Chris Cook

Big news from Mistral. Often written off in favour of the US frontier models such as Claude and ChatGPT this new release from Mistral really closes the performance gap. With the EU AI act causing some of the US players not to release their latest tech this side of the pond, is there room for Mistral to take advantage? Regardless some very interesting stats Pixtral Large is a 124B multimodal model derived from Mistral Large 2. It combines advanced text understanding with superior image comprehension capabilities. Achieved top scores on multiple benchmarks: MathVista: Outperformed all models with a score of 69.4%. ChartQA and DocVQA: Surpassed models such as GPT-4o and Gemini-1.5 Pro in complex reasoning. MM-MT-Bench: Showed competitive performance against Claude-3.5 Sonnet and other leading models. Available under Mistral Research License for research and educational use, and a Commercial License for commercial applications. Why Should You Care? Support for European Innovation: Highlighting the model's European origins supports and encourages homegrown AI innovation, vital for the growth of the local tech industry and the European economy. Diversity in AI Development: A European alternative to US models ensures diversity in AI solutions, fostering unique approaches to technology that reflect different cultural values and regulatory environments. Data Privacy and Ethics: European regulations, like GDPR, emphasize data protection and ethical AI development. A European-based model adheres to stricter data privacy laws, which can build greater trust among users and companies dealing with sensitive data. #AI #mistral #EUAI

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Check out the latest Her Business of Sports podcast which features me and hosted by the wonderful Erin Gennard from INTERNATIONAL SPORTS CONVENTION Listen now ⬇️⬇️⬇️ #womeninbusiness #HerBusinessOfSport #Podcast

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Good assessment of the upcoming service with notable things: 1. Clearly an MVP (although some question about the M bit and the V bit) 2. Freely is inward thinking, not platform thinking - content or even channels from 3rd parties are not part of the solution from day one. 3. It has promise but needs to add competitive features such as integrated apps from 3rd parties, universal search, universal content discovery, less of the inhouse content...

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Looking forward to exploring the future of magazines in today's ever-evolving media landscape at the PPA 2024 Festival with industry leaders Katie Vanneck from #Hearst and Phillip Swinden from #Haymarket. 📚✨ Key issues we will look at include: 🔹 Consumer brands have some of the deepest connections to their readers around. How do you sustain this amidst the rise of creators and influencers? 🤝 🔹 The challenges and realities of consumer media venturing into B2B verticals. Is this shift as seamless as it appears? 🔄 Let me know what your key questions are. #MediaInnovation #PPAFestival2024 #PublishingFuture #DigitalTransformation

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🕵️‍♂️ Steal our top performing pitch template. Swipe for the breakdown of a real pitch we sent to journalists, that got us coverage in every outlet we sent it to 👇 - Daily Record (DR 81) - The Scottish Sun (DR 76) - Scottish Daily Express (DR 63) - Glasgow Times (DR 73) - Edinburgh News (DR 83) - East Lothian Courier (DR 61) #digitalpr #linkbuilding #seo

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🚗  This week Jaguar broke the internet with their new ad... The neon colours and diverse cast are a surprising departure from a brand traditionally associated with golfers and retired bankers. Ironically though, in an effort to be as provocative and differentiated as possible Jaguar has lost what actually made them unique (wickedly cool cars worthy of a Bond villain) and hopped on the bandwagon of generic-BS-purpose-statement-nonsense that every other car brand is infamous for. Forget about the visuals and look at the language: "create exuberant" "live vivid" "delete ordinary" "break moulds" 🫠 WTF does any of that actually mean? And what does any of it have to do with cars? But here's the thing - this language is no different that any of the other BS that we've been fed for years by car brands. 💩 The following slogans are real examples from Audi, Renault, Jeep, Land Rover, Oldsmobile and Mercedes - can you tell which is which? "never follow" "unlike any other" "there is only one" "passion for life" "start something" "go beyond" They could all be used interchangeably with the Jaguar language - and that's the real issue. No doubt the agency responsible will defend this work as bold risk-taking. But in reality, it's a banal lack of differentiation wrapped up in bright colours. 🤔 What do you think?

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Great to see the #mediaforgrowth venture model getting more coverage in The Guardian - Look forward to continuing this conversation on Thursday at the mediaforgrowth (MFG) Annual Gathering with other media capital funds and startups hosted at Channel 4 HQ. The UK accounts for almost 25% of global media capital deals. Despite a decline in the number of deals in 2023, following a similar trend to VC investments, there’s been a clear upward trend in media capital transactions since 2018 📈 Digital startups are a key group of advertisers for broadcasters, making up 20% of total TV ad spend in the UK. This percentage has remained steady and is expected to increase this year, amounting to approximately £1.5 billion annually. One aspect, often overlooked, is that many of these startups have increased their ad spend through media-for-equity deals! *When used strategically - media for growth could play a vital role in boosting ad revenue for media companies while helping young brands amplify their reach and accelerate profitability.

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Well done Instinct Digital and Cassian Scott Stephen Maynard Great traction for the ambitious growth plans at Instinct Digital - “We are delighted to partner with AlbionVC on the next stage of our journey,” said Cassian Scott, CEO.  “Our prestigious clients are fundamental to our success, along with our partners and team who have enabled Instinct to build a product that has the potential to become the benchmark in investment communications and reporting for investors." see Morningstar Synpulse Marouane Bakhtar #fintech #assetmanagement #assetmanagers #investmentmanagers #wealthmanagement #reporting #investors

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At Parameter we love to work with brands that are change-makers, redefining categories, doing things differently and obsessed with growth 🚀 On Tuesday we did just that. Working with a brand that is all about making golf more accessible, with quality products for every level of golfer 🏌️ This little BTS photo is from a content shoot for the official digital launch of the brand - although they're already killing it on Amazon - focusing on social content, website photography and more 📸 The ideas behind this brand are amazing, shown by their success on Amazon, as they look to shake-up the industry I also can't complain about working for a brand in a sport I like to play (whether I can play well is a separate question) #parameter #contentcreation #digitalmarketing #golf #branding

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When travelling to watch their favourite team or artist, fans are looking to elevate their journeys and make them even more special. Travel benefits play a significant role in this, with the power to influence consumer behaviour too. Our recent global research report, The Value of Sports and Music Tourism, found that over a third 1/3 of event travellers would choose a payment card if it offered airport lounge access. By understanding these travellers’ needs and behaviours, financial services providers can adapt their offering to ensure long-term customer engagement, cultivate sustained loyalty, and positively impact cardholder spend. #CardBenefits #TravelBenefits #PriorityPass 

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Sharing with my network - the photo after the first paragraph in this article makes me smile every time I see it and is the catalyst for my thoughts! Follow us at FYLD to hear the latest AI updates from multiple sectors of our economy 🚀

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Important. For just about everything. https://on.ft.com/3WQYpyZ

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Check out the latest investing and saving innovations in the UK! 

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T17 and Devolver's comments to the City in past week or so have highlighted that catalogue is king right now and we have experienced that ourselves at Curve with Human Fall Flat selling 250,000 units in a promotion and darting back into the China Top 20 and Global Top 50 along the way as a brilliant new Museum update landed and VR announced. But market growth is new IP, extended globalisation, new business models and, crucially, collaborations. With publishers of all shapes and sizes learning tough lessons but also learning quickly, I'm feeling positive. And so are the commentators. Smart analyst Patrick O'Donnell right here: "Following a tough 2023 with all publishers downgrading, the results from both Devolver and Team17 signify increasing confidence in forecasts and a firm focus on the cost line. "In addition, Devolver has a very strong pipeline for the coming three years of over 30 titles including Human Fall Flat 2... this may drive a rerating like what we have seen in Team17 in recent weeks."

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Please join me for this webinar - I doubt you could ask for insights from two better placed, market-leading, award-winning B2B Editors, who have driven the success of their subscription-led businesses. Catrin Griffiths Alastair McLellan

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Really exciting report highlighting the importance of M&A in the modern business landscape.

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It's almost that time ... #MWC2025 planning is well under way. But are you able to unlock maximum ROI from your PR and marketing? Hear more from our experts and register for this event below ...

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The most persistent client criticism of agencies is that they’ve become “too submissive and reactive,” says Tim Williams of Ignition Consulting Group. He cites an unnamed CMO who went further, describing his agencies as “sickeningly subservient.” Williams says this is because agencies operate as service providers, even if they don’t see themselves as such. See what he says agencies should do instead: #advertisingandmarketing #advertisingagency #creativeagency

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