Marketing news

• Block party: reaching people in the age of ad blocking

  15-08-2017 22:28
  Reaching affluent and tech-savvy consumers with digital ads is increasingly difficult.  A recent study showed that 91% of people say ads are more intrusive today than two to three years ago. Furthermore, people are blocking ads at an increasing rate, up 30% in 2016.
  In fact, Americans with college degrees are even harder to reach. They are 1.5 times more likely to use ad blockers. The number one reason for the increase is that people feel ads are annoying and intrusive. It's not s
  
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• Nielsen will include Facebook, Hulu and YouTube in digital ratings

  15-08-2017 21:53
  Data and measurement company Nielsen is to start crediting video content distributed on Facebook, Hulu and YouTube in its Digital Content Ratings, which is how it measures digital content consumption — including streaming video, static web pages and apps — across all major devices and platforms.
  Both TV and digital clients enabled for Digital Content Ratings will now be able to display viewership of their content across all platforms, including Facebook, Hulu and YouTube, and pa
  
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• Amazon woos college students with Instant Pickup

  15-08-2017 20:33
  Amazon has expanded the availability of its Instant Pickup service, which offers Prime and Prime Student members “a curated selection of daily essentials available for pickup in two minutes or less.”
  Instant Pickup is now available in five college towns: Atlanta; Berkeley, Calif.; College Park, Md.; Columbus, Ohio; and Westwood, Calif.
  To access Instant Pickup, Prime and Prime Student members use the Amazon App to shop hundreds of “need-it-now items” l
  
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• Court rules LinkedIn can’t restrict access to members’ public data

  15-08-2017 19:10
  On Monday (August 14), a US federal judge granted a request from workforce analytics firm HiQ Labs for a preliminary injunction against professional network LinkedIn to prevent the latter from restricting HiQ’s access to members’ public profile information.
  The melee began when LinkedIn sent HiQ a cease and desist letter in May. HiQ has since posted it on the #ImWithHiQ section of its website.
  In it, LinkedIn said HiQ “is using processes to improperly, and without authoriz
  
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• Facebook Messenger’s personal assistant M available for UK users

  15-08-2017 19:02
  Facebook is upping the usefulness of its Messenger chat service by integrating its personal assistant M for users in the UK.
  The feature is expanding beyond the USA, touching down with UK users to aid them with its artificial intelligence-driven suggestions, dropping into conversations to suggest stickers, polls, birthday celebrations, group gatherings and location sharing.
  Furthermore, it can suggest launching calls, based on contextual text sent in the chat window, all to take some of the fric
  
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• Is marketing enough to tackle gender inequality?

  15-08-2017 17:45
  The right to vote, protection against violence and even the chance at running the country are all advantages for women which have made an appearance since Emily Davison performed her heroic demonstration at the Derby back in 1913.
  Yet, it doesn’t appear that the stereotype of women has changed much in those 100 years: When the BBC’s revealed salary list exposed a major gender discrepancy, other businesses shook in fear at the prospect of being discovered next rather than displaying o
  
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• Google adds 30 new languages to its voice repertoire

  15-08-2017 17:44
  Google has added voice recognition for 30 new languages, which it says opens voice-based services to more than a billion people.
  With the additional languages, Google speech recognition supports 119 language varieties in features like its virtual keyboard Gboard on Android and in voice search.
  In a blog post, Google said it worked with native speakers to collect speech samples and read common phrases of the new languages.
  “This process trained our machine learning models to under
  
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• The North Face sparks conversation on inclusivity with ‘Walls Are Meant For Climbing’ fundraising campaign

  15-08-2017 17:32
  The North Face has just introduced a new global brand campaign aimed at making the sport of climbing more accessible and inclusive. ‘Walls Are Meant for Climbing’ asks people to rethink the way we look at walls, as places where people in the climbing community come together to test themselves, build trust, and strengthen communities.
  The campaign, which doesn’t directly address Trump’s call to build a wall on the Mexican border but certainly alludes to it, carries the mes
  
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• Caffè Nero appoints Space & Time Media to raise organic awareness and help deliver product launch campaigns

  15-08-2017 17:06
  European-style coffee house brand Caffè Nero has appointed Space and Time Media to raise its organic awareness and help drive its recruitment and new product launch campaigns – via SEO, paid search, social, and online display. 
  Toni Popova, digital brand manager at Caffè Nero, believes the appointment of Space & Time has helped the coffee chain to improve its organic presence, engagement with customers new and old, and assisted their recruite
  
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• My Media Week: Elliot Parkus, Blackwood Seven

  15-08-2017 16:25 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Elliot Parkus, UK managing director of Blackwood Seven, imparts the artificial intelligence gospel to media owners and casts a judge's eye over Media Week Awards entries.
  
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• Bob Wootton: Can Blockchain clean up the ad industry?

  15-08-2017 16:04
  Blockchain is not only the latest in a line of buzzy technologies to invade marketers’ consciousness, it is also a means of solving many of the problems that exist in the advertising supply chain.
  But first things first. The question jumping to most marketers’ lips is still probably ‘what is it?’
  To précis Wikipedia, a Blockchain is a continuously growing list of digital records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using encryption.
  READ MORE: Why marketer
  
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• Shortlist for The Drum Recruitment Business Awards revealed

  15-08-2017 16:00
  Judging for The Drum Recruitment Business Awards has come and gone and the shortlist can now be revealed.
  This year’s entrants have been a mix of innovative and exciting new ideas from the industry’s leading advertisers and recruiters.
  Judges were impressed by the standard of entries in terms of creativity and technology used.
  Creative judge Sandra Reith, head of people resourcing, Tesco Bank said: “There has been a real diverse group this year and there have been some really s
  
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• Rocket Fuel patents address third party cookie restrictions

  15-08-2017 16:00
  Rocket Fuel has announced that it has issued its first two patents, both of which enable adtech outfits overcome restrictions of using third party cookies by using technology that more directly integrates with advertisers and publishers.
  These patents allow advertising technology providers, in partnership with publishers and advertisers, to identify and analyze consumer behavior in order to help brands and advertisers reach and engage with their audiences more effectively.
  This include
  
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• PebblePost names BuzzFeed president Coleman to board, hires growth officer and European strategy manager

  15-08-2017 16:00
  Programmatic direct mail company PebblePost has announced the announced the appointment of BuzzFeed president Greg Coleman to its board of directors. The company has also hired Geoff Dodge as chief growth officer and Fergus Mellon as general manager, European market strategy, to support continued growth, following the successful closing of the company’s $47m Series B debt and equity.
  “PebblePost is delighted to welcome Greg, Geoff and Fergus to the team,” said Lewis Gersh, chie
  
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• Johnson & Johnson in breach of UK drugs rules over Nicorette marketing

  15-08-2017 15:57 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Johnson & Johnson has breached the UK drug regulation code in three places in promotions for smoking cessation product Nicorette.
  
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• How Unicef UK doubled conversions with its new website

  15-08-2017 15:17
  Unicef is the world’s leading organisation for children, promoting the rights and wellbeing of every child. Unicef UK raises funds to protect children in danger, transform their lives and build a safer world for tomorrow’s children.As a registered charity Unicef UK raises funds through donations from individuals, organisations and companies as well as lobbying and campaigning to keep children safe. Unicef UK also runs programmes in schools, hospitals and with local authorities around
  
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• Twentieth Century Fox rapped for scary Alien: Covenant digital outdoor ads

  15-08-2017 14:56 via campaignlive.co.uk
  The Advertising Standards Authority has banned two digital out-of-home ads for sci-fi horror film Alien: Covenant that it deemed too frightening to be shown on an untargeted medium.
  
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• Header bidder driving growth of mobile programmatic advertising

  15-08-2017 14:04
  Header bidding is seeing some of its biggest growth in mobile channels, according to the PubMatic Quarterly Mobile Index report, with EMEA the biggest driver of global growth. The region’s share of mobile header bidding impressions nearly tripled in Q2 this year.
  The report, created by analysing the billions of ad impressions served across the PubMatic platform, provides insight for publishers and advertisers on the dynamics driving this market.
  Monetised header bidding impressio
  
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• 'We've not nailed the customer experience': Asos product boss on the tech shaping its future

  15-08-2017 14:00
  More than half (58%) of Asos’ global orders are now placed on mobile, and as the company looks to stay ahead of its 20-something customers, it's taking a "build, measure, learn" approach to new technology.
  The most recent manifestation of this comes in the form of a visual search tool which lets shoppers sift through its 85,000 products using just a photo. Despite marching towards a mobile future, the brand’s director of product development, Andy Berks, has said it doesn&rs
  
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• Six personalised social media fails the National Lottery should have paid heed to

  15-08-2017 13:42
  Social media marketing is no longer in its infancy, nonetheless, brands continue to put their necks on the line with ill-fated campaigns that enable the public at large to plaster expletives and filth on its content.
  Team GB and the National Lottery are the latest brands to fall into the trap of forgetting that the internet takes great pride in subverting cheesy and saccharine marketing campaigns, intended to evoke passion or emotion, into something all-the-more darker.
  The sooner brands re
  
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• Matches Fashion prepares to ramp up content creation with 24,000 sq ft creative media hub

  15-08-2017 13:35
  Luxury retailer Matches Fashion is looking to take a bigger bite out of fashion’s content creation market with the opening a 24,000 sq ft, state-of-the-art creative hub in London’s Olympic Park.
  The centre, which aims to create 150 jobs within four years, will act as a content creation hub for Matches’ 450 brand partners. It will comprise up to 20 photography bays and video sets and a ‘fashion media space’ dedicated to producing editorial for partner labels.
  The inv
  
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• Marketoonist on how to write a creative brief

  15-08-2017 13:34
  Tom Fishburne is founder of Marketoon Studios. Follow his work at marketoonist.com or on Twitter @tomfishburne
  See more of the Marketoonist here
  The post Marketoonist on how to write a creative brief appeared first on Marketing Week.
  
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• Clarks sexism row – what the data says

  15-08-2017 13:34
  Shoe retailer Clarks found itself embroiled in a sexism row this week after naming a girls' shoe range 'Dolly Babe'. The boys’ equivalent?  'Leader'. As parents and politicians weighed in on the debate, Clarks pulled the contentious range. But will it hurt the brand in the long run? 
  Clarks’ naming a line of shoes for boys “Leader” and a line of shoes for girls 'Dolly Babe' has led to fierce criticism from some quarters. While it is too early to say wh
  
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• Is it time for a slow innovation movement?

  15-08-2017 13:06
  Anyone working in a creative or innovation role will be familiar with what the Enlightenment French philosopher Diderot termed l’esprit d’escalier (staircase wit) - the perfect thought arrives, but just too late to be useful.
  In Diderot’s case, this involved thinking up a particularly amusing riposte at a dinner party - just after he’d reached the bottom of the stairs. Similarly, the most innovative ideas we have around a brand challenge can come weeks, or even years afte
  
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• Ad of the Day: SafeAuto’s Fârnhäan is a confidently wrong AI device everyone seems to accept in latest campaign

  15-08-2017 13:00
  A fake Alexa wannabe is featured in a new campaign for insurance company SafeAuto to spoof the glitches in popular AI devices and users’ instincts to accept the answers regardless.
  Dozens of new TV, digital and social media ads by SafeAuto agency Greatest Common Factory introduce Fârnhäan, a lightbulb atop a wooden box that confidently gives wrong answers in a faux German accent, to drive home the fact that things don’t always make sense in a world of A
  
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• The North Face encourages climbing walls in new campaign

  15-08-2017 12:54 via campaignlive.co.uk
  The North Face, the outdoor apparel retailer, is encouraging people to climb walls in a new campaign.
  
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• Zoomin.TV ties with Tencent for access to vast Chinese market

  15-08-2017 12:27
  Video producer Zoomin.TV has partnered with Chinese internet giant Tencent to open up a vast new audience.
  The company, which was founded in 2000 by Jan Riemens and Bram Bloemberg in Amsterdam, brings together a network of video journalists to produce content in over 20 languages. It is hoping to distribute its work to a new market of Chinese viewers.
  Available on Tencent’s WeChat, on Qzone and Kauibao, the service hopes to bring its Gen Z storytelling to the lucrative market and growing.
  
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• Mark Ritson: The National Lottery found out the hard way how moronic consumers can be

  15-08-2017 12:15
  You would think marketers would have worked it out by now. But many appear still to live in a perfect rose-tinted bubble in which communications are seen as a clarion call, brands are something that people want to fall in love with, and consumers are positive, upbeat citizens of the world who can’t wait to get inspired by purpose and consumption and buying stuff.
  That’s how things probably look in most marketers’ Powerpoint presentations. But a dose of market orientation would
  
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• Snap encourages Westfield shoppers to share their experience through Snapchat Spectacles

  15-08-2017 12:05 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Snap is targeting consumers at London's Westfield shopping centres to share their experience through Snapchat Spectacles.
  
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• Prince’s signature purple enshrined with custom Pantone shade, Love Symbol #2

  15-08-2017 12:03
  The Pantone Color Institute has partnered with the estate of the late pop icon Prince to create Love Symbol #2, a standardised custom colour designed to honour the singer and his love of purple.
  While Prince was known to covet all shades of the purple spectrum, Pantone colourists drew inspiration specifically from his bespoke Yamaha piano, which he was planning to take on tour before his death in April last year.
  It was the 1984 film and soundtrack Purple Rain – as well as Prince&rsqu
  
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• Email click through rates drop to 1.6%, with publishing industry hit hardest

  15-08-2017 11:36
  Emails are opened and read 14.2% of the time, but consumers have been more cautious about clicking through to external links with a reduction in the aggregate click through rate from 1.8% in 2015 to 1.6% in 2016.
  According to the DMA’s latest Email benchmarking report 2017, while delivery rates remained high, open rates have continued to fall from a high of 20% in 2013, to 14.2% in 2016.
  However, the DMA believes there a disparity between the perceptions of customers and the
  
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• How stop-and-go onboarding goes off the rails

  15-08-2017 11:34
  Given the breakneck speed at which new engagement channels emerge and the dubious incentives that drive manufactured scale and reach, it’s no wonder that the ad tech world is notorious for over-promising and under-delivering. The latest example of waving the “Mission Accomplished” banner too soon is happening in the cozy tie-up between onboarding solutions and the DMPs that rely on them as a stopgap to stem the flow of media dollars into the Facebook and Google duopoly. 
  &
  
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• Clas Ohlson appoints DAC Group London for all things digital

  15-08-2017 11:34
   Swedish hardware store chain and mail-order firm Clas Ohlson has appointed DAC Group to head up its digital presence and build the firm a strong UK campaign, as it is not currently a widely known brand name in Britain, with only seven stores around the country.
  London based agency DAC Group will drive e-commerce growth via PPC and support new store expansion via its local offering. DAC’s local up strategy means it can support store activity and performance in
  
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• Didn't they learn from Walkers? National Lottery campaign with British Athletics hijacked

  15-08-2017 11:22 via campaignlive.co.uk
  A social campaign by The National Lottery asking people to show their support for the British Athletics team has been hijacked overnight, with a number of Twitter users posting offensive messages.
  
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• ‘The technology is getting smarter’: Neo@Ogilvy’s Simon Wong on the potential of digital-out-of-home advertising |Future stars of digital

  15-08-2017 11:00
  The digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising industry is gaining momentum as marketers find new and creative ways to target consumers.
  In the penultimate episode of the future stars of digital series, Neo@Ogilvy’s SEO account director, Simon Wong says the technology for DOOH has improved vastly by getting more immersive and interactive.
  He is particularly excited about seeing “super personalised ads” from brands: “Seeing ‘Hi Simon’ on a big screen at Waterloo fo
  
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• How can marketers avoid Christmas campaign horrors?

  15-08-2017 11:00
  We are only in August so it might seem bonkers to start thinking about Christmas now. But is it? A study by Adept Marketing reveals that 25% of shoppers said they had done some Christmas shopping before Halloween, while 49% of e-commerce marketers have created and launched a holiday marketing campaign before Halloween.
  While Christmas can bring many fruitful returns, most digital marketers are downright terrified of messing up their campaigns. To help them, AdRoll has teamed up with Th
  
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• Daily Mail launches weekly football supplement The Verdict

  15-08-2017 10:36 via campaignlive.co.uk
  The Daily Mail has launched a weekly print football supplement, The Verdict, on Mondays.
  
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• Isentia shifts focus to data-driven content strategy after closing King Content

  15-08-2017 10:13
  Isentia is turning its attention towards adopting a data-driven content strategy for  clients, after announcing that it will be discontinuing the King Content brand and closing offices in Hong Kong and New York, two years after investing $37.8m in the content marketing agency. 
  In a conference call with The Drum on Tuesday, David Liu (chief executive, Asia), Richard Spencer (chief marketing officer) and Jason Lee (commercial director) shared that the media intelligence group will
  
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• Melbourne City FC becomes first A.League club to sign an official Fifa eSports player

  15-08-2017 10:09
  Melbourne City FC has made history in Australia after becoming the first club in the A.League to sign an official Fifa eSports player.
  20-year-old Marcus Gomes becomes the third Fifa player alongside New York City FC’s Christopher Holly and Manchester City’s Kieran Brown in the City Football Group, which Melbourne City is also a part of.
  Gomes will travel to London this week to represent Melbourne City at the Fifa Interactive World Cup Grand Final, which will be held from August 16 t
  
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• The Failure Awards for defunct branding | #1 Colgate Beef Lasagne

  15-08-2017 09:49
  If necessity is the mother of invention then failure is the father of success. There are legendary tales of brand failure throughout the history of brands and each week Andrew Eborn, founder of Octopus TV, will  shine a light on products and services, brand extensions and campaigns that - for one reason or another - failed. As a result they have could earn entry into the Failure Awards and a place in The Museum of Failure (if they're not already there).
  The first of the Failure Awards
  
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• Four arrested for leaking Game of Thrones episode in India

  15-08-2017 09:22
  Four people in India have been charged with criminal breach of trust and computer related offences for leaking an episode of HBO's Game of Thrones as reported by BBC, underlining the immense popularity of the fantasy show globally.
  The arrests were made after Prime Focus Technology, which processes the streaming for online viewing service Hotstar, lodged a complaint that the fourth episode of season seven of the series was available online three days before its scheduled release which
  
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• 'A unique form of ad fraud': agency creates fake influencers, wins sponsorship deals

  15-08-2017 08:47 via campaignlive.co.uk
  A US marketing agency says it secured brand sponsorship deals for two fictitious social media influencers, after acquiring a following for their Instagram accounts for less than $300 (£231).
  
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• Despite massive digital penetration, TV and print still drive revenue in India

  15-08-2017 08:30
  Despite massive digital penetration, print, press and TV have been the mainstay for marketers in India for many years. It is mainly because of the mass reach they offer and the tried and tested effectiveness.
  eMarketer’s recently forecasted that estimated TV ad spending will account for 39.3% of total media ad outlays this year, with newspapers making up 33.9%.
  To add on to that, by 2018, TV ad revenue will exceed print's, according to a KPMG and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commer
  
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• Paddy Power's Twitter account mysteriously suspended

  15-08-2017 08:07
  The Twitter account for sports betting firm Paddy Power was briefly suspended overnight, but the reasons for its temporary block have yet to be revealed. 
  The betting company, which has become synonymous over the years for its cheeky messaging and marketing stunts, has yet to comment on why the account was blocked overnight on Monday 14 August. 
  The block saw the automated message left by Twitter over a blank account that read: "Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter rules.
  
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• Amazon calls time on Lovefilm DVD-by-post service

  15-08-2017 08:02 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Amazon has announced it will close its postal DVD rental service on 31 October this year.
  
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• On a roll: How Greggs’ CEO Roger Whiteside reignited the brand

  15-08-2017 08:00
  Beloved for its cheap sausage rolls and steak bakes, Newcastle-based Greggs has been a staple on the British high street for years. Yet, at the turn of the decade, this established position looked incredibly shaky.
  In the year ending 29 December 2012, Greggs saw pre-tax profits fall 2.2% to £51.9m as it blamed wet weather – much like it had throughout the year’s consecutive quarterly sales declines – for the slump. Greggs was called “lacklustre” by some retail
  
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• Sainsbury's presses pause on plans to buy Nisa

  15-08-2017 07:49 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Sainsbury's will hold off on attempts to acquire convenience store group Nisa until after competition authorities rule on Tesco's much-anticipated acquisition of Booker.
  
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• Adidas rolls out a 'groovy' campaign for Manchester United as it pitches the team as 'creators'

  15-08-2017 07:43
  As Manchester United kick starts their Premier League journey with a win, Adidas rolled out a creative campaign titled #HereToCreate, which positions the team as 'performers'.In the Theatre of Dreams, only the creative shine.@ManUtd are ready for action.#HereToCreate pic.twitter.com/7a1N1KWa2V
  — adidas Football (@adidasfootball) August 12, 2017
  The one minute video integrates virtual reality and shows Paul Pogba dribbling, Herrera  and Mata as puppets being controlled by some men
  
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• How Guinness World Records helps brands transform risk into reward

  15-08-2017 06:57
  Attention is the lifeblood of brands and the spectacle of a record-breaking first is one of the best ways to mine this scarce resource from the public, the long-lasting Guinness World Records (GRW) company arbitrates the lion's share of these efforts.
  Over the years, brands have been able to drive headlines, social media posts and a positive narrative through the creation of bizarre stunts overseen and facilitated by GWR. To discuss this, The Drum sat down with Keith Green, vice p
  
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• United Colors of Benetton commemorates India's Independence Day through diversity campaign

  15-08-2017 06:34
  To commemorate India's 71st Independence Day fashion brand United Colors of Benetton and storytelling platform Terribly Tiny Tales have created a digital campaign titled #UnitedByFaith.
  The film captures the diversity of India by narrating the story of Noorul Hasan, a Muslim resident in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (India), who gave up a part of his house to restore an abandoned old Hindu temple that he was sharing a wall with.
  Sundeep Chugh, CEO Benetton India Pvt. Ltd, said: “Benetton&rsq
  
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