Earlier this week, Bank of America became the first major company to announce that it had appointed a brand safety officer to ensure a positive customer experience and protect the firm’s reputation online. If you’ve been following the conversation around brand safety in the digital ad space, this news should come as no surprise. Despite…
If you’re going to mimic theatrical trailer tropes like “In a World…” as part of your marketing campaign you might as well do so during the Oscars. Ferrero is doing just that, positioning its Kinder Joy product–a chocolate treat that also has a toy inside–as a hero, of sorts, giving parents something different and fun…
Happy Friday! Aren’t you glad it isn’t Wednesday??
Of course you are … but you wouldn’t be saying that if you worked at FCB Chicago this week.
That’s because the agency officially instituted a new “Meeting Free Wednesdays” policy today. You heard that right, readers: no meetings on Wednesdays. Zilch, zero, nada. Period.
Welllllll, that’s not QUITE accurate. This new policy only applies from 1 to 5, and if staff members totally hate it then it could theoretically end on May 1st. Something also tells us that certain clients might have trouble observing these new guidelines, but you never know.
Why are they doing this, you ask? Because everyone hates meetings, especially when you’ve got other work to do, which is always. (This principle applies to media too, by the way.)
Should be interesting to see how well it works.
Here’s the full memo from CCO Liz Taylor and president/CEO Michael Fassnacht.
March 2, 2018
To: FCB Chicago
Fm: Michael & Liz
RE: Introducing Meeting Free Wednesdays
You spoke. We heard. As such, we are excited to announce “Meeting Free Wednesdays” at FCB Chicago!
Beginning next month, we are encouraging all of you to go meeting free each Wednesday from 1-5 p.m. This new initiative is in response to employee feedback that too many meetings are interfering with their ability to complete work during office hours—but now, you can! Please do your best to NOT call any client or internal meetings on Wednesday afternoons in April. We’re both very committed to this policy, and will not schedule meetings during this time.
To help encourage everyone to use this time for work, we will be sending out an agency-wide calendar invite blocking Wednesday afternoons. Look out for the first one—taking place on April 4. HR will also be conducting a survey at the end of April to ask for your thoughts on how we can continue to make Meeting Free Wednesday better—and most importantly, meeting free.
We value your happiness and well-being, and hope this new initiative helps everyone achieve a better work-life balance!
Best,
Michael & Liz
Lowe’s is renovating its agency structure, moving from an agency of record to a roster of shops for projects. In order to better focus its marketing messaging, the home improvement retailer has recruited the Via Agency, based in Portland, Maine, EP & Co., formerly Erwin Penland, based in Greenville, South Carolina and Conill, out of Los Angeles.
Evolving its model should help Lowe’s become as relevant as possible with as many customers as possible, says Jocelyn Wong, who was promoted to chief marketing officer of the company last year.
“We serve a broad customer base across all income levels, genders and race,” says Wong, who also noted home ownership as criteria. “We needed to make sure our agency model could be as agile as we needed it to be, as diverse as we needed it to be.”
The sprawling Mobile World Congress in Barcelona has ended for another year but not before Ad Age Editor Brian Braiker got a floor tour from Jon Gamble, business builder consultant at Ericsson. Follow along to check out a connected car, factory floor robots and a VR setup that monitors eye movements.
See the rest of our Remotely Entertaining videos from MWC here.
After reporting strong fourth-quarter sales this week, Kohl’s is flying forwardliterallywith a new spot airing Sunday. The 30-second commercial uses a camera attached to a drone to highlight activewear brands including Nike, Fitbit and Under Armour, around the store. Using such a filming method is a switch for Kohl’s, which is working to distinguish itself from competitors by being as innovative as possiblealso evidenced by new partnerships with Amazon and grocer Aldi. The spot also highlights the Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based retailer’s Kohl’s Cash loyalty program, another key push for the company.
“In terms of cinematography, it’s different than anything we’ve done,” says Greg Revelle, who joined Kohl’s as chief marketing officer nearly a year ago after a stint at Best Buy. “We’re trying to be original and different and innovative in how we do everything.”
Such a strategy appears to be paying off. While the holiday sales period was rosy for most retailers, it was rosier for Kohl’s than for many others. The chain reported fourth-quarter sales of $6.8 billion, a 9.2 percent rise over the year-earlier period. Comparable store sales for the quarter were up 6.3 percentduring the fourth quarter of 2016, Kohl’s posted a 2.2 percent comparable store sales decline. As part of its holiday campaign, Kohl’s aired a high-production value spot featuring a sweeping battleground of gifts and shoppersas well as the brand’s loyalty program, in the hopes of attracting new shoppers.
Delta Air Lines is studying whether to end discounts for “politically divisive” organizations, after a firestorm over its decision to terminate a deal with the National Rifle Association.
CEO Ed Bastian announced the policy review a day after Georgia lawmakers punished Delta by removing a jet-fuel tax exemption from a larger bill. Politicians stripped out the provision after the Atlanta-based carrier eliminated a discount for NRA members attending the group’s annual meeting.
“Our discounted travel benefit for NRA members could be seen as Delta implicitly endorsing the NRA. That is not the case,” Bastian said Friday in a memo to employees. “While Delta’s intent was to remain neutral, some elected officials in Georgia tied our decision to a pending jet-fuel tax exemption, threatening to eliminate it unless we reversed course. Our decision was not made for economic gain and our values are not for sale.”
(TrendHunter.com) At TCT Asia 2018, a 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, 3D printer company DediBot unveiled its concept ‘Fly Elephant’ printer.
While many 3D printers are constrained by…
In the heyday of MySpace — before Instagram and iPhones — selfies were an emergent form of folk art for millennials.
When the world’s largest holding company posts its biggest stock decline in almost two decades and predicts no growth for 2018, there will inevitably be questions over whether the holding company model is irreparably broken.
It isn’t.
On Thursday’s earnings call, WPP CEO Martin Sorrell said 2017 was “not a pretty year” for the company and blamed clients’ zero-based budgeting, activist investors and private equity. But while all those factorsand morealso affect rival holding companies, several respected industry-watchers say the outlook isn’t ugly for the industry, particularly because it is adapting to this new reality.
If Laura Dern were to write a love letter to herself, it would say, “You’ve got this, Dern.” That’s one of the 22 versions of a new digital campaign that Kate Spade rolled out this week; the campaign promotes a new fragrance dubbed In Full Bloom. More interestingly though, Dern’s monologue was inspired from Google…
Univision is scrapping the traditional Upfront presentation this year and planning a two-day experiential gathering. The leading Spanish-language U.S. media company is also moving out of the stuffy confines of a Theater District playhouse and setting up shop in the decidedly more hip Spring Studios in TriBeCa. “We are breaking from the pack and modernizing…
In this week’s episode, Tinder backs an emoji movement, of sorts, McDonald’s offers directions, Lacoste drops its iconic logo for a cause, Nike shoes save the world and Waymo takes you into its backseat.
Happy first Friday of March, which is Women’s History Month! It just so happens that entries will open this month for Ad Age’s Women to Watch list, so don’t forget to nominate your favorite female leaders.
Onto this week’s agency news.
It’s 2018, everyone has a twitter now.
Criado no início dos anos 50, o grito de Wilhelm (mais conhecido por Wilhelm Scream, seu nome na língua inglesa) é um dos efeitos sonoros mais famosos do cinema estadunidense. Usado pela primeira vez no filme “Tambores Distantes” de Raoul Walsh, o som de um homem gritando ganhou destaque ao ser usado no primeiro episódio …
> LEIA MAIS: Lucasfilm vai aposentar o Wilhelm Scream da franquia “Star Wars”
Empresa dinamarquesa quer substituir suas linhas por materiais sustentáveis até 2030
> LEIA MAIS: Lego vai produzir peças com folha da cana-de-açúcar
Cobertura incluirá tapete vermelho e os principais momentos da premiação mostrados em tempo real
> LEIA MAIS: Oscar 2018: Twitter e TNT fecham parceria para transmissão de conteúdos ao vivo
Lista tem três candidatos a melhor filme estrangeiro, dois documentários protagonizados por seus diretores, dois longas de atores veteranos, uma comédia romântica indie e o recordista histórico de indicações da Netflix
> LEIA MAIS: 9 indicados ao Oscar 2018 que você talvez não tenha visto
(TrendHunter.com) The conceptual ‘Emergency Escape Filter’ has been created as a piece of equipment that will keep users safe in the event of a fire to ensure that they can escape without having to worry…
Friends and patrons of The Paris Review gather at the memory-filled home for a final drink or two before the apartment is sold.
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