Performance marketing is essentially quite simple in its premise, yet the industry itself is ever more complex, with numerous players and options now available to advertisers looking to invest in this valuable space.

Change is necessary for the survival of any industry, and this is no more accurate than in the performance marketing space. As advertisers become more digitally savvy, technology solutions providers are stepping in to shake up the conventional affiliate models the performance marketing industry has, until now, relied upon.

Technology platforms such as that supplied by Performance Horizon Group (PHG) are allowing advertisers to manage their affiliate programmes in-house, as opposed to the traditional route of going through an affiliate network. As reported in The Drum’s last performance supplement, published in May, these platforms can help advertisers track, manage and optimise conversions driven by partners across multiple channels in real-time.

Apple, for instance, recently dropped its US and Australian affiliate network partners in favour of PHG, citing global expansion plans and “improved reporting tools” for the move.

Many brands are eyeing the opportunities presented by this self-managed approach, with greater control over their affiliate strategy being one of the most appealing benefits for advertisers. Another big driver of this approach is a more direct relationship with affiliate partners, which can speed up communication, facilitating dialogue and driving sales.

Control, richer data & more direct relationships
“Our customers increasingly want direct relationships with their top partners and more advanced technologies to execute one to one strategies driving growth,” says Sean Sewell, co-founder and business development director, PHG.

“What we are continually hearing from marketing leadership is the need for control, transparency, connectivity, better data and incremental growth.”

“The UK market is quite mature and, taking the latest Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) numbers into account, nearly 60 per cent of a programme’s revenue is driven by a small handful of partners. Mature affiliate programmes resemble steady heartbeats. Incremental volume is key, and in the UK landscape at least, a proven way to generate that increase is being able to provide the brand and their partners with the ability to consume richer data to better inform and drive actions.”

According to Sewell, brands armed with this data can empower their partners to drive increased sales. This direct relationship may also be preferred by the affiliate; as part of LBi’s affiliate survey conducted in November 2012, the agency found that 49 per cent of affiliates would prefer to work with a brand or agency directly rather than via an affiliate network. Further to that, this direct approach means the brand retains ownership of the relationships, according to Impact Radius managing director Michael James: “On a network, you rent relationships. With an in-house programme, you own them.”

Cost saving is another advantage of bringing an affiliate programme in-house. According to James, research conducted by Impact Radius shows that it saves clients between 50 and 75 per cent in cost over the traditional affiliate override model (the fee paid to a network) through a licence fee. With an affiliate network, the more sales you make, the proportion of override never changes, but James argues that in many cases, networks aren’t doing anything to warrant those extra sales, saying: “It’s better to have a model which steps up more gradually according to the number of conversions or clicks being tracked.”

Investment, resource & scale – 
are the networks unrivalled?
Scale and resource is certainly an area in which the networks have the upper hand. With their years of experience, magnetism for new business and ability to connect advertisers to a large volume of publishers, there’s no denying the powerful role networks play – it cannot, according to Affiliate Window’s strategy director Kevin Edwards, be replicated easily.

“Networks will always have the edge as they can offer many more services that a brand will have to figure out for themselves,” says Edwards. “Many affiliates don’t like working with dozens of platforms and partners and will choose to work with a handful of companies with wide reach, such as a mainstream affiliate network. We’ve seen advertisers move programmes in house and affiliate sales drop, leading them to come back to their network.”

Compliance is another area where the benefit of a network’s knowledge and investment comes into its own – invested in with a six figure sum annually by Affiliate Window, it’s an area likely to be overlooked by many advertisers without the right resources and expertise.

“It is often overlooked but I can’t stress enough how compliance needs to be a central pillar of any affiliate programme,” Edwards explains. “We remove unethical publishers almost daily, and in-house advertisers must ensure they have the tools and processes in place to protect their brand and legitimate affiliates.”

Mark Haviland, managing director of Rakuten Marketing – recently announced as an umbrella brand for Rakuten Linkshare and Rakuten MediaForge – argues there are many benefits to networks, the biggest being their great relationships with publishers, something many advertisers may not have the time and resources to facilitate.

“Being able to connect advertisers with millions of publishers is certainly where networks have the upper hand. These relationships are invaluable for advertisers, as creating a successful partnership is a key ingredient to creating an effective campaign. With in-house affiliate management it is beneficial for brands to build those personal relationships with publishers directly but the cost and time spent to facilitate this may not be viable for all advertisers.”

Further to that, Haviland argues that networks bring an outside perspective to campaigns, offering “tailored insights” and advice “based on their data”.

“Networks also have insight into the wider digital landscape. It would be difficult for a small team to manage this in-house and acquire this wider, long term view,” he says.

Affiliate Window’s Edwards echoes this view, arguing that in-house solutions often try to commoditise the tracking, reporting and payments services offered by networks, but fail to see the bigger picture of the network’s role.

“Affiliate marketing is what networks do and they’ve typically invested heavily in the infrastructure around the basics that self-managed solutions typically don’t offer,” says Edwards.

The choice of approach to affiliate management is a complex decision, and one that should not be taken lightly by brands. As the channel continues to grow, more advertisers looking for success within performance marketing may choose to turn away from the status quo. But what’s clear is that whether or not the in-house approach is favoured by brands, the new models inject something different into the market – which, in the long term, will serve as a driver for growth.

This feature is published as part of The Drum's most recent performance supplement, sponsored by Affiliate Window.

Crown Paints has signed its first TV sponsorship deal, which will see the brand support ITV’s Though The Keyhole, presented by Keith Lemon.

The sponsorship, negotiated by ITV Commercial, FremantleMedia UK and PHD in Manchester, will bolster Crown’s current ‘National Sample Giveaway’ campaign, where homeowners can claim three free Pure Paint Samples.

Bhavit Chandrani, group sales controller at ITV, said: “We are very excited for the return of Through The Keyhole on ITV and are delighted to welcome Crown Paints as the sponsor of the series. We look forward to working closely with the brand on this exciting partnership.”

Jayne Stephens, head of brand partnerships at FremantleMedia UK, added: “Through the Keyhole is an exciting return to a classic programme and there are a lot of opportunities for Crown Paints to engage with their key audiences in really creative ways. We welcome them on board and look forward to a great run.”

The sponsorship will be promoted through social media activity, devised and implemented by ad and PR agency BJL.

Idents, adapted from BJL’s advertising campaign, will run throughout the six-part series starting this weekend across broadcast, mobile and online platforms.

Sally Heppenstall, Crown Paints’ marketing manager, said: “We’re delighted to be sponsoring Through the Keyhole in our first ever TV sponsorship. It gives us an opportunity to bring our core brand messages to life in an entertaining and engaging way. How people decorate their homes is an expression of their personality and Crown is the brand that helps self-expression come to life – helping to create homes with ‘personality’.”

Following the carefully choreographed revelation of Peter Capaldi as the actor replacing Matt Smith as Doctor Who, the official Dr Who Twitter account has released its first image of one of the foes scheduled to appear in the 50th anniversary celebrations.

The account, which has over 650,000 followers, issued a picture of a classic enemy, a Zygon, which first appeared in 1975’s ‘Terror of the Zygons’ during Tom Baker’s tenure.

The softly spoken villains will reappear in the special, to be broadcast on 23 November. The episode will also feature the regeneration of the Doctor, and the final appearance of Matt Smith in the role of the Timelord.

Promotion for the special is being carefully managed by the BBC press office, with selective details being incrementally released in the build up to the broadcast.

And here’s how the Zygons will appear when they return to #DoctorWho, later this year… pic.twitter.com/tRFcXABzwo— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) August 30, 2013

16 million people in the UK lack the basic online skills to use digital tools, while more than seven million people have never even been online. Baroness of Soho Martha Lane Fox, the UK government’s official digital champion, has set her sights on driving down that number – a mission she believes is critical to safeguarding the UK economy.

“Not only do we need a million more people working in IT if we are to build a successful economy, but there is the mind-boggling number of people who still don’t have basic online skills, and it is even harder for them now when so much is online based. It is making us weaker and poorer as a country,” she says.

Although the digital skills gap has moved further up the government’s agenda over the years, it will take the effort of all to eradicate it and ensure technology is put at the heart of social change – a subject close to Lane Fox’s heart.

“Corporates need to do more, the government needs to do more: everything matters, from FTSE 100 companies ensuring their workers are skilled to libraries being given the funding to stay open and have computer classes. If we can do this we have a good shot at making a big difference over the next year,” she says.

Technology is bridging the commercial and not-for-profit worlds and the opportunities surrounding this convergence are limitless, according to Lane Fox. She believes public services such as education and health can “reinvent” themselves through the effective use of digital technology.

The future of the NHS and how it will be funded has been a discussion she has helped fuel in her newest guise as the youngest female member of the House of Lords. “I’m very interested in how we can make the NHS put the internet at the heart of its design. We haven’t even begun to unlock what technology can do in this space,” she adds.

Health is always at the forefront of her mind, having herself suffered from a horrific car accident in Morocco in 2004 at the age of 30, which left her unable to walk for nine months and subjected her to countless operations, and in need of a permanent walking stick.

Yet sitting in her back garden with her two Bengal cats Coli and Pollack – named by her partner Chris Gorell-Barnes who founded an ocean charity – wrapped around her, Lane Fox is refreshingly optimistic, joking that online walking stick sites have “done very well” from her custom, and that she owns a stick to match every outfit she wears. She also jokes that despite being founder of the highly successful karaoke chain Lucky Voice, she is a dreadful singer.

Lane Fox co-founded Lastminute.com at the age of 25, and in 2000 at the height of the dotcom boom, the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of £571m. Only weeks later the dotcom crash hit and Lastminute.com’s share price plummeted, along with the majority of its launch investors’ money. Lane Fox was stunned by the vicious backlash she received from the media as a result of the fallout.

“I was vilified as I had the brunt of the PR on my shoulders. They always cut [co-founder] Brent [Hoberman] out of the picture, which annoyed us both although he was always gracious about it. There was a lot of nasty stuff in the press and I received a lot of hate mail. That was a very hard time.”

The digital landscape at that time was “immeasurably different” compared to today where the route into the internet is far less fragmented, according to Lane Fox.

“We were trying to convince people that the internet would still exist in five to ten years, let alone Lastminute.com. There were no enormous platforms like Google or any social media, which are most people’s route in to the internet now; it was a very different landscape.”

Today’s challenges have become more about how individuals can manage and control their own digital footprint, according to Lane Fox. “Trust is being eroded across the board. People trust the government and big corporates less than they did. That’s good in one way because it shows people aren’t letting themselves be spun nonsense. But at same time it’s a bad thing to have to constantly question people’s authenticity.”

She believes the recent PRISM scandal, the top secret program that gave the US National Security Agency direct access to the servers of internet giants including Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple, has further damaged consumer trust. Yet the extent to which people care about what and how their personal data is used varies “massively” between different generations, with younger demographics more accustomed to and therefore more nonchalant about the use of their data, according to Lane Fox.

Regardless, she believes data privacy issues will continue to be a challenge for businesses for some time. “Identity, data, privacy, your digital footprint and reputation, all these things are becoming much more important. We should be educating children as much as our generation and older people about what an individual’s reach is on the internet, and how they can ensure they are in charge of it and not someone else – this is absolutely fundamental.

“Brands that respect you as a person and make you feel like you are you, and that you, rather than they, have control over you, will be the ones who are successful,” she adds.

Lane Fox was appointed Commander of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire this year for her services to the digital economy and charity. She also sits on the boards of Channel 4 and Marks & Spencer. In 2010 David Cameron hosted an event at 10 Downing Street to celebrate her ‘Manifesto for a Networked Nation’.

This March she became the youngest female member of the House of Lords, and describes her first few weeks there as “nerve-racking”. Yet she is hungry to learn the ins and outs of this institution, which she feels is “misunderstood” and therefore undervalued by the public. She will also continue to drive Go On UK, a charity she founded aimed at making the UK the most digitally skilled nation in the world.

This feature continues the Girl Guides series that aims to highlight the lack of female recruits in the digital market and the fact that the industry is only getting access to half the talent base. The Drum asked Martha what career advice she has for young females:

"I am with [Facebook’s chief operating officer] Sheryl Sandberg on this. She had the best education, worked in high-profile places and was given all the support in the world. Yet she still has to flick on that switch that says ‘be confident’. Things are intimidating all the time, like giving a speech at the House of Lords. Everyone has that feeling, but don’t let that put you off. I bet there isn’t a single woman that doesn’t have to flick on that switch of confidence on a regular basis.

Don’t worry too much about planning every moment of your life if you’re just starting out. Everything that happened to me happened serendipitously. It’s about building networks of people and using that for the basis of working hard and building your experiences. Digital is an immensely exciting and rewarding sector to work in and it’s not even separate to our lives it’s a fundamental part of them now. So understanding it is crucial - use the web to be more of an expert than the person sitting next to you."

The Girl Guides series is sponsored by:

The BBC may be forced once again to review its Twitter guidance after the BBC Trust upheld an accuracy complaint against correspondent Wyre Davies from the frontline of the Israel/Palestine conflict.

New guidelines were introduced only last year.

Davies had tweeted: "In this 'limited operation' at least 13 Palestinians and 3 Israelis have been killed - nearly all civilians. #Gaza".

The trust concluded that the tweet breached the corporations accuracy guidelines after it was later established that four of the casualties were civilians. The remainder were described as ‘militants‘.

“The Trust has not asked the Executive to carry out a formal review of its Twitter policy but rather highlighted that the current guidance of its use by BBC staff should be looked at and if necessary additional guidance be issued,” the Trust said.

Chris Hamilton, the BBC's Social Media Editor for Journalism, said: "To uphold the complaint would suggest that for all tweeting, from both individuals and 'branded' accounts (ie @BBCBreaking etc), we must continuously be deleting tweets sent in good faith at the time and clarifying them with new tweets, potentially long after the event, as new information emerges on any given news story."

He added: "It even suggests we should do the same for news stories in our website archive."

The BBC’s coverage of the region has been under intense scrutiny since the Glasgow University Media Group published ‘Bad News from Israel’, which concluded that the corporation’s coverage of the conflict in the region contained a pro-Israeli bias.

The latest stage of the Britain is GREAT campaign has been unveiled, with a series of posters created by Radley Yeldar featuring BAFTA winner Olivia Colman, Star Wars director George Lucas and the multi Oscar-nominated John Hurt.

The agency worked with VisitBritain, UKTI, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the British Council, DCMS and the Cabinet Office; as well as collaborating with BAFTA and the BFI.

Ed Vaizey, UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, said: "These posters are a fine addition to the huge range of images that we are using in the GREAT campaign in different markets around the world. Our home-grown creative industries - and the British film industry in particular - are a real success story and it's great to see this highlighted in the new campaign."

In total, the campaign will promote 15 UK writers, actors, directors and producers.

Radley Yeldar was appointed as lead creative agency following the creation of the GREAT campaign and was given the on-going challenge of deepening the GREAT brand and making it work harder across a new range of executions.

Moleskine has relaunched its e-commerce site after an overhaul by creative and social agency MRY.

The site has used the in responsive design technology as it looks to deliver a more personalised online experience and improved consumer utility.

The product catalogue has been reorganised while customisable filter have been introduced.

Scalable high-resolution imagery has been used to ensure the site experience looks good on both large and small screens.

"We've made discovering a Moleskine through the site more personal, more elegant, and more analogous with shopping in a physical store," said MRY's executive director of user experience, Brian Ragan.

He added: "With this launch, we've really created more than a site – we've created a marketing experience platform that, over time, will blend consumer content into the e-commerce experience, creating compelling merchandising opportunities."

The website redesign is part of a wider effort to provide Moleskin fans with a complete digital and analog brand experience, which included the opening of the brand's first global concept store in Beijing, the launch of the Evernote Smart Notebook, the re-launch of the Moleskine Journal Application for iOS, Android and Windows Phone and Print on Demand Services, including the launch of the Moleskine Photobook business.

Domino’s has been announced as the headline sponsor of The X Factor app for the 2013 series.

The Domino’s brand will run across the digital property, as well as within bespoke second screen ad formats and new interactive features.

Using ITV’s dual-screen ad format, Ad Sync, Domino's ITV will run a number of interactive campaigns to reach consumers on second screen devices with a message that is synchronised with on-air spots.

The Ad Sync format will also feature branded games, designed by iris.

Users will also be able to access a Domino's hub which has additional content and rewards for Domino’s customers. The partnership will also be amplified via social media platforms.

It comes following the Fifth Judge update to the app, allowing users to play the role of judge from their living rooms.

“We know that viewers are going to be glued to their screens and while they’re predicting who will stay or go, we want them to be tucking in to a Domino’s Pizza,” said Simon Wallis, sales and marketing director of Domino’s.

He added: “Unmissable TV events such as The X Factor create an ideal time for a product, such as pizza, that’s made for sharing – and because we deliver, there’s no need to miss a single note.”

The partnership was negotiated by ITV Commercial, FremantleMedia UK and Arena on behalf of Domino’s.

Marketing Greece has announced the appointment of Hills Balfour to handle its PR and social media for its UK launch.

The agency will now implement a PR and social media strategy over the next 18 months, with the account led by Hills Balfour senior account manager Natalie Schofield, and social media director Lucy Campbell.

Marketing Greece’s general manager, lossif Parsalis, said: "We are very happy to be working with Hills Balfour and feel their experience and expertise in the destination PR and social media realm will help us take Greece to a new level.

"Tourism is a hugely important industry for Greece and we want to ensure that we are 100 per cent committed to putting Greece back on the map and demonstrating to the British that there is always more to discover, whether it be on one of the Greek islands or on the mainland."

The campaign will aim to promote Greece's year-round diverse offerings to UK consumer and trade press.

Mercedes-Benz has unveiled Style Pit Stop, a series of films as part of its London Fashion week sponsorship.

The documentary-style interviews have been hosted by TV and radio presenter, Reggie Yates and are being shown on a dedicated YouTube channel.

In a Mercedes-Benz A-Class, Yates interviews celebrities, finding out their wardrobe secrets, favourite outfits, most loved designer and worst fashion mistakes.

“Style Pit Stop is an exciting project which aims to bring the Mercedes-Benz brand to life, making it more relevant to a younger target audience who engage with the brand through our social media channels,” said Mercedes-Benz UK marketing director Andrew Mallery.

“The films support our A-Class sales and marketing activity and during September our social media community will be able to ask Reggie some style-based questions and interact with the brand in a number of different ways.”

The films will be rolled out on 4 September.

Uncle Ben’s Rice has renewed a product placement deal with Channel 4, ahead of Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Money Saving Meals launching on Monday 2 September.

The partnership, arranged by ZenithOptimedia, Fresh One and Channel 4, will see Uncle Ben’s Rice feature in various recipes across the series.

Laura Cottrell, partnership business manager AFP/PP, Channel 4 said: “We are delighted to be renewing our product placement partnership Uncle Ben’s, the brand has reaped the benefits of product placement and this is further evidence of Channel 4’s commitment to ensuring this evolving business continues to grow.”

Uncle Ben’s will also sponsor the show, and has developed an extensive in-store campaign to further extend the reach of the campaign.

Sky Sports has launched a new scholarship scheme that will support twelve young athletes from Britain and Ireland over the next three years.

The Sky Sports Scholarships scheme will provide financial support, media training, and mentoring.

The athletes will also be involved with Sky’s other sporting initiatives and programming, including Sky Sports Living for Sport, which works in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust and Game Changers, a new Saturday morning show that aims to inspire kids to get active.

The twelve athletes awarded scholarships are: Jack Bateson (boxing), Holly Bleasdale (pole vault), Olivia Breen (sprints), Elise Christie (speed skating), Lucy Garner (cycling), Quillan Isidore (BMX), Jessica Judd (800m), Savannah Marshall (boxing), Siobhan O’Connor (swimming), Sam Oldham (gymnastics), Louis Persent (400m) and Jason Quigley (boxing).

Leading the scholarship programme is former UK Athletics National Events coach Tony Lester, who has mentored Roger Black, Nicola Sanders and Mark Richardson.

Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports said: “We’re proud of our scholarship scheme and we’re proud of our twelve scholars. At Sky we believe in the power of sport and the difference it can make at all levels and we can’t wait to partner with these athletes over the next three years.”

Sequel UK has appointed OMD to handle the media planning and buying for its Guess Watches, Guess Jewellery and Gc Watches brands.

OMD UK will help to develop the communications strategy for the portfolio, with a £1m campaign set to launch for two months over the Christmas period.

Katrina Lawton, retail marketing manager at Sequel UK, said: “As award winning experts in their field, we are looking forward to our partnership with OMD UK on our very first Nationwide TV campaign in the lead up to the holiday season.”

This will be the first TV campaign for the brand.

Bear, the healthy snack brand, has launched a new multi-platform advertising campaign with B&B, which looks to target mums during the back to school period.

Looking to promote both the YoYo brand, as well as the new Alphabites cereal, there will be a different creative for each, along with 25 key family events with National Geographic Kids and a schools partnership across the UK reaching over 250,000 consumers in total.

Head of marketing for Bear, Emma Hines, said: “We built our campaign around the multiple touch points of a parent’s day- the key challenge then was to create two ads that were unique for the two products but both clearly Bear. Both needed to do the job of showing our no nonsense approach to making healthy food, but deliver the taste and playfulness of the brand at the same time.

“For YoYos our number one priority was to help consumers to understand what a YoYo is, whereas with cereal it was about creating an ad that built on the creative on pack and would really give us a point of difference in a very competitive category.”

The £900k campaign will span across outdoor, digital, PR, social media, partnerships, sampling and in-store.

Shaun Bowen, creative partner at B&B, said: “The Bear brand is all about keeping things simple and natural, but we needed to find a way to show both the product and its packaging without losing its naive charm. While the YoYos ad features simple illustration, the cereal ad builds on the pack's collage style by using real cardboard cut-outs in the shoot. The differing styles demonstrate the depth inherent in the Bear brand - and create real difference to the rest of the kids' category."

The NUJ has today announced that it has joined journalist and media organisations in an application for a judicial review on the case of David Miranda, the partner of Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist reporting on the mass surveillance programmes by the United States National Security Agency.

Miranda was detained by the Metropolitan police for nine hours as he passed through Heathrow Airport; with his laptop computer, mobile phone, memory sticks and other electronic equipment seized by the police.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: “This case if not challenged would have a chilling effect on journalists, or their associates or assistants, deterring them from travelling abroad to obtain or provide information as they would fear that any journalistic material such as notebooks and laptops would be seized by the authorities on exiting, returning to, or even passing through, the UK at a port or airport, even when on leave, let alone on work-related travel.

"The public would be more likely to be deprived of knowledge of matters of public interest and concern as a result. The NUJ takes the issue of protection of journalistic sources and materials extremely seriously. It is a major element of the NUJ’s code of conduct. The union recognises that the state has a duty to protect its citizens, and others within the UK. However, draconian state powers must only be used responsibly and in strict compliance with UK and European law."

Roy Mincoff, NUJ legal officer, added: "The NUJ is concerned that the use of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is not compatible with Article10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It does not appear disputed that Mr Miranda’s electronic equipment was seized by the authorities prior to a review by a judge or other independent and impartial decision-making body.

"This sets a dangerous precedent. It is quite likely that other countries (with less human rights protections and a greater tendency to persecute journalists) will follow the UK’s lead and enact provisions similar to Schedule 7."

However, advocate and human rights specialist Niall McCluskey has told The Drum that while immoral, the detention was perfectly legal.

The National Trust has launched the 2013 Great British Walking campaign asking people to share their walking photos on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook using the hashtag #GBwalk.

The campaign and brand identity were initially launched by creative agency 999 in September last year. That campaign saw over one million people take part.

This year the print and digital activity has been based on the idea of ‘going your own way’, encouraging exploration and the sharing of memories and experiences. As such, The National Trust has offered its top 10 ‘secret discovery walks’.

The signpost graphic was created to act as a flexible, recoginsable device to also accommodate events held in Wales and Northern Ireland. The overall aim was to create something that could be built on it over the coming years in order to create a recognisable event for the future.

Aileen Geraghty, managing director of 999 London said: “We very much wanted to dispel the idea that walking is just about getting from A to B or that enjoying the great outdoors has to involve hiking boots, complicated maps and compasses.”

Cancer Research UK has appointed digital marketing and communications agency Threepipe to its PR roster as it looks to roll out the Dryathlon campaign nationwide.

Dryathlon challenges social drinkers to give up alcohol for the month of January and raises money through sponsorship or pledging money saved by not drinking.

The campaign was launched as a pilot in January 2013 with 35,000 ‘Dryathletes’ taking part to raise over £4m.

Threepipe reports into Kim Ireland, PR manager, Cancer Research UK, and is working alongside the charity’s in house PR and social media team.

Ireland said: “Our pilot Dryathlon campaign was a great success and we’re excited about scaling everything up in 2014.

“Threepipe’s strategic approach and creative ideas impressed us and we are looking forward to continuing to establish Dryathlon as a key fundraising platform.”

David Robson, head of planning, Threepipe added: “Our campaign platform will be centred around humour and challenges, which resonates well with the target audience and will inject some fun into what can be a depressing time of the year.”

Samsung has unveiled the second in a series of ad as part of its Companies campaign, created by Jam.

The campaign, which looks to promote the Galaxy S4, launched its first ad earlier in the month featuring skateboarding legend Richy Carrasco.

The new ad stars Mary Ho, ‘the grandma of rock’, who stays connected using the Galaxy S4, Sound and Shot and Group Play.

The campaign urges consumers to tweet their own tales using the hashtag #companionstories.

The BBC management spied on union officers, hacked into their emails and used trumped-up charges to force active union members from their jobs; the NUJ has today said.

Journalist representatives from the BBC today demanded an investigation into the operation of the BBC’s Human Resource practices following the revelations, provided in a sworn statement to the NUJ by a former member of the BBC’s HR team turned whistleblower.

NUJ reps voted unanimously for a motion that said: “This meeting welcomes the resignation of Lucy Adams, who headed up the shadowy Management Reference Group set up to force these changes through, and is the person who must bear responsibility for the abuses that have happened under her leadership and within her own department. It further demands that a full investigation now takes place and that Lucy Adams is suspended in accordance with BBC procedure. It is vital that others involved in this dirty tricks campaign and guilty of union busting tactics are now dealt with.

“In the light of these revelations and the knowledge that the ACAS settlement talks were tarnished and compromised, this meeting insists that the BBC pension negotiations are urgently reopened, carried out in good faith and a legitimate settlement reached.”

It is alleged that the BBC used ‘dirty tricks’ such as misusing performance management schemes and targeting staff with trumped up disciplinary charges as a way of putting pressure on staff and pushing them out of a job.

The BBC insists that Adams revealed her decision to resign before the allegations were made.

CTI Digital has established a new mobile and apps division, with Jason Brown appointed to lead its development.

Brown led the creation of the app framework, called Parrot, already in use by the BBC, which allows for rapid development as well as integration with Facebook’s Ecosystem, a KPI tracking and integration with Drupal web services.

Nick Rhind, chief executive of CTI, said: “Mobile has been a big part of CTI Digital for the last couple of years. Now we have set up a specialist division, it will bolster our expertise and help our clients by delivering a standard system that is already built into major open source frameworks and CMS.”