Hasta La Creative!

In emergency rooms across the country, triage is a common practice. Patients in dire need are treated first, and those with less severe injuries just have to wait.

On a brand’s Twitter account, it’s a different world. Even the slightest hiccup (“My shipment arrived late!”), and your social media experts and customer service reps are ON IT.

What if I told you that not every customer is deserving of immediate, special care?

Continue reading at AdAge.com

The U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world with no minimum paid vacation leave, which at least explains the in-office purgatory many people suffer over the summer. The U.K., however, scores No. 7 for average number of paid vacation days (37!), making it a little less clear why one in three Brits would shirk that time to fill out more TSheets. 

That’s “progress” for you, I guess. But it’s obviously also bad business for an airline like Virgin Atlantic. So, with a hand from adam&eveDDB, it’s launched #GetOutOfOffice.

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There’s never a wrong drink, but there’s probably a better one.

Before 2016 even began, advertisers and agencies had plenty of pressing issues on their minds, especially when it came to making marketing work better. And after eight months of testing new tools and tactics, tweaking business models and analyzing efficiency, there are still many unanswered questions, plus some new ones.

On Nov. 2 and 3 in Los Angeles, Ad Age’s Brand Summit will address some of those key issues as well as highlight strategies that are helping marketers big and small succeed.

1. How much should brands invest in virtual reality?

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Alibaba is hosting a new online sale of wine and spirits on Friday, Sept. 9, or 9/9. For people who don’t speak Chinese, that won’t mean much. For local consumers, it’s logical: The word for nine in Mandarin sounds the same as the word for alcohol. Both are pronounced “jiu.”

Numbers and dates have special resonance in China; online users, consumers and marketers all delight in playing and punning with them. Coded numbers are in URLs, email addresses and slang terms. And now China’s e-commerce companies are cleverly using them during new sales and events.

“In China numbers can sometimes be very memorable, since they can share a similar sound to other words,” said Amanda Liu, VP and creative director for brand naming at Labbrand. Here’s an example: The digits 5,1,7 sound similar to the Chinese expression “wo yao chi,” or “I want to eat.” Naturally, 5/17, or May 17, is a day for specials from China’s online food delivery services. In China, McDonald’s food delivery hotline and internet address also include the digits 5-1-7, twice. Ms. Liu says numbers are so common in the ultracompetitive e-commerce market since they “really catch attention of consumers in a short time. It’s important the name or identity is very recognizable or memorable at first sight.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

(TrendHunter.com) YEEZY Season 4, Kanye West’s recent fashion show that was set at Roosevelt Island in New York, saw a massive turnout of onlookers—from the rapper’s celebrity friends to some of the…