Arif Durrani

It was a night of mixed emotions at the Nabs Big Bash last week. More than 1,000 people gathered to support the charity's glittering annual fundraiser at Battersea Evolution, in what also formed the focal point of its centenary celebrations. But it w...

Arif Durrani: C4 heralds joined-up approach to BT Sport

Channel 4 scored an important goal last week by landing the three-year ad sales contract for BT's new sports channels, and it will kick-start an exciting new commercial offering for the broadcaster.

Arif Durrani: Facebook's UK advisory board creates a stir

Facebook created something of a stir last week when it unveiled its first UK advisory board, comprising senior brand and agency marketers.

Arif Durrani: Newsworks captures shift in a press sector

Change was in the air at Newsworks' Shift 2013 event last week, when leaders from the fractious newspaper business set aside their differences and held the industry equivalent of the wartime Christmas Day football match.

Arif Durrani: Amscreen captures our attention outdoor

Outside somewhere, in a time long ago, before even Jean-Claude Decaux had pasted his first poster, the Romans were using the walls of Pompeii to advertise tourist destinations, local shops and political campaigns to the visiting masses.

Arif Durrani: Newspapers strike back with online paywalls

Will people pay for general news online? Not if they can get it elsewhere for free. Which is why the new strategies behind the pay models for the Telegraph brands - and, later this summer, The Sun - are rooted in more than selling generic news.

Arif Durrani: An innovative TV format is not just about length

Five seconds was all you needed to take in those "hello boys" Wonderbra posters in the 90s. Now the man behind them, Trevor Beattie, wants to bring that billboard glance mentality to television at the expense of the traditional spot.

Arif Durrani: Mediabrands restructure goes beyond retaining Tesco

Two topics dominated media talk around Charlotte Street last week: the exit of Alex Altman as the chief executive of Initiative and whether Tesco might be preparing to review its 20-plus-year relationship with the Interpublic agency.

Product placement on UK TV is not so much a damp squib, more a non-starter

Blink and you might have missed it, which in many ways is rather apt, but last week marked two years of product placement in UK TV programmes. To call it a damp squib would be to underplay the non-starter product placement has so far turned out to be...