Hasta La Creative!

Despite the sudden exit of its CEO last month, Lululemon Athletica is seeing sales success thanks to a focus on digital improvements and brand marketing. The Canadian yogawear marketer reported an 18 percent increase in fourth-quarter net revenue to $928.8 million, along with a 12 percent increase in comparable sales.

Net income in the fourth quarter was $120 million, down 11 percent from the year-earlier period.

But after relaunching its website at the end of the third quarter, just before the start of the holiday shopping season last year, Lululemon saw a 42 percent lift in e-commerce revenue compared to the fourth quarter of 2016.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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 more than eight million smart TVs. The ads here ran on national TV for the first time yesterday.

A few highlights: JC Penney is promoting a “Sweet Savings” chocolate baravailable only in its stores this Friday and Saturdaycontaining a “mystery coupon” that can yield an extra 50 percent off sale prices. Barbasol, the shaving cream brand, says that it’s a “no-brainer” that it’s “finally making razors.” And in a Lexus ad, a smiling woman luxuriates in her Lexus as an announcer says “Look at youthe world is your oyster. You’re going places.” But a knock on her window reveals that she’s not going alone.

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In the commercial, a bartender slides a light beer past three black people and into the hands of a fairer-skinned woman.

Following its release of a new, more affordable and Pencil-friendly iPad, and a bunch of snazzy education tools, now Apple has released “Homework.” The two-minute-plus spot feels at once nostalgic and idealistically rooted to the present. In it, narrator Mark Fenske solemnly reads Jack Prelutsky’s classic poem “Homework! Oh, Homework!” while a classroom embarks on…

Publicis Groupe’s Starcom USA announced it has won the media account of Red Bull North America, taking over planning, buying, search, social and programmatic duties for the energy drink brand from incumbent Carat following a review. “Red Bull is a cutting-edge brand with incredible vision and we are honored to be selected as their media…

The Twitter Official Partner program is now six members deeper. The social network introduced the initiative in June 2015, combining its strategic partners from the Twitter Certified Program and the Twitter Marketing Platform Partner Program and helping match up the appropriate companies with marketers, advertisers and brands. Program manager, ads platform Jillian Blazejewski revealed in…

More fake news

While we are in a giving mood, here’s some more April Fool’s Day brand nonsense:

Buffalo-based storage company Life Storage Inc. is introducing Howie, an AI-powered “smart storage smart bot” that will serve as an on-demand valet and moving companion, accessible via mobile app. Howie can help consumers with all their boxing, moving and storage needs. It may be a joke, but with many brands already using bots and AI-technology advancements on the horizon, is Howie really that far away?

Continue reading at AdAge.com