Initiative has been awarded 'Agency Network of the Year' and Initiative Argentina 'Agency of the Year' at the Festival of Media LatAm Awards 2017 after winning 17 out of the 22 categories revealed during the 'Dance of the Dead' awards show on October 30 at the Turnberry Isle in Miami, USA. 

As a result of the group's success on the night, IPG Mediabrands walked away with the 'Media Group of the Year' title. 

A total of 56 trophies were given out during the awards show, with the coveted 'Campaign of the Year' awarded to MediaCom Mexico for Victoria's 'Hotel of Legends' alongside five other trophies. 

Proving its regional appeal, the awards saw winners from 11 countries, with Mexico leading the way with 13 wins, followed by Colombia with eight, the US and Argentina with seven each and Brazil with six trophies. 

Chair of the Jury, Daniela Cachich, Marketing Vice-President for PepsiCo Brazil, commented: "It was an honour to be the chair of this year's Festival of Media LatAm Awards. The work has been very inspiring and of a high standard and the jury had very rich and interesting discussions to find the best work of the region."

Check out the full list of Gold, Silver and Bronze winners below: 

It's Halloween [Oct 31st] and in the spirit of joining in the spooky festivities, we came across an interesting Halloween-themed infographic from the folks at StrikeSocial to help advertisers navigate the annual ghostly celebration.  

With almost 70% of Americans celebrating Halloween – with a collective spending power of more than $8.4bn on the event last year alone – check out the infographic below for key insights and top tips to help guide advertisers in the years to come.   

Lexus has challenged Time Out's social media editor to say 'Yes' to four UK cities in four days as part of a new 'Say Yes to the City' campaign for Lexus' self-charging CT Hybrid.  

As part of an action-packed four-day editorially-led challenge, spanning Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and London, Rosie Percy and her partner, radio presenter Dan Alani, have been tasked with packing in as many of Time Out's recommended activities as possible across the four UK cities – relying on the Lexus CT Hybrid for transport. 

Today, it seems as though there is no technology trend more talked about than Artificial Intelligence (AI). But despite widespread media coverage, the specifics of AI are often lost, misunderstood, or even unreported. 

Artificial intelligence is typically used as an umbrella term for types of technology that enable machines to mimic human intelligence. This can include the ability to understand and respond to the environment, problem solve and understand human speech. 

Subsets of AI include Machine Learning and Deep Learning, which involve experience-based learning and machines training themselves in complex tasks, respectively. 

One area in which AI is being developed and implemented is within digital marketing and advertising. With digital ad spending overtaking TV ad spending since the end of 2016, advertisers and marketers should be innovating and investing in digital advertising.  

Here are three AI trends digital marketers should be looking out for now and in the near future: 

No campaign has received more industry attention this summer than Trivago’s. Its recent poster crusade of London has been ridiculed for its strange and repetitive placements and its uninspiring design. Those who worked on the campaign have even had their professional commitment brought into question.

However, beneath the negative press lies an uncomfortable truth for the ad world.

The Trivago campaign has worked.

As a result of the campaign, Trivago’s brand awareness in London rose by a remarkable 15% from 27% to 42% at its peak [Source: YouGov].

Was that Trivago's main marketing objective? Almost certainly.

Skeptics will point towards brand perception. By being so freakishly ubiquitous, surely we can assume that sentiment towards the brand is at an all-time low.

Marketers love early adopters of new technology. They focus huge amounts of energy on them – which makes economic sense, as they’re usually the pathfinders and even evangelists for the mass of consumers who will follow their lead. 

Where some marketers may be missing a trick, however, is in only ever looking at early adopters and the people who follow them, sheep-like, while completely ignoring the non-adopters (those immune to the charms of a new gadget) and the un-adopters (those who tried it, used it and fell out of love with it).  

Arguably there’s so much more to be learned from those people who either reject the innovation from the outset or, perhaps even more importantly, take it up – and then ditch it. Marketers could profit from understanding why some people are immune or move on, rather than only looking at those who remain loyal. 

If they don’t, if they base their plans only on the reactions of those who love their products and the masses for whom they are ‘good enough’, they’re heading for trouble. 

Finalists for the inaugural Festival of Media North America Awards 2017 have been unveiled with campaigns from PHD, Mindshare, OMD, UM, Zenith, MEC, Maxus, Hearts & Science and J3, among others, in the running for an award.  

Headed by Rob Rakowitz, global media director, Mars, the jury will preside over the best work from brands, media owners and agencies across North America. The winners will be announced in a themed awards ceremony on November 30 at the Metropolitan West in New York City. Guests are invited to a ‘Night Circus’ to network with peers and celebrate the industry’s best work. The evening will also see the winners of the Festival of Media’s Best of 2017 awards, honouring the best campaigns over all the awards editions of 2017 with just five prestigious trophies to be won.

Check out all the finalists below: 

81% of organisations are now tracking the customer journey, according to a new survey from Econsultancy and AdRoll. 'The 2017 State of Marketing Attribution' report surveyed 1,000 brand marketers and agencies across Europe, North America, Japan and Asia-Pacific to gain insights into marketers' perspective on the changing dynamics of attribution.  

With multiple devices and touch points in the customer journey, it's essential that marketers understand the effectiveness of their campaign and how each of the channels they use are contributing to bringing customers to their businesses. The report found that almost four in five organisations are using marketing yet 70% still struggle to act on insights, citing that defining the online customer journey is the most significant barrier to more effective usage.