Marketing news

• Brooklyn coffeeshop sues Starbucks over Unicorn Frappuccino

  05-05-2017 19:38
  
  If you thought that colorful Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino you were drinking was an original concoction, you may just be wrong, according to a Brooklyn coffeeshop that is suing the coffee giant.
   
  The shop, called The End, with its parent company Montauk Juice Factory, has filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, in which it claims that the idea is confusing to customers because it has its own Unicorn Latte, according to a story in the Business Insider.
   
  The End apparently brought out
  
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• Data can’t write your ad - yet

  05-05-2017 19:11
  
   
  I’m kinda tired of hearing everyone talk about how data is going to save our industry. I’m tired of everyone measuring creative effectiveness against KPIs for which they are ill suited. I’m tired of watching all of the good ideas turn into splinters of their former selves in service of their data-driven masters. And mostly, I’m tired of the bad work that often springs from so-called “data-driven advertising.”
  Data isn’t a strategy.
  I’ve read
  
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• KFC buffs up the Colonel for a romance novel Mother’s Day promo

  05-05-2017 18:09
  
  KFC is at it again with its novelty promos. Aside from its rotating crop of celebrity Colonel Sanders lookalikes, the fast food chain has come up with fried chicken-scented candles, edible nail polish, sunscreen and novelty songs. Now, it’s made the Colonel a romance novel cover star.
  Just in time for Mother’s Day, KFC is offering its 92-page romance novel, Tender Wings of Desire: A Colonel Sanders Novella, to anyone for download on Amazon to Kindle. The cover features a bare-armed,
  
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• People on the move featuring The Metro, Guardian, Marks & Spencer, Havas and more

  05-05-2017 17:54
  
  This week has seen another wave of appointments and departures at brands, media owners and agencies. The Drum has rounded up the key moves from the EMEA, APAC and North America regions below.
   
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  The Guardian 
  Graham Ruddick has joined the Guardian as media editor to lead the media coverage across print and digital. 
  Currently the senior business reporter, his appointment follows the announcment that Jane Martinson sets to leave her role to be a columnist for the new
  
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• Business on the Move: Virgin Atlantic, Airbnb, Tough Mudder and more

  05-05-2017 17:23
  
  After a competitive three-way pitch, Proximity London has won Vrigin Atlantic as its customer engagement and strategic agency.
  Airbnb has instigated a search for a new global creative agency as it embarks on a review of the business – TBWA\Chiat\Day already announced they will not participate.
  Procter & Gamble is ending its longtime relationship with AudienceScience as it looks to partner with different ad tech firms around the globe. I
  
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• Facebook updates ad policy to restrict piracy services

  05-05-2017 17:22
  
  Facebook is restricting advertising submitted to its network by illegal streaming services and devices in a move that will placate broadcasters and content creators.
  The social network told The Drum it is taking steps to ban advertising of unauthorised or illegal streaming devices in an attempt to cut out piracy. 
  Facebook will manually search and remove ads that fail to live up to the new standard but that from next week the process will be automated, whereupon a machine will be large
  
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• Xbox Live recruits Marcus Rashford and Willian for Fifa 17 showdown

  05-05-2017 17:01
  
  Xbox Live has recruited two of the English Premier League’s leading talents to promote Fifa 17 on the online network Xbox Live.
  The film from McCann London shows each players’ pre-match routine subverting expectations by showing them playing football online.
  Fifa 17, EA Sports' flagship title is available on most major platforms, notably Xbox One rival, the PS4, but the Xbox Live ad underlines that the Microsoft service is ‘UK’s fastest most reliable gaming network’
  
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• That Lot's Tiny Trends: It's time to go portrait on Instagram

  05-05-2017 16:56
  
  The square has long been a defining feature of Instagram’s style but if you want to stand out in the feed, it’s time to embrace the portrait post.
  Instagram introduced the ability to post landscape and portrait photos way back in 2015 but not everyone has cottoned on to just how great portrait posts can be. The quality of content on Instagram is now so high, it takes a really great photo to stop someone in their scroll; this is where Instagram’s portrait format comes into its o
  
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• M&S, Tesco & More Than: 5 things that mattered this week and why

  05-05-2017 15:54
  
  M&S launches ‘radical’ new campaign aligning food and clothing
  Marks & Spencer has been struggling for quite a while now, with shareholders looking nervous whenever the retailer’s quarterly numbers are approaching. Its biggest problem has been its struggling general merchandise business; while food has prospered, M&S has struggled to convince Brits it’s still a forward-thinking fashion retailer.
  However, with the start of the year bringing a much-needed sales
  
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• Regardless of the outcome Nike's 'Breaking2' marathon project has been a marketing success

  05-05-2017 14:20
  
  Nike is looking to write itself into the history books with its attempt to break the two-hour marathon barrier for the first time in history, but regardless of the outcome the Breaking2 project has generated a marketing platform for its new Zoom Vaporfly shoes unlike few others.
  Tomorrow morning (6 May) at 4:45am BST just north-west of Milan three of the world’s greatest distance runners will take to the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, one of Formula One’s most iconic
  
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• Nike teases 'Breaking2' sub two-hour marathon attempt with rousing film

  05-05-2017 14:20
  
  Nike has released a new film championing its unprecedented sub two-hour marathon world record attempt as the brand looks to write itself into the history books with a bold marketing campaign unlike any other.
  Tomorrow morning (6 May) at 4:45am BST just north-west of Milan three of the world’s greatest distance runners will take to the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, one of Formula One’s most iconic racetracks, to attempt what it calls the ‘moonshot’ of the sporting world, to r
  
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• How we can add personality to the machine and give artificial intelligence the human touch it's lacking

  05-05-2017 14:00
  
  AI is the hottest of topics right now. However, the conversation is still too focused on the plumbing, the design of the tech itself. What hasn’t been conquered – and is perhaps the most crucial part when connecting the dots – is how you can design a voice for the machine itself.
  This, for many, is where the barrier lies between AI and audience uptake.
  This has always been the case for advertising or selling anything. Whether it be a print ad, radio, broadcast or digital, it&rs
  
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• Facebook press ads offer tips on how to spot fake news

  05-05-2017 13:59 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Facebook has placed ads in national newspapers today that explain how to spot fake news as part of continuing efforts to address concerns about its role in the spread of false information.
  
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• Mother-backed film tells hopeful story of boxer giving back in Rio favela

  05-05-2017 13:54 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Campaign gets the story behind Tribeca Film Festival winner The Good Fight, which was co-produced by Mother London and follows a man building a better future for his favela community in Rio de Janeiro.
  
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• Who targets you? A look at the crowdsourced project set to scrutinise Facebook ads during the general election

  05-05-2017 13:20
  
  A crowdsourced project aims to scrutinise the use of Facebook for targeting and advertising during the forthcoming UK general election.
  According to the Electoral Commission, political parties spent almost £1.5m on targeted Facebook advertising during the 2015 general election.
  The Conservative party reported digital ad spend during the 2015 campaign of £1.21m; the Labour Party, £160,000; the Liberal Democrats £22,245; UKIP £91,000; the Green Party £20,000; an
  
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• British Airways returns to Ogilvy as part of WPP win

  05-05-2017 13:15 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  British Airways is understood to have appointed a WPP team to handle its entire integrated creative, loyalty and media account.
  
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• Media network Carat trials after work email ban in Wellness Month drive

  05-05-2017 12:14
  
  Media network, Carat UK, has made a commitment to mental health by clamping down on out-of-work emails, part of its activity marking Wellness Month.
  The agency claims that the scheme will boast face-to-face interactions and socialisation and reduce the 'always on' mentality that can burn out members of staff.
  Matthew Landeman, managing director of Carat UK, said that the company has been committed to wellness events for several years: "This year we wanted to focus on mental health, equipping peo
  
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• Step Into My Office: Red Bee's Andy Byrant on new business ethos and the importance of customer service

  05-05-2017 12:06
  ‘Step into my Office’, is a series of interviews powered by The Future Factory and The Drum Network, which investigate the details behind the office door. The Future Factory is a lead generation and growth consultancy that spends one day per week working from their clients’ workplaces, getting under the hood of agency life, ambitions and culture among all its idiosyncrasies and charm.
  This month Andy Byrant, managing director of content and design agency Red Bee, disc
  
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• Trinity Mirror chief pleas with advertisers to boomerang back to traditional publishers

  05-05-2017 11:50
  
  Simon Fox, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, has waded into the fake news and brand safety debate by exhorting advertisers to switch their focus from digital publishers back to the traditional media.
  In an interesting turn of phrase Fox said he wanted advertisers to be more ‘discerning’ in whom they chose to advertise with by eschewing the charms of a new breed if digital publishers such as Facebook and Google to return to print media.
  The intervention heaps further pressure on
  
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• Pete Markey leaves Aviva for TSB marketing director role

  05-05-2017 11:24
  
  TSB has appointed Pete Markey as its new marketing director, taking over from Andrew Gillespie, who previously held the role on an interim basis.
  Based in London, he will be responsible for developing and driving forward TSB’s marketing and brand strategy. Markey will lead a team of more than 40 people in London and Bristol and report to CMO Nigel Gilbert.
  Markey joins TSB from Aviva UK where he was brand communications and marketing director responsible for managing Aviva’s multi-mi
  
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• Pete Markey exits Aviva to head up marketing at TSB Bank

  05-05-2017 11:21
  
  Pete Markey has left Aviva after just one year to become marketing director at TSB Bank.
  “It’s an exciting time to join TSB as it continues to challenge the UK banking sector and I can’t wait to get stuck in,” Markey said on the move. “I’ve been impressed with how the Bank has established its personality within the sector, and in my new role, I’m looking forward to helping evolve the brand as TSB grows.”
  TSB was launched in 2013 after being demerge
  
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• Facebook shuns VR content creation with closure of Oculus Story Studio

  05-05-2017 11:19
  
  Facebook has turned its back on efforts to develop in-house virtual reality content with the closure of Oculus Story Studio, marking a shift in strategy which will see it focus more on investing in the efforts of others.
  This marks a significant reversal in policy since October when chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, one of the chief evangelists for VR, boasted of investing $250m in content with plans to splurge a quarter of a billion more in an effort to keep Rift and Gear VR owners engaged
  
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• Media iQ launches AI platform for planners

  05-05-2017 11:17 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Ad tech company Media iQ has launched AiQx, a platform it claims is the first programmatic-first, AI-powered platform designed for media planners.
  
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• Number of female Cannes Lions judges doubles

  05-05-2017 11:11 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  The number of women on Cannes Lions juries has doubled to 43% in the past five years, according to the organisers who have today announced the 2017 jury list.
  
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• Ad of the Day: Bud Light remixes the famous Budweiser Frogs ad for a new generation

  05-05-2017 11:03
  
  Bud Light, America’s bestselling beer and a budding new brand in the UK, is making a callback to one of its sister brand Budweiser's most famous campaigns, the Budwesier Frogs.
  The gross, bloated and croaking frog puppets called Bud, Weis and Er, first touched down with audiences during the 1995 Super Bowl (below), long before the brand’s affiliation with Clydesdales and puppy dogs.
  Video of Budweiser Frogs (1995)Budweiser frogs
   
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  Two decades later, AB InBev have
  
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• Airbnb instigates hunt for new global creative agency

  05-05-2017 10:31
  
  Airbnb has instigated a search for a new global creative agency as it embarks on a review of the business – in which incumbents TBWA\Chiat\Day already announced they will not participate.
  This leaves the field wide open for a new agency to fill the breach. It will be lead by chief marketing officer Jonathan Mildenhall, who coincidentally also served as managing director of TBWA’s London office in a previous life.
  Mildenhall remarked: “As a global hospitality company a
  
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• RadiumOne launches brand safety division

  05-05-2017 10:20 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  RadiumOne is aiming to take advantage of Google's brand safety woes by launching a division dedicated to tackling fraud and increasing transparency.
  
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• TSB hires Pete Markey from Aviva

  05-05-2017 10:10 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Pete Markey, former brand communications and marketing director at Aviva, is joining TSB as marketing director.
  
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• YouTube deploys Kevin Hart, Katy Perry and James Corden to win back advertisers

  05-05-2017 09:55
  
  Google owned YouTube has recruited US actor and comedian Kevin Hart alongside singer Katy Perry and Carpool Karaoke pioneer James Corden to serenade disgruntled advertisers in a bid to win back business following a mass exodus in the wake of concerns relating to extremist content.
  During a presentation on Thursday, YouTube sought to switch attention to more homely fare hosted by the channel by wheeling out some of its biggest stars to make the case that whatever its flaws, it still hosts some of
  
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• Wins this week: EA Sports, Honda, Virgin Atlantic/Virgin Holidays

  05-05-2017 09:46 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Campaign's weekly round-up of account moves across advertising and media.
  
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• M&S appoints Archie Norman as chairman

  05-05-2017 09:16 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Marks & Spencer has appointed Archie Norman, the former Asda chief executive and ITV chairman, as the retailer's chairman.
  
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• New Balance unveils commemorative Celtic kit as part of 'Live the Legend' campaign celebrating the Lisbon Lions

  05-05-2017 09:00
  
  New Balance has created a special commemorative kit for Celtic FC to mark the 50th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions.
  The new 2017/18 home kit has been designed to pay homage to the jerseys worn by the team when they won the 1967 European Cup against Inter Milan in Lisbon. 
  New Balance live streamed the unveiling of the kit today (4 May) across Facebook Live and YouTube from outside Celtic Park.
  As part of the 'Live the Legend' campaign New Balance Football's global creative agency Zak worked
  
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• The Leith Agency scoops Grand Prix and Agency of the Year at Roses Creative Awards

  05-05-2017 08:30
  
  The Leith Agency’s Irn Bru Xtra campaign ‘It makes no sense’ has scooped the Grand Prix prize at this year’s Roses Creative Awards.
  Launched in October last year, the campaign was created to promote the first new permanent addition to the Irn Bru stable in 35 years, and first appeared as a large-scale wrap at Glasgow Central Station. At the time of the launch A.G Barr marketing director, Adrian Troy, commented: “The ‘no sense’ campaign reinforces Irn Bru
  
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• Airbnb calls global creative pitch

  05-05-2017 08:15 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Airbnb has called a global creative agency review and incumbent agency TBWA\Chiat\Day is declining to take part.
  
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• Popular workplace software Slack launches first UK office

  05-05-2017 08:07 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Slack has launched its first UK office in London to help sell and support the expansion of its latest offering, Enterprise Grid.
  
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• Mattress brand Casper’s Fnatic hook-up shows eSports has unlocked the realm of consumer goods

  05-05-2017 08:00
  
  The hype around eSports’ impending entry into the global zeitgeist has already led the likes of Burger King, Gillette and Coca-Cola investing marketing spend into the adolescent industry by way of events, campaigns and partnerships.
  Now its allure has finally pricked the ears of consumer goods marketers – mattress brand Casper, a name one might not associate with gaming, has forged a relationship with Fnatic, one of the largest eSports teams in the world.
  Casper is one of a hand
  
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• How should brands tackle Innovation? Start with good ideas say Disney, Unilever & IBM execs

  05-05-2017 07:34
  
  How do brands take on innovation? Is it through acqui-hires of a small nimble start-up or a structured corporate program to nurture it? That was an issue tackled during  a panel session “Transforming Brands” at Innovfest Unbound 2017 in Singapore.
  For Disney, where innovation is at the heart of the business, that is built around storytelling according to Robert Gilby, managing director, The Walt Disney Company, South East Asia. There it centralises innovation into smal
  
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• Delta Airways threatens family with jail to get them off flight

  05-05-2017 07:15 via campaignlive.co.uk
  
  Another US aeroplane row has seen a family with two young infants booted off a plane for refusing to give up a seat they had bought for their child.
  
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• YouTube unveils host exclusive content with Johnson & Johnson as exclusive advertiser partner

  05-05-2017 06:37
  
  YouTube kicked off its NewFronts pitch with a star-studded gala event featuring stars led by James Corden, where it unveiled a host of programming airing exclusively on the video-sharing site with Johnson & Johnson slated as the exclusive advertiser of a new show Best.Cover.Ever an online talent show fronted by Ryan Seacrest and featuring Katy Perry, who rounded off the evening on stage. 
  YouTube used the pitch to unveil half-a-dozen original ad-funded series, including: Ellen’s S
  
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• The human element of Slack: how the communications platform aims to take on imitators with courtesy

  05-05-2017 05:46
  
  It's unusual for a technology company to talk about what it means to them to act in a 'human' fashion but that's been part of the success of Slack, one of the most celebrated tech unicorns in recent years.
  Speaking to The Drum while promoting the company's new London office, which will mainly be a sales house as it aims to grow its European operations, Slack chief marketing officer Kelly Watkins talks about the various plans that are coming to fruition at the rapidly growing business.&
  
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• Y&R launches e-commerce consultancy in Southeast Asia

  05-05-2017 04:56
  
  Y&R announced the launch of its new e-commerce consultancy in Southeast Asia, partnering Jon Sugihara, founder of companies such as loyalty platform Perx and PlayHawaii.
  The consultancy aims to target the burgeoning Southeast Asia e-commerce market, which is set to grow from $1.1bn in 2015 to $8.8bn in 2020.
  The services offered by the consultancy will depend on the client’s stage of e-commerce development, from early phase sales channel, assets and product pricing strategy to product
  
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• Singapore media regulator fines Mediacorp over breach of programme code

  05-05-2017 04:11
  
  Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has fined Mediacorp $5,500 for a breach of the Video-On-Demand Programme Code.
  This follows an earlier ruling on a radio show for a racist segment.
  An episode of a Chinese-language web series I Want To Be A Star, released on Mediacorp’s Toggle web platform in September 2016, carried an offensive remark by one of the characters as well as featuring an actor with “blackface” makeup.
  The offensive remark in question was
  
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• DigitasLBi and Group Nine Media team up to breathe new life into brand assets

  05-05-2017 03:20
  
  At its 10th annual NewFront conference, marketing and technology agency DigitasLBi announced a partnership with digital media holding company Group Nine Media for a new video content creation and distribution offering.
  The deal will combine what it calls “content transformation tools”, including Snacktory from DigitasLBi and Spotlight from Group Nine. This, in turn, will allow brands to take existing content assets and turn them into engaging, snackable video content and distribute i
  
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• Heineken encourages drinkers to 'Be Bold' with reversible ad for Orchard Thieves cider

  05-05-2017 01:01
  
  Heineken is looking to attract more drinkers to the cider category with an innovative 'fully reversible' ad for its Orchard Thieves cider brand. 
  The 'Start Bold/End Bold' film follows a group of friends on a night out, showing them enjoying the delights of a roof terrace party as evening turns to morning. A second iteration of the spot, meanwhile, plays out the scenario in reverse while managing to tell the exact same story. 
  The backwards version can be seen in full below a
  
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