Hasta La Creative!

Papa John’s International is naming Brandon Rhoten its global chief marketing officer, filling a role that had been vacant at the pizza chain since 2015.

Rhoten was most recently VP-advertising, media and digital/social at Wendy’s International. He had gained increasing responsibilities at Wendy’s since joining the burger chain in 2011 and was a key player in its social media efforts, including this year’s #NuggsforCarter phenomenon.

At Papa John’s, Rhoten is responsible for domestic and international marketing and reports to President-Chief Operating Officer Steve Ritchie.

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Retail is undergoing a major change. This change has been on the horizon for years, but 2017 seems to be a tipping point for the industry. Retail stores are closing in record numbers. Week after week, major news outlets report on the trend, highlighting empty storefronts in vibrant neighborhoods like SoHo in New York City, and smaller crowds at shopping malls across the country.

Last year, online retail totaled 10% of retail sales; in the next 24 months, it will surpass 15% of total retail sales — a massive increase.

Perhaps the best indicator that retail is suffering is Amazon’s incredible success. Amazon now accounts for more than 40% of all U.S. ecommerce sales. When you consider that Amazon is just one of the many options consumers have for online shopping, you start to wonder how any retailer can catch up.

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(TrendHunter.com) The Panasonic ER-GK60-W Men’s Body Trimmer is a versatile device that makes it possible for guys to trim hair that’s present all over their body in a quick amount of time when compared…

HMD Global, the owner of Nokia, has hired Essence and Mindshare to its £80m global media account.

Mondelez International has picked Ogilvy & Mather London for its Halls ad account across Europe.

Europe’s governing football body is today kicking off its first pan-European campaign for women’s football, #WePlayStrong, in a bid to make the beautiful game the number one sport for women across all 55 of its member nations – from Iceland to Kazakhstan.

Forget getting gifts from others on Father’s DayJC Penney wants men to buy for themselves every day of the year. Looking to lift struggling sales, the retailer is going after a bright spot — men– with a campaign breaking ahead of the June 18 holiday for dads.

The push begins with its first TV spot featuring football star-turned-talk-show-host Michael Strahan airing June 7. The chain is expanding its relationship with Strahan, who has had an apparel line at JC Penney since 2015, to now include underwear.

“Last year was heavy into promotional, but you won’t see those same conversations this year,” said James Starke, senior VP-men’s at JC Penney. “Instead of being smack-in-the-face promotional, we’re talking to the customer in a different way using wit and humor.” A few years ago, the 1,000-unit chain conducted research to find out how best to communicate with men shopping for themselves. Using Strahan, a “guy’s guy” in the new messaging is one way to get through to that customer, said John Tighe, exec VP-chief merchant.

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Don’t forget to tip your robot: From meat slicers to machines that put just the right amount of rice on seaweed wraps for sushi, “robotics could become a bigger trend with labor costs the way they are,” said Morningstar restaurant analyst R.J. Hottovy. Take, for example, Sally. With the $30,000 Sally, a person chooses ingredients from 21 choices on a touchscreen, places a bowl at the bottom of the machine and watches as the selected items drop in from refrigerated containers in a vending machine-type contraption.

Drone home (delivery): CookTek makes insulated bags with induction heating to keep food hot during delivery. While CookTek is not in the drone business, the company did test it out, using a drone to carry one of its cordless bags to a boat in the middle of a lake. “It’s probably about three years away,” said Dan Farmer, general manager, CookTek operations.

Bottom’s up: No one wants too much foam on the top of a draft beer. ReverseTap has systems that fill from the bottom, cutting down on waste. There’s also a version for one of the latest buzzworthy trends in nonalcoholic beverages: nitro coffee. ReverseTap fills its specialized cups hands-free, so bartenders and baristas can tend to other tasks. And light-up technology adds a bit of pizzazz that might tempt people to order. Machines start around $1,000, with cups ranging from 23 cents each for the smallest plastic version to about $6 each for glass models, according to Micah Taylor, the company’s California-based director of sales and marketing.

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Good times or bad, Walmart’s shareholder’s meeting is always a huge celebration. In fact, it’s not just a meeting, or a day. It’s a Shareholder’s Week, where employees (associates) from around the world gather.

This year, the giant retailer has more to celebrate than usual including a big spike in e-commerce sales last quarter, three years of same-store sales growth, and pats on the back from many analysts. The stock is up 11% the past year. That’s a notch below the 15% for the S&P 500, and further below Costco (18%) and Amazon (39%). But it’s way better than most legacy retailers like Target, Kroger and Dollar General, all down double digits.

With that in mind, here four faces of Walmart expected to show up in Northwest Arkansas this week.

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A series of successful campaigns with Unilever, BBC and Public Health England has fuelled Latimer Group’s decision to launch its co-creation platform, Bulbshare, as a standalone tech company.