Marketing news

• Ad of the Day: Dead car batteries lead to dashed hopes and dreams in this funny Interstate Battery campaign

  02-03-2017 22:33
  
  Marketing something as dull as car batteries is no easy task, but Dallas-based agency Firehouse has managed to create a fun, clever campaign for Interstate Batteries that shows drivers how the brand's trusty products can prevent calamity.
  In one ad, an indignant grandmother decides to write her grandson out of her will after she learns that his dead car battery is what’s keeping him from visiting her. In another, a cheesy heavy metal band called Pegasus can’t make their gig at the lo
  
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• For the first time, Dove brings women from all over the world together in update to 'Real Beauty' campaign

  02-03-2017 20:51 via campaignlive.com
  
  Thirty-two women from 15 countries are featured in photographs by Mario Testino.
  
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• Trailer Park hires Jason Zammit as director, live theatrical marketing

  02-03-2017 20:48
  
  Agency Trailer Park, part of Engine Group, has announced the hiring of Jason Zammit as director, live theatrical marketing. Zammit will be based out of the company’s Los Angeles office and will focus on expanding the agency’s performing arts offering.Jason Zammit joins Trailer Park as director, live theatrical marketing
   
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  Zammit brings more than 10 years of entertainment marketing experience to the position. He became involved with Trailer Park when he was senior
  
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• Deutsch promotes Rachel Mercer to SVP, head of digital strategy and invention

  02-03-2017 20:29
  
  Deutsch New York has promoted Rachel Mercer, who was recently honored as one of The Drum’s 50 Under 30, a look at achieving women making their mark in digital, to senior vice president, head of digital strategy and invention.
   
  Since joining in May 2016 as VP, digital strategy director, Mercer has amplified the output of Deutsch’s New York digital strategy department offering and, in addition to delivering incremental new business, was key in winning the social and dig
  
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• Why every brand needs an Amazon strategy

  02-03-2017 19:25
  
  A few years ago, if you asked anyone what Amazon was, they’d tell you it was an online retailer. Today, it’s an evolving platform with a wildly successful voice assistant and ambitions as far as the eye can see. Amazon Fresh is in the grocery business.  Amazon Go has plans to expand its register-free shopping, and there are even rumors of a revival of the Fire phone.
  Simply put, no brand can afford to ignore Amazon. Because even if your brand doesn’t directly interact with
  
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• VCCP selected as eBay's lead creative agency across Europe

  02-03-2017 18:32
  
  eBay has picked VCCP as its lead creative agency in Europe as it embarks on the next stage of its "brand evolution."     The announcement follows a competitive pitch during which the online marketplace sought out one agency to support across creative portfolios in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
  The business said the appointment comes at a "key moment," in its global brand strategy with its European director of marketing Godert Van Dedem saying the agency'
  
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• P&G’s Marc Pritchard slams objections to his attempt to clean up digital

  02-03-2017 18:24
  
  Procter & Gamble’s chief brand officer Marc Pritchard has dismissed objections to his attempts to clean up the digital ad ecosystem, calling out those that might try to justify not adhering to his demands and pointing out what he calls “head fakes” – myths that are standing in the way of digital becoming more transparent and accountable.
  In a speech he is set to give at the ANA’s Media Conference 2017 later today (2 March), Pritchard will once again speak about
  
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• Lessons in content from the world of fiction

  02-03-2017 18:11
  
  Today is World Book Day, a nationwide celebration of reading, where school kids are given a £1 voucher to get lost in a book.
  But far from just being for the benefit of the next generation, World Book Day got me thinking too. What lessons could we, as content marketers, learn from the world of books?
  Over the last few years, a lot has been written about the value of hiring journalists to run content offerings and treating the operation as a conventional newsroom. And with good reason.
  
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• Snap Inc IPO: Industry experts weigh in on Snapchat's future

  02-03-2017 18:10
  
  Snap's IPO is the biggest tech float in years and while the financial world is abuzz with predictions the move could also have implications for the Snap's advertising business - it's main source of revenue. 
  Snap's pop opened at $24 a share, but in its IPO filing the company outlined that it can't offer profit in the short-term but can offer growth. So, while Snapchat’s photos might disappear seconds after its 158 million users open them, in order to keep itself afloat the compan
  
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• Motorola on the comeback trail as it plots brand revival

  02-03-2017 18:05
  
  Motorola has had a bumpy few years. It was once the king of the mobile phone space with its catchy marketing ‘Hello Moto’.
  Yet, as with many of the early winners in the mobile phone space, it gradually fell out of favour, first losing its crown to Nokia and then Apple and Samsung. That fall from grace saw the mobile phone business spun out of Motorola and then almost immediately acquired by Google. Yet that deal was also short-lived. It turned out Google only wanted Motorola for its
  
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• P&G launches #WeSeeEqual campaign ahead of International Women’s Day

  02-03-2017 18:03
  
  Procter & Gamble (P&G) has launched a campaign dubbed “#WeSeeEqual” to advocate for gender equality ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8.  
  The crux of the effort is a video that tears down stereotypes via footage of women and men defying traditional gender roles. For example, a clip of an older women bungee jumping is accompanied by the statement “fears don’t care who conquer them.” Clips from P&G brand campaigns are also scattered t
  
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• On the verge of a rebrand, About.com launches fourth vertical site

  02-03-2017 18:03
  
  The two-decades-old About.com has been trending away from its catch-all website and launching vertical sites over the last year. With the recent introduction of its home site The Spruce and the upcoming travel site TripSavvy, launching this spring, the original About.com will soon cease to exist.
  “We’re renaming the whole company,” said Neil Vogel, chief executive officer of the IAC-owned About.com. “We will no longer be About.com. We’re officially announcing the ne
  
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• China mobile advertising spend for Black Friday outstrips Singles Day

  02-03-2017 18:00
  
  Chinese advertisers spent more money on mobile advertising around the US shopping event Black Friday than the nation’s own Singles Day extravaganza,  according to new research.
  The Q4 2016 Global Trends in Advertising report revealed that although China’s mobile advertising spend increased year-on-year for Singles Day last year, it was outstripped by investment in advertising around the US Black Friday event.
  China was also outspent on Singles Day, with Japan and Malaysia spendi
  
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• Telsa to begin advertising after Elon Musk agrees to fifth-grader's marketing plan

  02-03-2017 17:59
  
  Tesla’s aversion to advertising appears to have changed after Elon Musk announced that the company would hold a contest for homemade advertisements.
  The founder of the tech giant confirmed the news on Twitter in response to a letter written to him by a fifth-grade student.
  In the letter Bria, daughter of Twitter user Steven, wrote of her love for Tesla’s environmentally conscious approach and suggested that the company run a competition to find the best fan made advertisement for the
  
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• SaleCycle releases free ebook revealing the secrets of successful cart abandonment remarketing emails

  02-03-2017 17:57
  
  Behavioural marketing specialist SaleCycle has created and published a free ebook revealing the scale of global cart abandonment and the secrets of successful cart abandonment emails.
  The ebook, The Cart Abandonment Email Playbook, explores the effectiveness of tactics you can apply to your cart abandonment emails including segmentation, personalisation, dynamic content such as live pricing, customer reviews and A/B testing.
  Jack Ford, acquisition marketing manager at SaleCycle, said: “Car
  
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• Havas Chicago creates #BlackAtWork obstacle course around being black in the workplace

  02-03-2017 17:39
  
  “THAT’S SO GHETTO.”
  “YOU DON’T SOUND BLACK.”
  “CAN YOU TEACH ME HOW TO DOUGIE?”In an installation around Black History Month, Havas Chicago created a set of obstacles and learnings around what a black man or woman in the workplace might experience, highlighting the need for diversity in advertising as well.
  “We are focused on being diverse and focused on equality. This is a broader dialogue that needs to happen. It’s beyond black people.
  
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• Snapchat’s evolution from sexting app to advertising darling, and how its record IPO will affect its ad business

  02-03-2017 17:30
  
  Snapchat’s humble beginnings as ‘that sexting app’ are starting to look like ancient history now that its parent company Snap Inc has successfully engineered what is the biggest initial public offering for a technology company since Alibaba. Where other online giants have seemed to race toward the stock market, Snap’s path has been far more measured for fear of it killing the golden goose that has been laying the eggs – its ephemerality.
  The notoriously secretive co
  
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• Nokia on why it is “so much more than the 3310”

  02-03-2017 17:24
  
  Nokia undoubtedly scored the PR coup of Mobile World Congress this year when it unveiled a comeback for the beloved 3310.
  HMD Global, which owns the rights to the Nokia brand in mobile phones, revealed the much-rumoured device on Sunday (26 February). It marks the first time a phone has been released under the Nokia brand since 2015 and was met with a wave of publicity and excitement from both the press and consumers.
  But Nokia’s chief marketer Barry French is concerned. He fears the inte
  
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• Google: We got balance wrong on 'educating' advertisers about brand safety on YouTube

  02-03-2017 17:20 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Google has admitted "we haven't done a good enough job" of "educating" advertisers and other players in the digital media supply chain about where their ads will appear.
  
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• WPP enjoys record year as net profit leaps 20.6% to £1.5bn

  02-03-2017 17:07 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  WPP has had a record year at a time when other agency groups have struggled, with net profit skyrocketing 20.6% to £1.5bn.
  
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• #SMWNYC: How social is driving the end of TV as we know it – and why the Kardashians could be bigger than the Beatles

  02-03-2017 16:43
  
  In 1964, the Beatles’ appearance on Ed Sullivan was a watershed moment in America.
  “At that time, if you wanted to be relevant, you went on Ed Sullivan,” said Matt Britton, CEO of online community Crowdtap, at Social Media Week in New York on Wednesday (March 1). “It signified a Golden Era of TV. There were four channels you could watch and few other things for families to do. That approach to media lasted 35 years. If you had a viable product and a checkbook, you could w
  
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• Murdoch praises UK public-service TV as he 'sells' Sky takeover

  02-03-2017 16:33 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  James Murdoch has praised Britain's public service broadcasting output and record of "impartial news" but warned of a fast-changing, super-competitive global market as he sold the virtues of his planned acquisition of Sky.
  
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• Sir Martin Sorrell: Short-termism is the biggest threat to marketers

  02-03-2017 16:29
  
  Sir Martin Sorrell’s greatest worry and what he believes will have the greatest negative impact on future growth is short-termism.
  Speaking this morning (2 March) at Deloitte’s Media and Telecoms conference, the WPP boss said: “It’s not three-month-old babies that keep me awake at night. It’s the continuous focus on the short term. Events of recent weeks bring that into sharp focus.”
  Sorrell, who has a three-month-old daughter, said the short-t
  
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• The value of mobile, seamless experiences and the confusion of being too data-driven: Yahoo's Nigel Clarkson mulls MWC lessons

  02-03-2017 16:23
  
  An interesting idea came out in the conference hall yesterday around mobile facilitating and driving 'the 4th industrial revolution'. With the Smartphone being just 10 years old, we are in a massively accelerated time of global, technological revolution that will utterly transform our lives and the world we live in. 
  There are now 5 billion people connected globally. Think about what the decade-old smartphone has brought to us: Connections to each other, connections to valued
  
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• British fashion struggles to see the hidden trends

  02-03-2017 15:55
  
  With the after party hangovers subsiding and the models arriving in Paris, we can now all rest easy knowing that wallpaper florals and statement pockets will be ‘in’ this autumn.
  But London Fashion Week isn’t just about what’s going to be hot later this year, it puts British brands and talent in the shop window for the world to see. And it's not only fashionistas who get excited – it’s easy for marketers to get swept up in the latest trends as they search for
  
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• 100 years of advertising in 10 types of ideas

  02-03-2017 15:52
  
  This year the IPA celebrates its Centenary anniversary. Since its inception 100 years ago, thousands upon thousands of advertisements have been created, but WCRS believes that it is possible to catalogue all of these into 10 simple themes.
  100 years of advertising. Millions of ads. And one neat way to order them all in 10 types of ideas. Here we go…
  1. Expressing Personality
  Ideas where the way the brand speaks is more important than what it says
  These ideas often bypass the rational part
  
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• How a confident brand can transform perception

  02-03-2017 15:45
  
  In November 2013, Hull was named UK City of Culture 2017. Many people including locals and the media raised their eyebrows. Once voted one of the worst places to live in the UK, Hull was not a city immediately associated with the word ‘culture’.
  But in January this year, this downtrodden city with a bit of an image problem took 12th spot in Lastminute.com’s recommended destinations for 2017. Just above Montreal, Croatia and Japan, was Hull. At number eight in leading travel pu
  
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• Pizza Hut shoes mark the latest in easy order innovation

  02-03-2017 15:40
  
  Pizza-ordering shoes may have seemed like an impossible dream, but Pizza Hut, which says it serves and delivers more pizzas than any other pizza company in the world, is making this very concept a reality with its Pizza Hut Pie Tops. That’s right: these custom-designed basketball shoes can order pizza for delivery simply by pressing a button on the shoe’s tongue.
  Pie Tops have a smart button inside the tongue, which connects to a user’s phone and the Pie Tops app via Bluetooth,
  
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• Time Inc. launches video-only food brand Well Done

  02-03-2017 15:37
  
  Time Inc. has launched a new food brand called Well Done that will publish a video-only slate of new recipes, food explainers, hacks and news for a social and mobile audience.
  Well Done will use Time Inc.’s test kitchens and video studios to create videos specifically designed for social platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest. It will launch from the MyRecipes Facebook page, a Time Inc. subsidiary.
  Time Inc.’s food portfolio - Cooking Light, Food &am
  
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• Disney partners with Unilever, P&G and Sony for Beauty and the Beast launch

  02-03-2017 15:35 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Disney has unveiled a seven-strong plinth of brand partners for this month's release of the latest live action adaptation of its animated films, Beauty and the Beast.
  
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• 'This girl can' returns to shake up the world of #femvertising

  02-03-2017 15:28 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Social video experts at Be On review "This girl can".
  
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• #SMWNYC: Why visual content is key to the future of advertising

  02-03-2017 15:05
  
  Visual content allows us to connect in far more meaningful ways almost instantly in part because 90% of information to the brain is visual. That’s according to Michelle Klein, marketing director of North America at Facebook, who spoke Wednesday (March 1) at Social Media Week in New York.
  Because 40% of the nerve fibers in our brains are connected to the retina, we process images much faster than words, which is in part driving a historical shift in how consumers communicate from written te
  
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• Swedish women’s football team replace shirt names with empowering messages of equality

  02-03-2017 15:00
  
  The Swedish women’s football team has replaced the names on the back of their kits with empowering messages as part of a campaign intended to inspire women.
  In partnership with Adidas, the Swedish Football Association’s kit sponsor, the players have chosen tweets from prominent Swedish women to be printed on the back of their shirt in place of where their name would usually feature.
  The initiative has been launched by the Swedish FA in the hope that it will inspire young women t
  
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• McDonald's home delivery could be on its way

  02-03-2017 14:56 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  McDonald's is "uniquely positioned to become the global leader in delivery", the fast-food chain said yesterday, as it announced that it could be bringing home delivery to markets including the UK.
  
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• International bulletin: France passes new ad transparency law, Lyft takes on Uber

  02-03-2017 14:36
  
  France passes new ad transparency law
  Most people probably haven’t heard of Loi Sapin – an anti-corruption law that was introduced in France in 1993 in order to make the business of media-buying more transparent.
  It states that media-buying agencies are not allowed to work as both the buyer and seller of advertising for their client. The law also requires that the agency can only be paid by the advertiser — meaning they can’t receive rebates from a publisher or media own
  
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• Comedy Central to launch five original shortform series on Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook

  02-03-2017 14:17
  
  Comedy Central International, the network's non-US arm, is set to launch five original shortform series made exclusively for Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook and to sit on the its Play app and website.
  Snapchat is the leading platform for Comedy Central’s shortform output, with three of the five series debuting on Snapchat first, and lengthened for other platforms.
  The digital-only slate includes the following:
  ‘Bad Snappers’, a Snapchat Discover series made up of ten 60-second sket
  
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• FC Barcelona to work with brands to create world’s leading sports innovation centre

  02-03-2017 14:05
  
  FC Barcelona has unveiled plans to develop an innovation hub which the club says will work with leading brands to generate a positive impact on society beyond the realm of sport.
  The La Liga team’s president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, announced plans for the creation of the Barça Innovation Hub during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.
  Bartomeu said the initiative is part of the club’s ambition to “be more than a club” by marketing FC Barcelona as &
  
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• No.10’s head of digital David Tomchak joins Evening Standard to lead online strategy

  02-03-2017 13:58
  
  Number 10 Downing Street’s head of digital, David Tomchak, has left the civil service to return to the media industry as digital director of editorial at the Evening Standard.
  Tomchak will lead the title’s digital growth across its two sites, Standard.co.uk and Homes and Property, responsible for the digital editorial and production teams. He will work alongside editor of the newspaper, Sarah Sands, until her departure later in the year when she will join the BBC Today programme
  
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• ‘As soon as you have an innovation department you’re buggered’

  02-03-2017 13:50
  
  Innovation will not come from installing a team dedicated to “being innovative” as that only encourages businesses to think of creativity and technology as two separate things, says Creative England’s CEO Caroline Norbury.
  Technology, creativity, innovation and data are “all bound together” in reality, so any attempt to split them out and treat them independently will be detrimental to a business.
  “As soon as you have an innovations department you’
  
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• O2 turns its attention to live experiences in campaign that reminds people it’s not just a mobile network

  02-03-2017 13:00
  
  O2 wants consumers to buy into its plethora of live events and is hoping to raise the profile of the brand’s involvement with live entertainment and heritage in music in a new campaign called Follow the Rabbit.
  Appearing around the UK from today (2 March), the campaign features an Alice in Wonderland inspired bright blue rabbit created to represent ‘curiosity’ to encourage consumers to explore live experiences in music, sport and entertainment at O2 venues.
  Rather than pus
  
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• Tesco launches 'purpose-driven' campaign to tackle food waste

  02-03-2017 12:56 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Tesco has launched its first press campaign about its commitment to tackle food waste, with chief executive Dave Lewis hailing a "purpose-driven" brand purpose as a way of building consumer trust.
  
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• WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell: ‘Tentacles’ of Amazon could strangle Google

  02-03-2017 12:44
  
  Sir Martin Sorrell believes Amazon could threaten Google as the biggest benefactor of ad spend, saying that the e-commerce giant’s “tentacles are spreading rapidly into all areas”.
  Speaking at Mobile World Congress, the WPP chief executive discussed the online giant’s allure to advertisers at a time when demand for its biggest asset – customer data – is at a high now that advertisers are starting to understand how best to leverage those insights for sharper ta
  
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• Edelman UK brings Swedish creative agency Deportivo in-house to strengthen creative capabilities

  02-03-2017 12:35
  
  Edelman UK has brought its Swedish creative agency, Deportivo, in-house as the PR firm looks to strengthen it creative capabilities.
  The Stockholm based Deportivo, which has been renamed Edelman Deportivo UK, will begin working with Edelman and its UK based clients.
  Deportivo’s chief executive, Mattias Ronge, will become chairman of the newly merged business and will work with Deportivo co-founders Stefan Ronge and Anders Hallen. The team will split their time between London and Stockholm
  
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• Edelman UK brings Swedish creative agency Deportivo in-house in push to strengthen creative capabilities.

  02-03-2017 12:35
  
  Edelman UK has brought its Swedish creative agency, Deportivo, in-house as the PR firm looks to strengthen it creative capabilities.
  The Stockholm based Deportivo, which has been renamed Edelman Deportivo UK, will begin working with Edelman and its UK based clients.
  Deportivo’s chief executive, Mattias Ronge, will become chairman of the newly merged business and will work with Deportivo co-founders Stefan Ronge and Anders Hallen. The team will split their time between London and Stockholm
  
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• Yahoo boss, Marissa Mayer, loses annual bonus over huge security lapses

  02-03-2017 11:54
  
  Yahoo chief executive, Marissa Mayer, has suffered the consequences of several mammoth security breaches, which at one point threatened to scupper Yahoo's takeover by Verizon, after the company’s board voted to scrap her annual bonus this year.
  Acknowledging the severity of the incident Mayer went one step further and volunteered to forgo an annual equity grant as well with that money instead being redistributed among Yahoo employees.
  Explaining her rationale on Tumblr Mayer said: &ld
  
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• AOL bets big on Netflix-style original programming: ‘We don’t get laughed out of the room like Netflix did’

  02-03-2017 11:45
  
  AOL’s director of video Mark Melling is on a mission to transition the media company from a platform to a producer, to make content that is so powerful that Netflix would buy it, as he lays out ambitions to use its wide distribution network to become a new breed of broadcaster.
  Melling, who has been with the media company since 2011, was appointed as director of AOL Video in Europe in 2014 to push it to the fore of the company’s commercial proposition during a key moment in the mediu
  
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• Death by a thousand cuts: why the agency network structure is slo-mo self-destructing

  02-03-2017 11:42
  
  I have always wanted to use the term ‘disintermediated’ in an article. Seems more scholarly than ‘cutting out the middle man’. We all know the everyday examples that are disrupting industries like banking and finance, transportation, property and entertainment, etc.
  The advertising industry faces that pressure quite acutely, yet seems to be resisting the change – advertising greats poo poo the impact and importance of data; the process of developing, sourcing, produ
  
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• Long live the buy button: AI personal assistants and the free market

  02-03-2017 11:41
  
  When you hand over the buy button to your artificially intelligent PA in a couple of years, be it of Google, Apple or Samsung stock, remember that you’re relinquishing control of the exact moment that legitimates the free market as we know it – the point of purchase.
  What makes a market free? The familiar answer is a lack of regulation. A free market allows consenting adults to freely exchange goods, services and money. This picture of freedom relies on certain assumptions about huma
  
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• Tesco CEO acknowledges its brand must push responsibility ‘even further’

  02-03-2017 11:27
  
  Tesco is aiming to become a brand that is “more purpose driven” after the launch of its first press and social campaign talking about a commitment to tackling food waste.
  The campaign focuses on Tesco’s primary goal that no food safe for human consumption will go to waste within its UK operations by the end of 2017. Although Tesco has been on a journey to combat food waste since 2009, the campaign marks a bold step change for the supermarket’s marketing, which is typical
  
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• Chevrolet becomes first vehicle brand to offer unlimited data plan

  02-03-2017 11:24
  
  Chevrolet has roared out of the garage to become the first vehicle brand to offer an unlimited data plan, parking itself firmly on territory once monopolised by big telecoms firms.
  The unlimited 4F LTE plan will offer data hungry drivers access to all the megabytes they can eat from inside the confines of their vehicle for $20 per month.
  Included in this fee is access to a prepaid OnStar 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot, enabled by AT&T, to enable unlimited data out on the open road.
  Chevrolet’s m
  
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