Ascential (ASCL) is starting to deliver on its digital strategy by pulling away from its ageing events division and piling cash into information services. After extracting the £55m contribution from the seven events sold to peer ITE (ITE) on 17 July, the latter business made up 62 per cent of revenues in the first six months of 2018, compared with 38 per cent in the same period last year. Even its 64-year-old Cannes Lions event – which attracts business luminaries to the south of France to discuss all things marketing – is beginning to make more money from fast-paced digital conglomerates, including Amazon and Alibaba, than creaking ad agencies such as WPP and Publicis.
Half-year numbers demonstrate the sense in that strategic shift. Revenues were up 7 per cent on a like-for-like basis thanks to growth in the information services division and the launch of an Asia-focused version of the group’s economics event, Money2020. This more than offset a 9 per cent fall in revenue from Cannes – a decline that would historically have had a marked detrimental effect on overall numbers.