It's not just cricket. The charm of 'commercialising' a sport is spreading to other formats, as well. But, can commercialisation, when overdone, kill the game?

India has always been a cricket-crazy nation. Regardless of the fact that not everybody is passionate and well-versed with the sport, it still enjoys the highest recall and engagement value among Indians. And, the one major factor that has contributed to this fact in recent times is the highly-commercialised IPL (Indian Premier League) tournament, which arrives each year, dressed in all] its finery, reiterating the fact that the ...

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Over 80% of web users around the world now belong to social networks, with sites like Facebook and Twitter taking almost a fifth of the time spent online globally, a new study has shown.

According to comScore, the research firm, social networks currently reach 82% of the connected community aged 15 years old and above, equating to 1.2bn people worldwide.

The company also reported that the category took approximately 19% of all time spent on the web in October 2011, measured against ...

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Not satisfied with the removal of Dow Chemical's branding for the 2012 Olympics, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Friday sent a stronglyworded letter to the international body, demanding complete cancellation of the sponsorship deal with the US-based company for the London Games.

In a letter to International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Jacques Rogge, acting IOA president Vijay Kumar Malhotra wrote that the presence of Dow Chemical during the London event would be against the spirit of the Olympics.

Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide, believed to be responsible for thousands of deaths due to ...

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This spring, we asked a number of experts in retail design to make their predictions for the future of the British high street. Echoing Mary Portas’ Review of the High Street, which was published this month, many pointed to the idea of the high street becoming less about sales, and more about community as it increasingly struggles to compete with online and m-commerce retailers.

Despite this, the year has shown a number of innovative interiors concepts crop up not only for big brands and developments,but for smaller standalone stores which are realising that now, more than ...

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Christopher Hitchens, a slashing polemicist in the tradition of Thomas Paine and George Orwell who trained his sights on targets as various as Henry Kissinger, the British monarchy and Mother Teresa, wrote a best-seller attacking religious belief, and dismayed his former comrades on the left by enthusiastically supporting the American-led war in Iraq, died on Thursday in Houston. He was ...

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As a PR stunt, Time magazine's annual "Person of the Year" exercise works to near-perfection. Each December, for an hour or two, the ever-shrinking publication gets to relive its gloried past, when it was a prime creator of America's public agenda.

As a journalistic exercise, it's long in the tooth. Yet it still resonates, and no more so than this year, when the magazine anointed "The Protester" as its #poy2011, to use one of the Twitter hashtag shorteners that is helping to spread the word. It resonates, in part, because it meets Time's professed standard for its choice. The editors always insist their pick is based on ...

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McDonald's in Germany has agreed not to air on TV a controversial ad after rival Burger King complained that the spot, which compares Burger King's food unfavorably to McDonald's, was "degrading."

In the spot, a young boy sits on a playground day after day trying to enjoy his McDonald's burger and fries. But each time, older boys swoop in and steal his food, leaving him hungry and frustrated.

Finally, the boy hits on an idea -- he hides his McDonald's items behind a Burger King bag. He finally gets to enjoy his meal undisturbed.

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Advertising icon Datuk Borhanuddin Osman has been named recipient of the prestigious Chairman’s Award to be given out at the Kancil Awards 2011 tonight.

Datuk Borhanuddin has accumulated more than 20 years in the advertising industry and 13 years in the radio industry.

He is currently serving an unprecedented eighth term as president of Commercial Radio Malaysia and third term as chairman of Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of ...

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The circulation figures of both The Star and The Sunday Star have gone up in the six-month period from January to June 2011 compared to the preceding six months from July to December 2010.

According to the latest report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Malaysia, The Star's circulation in this period rose by 9,568 copies (3.4%) while that of The Sunday Star rose by ...

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Social media campaigns continued to mature in 2011. It's not all about Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Getting a bunch of Facebook "likes" isn't the true measure of success.

The best campaigns of 2011 were different. They did something that hadn't been done before. Or maybe certain aspects had been done before, but they were done differently and in new ways. The true measure of success for some of these is not yet apparent, but time will tell. Here are my top marketing picks ...

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