#TheWeeklyRoundUp – 07.10.23

Vivendi Reportedly Preparing To Sell See Tickets and Festivals Including Love Supreme (Digital Music News)

About two years after cashing in on Universal Music Group (UMG) with an IPO, French conglomerate Vivendi is reportedly pondering the sale of its See Tickets subsidiary. The latest divestment plans of the Paris-headquartered business, which over the summer inked a deal to offload publishing company Editis, entered the media spotlight in a report from Sky News. And while execs haven’t publicly confirmed or denied the rumored exploration of a selloff – the process is reportedly expected to initiate “imminently” – the continually strong revenue of live events and ticketing is hardly a secret.

Stateside, Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary have largely dominated related headlines, with higher-ups having touted April, May, and June of this year as their business’s “strongest second quarter ever.” (The reported revenue jump has been accompanied by several lawsuits, ample criticism, and other less-than-encouraging developments, however.)

But according to Vivendi’s H1 2023 earnings breakdown, See Tickets has also been expanding amid the post-pandemic events boost. Vivendi Village, the conglomerate’s ticketing and festivals division, generated €81 million (currently $85.09 million) during 2023’s opening six months, the appropriate document shows, up about 6.5 percent from H1 2022.

See Tickets itself accounted for approximately 70 percent of the figure, per the same analysis, with 19 million tickets sold during H1 2023 (up from 15 million during H1 2022).
“In the first half of 2023,” the Gameloft parent drove home, “Vivendi Village returned to positive EBITA of €7 million [$7.35 million] (compared to a loss of €3 million [$3.15 million] in the first half of 2022) thanks to the strong growth of See Tickets, the cessation of its concert production activities, and the repositioning of its festivals.”

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#Loeries2023: It’s Loeries Creative Week! (BizCommunity)

It’s the Loerie Awards and Creative Week and agencies and their clients are arriving in the Mother City for the biggest brand communications awards in Africa and the Middle East Region.

The juries have been hard at work already, for two days, judging the entries. This year the juries – comprising more than 110 jury members – adjudicated over 2,100 entries, that represent 619 brands by 219 agencies from 18 countries across Africa and the Middle East.

Five international industry experts joined local experts to determine the best creative work for this year – Brad Reilly, CCO, McCann Enterprise, UK, Geet Rathi, Creative Director VP, Area 23, Atlanta, USA, Marco Venturelli, CEO and CCO Publicis Conseil and CCO Publicis, France, Paul Chan, CCO, Cheil, Hong Kong and Shannon Washington, US CCO, R/GA, NY, US.

Creative Week activities

Apart from the two awards ceremonies that take place later this week, Loeries Creative Week plays host to a number of activities including, Masterclasses and its International Seminar of Creativity, both feature experts in their field, both local and international.

The inaugural Agency Expo is also an opportunity for the public to see what the brand communications space does and talk to creatives.

On Wednesday the Agency and Student Expo is open to the public. Both expos run until Friday. Also on Wednesday is the Loeries’ Schools Programme, with 50 scholars spending the day learning about the creative industry.

The awards ceremonies take place on Thursday and Friday evenings, with the Loeries Afterparty at Cabo Beach Club wrapping up Creative Week