Cities around the U.S. have been falling over themselves pitching themselves to Amazon as candidates for its second headquarters. But Little Rock, Arkansas, took a unique approach. Its response to the HQ2 RFP was gracious and clever, but fundamentally different than all the others. Thanks but no thanks, Little Rock told Amazon. The Little Rock…
Ikea touts itself as a brand that draws inspiration from the everyday lives of people. In its home market of Sweden, it’s leaned in to this philosophy with “Where Life Happens,” which has given us heart-wrenching ads about divorce, single parenting, adoption and even the slow dissolution of father-daughter bonds. But in addition to its…
Billboards are designed to cause a reaction. Not necessarily 911 calls, but Associated Bank will take it. Minneapolis agency Colle McVoy recently made some billboards for Associated Bank’s Green Bay Packers checking program, showing photos of Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb. The ads were outfitted with fog machines, to mimic the look of players exiting…
You know you love yourself some ASMR content, that stuff of soft sounds that apparently result in ticklish little braingasms. But the cottage industry goes way further than mere whispers. Have you met Bread Face? The Bread Face blog launched in early December 2015, at which time her Instagram account swelled to over 20,000 followers….
Breaking news: The email server of a leading crisis-management PR agency has been breached, revealing details of how the firm crafts what it calls public messages of “prideful contrition” for its clients. Also leaked: a document for clients labeled “Draft Public Statements.” Ad Age Media Guy Simon Dumenco is withholding the names of the firm and its clients as he attempts to determine if the crises outlined in the statements represent real or hypothetical scenarios.
Draft client letter
Dear [redacted],
Here’s the challenge: Drive demand for meatless burgers in Chicago, a city with a meat-packing heritage and dining culture centered around hot dogs, Italian beef and sausage. This is, after all, the city where Ferris Bueller impersonated Abe Froman, the fictional “sausage king of Chicago,” on his legendary day off.
Yet that was the seemingly impossible task of the Impossible Burger, a veggie burger made from plants that’s meant to look and taste like the real thing. Some describe it as “juicy,” “sizzling,” or even “bleeding,” even though it’s made without meat. It comes from a Silicon Valley startup on a mission to prove plant-based foods can be just like real meat, or close enough to it. The burger, for now its first and only product, is made with ingredients including textured wheat protein, coconut oil and leghemoglobin (soy). The last one is so unfamiliar that it gets its own explanations on the company’s FAQ page.
Impossible Foods was started in 2011 and began selling its burgers to restaurants in 2016. It has the backing of investors including Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, UBS, Viking Global Investors, Temasek and Open Philanthropy Project.
During a test that lasted just 15 minutes, Business Insider flagged some 10 million to 30 million phony impressions on various exchanges. Essentially, millions of ads purporting to be for Business Insider were sold by bad actors passing as the publication.
The findings left Jana Meron, VP of programmatic and data strategy at Business Insider, livid.
“I was pissed,” she tells Ad Age. “The reality is there is a great injustice that is being done and the more we can talk about transparency and openness then the better it is for the industry.”
Breaking news: The email server of a leading crisis-management PR agency has been breached, revealing details of how the firm crafts what it calls public messages of “prideful contrition” for its clients. Also leaked: a document for clients labeled “Draft Public Statements.” Ad Age Media Guy Simon Dumenco is withholding the names of the firm and its clients as he attempts to determine if the crises outlined in the statements represent real or hypothetical scenarios.
Draft client letter
Dear [redacted],
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: Actor Anthony Rapp (“Star Trek: Discovery”) says “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey made a sexual advance on him decades ago, when Rapp was 14 years old, BuzzFeed reports. On Twitter, Spacey said he didn’t remember the episode, but if it did happen, he owes Rapp “the sincerest apology.” In the same message, Spacey then came out as gay.
Spacey’s response was promptly and widely slammed.
Spacey has been the star of political drama “House of Cards” for five seasons; shooting for the sixth season reportedly was due to begin this month. Where do Netflix and “House of Cards” go from here?
Kellogg Co. is promoting two prior Olympic medalists and two Winter Games newcomers as the marketer tries to inspire Americans to support Team USA and buy more of its cereals, of course.
The maker of Corn Flakes and other pantry staples announced four athletes for its marketing team: Nathan Chen, Kelly Clark, Meghan Duggan and Mike Schultz.
While the Winter Games don’t draw the U.S. viewership of the Summer Games, Kellogg hopes its new roster of sponsored athletes can continue the momentum it got in 2016 with a group that included gymnast Simone Biles, who went on to become a five-time medalist in Rio. And it could use the boost. Sales in Kellog’s U.S. morning foods business, led by cereal, fell 6 percent in the first half of 2017 after a 2 percent decline in 2016.
Outdoor advertising is creeping back into one of the world’s biggest cities after a decade of being banned.
In 2007, So Paulo’s then-mayor shocked marketers and ad agencies by making illegal everything from billboards to large store signs in the Brazilian city of 21 million people. At the time, So Paulo had been overrun by huge billboards, and previous efforts to work with the ad industry to curb their proliferation largely failed, leading to the drastic “Cidade Limpa” (“Clean City”) law in 2007 that transformed the urban landscape.
Now, a pro-business mayor, Joo Doria, wants to auction off rights to bring some back in return for ad dollars for public works. The city has just opened bids for 32 LED panels, one for each of 32 bridges on the ring road that is a major traffic artery encircling the city, reports Meio & Mensagem, Ad Age’s editorial partner in Brazil. In return, the winner is responsible for painting, cleaning, lighting, installing cameras and otherwise maintaining the bridges, which the city estimates will cost about $95 million total during the 36-month contract. The city specifies that the LED panels be 13-feet wide and about 17-feet high, and that 50 percent of that space can be used for advertising messages. The rest must be devoted to information such as the time and traffic news.
Fist pumpers unite: MTV is reviving the “Jersey Shore” franchise, bringing to Florida the ritual of GTL. (That’s going to the gym, tanning and doing laundry, coined by the original cast.)
The new iteration, “Floribama Shore,” is set in the Florida Panhandle, where eight young adults come to spend the summer partying on Panama City Beach. It will debut on Nov. 27 and run for eight episodes.
NBC Universal will air spots starting Wednesday across its networks and platforms to promote the start of the PyeongChang Olympics 100 days later.
NBC Universal is going small for what might be the broadest and most universally appealing TV event. The peacock is targeting its marketing approach to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea to different pscyhographics.
USA Today’s now-iconic blue point will soon be part of the design of more than 100 local newspapers’ websites across the country.
Gannett, the owner of 110 newspapers in USA Today Network, is rolling out a digital redesign that will make papers from New York to California, Arizona to Iowa, all share a common template. There will also be a print design for USA Today, a newspaper already known for its vibrant design with visuals and snappy articles.
The new print paper is changing from five columns across the page to four, a new custom made font and more lively colors, according to Andy Yost, chief marketing officer at Gannett. The other papers in the group, which includes The Arizona Republic, Detroit Free Press, Des Moines Register, Desert Sun, Cincinnati Enquirer, will also share the same layoutthey all keep their traditional flags, the way their names appear on page one.
Ocean Outdoor is axing the Signature Outdoor brand, three years after it acquired the West Midlands-based outdoor media owner, amid a wider reorganisation of its sales teams.
UKTV’s channel Dave was given a temporary new identity last week in a partnership with Snickers.
Diversity cuts across every single item of an agency’s To Do list, writes Grey London’s chief executive.
Graham’s Port, the family-run business, is setting up a supper club experience with the Disappearing Dining Club, the pop-up restaurant brand.
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