Marketing news

• Verizon will merge Yahoo and AOL to create Oath

  03-04-2017 23:53
  
  When Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo finally closes and the former merges Yahoo with its existing AOL unit, the combined entity will reportedly get a new name: Oath.
  That’s according to Business Insider, who quoted “sources”, but the news seems to be confirmed by a tweet from AOL CEO Tim Armstrong (see image below).Tim Armstrong tweeted this image after the initial reports
   
  Loading...
  The $4.8-billion deal was announced in July, but was plagued by news of data b
  
  Read more

• Effie Worldwide relaunches board of directors

  03-04-2017 21:03
  
  Effie Worldwide, the nonprofit that stands for effectiveness in marketing and advertising, has announced a new board of directors, formed to impact the organization’s mission. The board includes representation from major brands, entertainment and media companies, and a position for an agency from each of the top five advertising agency holding companies, as well as an independent agency seat. 
  Since 1968, Effie has been championing and improving the practice and practitioners of marke
  
  Read more

• Millennials stay loyal to Uber despite its rocky year

  03-04-2017 20:57
  
  Although the ride hailing company Uber has had a difficult year, including accusations of a hostile work culture, a pending lawsuit from Alphabet-owned Waymo and an ongoing search for a chief operating officer, millennials have indicated that they plan to stay loyal to the ride-sharing giant despite its issues, according to eMarketer. 
  Loading...
  Of 1,537 Uber users born in the 1980s and 1990s, a recent surveyed conducted between March 3 and 25 notes that 93% of those surveye
  
  Read more

• Safe at Home foundation, founded by MLB Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre, launches awareness campaign

  03-04-2017 20:15
  
  Former Major League Baseball manager and Hall of Famer Joe Torre has launched a new advertising campaign to further educate the public about the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation which works to end the cycle of domestic violence.
  The campaign which launched this week spotlights the pattern of domestic abuse and how to stop it. The launch by the organization – which was founded in 2002 by Torre and his wife, Ali – is largest awareness campaign to date and its first in nearly 12 y
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• In the Dew VR Beat Drop, Mountain Dew becomes the latest caffeinated drink to take to the skies

  03-04-2017 20:10
  
  In a stunt from a caffeinated drink that feels somewhat familiar, Mountain Dew tapped digital agency Firstborn to create a 360-degree video to welcome a new line of premium beverages.
  The experience, the Dew VR Beat Drop, features a party on a decommissioned military plane from which guests leap into the sky.
  Video of DEW® VR Beat Drop YT 360 | MOUNTAIN DEW® 
  Loadi
  
  Read more

• California Lottery goes large with super scratcher campaign from David&Goliath

  03-04-2017 20:09
  
  The California Lottery is going huge with its latest campaign to promote its gigantic new scratcher tickets, which are 8x12-inch pieces of scratchable paper offering an epic top prize of $1,000,000. The lottery’s AOR, David&Goliath, created an integrated campaign that demonstrates the sheer enormity of the rollout across all media channels, including TV, digital, social, radio and out of home.
   
  The creative highlight of the campaign is a film, shot by director Dave Meyers (who re
  
  Read more

• Nancy Hill delivers emotional farewell speech at 4A’s Transformation conference in LA

  03-04-2017 20:04
  
  During a tearful farewell address at the 4A’s Transformation conference in Los Angeles, outgoing chief executive of the trade body Nancy Hill discussed both the achievements and setbacks that have marked her nearly 10-year tenure with the organization. 
  Hill told attendees that when she first started as a traffic coordinator with W.B. Doner in Baltimore 35 years ago, she would have “never, ever imagined” herself being in the position she is today. When she was asked t
  
  Read more

• Across-the-board Google boycott would have been 'inappropriate,' says Michael Roth

  03-04-2017 19:37 via campaignlive.com
  
  The IPG CEO discussed media boycotts and diversity at the 4A's Transformation conference.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Second Annual Tribeca X Award finalists announced for Tribeca Film Festival

  03-04-2017 19:24
  
  The Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T and The Atlantic (through its in-house content studio, Atlantic Re:think), has announced the 10 finalists for the second annual Tribeca X Award, a juried award for storytelling supported by a brand recognizing the intersection of advertising and entertainment.
   
  Nine short films and one virtual reality project were selected from a field of 600 entries, representing the best in advertising-entertainment storytelling from the past year (January
  
  Read more

• YouTube looks to third party integration to police brand safety as it hopes to rebuild trust

  03-04-2017 19:19
  
  Google looks to be delivering on its promises to better police the ads being distributed across YouTube after the industry was rocked by brands being associated with inappropriate content.
  Talking down criticism of the issue, Havas and GroupM have both warned the business, Google’s chief business officer Philipp Schindler earlier today claimed that the brand safety issue affected a "very, very, very small numbers" of ads. Nonetheless, the issue has resulted in top brands pulling
  
  Read more

• SXSW17 Trends: The robot overlord is not here but AI is here and now

  03-04-2017 18:14
  
  Far from following the Texas phrase “all hat, no cattle”. SXSW proved itself yet again to be more than a tech conference, it delivered opportunity and inspiration in spades.
  I came away with five very clear trends that are most applicable to the future of your business right now, and I am examining each of these in turn. 
  This week I am sharing the second piece which focuses on machines either in the form of robots of the ever growing AI.
  Deep machine learning was selected as th
  
  Read more

• Teen entrepreneur and PR consultant Ben Towers becomes first under-18 to be granted a business bank account

  03-04-2017 18:07
  
  Tech entrepreneur Ben Towers has been awarded a business bank account while still under the age of 18.
  Towers, who has championed young entrepreneurs throughout his career, was granted the account by Metro Bank after years of relying on a children’s account at another bank to conduct business.
  Towers said: “This is a very exciting step forward for young entrepreneurs like me who struggle to obtain business banking. Metro Bank have been extremely helpful and reviews each situation on
  
  Read more

• Dennis Publishing inks data deal with Global's DAX exchange

  03-04-2017 17:35
  
  Global's digital audio exchange platform DAX has inked a deal with Dennis Publishing to combine the duo's audience data, marking an industry first. 
  The collaboration is the first time Dennis has allowed another media owner to access its audience data. The independent publisher will share insights gathered from media brands including The Week, Coach, Den of Geek, Expert Reviews and Alphr. 
  The partnership means Dennis’ data will now be available through DAX, w
  
  Read more

• Pro golfer Jordan Spieth stars in new 22squared PGA Tour Superstore spot

  03-04-2017 17:27
  
  National independent agency 22squared, based in Atlanta, has recruited golfer Jordan Spieth for  PGA's Tour Superstore campaign.
  The campaign, 'Golf Season is Back', features a series of short videos to be released via the PGA Tour Superstore’s social channels. The first 30-second spot, titled 'Line', features Spieth in line at the store with products in hand. He names off what he has to make sure he hasn’t forgotten anything and as he does, he realizes he has forgotten gol
  
  Read more

• The thinking behind Experience Design

  03-04-2017 16:46
  
  To ‘do’ Experience Design, you first need to understand why it’s different.
  The difference is that it focuses on the science behind design – studying human behavior and psychology. The focus isn’t merely based on visuals or functionality – it’s based on how your audience engages with your creative. How does it make them feel? Is it relevant to them? Does it inspire them?
  A good example of where this was all of this into consideration is the recent Stodge
  
  Read more

• Why one newspaper's reporting could change the face of digital media

  03-04-2017 16:34
  
  Proper investigative journalism is, in these straitened times for newspaper publishers, sadly something of a rarity.
  There have been exceptions – including the Guardian’s expose of phone-hacking, the Telegraph’s campaign on MPs’ expenses and Private Eye’s often fearless investigations into corruption and incompetence – but carefully researched stories and campaigns that really change things are a comparative rarity these days.
  Kudos to The Times, therefor
  
  Read more

• Why agencies should prioritise culture over strategy every time

  03-04-2017 15:43
  
  I think it would be very difficult for any agency to grow or maintain a high success level unless it has both a good culture and a good strategy in place. But if I had to choose one, it would be culture, without question. There are two key reasons for this:
  A bad culture takes a long, long time to fix
  If you have just made a couple of bad hires then at a cost, you can reverse out of that. But if these bad choices or issues stem from your board or your senior level team then the steps to address
  
  Read more

• When tech is not enough: If you want consumers to change, give them a nudge

  03-04-2017 15:43
  
  Millions of households are set to lose out as five of the ‘big six’ energy providers have recently announced more price hikes for their standard variable tariffs. The news of price rises invariably sparks conversations among the most engaged audiences on how to save money and traffic the multiple switching sites increases, but is the conversation reaching the people who need it the most?
  The ones who will be hit hardest will be some of the most vulnerable groups in society such as th
  
  Read more

• Movers and shakers: Elle, BBH, Valenstein & Fatt, ASA, Penguin Ventures and more

  03-04-2017 15:43 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Welcome to Campaign's weekly round-up of the hires, departures and promotions across the industry.
  
  Read more

• Daily Mail partners with Nectar in a bid to ignite print sales

  03-04-2017 15:20
  
  Mail Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, has partnered with Nectar in a bid to better understand its readers and push its print product.
  The partnership, set to launch this summer, enables consumers to earn Nectar points every time they buy the print edition of the Daily Mail or the Mail on Sunday. It will also offer rewards to collectors, including money off shopping, travel, days out and cinema tickets.
  Nectar points will replace the currency of the existing MyMail
  
  Read more

• Ad of the Day: Racial inequality campaign challenges Getty Images and Shutterstock’s search algorithm

  03-04-2017 15:06
  
  A campaign from Brazilian NGO Desabafo Social is targeting some of the biggest image banks in the world including Google and Shutterstuck to get them to change their algorithms and remove the need to include the word "black" to find black people pictures on search results.
  The #SearchForEquality campaign, which was created by WE, the biggest independent agency in Brazil, kicked off on 21 March, to cast light on the fact that veiled racism still persists in this society. It is particularly pertin
  
  Read more

• Elizabeth Banks tries to make the term ‘not-you’ happen in series of videos for Realtor.com

  03-04-2017 15:00
  
  Elizabeth Banks has been bringing her high-strung, quick-witted sense of humor to Realtor.com's campaigns for the past three years, and the site’s latest effort is no different: in a series of spots, the actress explains to new homeowners that the hordes of strangers following them around are simply “not-yous,” or people who failed to land their dream home because they didn’t use Realtor.com.
  Six TV spots mark the launch of the brand’s latest campaign, ‘Own Ho
  
  Read more

• As 4A's conference begins today in LA, marketers agree that the role of the lead agency remains key

  03-04-2017 15:00
  
  The 4A's flagship conference kicks off today in Los Angeles. Prior to the conference, a business intelligence firm specializing in global advertising asked marketers if they still believe that the role of the lead agency is a key factor in their business strategy, with 77% of respondents saying that lead agencies maintain a pivotal role.
  The outfit asked marketing professionals and decision makers what their preferences were in order to better understand agency search methods, uncover key a
  
  Read more

• Burberry draws inspiration from London and brand heritage for men's fragrance launch

  03-04-2017 14:43 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Burberry has lined up Poldark star Josh Whitehouse to front its new ad campaign for Mr Burberry, the brand's latest fragrance for men, in a campaign once again drawing on the brand's heritage.
  
  Read more

• Ghost in the Shell taps VR to immerse fans in a cyberpunk world of battling geisha bots

  03-04-2017 14:41
  
  Paramount Pictures has capitalized on future tech such as VR and AR to promote its latest movie, Ghost in the Shell, an adaptation of the 1995 dystopian sci-fi anime of the same name.
  The studio worked with director Rupert Sanders and Oculus, developer Here Be Dragons and production studio Rewind to bring scenes from the movie to the public in full 360 video, fully compatible with virtual reality headsets including Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR.
  The experience gives users a fly-on-the-wall exp
  
  Read more

• Koozai’s Samantha Noble joins the speaker line-up for Search Elite London

  03-04-2017 14:22
  
  Samantha Noble, client services director with digital marketing agency Koozai, has joined the speaker line-up for the upcoming Search Elite London event.
  Taking place on Tuesday 9 May at The Trampery in Old Street, London, Search Elite brings together eight search marketing experts to deliver the latest advice, trends and opinions to help brands increase the success and impact of digital marketing campaigns.
  Other speakers include Bas van den Beld, David Iwanow, Gerry White, Jim Banks, Jono Alde
  
  Read more

• If the UK wants to achieve its digital ambitions, it needs to get to work on hardware

  03-04-2017 14:19
  
  It needs to get harder.
  Let’s be clear, that isn’t a euphemism.
  I spent over 16 years in Asia, predominantly in Japan but with stints in South Korea and China. It has been a year since returning with my family to the sunny shores of the UK, and re-engaging with this market and the wonderful world of digital has been inspiring – but with some frustrations too.
  A major positive is how rapidly software and services are being developed and rolled out in the mobile space. Getting pa
  
  Read more

• JD Sports marketing director heads to shopper agency FPP

  03-04-2017 14:13
  
  JD Sports' marketing services director Tim Orrell has left the retailer to join shopper marketing agency FPP as UK director. 
  Orrell will lead FPP’s UK client business out of its offices in Leeds and Newcastle, helping major retailers, manufacturers and brands to solve their shopper problems. He brings over 30 years of marketing experience, having worked both agency and client side and brings further shopper specialist knowledge to FPP, having held senior roles at Golley Retail and Li
  
  Read more

• Adult Swim capitalizes on April Fool's Day chaos with surprise Rick and Morty return

  03-04-2017 13:56
  
  April Fool’s Day on Saturday hosted a cacophony of disinformation from brands but Adult Swim stood out head and shoulders above most stunts by launching its much-anticipated show Rick and Morty without much in the way of warning.
  The third season of the show has been in production since the conclusion of season 2 at the end of 2015, as a result, its cult fan base has intermittently over the last two years sparked rumours about its return.
  Cutting through a sea of brand pranks (all document
  
  Read more

• Watch: Sandi Toksvig argues work culture can shape more diverse industry

  03-04-2017 13:24 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Campaign talked with the co-founder of the Women's Equality Party, Sandi Toksvig, as she shared her top tips for female creatives.
  
  Read more

• Peta sours on Nintendo Switch of cow milking minigame

  03-04-2017 13:11
  
  Animal rights group Peta is continuing its hardline stance against industry’s the utilize animals – now taking a rather bizarre swipe at the Nintendo Switch for a brief minigame in which users competitively milk a cow.
  The minigame, featured on the 1-2-Switch bundle, which tasks two players teasing milk out of a cow’s udder using their motion controls, all represented on screen in cartoonish fashion.
  However, the organisation has Nintendo in its sights having previously attacke
  
  Read more

• Twitch sales VP Steve Ford defines how the community pushed Twitch into TV as Amazon Pilots return

  03-04-2017 12:53
  
  Amazon is to test the waters of three new shows on its sister company, social video streaming service Twitch, in a move intent on orientating users with the historically gaming-focused service's blooming TV ambitions.
  Pilot episodes of sci-fi Oasis, dramedy The Legend of Master Legend and comedy Budding Prospects, will be streamed in 120-minute blocks for over 24 hours from 5 April, giving the audience a chance to taste the content and provide feedback – in what essentially provides A
  
  Read more

• MIPTV 2017 Preview: Umay Ayaz, Head of Acquisitions, Global Agency

  03-04-2017 12:46
  
  The below is written by Umay Ayaz, Head of Acquisitions, Global Agency, and is part of Found Remote's MIPTV 2017 preview series. Found Remote will again be at MIPTV with Applicaster (come say hi at the booth: Palais R7.J15).
  Although scientists nowadays are focusing on figuring out what screen time does to the body and brain, no one can deny the importance of screen-based devices - tablets, laptops, mobile phones and the oldest one: television. Our addiction to
  
  Read more

• Synchronised VR startup Sibro makes history with educational WWI experience

  03-04-2017 12:08
  
  Sibro, a new synchronised virtual reality platform dedicated to educational content, has been launched in Liverpool following investment by local digital agency Mashbo.
  The Sibro content distribution system allows the multiple classroom VR headsets to be managed by one device, allowing an entire class of students to share the same experience simultaneously.
  Sibro commissioned production houses Mocha and IronBird, both based in Liverpool, and worked with BBC First World War historian Peter B
  
  Read more

• Facebook's mysterious rocket icon is surfacing recommended content for users via a 'second news feed'

  03-04-2017 12:06
  
  Some Facebook users were left confused at the start of the weekend when a mysterious rocket ship icon appeared under their news feeds. The company has now revealed that the button is part of a global test to surface content for users via an alternate news feed.
  The interplanetary icon is being rolled out to select iOS and Android users, and when tapped on unveils a second news feed which surfaces recommended articles, pictures and posts from sources users haven't yet followed, but that Facebook
  
  Read more

• Kellogg's Corn Flakes to launch Gogglebox ad takeover

  03-04-2017 12:00 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Kellogg's has become the latest brand to tie up with popular Channel 4 show Gogglebox, in a new campaign for Kellogg's Corn Flakes.
  
  Read more

• Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey indicates controversial character limit chnage may be reversed

  03-04-2017 11:49
  
  Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey has indicated that some controversial updates to the micro-blogging platform may be reversed by tweeting: ‘A few steps forward, some back’.
  The intervention follows a backlash against how changes to @replies between users are displayed, principally by increasing the defacto character limit in tweets directed at specific people by no longer counting their username amongst the 140 characters.
  Rolling out today: use all 140 characters for replies
  
  Read more

• Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey indicates controversial character limit change may be reversed

  03-04-2017 11:49
  
  Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey has indicated that some controversial updates to the micro-blogging platform may be reversed by tweeting: ‘A few steps forward, some back’.
  The intervention follows a backlash against how changes to @replies between users are displayed, principally by increasing the defacto character limit in tweets directed at specific people by no longer counting their username amongst the 140 characters.
  Rolling out today: use all 140 characters for replies
  
  Read more

• Creative Work of the Week: Publicis Russia social experiment makes gun enthusiasts think twice

  03-04-2017 11:47
  
  Publicis Russia’s social experiment has won over The Drum readers to be crowned European Creative Work of the Week.
  Looking to discover if people were responsible to own guns without any gun control, the experiment ran via the website webrifle.org. Following a fast registration process, those who visited the site were given a number and after waiting in line were given control of a robotized rifle which could be controlled remotely.
  Closing down a small city square for a day, the experimen
  
  Read more

• Employees dispute Amazon’s claims Quidsi was unprofitable following closure

  03-04-2017 11:31
  
  Axed employees at shuttered Amazon subsidiary Quidsi, have reacted with anger to claims that their business was unprofitable, pointing out that Amazon execs had previously told staff they expected the company to be profitable throughout 2017.
  The mixed messages have confused many at Diapers.com and the rest of the Quidsi subsidiary following assertions from Amazon and Quidsi top brass that they were confident it would turn a profit as recently as a few months back.
  Several employees present at t
  
  Read more

• Five of the best programmatic ad campaigns

  03-04-2017 11:00
  
  Making the most of a small budgetCharity Missing People made its outdoor advertising spend go further by shifting money from print to programmatic.
  Through a partnership with the out-of-home industry, the charity is given £10m worth of advertising space each year to run appeals for missing children. Prior to using programmatic it was only able to advertise one appeal a week for a missing child across the whole UK.
  Since investing in programmatic over print, the organisation is now able to
  
  Read more

• 3 of the next big innovations in programmatic

  03-04-2017 11:00
  
  Header bidding
  Header bidding is an advanced programmatic bidding technique that is said to be more profitable for publishers and offer a better deal for brands. The basic idea is that it allows publishers to offer ad inventory to multiple ad exchanges at the same time and only then does it call an ad server.
  “Header bidding means that instead of a waterfall, it works parallel and approaches different demand-side platforms at the same. This is better for publishers and brands, who both get
  
  Read more

• Top Google exec says YouTube safety issue affected 'very small' number of ads as video giant welcomes third-party auditing

  03-04-2017 10:46
  
  Google’s chief business officer Philipp Schindler has said that YouTube's engineers have developed improved software to track potentially unsafe content in the aftermath of concerns around brand safety on the platform.
  Speaking in an interview with Recode, the executive was careful not to play down the issue, but underscored the low number of companies affected, saying it has always been a "small" problem with "very, very, very small numbers" of ads running adjacent to content deemed unsaf
  
  Read more

• Creative Works: Featuring Sid Lee, Adam&EveDDB, Ogilvy Italy & more

  03-04-2017 10:32
  
  Welcome to The Drum Creative Works, in partnership with Workfront.
  As always this section is dedicated to showing the best creative work and gives you, the reader, the chance to decide which work we feature as our 'Creative Work of the Week'.
  We've now introduced our new five-star voting system. To vote for your favourite, make sure you click on the stars. The winner be chosen based on the average rating and the number of votes cast. Voting closes on Monday 10 April.
  For project i
  
  Read more

• Domino’s pizza droid delivers the goods in Holland and Germany

  03-04-2017 10:01
  
  Domino’s Pizza has taken delivery of its own fleet of six-wheeled self-driving robots in Holland and Germany in a bid to automate the transportation of pizza from oven to home.
  Devised by Starship Technologies, the grandiose sounding London-based start-up founded by Skype co-founders Anti Heinla and Janus Friis, the box on wheels will be capable of ferrying its cheesy loads to customers residing within a one mile radius of selected Domino’s outlets.
  The initiative is being overseen b
  
  Read more

• Brands versus publishers: Who’s winning with data?

  03-04-2017 10:00
  
  Whether you are a brand or publisher, it’s a tough time to be figuring out how to reach and retain audiences with content. Numerous publishers this year have restructured their business operations as print advertising continues to decline.
  Now brands are increasingly getting into storytelling but adapting a publisher mentality and getting comfortable with data has been far from easy, according to Clare Carr, VP of marketing at data analytics company Parse.ly.
  “If you look at some of
  
  Read more

• Marketing in the digital age needs data and a smart approach to ROI, says Shopback head marketer

  03-04-2017 09:35
  
  Being a digital native company in a region dominated by smartphone viewers might be a smart choice for Shopback, a Singapore-based start-up, which offers cash back for users who shop with them.
  As proof of its online marketing mastery, the start-up has expanded to Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, India and Thailand since its inception in 2014.
  This in part comes from Candice Ong’s, chief commercial officer, Shopback, belief in performance marketing and an obsession with data.
  &ldq
  
  Read more

• Publishers form regional alliance to exploit brand safety furore sparked by YouTube

  03-04-2017 09:33
  
  An alliance of regional publishers, including Johnston Press, Newsquest, Archant and DC Thompson, have strengthened their resolve to persuade ad agencies and brands to switch their spending to local media in the wake of a brand safety scandal presently engulfing Google’s YouTube platform.
  1XL, the union of regional publishers, has published an open letter signed by the chief executive of each member firm, highlighting some of the advantages which they say could come the
  
  Read more

• Review recap: Cadbury, Experian, We Buy Any Car

  03-04-2017 08:38 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Campaign's round-up of advertising and media accounts that are under review by brands
  
  Read more

• HMV’s marketing boss on bringing the brand back from the brink

  03-04-2017 08:32
  
  Grime star Stormzy during a recent in-store event [Picture credit: Shirlaine Forrest]When HMV called in the administrators back in January 2013, the news resulted in dozens of think pieces with headlines ranging from ‘Is physical media dead?’ to ‘Is the music over for HMV?’.
  The reality was HMV – much like the now deceased Jessops and Comet – had struggled to compete as consumers flocked to more digital-savvy brands such as Amazon.
  READ MORE: HMV to go back t
  
  Read more

Follow @marketing_UKnws on Twitter!