Hasta La Creative!

Next month, the U.S. may (or may not) see women make a tremendous leap forward if Hillary Clinton becomes the first female president of the country. Meanwhile, there’s another lady shaking things up when it comes to inequities in the ad industry.

About two weeks ago, director Alma Har’el rallied top agencies and marketers around an important cause: getting more female talent behind the camera on commercial shoots. With the help of agencies including Pereira & O’Dell and Mother, she introduced “Free The Bid,” an initiative that called for agencies to include at least one female director every time it triple-bids a commercial production. The program also asks brands to encourage their agencies to include female directors in the bidding process and also urges production companies to add more women to their rosters.

Ahead of the initiative’s official debut, Ms. Har’el had already garnered the support of brands including Coca-Cola, Nestle Waters and eBay, as well as top agencies and networks — such as McCann, FCB, BBDO, Pereira & O’Dell, Mother, 180 L.A. and JWT — and several production companies like B-Reel, Tool and m ss ng p eces. It’s a tremendous commitment, one of those causes that companies might merely pay lip service to yet fail to act on down the line, but when Ad Age checked in, at least some of the players were already in the midst of doing the hard work to make good on their pledge.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Today for the first time Apple is venturing into the search advertising business, by starting to show ads related to users’ searches in its App Store.

The app ecosystem would seem to be ripe with opportunity. Although consumers spend 87% of their time in apps, they are downloading on average zero to one apps per month, according to ComScore. Developers are desperate to try anything that might help get their apps installed on consumers’ phones.

But Apple’s move may actually also foreshadow a larger play.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Polls show Donald Trump’s appeal among black and Latino voters hovers somewhere between negligible and nonexistent. But new ads indicate that the Trump camp believes its promise to cut taxes and government red tape can attract a slice of minority voters, particularly female business owners. Meanwhile, the Clinton camp has begun a digital ad push to convince Latinos to register to vote.

“More money in your pockets. Tax cuts for everyone,” declare digital display ads the Trump campaign began running online at the end of September. Another suggests to voters that a vote for Trump is a vote to “Free American businesses from big government regulations. Make America wealthy again.”

Both ads feature young female entrepreneurs who appear to be African-American or mixed race. The ads were spotted recently by digital ad tracker Moat Pro.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Google has gotten together with a diverse group of marketers, publishers, agencies and industry bodies to create The Coalition for Better Ads in what Ad Age called “possibly the broadest attempt yet to fix online advertising so that consumers don’t become obsessed with blocking it.”

Ouch! Ten years into advertising’s digital transformation, this is a stinging indictment of ad tech’s failure to create quality user experiences, and the reason so many consumers have turned on their ad blockers.

With 20/20 hindsight, we see what happened. Over the last decade, the financial rug was pulled out from the “art” side of marketing, leaving a strategic vacuum that ad tech ventures filled with lots of bold promises. Now marketers are realizing many of these promises were a stretch at best or overblown at worst.

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Just over a year since Fox Networks Group took control of National Geographic’s media assets, the company has tapped a Time Inc. veteran to lead the division’s ad sales.

Brendan Ripp will join the company as exec VP-sales and partnerships, National Geographic, effective Nov. 1. In the newly created role, Mr. Ripp will be responsible for leading brand revenue across all platforms, including National Geographic Channels, digital, social, mobile and print. He will also manage the National Geographic advertising sales and client solutions teams.

Mr. Ripp, the son of former Time Inc. CEO Joseph Ripp, will report to Danielle Maged, exec VP-global partnerships, Fox Networks Group.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

After departing from Mindshare in February following an overhaul of its North American leadership, Jordan Bitterman has landed at The Weather Company as its chief marketing officer.

In the role, Mr. Bitterman will oversee all of Weather’s marketing teams, including business solutions marketing, ad sales marketing and corporate marketing, as well as corporate communications. He replaces David Jaye, who departed the company earlier this year, less than a year in the role. Mr. Bitterman will report to Cameron Clayton, CEO and general manager and will be based in New York.

Mr. Bitterman departed Mindshare in February, having served as chief strategy officer. In this role, where he developed The Loop, the company’s real-time marketing “war room.” Prior to Mindshare, Mr. Bitterman, who co-founded the Digital Content NewFronts, spent eight years at Digitas as senior VP of media, social, mobile and content for North America. He also held media and marketing roles at Foote Cone & Belding, Modem Media, AltaVista and Ammirati Puris Lintas.

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AT&T has gone from a regional phone company to a national telecommunications powerhouse over the past decade. Its next big expansion will see it buying businesses to transform into a media and entertainment giant, according to people familiar with the plans.

Over the next three to five years, AT&T will seek deals to become a producer of programming, shifting its business model so that it owns some of the content it distributes, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the company’s strategy. The company’s targets include companies worth $2 billion to $50 billion, the people said.

Phone companies are trying to figure out their next steps for expansion as wireless growth flattens out and competition with cable providers remains intense. While its main rival Verizon has bet big on mobile advertising, AT&T is more focused on becoming a powerhouse in video programming.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

The Lowdown is Ad Age’s weekly look at news nuggets from across the world of marketing, including trends, campaign tidbits, executive comings and goings and more.

The next spot set to air after one that launched the campaign in late September is “Opus” (above), which should run from Oct. 10 through mid December. Another one of four new spots set to run later in soup season is “Contained,” which focuses on the brand’s broth (below).

Cincinnati-based Nehemiah Manufacturing, which gives second chances to orphan brands, ex-convicts and people recovering from addictions, is branching out with a new brand Saline Soothers. The saline-infused wipes, aimed at preventing irritation for people wiping runny noses, are something of an adult-positioned extension of the Boogie Wipes brand the company sells for kids (and their parents). With this launch, Nehemiah is also for the first time incorporating its social mission into its consumer marketing, said VP-Marketing Eric Wellinghoff. Packages of Saline Soothers include a new “2C” logo and message “Every purchase helps provide jobs for Second Chance Employees.” About half of Nehemiah’s 100-plus employees have done time on felony convictions or are recovering from drug and alcohol problems. Saline Soothers are backed by a video, directing people to buy the product at Walgreens and Rite Aid stores, from Molio, the Salt Lake City, Utah, agency founded by Jeff Davis, who launched Orabrush, acquired last year by DenTek. Other Nehemiah brands include P&G castoffs Downy Wrinkle Releaser, Dreft and Kandoo.

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The National Basketball Association is getting back into the oil category with a new sponsorship deal. The league today announced a multiyear pact with ExxonMobil that it says “represents the largest and most comprehensive ever in the motor oil category during the league’s 70-year history.”

Financial terms were not disclosed. The NBA had a smaller deal with Castrol in the U.S. more than 20 years ago, according to a spokeswoman. Castrol is a current sponsor of the NFL.

ExxonMobil’s NBA deal will initially focus on it Mobil 1 lubricant, which will become the official motor oil of the NBA, WNBA, and the NBA D-League in the United States and China. For the upcoming NBA season ExxonMobil will create NBA-themed campaigns, including custom digital video content, and social media programs, according to a statement. The Mobil 1 brand will also be featured on NBA TV, NBA.com, the league’s social media channels and on broadcast partners ABC/ESPN and TNT. A campaign in China will star Yi Jianlian of the Los Angeles Lakers, according to an NBA spokeswoman.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Freshii is eager to cash in on Cubs fever with a new franchisee.

Nearly everyone in Chicago (on the North Side at least — sorry, White Sox fans), is rooting for the Cubs this year. As the postseason gets underway, Freshii is trying to find a Cubs fan who also wants to open one of its shops.

The chain, which focuses on items such as rice bowls, burritos and salads, is having a little fun by offering to waive its $30,000 franchise fee for one person. The catch? The offer only holds if that person is a Chicago Cubs fan and if the Cubs win the World Series.

Continue reading at AdAge.com