Marketing news

• The Movie Marketing Blog: Castrol and The Fast and the Furious come together for ice driving challenge

  24-03-2017 21:27
  
  At the risk of bursting your bubble, you have to know that Vin Diesel, The Rock, Michelle Rodriguez and the rest of the cast of the Fast and the Furious franchise don’t do all their own driving in those movies. I know, I know. But many of those amazing sequences that are captured in the movies are performed by stunt drivers.
  One of those stunt drivers finally gets a bit of the spotlight in a new campaign from Castrol Edge, which has partnered with Universal Pictures to help promote the upc
  
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• Starbucks partners with Ford so drivers can order their coffee in-car through Amazon Alexa

  24-03-2017 19:23
  
  Coffee drinkers will soon be able to place their Starbucks orders within the comfort of their own car after the coffee company announced a partnership with Ford.
  Ford vehicles equipped with its SYNC3 voice-activated technology, which has Amazon’s voice service incorporated into it, will soon allow drivers to place their orders using the command, “Alexa, ask Starbucks to start my order”.
  The partnership with Ford and Amazon Alexa was demoed at company’s annu
  
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• A young couple travels Québec via a tiny room in province’s stunning tourism campaign

  24-03-2017 18:08
  
  It sounds like a dream: instead of dealing with pricey rent-a-cars, flight delays and confusing public transportation systems on your next trip, what if you could be personally transported around your vacation destination via a mobile room for you and your plus one? 
  For one lucky couple, that’s exactly what happened to them on their recent trip to Québec. Their experience traveling around the Canadian province was documented and turned into a short film called “A room wi
  
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• Why continuous development is the key to meeting daily demands

  24-03-2017 17:51
  
  For marketers, training and professional development can be a frequent headache. The fierce competition for the best jobs, combined with the rapidly changing nature of the discipline, puts pressure on everyone in marketing to continually update their skills. That is no easy task when the day-to-day duties of the average marketing job are already extensive and time consuming.
  Marketing Week columnist and professor, Mark Ritson, offered a solution to this challenge last year with the launch o
  
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• ‘Marketers must find time for training and personal development’

  24-03-2017 17:51
  
  For marketers, training and professional development can be a frequent headache. The fierce competition for the best jobs, combined with the rapidly changing nature of the discipline, puts pressure on everyone in marketing to continually update their skills. That is no easy task when the day-to-day duties of the average marketing job are already extensive and time consuming.
  Marketing Week columnist and professor, Mark Ritson, offered a solution to this challenge last year with the launch o
  
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• Halifax are go: Thunderbirds' Parker and Lady Penelope star in latest ad

  24-03-2017 17:26
  
  Halifax has unveiled Parker and Lady Penelope of Thunderbirds fame as the latest classic TV characters to appear in its TV campaign.
  
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• Don’t let time slippage wreak havoc with your agency’s profitability

  24-03-2017 17:07
  
  ‘Time slippage’ refers to the amount of revenue lost as a result of work carried out that goes unbilled. In an ideal world, an agency could bill all hours worked by staff and dramatically increase profit levels, but unfortunately, clients would have none of that! However, tackling the issue of the slippage at your agency can be the next best thing.
  Clients of ours often think they have a clear idea of which of their clients are profitable, only to later find out they were wrong, mean
  
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• Should ad land care about the BBC?

  24-03-2017 16:57
  
  The BBC is about to reach a significant milestone – in five years' time it will be marking its 100th year – but it has a lot to contend with before it gets to celebrate this. It may be the world's best funded broadcaster and a pioneering force in terms of journalism, entertainment and technology, but it has also come out of a challenging Charter renewal process that is seeing the BBC Trust scrapped and the broadcaster moved under Ofcom.
  Not only that, but the consumer landscape has c
  
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• Thunderbirds are go as Halifax brings back 1960s show for its latest campaign

  24-03-2017 16:56
  
  Halifax is siding with fellow British institution Thunderbirds for its new campaign which shows Lady Penelope’s long suffering butler Parker finally experience a change in fortunes.
  The first ad in the campaign has been created by adam&eve DDB and ITV Studios Global Entertainment and will make its TV premiere on 25 March on ITV during Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. 
  In the ad, Lady Penelope’s butler Parker visits a Halifax branch with a letter and discovers t
  
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• 'I’m not a designer, but...' and other things that will ruin a great idea

  24-03-2017 16:37
  
  My hiring goal, as a general rule, is to make myself the dumbest person in the room. There are tons of people who have recognized this and have stated it more eloquently than myself. For illustrative purposes, I’ll quote Malcolm Forbes who said, “never hire someone who knows less than you do about what [they’re] hired to do.”
  It just makes sense, right? Why pay someone to do something that you’re already great at? On its face, it seems so logical -- so infallible --
  
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• Sneaky Pete continues reign as top TV draw on Amazon Prime

  24-03-2017 16:34
  
  While viewers were clamoring for the return of Hand of God last week, the excitement soon dropped off; Bryan Cranston's 'Sneaky Pete' recaptured the top spot this week, driving 27 percent of Prime streams. 
  Additional insights via Jumpshot: 
  Slow Hand: Season 2 of Hand of God debuted on Amazon Prime on March 10 and took the top slot during its first week.  However, this week, it saw a 33% drop-off in viewership which pushed the series to the 2nd position behind Season 1 of Sneaky
  
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• Brand Film Festival poised to make London debut

  24-03-2017 16:27
  
  There's just a week to go before the first UK Brand Film Festival opens its doors to celebrate the best brand film content.
  
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• TV adspend set to fall for first time since 2009 recession

  24-03-2017 16:26
  
  UK television adspend is set to fall for the first time since the 2009 recession, according to the latest forecast by Zenith.
  
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• TV adspend forecast to fall in 2017

  24-03-2017 16:26
  
  UK television adspend is set to fall for the first time since 2012, according to the latest forecast by Zenith.
  
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• Campaign unveils first Brand Exchange forum

  24-03-2017 16:06
  
  Campaign Brand Exchange, a two-day event that matches senior in-house marketers with digital agencies and experts, is now open for registration.
  
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• Swedish 'Got Talent' gives talent the opportunity to present via Facebook and Instagram

  24-03-2017 16:00
  
  On March 18 "Talang", the Swedish version of talent show "Got Talent", launched its seventh season. To celebrate, the channel gave Swedes the unique opportunity to become 'Big in Bangkok' and show their talent on a giant video screen in Thailand's capital on the day of the premiere. For the chance to be featured on the screen that TV4 rented for the event, talented viewers simply had to shoot a video of their talent and upload it to Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #Talang2017 until
  
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• Herdy®sleep launches with help from We Are Boutique’s digital division

  24-03-2017 15:58
  
  New-to-market luxury British mattress company, herdy®sleep, has appointed Leeds based agency We Are Boutique in a digital marketing capacity.
  The agency has been appointed to develop a customer acquisition strategy via digital marketing, attracting an audience for the infant brand which launched in February this year.
  Darren Marcangelo, co-founder of herdy®sleep, said: “Our mattresses are handcrafted in Yorkshire with natural materials sourced from the Lake District.
  
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• Red Nose Day brand roundup: British Airways, PG Tips, Harry Potter, Love Actually and darts

  24-03-2017 15:48
  
  Tonight marks Red Nose Day, a biennial charity telethon that looks to raise money for philanthropic purposes.
  Founded in 1985 by Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry, top brands have traditionally made their mark on the BBC-backed day, using it as a platform to support good causes.
  This year, Twitter served as a primary platform to publicise the activity and fundraising, here's how some brands made use of their time and efforts ahead of the event on Friday 24 March.
  British Airways
  It's #RedNoseD
  
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• British Gas, Coca-Cola, Google: 5 things that mattered this week

  24-03-2017 15:25
  
  Google apologises and promises to accelerate review after ad controversyIt was another difficult week for Google as major UK brands continued to pull their advertising following The Times investigation and it was forced to make an apology.Speaking at Advertising Week Europe, its president of EMEA Matt Brittin said the search giant wanted to “raise the bar” for safe advertising. He also said it would ensure brand advertising no longer appeared next to extremist content.
  “Within
  
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• Business on the move: Shop Direct, Max Factor and Aspall

  24-03-2017 15:22
  
  Online retailer Shop Direct  has handed the marketing and media comms for its brands including Very.co.uk, VeryExclusive.co.uk, Littlewoods.com and LittlewoodsIreland.ie to a single partner - Dentsu Aegis Network.
  The move represents a major consolidation of its media buying agencies extending Dentsu’s Vizeum and Amplifi’s handling of media planning, buying and partnerships. Additionally, Amplifi handles programmatic, Fetch is on mobile, marketing effectiveness comes from Data2D
  
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• An inside look at BBC Earth's chatbot for the 'Real Happiness' project

  24-03-2017 15:00
  
  BBC Earth America releases chatbot, that sends out customized animal videos as part of the Real Happiness mission to make users smile.
  Talk to our Happybot on Facebook Messenger to build a moment that’s personalised to you #RealHappiness pic.twitter.com/8EaPUD92lI
  — BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) March 8, 2017
  Based on the results of a recent study by BBC Earth and Berkeley University, that reveal that watching nature documentaries can trigger happiness, BBC Earth launched the Real Happiness
  
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• EE marks Bafta partnership with free La La Land screenings

  24-03-2017 14:39
  
  Mobile carrier EE is offering a free cinema screening to customers to celebrate its Bafta sponsorship.
  20 Odeon, Vue and Empire cinemas across the UK will host the movie which won best film at the 2017 awards (and more controversially, didn't at the Academy Awards).
  Further activity will see a one-off screening hosted at Bafta's headquarters in Piccadilly in London.  Customers who live within a 20 mile radius of participating outlets will be informed by SMS.
  Mat Sears, direct
  
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• Coca-Cola & Southwest see largest Social Lift from commercials in February

  24-03-2017 14:00
  
   
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  Found Remote is continuing our partnership with 4C to look at brands' Social Lift after their commercials air. Coca-Cola and Southwest took the big win for the February season. Here are the full insights for the above charts.
  Coca-Cola’s controversial Super Bowl spot, which made its second Super Bowl appearance, drove social engagement and helped Coca-Cola achieve the highest social engagement lift from its TV spots. Additionally, the spot earned more th
  
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• Ad of the Day: Virgin Media crams a world of entertainment into its fibre

  24-03-2017 13:58
  
  Virgin Media is underlining the vast library of content its customers can access through its fibre broadband network in a campaign aptly called ‘Fibre’.
  The company will unveil its new Virgin fibre brand, in a campaign, from BBH London, that will run over 14 weeks across TV, online, print and out of home.
  The creative was shot in a 200ft Budapest tunnel, portraying the entertainment that can be delivered by fiber, scored by Dick Dale & The Del Tones ‘Misirlou’.
  The sl
  
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• How Nasdaq aims to reshape the future of media trading by bringing Wall Street to Madison Avenue

  24-03-2017 13:00
  
  Earlier this month Nasdaq announced the planned launch of New York Interactive Advertising Exchange (NYIAX), a platform it claimed would reshape the future of how advertisers and media owners trade by taking 'Wall Street tech to Madison Avenue'. 
  With the service set to launch in beta later in the year, NYIAX claimed its offering would use blockchain technology to help bring greater transparency plus efficiency to the way all media is traded. The Drum caught up with Richard B
  
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• Top ten takeaways from Advertising Week Europe 2017

  24-03-2017 12:46
  
  Google apologises, Marks & Spencer's on being "mumsy", and the future of the agency model were among the highlights of this year's Advertising Week Europe in London.
  
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• Watch: trust dominates discussion at Advertising Week Europe

  24-03-2017 12:11
  
  Campaign asked visitors at Advertising Week Europe, as well as its executive director Matt Schnecker, about the importance of trust in the industry.
  
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• Kingfisher packs a punch with emotional TV push

  24-03-2017 12:01
  
  Home improvement retailer Kingfisher is exhorting its six million customers to ‘Start Something New’ by promoting its new range of B&Q outdoor products.
  To that end advertising group Leo Burnett have crafted a new campaign to showcase the wares, which Kingfisher states have been derived from exhaustive customer visits to hundreds of homes, by telling a personal story of new life and memories not yet formed.
  Directed by David Fletcher the piece also communicates more prosaic matte
  
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• UK agency ambitions remain high in the week before Article 50 says latest Benchmark Report from Wow Company

  24-03-2017 11:32
  
  As Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to trigger Article 50 next week to initiate Brexit new research findings have shown that 90% of agencies in the UK are still forecasting that their businesses will grow in the year ahead.
  The sixth annual BenchPress Report, created by leading accounting firm, The Wow Company, analysed data from agency owners at 471 British agencies working in the creative, digital, media and marketing sectors, highlighting key statistics and trends.
  With the triggering of A
  
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• Group M ends legal dispute against Firm Decisions

  24-03-2017 11:32
  
  Group M has ended its legal dispute with Firm Decisions over the alleged "misuse" of confidential documents.
  
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• Ad agencies 'staring down barrel' of outcome-related payments

  24-03-2017 11:12
  
  Ad agencies are "staring down the barrel" of outcome-related payments from clients in the future, creative leaders have been warned at Advertising Week Europe.
  
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• Emma Bunton spices up baby care with eco family brand Kit & Kin

  24-03-2017 11:04
  
   
  Ex-Spice Girl Emma Bunton has stepped back into the limelight as the face of eco-friendly family brand Kit & Kin, a provider of bio-degradeable nappies and skincare products for mothers and babies.
  Co-founded by Bunton and Christopher Money the business seeks to offer parents an affordable environmentally friendly alternative to existing products via their online subscription service.
  Bunton remarked: “My son has always suffered with eczema and for so many years we struggled to
  
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• What brands are doing for Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day

  24-03-2017 11:01
  
  Maltesers hopes to donate £1m with ‘Bake a million’ campaign
  Fancy yourself the next Mary Berry? You’re in luck. Just like last year, Maltesers is encouraging consumers to get baking and upload a picture of their Red Nose Day bake alongside the hashtag #bakeamillion to social media. For each cake or bake photo uploaded, the brand has promised to donate £5 towards their £1m total donation.
  The #bakeamillion campaign is supported by a digital-led campaign called
  
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• Disney channels the Force with another 15 years of Star Wars films

  24-03-2017 10:58
  
  Star Wars fans have got another 15 years of cinematic updates to their favourite franchise to look forward to after Disney confirmed that it will continue to cash in on the popular series beyond an assumed cut-off date of 2019 – when Episode IX hits the big screen.
  CEO Bob Iger let slip his long-term plans for the Star Wars universe during a question and answer session at the University of Southern California, saying: “We’re starting to talk about what could happen after Episod
  
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• Desperados remixes the relationship between lager and music with party where a train lays down the beat

  24-03-2017 10:37
  
  Tequila beer brand Desperados has taken music activations to the laboratory, hunting a formula that will redefine how drinks companies can be better integrated with party culture. 
  Recently it let loose its latest experiment called 'Train Trax', a partnership with Mount Kimbie that saw the electro duo perform a gig using a Warsaw train that had been transformed into a one-off-a-kind instrument (see video).
  Sensors, set off by the locomotive, were placed along the track which creat
  
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• Entertainment & finance apps power Indian smartphone surge

  24-03-2017 10:30
  
  Entertainment and finance apps have powered a 43 per cent surge in app usage in India over the course of 2016 according to the latest study conducted by Yahoo’s Flurry Analytics.
  The State of the App survey found that time spent on messaging and social apps grew at a greater clip in India (52%) than globally (44%), a disparity thrown into starker relief when looking solely at app usage which surged by 43% in India against far more modest growth of just 11% for the planet as a whole.
  Flurry
  
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• Wins this week: Max Factor, Green Flag, Jackpotjoy

  24-03-2017 10:10
  
  Campaign's weekly round-up of account moves across advertising and media.
  
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• Alibaba explores blockchain technology to prevent food fraud.

  24-03-2017 10:08
  
  Alibaba Australia announced that it would be partnering PwC (Australia, New Zealand and China) to build a framework based on blockchain technology to curb food fraud.
  Further to that, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Alibaba, Blackmores Limited and Australia Post to work together in building that framework.
  The signing was done on the sidelines of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Australia, and was witnessed by Steven Ciobo, Australia minister for trade, tourism an inv
  
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• Advertising needs to raise issues, resolve tensions and transcend product functionality, says FCB India

  24-03-2017 10:06
  
  Brands and their advertising should be ‘never finishing’, according to Rohit Ohri, group chairman and CEO of FCB India.
  Speaking at Adfest in Thailand this week, Ohri joked that it didn’t mean that agencies didn’t have to finish work, it meant that brands and their marketing needed to emit an energy that never stood still and have a willingness to change.
  The concept, according to him, ties into the well practiced concept of brand purpose, and likened the power of purpose
  
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• 1800 Tequila uses the medium of a liquor ad to create their idea of 'modern man'

  24-03-2017 09:38
  
  Social video experts at Unruly review "Hands", the latest viral by 1800 Tequila.
  
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• Twitter ponders a paid membership tier for power users

  24-03-2017 09:36
  
  Twitter is considering the introduction of a paid subscription package to its membership options in a bid to open an important new revenue stream for the social media platform.
  Despite becoming the go-to social network of choice for journalists and presidents Twitter has struggled to make a profit, prompting it to reach out to users with a series of surveys to gauge how receptive people might be to laying down their hard earned for the privilege of tweeting.
  In return for a monthly fee businesse
  
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• Dentsu Media employee in suspected suicide in Indonesia

  24-03-2017 09:12
  
  The deceased was a long-term resident and managed JKT48, a local pop group.
  
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• Dentsu Media employee commits suicide in Indonesia

  24-03-2017 09:12
  
  The deceased was a long-term resident and managed JKT48, a local pop group.
  
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• NatWest and RBS to close 158 branches

  24-03-2017 09:01
  
  Royal Bank of Scotland, which remains majority-owned by taxpayers, is to close 158 branches across its NatWest and RBS brands.
  
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• Online advertising revenue surges but still dwarfs value added services for Tencent’s 4Q 2016 results

  24-03-2017 08:54
  
  Tencent’s 4Q 2016 results saw a 44% jump in revenues to US$6.3b compared to last year, driven mainly by value added services (VAS). 
  VAS revenues saw a 27% increase to $4.2bn for 4Q 2016 compared to a year ago. Online game revenues rose 16% to $2.6bn, driven mainly by contributions from major smartphone games. Social networks revenue surged 51% to $1.5bn, driven mainly by growth from the digital content services, including digital music business and virtual item sales.
  Online advertis
  
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• Ofcom says broadband providers should pay instant compensation for bad service

  24-03-2017 08:47
  
  Broadband customers who experience slow repairs and missed appointments should be compensated automatically without having to go through a claims process, Ofcom has proposed.
  
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• Twitter could launch paid membership option

  24-03-2017 08:30
  
  Twitter is considering a paid, premium service aimed at businesses and power users as it searches for revenue growth in the face of stagnating user numbers.
  
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• Netflix’s Stranger Things cements Yishun’s strangeness in new promo

  24-03-2017 05:16
  
  Netflxi’s Stranger Things new promo features Singapore’s Yishun MRT Station in an eerie light, cementing Yishun’s strangeness.
  The video clip has the caption, “is Yishun cursed, simply unlucky, or struck by something stranger? We’ll leave that to you to decide…”
  Yishun has developed a reputation for the strange, with cat killers, attempted murder and even an attack at a shopping centre. These events in Yishun stand as au contraire of Singapore’s s
  
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• Dentsu Media rocked by staff suicide in Indonesia

  24-03-2017 03:52
  
  Indonesia press reported that Jiro Inao, a Dentsu Media employee, committed suicide in Indonesia.
  Jiro Inao was a Dentsu Media business director and general manager of popular Indonesia girlband, JKT48.
  While the motive behind the suicide is not known, local press and police have speculated that work pressures may be the motive.
  Jiro’s passing brings back to fore the issues of agency overwork, along with the recent passing of an Oglivy employee in the Philippines. Dentsu has already f
  
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• Dentsu Media "deeply saddened" by staff suicide in Indonesia

  24-03-2017 03:52
  
  Indonesia press reported that Jiro Inao, a Dentsu Media employee, committed suicide in Indonesia.
  Jiro Inao was a Dentsu Media business director and general manager of popular Indonesia girlband, JKT48.
  While the motive behind the suicide is not known, local press and police have speculated that work pressures may be the motive.
  Jiro’s passing brings back to fore the issues of agency overwork, along with the recent passing of an Oglivy employee in the Philippines. Dentsu has already f
  
  Read more

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