FMCG news

• M&S shifts tactics to reach ‘Mrs M&S’ and pins hopes on emotional Christmas ad

  11-11-2016 22:00
  
  Marks and Spencer (M&S) has admitted that last year’s modern and fast-paced Christmas campaign fell flat, with customers left feeling “detached”. This year, the embattled retailer has pinned its hopes on an emotional story about a little boy who writes to ‘Mrs Claus’ in a bid to inject some “warmth” into the brand.
  The advert was revealed at a screening in London earlier today (11 November), where Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne, executive director of
  
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• "Netflix Tax" causes stir in California cities

  11-11-2016 20:50
  
  While cable companies figure out how to gain back revenue as people continue to cut the cord and rely solely on streaming video for their entertainment, several California cities are also considering charging consumers for their video streams.
  At least a dozen cities in the Bay Area alone are weighing whether or not to adopt a streaming video tax to make up for lost revenue of those who no longer subscribe to cable, according to reports in the San Jose Mercury News and other area publications.
  W
  
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• MTV Breaks engages young people to create content at EMA awards

  11-11-2016 20:35
  
  For the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA), the network empowered fans, including 12 Rotterdam locals, to create a 48-hour MTV EMA Snapchat Creative Factory. The day before the event, the group of 12 worked to create and produce content to take over the MTV International Snapchat Discover feed for an entire day before the EMAs.
  “The content that the creatives produced blew us all away - it was of such high, professional caliber and suited the brand perfectly,” said Julie Allen, vice presi
  
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• Do It Day 2016: xAd helps the public take a stand against domestic violence

  11-11-2016 19:30
  
  As a company that puts location-based solutions at the the heart of its offering, the xAd team’s Do It Day challenge, and subsequent offering, was ultimately about connecting a network of people that need to ‘get to a better place’.    
  xAd challenged Do It Day participants to create a location-based platform called Embrella – one that would anonymously connect domestic abuse victims with individuals in their locality who are willing to help.
  Over the cours
  
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• Consultancy, FMCG firms take the cake at IIMB's summer placements - Times of India

  11-11-2016 19:05
  
  Times of India
  Consultancy, FMCG firms take the cake at IIMB's summer placements
  Times of India
  BENGALURU: Over 30% of postgraduate students of the 2016-18 batch of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), received offers in the management consulting sector during the summer placement drive. The three-day recruitment process, which ...
  Consulting, FMCG firms dominate Indian Institute of Management ...Economic Times
  Management consulting, FMCG firms dominate IIMB's summer placement
  
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• Facebook puts limits on ethnic ad-targeting after outcry

  11-11-2016 18:51 via campaignlive.com
  
  The platform will build an automated system to eliminate discriminating ads for housing, employment or credit.
  
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• Sainsbury's Christmas ad features James Corden, Bret McKenzie and a cast of puppets

  11-11-2016 18:33 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Sainsbury's has released a joyful stop frame animation ad that says the best gift you can give your family at Christmas is your own time.
  
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• Gary Lineker has 'spoken' to Walkers about pulling spend from The Sun

  11-11-2016 18:19 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Gary Lineker claims he has spoken with Pepsico-owned Walkers about the crisp brand's ongoing advertising relationship with the Sun.
  
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• How Digital Futures is convincing 100 agencies to give 100 out of work youngsters a job opportunity in the marketing industry

  11-11-2016 18:09
  
  It seems perverse that as the UK faces up to a digital talent shortage which threatens to cost its economy £63bn a year in lost revenue, more than 600,000 of the country’s youngsters were unemployed as of this summer.
  This skills shortage is being acutely felt in the marketing industry, where traditional agencies are having to recalibrate themselves for the digital economy and wake up to the diversity deficit in their own workforces or risk creating work that fails to resonate with y
  
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• Amnesty International looks to spread #iwelcome message with social media push

  11-11-2016 17:43
  
  Check out how The Drum's other Do It Day challenges fared here - and remember, it's never too late to commit your talent to any of the fantastic causes launching their campaigns during Do It Day.
  With over 34,000 Twitter impressions, more than 100 shares on Facebook and 2500 likes on Instagram Amnesty International’s #iwelcome campaign received a substantial boost thanks to its Do It Day call to action. 
  Taking a different path from the original Plan It Day idea - to match people
  
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• Campaign and PRWeek's Brand Film Festival London: entry deadline nears

  11-11-2016 17:40 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  There is little over a month left to enter Brand Film Festival London - Campaign and sister title PRWeek's new festival that celebrates the very best of brand storytelling.
  
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• Did Havas really predict Donald Trump's US election victory using AI?

  11-11-2016 17:36 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Campaign digs into a Havas agency's after-the-event claim that a team using machine intelligence "kept predicting a Trump victory".
  
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• M&S makes Mrs Claus the star for launch of 'most customer-centric' Christmas campaign

  11-11-2016 17:19 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Santa Claus' wife swoops into London to deliver festive joy to a young brother and sister, to launch Marks & Spencer's 2016 Christmas campaign.
  
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• Inside the John Lewis 'Buster the Boxer' VR experience

  11-11-2016 17:18 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  John Lewis has created two virtual reality experiences as part of its "Buster the boxer" Christmas activity - one for consumers to try in-store and another they can try with Google Cardboard at home.
  
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• Business on the Move: ITV, Toyota, Perfetti Van Melle and more

  11-11-2016 17:00
  
  ITV has appointed Somethin' Else to produce social media content alongside ITV's in-house team for the channel's forthcoming series of I'm A Celebrity... and other future projects.
  The appointment follows a competitive pitch involving three agencies, and will see the London-based content shop work with ITV’s in-house digital and social media production arms to initiate design and create assets across multiple platforms. Somethin’ Else will also work on the live show output, with a nu
  
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• Natwest: You are a bank. That’s all you are.

  11-11-2016 16:43
  
  It was Oscar Wilde who said that there is only one thing in life worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about. In the twentieth century, an increasingly PR driven ad industry updated Wilde’s maxim to the popular adage: there’s no such thing as bad publicity.  
  During the halcyon days of TV advertising, when millions of us watched the same ad break at the same time (how quaint!), agencies spoke of creating ‘watercooler moments’ in workplaces on the
  
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• Waitrose Christmas ad depicts robin's epic journey home

  11-11-2016 16:30 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Waitrose is celebrating the spirit of connection with its festive ad about a robin that makes its annual journey home for Christmas.
  
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• Pernod Ricard wants Malibu to ‘own all summer drinks’ and has picked Huge to push the plan through

  11-11-2016 16:26
  
  Pernod Ricard has lofty ambitions for its Malibu brand and is hoping newly appointed creative agency Huge will help bring the brand to greater exposure globally and become “the spirit brand of choice for summer”.
  The drinks company selected Huge as its global creative agency of record following a competitive pitch last month, and will now work with the agency to push through its plan of becoming “the no 1 flavoured spirits brand in the world”. Currently, over 50% of Malib
  
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• Coca-Cola encourages Londoners to litter less with 'Talking Rubbish' social experiment

  11-11-2016 16:18
  
  From discarded coffee cups to the sticky wraps of chewing gum that temporarily glue our shoes to the pavement, litter is something most of us experience on a daily basis. Recognising that soft drinks packaging is too often part of Britain's rubbish problem, Coca-Cola has now kickstarted an attention-grabbing campaign in a bid to tackle the issue and encourage people to recycle more. 
  Harnessing the momentum of The Drum's Do It Day event yesterday, the drinks giant launched an
  
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• How to turn Christmas shoppers into loyal customers

  11-11-2016 16:07
  
  Shopping for the Holiday season is a hotly debated topic, whether to start in August or leave it until late December. Ashamedly, I must admit that I fall into the latter. What can I say? I love endless queues, trodden toes and a scramble in Aisle 1 for the last Christmas Pudding.
  With festive shoppers becoming discount customers searching high and low for the best deals, how can brands turn ‘Discount Daisys’ into ‘Loyal Larrys’? 
  Increase awareness of discounts &
  
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• How to avoid the three common PR pitfalls agencies face

  11-11-2016 16:00
  
  This morning, The Future Factory held its last breakfast session of 2016 at Forge & Co. Shoreditch, where I was invited to present my Agency PR Toolkit – providing practical advice on how to set up your agency’s PR function and keep it running without the need for PR freelancers or agencies.
  Here are a few of my key takeaways:
  A lot of you will have experienced what we call “PR envy”. You’ve picked up a copy The Drum magazine and seen your co
  
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• Accion raises awareness of financial inclusion at Do It Day

  11-11-2016 15:41
  
  At The Drum’s Do It Day in New York, Accion, a nonprofit that seeks to expand access to financial services around the world, worked with teams from digital agencies Rapp and Syzygy on its challenge to raise awareness of financial inclusion, or addressing the needs of the 3 billion people worldwide who are underserved by mainstream financial services.
  The goal was to come up with a plan to engage more of its corporate partners, which include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Citi, Cred
  
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• Migrant labour caravan consultation launched by FPC

  11-11-2016 15:17
  
  The consultation follows a spate of exposés on poor conditions for workers
  
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• #OneMoreThing: Shining a bright light on refugees at Do It Day NYC

  11-11-2016 14:33
  
  Do It Day tackled some of the most important issues of the day — and one doesn’t have to look far to see and understand that the refugee crisis is one that demands action. To that end, Amnesty International tasked Do It Day teams both in London and New York to come up with ideas that would allow refugees to be seen in a much more positive light.
  Two solid ideas emerged — one from the UK and the other from the US — both looking especially relevant in light of the recent US
  
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• The Ad Council kick-starts its 75th anniversary “#HereForGood” campaign at Do It Day

  11-11-2016 14:31
  
  For nearly 75 years, the Ad Council has been working to pair the best and brightest minds of the advertising world with nonprofits that are in need of creativity to spread their important messages.
  While the Ad Council is behind some of country’s most iconic campaigns - including 72-year old Smokey Bear and more recently, Love Has No Labels – the non-profit organisation came to Plan It Day and Do It Day this year in search of a campaign or initiative that would raise awareness of and
  
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• Rapp UK: “The meaning of value has changed for consumers”

  11-11-2016 14:23
  
  “Value is one of those terms that gets bandied around a lot by marketing departments,” says Shiona McDougall, senior vice-president of strategy at Rapp UK. “It often appears as a pillar in a brand strategy, or as part of strategic marketing objectives or principles. If you ask 10 people across 10 different organisations the meaning of value, you’ll get 10 different answers.”
  This situation prompted Rapp to do some proprietary research into what value means to custom
  
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• Ebay embraces the awkward with Christmas disco ad

  11-11-2016 14:23 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Ebay is targeting younger shoppers with a light-hearted Christmas ad themed around the awkward school disco.
  
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• Finding missing people faster: how IBM’s Watson can change the world

  11-11-2016 14:10
  
  Every year IBM gives its staff the opportunity to come up with ideas for how its technology can be used to solve a problem. This year, a team led by software channel account manager Wendy Larcade decided to build an app that could help find missing people.
  Using IBM supercomputer Watson’s cognitive capabilities, it has the power to assist police forces in analysing as much relevant data as possible in the shortest possible time as it aids them in their search campaigns.
  The challenge set b
  
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• Consulting, FMCG firms dominate Indian Institute of Management ... - Economic Times

  11-11-2016 14:10
  
  Times of India
  Consulting, FMCG firms dominate Indian Institute of Management ...
  Economic Times
  BENGALURU: The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore concluded summer placements for its flagship Post Graduate Programme 2016-18 batch with ...
  Consultancy, FMCG firms take the cake at IIMB's summer placementsTimes of India
  IIM Bangalore: Management consulting, FMCG firms emerge as top recruiters in summer placementsThe Indian Express
  Management consulting, FMCG firms dominate summer placem
  
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• Consulting, FMCG firms dominate Indian Institute of Management Bangalore's summer placements - Economic Times

  11-11-2016 14:10
  
  Consulting, FMCG firms dominate Indian Institute of Management Bangalore's summer placements
  Economic Times
  BENGALURU: The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore concluded summer placements for its flagship Post Graduate Programme 2016-18 batch with management consulting and FMCG firms hiring the most. There were 402 eligible students who ...
  
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• How the Eating Better Alliance got meat-lovin' men #VegCurious by combatting masculine stereotypes

  11-11-2016 13:44
  
  The Eating Better Alliance (EAB) was intent on piquing the curiosity of UK men with vegetables using a tongue in cheek multi-platform campaign created by a team of volunteer creatives at Do It Day.
  The UK government claims that a majority of men (six out of 10) eat more than the government’s recommended 70g of red and processed meat a day. This leaves a substantial carbon footprint (red meat is the worst offender when compared with other meat types) – furthermore global agr
  
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• Doves Farm lands two more gluten-free pastas

  11-11-2016 13:30
  
  They follow the brand’s win at The Grocer New Product Awards 2016 for its Organic Buckwheat Penne
  
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• How Bulletproof and children’s charity Vital are fighting poverty in India

  11-11-2016 13:21
  
  Pig carcasses, the bodies of dead babies and mountains upon mountains of hazardous rubbish; this is life in Dhapa, India, home to one of the country’s biggest landfill sites on the edges of Kolkata. It's also home to around 30,000 people and one of places that children’s charity Vital is working to improve the lives of the impoverished children that live there.
  Created by Yvonne (Vonny) Nueman in 2007, Vital is an exceptionally small charity – “It’s just me, myself,
  
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• New Balance under fire after voicing support for Donald Trump

  11-11-2016 13:19
  
  New Balance has come under widespread criticism after it expressed support for president-elect Donald Trump for his stance on Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
  The US shoemaker's vice president of public affairs, Matt LeBretton, sparked the controversy in a statement to The Wall Street Journal when commenting on the future of the TPP deal.
  The agreement, which has yet to be ratified by congress, is intended to boost growth and deepen economic ties between the US and its allies
  
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• FDF unveils redesigned logo at new London headquarters

  11-11-2016 13:17
  
  Director general brands move ‘important milestone’ for the organisation
  
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• Quorn adds Crispbakes duo to meat alternatives lineup

  11-11-2016 13:07
  
  The products went on sale nationally this week
  
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• Greengrass Consulting and O2 get men to tweet their feet in #WalkTheTalk gender equality campaign

  11-11-2016 13:04
  
  Greengrass Consulting and O2 brought to life their #WalkTheTalk social campaign to help men get involved in the gender equality conversation. Tasking men to remove their socks and shoes and posting a photo of their feet on Twitter, the campaign hoped to shine a light on the treatment of prime minister Theresa May when she came to power earlier this year.
  Marina Lumley, founding partner of Greengrass Consulting, worked at the heart of the campaign all day asking both people at the Do It Day event
  
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• Playing through lines – the secret of success now that we have reached peak content

  11-11-2016 12:50
  
  As part of helping facilitate knowledge exchange between industry and academia, I recently hosted a panel on Branded Entertainment in London that was kindly moderated by The Drum.
  The session was kicked off by panelists explaining why Branded Content exists. There was a consensus that it’s a response to the rapidly changing media landscape and how it’s now being consumed – not least by the 100 or so invited advertising students who represent the ‘millennial’ audienc
  
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• M&S to cut its cloth, with food to make up half its offer

  11-11-2016 12:47
  
  What do experts and suppliers think of M&S CEO Steve Rowe’s bold turnaround plan?
  
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• Branded chilled fish sales dive as mults switch to own label

  11-11-2016 12:43
  
  Sales of branded chilled fish plummeted 25.5% to just £91.0m on volumes down 30.0% last year
  
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• How xAd used location technology to help feed over 200 people in need

  11-11-2016 12:42
  
  "In our six hours out collecting food, we had a definite deliverable and we went out and we used marketing technology to support us doing that. If the purpose of Do It Day is to use marketing to make a difference in one day then I think we achieved it."
  At Plan it Day in November, location technology company xAd conceived an idea to use its resources to supply food banks in need, working with outlets and retailers to distribute their surplus supplies. And at yesterday's Do It Day, the event
  
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• The best parodies of John Lewis' 'Buster the boxer' Christmas campaign

  11-11-2016 12:36 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Parodies of the John Lewis Christmas campaign are becoming as much of a Christmas tradition as, well, the John Lewis Christmas campaign. Here are some of this year's spoofs of "Buster the boxer".
  
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• MyVoucherCodes, Tennent's, The Poke and Prezzybox parody the John Lewis Buster the Boxer Christmas ad

  11-11-2016 12:31
  
  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and John Lewis' wide-reaching Christmas campaign is always a surefire work to inspire parody.
  Several brands released their own take on the 'Bounce Bounce' tale, featuring Buster the Boxer, that won hearts earlier this week - adapting levels of humour and slapstick the department store would not dare strive for.
  The Poke 
  Video of John Lewis Christmas Advert 2016 (Parody Version) 
  Loading...
  Tennent’s Lager
  Video of John Lewis Ad Spoof
  
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• The Movie Marketing Blog: The Five Weirdest Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Products (So Far)

  11-11-2016 12:30
  
  We’re only a little over a month from the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first non “Episode” theatrical release.
  The story is set in the period leading up to 1977’s A New Hope and involves plans by the Rebel Alliance to steal the Death Star plans, which by the time of Episode IV were already in Princess Leia’s hands. That effort is lead by Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), a young woman whose father was instrumental in the creation of the Empire&rsq
  
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• William Hill shouts about speed in new campaign from Resident Evil director

  11-11-2016 12:27 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Bookmaker William Hill is aiming to move beyond product-focused messaging with a new TV spot directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.
  
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• LRS To Reduce Sugar Content Of Drinks Portfolio By 50%

  11-11-2016 12:27
  Ahead of the sugar tax due to be introduced in 2018, Lucozade Ribena Suntory (LRS) has revealed that it plans to reduce sugar content in its drinks portfolio by 50% to bring the products below the threshold of 5g per (more…)
  
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• European Bartender School mixes things up with major UK campaign

  11-11-2016 12:26
  
  European Bartender School (EBS), the world’s leading bartender school, has launched an exciting new nationwide advertising campaign targeting prospective students across universities and major cities.
  The multi-format marketing activity has been coordinated by independent agency Media Agency Group. The long-term campaign combines digital, mobile and radio advertising with dynamic out of home ad formats to saturate some of the UK’s busiest cities with the EBS brand. Activity includes
  
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• Overseas Investors’ Appetite For UK Food & Drink Firms Grows Following Brexit

  11-11-2016 12:25
  Overseas investors are demonstrating an increased appetite for UK food and beverage firms following the Brexit vote and subsequent fall in the value of sterling, according to research conducted by financial advisory firm Grant Thornton. Grant Thornton’s analysis shows a (more…)
  
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• Amazon Extending Black Friday Sales Period To 12 Days

  11-11-2016 12:24
  Amazon is hoping break last year’s record Back Friday sales by extending the period it offers discounts to 12 days, up from five days previously. The online giant’s Black Friday sale will run from Monday 14 November until the Friday (more…)
  
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• Strong Year For Kitwave Wholesale

  11-11-2016 12:23
  Kitwave Wholesale has posted record year-end results, boosted by acquisitions. The company, which operates 15 depots across the UK selling food & drink and tobacco, revealed that its turnover rose 14% to £260m in the 12 months to 30 April (more…)
  
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