There's been much debate as to what Apple plans to do with social media analytics firm Topsy, but it's clear that having spent $200 million recently acquiring it, that it will play an important role in future developments. Companies such as Topsy, and a number of other start ups that are growing at a rapid rate, are trying to make sense of the everyday interactions that take place across a number of social platforms. This information allows brands to monitor campaigns, to see what is working and what isn't. Social data is taking consumer profiling to the next level; seeing what users pin, like, retweet, their interactions and feedback.

The combined entity will be called Xaxis and will be run by the Brian Lesser, the existing global chief executive of Xaxis and David Moore, the founder of 24/7 Media will be the chairman of Xaxis.

GroupM, the media buying arm of WPP, has forecast the highest UK advertising spend since the economic crash and subsequent financial crisis of 2008 in their report 'This Year, Next Year UK'.

WPP still remain top of the media pile after their organic growth outstripped all competitors for Q3 2013.

In an interview with British broadsheet the Daily Telegraph, Havas chief executive David Jones has spoken candidly on Europe's economic recovery and his take on the Publicis-Omnicom super-merger.

GroupM's MediaCom has defeated ZenithOptimedia to retain the global media account for banking and financial services company UniCredit.

WPP, the advertising giant encompassing GroupM, has announced a 19% rise in pre-tax profits for the first half of 2013 - representing an increase of £427m.

GroupM, digital holding company and part of the WPP network, have official revised their predictions for their global advertising expenditure for the remainder of 2013, citing the turbulent European economy as cause for concern.

In a press release, GroupM, parent to digital agencies Mindshare, MEC, Maxus and Mediacom, revealed their global outlook.

In the United States, advertising investment is estimated to grow just 1.8 % in 2013 to $156 billion, up from $3 billion in 2012.  A 2.9 % increase is anticipated in 2014, bringing ad spending to $161 billion.

"We estimate marginal growth in advertising spending in 2014 on a comparable component basis," said Rino Scanzoni, GroupM’s Chief Investment Officer for North America.In Western Europe, a 2.4 % decline in spending - compared to 2012  - to $97 billion. Spending in 2014 is expected to rise only 1.8 % to $99 billion.

GroupM Futures Director Adam Smith, who prepared the report, pointed to Europe's financial discord as the reason for revised budgets.

"The Eurozone periphery, specifically Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland, is once again the main reason for the decline," Smith said.  

"Stabilisation is elusive. We now expect this group to record an 11% fall in measured advertising in 2013."

You can read the full press release here.

Advertising giant WPP are targeting as much as 45% of total revenues being generated by digital media, CEO Sir Martin Sorrell has claimed via LinkedIn's Influencer feature.

Whilst media outlets were clamouring for WPP's take on relinquishing the title of world's largest media agency, the next band of media groups were quietly going about their business, with executives rallying their agencies and shares prices on the up.

Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the former largest media group in the world, WPP, has voiced doubts over the Publicis-Omnicom merger that shocked the world on Monday morning, describing the move as a "big opportunity" for his agency.

In an unprecedented move, advertising and media giants Publicis Groupe of France and Omnicom of America have announced plans for a $35bn merger that will leapfrog WPP as the world's largest agency.

According to reports, media giant Omnicom is allegedly plotting the launch of a third digital agency, standing alone from incumbents OMD and PHD, to compete with Publicis and WPP.

President and CEO of GroupM, Dominic Proctor, has backed traditional media ahead of online; suggesting that despite the popularity of social media and mobile advertising, marketers should ignore the fashionable measurables and analytics and concentrate the majority of their efforts on the more financially profitable medium of broadcast.

Media investment giant GroupM has predicted that UK mobile advertising expenditure is set to rocket in 2014, encompassing one quarter of total ad-spend and one fifth of paid search.

GroupM agency Mindshare have been named Media Agency of the Year as well as Media Network of the Year at the Cristal Festival in Lebanon last night - as well as announcing a new collaboration with sister agency MEC on Chanel's media business.

Japanese tech monolith Sony has selected WPP's MediaCom to manage global media planning for its mobile division as well as European media.

The world's largest advertising group today announced a 6.7% increase in revenues to reach £3.445bn for the first four months of 2013, up 2.3% on 2012.

Havas Media group's agency Arena is celebrating a double victory after wins of LG's $400m global media business as well as Betfair's £15m media planning and buying account for Europe.