Hasta La Creative!

Havas’ UK media operation is facing an exodus of talent as five senior executives are set to depart.

Virgin Holidays is seeking a top marketer after its marketing boss switched to sister brand Virgin Atlantic.

Sir Martin Sorrell has described consultancy groups buying creative agencies as “a bit strange” and questioned if they can “buy culture”.

Coty, the global beauty company, is searching for an agency to handle social media activity for Rimmel.

McDonald’s has handed its $100m (£77m) global advertising account for the new McDelivery home-ordering service to Leo Burnett London after a pitch involving roster agencies.

The industry needs an audience-first media revolution that balances brand and outcomes, writes Mindshare’s global chief executive.

ES Magazine, the London Evening Standard supplement, is commemorating the 12th anniversary of the 7/7 bombings with a collector’s edition.

The deadline is closing for entries for the Media Week Awards 2017 and the first judges have been announced.

In the past year, bike-sharing companies have transformed China’s cities: Suddenly, bicycles are everywhere, in hues from sky blue to canary yellow to flashy gold. Riders unlock them by scanning a QR code with a smartphone and then park them wherever they want; there are no docking stations. Each ride costs just pennies via mobile payments, which have been widely adopted in China.

Obviously, marketers are interested. Bike-sharing apps can potentially yield a lot about riders, like the area where they live, their route to work, which shops they typically pass by and whether they’re on holiday in a new city. And brands have been experimenting with how to tap into the sudden Chinese craze.

Pizza Hut ran a two-day promotion on the Mobike service, with 10 million riders collecting digital stickers on their smartphones; two stickers could be redeemed for a free breakfast coffee. JD.com, a big Chinese e-commerce player, also did a sticker-based campaign with Mobike for its annual sales event, dubbed “618” because the date is June 18 or 6/18; people needed five stickers for a chance to win prizes worth 618 yuan, about $90.

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Absolut Vodka is launching a new global campaign “Create a better tomorrow tonight” in an attempt to reconnect with the progressive values of Swedish founder Lars Olsson Smith and the heritage of a brand that has been produced on the same farmland in Sweden since 1879.

Absolut, bought by French group Pernod Ricard in 2008, has lost touch with its roots over the last decade, and become more of a generic global vodka brand. In the U.S., it has been losing share to newer craft vodkas such as Titos and New Amsterdam.

Absolut’s U.S. sales fell by 1.6% to $131 million in the 52 weeks ending April 16, not including bar sales, according to IRI. The brand’s dollar market share is now 6.7%, putting it behind Smirnoff at 16.6% and Titos at 9.2%. Globally, Absolut claims to enjoy “positive growth,” driven mostly by Europe and Latin America.

Continue reading at AdAge.com