Hasta La Creative!

During the Lunar New Year in China, people head to their hometowns for family reunions, piling into cars, buses, trains and planes and braving epic traffic jams and generalized chaos. Workers have seven days off, one of two annual “golden weeks,” as they’re called, and everyone’s on the move at the same time.

But a new trend is emerging: Some people are getting away from it all and traveling abroad instead. And marketers are taking note.

This year, 6.15 million Chinese people made overseas trips, up 7% from last year, according to official statistics. China’ international travelers are young (over a third are ages 25-34); about 69% say they prefer destinations where they can buy luxury goods, according to a study from Aviator, the travel marketing arm of WPP’s Kinetic. The report also points out that 74 million “travel-ready millennials” will be graduating from Chinese universities over the next 10 years.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Kraft Heinz Co.’s latest takeover aspirations have been thwarted, for now, as Unilever rejected a $143 billion proposal to combine the two consumer goods giants, a mega deal that would bring everything from Heinz ketchup and Kraft macaroni and cheese to Dove soap and Lipton tea under one international roof.

Kraft Heinz itself is the product of the major 2015 merger of Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz, a deal pulled together by 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway.

Since then, Wall Street has been anticipating that Kraft Heinz, with the financial backing of 3G, would seek to grow its bottom line through massive cost cutting and its revenue through acquisitions. Until now, the prevailing thought was that Kraft Heinz, the world’s fifth-largest food and beverage company, would add more U.S. food makers to its portfolio. The most likely deal analysts have suggested is for Kraft Heinz to buy Mondelez International, which split from the Kraft Foods business in 2012. General Mills, among others, has surfaced in the past as a potential target for Kraft Heinz.

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ABC has sold out of commercial time in the Academy Awards, with the cost for a unit remaining steady despite last year’s ratings weakness and the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.

Advertisers in this year’s celebration of some of the biggest films include Walmart, Samsung, McDonald’s, AT&T, Verizon and Anheuser-Busch InBev, ABC said.

Thirty-second spots are going for about $2 million, with some paying as much as $2.5 million, according to several media buyers.

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PepsiCo has a new chief marketing officer for North American beverages. Greg Lyons, formerly senior-VP marketing, was named to the role. He replaces Seth Kaufman, who has moved on to become the president of the company’s North American nutrition business.

A PepsiCo spokeswoman confirmed the changes to Ad Age after they were earlier reported by Beverage-Digest.

Mr. Kaufman had held the CMO job since September 2015 when he was promoted after Simon Lowden moved on to take over as the company’s president for global snacks and insights. In his new job, Mr. Kaufman will oversee brands including Quaker, Tropicana, Naked and KeVita.

Continue reading at AdAge.com