Cashless societies could become the norm but much will depend on consumer confidence in the available options and the level of security. Getting rid of cash has long been on the agenda of credit card providers, which trade on the fact that they can provide transaction data to the retailers they service. But now a new wave of virtual ways to pay means that consumers could soon be using new currencies Bitcoin and Ven to pay for goods too. Meanwhile, the UK’s three largest mobile networks got together earlier this month to work with retailers on consistent technology that will allow people to pay via a mobile ‘wallet’.All of these ways to pay will increase the amount of transactional data available to marketers - but how keen are consumers on going cashless?Visa used the London Olympics as a springboard for contactless payments and looked to promote payments via smartphones, which it predicts will make up 50 per cent of its card volume by 2020.However, only 15 per cent of those who could have used Visa’s ‘tap and pay’ card technology did so at the Games, which amounted to 150,000 transactions. But the move towards contactless payments continues to develop. For example, MasterCard’s Paypass services allows for faster transactions online and in-store; mobile payment chips, first introduced by Barclaycard in 2011, are regularly being inserted in phones; and contactless payment facilities on cards enabling a tap and pay function without the need for a PIN are being further developed.Meanwhile, Barclays launched Pingit this year, a mobile payment service that allows customers to send and receive money with a mobile phone number, which has sparked The Payments Council to work on a similar project. And the three leading mobile operators in the UK - EE, Vodafone and O2 - are working on…

As eastern brands seek to carve out a niche in western markets, Marketing Week asks what companies in the West can learn from China’s rising dragons. The past few months have seen several Chinese brands launching in the West. Telecoms company Huawei, car brand Great Wall and menswear retailer Bosideng have all expanded their presence in developed markets this year, including the US and UK. These brands have huge financial might behind them - Bosideng has 11,000 stores in China and made more than £130m in profit last year - and the will to take on global competitors. How will western brands respond to this march of the dragon?In reality, the picture is far from clear. Huawei’s recent experience in the US, for example, shows that Chinese corporations still face a huge challenge in gaining acceptance in western markets. In October, the telecoms giant was forced to fend off claims by the US House of Representatives’ intelligence committee that it poses a security risk because of links to the Chinese government.The committee urged US companies to stop doing business with Huawei because of the danger that the company’s devices could be used for spying. China’s commerce minister Chen Deming responded by claiming the committee was still gripped by a “Cold War mentality”.Last month, Huawei sought to put the episode behind it by launching a multi-million-dollar brand awareness campaign aimed at western consumers. The ‘Ascend to New Heights’ campaign, which includes online competitions and prizes ranging from new phones to holidays, is part of a global brand-building effort targeting consumers in 45 markets. Its success should give an indication of how far Chinese brands have come in winning over Westerners.“The promotion campaign is testimony to our aggressive push to extend awareness of our brand worldwide,” says Huawei public relations manager Jannie…

Advertising pays, that much is accepted, but to what extent does it actually boost the economy? According to an exclusive report from the Advertising Association, it contributes £100bn a year. Advertising has been blamed for everything from binge drinking and childhood obesity, to sexism and the rise of gambling among women; not to mention the accusations of false claims made in ads. But a new report aims to banish those views and rebuild the industry’s sometimes tainted image by proving its worth to the UK economy and wider society.Launched today (January 31), the three-year study by the Advertising Association (AA) and Deloitte claims that for every £1 spent on advertising in the UK, £6 is generated for the wider economy. Annual ad spend stood at £16bn in 2011, so by that estimation advertising added at least £100bn to the UK’s gross domestic product.To put this in perspective, the AA’s chief executive Tim Lefroy says: “That’s bigger than spending money on building new roads, railways or stations where the conversion factor would be one to four. Spending money on advertising will grow the economy, increase jobs and make things better in this country.”And in her first press column, culture secretary Maria Miller speaks of advertising as being on a par with manufacturing, saying that both will drive economic recovery in the coming years (see viewpoint[1]).While ad spend is set to increase from £16.8bn last year to £17.2bn this year, according to the AA and WARC, the new report is about the overall contribution of advertising to the economy - how it generates demand for products.Matt Barwell, consumer marketing and innovation director of Diageo Western Europe, says: “People fundamentally believe in advertising but a lot of the conversation focuses on negative elements. People rarely get the opportunity to talk about the positive…