Marketing news

• Six PR stunts you may have missed in 2017

  21-12-2017 20:22
  Given all the constant late-night POTUS tweet storms and the unstoppable #metoo movement, this hasn’t been the easiest year for a company to try to break through the noise and try to get noticed in a big way.
  There have, however, been a few incredible exceptions. Obviously, everybody knows about the unorthodox launch of Apple’s iPhone X (including the insane semi-accidental animoje karaoke videos gone viral). State Street’s awesome traffic-stopping Fearless Girl statue was clea
  
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• Deutsch enlists Jack Frost (and Alexa) to help you chill this holiday with a meditation skill

  21-12-2017 19:17
  Deutsch created a meditation skill for the Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices that allows users to relax during the winter months.
  Holiday Chill includes four guided meditations narrated by Jack Frost as well as some soothing winter soundscapes for those who prefer to guide their own meditative practice.
   
  Deutsch gifted its employees and clients with Amazon Echo Dots, but the skill is available for public use. All one has to do is tell their device, “Alexa, enable Holiday Chill&rdq
  
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• Ad Council calls attention to food waste by sending tweens undercover in their homes

  21-12-2017 19:14
  During the holiday season, many of us buy, and eat, way more food than we need. We may not think about all the food we waste, but a group of tweens, working with SheKnows Hatch Kids for a campaign for the Ad Council, have uncovered plenty of waste and are becoming 'food warriors' because of their newfound knowledge.
  Food waste is a growing problem in the United States, with 40% of food wasted in households across the country. SaveTheFood.com estimates that 20% of the food we buy is never ea
  
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• Why McCann’s Dom Butler co-founded a feminist Christmas tree angel brand | Creative Pursuits

  21-12-2017 18:51
  Women To Look Up To, the side project of McCann London creative Dom Butler, marries modern feminist idols with the traditional festive tradition of placing an angel on top of the Christmas tree.
  Working as part of a collective comprising Savanna and Chelsea Power, design agency Duzi Studio, photographer Theo Deproost and printer My 3D Twin, Butler shrunk the forms of Beyoncé and Serena Williams down to the size of Christmas tree angels. A public vote led the group to design another inspir
  
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• Sony creates music tech experience with Khalid

  21-12-2017 18:16 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Sony is creating a two-day music event in Los Angeles that features 576 speakers and musician Khalid.
  
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• 2018: The year of the retail mashup

  21-12-2017 18:14
  For all the “death of retail” articles written over the last year, there’s a reason to believe 2018 will be different. Why? There’s a renaissance happening in brick and mortars, where over 90% of all sales still happen (source: US Census Bureau). And one of the major strategies retailers are leveraging is...mashups. No, I’m not kidding.
  What’s a retail mashup? Take your current shopping experience and add impact, fun, and relevance by combining it with a compl
  
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• Mark Ritson: Media agencies will go the way of the dinosaurs if they don’t tackle transparency

  21-12-2017 17:53
  Agency.
  It is an interesting word. For most mere mortals it is usually associated with action and effect; “thanks to his agency the job was done and everyone was relieved”. We marketers, however, have long thought about agency as a very particular, organisational noun. It is the company that acts on behalf of clients to get the advertising job done; “the agency was amazing”.
  In our world, there are clients and customers and, in between, agencies that work to allow the for
  
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• Poundland social team doesn't face sack over teabag tweet - part of a lewd £25.53 marketing campaign

  21-12-2017 17:52
  UK discount retailer Poundland has denied its social accounts were hacked after it posted an off-colour tweet where an elf on the shelf elf teabagged a female doll.
  The brand’s creative juices were flowing in a post promoting its Twinings teabags where it asked consumers how they take their tea. The post, issued on Thursday 21 December, appeared on the Poundland and Dealz social media accounts and referred to the insertion of the scrotum into another's mouth, a colloquialism often dep
  
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• Facebook strikes first major music rights deal with Universal Music

  21-12-2017 17:32
  Universal Music Group (UMG) has signed an 'unprecedented' global deal with Facebook which will see it become the first major music company to license its recorded music and publishing catalogs across three of the social giant's platforms.
  The record label's portfolio of music, which includes artists including Taylor Swift and Jay-Z, will be used for video and "other social experiences" across Facebook, Instagram and Oculus, the tech company's VR arm. 
  Initially the partnership wil
  
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• Ad of the Day: Scroll to trek 9 miles with Sierra Leonean schoolchildren in web experience from David&Goliath

  21-12-2017 17:25
  David&Goliath (D&G) partnered up with non-profit Shine on Sierra Leone to illustrate the harrowing three-plus hour-long journey for students in the African nation.
  To raise donations for a new school close to students in the country, D&G created a web experience that illustrates how far young Sierra Leoneans currently have to go — nine miles. That trek from home takes the children through dirt roads filled with poisonous snakes, in humid weather (sometimes monsoons),
  
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• Restoring trust will bring in a sustainable digital future, says the IAB: The Drum Digital Trading Awards 2018 open to entries

  21-12-2017 17:00
  Digital trading focused on the quality considerations and effective use of budgets last year, according to IAB, which believes that work around restoring trust has been huge and some of those initiatives are setting the industry on a course for a sustainable future.  
  “Digital is still a very young media with countless firsts and frontiers still to be reached, its fast paced and even the smallest contribution can make a titanic difference. In the end you need to be in it to
  
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• Samsung is first brand in UK to try out Snapchat's new sponsored animated filters.

  21-12-2017 16:28 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Samsung is running the first sponsored Snapchat animated filter in the UK on Christmas Day.
  
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• Penske Media steps in to inject new life into Rolling Stone

  21-12-2017 14:45
  Digital mediahouse Penske Media has stepped in to aquire a majority interest in Wenner Media, the family company that founded and ran rock bible Rolling Stone.
  The classic publication was put up for sale earlier this year after founder Jann S Wenner admitted that it was “time for young people to run it” and modernize the brand. He said so after selling its other titles Us Weekly and Men’s Journal.
  Penske, which owns 22 digital news brands including Deadline, Variety and In
  
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• Trust and transparency issues shift content creation from large agencies to boutique shops

  21-12-2017 14:27
  We are increasingly seeing major brands shift away from having content created and managed by their traditional ad agency. While brands still maintain agency of record relationship with agencies, it’s far less prevalent as brands are choosing to move to smaller boutique, creative or content shops. 
  The agency world is changing dramatically as the media landscape morphs from the simplicity of back-in-the-day TV, print and radio to today’s highly complex landscape of int
  
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• Channel 4's Dan Brooke: media companies are failing us with poor representation of disabled people

  21-12-2017 14:19 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Dan Brooke, chief marketing and communications officer at Channel 4, has criticised what he said was the "virtually invisible" status of disabled people on TV and across other media.
  
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• Change4Life aims to get children eating healthy snacks in new £4.5m campaign

  21-12-2017 13:50 via campaignlive.co.uk
  A £4.5m campaign from Change4Life, Public Health England's healthy living drive, will encourage parents to "Look for 100 calorie snacks, two a day max" in order to help their children consume less sugar.
  
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• The future of media and net neutrality?

  21-12-2017 13:42
  The discussion of net neutrality in the US telco landscape has become highly polemicized in recent years.
  So much so that it’s now almost impossible to discuss the technical implications and limitations of net neutrality without touching on fundamentally thorny issues of political debate.
  While it is easy to bring in wider discussions of basic rights or censorship it should be noted that the concept of net neutrality is primarily concerned with limiting or controlling how internet service
  
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• Creative Director's Choice: PMH’s Courtney Vincent applauds Joan’s empowered campaign for Julep

  21-12-2017 13:30
  Creative Director’s Choice gives creative directors a chance to highlight the current work they think is the best out in the ad world – the ads and campaigns they believe are making a difference.
  This week, Peterson Milla Hooks' (PMH) creative director Courtney Vincent takes a deeper look at Joan’s latest spot for beauty brand Julep in the Throw Anything at Me campaign, a celebration to champion every woman’s innate power, showcasing the role that make
  
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• Thomas Cook brings back 'Don't book it, Thomas Cook it'

  21-12-2017 12:36 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Thomas Cook has unveiled its turn-of-year ad campaign featuring one spot designed to showcase what differentiates the travel company and another targeted specifically at families.
  
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• TfL rejects 'severed dog head' bus poster campaign from Peta

  21-12-2017 12:34 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Transport for London (TfL) has refused to run a pro-vegan poster campaign from Peta featuring a severed dog's head on a Christmas platter.
  
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• Podcast: Mark Ritson on the biggest stories of 2017

  21-12-2017 12:32
  Mark Ritson catalogues all the key moments in marketing via his weekly column in Marketing Week.
  Here, he takes a look back and shares his standout stories of 2017, from Marc Pritchard’s “landmark speech” in January, which he describes as “the singular marketing moment of the year” to Facebook’s string of measurement errors.
  Listen to the podcast for Ritson’s characteristically sharp take on 2017 and what it will mean for marketers next year.
  The post Po
  
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• Mark Ritson on the biggest stories of 2017

  21-12-2017 12:32
  Mark Ritson catalogues all the key moments in marketing via his weekly column in Marketing Week.
  Here, he takes a look back and shares his standout stories of 2017, from Marc Pritchard’s “landmark speech” in January, which he describes as “the singular marketing moment of the year” to Facebook’s string of measurement errors.
  Listen to the podcast for Ritson’s characteristically sharp take on 2017 and what it will mean for marketers next year.
  The post Ma
  
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• William Grant appoints new UK marketing director

  21-12-2017 12:22 via campaignlive.co.uk
  William Grant & Sons has appointed Caspar MacRae as UK marketing director, as Gary Keogh is promoted to regional marketing director for EMEA.
  
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• Aldi crowned UK’s most engaged brand on Instagram at Christmas

  21-12-2017 12:02
  There are many marketing battlegrounds as brands skirmish for consumer attention in the run up to Christmas. A cornerstone of any campaign is Instagram, on which Aldi scored the most engagement per post on average, according to data from Instagram scheduling tool Hopper HQ.
  As a cornerstone of social activity, Instagram is a platform where retailers can extend their campaigns in a visual manner, and Aldi reportedly trumped 15 competitors in this space between 8 to 15 December.
  Aldi boa
  
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• Community clout: how the Ferret and the Bristol Cable are leading the rise of the UK’s co-operative news media

  21-12-2017 12:00
  On stage at Edinburgh’s Leith Theatre one evening last week, the Scottish stand-up comedian Vladimir McTavish was playing his part in funding the rise of an alternative UK news media.
  McTavish, a popular act on the Edinburgh Fringe, was part of the bill at the Festive Ferret Fundraiser, an event generating income for the investigative journalism website the Ferret, which launched two years ago and is already having significant impact on Scottish politics and society.
  Backed by nearly 700 p
  
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• Juliet Haygarth leaves BMB

  21-12-2017 11:47 via campaignlive.co.uk
  Juliet Haygarth, the chief executive of BMB, is stepping down from the role to recover from health issues.
  
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• How marketers are tackling GDPR implementation: Sign up for our webinar now

  21-12-2017 11:47
  From the moment the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was first floated there were portentous warnings from the marketing industry that it would have dire consequences on data-driven marketing. Less than 6 months from implementation date, it’s safe to say that although there are definite consequences for non-compliance there are also plenty of opportunities.
  There are tens of events every month that feature lawyers, regulators and compliance officers explaining what you will and w
  
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• Eight predictions for digital advertising in 2018

  21-12-2017 11:29
  As we enter the era of mass personalisation, tempered by strict data protection rules, we at iCrossing gaze into our crystal ball to reveal eight predictions for digital advertising in 2018. 
  1. The Duopoly will finally be breached
  Google and Facebook have ruled the digital advertising roost for years, hoovering up nearly all the growth this year. After numerous failed attempts by pure plays to breach the duopoly, Amazon will emerge in 2018 as the realistic challenger. When it comes to sear
  
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• Uber labelled a transport service, Burger King gifts customer a restaurant: International round-up

  21-12-2017 11:25
  Uber labelled a transport service by Europe’s highest court
  More bad news for Uber – it has now been officially labelled a “transport service” instead of an digital service by Europe’s top court.
  Uber has consistently argued that it is only an app that connects passengers to cab drivers through technology, as opposed to a transport service.
  That definition has helped the company avoid the stricter regulations which apply to other transport services. Instead, Ub
  
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• Discovery taps Wasserman for Winter Olympics social content drive

  21-12-2017 11:07
  Discovery has brought aboard sports marketing firm Wasserman to power up its Winter Olympics social content in the run up to the Games in PyeongChang.
  Cycle Media, a subsidiary of Wasserman, will produce original content for Eurosport social and digital platforms to drum up interest and knowledge around the Games. In particular, it will drive the broadcaster’s Snapchat channels in the UK, Germany, Norway and Sweden making use of new and historic footage from the Winter Olympics.
  The partne
  
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• Gaviscon, M&Ms and KFC top Nielsen chart of most effective TV ads of 2017

  21-12-2017 10:59 via campaignlive.co.uk
  An ad for Gaviscon featuring a pair of identical twins, Tim and Tom, who suffer from heartburn and indigestion has topped a ranking of the most effective TV ads of the year.
  
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• Hub of Hope celebrates six months with Christmas poster campaign

  21-12-2017 10:00
  The Liverpool-based creators of national mental health database The Hub of Hope  have launched a poster campaign to raise awareness of the vital resource in the lead-up to Christmas 2017, six months on from its launch.
  Mashbo, creative designers and trustees of Chasing the Stigma (CTS) – the charity behind the web-based app – have funded the fly poster campaign, which will promote the Hub of Hope in Liverpool city centre using funds ordinarily reserved for client Christmas cards
  
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• Get Ready for Amazon to take the lead in search: Entries for The Drum Search Awards now open

  21-12-2017 10:00
  Amazon is gearing up to be the next big player in search for 2018, predict industry experts
  "We are all kind of pretending to know what we're doing with Amazon, but no one has really become an expert yet. I've tried Alexa. It's interesting and it's there in your house listening. That's an amazing experience," according to Greenlight Digital director of paid media, Hannah Kimuyu.
  "Earlier this year, I was at the annual Independent agency summit in New York and Google
  
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• Flipkart unveils 'AIforIndia' programme to drive innovation

  21-12-2017 09:28
  Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has  unveiled its 'artificial intelligence (AI) For India' programme to give a push to its AI ambitions and keep up with rivals Amazon and Alibaba.
  The new AI team will be headed by chief data scientist Mayur Datar, with Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal and Flipkart chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy directly working on some key projects.
  In an interview, Bansal said that AI will become a significant driving force of innovation and change across vari
  
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• Bellator MMA makes push into Asia after Viacom secures TV rights, with live events on the cards

  21-12-2017 09:11
  Viacom International Media Networks has announced that its subscribers in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Pacific Islands will be able to watch its mixed martial arts brand, Bellator MMA, fight events from January 2018.
  The American media conglomerate acquired the rights from Electus International and will show the fights on its Paramount Channel. It is also looking at helping Bellator stage fight events in Asia in the future.
  The first Bellator event that MMA fans
  
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• The World's Most Creative Women: Natasha Mudhar, Sterling Media

  21-12-2017 09:00
  In a continuing drive for greater diversity and inclusion in marketing and advertising, a new feature by The Drum highlights conversations with top creative women in the industry. 
  All were nominated for The Drum’s global Woman of the Year award at The Drum Creative Awards, sponsored by Facebook, One Minute Briefs and in partnership with Creative Equals. The award is designed to push equality boundaries within the creative industry to spark discussion and action.
  From icons and p
  
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• Absolut launches 100 nights project to connect with China’s youth

  21-12-2017 08:59
  Absolut will host 100 New Year’s Eve parties in 100 different cities across China, in a bid to connect with China’s young people.
  Absolut’s 100 nights project invites Chinese consumers to submit their concepts for a unique New Year’s night out for a chance to win 10,000 RMB and to bring their event to life.
  Absolut will gift RMB 1m in total to support the 100 nights, which will take place across the country on December 31. The night
  The project aims to celebrate the creat
  
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• From introvert to extrovert: The changing nature of insight teams

  21-12-2017 08:30
  For many years, market research was a recessive function. Tucked away in marketing’s backroom, its managers asked consumers what they wanted and reported the results with scrupulous objectivity.
  Researchers – bookish, pernickety, introverted types – worked in the shadows of their more outgoing product and brand management colleagues.
  But modern consumer insight lives by different rules.
  Digital platforms bring better, faster sources of information. Data science is being us
  
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• The best social media campaigns in Asia Pacific in 2017

  21-12-2017 08:06
  Which campaigns won 2017? Depends on who you ask. What is indisputable, however, is that budgets in the region are migrating so swiftly to social media that it now merits a list of its own.
  Each year, Hootsuite examines the most successful social campaigns based on campaign strategy, execution, understanding of social media users and business results. In our inaugural list for Asia Pacific, we have used those same high standards to pick the best work produced in 2017. Take a look:
  Uber, Sin
  
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• What’s in store for 2018? Marketers share their predictions

  21-12-2017 08:00
  ‘People will realise digital marketing and marketing are one in the same’
  Zoe Burns-Shore, head of brand and marketing at First Direct 
  “I see a few things happening next year. First, everyone outside those working in marketing will continue to believe that no-one watches telly, while all secretly watching telly.
  “Secondly, I think at least 100 new digital platforms will be launched that all promise to make everyone’s marketing more personal and relevant &
  
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• AppNexus and PageFair launch services to help the industry weather the GDPR storm

  21-12-2017 08:00
  As the deadline for compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) draws ever closer, publishers and adtech players are urged to ensure their supply chain partners meet requirements, with both PageFair and AppNexus recently launching offerings that look to enable this.
  Earlier this week PageFair announced the launch of Perimeter, a self-styled “regulatory firewall” that will enable publishers to monetise their websites without the use of personal
  
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• Ogilvy India rolls out OgilvyRED to help brands with growth and innovation

  21-12-2017 07:57
  Ogilvy India has introduced its OgilvyRED, digital consultancy to help brands with growth and innovation.
  OgilvyRED will offer five services namely digital transformation consulting, data and marketing analytics consulting, marketing technology consulting, innovation consulting and ecommerce consulting.
  The Drum spoke with Sonia Khurana, senior vice president at OgilvyRED to find out the strategy behind the launch.
  She said: "India has reached a tipping point when it comes to digital adopti
  
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• Five Crucial Components to a Successful Influencer Marketing Strategy

  21-12-2017 06:53
  Influencer marketing is not a new concept. Brands have sought to harness the influence of others - from celebrities to politicians - since the onset of modern marketing.
  However, during the early 2000’s when digital transformation and the tech era were just taking off, the internet democratized influence allowing regular people to amass huge followings and become internet celebrities. This new generation of celebrities exists on every channel, from traditional blogging platforms to YouTube
  
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• Moon Marketing: Innovative new media channel or just a PR stunt?

  21-12-2017 06:05
  As the race to the moon continues, a Japanese start-up has predicted we could see billboards on the moon as early as 2020.
  Japanese company Ispace told Bloomberg that while a thriving lunar economy was still decades away, the initial business opportunities on the moon’s surface will be marketing-related with sponsored spacecraft and billboards.
  Brands are no stranger to space-based marketing. From Red Bull’s Stratos project, which saw eight million people tuned in to watch a man
  
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• Facebook reveals it shared 263 users data with the Singapore government

  21-12-2017 05:05
  Facebook has revealed that it shared the data of 263 users with the Singapore government between January and June 2017 in a transparency report it released on Wednesday (20 December).
  According to the report, the Singapore government requested 204 times for these data from Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, and the social media giant granted 59% of the requests.
  The government also made eight requests for 15 users or accounts to preserve their account information for up to 90 days 
  
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• Indonesians mothers receive free meals from Kraft Heinz as part of Mother's Day celebrations

  21-12-2017 04:37
  Over 36,000 mothers in three cities across Indonesia will be treated to their favourite meals served up by three renowned chefs tomorrow (December 22) to celebrate Mother’s Day in the Southeast Asian country.
  The ‘Thank You Mom Meal Service’, is part of a campaign launched by Kecap ABC, created by VML Indonesia, in partnership with Geometry Global and OMD. It wants to show that while Indonesian mothers give their all to their families, they are not recognised enough for the sac
  
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• Kimberly-Clark pushes for change with the pharmaceutical industry approach to contamination control

  21-12-2017 03:58
  Kimberly-Clark has launched a campaign that aims to show contamination in labs and cleanrooms leads to low productivity, product recalls and even closures.
  The “Dress for Success” campaign, which was created by Geometry Global Australia and Singapore, revolves around Kimtech Sterile Apparel, a single-use garment solution designed to the last detail to reduce human error, protecting both process and people seamlessly.
  The online content features a larger-than-life product demo th
  
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• Line to integrate Mobike functionality after taking minority stake in bikesharing company

  21-12-2017 03:43
  Japanese messaging app Line has invested in bike sharing company Mobike in a bid to bolster the growth of bikesharing in Japan.
  Line has taken a minority stake in Mobike’s Japanese subsidiary, Mobike Japan, as part of a Series A round of investment.
  The deal will see Mobike’s service integrated into the Line app, enabling the messaging app’s 71 million users to sign up and pay for their rides in-app.
  The two companies will also work closely to develop a series of initiatives to
  
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• Three retail trends to watch in 2018

  21-12-2017 01:09
  Physical retail is facing unparalleled challenges in the era of e-commerce. Innovation research and advisory company Stylus has identified three trends that will drive the sector through 2018 and beyond.
  Brick-and-mortar retail is far from dead, but retailers have to take risks and become adventurous to give consumers good reasons not to do all their shopping online.
  As such, a new breed of agile, future-proof brand spaces are on the way. Brands need to think beyond pure product and provide new-
  
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• A decline in December caps two years of falling consumer confidence

  21-12-2017 01:01
  If you were expecting consumer confidence to improve as a result of Brits trading up for the Christmas period then GfK’s latest numbers might make for depressing reading.
  For the first 20 days of December, GfK’s major purchase index, which ranks Brits’ propensity to spend money on big ticket items such as electricals, fell one point to a score of -4. This means it’s nearly six times as bad as it was in December 2016 when this score stood at +12.
  The overall consumer confi
  
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