Urban Outfitters has selected digital media agency 7thingsmedia to handle its global affiliate marketing activity.

7thingsmedia has now been tasked with providing strategic global insights into the potential performance of marketing for Urban Outfitters.

“7thingsmedia is a great fit for the European Urban Outfitters’ affiliate & digital expansion,” commented European marketing director for Urban Outfitters, Denise Fender. “We are looking forward to working with them across both new and existing territories.”

Chris Bishop, founder and CEO of 7thingsmedia, added: “We are thrilled to be selected by Urban Outfitters and to have the opportunity to contribute to their business in a significant way globally. We fully believe our ability and dominance in the space mean will, yet again, lead to substantial online growth for this truly awesome global brand.”

Weetabix has unveiled a new £4 million integrated marketing push, following two children and their grandpa creating mayhem in the house while mum and dad are out.

Created by BBH, the campaign will include cinema and radio activity, a Disney children’s TV partnership, and significant in store activity consisting of on pack promotion and retailer-exclusive value-add promotions.

Francesca Davies, marketing manager at Weetabix, said: “The back to school period is well reported by mums as being a particularly busy time. Often new uniforms, stationery and lunchboxes are the big things on her mind. We are keen to ensure that, in order to give her children the best possible start to the new term, what she puts in their tummies is also front of mind.

“We’re excited about the campaign’s ability to talk to both mums and children, and are committed to pushing our investment truly through the line to ensure Weetabix is front of mind at those key moments of truth.”

This builds on the previous ‘fuel for big days’ push.

At the risk of mobilising the band's army of Directioners, it is impossible not to detect the distinct whiff of cheese eminating from One Direction's perfume ad - and we don't think it's coming from Liam's feet.

The ad features the boy band sniffing the notes of their new scent - wild berries, pink grapefruit, jasmine petals and freesias. No doubt they'll soon be smelling the sweet scent of money too - because no matter how bad we say this ad is, the teenage longing for all things 1D is so strong the lads could lend their name to any old tat and it would probably fly off the shelves.

The band behind Best Song Ever have not quite created the Worst Ad Ever, but it is the worst of the week.

The Co-operative Electrical has become the first major UK retailer to use picture-chatting app Snapchat for marketing, as part of a campaign designed for students.

Created by Holler, the ‘Snaptop’ campaign offers students £30 off their online price on its full range of laptops, which includes free delivery and an allocated 60-minute delivery slot.

The discount is received when a student adds Co-operative Electrical as a friend on Snapchat, with the company then sending them a promotional code. However, with Snapchat messages self-destructing, students need to be quick to copy the code.

Pete Jackson, Holler senior planner, said: “This is not about novelty. This is about targeting a specific audience using a platform they love, with something they need, at the time of year they need it.”

Launching this week, the campaign is set to run until 11 October.

Gail Lyon, social media lead for The Co-operative Group, said: “It’s the first social campaign that The Co-operative Electrical has done, and the business is the first big retailer to market using Snapchat.

“Following this Snaptop campaign, we will be following up with two further social media campaigns, both with the intention of increasing awareness and consideration.”

After teasing the possibility of a fifth X Factor judge on Twitter - and sparking the inevitable ‘Simon Cowell to return rumours’ - ITV has revealed the fifth judge will, in fact, be the show’s loyal viewers.

ITV has updated its X Factor mobile app with a ‘Fifth Judge’ section allowing viewers to “play the role of judge from the comfort of their own living rooms.”

During the series, which launches this weekend (Saturday 31 August), viewers will be able to predict which acts will make it through to the next stage of the competition, giving real-time feedback on each performance.

“The best thing about digital platforms is that they bring the audience closer to the shows they love…with innovations like the Fifth Judge game, we expect that viewers will feel part of the show like never before,” remarked head of interactive at FremantleMedia UK, Peter Cassidy.

Athena Witter, executive producer of entertainment at ITV Online, added: “Interactivity is a real focus this series and our improved digital offering is all about providing fans with more opportunities to be truly integrated with the show. We are also very excited to be launching the new X Factor website, offering fans all the exclusive content and backstage gossip throughout the series.”

We Are Social has announced a number of senior hires to its London headquarters, including the appointment of Hypernaked’s James Irvine who joins the agency as a group account director.

Irvine, previously a strategic account director at Hypernaked, spent two years with his former agency and before that held account director roles at CST Advertising and Publicis. His new role sees him charged with overseeing a portfolio of client accounts as well as driving new business for the agency.

Mark Wainwright has also joined We Are Social as a senior account director on its Adidas team. Prior to the appointment Wainwright held the role of senior digital consultant and Launch PR. And Lisa Hardy, account director at specialist social media agency Social Fuel, has been appointed as account director, working across a number of clients.

Journalist and blogger, Emma Gannon, formerly of Edelman, has been hired to the agency as well, in the role of senior account manager. Nick Dodd also leaves digital marketing agency Leapfrogg to become senior account manager, working on Jaguar UK and global, at We Are Social.

“I’m delighted to welcome such a talented group of people to the We Are Social team,” said Jim Coleman, managing partner at We Are Social. “We’re growing very quickly, so it’s vital to have strong and experienced leadership at all levels of the agency to maintain our extremely high standard of work for clients.”

The Paisley Daily Express was the only title to buck the trend of falling print sales in the six months to June 2013, growing its circulation by 9.9 per cent year-on-year to an average of 7,567 per day.

According to the latest figures released by the newspaper sales auditing body, the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), nearly half of the UK’s regional daily newspapers lost print sales at a rate of more than 10 per cent in the first half of 2013.

Buoyed by a relaunch last year by publishers Media Scotland, the Paisley Daily Express was helped by a price cut of 15p – down to 30p from 45p this time last year – and a new look and editorial offering.

A statement from Media Scotland editor-in-chief Allan Rennie praises the title calling the figures a “tremendous testament to the editorial and sales teams”.

Out of 70 UK regional daily newspapers audited by ABC 34 of them had lost sales at a rate of more than 10 per cent year-on-year, with Brighton’s The Argus down 25.8 per cent to 16,622, the East Anglian Daily Times falling 21.2 per cent to 22,652, and the Sheffield Star with a circulation of 28,072, down 20 per cent year-on-year.

Despite average sales being down 9.6 per cent Wolverhampton’s the Express and Star remains the UK’s best-selling regional, with the Liverpool Echo and the Manchester Evening News following in second and third place respectively.

Though print sales were in decline regional newspaper websites recorded a surge in traffic with three regional newspaper publishers passing 10 million monthly readers for the first time during the first half of 2012.

Johnston Press recorded over 11 million visitors to its site, including the Scotsman, Yorkshire Evening Post and Sunderland Echo, a rise of 13.6 per cent from last year. Newsquest also saw an increase of 24.6 per cent in monthly unique browsers for visitors to its titles such as the Northern Echo and Lancashire Telegraph. Trinity Mirror, owner of the likes of the Birmingham Mail, Wales Online and the Manchester Evening News, also reported a year-on-year increase of 5.8 per cent to its sites.

Nicely macho ad for FilmFour +1. A rugged chap is out shooting clay pigeons - but the twist is that they're the film reels of 'guy' films like Das Boot. A thumping backing track plays as he misses his targets - the premise being that this needn't happen thanks to the catch-up channel. Wonder why they didn't choose any Jennifer Aniston flicks?

Agency: 4 Creative
Creative Director(s): Dan Chase
Creative Team: Barry Dyer
Film Prod Co: 4 Creative
Director: Barry Dyer
Producer: Catherine Wood
Dir of Photography: Matt Fox
Production Designer: James Thompson
Post-Prod House: Envy
VFX Producer / Supervisor: Marcus Dryden Editing House: The Quarry
Editor: Bruce Townend
Audio House: Rich Martin @ Envy

The BBC has released a teaser trailer for this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, which launches on Saturday 7 September.

The trailer, which features the professional dancers taking part in the series, introduces five new faces following the departure of Erin Boag, Vincent Simone, Flavia Cacace and Aliona Vilani.

15 celebrities – seven men and eight women - will be taking part in the new series with the launch show set to overlap ITV’s Saturday night entertainment offering, The X Factor, sparking the first ‘ratings battle’ of the year between the two shows.

Police have urged mobile phone users to ignore an urban myth which suggests calling 999 charges their phone battery.

Derbyshire Police have revealed that they have received several phone calls from mobile users who believed dialing the emergency helpline would power their handset as they’d heard that calling 999 from a mobile and then disconnecting boosts battery.

A spokesperson for Derbyshire Police said: “There is no way any mobile phone battery can be boosted by anything other than a normal charger.

"We have received several silent 999 calls recently which have turned out to be people who are trying to get more charge on their phone.Every time we get a silent or aborted 999 call we have to spend time ringing that person back to ensure they are safe.

"That takes up valuable time which could be spent dealing with a real emergency.

"We’re appealing to anyone who hears this myth to ignore it and not waste their time or the time of emergency service personnel."

WPP has released its interim results, reporting £2.613bn ($4.180bn) in net new business wins in the first half of the year for advertising and media investment management.

Describing this sector as its ‘strongest performing’, the results noted that JWT, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Y&R, Grey and United generated net new business billings of £897m ($1.436bn), while GroupM led to net new business billings of £1.372bn ($2.195bn).

Overall, WPP reported that billings increased by five per cent to £22.7bn, along with a revenue growth of 7.1 per cent, with like-for-like growth of 2.4 per cent, 3.1 per cent growth from acquisitions and 1.6 per cent from currency.

However, it was also reported that average net debt increased by £205m (+7 per cent) to £3.128bn compared to last year.

The Sun on Sunday will undergo a radical overhaul, according to The Guardian, just 19 months after Rupert Murdoch launched it.

Speculation is mounting that a new, but “not too dramatic”, title will be introduced as well as an overall new look with new columnists.

The paper, which was originally launched to fill the void left when News of the World shut down, has also brought in 16 new staff in a bid to introduce "fresh energy, skill and new ideas" to the Sun's Sunday edition and set it apart from other papers on the stand.

David Dinsmore was only recently appointed editor, taking over from Dominic Mohan.

The relaunch is expected in the coming weeks.

Technology festival and school for code-cracking Campus Party has commissioned wall art on the streets of London, Birmingham and Bristol that challenges members of the public to break codes to be in with a chance of winning tickets.

The geeky graffiti includes lines of code alongside some of the world’s greatest technological minds, including British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist Alan Turing.

Included in the street art is undeciphered Morse code, JavaScript and Binary code hiding secret messages in a bid to get young people interested in coding.

Holly Marshall, Campus Party manager at O2, commented: “Deciphering code has long been a role for some of the greatest minds the world has ever produced.

“At Campus Party we want to bring skills such as code breaking to the masses, broadening the digital skill base in the process. This unique graffiti gives a taste of what we can expect to see during the festival, whilst providing a talking point that resonates and intrigues our key tech-savvy community.”

As well as Turing, the artwork features those speaking at the September event including Atatri creator Nolan Bushnell and executive director of Linux Jon ‘Maddog’ Hall.

Trustpilot, a consumer review platform headquartered in Denmark and operating in 24 countries, has appointed Tomorrow People to handle its content and inbound marketing strategy as looks to grow in the UK.

Tomorrow People has been tasked with delivering an integrated digital strategy that will target both consumers and merchants.

Jan Vels Jensen, chief marketing officer at Trustpilot, said: “In today’s self-service culture it is essential to have a content marketing strategy to get to the table at all. We were looking for a creative, and result-driven content/inbound marketing agency.”

He added: “Tomorrow People were the right fit on both counts. We are very happy to be working with them to increase awareness in the UK market.”

Simplyhealth is set to return as the sponsor of Doc Martin, as the show enters the sixth season.

Clare Lee, Simplyhealth’s head of brand, PR and digital marketing, said: “Having sponsored the last two series in 2009 and 2011 we are delighted that ITV are bringing back a new series this autumn. Simplyhealth creative will be shown before and after each episode and in the ad breaks and will focus on promoting our range of healthcare benefits and be set on the backdrop of our bright and colourful Simplyhealth world.”

Steve Jordan, business development manager at ITV, added: "We are delighted to be continuing our long running partnership with Simplyhealth as the sponsors of Doc Martin. We believe the series is a great brand fit for Simplyhealth and look forward to working with them to activate the sponsorship."

The season is set to launch on ITV on 2 September, and will run for eight weeks.

High street retailer Primark has unveiled its new autumn campaign drawing influences from 90s grunge culture.

Set in East London and created by design agency The One Off, the urban industrial backdrop aims to compliment Primark’s new collection as well as reinforcing the new season trend.

Spanning menswear, womenswear and childrenswear, the campaign consists of studio and location shots in mix of black and white and colour.

Set to launch in store and online in both the UK and Europe from Sunday 8 September the autumn activity follows the recent Primark Denim Co. launch campaign also created by The One Off.

This is such a good idea that it must have been tempting to exclude the car from it altogether and let the metaphor stand for itself. But maybe that was too brave even for Audi. It's an immensely clever celebration of discreet power. When we picture a boxing match, we see two individuals going at it hammer and tongs. But they're not alone - there's a third person in the ring and he's in charge.

Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty
Creative Director(s): Matt Doman / Ian Heartfield Creative Team: Simon Pearse / Emmanuel Saint M'Leux
TV Producer: Ruben Mercadal
Film Prod Co: Academy Films
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Producer: Simon Cooper
Dir of Photography: Barry Ackroyd
Production Manager: Bugs Hartley
Post-Prod House: MPC
Editing House: The Quarry
Editor: Paul Watts

Ashley Highfield, the chief executive of Johnston Press, has insisted that a warning by Deloitte over Johnston Press's going concern status was "not new news", as the company reports a £248.7m half-year pre-tax loss.

Net debt fell during the period from £361.7m to £306.4m, with the £10m buy-out by News International of its print contract playing a part in this.

Highfield said: “Although the economic outlook is not without challenges, momentum has continued into the second half, underpinned by the re-structuring and re-focusing of the business, an increasingly stable advertising market and growth in circulation and digital revenues. This has enabled us to report like for like operating profit up 4.3 per cent, digital revenues up 13.3 per cent and net debt down 15.3 per cent, with total advertising decline rate narrowing to 6.3 per cent during June and July 2013.

“We remain focused on adapting our business to the changing environment in which we operate and reaching the point where digital growth will offset any further decline so that we can return to overall top line growth.”

Speaking to the Herald, he added: "The auditors are required to look 15 months out and looking at the outer quarters they wish to highlight, and indeed we have highlighted, that were a tsunami of a combination of events to happen we might get closer to our (bank) covenants than we would ideally like. It is prudent to make people aware of it."

This comes after Highfield described 2012 as a ‘challenging’ year, following the company reporting a pre-tax profit of £12.6m.

However, yesterday’s ABC figures confirm that the company is seeing a rise in terms of digital, with over 11 million visitors to its site, including the Scotsman, Yorkshire Evening Post and Sunderland Echo.

New sports nutrition product GoNutrition has engaged North West branding and digital agency Ahoy to devise, manage and produce its brand identity.

Tasked with carrying out the branding, packaging, website design and print services for the brand, Ahoy has created a vibrant, polished image for the brand that aims to convey the product tagline ‘Go Further’, as well as appealing to the target market of sports users and athletes.

Working in conjunction with GoNutrition founder Oliver Cookson Ahoy created a three-block logo in blood orange. One of the key elements implemented across the branding was the use of ‘carbon fibre’ effect – a strong yet light material epitomising the persona of the brand.

In addition Ahoy was also responsible for packaging design and managing the concept, strategy and print requirements for an advertising campaign prior to launch. The packaging, which features a sealable zip to ensure freshness, also includes a QR code on the side which users can scan when nearing the bottom of the bag to be directed to the same category on the website.

The GoNutrition site, also designed by Ahoy, is fully responsive for mobile and desktop and includes interactive wireframes to create a better understanding of the customer journey and usability.

As the umbrella brand of six sub-brand products including GoWellness and GoStrength, Ahoy has allocated a specific colour scheme to each sub-brand depending on its function. This has been mirrored on the website which is also colour-coded depending on the area of products being browsed.

It may have been our Marketing Weak choice, but that hasn't stopped One Direction's perfume ad going straight into the top spot in this week's Viral Chart.

Illustrating the web savvy of the band's legions upon legions of fans, the 'Our Moment' fragrance ad has been shared almost 100,000 times on Facebook and Twitter and has been viewed more than 2m times on YouTube.

Elsewhere on the chart, Nike considers the possibilities of a 'Just Do It' mindset, Nokia introduces a new Lumia Windows Phone and Benefit Cosmetics says Real Men Don't Fake It.

The charts are compiled by the Viral Ad Network and are based on the number of social media shares videos have received over the last seven days.