Sentinel has selected Manchester-based Access following a tender submission and presentation from three shortlisted agencies.

The new contract sees Access tasked with supporting Sentinel’s three-year brand vision, working closely with Sentinel to review the brand, company positioning and messaging to improve on and offline customer engagement. Access will also be providing Sentinel with full marketing support for the next two years.

“This new initiative will help establish Sentinel as a global force. This is an exciting time for the company; we work across consumer and wholesale markets so we’re looking for a dynamic way of showcasing our brand and range of products. We want to make it make it as easy as possible for our customer to find the information they are looking for on the website and instantly recognise Sentinel brand, and what it stands for in the trade environments,” commented Neil Davies, trade marketing director at Sentinel.

Access managing director, Simon Landi, added: “We are delighted to be working alongside to Sentinel to achieve their goals. As an integrated agency, this provides us with the opportunity to showcase our complete range of skills, from branding to social media, trade marketing and email marketing. All of which will help build the brand.”

Heineken lager brand Fosters is to run an experiential marketing campaign to support its continued ‘Good Call’ TV advertising.

Developed by Space, the activity will see brand ambassadors invite customers to play the Good Call, Bad Call Wheel of Fortune Game, which will be located at both the Old Trafford County Cricket Ground in Manchester during the Third Test of The Ashes Series, followed by the Edinburgh Fringe Festival between 14-16 August in George Square Gardens.

Consumers will spin the wheel with the hope of it landing on a ‘Good Call’ section, where they will win a branded prize. However, should it land on a ‘Bad Call’ section, then the competitor must face a forfeit of wearing an ‘outrageous Australian outfit’ of some description.

Players will be encouraged to upload photos and videos of playing the game to their Twitter and Facebook profiles, with further branded incentives on offer for doing so, while the Foster’s Facebook page will also post pictures featuring contestants.

Gayle Harrison, brand director for Foster’s, explained: “We focused on key sports and entertainment events for this experiential campaign to complement the brand’s ‘No Worries’ approach to life. Space have tapped into that vein perfectly, with activity that mirrors our current above-the-line advertising campaign and brings a fun and interactive dimension to the brand.”

Sean Kelly, group account director at Space, explained that the activity was devised in order to bring the TV advertising to life during the Ashes and Edinburgh Festival.

“The great thing about the Foster’s 'Good Call, Bad Call' campaign is that even if you make a 'Bad Call', you can still get a piece of the action by getting your mates to share their pictures of you online and having the chance to receive a prize,” added Kelly.

Further activity for the experiential campaign is expected to run after its run at the Fringe concludes.

The Sun is set to launch a sports show alongside its paywall on Thursday, anchored by Sky Sports News presenter Samantha Johnson and former England international John Salako.

The show will be called The Sun FC and bulletins will begin from 6am, featuring the paper’s latest football stories. The length of the shows will vary depending on how much news the title has to report and will broadcast from a new £3m studio in Wapping.

The announcement comes as The Sun gets ready to put up its £2 weekly Sun+ paywall. The new digital service will also offer a goals app featuring content from the English Premier League. From next year, the app will offer FA Cup footage.

The Sun digital editor, Derek Brown, said the service would not be a loop broadcast like Sky Sports News and said the digital bundle was being designed to offer enough to attract return visits, not just interest in goal highlights.

The sports content is one of three strategies The Sun will focus on, alongside the wider Sun+ digital product and range of special deals and rewards schemes to encourage reader loyalty.

Ahead of the paywall switch-on, The Sun published a landmark print edition of the paper.

High street footwear retailer Clarks has worked with Bristol-based animation company Sun & Moon Studios on a set of 3D animated ads.

Sun & Moon Studios completed two TV ads for the stores kid’s brands, Daisy and Jack Nano, along with microsites, games and POS imagery forming Clarks’ latest summer campaign for back to school shoes.

The adverts, which centre on the supporting apps, will run on TV and in cinemas between now and 31 August.

Sun & Moon Studios were approached by Clarks for the campaign, which are the studio's first global ads to date.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger warned that the recent NSA spying and surveillance revelations present a serious threat to journalism during a Q&A on social forum Reddit on Wednesday afternoon.

Rusbridger discussed the title’s coverage of the massive whistle blower revelations from Edward Snowden, developments within the journalism and media industries and even found time for a Malcolm Tucker quote.

Speaking about the repercussions of the NSA leaks on journalism, Rusbridger said: “I don’t think most news organisations have remotely considered the threat to journalism potentially posed by the methods revealed in the Snowden documents.

“One basic question: how are we going to have secure communication with sources in future - by phone, by chat, by email, by anything except face to face contact?

“And, obviously, the use of the Espionage Act - a First World War panic measure passed in 1917 - to clamp down on whistleblowing is really dismaying. But the US still has the First Amendment. Wish we had one of those in the UK.”

Rusbridger added that he had become much more careful about “everything digital” since the US and UK spying revelations: “The more you read of these documents, the more you realised they’re across pretty much everything,” he said.

One poster on the community forum asked Rusbridger if global scoops on that scale had a significant impact on the business and circulation of the paper. In short, the answer was no.

“Complicated answer: huge readership on mobile and website. Hasn’t made much impact on print sales. So, no direct revenues,” he explained. “It has also been very expensive: it’s involved a considerable number of reporters, several lawyers, a great deal of cost in travel/hotels etc etc.

“Happily, the Guardian has been owned by a family Trust since the 1930s. That means that the main imperative for what we do is journalistic. The business side of the operation completely support this kind of editorial endeavour because they understand that’s the mission.

“Having said that, we do have to make money. And this kind of reporting does - hopefully - reinforce a perception of the Guardian as a paper that still does proper journalism. And that, in the end, builds a readership and a reputation. And that’s being reflected in our digital revenues (grew last year 28.9 per cent to £55.9m). So, in the end, good journalism = good business. That’s the theory, anyway!”

When another poster brought up the suggestion of The Thick Of It actor Peter Capaldi, who plays Malcolm Tucker, playing Rusbridger in an upcoming movie about the Guardian’s Wikileaks story, Rusbridger responded with a classic Tucker quote: “Capaldi as Alan Rusbridger? About as much use as a marzipan dildo. Fuckity-bye!”

During the Q&A, Guardian writer Jack Schofield tweeted Rusbridger’s Reddit authentication picture.

Here's @guardian ed @arusbridger 's @Reddit authentication pic. AMA on #NSA at 10:30am EST http://t.co/2nZEUxmhza pic.twitter.com/ndKuxJWFol— Jack Schofield (@jackschofield) July 31, 2013

Following the ASA ruling in favour of Tesco for its Price Promise campaign, Sainsbury’s has released a statement suggesting that ‘one big lesson that we should all have learned from the horsemeat scandal’ is that customers want to know the providence of their food.

Sainsbury’s, which also launched a campaign today on the back of the ruling, released the statement, saying: “We believe that not all food is sourced equally and are committed to protecting customers’ right to make fair comparisons based on all important characteristics of a product and not just price.”

Mike Coupe, Sainsbury’s commercial director, said: “If there’s one big lesson that we should all have learned from the horsemeat scandal, it’s that customers care deeply about where their food comes from and how it is produced.

“While no horsemeat was found in any Sainsbury’s products, it’s absolutely clear to us that provenance and ethics form a fundamental part of customers’ decision making as they choose what to feed their families.

“We know this because we speak with thousands of customers every day. They tell us that food integrity matters to them just as much whether they are well-off or struggling to make ends meet.

“Well, it is obvious to us, and you’d have thought it would be obvious to Tesco. They have recently begun an attempt at recasting their ethical image and pushing fresh food credentials in a high-profile marketing campaign which encourages us to “love every mouthful”.

“But there's a basic contradiction between this advertising and the way they're operating their "Price Promise". We've made a formal complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about this. The arguments Tesco have used to defend their position include the suggestion that customers don’t actually care all that much about the provenance of their food or the ethical aspects of food production.

“When we originally challenged Tesco on its “Price Promise” advert earlier this year Tesco’s marketing director David Wood wrote: “Although ethical considerations may play a minor part in the customer’s considerations, we do not believe that this would be key to a customer’s transactional decision-making process, particularly in relation to these value products”.

“In other words, Tesco is saying that customers are not troubled by ethical considerations, especially for more affordable products.”

A survey collating people’s smartphone preferences alongside the health of their pay packets has reached the, perhaps, surprising conclusion that iPhone owners earn £2,500 less on average than their BlackBerry wielding compatriots.

In a further kick in the teeth for Apple fans the same survey also found that they were vain, being both more image conscious and spending more on clothes than BlackBerry owners.

Compiled by TalkTalk the survey quizzed 2,000 smartphone owners to arrive at its sweeping findings, apparently showing that certain personality traits are drawn more to some devices than others.

For their part BlackBerry owners were described as the busiest and Android owners were labelled as being politest and best in the kitchen.

Dan Meader, director of mobile at TalkTalk, said: 'Many of us have our mobile phones on us almost constantly so they do become an extension of us in many ways.

'It's interesting to see then how the choice in handset may reflect different aspects of personality and the results do reveal some quirky differences.

'Once you see yourself as a certain type of phone user, it can become a huge part of the way you live your life and people tend to subscribe to the one they feel suits them best.

'Of course, simply buying a certain type of phone doesn't mean your personality or way of living immediately changes, but the results could suggest that certain types of personality are drawn to different features and functions of certain handsets.'

Mini is set to unveil a campaign today to promote its brand positioning of ‘not normal’, which will be promoted through online and on digital poster sites across the UK.

Developed by iris Worldwide, the campaign features imagery created, inspired and produced by Mini fans to show the relationships consumers have with their cars; including Mini flower beds.

Shaun McIlrath, executive creative director of iris Worldwide, said: “Mini is a genuinely iconic brand with millions of fans worldwide. A vibrant creative culture emerged spontaneously around the brand and has existed for over 50 years. We wanted to showcase that creativity and the fact that truly inventive brands don’t just generate fans, they create inventors.

“People forget the things that brands say. They even forget most of things brands do, but they never forget the way a brand makes them feel. This campaign shows how MINIs make people feel - excited, full of fun and inventiveness.”

As part of the project, iris has also created an online film asking the public to help Mini track down those images and inventors they haven’t been able to find, so that they can celebrate their creations as part of the next phase of the dynamic campaign; before full digital activity begins on 12 August.

Anna Inglese, national communications and direct marketing manager at Mini, said: “The Mini brand, at its heart, is about inventiveness, excitement and fun. That’s reflected in the way people react to our products. Social media is full of amazing Mini creations; we’re simply surfacing them to show how MINI owners feel about their cars. It’s less of an ad campaign and more of a ‘thank you’ to all the creative people who love Mini.”

Media for the campaign was bought and planned by strategic media agency Vizeum.

Google Glass is set to be banned from use by drivers by the Department of Transport, ahead of the product’s launch next year.

According to Stuff magazine, the wearable tech glasses will be banned as they are seen as being able to distract drivers behind the wheel, in a similar vein as the use of mobile phones has been banned.

A spokesperson for TFL, commented: "We are aware of the impending rollout of Google Glass and are in discussion with the Police to ensure that individuals do not use this technology while driving. It is important that drivers give their full attention to the road when they are behind the wheel and do not behave in a way that stops them from observing what is happening on the road."

They continued: "A range of offences and penalties already exist to tackle those drivers who do not pay proper attention to the road including careless driving which will become a fixed penalty offence later this year."

Currently, drivers caught using a mobile phone while driving face a penalty of three points on their licence and a fine of £60.

See The Drum’s first impressions of Google Glasswhen it was given the opportunity to try a prototype earlier this year.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has weighed into the row over private investigators by calling for the publication of a secret list of firms which employed their services.

Clegg said that full disclosure of the identities of hundreds of businesses and organisations suspected of hiring investigators suspected of hacking would be in the best interests of ‘transparency’.

Amongst those said to be contained in the 102 strong list, compiled by the Serious Organised Crime Agency, are twenty two law firms alongside a host of insurance firms, financial services groups and two celebrities.

Legal restrictions have thus far prevented publication of the list but a growing clamour of voices senior figures are seeking ways through the impasse.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4 earlier the chairman of the home affairs select committee, Keith Vaz, said: “I don’t think that Parliament should be part of a ‘secret squirrel’ club, where we are given a list that is important and should be in the public interest and we are not able to publish it.

“The reason we can’t publish it at the moment… is because we are told that both the Information Commissioner and the Metropolitan Police may be interested in investigating the 94 companies, firms, individuals that are on the second list."

In a separate development home secretary Theresa May has announced measures to regulate the private investigations industry to bolster confidence and root out malpractice.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has accepted an undisclosed amount of damages from her own law firm, Russells, after they inadvertently outed her as the author of crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling.

Rowling had used the nom de plume of Robert Galbraith to pen the apparently debut novel, but an unguarded comment over dinner made by Russells partner Chris Gossage was picked up by a friend of his wife who confirmed it in a Twitter exchange with a journalist working for The Sunday Times.

Conceding liability for the breach Russells agreed to cover Rowling’s legal costs as well as a payment, by way of damages, to the Soldiers’ Charity.

In a statement the author also revealed that all royalties accruing from sales of The Cuckoo’s Calling would be donated to the same charity for a period of three years, backdated to 14 July when her identity first became known.

Rowling said: “This donation is being made to The Soldiers’ Charity partly as a thank you to the Army people who helped me with research, but also because writing a hero who is a veteran has given me an even greater appreciation and understanding of exactly how much this charity does for ex-servicemen and their families, and how much that support is needed."

Adidas has engaged iris to launch the new adizero F50 Messi boot, creating an online film featuring footballer Lionel Messi as he’s never been seen before.

‘The New Speed of Light’ features Messi in a bespoke LED suit, complete with LED football and lit up stripes on his boots. Filmed at 1,000 frames per second using a phantom camera the film aims to capture Messi’s football prowess, as well as highlighting the ‘light in motion’ design of the new boot.

A specially developed technique was then employed on the footage, directed by Marcus Lyall, to help explore the moves that make Messi the star player that he is today in intricate detail.

The film links through to the adidas e-commerce site where fans can then purchase the boot for themselves.

Twitter Ads has today unveiled a video showing Jacqueline Gold, the chief executive of Ann Summers and Knickerbox, discussing how the brand uses Twitter as a platform.

Gold discusses how the platform can get used to help boost brand perception.

From our point of view it has really helped with perception and it's encouraged people to engage with us that normally wouldn't have," explained Gold, who also talked about how the platform had helped it to build a community and present its brand personality.

The Drum’s social media supplement, out tomorrow, sees Sophie Barton, PR and social media manager for Ann Summers discuss with The Drum its use of Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest; chatting about the engagement the brand has with fans and their social media plans for the future.

Telecoms provider O2 is gearing up to launch its 4G network in London and Leeds by the end of the month as it becomes the first telecoms firm to challenge EE in the putative market.

Offering consumers mobile internet access at up to 10 times the speed of 3G the service will initially be available to an estimated 5m consumers before expanding by around 2m a month to reach 13 cities by the end of the year.

4G contracts will start at £26 per month without a handset, higher than comparable tariffs at EE which start at £21 – but is hoping its Rocky Balboa inspired ‘thumbbells’ will lure custom its way.

The announcement comes ahead of a similar move by Vodafone which is expected to announce its own 4G plans later this week

EE enjoys a significant head start in the market however having already reached 60 per cent of the UK population.

Dr. Martens is celebrating the diversity of its audience with a new global campaign bringing to life the brand’s positioning of rebellious self-expression.

Developed by creative agency ODD, #STANDFORSOMETHING will serve as the Dr. Martens communications platform for the next two years. The global initiative will hero real Dr. Martens’ authentic characters; who wear their boots and shoes with passion and pride, and their own personal stories about what they stand for.

“Dr. Martens are a global brand, and ultimately it’s the wearers that have helped shape what it is today. #STANDFORSOMETHING recognises this, while providing the perfect platform for us to engage our fans, new and old,” remarked Simon Jobson, Dr. Martens marketing director.

The activity kicks off with a film charting the history of Dr. Martens’ cross-generational and sub-cultural appeal, aiming to drive engagement with the brand’s digital and social channels. Further 90” and 30” films featuring some of the brand’s colourful wearers will also be seeded online within the bespoke Facebook app.

Online activity will be supported by print, OOH, POS, experiential and digital advertising.

Nick Stickland, founding partner and creative director at ODD, added: “The Dr. Martens consumer continues to inspire us day in day out, and in turning the lens on them, we hope to engage and inspire future generations of Dr. Martens wearers.”

Televisions are enjoying a second flush of popularity following a period of waning influence over the past decade, according to a new Ofcom study.

This found that living rooms are increasingly being transformed into ‘digital hubs’ with more than half of all adults now browsing, shopping and tweeting whilst watching programming.

These behavioural changes have been brought about by increased adoption of gadgets such as smartphones and tablets which make it easier for family members to multi task.

Overall Ofcom found that a quarter of households now own a tablet device with just over half having a smartphone in their pocket whilst most households contain an average of three internet ready devices.

The survey found that third of adults regularly use such gizmos to browse the web whilst watching TV while 24 per cent also post emails or other information online. A total of 16 per cent went shopping online and six per cent even managed to watch a different programme to that shown on their main screen.

James Thickett, director of research at Ofcom, said: “Increasingly, families are gathering in the living room to watch television just as they were in the 1950s. But unlike the 1950s family, they are also doing their own thing,

“They are tweeting about a television show, surfing the net or watching different content altogether on a tablet. Just a few years ago, we would be talking about last night’s television at work or at school. Now, we’re having those conversations live while watching television, using social media, text and instant messaging."

Twitter and Kantar Media have announced a partnership which will allow Kantar to provide broadcasters with more data about how their shows are received on the social network.

The companies will work together to develop tools to offer more detailed analytics data for media agencies and the service is expected to be commercially available by 2014.

The deal adds to a data sharing partnership announced earlier this year by Kantar Media with social TV analytics company SecondSync, designed to bring clients more in-depth insight into online consumer behaviour.

Chairman of Kantar Media, Andy Brown, said: “The relevance of social media buzz to the TV industry continues to grow. Broadcasters and advertisers alike are experiencing phenomenal growth in the level of buzz related to TV programming and associated commercials in recent years.

“Within the social media landscape, Twitter is the only platform that is public, real-time, and conversational. These characteristics have made Twitter a unique data set for the purposes of measuring live social TV conversation at scale and bringing new tools to broadcasters, agencies, and brands to understand and amplify the social engagement about their programming.

“Electronic TV measurement services remain first and foremost the recognised currency for TV viewing around the world. Tools such as those announced in development today will serve to complement the existing industry currency.”

A statement from Kantar said the data would enable broadcasters to assess programming, plan promotions and assist media buyers and sellers to “integrate social data more comprehensively” with TV.

The benefits of closer integration between TV and social media are becoming more documented, with a recent report by Business Insider claiming “Social TV” has the potential to “become a major business in its own right”.

Honda has zoomed to the top of the Viral Video Chart once again after recreating an incredible Ayrton Senna Formula 1 lap using only lights and speakers.

When Senna recorded his record-breaking 1:38.041 lap of Japan's Suzuka circuit in 1989, Honda's engine telemetary system recorded a whole host of data which has now been used to re-enact the late racing driver's incredible feat.

Using lights and speakers arranged in the path Senna took around the track, Honda has created a beautiful (and noisy) tribute to one of sport's greatest legends and secured its place at the top of the Viral Chart for the second time in three weeks.

The charts are compiled with the Viral Ad Network and are based on the number of shares each video has received on social media over the last seven days.

Tetley Tea has unveiled a new on pack promotion, asking consumers to help tea folk member Sydney, who has gone missing.

Created by Together, tea drinkers are offered a £1,000 reward if they find Sydney in their pack.

Jonathan Turner, partner at Together, said: “Tetley is a brand that people have an incredible amount affection for, so we were conscious that we had a huge responsibility working with what is essentially a national treasure.

“We feel that we’ve produced something that genuinely stands out on the shelf and offers a different and exciting experience to consumers in a highly competitive space.”

The promotion will feature on 10 million packs nationwide.

The campaign is also being run as part of Tetley’s ‘on the go’ business, with 750,000 promotional cups and game cards available in service stations, railway cafes and staff canteens.

British Gas has signalled its intent to make Saturdays more electrifying by offering customers free electricity during the day with the lowest power demand.

The move is intended to soothe anger over rising prices as well as ease the burden on mid-week demand, whilst cutting carbon emissions into the bargain.

The radical move is being heralded as a logical means to meet Britain’s looming energy crunch by redistributing demand rather than building a new breed of expensive power stations that may only operate for a few hours a year at times of peak demand.

It comes as Centrica, parent company of British Gas, reported a nine per cent uplift in half-year profits to reach £1.58bn owing to a cold snap over the winter.

The scheme has already been pioneered in the US, where consumers face higher mid-week bills to compensate, and would be dependent upon households installing a smart meter to automatically relay usage data.

Centrica chief exec Sam Laidlaw warned Britain faced blackouts ‘if there are further plant closures without new investment but added that the risk was ‘probably’ only for a ‘few hours a year’.