Nike and Wieden + Kennedy’s The Lodge have unveiled what they believe is a glimpse into the future of retail with an experience in New York City that lets visitors design their own one-of-a-kind sneakers, which are ready to wear in less than 90 minutes. The Nike Makers’ Experience (it is invite-only at the moment)…
Sweden is a consistent high-ranker in quality of life, sitting at No. 2 in the OECD Quality of Life index, with 81 percent of its 9.5 million people reportedly in good health. What’s its secret? Visit Sweden and Turistr?det V?stsverige (the West Sweden Tourist Board) are banking on the country’s closeness to nature. And it’s…
This spring, Adweek designated agency Mother’s “Epic Skeletor” spot for U.K. financial comparison site MoneySuperMarket as “the most ’80s-tastic ad you’ll see this year.” Well, MoneySuperMarket and Mother’s latest effort just might give that ad a run for its money. The new spot continues the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe nostalgia-fest, this time…
Good morning. Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital-related news. What people are talking about today: Leaders at companies including Apple, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Walt Disney and Salesforce have come out in support of the so-called Dreamers, people who were brought to the United States illegally as children. As Ad Age reports, some CEOs spoke up strongly against President Trump’s move to rescind a program that protects young undocumented immigrants from being deported. “This is a sad day for our country,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post. Disney CEO Bob Iger called the decision “cruel and misguided.” Now business leaders, who say the Dreamers are vital to the economy and businesses, are lobbying Congress for a solution. It’s another round of corporate America vs. Trump, and it seems CEOs are getting used to doing battle on political issues.
Everybody’s doing it
The new LinkedIn Audience Network is a product that lets advertisers reach its members on apps and websites that it doesn’t operate, as Ad Age’s George Slefo reports. It’s a lot like Facebook’s Audience Network. And in fact everyone seems to wants to join that party; Yelp and Pandora made similar moves last week, as Slefo notes. But will the new players manage to suck any significant ad spending away from the duopoly, Google and Facebook?
It feels like there’s too much TV. FX Networks CEO John Landgraf has been talking about a TV content bubble for years. According to a list compiled by FX, 412 scripted shows premiered in 2015 and another 455 in 2016. This year, we’re on pace to exceed that number, which is why Landgraf recently said TV is headed “from an optimal number of shows to an unmanageable number of shows.”
Leading the streaming charge, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who has borrowed $20 billion to finance content operations, recently said, “we’re competing with sleep.” Comments like these should concern TV content owners. Yes, the industry is moving toward a nonlinear future, but it’s also producing too much content. Put simply, we have a TV content bubble, and we need a plan for when it bursts.
Be skeptical of the digital mindset
For Tony Weisman, it’s time to make the donuts. Dunkin’ Donuts has appointed the North American CEO of Publicis Groupe’s DigitasLBi as its new U.S. chief marketing officer.
Weisman officially joins the company in late September and will report to Dunkin’ Donuts U.S. President David Hoffman. Weisman will also serve on the Dunkin’ Brands leadership team.
In mid-2016, Dunkin’ Donuts Chief Global Customer and Marketing Officer John Costello retired from the company. Costello had a global remit.
Sherman’s involvement with the site is not new. Last season he starred in a weekly video and written content series called “Tuesdays with Richard on Thursdays” that included a look at his life on and off the field. He also took on Donald Trump, calling him in one post “an example of somebody we don’t want our kids to talk like or emulate.” (Sherman, however, apparently does share with Trump a healthy disdain of the mainstream media.)
Samsung’s backing gives his new series a dedicated sponsor, and presumably, more financial stability for the site. But any time a sponsor is involved, it raises the risk that content deemed too controversial is muted.
Still, Messler and Sherman are adamant that Samsung will not get editorial control. “I think they understand who I am and what I am about,” Sherman says. “Obviously, I am going to be filtered to some degree. Ya know, I never say anything that terrible, or cursing or anything. But in terms of my opinions and sometimes controversial nature, I don’t think they are at all concerned. They seem excited about it.” Samsung executives were not available for interviews about the deal.
In another move that makes LinkedIn look even more like Facebook, the company today introduced LinkedIn Audience Network, an offering similar to Facebook’s Audience Network.
The new product allows marketers to reach LinkedIn members on apps and websites that aren’t operated by the business-networking site. Such offerings are proving popular with tech companies: Yelp and Pandora made similar announcements last week.
The company said some 6,000 advertisers participated in testing LAN, adding that they saw an increase in unique impressions ranging between 3% and 13%. In a somewhat murky example, financial services and insurance provider Hiscox says it saw four-times more engagement when compared to “the benchmark for the financial services industry.”
Mountain Dew is bringing zombies to your living room, office and grocery store.
The Pepsi-owned beverage brand is partnering in a multi-million dollar deal with AMC’s “The Walking Dead” for its eighth season with an augmented reality app that will put zombie walkers in real-world environments.
“The Walking Dead” continues to be the most popular scripted show on TV, making it attractive for advertisers who are still looking for places with big audiences, an increasing rarity in today’s TV ecosystem.
As sports scandals go, 2015’s Deflategate was pretty greatit had a handsome leading man and readymade jokes about saggy ballsbut in retrospect it lacked a certain something. Do you remember the particular brand of footballs Tom Brady and friends wanted underinflated? Yeah, neither do I.
She had a pretty good, if not as popular, follow-up too:
Really, this is the best branded scandal since Louise Linton, wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, used Instagram to flaunt her #rolandmouret, #hermesscarf, #tomford and #valentino wardrobe on a trip to Kentucky.
VML has absorbed sibling WPP agency Rockfish, a digital innovation shop with ecommerce expertise that generated $70 million in revenue last year, according to the Ad Age Datacenter.
Rockfish CEO Michael Stich and President and Chief Strategy Officer Dawn Maire will immediately become part of the VML Executive Leadership Team. Stich and Maire will also lead the new Rockfish division of VML. Specific titles for Stich and Maire within VML are still being figured out.
Rockfish complements VML by providing “additional depth on the ecommerce part of that connected consumer experience,” says VML Global CEO Jon Cook. Also, Rockfish will amplify VML’s expertise in loyalty and consumer relationship programs.
“Trump’s DACA Decision is a Grim Turning Point.” That’s the rather staid title of the latest episode of GQ’s “The Resistance with Keith Olbermann.” The one-line description of the video on GQ’s YouTube channel”The opportunists in the GOP who enable these racist moves will face a reckoning”offers slightly more context, but really, there’s nothing that can prepare you for the full force of Olbermann’s fury in this latest rant. A sample: “You conservative black pastors and you right-wing Hispanic leaders who still support Trump and these RACISTS today, you will find yourselves the victims of Trump and these racists tomorrow. The mothers kept from the funerals will be yours. The lawns on which the torches will burn will be yours.” Olbermann, of course, rose to fame in part because of his passionate “Special Comment” segments on his old MSNBC “Countdown” show, but making waves with an anti-Trump web show circa 2017 is a different sort of challenge. In this episode of “The Resistance,” let’s just say that Keith Olbermann meets the challenge and then some.
Simon Dumenco, aka Media Guy, is an Ad Age editor-at-large. You can follow him on Twitter @simondumenco.
Floyd “Money” Mayweather made headlines for making light work of Mixed Martial Arts superstar Conor McGregor. But he also made tech headlines recently by endorsing the Hubii Network, an initial coin offering (ICO), on his Instagram and Twitter accounts.
This isn’t the first time Mayweather (who’s dubbed himself Floyd “Crypto” Mayweather) has endorsed an ICO. In late July, he promoted the ICO for the Stox project, which went on to raise more than $30 million in its token sale. (BTW: There are subtle differences between an ICO, a token sale and a crowdsale, although the terms are often used interchangeably. Search the terms to learn more.)
What Is an ICO?
Welcome to the latest edition of Marketer’s Brief, a quick take on marketing news, moves and trends from Ad Age’s reporters and editors. Send tips/suggestions to eschultz@adage.com.
Number You Need to Know
$698.5 million: The value of U.S. liquor exports for the first half of the year, up 10.6% from last year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. Other countries might not like our politics, but they love our whiskey.
Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the real-time TV ad measurement company with attention and conversion analytics from 10 million smart TVs. The ads here ran on national TV for the first time yesterday.
A few highlights: Perdue Farms emphasizes its family-business heritage in a spot starring “The Perdue Crew: Ryan, Chris and Dad.” Chanel serves up a 30-second cut of a new ad for its Gabrielle fragrance that it debuted online; Kristen Stewart stars. And the CarMax Guy says that CarMax buys “all the cars”even, say, a purple van with a painting of a wizard who’s shooting lightning out of his fingers while riding a unicorn sneezing rainbows (as pictured).
It’s back to basics in Puerto Rico as ads focus on radio and TV, and people prepare for no internet should AT&T and Claro stop working.
DDB Puerto Rico sent staff home about 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday to prepare for the island’s most powerful hurricane in 100 years. Still, some continued to work until 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday to wrap up creative and get it to clients and media, says CEO Edgardo Rivera, speaking from the patio of his home, where the power has gone out. (His cellphone, he says, now only works outside, and he expects to lose the signal altogether.)
The agency started planning early for clients like Walmart and Puma Energy gas stations, Rivera says. For Walmart, which has about 18 stores in Puerto Rico, the agency activated social media to keep consumers informed about how long stores will stay open and what basic supplies like water are still in stock. (Walmart started closing some of its stores at 6 a.m. today.)
Film
RIOgaleão
For those who traveled by way of RIOgaleão International Airport during the holidays in July, the season will be unforgettable.
For one entire weekend, passengers who arrived and took off from the airport were able to experience, in their looks and even on their skin, the change that comes from traveling. The activation included makeup, haircut, beard styling and even real tattoos.
All this to show that RIOgaleão has changed, and it’s inviting people to change too, by traveling to a different place.
Advertising Agency:Geometry Global, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Creative Director:Ricardo Leme Lopes
Creative Team:Alexei Potemkin, Bernardo Medina, Daniel Souza, Fábio Maia, Felipe Gaúcho, João Miller, João Pedro Soares, Leo Mangiavacchi, Luna Uaná, Max Targanski
Account team:Letícia Arslanian, Mirna Abaurre, Gabriela Zampirolli, Júlia Teykal
Planning Team:Lorena Castellan, Juliana Barreto
Production Team:Laura Marques, Lydia Salgado
Film Producer:Fabio Brasil
Client Approval:Uyara Assis, Ana Paula Lopes, Maria Elisa Ferreira, Thais Monteiro
Outdoor
Nandos
White meat. Dark meat. Equal Heat. We believe all chicken deserves the same spicy PERi-PERi treatment.
Rage against the routine. Choose PERi-PERi chicken, flame-grilled and basted to spicy perfection.
We are pro-pro choice. From Lemon & Herb to Extra Hot PERi-PERi, the power is in your hands.
Hell no we won’t dough. But we will flame-grill chicken basted to spicy PERi-PERi perfection.
Advertising Agency:Havas Village, Chicago, USA
Senior Director:Robin Goldberg
Havas Sports & Entertainment:Robin Goldberg
Executive Creative Director:Drew Donatelle
Havas WW:Drew Donatelle, John Sippel Jr
Group Creative Director:Carlos Fernandez
Havas Chicago:Carlos Fernandez, Emily Heintz, Zach Murman-Freer, Kiley Saunders
Art Director:John Sippel Jr, Ryan Dickey
Creative Director:Ryan Dickey
Associate Director:Amanda Smidt
Havas Media:Amanda Smidt
Senior Project Manager:Emily Heintz
Junior Copywriters:Zach Murman-Freer, Kiley Saunders
Print
Oral-B
Advertising Agency:Simulador de Vuelo, Mexico City, Mexico
Creative Director:Lobsang Wangchen, Xavier España Fernandez
Art Director:Lobsang Wangchen
Copywriter:Xavier España Fernandez
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