As the Black Friday rush in the US and Canada is over and the official Christmas shopping frenzy is almost there in the Catholic (and, frankly, all the remaining) world, retailers and brands are looking to make the most of this holiday season in every possible channel: physical stores and malls, on the web, on mobile devices and even in social media.

The article is written by Greg Taylor, Director of Brand Provocation at Elmwood, London

The Monday morning after the Olympics drew to a spectacular close, London felt a little blue. We’d all been feasting on sport for a fortnight and had the wholesome equivalent of a hangover. Talk is now turning to performance and legacy. You can cut the medals tables in different ways – weighting by GDP, population or team size so different nations come out on top—but however you look at it, women were the real winners in 2012.