Digital Intelligence

Sky and Virgin Media in talks over a deal to join forces in the advertising market via the Adsmart network, in a bid to tempt spending away from Google and Facebook.

19/04/2017  |  Full story...

Digital solutions firm Acquia, has been hired as the technical lead on delivering Virgin Sport’s new festival platform.

27/01/2017  |  Full story...

Virgin Train has teamed up with Trainline to become the first operator to give customers the option to add train tickets straight to their Apple Wallet on its west coast route.

03/11/2016  |  Full story...

Virgin Media has become the first brand in the UK to use Virtual Reality to place viewers directly into the middle of a TV advert.

08/04/2016  |  Full story...

To coincide with the surge in New Year’s gym sign ups, Virgin Active has created an ‘emojivation pack’ to help people share how they get active across social media platforms.

Imagine if you could say it with emoji? Now you can - try our #emojivation exercise emoji! [links in bio] pic.twitter.com/GEfgTfwowq

— Virgin Active UK (@VirginActiveUK) January 5, 2016

07/01/2016  |  Full story...

Gym brand Virgin Active has embarked on a new digital push, with a digital wristband that tracks movement alongside ‘virtual fitness’ classes.

14/01/2015  |  Full story...

UK 4G mobile operator EE is to launch a fixed-line TV service, competing with BT, Sky, YouView, Virgin Media and TalkTalk.

09/10/2014  |  Full story...

The vast majority of new broadband customers in the UK are opting out of porn filters when prompted to install them by service providers, according to new research from Ofcom.

24/07/2014  |  Full story...

According to a recent study by Google and Millward Brown Digital, holidaymakers are increasingly comparing before booking a trip. As part of their digital holiday hunt, they use a variety of devices turning looking for the next trip abroad into a multi-device experience. 67% of the users start a search on their mobile phone, keep looking for information on a tablet, and finally complete a purchase on their desktop PC.

20/02/2014  |  Full story...

Virgin Atlantic staff are being equipped with Google Glass and Sony Smartwatches to help keep passengers up-to-date with information and aid with translation issues.

12/02/2014  |  Full story...

The digital skills gap is back in the spotlight after a US study showed most marketers lacked knowledge and confidence - a massive gap that confirms new platforms and approaches are putting budgets at risk.

Several big changes came from Google as they push brands towards paid search by removing some of the free insights. We can show you the workarounds, but marketing with organic search will take a bit more thinking time from now on.

- Mobile: New iPhones, fingerprint ID, Android partners with Kit Kat, and former mobile kings Nokia and Blackberry get sold as the market restructures - big implications for mobile strategies for content and services.

- Social: Pinterest and Instagram begin their first forays into paid ad space, and Twitter announced its long-awaited flotation plans after buying MoPub (we're expecting a mobile ad exchange announcement next).

- Consumers: Think power is shifting to the giants? Then look at our story about one unhappy BA passenger who used 'Promoted Tweets' to complain about his service on a flight!

What does this mean for your marketing and digital strategies? What training do teams need to win in this space? Simply mail us back with your questions.

Read September 2013

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02/10/2013

Virgin Mobile USA has launched an interactive video campaign which a viewer can control simply by blinking- provided they are using a webcam.

View a trailer for the service here:

18/09/2013  |  Full story...

Virgin Media and Two Way Media have launched of a new casual TV gaming portal, Play Games.

08/07/2013  |  Full story...

BSkyB is to buy O2’s home telephony services from Telefonica, becoming the second biggest broadband provider in the UK in the process.

01/03/2013  |  Full story...

Gaming has evolved from a ‘nerdy’ pastime into mainstream culture, from apps and consoles to Foursquare and augmented reality. In turn, brands are wising up to the deep engagement gaming can bring over video, display or text-based ads. This white paper from Say Media looks at the opportunities of ‘gamification’ and looks at 3 brands that have got it right…

28/02/2013  |  Full story...

US cable giant Liberty Global has bought Virgin Media for $23.3bn, creating the largest broadband company in the world on terms of customer and country reach.

07/02/2013  |  Full story...

The BBC is updating its Red Button service to work with next generation of internet-connected TVs. Dubbed the ‘Connected Red Button’, the new service lets viewers with internet-enabled TVs watch some channels even if they are off air and catch up with previous episodes of shows.

05/12/2012  |  Full story...

London Mayor Boris Johnson has hired Virgin Media to provide free Wi-Fi access on the London Underground this summer, with plans to charge for the service when the event is over. The service will be available in 80 stations by July and 120 by the end of the year. The Wi-Fi connections will only work on platforms, escalators, and ticket offices.

16/03/2012  |  Full story...

Virgin Media Business has struck a £100m deal with mobile networks Everything Everywhere and Three, to boost 3G-based Internet access for all three customer bases in the UK. The deal will see Virgin Media Business build 14 regional aggregation networks across the UK for MBNL - the joint venture between Three UK and T-Mobile - to support 3G-enabled functionality from video-calling to mobile TV.

06/09/2011

06/09/2011  |  Full story...

Virgin Media has announced plans to introduce a free Wi-Fi network in London to allow the city's population and commuters unlimited access to the Internet at no cost. The network will allow anyone who needs to get online the ability to browse the web and check their emails at a speed of 0.5MB, while subscribers to Virgin Media's broadband packages will be able to log in and boost their connection to 10MB.

05/08/2011

05/08/2011  |  Full story...

As the possibility of industrial strike action looms over its customers this summer, Virgin Atlantic is faring better online, making significant improvements to its website and mobile app to replace its strike-hit competitor, British Airways, at the top of the travel website usability stakes, according to a new study.

The 2011 Flights Online Report from user experience consultancy, Webcredible revealed that with an overall score of 82 per cent, Virgin Atlantic has, for the first time wrestled the top spot from British Airways, which scored 80 per cent on its website usability this year.

14/07/2011

14/07/2011  |  Full story...

Microblogging phenomenon, Twitter, celebrated its fifth anniversary this Monday (21 March 2011). A new report from Virgin Media Business has revealed that 35 per cent of organisations in the UK are using social networking sites as part of their external communications, with one in ten firms now tweeting regularly.

23/03/2011

23/03/2011  |  Full story...

Cable giant Virgin Media has launched its new broadband internet based "next-generation entertainment platform" and Set Top Box (STB), which uses Video-on-Demand (VoD) technology from TiVo. The service will roll-out from mid-December 2010 and cost from £26.50 per month. The STB itself will cost £199 and standard installation costs apply (£40).

Virgin Media said the product will not eat into the traffic management restrictions of existing customer broadband accounts. Instead, the box uses of its own dedicated 10Mbps broadband Cable Modem connection. The new service sees Virgin Media beating the much-vaunted YouView (Project Canvas) service to market, which is due to appear from ISPs BT and TalkTalk in 2011.

02/12/2010

02/12/2010  |  Full story...

After years of anticipating the mobile web, it seems most marketers are struggling to make it work for them. Latest research here in the UK revealed half of firms don't check their sites on mobiles - and we'd speculate that for those that do the findings can be pretty uncomfortable. Most brands fail to ensure their sites work well on mobile browsers, and fail to give consumers what they're most likely to be looking for on the move. Digital strategies need to play to the consumer's mindset as well as the strengths of the channel, and like the early days of the web, more brands get it wrong than right.

Exceptions include Gap in the US, where this month their Facebook places promotion (10,000 jeans for the first 10,000 consumers to use their mobiles to 'check-in' at their checkouts) was clearly a great route to crowd-sourcing in mobile social spaces, creating 10,000 signposts for other consumers to follow.

Facebook also had us adding more 'fan' badges as their online ad targeting propelled them to take nearly a quarter of US web display ads. For media planners the offer of campaigns with almost no media wastage is intoxicating, and even the British Royal Family are now targetable - embracing Facebook with the launch of their first monarchy page; time to become 'Friends' maybe?

And finally if you're a busy digital exec planning to escape off the grid this Christmas, rest assured you can now check your emails even while climbing Everest - thanks to the Nepalese telco planting the mountain's first 3G base station. You never need be away from email again!

Read November 2010

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22/11/2010

Top ten advertisers based on billions of online display advertising impressions (221 billion impressions (221 billion impressions, Q3, 2010).

11/11/2010