Sales & Marketing news

• Snap's 5-day winning streak is over (SNAP)

  21-08-2017 22:09 via feedproxy.google.com
  Snap broke its five-day winning streak on Monday, falling 3.10%. 
  The streak of gains was the largest in the company's history as the stock rose 18.43% over the previous five sessions. 
  Snap's winning streak came after the company's most recent lockup period expired. The lockups were designed to prevent company insiders from flooding the market during the company's initial public offering. Nearly 1.2 billion shares have been unlocked for trading over the last month, and the final 
  
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• Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein fires out a cryptic tweet about a 'shadow across the country'

  21-08-2017 22:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein fired out a cryptic tweet on Monday referencing the solar eclipse.
  "Wish the moon wasn't the only thing casting a shadow across the country," he tweeted. "We got through one, we'll get through the other. #SolarEclipse2017."
  It is unclear to whom or what Blankfein is referring.
  He has, however, previously used Twitter to comment on the Trump administration and its policies.
  He posted his first tweet after President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris agreement o
  
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• Here's how stocks perform after a solar eclipse

  21-08-2017 20:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  A total solar eclipse may represent a blockage of sunlight, but the stock market has historically caught fire after past occurrences.
  US equity prices have climbed an average of 17.2% in the year following total solar eclipses visible from the US, according to data compiled by LPL Financial. The last time came in July 1991, after which stocks rose 9.9%.
  "History has shown us that since 1900, any time a total solar eclipse has been seen in the U.S., equity prices have gone up," LPL Financial seni
  
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• Bitcoin cash is crashing

  21-08-2017 19:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  Bitcoin cash is crashing on Monday, trading down nearly 20% at $579 a coin after soaring to a record high of $942 during an impressive weekend rally. In the process, bitcoin cash reclaimed the spot as the third-largest cryptocurrency, according to Coinmarketcap.com.
  Despite Monday's steep slide, bitcoin cash is still up about 110% since its genesis on August 1 when it split from the original bitcoin network. 
  "More exchanges are trading bitcoin cash now," Sebastian
  
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• Apple's $1 billion video plan should worry Spotify, not Netflix (AAPL)

  21-08-2017 19:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  Apple recently announced a plan to spend $1 billion on video content over the coming year, but it's not going after Netflix.
  According to Amit Daryanani, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, Spotify has the most to lose from the increased spending.
  "While a billion dollars appear small relative to Netflix’s $6B, Amazon's ~$4B and HBO’s $2B annual content spend, we think that Apple is not competing with these services, at least not yet," Daryanani wrote in a note to clients.
  
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• GOLDMAN SACHS: Here are the 13 VIP stocks that are most popular with hedge funds

  21-08-2017 18:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  Despite a challenging market environment for hedge funds, they have returned on average 7% so far in 2017.
  While that mark has not been good enough to beat the market, they are still on pace for their best return since 2009.
  In a recently released report, Goldman Sachs Portfolio Strategy Research wrote, "2017 has been defined by low volatility and low return dispersion."
  That low volatility has led many hedge funds to rely on a select number of stocks to drive retur
  
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• TOP NETFLIX ANALYST: How much content is enough? (NFLX)

  21-08-2017 18:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  Netflix was the original streaming giant — and it’s used that incumbency to largely stay ahead of everyone else entering the digital-TV universe.But as costs of creating content nosedive, at least one analyst is wondering at what point Netflix will curtail its original production.
  “The question is how much content do you need to create, and at what point do you have enough?” says Rich Greenfield of BTIG.
  Greenfield has been covering the media and technology space for the
  
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• The explosive stock that's dividing Wall Street (BABA)

  21-08-2017 18:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  Alibaba is up more than 90% in 2017, and it's been winning over some high-profile hedge fund managers
  The company's stock is still the most shorted in the world by a magnitude of two, and short sellers are refusing to throw in the towel despite losing billions of dollars
  Alibaba has soared to stratospheric new heights this year, winning over plenty of new fans along the way. The legion of admirers now includes a handful of influential hedge fund managers, as well as the lion's share of research
  
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• Elite dating app Inner Circle on why influencer marketing doesn’t work

  21-08-2017 18:13
  You might not have used elite dating app Inner Circle but you will almost certainly have heard of it. The company made headlines when it launched in the UK in 2015 over the selectiveness of its app.
  It claims to connect only the “most attractive and inspiring singles” and has very strict criteria for who it will let in.
  The singles out there are probably shouting ‘sign me up!’ to themselves as they trudge home from yet another bad date because it picks users based on thei
  
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• Amazon is about to claim a new victim in the retail apocalypse (FL, FINL)

  21-08-2017 17:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  Foot Locker and Finish Line are in danger of losing market share to Amazon.
  UBS analysts expect the two to start closing stores.
  Foot Locker and Finish Line also have a large presence in malls that have lost anchors Macy's and J.C. Penney.
  Retailers across America have been closing stores in droves this year amid years of declines in sales and customer traffic and an increasing threat from Amazon.
  So far in 2017, retailers have shut down more than 6,300 stores. UBS says the sneaker retailers Fo
  
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• It's a bad Monday for billionaire investor Bill Ackman (HLF, ADP)

  21-08-2017 17:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  The week is off to a bad start for Bill Ackman.
  Herbalife shares were up about 8% Monday morning following news that it had talks to go private.
  The surge is a blow to Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital, the activist fund that famously went short on the supplements company five years ago while accusing it of operating as a pyramid scheme. Pershing Square's bet has largely gone the wrong way since it was put on.
  Meanwhile, the human resources company ADP rejected Ackman's board nomin
  
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• We did the math to see if it's worth buying a ticket for the $650 million Powerball jackpot

  21-08-2017 17:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Powerball jackpot for Wednesday's drawing, after no one won on Saturday, is up to $650 million as of 11:30 a.m. ET Monday.
  That is a pretty huge chunk of money. However, as we saw before Saturday's drawing, when the jackpot was $535 million, taking a closer look at the underlying math of the lottery shows that it's probably a bad idea to buy a ticket.
  Consider the expected value
  When trying to evaluate the outcome of a risky, probabilistic event like the lottery, one
  
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• Ray Dalio, the founder of the world's largest hedge fund, is worried that democracy is being threatened

  21-08-2017 17:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  Bridgewater Associates founder and co-CIO Ray Dalio thinks that democracy is being threatened.
  In a LinkedIn post published Monday, Dalio said that democracies are healthy when the principles "that bind people are stronger than those that divide them." In turn, "democracies are threatened when the principles that divide people are more strongly held than those that bind them and when divided people are more inclined to fight than work to resolve their differences."
  Critically, we've n
  
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• Welcoming refugees brings unexpected economic benefits

  21-08-2017 17:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  Donald Trump’s divisive ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries has sparked a debate about not only the security implications of immigration but also its economic impact.
  A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows refugees provide a net contribution to the economy through the taxes they pay over time, countering the notion that they are a drag on the economy due to a reliance on social benefits.
  Trump's ban initially faced stiff legal challeng
  
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• GOLDMAN SACHS: This may not be the big correction that markets have been waiting for

  21-08-2017 17:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  A correction seems to be in order for the stock market after a stretch of historically low volatility.
  But technical analysts at Goldman Sachs say the recent sell-off wasn't the start of one. A decline of about 10% is broadly considered a correction.
  The S&P 500 logged a second-straight weekly decline on Friday, and the cumulative 2.1% drop was the steepest since the two weeks before the November election. A mix of some earnings misses and corporate America's exodus from
  
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• Nike's intense rivalry with Adidas just escalated

  21-08-2017 17:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  The competition between Nike and Adidas is getting crazier. 
  The largest sportswear maker was downgraded from "buy" to "hold" by Jefferies analysts in light of "intensifying US competition" from main competitor Adidas.
  "The athletic footwear cycle and Nike brand power are strong, but the competitive landscape should make share gains and margin expansion elusive," CNBC reports, citing Jefferies research. 
  Adidas has successfully avoided downward trends in the athletic shoe an
  
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• Goldman Sachs is reportedly on the hunt for star traders to revive its struggling commodities unit (GS)

  21-08-2017 16:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  Goldman Sachs is reportedly looking to boost its struggling commodities unit with fresh hires and new clients as it tries to rebound from its worst quarter in over 18 years.
  The news was first reported by Bloomberg News’ Dakin Campbell, Jack Farchy, and Javier Blas:
  The bank will bring in a few high-profile commodities salesmen as well as some traders, an acknowledgment that the roughly 180-person unit’s performance has suffered in recent years from failures to replace senior talent
  
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• Treasury Secretary to former Yale classmates: Trump is not a Nazi sympathizer

  21-08-2017 16:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  It says a lot about the level of public discourse in Donald Trump’s America that this is what things have come to: a Jewish Treasury Secretary defending a president against accusations of supporting Nazism. 
  Trump’s chaotic press conference following the deadly Charlottesville terrorist attack sparked widespread, bipartisan outrage, as Trump appeared to equate violent white supremacists marching to anti-Semitic chants with counter-protesters.
  In the aftermath, nearly 400&nb
  
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• Ikea, Game of Thrones and the power of reactionary marketing

  21-08-2017 16:18
  Ikea hit the headlines when it emerged the Night’s Watch characters on Game of Thrones were clad in spruced up rugs and furs from the Swedish retailer.
  And with Winter coming (sorry), Ikea posted a do-it-yourself guide on its Facebook page that gave shoppers all the steps needed to make their own winter-warming Jon Snow threads. The series of posts became a viral success gaining attention from publications such as Time Magazine.
  In fact, the reactionary campaign has reached 151 million in
  
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• WPP, Walmart, Samsung: Everything that matters this morning

  21-08-2017 08:55
  WPP blames client spend for lower growth
  WPP, the world’s largest advertising group, has warned that its growth will be lower than expected this year after a difficult second quarter.
  Client spend was down during the period, particularly within the FMCG and packaged goods sector, meaning it will only increase revenues and net sales by between zero to 1% 2017
  The group, run by Sir Martin Sorrell, saw revenues hit £7.4bn in the six months to 30 June, an increase of 1.9% on th
  
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• Spotify, Qantas, Marriott: Everything that matters this morning

  21-08-2017 08:55
  Spotify secures Warner Music deal
  Spotify has signed a new licensing deal with Warner Music Group, the last of the three big record labels to make its catalogue available to Spotify’s 140 million users.
  The deals with Sony, Universal and Warner mean Spotify is perfectly placed to float on the New York Stock Exchange as early as this year.
  Warner Music chief digital officer Ole Obermann said the deal was focused on finding “inventive ways” to reinforce the value of music and cre
  
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• Samsung, McDonald’s, Bake Off: Everything that matters this morning

  21-08-2017 08:55
  Samsung looks to draw a line under exploding Note 7 scandal with new smartphone
  Samsung has launched what is probably the most important smartphone in its history as it looks to bounce back from the disaster of last year, when it had to recall its exploding Note 7.
  The new Note 8, unveiled at an event in New York yesterday (23 August), aims to re-establish Samsung as the dominant player in the ‘phablet’ category – phones with a bigger screen and longer battery life than normal
  
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• Cyber threats, Co-op Bank, 5G mobile – Everything that matters this morning

  21-08-2017 08:55
  FTSE leaders unprepared for hacks and GDPR
  Among the UK’s 350 biggest companies, 10% of boards have no plans in place to respond to cyber attacks, while just 6% say their business is completely ready for the new data laws being brought in next May under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  The government’s annual Cyber Governance Health Check, which questioned 105 of the FTSE 350’s members, also worryingly found that only 31% of boards receive comprehensiv
  
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• Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Channel 4 – Everything that matters this morning

  21-08-2017 08:55
  Apple collaborates with Barclays so Siri can transfer money
  Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant for the iPhone, can now transfer money. Thanks to a collaboration with Barclays, UK customers can simply use their voice to transfer cash.
  By telling Siri who they want to transfer money to, the iPhone will allow them to seal the deal by just tapping their finger to authenticate via Apple’s Touch ID technology.
  Barclays, which is the first UK bank to use Siri in this way, said the technology
  
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• Keith Weed: The industry must join forces to banish gender stereotypes

  21-08-2017 08:08
  The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in June marked the first meeting of the Unstereotype Alliance, co-convened by UN Women and ourselves at Unilever.
  It was a remarkable gathering, with 24 industry-leading advertisers, agencies, tech companies and trade bodies coming together to commit to a shared and global agenda to tackle unhelpful and harmful gender stereotypes in advertising.
  Together, the diverse group represents millions of dollars in advertising power, so it’s a group with both
  
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• Hack your commute: Look out the window

  21-08-2017 07:00
  This won’t be much help if your commute is exclusively underground, or requires you to keep your eyes fixed to the road, but studies show that looking at scenic landscapes can be beneficial for your performance of cognitive tasks, your wellbeing, and just making you a nicer person.
  The findings are even more intriguing in light of the increasing time people spend staring at mobile screens and focusing on the world directly in front of their noses, suggesting they might be better off lookin
  
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• VR research delivers for Diageo

  21-08-2017 02:00
  SAN DIEGO: Diageo, the alcoholic drinks manufacturer, has already made effective use of virtual reality (VR) as a tool for conducting impactful consumer research.Jason Chebib, VP/Consumer Planning at Diageo North America, discussed this subject at...
  
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• Viewability standards under new scrutiny

  21-08-2017 02:00
  NEW YORK/LONDON: Viewability standards are in the spotlight again as an industry body has demanded more action from YouTube and Facebook, GroupM announced an “evolution” of its own standards, and new academic research is set to throw...
  
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• Multinationals misinterpret Africa

  21-08-2017 02:00
  AFRICA: Many multinational businesses have found that sales and profits in sub-Saharan African markets are below expectations but that is because their expectations were unrealistic in the first place, a regional analyst has argued.Writing on the...
  
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• Millennial Aussies drink less, spend more

  21-08-2017 02:00
  SYDNEY: Aussie millennials are less likely to drink alcohol than older demographics but they’re more open to new choicesand when they’re out in bars and pubs they’re likely to spend more, new research shows.Data from Nielsen...
  
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• Identifying purchase 'pre-triggers' drives results

  21-08-2017 02:00
  LONDON: Marketers habitually target advertising at people who are in the market for a product or service but understanding the “pre-triggers” that got them to that point may be a more effective way to create communications.Writing in...
  
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• Diving into dark data analytics

  21-08-2017 02:00
  MUMBAI: Marketers may still be coming to terms with ‘big data’ but in future they are going to have to understand ‘dark data’ and combine that with behavioural psychology to predict human behaviour.Consumers and marketers...
  
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