Morning bulletin: Robot Wars reprise, BHS blowback & Ryanair takes flight
Another week brings another batch of marketing and advertising news with the escalating war of words over the collapse of BHS proving to be a headache for Sir Phillip Green and bad news for post-Brexit Britain as Ryanair takes flight.
Retail Week opens with news that the venerable BHS brand will disappear from the High Street as early as next month with the closure of all remaining stores in the once mighty retail empire after administrators failed to find a buyer.
In a similar vein, Reuters reports that Philip Green is being held solely accountable for the collapse of BHS by MPs, who blamed the tycoon’s ‘sorry litany of failures of corporate governance and greed’ for its untimely demise.
Ad Exchanger carries news that several major radio firms including iHeartMedia, Cumulus, Entercom, Cox and Sun Broadcast Group have clubbed together with Shazam to build an ‘audio audience measurement solution’ to deliver audience metrics across digital and terrestrial radio.
At Campaign meanwhile, the Brexit fallout continues to make waves, with speculation that a possible recession may ‘usher in the rise of the robots’ as employers seek to trim costs by discarding flesh and blood employees in favour of silicon alternatives.
Business Insider covers the launch of a new digital-only bank, Tide, which aims to challenge established institutions after raising some £1.5m in funding from some high profile city investors.
Less good news comes from Ryanair which has said it will reduce capacity in London in favour of expanding routes on the continent as it seeks to ‘pivot’ away from Britain over the course of the next two years.
The Guardian covers news that Idris Elba has teamed up with Ridley Scott in the hunt for UK scriptwriters as the pair launch a competition to give aspiring writers a leg-up in the notoriously fickle film and television industry.
The broadsheet also gets wildly enthusiastic at the re-launch of the BBC’s fondly remembered Robot Wars mechanical gladiators, fortuitously timed to fill a Top Gear shaped vacancy on the prime Sunday evening schedule.
The Times picks up on more bad news, this time from Rolls-Royce which has clocked up a £2bn loss on the back of a sharp write-off in its currency-hedging position in the wake of volatile fluctuations in the currency’s value against the dollar.
And finally Marketing Week publishes an opinion piece by philosopher Alain de Botton who writes that bringing the principles of art into advertising could give capitalism the reform it needs to elevate consumption into an enriching experience.