Sales & Marketing news

• Snap and WeWork have done an outstanding job showing the problems with making CEOs all-powerful (FB, GOOGL, DBX, SNAP, ROKU)

  21-01-2019 21:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  Recent news out of WeWork and Snap illustrates the shortcomings of their corporate structures.
  At Snap, CEO Evan Spiegel's imperial management style seems to be driving away numerous top managers, including its chief financial officer, who announced his departure Tuesday.
  At WeWork, CEO Adam Neumann is reportedly engaged in what has the appearance of self-dealing — directing the company to lease buildings that he owns, despite the objections of the company's investors.
  Both companies have
  
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• 2 dealmakers named David: Uber's and Lyft's expected IPOs will trigger competition at Google's in-house VC firms (GOOGL, GOOG)

  21-01-2019 21:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  Uber and Lyft have both confidentially filed for IPOs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and are expected to go public in 2019.
  While the ride-hailing competitors have dueling IPOs, Google's parent company, Alphabet, stands to gain no matter who fares better.
  Alphabet has substantial investments in both Uber and Lyft through its two venture-capital arms, GV and CapitalG.The 2019 tech IPO lineup has promised plenty of side choosing as ride-hailing rivals Lyft and Uber prep for dueling m
  
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• 2 dealmakers named David: Uber and Lyft's expected IPOs will trigger competition at Google's in-house VC firms (GOOGL, GOOG)

  21-01-2019 21:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  Uber and Lyft have both confidentially filed for IPOs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and are expected to go public in 2019.
  While the ride-hailing competitors have dueling IPOs, Google's parent company Alphabet stands to gain no matter who fares better.
  Alphabet has substantial investments in both Uber and Lyft through its two venture capital arms, GV and CapitalG.The 2019 tech IPO line up has promised plenty of side-choosing as ride hailing rivals Lyft and Uber prep for dueling mu
  
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• Instagram influencers are so overwhelmed by hackers, they’re hiring hackers of their own to get their accounts back (FB)

  21-01-2019 20:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  Instagram influencers with thousands of followers are getting their accounts hacked and held for ransom.
  Hacked influencers told VICE's Motherboard that Instagram has been slow to give them back their accounts, even after creators followed necessary steps for account recovery.
  Some influencers have turned to 'white-hat' hackers to get their Instagram accounts returned to them, after being unsatisfied with Instagram's slow process.Internet celebrities who have seen their Instagram accounts hacked
  
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• Facebook is restructuring its augmented-reality glasses division as it inches closer to launch (FB)

  21-01-2019 20:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  Facebook is moving hundreds of employees to a new product-focused augmented-reality group as it continues to quietly develop AR glasses.
  The employees are being moved out of the research-driven Facebook Reality Labs and into a new specialized team overseen by two key hardware execs, Business Insider has learned.
  A Facebook representative said the company was working on multiple AR hardware products that might not all ultimately launch.
  A source who has tried a prototype of the glasses on said th
  
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• The warnings are getting starker: Trump's government shutdown is becoming catastrophic for the economy

  21-01-2019 19:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  The US government shutdown is now the longest in the country's history and has shown no signs of abating.
  JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has suggested that US economic growth could go to zero, and one analyst said it could even go negative.
  The US-China trade war and a looming conflict about the debt ceiling are creating a perfect storm.We're 31 days into the record-breaking US government shutdown, and while most economists agree it will weigh on US economic growth, the chorus of warnings about doomsd
  
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• The government shutdown is in day 31 and has shattered the record for the longest shutdown in history

  21-01-2019 19:03 via feedproxy.google.com
  The government shutdown is now in its 31st day, far surpassing the record for the longest of the modern era.
  This is the 21st time the federal government has had a funding lapse since the modern budgeting process began.
  Most of those times, the shutdown has been short and not involved employees being sent home, but that has changed in recent years.President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders have yet to come to an agreement to reopen the government, pushing the government shutdown into a histor
  
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• Marketing budgets, favourite brands, ad preferences: 5 killer stats to start your week

  21-01-2019 16:04
  1. Marketing budgets plateau after six years of growth
  There were no changes in marketing budgets in the fourth quarter, with 16.4% of marketers reporting they plan to increase spend and 16.4% saying they plan to cut it, leading to a net balance of 0% and marking the end of six consecutive years of growth.
  When looking ahead to the 2019/20 financial year, 27% of those surveyed anticipate growth compared to the 26% predicting cuts, giving a net balance of just 1%.
  Additionally, the underlying pe
  
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• Eight marketer takeaways from CES

  21-01-2019 16:00
  Americans are adopting technology in ways unimaginable a decade ago. WARC's sister company MediaLink offers some takeaways from the CTA's 2019 US Consumer Technology Sales and Forecast report.
  
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• How Mercedes-Benz Vans got customers to see past the price tag

  21-01-2019 15:56
  In the B2B world, as in B2C, Mercedes-Benz evokes associations of quality but also of the accompanying price tag. That had become a problem for Mercedes-Benz Vans, which had been subject to all the effects that come from decades of consumer communications positioning the marque as a high-end brand.
  While the vans’ reputation for being reliable and efficient was well known by customers, such as cash-strapped NHS trusts, there was a perception that for a business fleet they were somethi
  
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• This 23 year-old knocked on the door of a BlackRock fund manager in London's wealthiest neighbourhood and found himself launched into a career in finance

  21-01-2019 15:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  Reggie Nelson was a promising soccer player from a social housing estate in London who ended up getting a job in finance against the odds. 
  At the age 17, Nelson knocked on the doors of dozens of houses in London's wealthiest neighbourhood, Kensington, following the death of his father and met a BlackRock manager who encouraged him to apply for a career in finance.
  After an internship at Blackrock, Nelson moved to Legal and General Investment Management in London.A career in finance is ofte
  
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• A data point known as a canary in the coal mine for the global economy just fell off a cliff, and it's a troubling sign of how bad things are in China

  21-01-2019 14:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  South Korean exports, a data set often held up as a bellwether for the health of the global economy, fell off a cliff in January, pointing to a troubling slowdown in global trade.
  Exports from the east Asian nation dropped 14.6% year-on-year in the first 20 days of 2019, according to data released Monday morning. That compared to an increase of 1% over the same period in December.
  "We had expected a contraction, but the extent of the fall was a surprise," Freya Beamish, chief Asia economist at P
  
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• A massive new survey suggests it could be time to call the peak in global populism

  21-01-2019 13:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  A World Economic Forum survey suggests that the global public is in fact open to immigration and say that national interest is not a zero-sum game.
  The survey dispels populist ideas such as "America First" which pushes countries into conflict with one another. 
  Research suggests that upward mobility is too elusive and that governments are not doing enough to provide people with opportunities. Populism may be on the wane, according to a massive new survey that its authors say "debunks"
  
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• Try This: Lean in, really

  21-01-2019 12:58
  Sheryl Sandberg has a point. In her book ‘Lean In’, Facebook’s current COO asks women, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
  Sandberg is a public role model. Her book has empowered millions of women to step up. To seek and speak the truth. To claim their seat at the table. It is a noble cause.
  What would Sandberg do now if she weren’t afraid? Facebook currently sits at the eye of the biggest of internet storms. Data leaks, creepy settings and shady
  
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• Smart Energy GB boss: It’s the CMO’s job to fight for the customer, not the CEO’s

  21-01-2019 10:52
  I read with great interest Thomas Barta’s piece on leadership, ‘What’s the point of the CMO?’.
  I speak as the chief executive of the country’s largest public engagement campaign, Smart Energy GB. And in that capacity I also speak as someone who works with an excellent CMO, about whom there is no doubt in my mind on this question.
  While there is a great deal that I agree with in Thomas’ analysis of the frustrations experienced by many a CMO, I have a diffe
  
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• Virgin Active hopes to ‘cut through the crap’ with brand repositioning

  21-01-2019 08:30
  Virgin Active is aiming to “cut through the crap” in the fitness industry by offering a more realistic and human approach to working out as it looks reposition itself as a gym for everyone to attract a wider audience.
  Speaking to Marketing Week, Virgin Active’s marketing director Katrina Southey says its recent  campaign ‘Enough’ is part of a wider repositioning plan which started with the launch of a new website featuring relatable imagery and a simpler navig
  
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• Starbucks, First Direct, Burberry: Everything that matters this morning

  21-01-2019 08:30
  Starbucks to launch delivery trial in London this month
  Starbucks is to pilot its delivery service in London at the end of this month in the first trial of its Starbucks Delivers service in Europe.
  Starbucks Delivers, a partnership between Starbucks and UberEats, was initially launched in Miami and is now expanding to six more cities across the US. First up will be San Francisco, ahead of Boston, Chicago, LA, New York and Washing DC in the coming weeks. Starbucks aims to bring the service to a
  
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• PepsiCo, P&G, Asics: Everything that matters this morning

  21-01-2019 08:30
  Consumer goods giants join recycling scheme
  Procter and Gamble (P&G) is the first of several other consumer goods giants such as Unilever, PepsiCo, Nestle and Coca-Cola, to agree to trialling a new scheme for reusable and refillable packaging.
  As part of the scheme called Loop, which is run by recycling company TerraCycle, customers can make online orders for products such as shampoo and washing powder but have them packaged and delivered in reusable packaging rather than single-use plastic
  
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• ISBA, Channel 4, Facebook: Everything that matters this morning

  21-01-2019 08:30
  ISBA calls for further regulation after investigation finds suicide posts on Instagram
  ISBA has renewed calls for an independent body to report on social media after a BBC investigation found links between Instagram and suicide and self harm.The BBC reported yesterday (Wednesday 23 January) that adverts for some UK high street brands are appearing alongside graphic content about self-harm and suicide on the social media site.
  Yesterday, the independent advertising body, issued a statement 
  
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• Instagram, Boots, Channel 4 : Everything that matters this morning

  21-01-2019 08:30
  ISBA calls for further regulation after investigation finds suicide posts on Instagram
  ISBA has renewed calls for an independent body to report on social media after a BBC investigation found posts on Instagram about suicide and self harm.The BBC reported yesterday (23 January) that adverts for some UK high street brands are appearing alongside graphic content about self harm and suicide on the social media site.
  In response, ISBA said digital platforms “needed to go much further” i
  
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• HMV, Just Eat, Verizon: Everything that matters this morning

  21-01-2019 08:30
  Mike Ashley in talks to buy HMV
  Sports Direct tycoon Mike Ashley has placed a bid to buy struggling music chain HMV after it went into administration for the second time just before Christmas.
  It is understood that Ashley, who in the last six months has bought House of Fraser and Evans Cycles, has held talks with key music and entertainment industry suppliers to HMV, with sources saying he is “serious” about the buy.
  Ashley is one of a handful of formal offers made to KPMG ahead of
  
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• Google, EasyJet, Tesco: Everything that matters this morning

  21-01-2019 08:30
  Google fined £44m for GDPR breach
  Google has been hit with a record €50m (£44m) fine by French data regulator CNIL for breaching the EU’s data protection rules (GDPR).
  CNIL said people were “not sufficiently informed” about how Google collected data to personalise advertising, leading to a “lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent regarding ads personalisation”.
  The regulator claims that Google did not obtain clear con
  
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• Bucking the trend: Meet the brands making retail work in 2019

  21-01-2019 08:00
  Joules is growing with a clear focus on its core customer.Amid the squeezed margins, closing stores and boardroom upsets, a select group of companies are bucking the trend by growing sales during the worst Christmas for retail in a decade.
  Rather than the department stores or high street stalwarts, sales and profits are coming from different directions, powered by brands with a clear sense of identity, a commitment to serving their core customer and the agility to keep pace with new trends.
  Joul
  
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• Hack your commute: Digitise your paper documents

  21-01-2019 07:13
  Are you someone who prefers making handwritten notes to smartphone memos? Someone who believes the best way to read something with due consideration is to have it printed out so you can make notes in the margins? Someone who needs to make mark-ups on proofs on a regular basis?
  If so, on more than one occasion you have probably found yourself sitting on a train frustrated at the realisation that your most important piece of work only exists in hard copy, and you don’t have it with you. If
  
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• National Geographic prepares for 5G storytelling

  21-01-2019 01:00
  National Geographic, the media company, is already preparing for the enhanced storytelling capabilities that will be enabled by 5G connectivity.Jill Cress, chief marketing and communications officer at National Geographic Partners, a joint venture...
  
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• Most users don't know Facebook collects their interests

  21-01-2019 01:00
  Even though Facebook has come under intense and well-publicised scrutiny about its use of data, it appears that three-quarters (74%) of American users are unaware the company lists their personal interests and traits on its “your ad...
  
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• Luckin takes on Starbucks in China coffee battle

  21-01-2019 01:00
  US coffee chain Starbucks is well-established in China, where it has been operating for 20 years and has grown to be the market leader, but it is now facing serious competition from a Chinese start-up that launched just 15 months ago.Luckin...
  
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• Indian OTT firms agree to self-regulate content

  21-01-2019 01:00
  Netflix, Hotstar and Sony Picture Networks are among at least nine over-the-top (OTT) service providers who have signed an agreement to self-regulate streamed content in India.The initiative, which is supported by the Internet and Mobile...
  
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• FMCG brands test the possibilities of subscription

  21-01-2019 01:00
  Several multinational FMCG companies, including Nestlé, Procter & Gamble and Unilever, are pursuing an online subscription model for some of their products, despite evidence that automatic delivery has not worked for some of their rivals....
  
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• Direct to publisher ad transactions on the rise

  21-01-2019 01:00
  A number of major publishers and agencies in Europe expect more ad inventory to be sold via direct deals this year as they seek to reduce their exposure to open exchanges.The Guardian, for example, which currently relies on open exchange buying...
  
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