Sales & Marketing news

• Obamacare just suffered 2 big blows from insurance companies as repeal looms

  03-05-2017 23:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  As Republicans ready a new bid to repeal and replace Obamacare, two companies announced moves that could serve as significant blows to some of the law's individual health insurance exchanges.
  Aetna on Wednesday announced that it plans to exit the Virginia individual insurance market both for Affordable Care Act exchanges and off-exchange plans.
  That will leave Aetna with just two states in which it is offering plans through the ACA exchanges.
  "Despite significantly reducing our ex
  
  Read more

• WhatsApp went down all over the world for several hours on Wednesday

  03-05-2017 23:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Messaging app WhatsApp was back in service late on Wednesday after a global outage knocked the 1.2 billion-member service offline across the world for several hours. 
  "Earlier today, WhatsApp users in all parts of the world were unable to access WhatsApp for a few hours. We have now fixed the issue and apologize for the inconvenience," a WhatsApp spokesperson said in an email.
  The spokesperson told Business Insider the outage was caused by WhatsApp itself, rather than by an
  
  Read more

• Fitbit spikes after losing less money than expected (FIT)

  03-05-2017 22:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Fitbit's stock spiked after the company reported a first-quarter loss that was less than analyst forecast.
  The adjusted loss for the period was $0.15 per share, beating consensus estimates of a $0.18 per share deficit. The maker of wearable fitness products also reported quarterly revenue of $298.9 million, exceeding an analyst forecast of $279.4 million.
  "Underlying consumer demand has been better than our reported results in North America as we work down channel inventory levels,” c
  
  Read more

• Tesla is desperately trying to avoid 'misperceptions' about its long-awaited Model 3 (TSLA)

  03-05-2017 22:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Tesla is actively trying to eliminate any "misperceptions" about the Model 3 as it inches closer to deliveries.
  The electric-car maker wrote in its investor letter Wednesday that the Model 3 should not be seen as the next-generation Model S. Tesla CEO Elon Musk made similar comments on Twitter in March, but the company is now going out of its way to ease expectations in an SEC filing, which is noteworthy.
  The letter shows Tesla sees a need to temper expectations before deliveries begin at the en
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• SPICER: It's 'literally impossible' right now to know what the GOP bill will do to sick Americans' healthcare coverage

  03-05-2017 22:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Wednesday said no one can know the effects of the American Health Care Act on sick Americans until the bill goes into effect.
  Spicer said there are "so many variables" to take into account when trying to make a determination on how legislation would affect people with preexisting conditions, which has been a major sticking point about the legislation in recent days.
  "To do an analysis with any level of factual basis would be lit
  
  Read more

• Tesla reports a wider loss than expected, says Model 3 production remains on track (TSLA)

  03-05-2017 22:06 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Tesla on Wednesday reported a wider-than-expected loss for the first quarter and said its highly anticipated Model 3 remains on track for initial production in July.
  The electric-car maker said it lost $1.33 per share, wider than the loss of 82 cents that analysts had forecast. Revenue more than doubled and beat expectations, at $2.7 billion ($2.61 billion forecast.) 
  Analysts were focused on updates on production of the Model 3, Tesla's mass-market vehicle priced at $35
  
  Read more

• THE FED HOLDS: Here's what you need to know

  03-05-2017 22:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Stocks slumped on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve held rates.
  The major indices retraced some of their losses later in the afternoon, and the Dow managed to squeak into the green.
  However, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finished slightly in the red.
  First up, the scoreboard:
  Dow: 20,959.23, +9.34, (+0.04%)
  S&P 500: 2,389.70, -1.43, (-0.06%)
  Nasdaq: 6,076.93, -18.59, (-0.31%)
  US 10-year yield: 2.323%, +0.027
  WTI crude oil: $47.47, +0.08, +0.17%
  1. The Federal Reserve held rates and s
  
  Read more

• Facebook beats across the board with $8 billion revenue and closes in on 2 billion users (FB)

  03-05-2017 21:52 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Facebook grew its revenue by 49% during the first three months of the year, blowing past Wall Street's revenue and profit targets on the back of strong mobile ad growth.
  The world's largest social network continued to grow its audience during the first quarter, coming just shy of the 2 billion mark with 1.93 billion users.
  Shares of Facebook were down roughly 2% in after hours trading, despite the solid results.
  Facebook noted in its announcement that its Q1 results represented the fi
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 6 charts illustrate why the Fed is willing to overlook the economy's ugly quarter

  03-05-2017 21:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The Federal Reserve is looking past the economy's weak first quarter and has signaled that it will continue raising interest rates as planned. 
  Its policy statement on Wednesday said the Federal Open Markets Committee "views the slowing in growth during the first quarter as likely to be transitory."
  The advance release of first-quarter gross domestic product showed the economy grew by 0.7%, its slowest pace in three years. The increase in consumer spending, the largest contributor to g
  
  Read more

• The Fed looks shaky on its most important reason for raising interest rates

  03-05-2017 20:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The Federal Reserve left interest rates on hold as expected after its May meeting, but it dropped one key hint that another rate hike is likely in June barring a considerably softer outlook for economic growth: the word "transitory."
  Previously used to describe a period of inflation below the Fed's 2% target, that term was now used to describe a weakening of the economy's performance during the first quarter, when the annualized rate of growth slowed to a three-year low of 0.7%.
  "The Committee
  
  Read more

• Russell Parsons: Marketing needs to pull out all the stops to attract the best talent

  03-05-2017 18:51
  
  I recently visited Copenhagen with my family and was diverted to distraction by analysing why the city had been garlanded “happiest in the world”. This does not appear to be a completely specious moniker, going by the random acts of kindness by helpful strangers, the almost unnerving helpfulness of public sector workers and the immense pride all service staff demonstrated in explaining the virtues of the place to hapless tourists.
  I could have just asked what it was that spurred the
  
  Read more

• Marketing needs to pull out all the stops to attract the best talent

  03-05-2017 18:51
  
  I recently visited Copenhagen with my family and was diverted to distraction by analysing why the city had been garlanded “happiest in the world”. This does not appear to be a completely specious moniker, going by the random acts of kindness by helpful strangers, the almost unnerving helpfulness of public sector workers and the immense pride all service staff demonstrated in explaining the virtues of the place to hapless tourists.
  I could have just asked what it was that spurred the
  
  Read more

• What makes a good marketing employer?

  03-05-2017 18:19
  
  It is vital for brands to differentiate in today’s increasingly crowded consumer space but the same principles apply to the employer and employee relationship, where brand communications and marketing are just as important to retain and attract talent.
  The reasons for marketers rating their workplace highly are varied, and not always what you might expect. Marketing Week’s Employer Brands project has researched some of the UK’s top employers for marketers, finding, for example,
  
  Read more

• Employer Brands 2017: The best places for marketers to work

  03-05-2017 18:00
  
  One of the content areas you have told us you want more insight on is personal and professional development. Our articles on these topics are some of the most read and valued.
  But while Marketing Week is proud to be a rich source of job-related insight and analysis, we have always felt the marketing industry has been missing an authoritative resource – something to give marketers behind-the-scenes insight into the companies and departments that employ them, or that one day might.
  Everybody
  
  Read more

• Mark Ritson: Marketers’ obsession with digital comes with a sting in the tail

  03-05-2017 15:05
  
  Many years ago, in a different century, I worked for a smart, very experienced global marketing director. He hired me to train some of his new marketers and over a period of a few years a friendship grew. For an inexperienced, naïve young marketing professor my association with a high-profile marketer at a such a famous brand was something of a coup. I soaked up his advice every time we met and hung off his every word.
  At one of our meetings he informed me that his newly arrived CEO had jus
  
  Read more

• Sainsbury’s boss warns of even more growth for Aldi and Lidl in 2017

  03-05-2017 13:17
  
  Sainsbury’s says its pre-tax profits slid by 8.2% to £503m in the year to 11 March, as it blamed “reduced consumer confidence” for the decline.
  Although group sales rose 12.7% to £29.1bn, partly thanks to the acquisition of Argos last year, sales across Sainsbury’s core supermarkets fell by 2% for the year. And in a statement, Sainsbury’s blamed a decline in general merchandise and clothing sales on “reduced consumer confidence and a marked slowdow
  
  Read more

• European ad viewability declines

  03-05-2017 09:00
  
  EUROPE: The UK has the worst viewability rate in Europe for banner ads, according to a new report which suggests that the growth in mobile advertising expenditure is contributing to a continent-wide decline in ad viewability levels.The latest...
  
  Read more

• More Than relaunches brand as it admits it lost its mojo

  03-05-2017 08:45
  
  More Than is relaunching its brand and kicking off a new marketing campaign that will see a return to its “irreverent tone of voice” as it looks to return to customer growth after admitting it lost its “laser-focus” on the customer.
  The new campaign, created by VCCP and launching today (3 May), sees More Than attempt to emulate the success of previous campaigns that featured dog Lucky and More Than Freeman. It introduces a new brand character, More Than’s fictional
  
  Read more

• Mobile ‘causing a decline in ad viewability’

  03-05-2017 08:00
  
  The rise in mobile advertising spend is contributing to falling ad viewability levels, according to the latest quarterly benchmark report from ad verification company Meetrics.
  In the first quarter of 2017, the proportion of banner ads served that met minimum viewability guidelines dropped from 49% to 47% in the UK – the lowest level for nine months. Based on the recent IAB and PwC figures, the company consequently believes around £750m per year is wasted on non-viewable ads.
  Ads are
  
  Read more

• India's retail sectors can learn from each other

  03-05-2017 02:00
  
  NEW DELHI: Different retail sectors in India have built particular forms of loyalty with shoppers, and each can learn something from the other, new research suggests.A study by global loyalty marketing agency ICLP sought to ascertain how shoppers...
  
  Read more

• Google and Facebook grab ad growth

  03-05-2017 02:00
  
  GLOBAL: Just two companies – Google and Facebook – captured 64% of all the growth in global adspend between 2012 and 2016, according to a new study.The latest edition of Zenith's Top Thirty Global Media Owners focused purely...
  
  Read more

• Emerging markets create new trends in retail

  03-05-2017 02:00
  
  BANGKOK: Thailand, Vietnam and India are set to lead the charge as retail innovators, with local brands embracing change to future-proof their retail operations against e-commerce.With Asia's emerging markets becoming increasingly wealthy,...
  
  Read more

• Data use in politics raises problems

  03-05-2017 02:00
  
  TORONTO: Data is becoming increasingly "political" as digital profiling and targeting grow ever more sophisticated – and as electoral candidates leverage similar analytic tools to product marketing campaigns.David Carroll, Associate...
  
  Read more

• AI powers content integration

  03-05-2017 02:00
  
  BEIJING: Artificial intelligence is being deployed by PHD China to enable the integration of content consistently across multiple online video channels.The media agency believes the new technology, which uses a combination of image recognition,...
  
  Read more

Follow @sales_mrktinguk on Twitter!