Most read: Havas reports 28 per cent year-on-year profit growth for first half of 2015
, and unlike this week, Havas chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré is bullish, saying, "I think for the first time we’re posting the best growth results of any group."
Here are the headline numbers:
- Net income: €77 million, up nearly 28% YoY
- Revenue: €1.03 billion, up 19.2% YoY
- Operating income: €128 million, up 22.4% YoY
- Operating margin: 12.3%, up 0.3% YoY
For more, including Bolloré's view on China’s stock market crash, read ±±¾©Èü³µpk10's report on .
Partnerships: BuzzFeed appoints WPP in global ad deal
Media darling , the global media planning and buying arm of WPP, ±±¾©Èü³µpk10's Grace French reports.
French writes that the deal "includes an adspend commitment, which is thought to be worth tens of millions of dollars" will result in "a specialist team installed at BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, focusing on creating branded content for clients of WPP" and "WPP agencies will receive preferential media pricing for advertising campaigns".
As , the deal also allows Group M access to BuzzFeed's propriety data system, Pound.
BuzzFeed [will give] GroupM and WPP's agencies the first access to its new "POUND" data technology that offers insights not only on how content and ads are performing on BuzzFeed's site, but also how it is shared elsewhere on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube.
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Opinion: What could Facebook's virtual assistant mean for advertising?
According to Mindshare's head of mobile Neil Bruce, *Does comedy double take*. Tell us more, Neil:
Facebook definitely has one eye on the advertising pie with the introduction of M. Think of a world where Facebook knows where you are, where your next meeting is, and how long it’ll take you to get there (as Cortana already does). Cue paid advertising from Uber encouraging you to book one of their cars, rather than taking the bus.
Neil Bruce, head of mobile at Mindshare
Advertising opportunities exist for every advertiser – large or small. BP could remind you to stop and fill up your car at one of their petrol stations before you go on your road trip, while a local restaurant could pitch to host you for dinner.
And the potential ad revenues don’t stop at reservations. Don’t forget, all this data can be used to better target Facebook’s in-feed advertising.
Facebook’s paid advertising proposition has always been about advertising to people rather than to audience segments, and the knowledge of your habits will take this concept to another level.
This, added to the rumours of Facebook using keywords in WhatsApp conversations to better target their in-feed advertising, and using Facebook login data to target people across device, outside of Facebook, via Atlas, is likely to make them the most compelling media property on the planet.
The trick will be achieving widespread adoption of the virtual assistant work where Apple, Google and Microsoft have struggled.
But the latent appetite is there, Bruce says, citing a research study by Mindshare’s Future_Medialab and London Goldsmith’s University. .
On social: top branded Vines of the month
We've plenty of social, viral work for your perusal today, including and the . But we'll highlight Unruly's , which features this Burger King effort to promote its hot chicken fries.
See the whole piece for more .
Friday fluff: Work hacks
It's the Friday before a bank holiday weekend. If you've made it this far down today's bulletin, congratulations. We admire your commitment.
Here's a reward, a light piece of comedy content marketing about spurious work hacks. We like the technique for leaving work early without anyone noticing.
If only this bulletin was called 16:05 rather than 18:05 it would have been more useful. Next time.
Enjoy the long weekend, 18:05 will return on Tuesday.
Compiled by Jonathan Shannon
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