CoolBrands, an annual initiative to indentify and celebrate the UK’s coolest brands, has revealed this year’s top 20 list. Despite negative expert comments on the future of the Apple brand, the company again, for the third consecutive year, wins the cool title as well as love and appreciation of both regular consumers and celebrity influencers.

The statement that the age group of 15-24 years old are «digital natives» has been questioned by the recent in-depth consumer study by the UK Kantar Media’s research division TGI Clickstream. Anne Benois, Director of Insights and Integration, proves that age cannot be regarded a crucial factor of digital behaviour, but a mix of cultural and economic experience is what defines our digital «fluency.»

The annual international study on reputations and perceptions by the key players in the media industry, International Media Image Survey (I-MIS), has revealed that Carat is the most trusted and respected media agency among top advertisers, and Google is the most liked media brand to work with in 2014. At the same time, Google is named the least enjoyed media brand by businesses— this ‘marmite’ situation proves its top popularity among advertisers.

In its ninth year, Nielsen Consumer Confidence research continues to measure major concerns and spending/saving intentions of nearly 30,000 online respondents across 60 countries. Points above 100 on an imaginary baseline indicate degree of optimism, and points below 100 — on the contrary, negativism and lack of consumer confidence. 

Latest report called «This Year, Next Year» by WPP-owned media management from GroupM, forecasts that global media spend in 2014 will reach $534 billion, a 4.5% increase over 2013. The ad spending will increase 5% to $560 billion in 2015, GroupM predicts. Both figures are very close but slightly fewer than the calculations earlier revealed in July by eMarketer.com.