater interaction with other popular media sources like TV and radio. The 30-second TV ad can live beyond that limited timeframe to engage customers further with bonus content in the form of additional information, vouchers, competitions and more. This partnership means that TV buyers and ad agencies in Ireland now have a very compelling media engagement solution for its clients using what is a clear market leader.”

A survey conducted by Pure360 and YouGov of the most popular communication mediums has found that SMS and email are the most likely to elicit the fastest response.

Some 55% of Britons stated that they responded quickest to SMS/text messages from family and friends with email ranked as the second most effective platform with 22% citing it as the most likely to grab their attention.

By contrast voice messages were held up by just 12% of respondents as the most likely means to generate a reply.

The survey of over 2,000 people found that Twitter was the least effective way to grab a snappy response with just 1% of respondents citing it as quickest, whilst Facebook fared little better. Just 5% would respond urgently to a message or wall post.

Abi Jacks, Head of Marketing at Pure360 said: “With the huge enthusiasm for social media these days, we were surprised to find it quite so irrelevant and slow as a conversational tool. Interestingly, there are as many people responding quickly to tweets as there are responding quickly to postcards.”

Brits are more likely to protect their social media passwords than their brank and credit card details, research by Staples has revealed.

The research found that a third would leave their bankcards or statements open on a shared network at work, lying on the desk or loose in the bin without being destroyed or shredded; while only 1 in 10 would leave their Facebook page open on a shared network, or display details such as address or date of birth on their page.

Amee Chande, MD of Staples, said: “While it’s nice to feel comfortable with one’s colleagues, sharing bankcards and PIN numbers with others can lead to problems. Not only does that potentially expose someone to identity fraud, but also runs the risk of not being covered by your bank insurance if a card or money does go missing.

“In support of National Identity Fraud Week during the week of 15 – 22 October it’s important to remember the importance of taking care to protect personal information."

The research found that 13 per cent had given their bank bankcards and PINs to colleagues in order to get a sandwich.

However, despite the protection over giving out social media passwords, it was discovered only a third use different passwords for their online accounts, and more than seven in 10 only changing their passwords every 12 months or more.

But now we are asking other agencies to get involved. As we explained when we began this project, one agency - Cooke With an E - was left posterless when its rival had tot pull out. Puur Creative was the first to step up and produced a poster from the brief given by Cooke With an E, and now we need an agency for Puur.

The agency who takes on this challenge will then have its brief published as a call for another firm and so on and so forth. If all goes to plan we hope to carry the project through to next year and create an exhibition of Truce Commission work.

You can find the briefs, creative work, and rationales below. To get involved take a look at the Puur Creative brief below and contact project co-ordinator Jen Faull – jen.faull@thedrum.com.

BAXTER AND BAILEY'S BRIEF

Agency background:
Baxter and Bailey is a London based communication design studio founded by Matt Baxter and Dom Bailey. The studio will have a strong focus on the architecture, design, technology and arts sectors. It's where these sectors converge that Baxter and Bailey see exciting potential for creativity and collaboration between ambitious clients, creative agencies and their respective networks.

What would you like your poster to say?
We are new.
We are experienced.
We are focused on architecture, design, technology and the arts.

Who should it be aimed at?
Commissioners from the world of architecture, design, technology and the arts.

What do they currently think of your agency?

Let's see what Baxter and Bailey will do.

What would you like them to think after seeing the poster?

Let's meet up with Matt and Dom.

Any mandatories? E.g. website, office address, company logo.

matt@baxterandbailey.co.uk
dom@baxterandbailey.co.uk

And/Or our Twitter feed

@baxterandbailey

Logo (optional). Can be supplied on request.

Real Radio has announced it is to axe more regional shows with the news that its mid-morning and afternoon slots will be covered by networked shows from Monday 5 November.

The news follows July’s decision to remove its popular football phone-in show and replace it with a “music programming mixed with travel, news, and weather, key to the drivetime audience.”

Darren Parks and Debbie Mac will now host the 10am-1pm and 1pm-4pm shows respectively. Darren, known as ‘Parksy’ has covered the mid-morning show on Real North West in recent years while Debbie will continue to host weekday afternoons in the North West alongside the rest of the network.

Peak breakfast and drivetime shows will continue to be hosted locally during the week, whilst at weekends each station will retain a locally produced late breakfast show and move to networked programming for the rest of the day.

Andy Carter, managing director of Real and Smooth Limited Group, commented: “Advances in technology mean we know we can produce high quality programming which is relevant to the lives of our audience and maintain the local content that is important to them, such as news, travel and weather.

“Our recent experience with Smooth shows that you can grow audience by providing high quality content from a single source.”

Domino’s Pizza has launched a competition with ITV’s This Morning, inviting viewers to submit their top pizza topping ideas to create ‘the People’s Pizza’.

The entries will be whittled down by a panel of experts, before the top three are put to the public vote at London’s Southbank on 29 November.

The winning choice of pizza will then be available to buy from Domino’s from early next year.

Simon Wallis, sales and marketing director for Domino’s, said: “We are delighted to be supporting this competition on ITV’s most iconic daytime TV show.

“We can’t wait to see what the This Morning viewers suggest for their pizzas and how the judges and public get on picking the top topping talent. We’re looking forward to launching the winning entry, the People’s Pizza, in our stores next year.”

Carat has announced the appointment of Anne McCreary as digital strategy director; joining from her role as lead digital strategist at Skive.

McCreary will report to Lisa Story, head of Carat’s creative and strategic innovation unit, and will oversee opportunities offered by digital, mobile and social media.

She said: “For the first time digital and social media allows us to develop truly integrated campaigns so brands can develop closer and more effective relationships with audiences. In my role at Carat I will be working closely with clients to help them move away from siloed working practices and create consistent and rewarding brand experiences at every consumer touch-point. The team at Carat is filled with energy and a can-do-attitude, which is exciting and refreshing and I am excited to be able to bring my expertise to the team.”

Her initial projects will include working with the sponsorship and media buying teams to devise strategies across the GM business.

Tracy De Groose, managing director at Carat, said: “Our work needs to be powered by specialists across a variety of disciplines. We actively recruit the best talent from a wide range of backgrounds and Anne’s social expertise, with a focus on social data and creativity, will add huge value to our offering, further enhancing the media solutions that Carat delivers to make a real impact on our clients' businesses.”

Energy company E.ON has partnered with marketing and technology agency LBi to launch its ‘Best Deal For You’ service – an easy-to-use online tool which matches customers to the best E.ON energy plan for them.

To support the tool, LBi has developed its first bought media campaign for E.ON, comprising of a series of standard and rich media banner ads, as well as branded films to be shown on digital outdoor screens in locations across the UK. The digital drive is part of E.ON’s wider ‘Best Deal For You’ campaign which includes TV, press, radio, direct, PR and in-store activity.

Head of digital at E.ON, Pardeep Duggal, commented: “LBi has created a beautifully simple online tool, and an engaging digital marketing campaign, which we hope will help plenty of people go online and find their best tariff.”

The initiative follows LBi and E.ON’s in-house web development team’s collaboration earlier this year to unify the brand’s website into one single user experience.

Greg Georgiades, client partner at LBi, added: “We’re delighted to have collaborated with them again on this new initiative. It’s a great example of our blended approach, involving a broad range of skillsets and also leveraging our bought media expertise.”

Over the last year, full and part time workers have increased their coupon usage the most, research by Sainsbury’s has found, while only 15 per cent of students are likely to use coupons when doing their weekly shop.

Research released to tie in with the first anniversary of Sainsbury's Brand Match found that 93 per cent of Brits use coupons to save money on their grocery shopping, with 30 per cent saying that they have increased usage over the past year.

Mike Coupe, Sainsbury's group commercial director, said: "It is great to see coupon usage in the UK is now the norm and that people are getting the deals they deserve at the till. We know our customers are looking for value as well as quality which is why Brand Match has proved a huge success over the last year.

"Our industry leading technology checks 14,000 branded grocery products every day. This means we can take the hassle out of bargain hunting by instantly giving customers a money saving coupon if their basket of branded goods would have been cheaper at Asda and Tesco."

The research found that 46 per cent believe that being coupon-savvy is now normal, and no longer thought of as something that only people who need to scrimp do.

Do you think that coupons is becoming the biggest marketing technique used by supermarkets?