WPP suffered its worst stock drop (14 percent) in nearly two decades, it announced today during an earnings call in which chairman Martin Sorrell bluntly admitted that 2017 was “not a pretty year” for the world’s largest holding group. The global business failed to meet even analysts’ most conservative predictions for growth, and WPP’s presentation…
Hostess Brands known for convenience-store fare like Twinkies and Ding Dongs, is making a successful foray into more upscale treats.
The company posted surprisingly strong earnings on Thursday, along with an upbeat forecast, sending the shares on their biggest rally ever. The snack maker credited the rollout of the Hostess Bakery Petites line, which has no artificial flavors or high-fructose corn syrup, for boosting the growth.
The latest results helped solidify a turnaround for an iconic American business. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and was temporarily shut down, sending all of its employees packing. Hostess was reborn in a deal orchestrated by Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co., but with a fraction of its former workforce.
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 seven million smart TVs. The ads here ran on national TV for the first time yesterday.
A few highlights: A vision-impaired old man unexpectedly helps a young couple explore unmapped territory as they go on a seaside tour in their 2018 Subaru Outback. AT&T says that it gives you “more for your thing”starting with that relationship “getting-serious thing.” And Hewlett Packard Enterprise serves up two spots that highlight how the computing power it supplies to customers is transforming everything from physics to poker.
Jennifer Wise came to Mobile World Congress expecting to have her mind blown. But by the third day of the industry’s biggest event, the senior analyst from Forrester Research was a little let down.
“Some of the VR experiences are still missing the key components to make them good from the user experience perspective to fuel that adoption,” she says. “We’re talking about latency and the case for 5G, which isn’t going to see mass global adoption for years.”
Wise, who has a background in marketing and specializes in the customer experience, says she tried one VR experience where she was on a boat. But she felt like a disembodied head”you look down and there’s no body there a lack of haptic feedback.”
More and more people in the ad industry are paying attention to the gender gap among ad directors, particularly through the Free the Bid organization (“A pledge to give women directors a voice in advertising”). Now, as Oscar night approaches, Time magazine examines how women “are redirecting Hollywood” with a cover story, “How Greta Gerwig Is Leading by Example,” starring the director of multiple Oscar-nominee “Lady Bird.” Time’s Eliza Berman puts Gerwig’s acclaimed drama in context:
The film has been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Director. This shouldn’t be any more noteworthy than another film’s success, but it iswomen behind the camera rarely get mainstream recognition for their work. The nod makes Gerwig just the fifth woman nominated for directing in 90 years of Academy Awardsand the first female nominee since Kathryn Bigelow became the only woman to win, for The Hurt Locker in 2010. … Gerwig has at once become her own success story and a symbol of the future of storytellingof the not-so-radical notion that we may, perhaps even soon, get to stop qualifying director with female.
Keep reading Berman’s piece here.
Eat Natural, the snacks brand, will be giving people a chance to create their own cereal bars as part of a move into experiential marketing.
The cost of living is a particular challenge in Orange County, and some employees at Disneyland Resort say they struggle to make ends meet.
Spirits brand/college staple Jägermeister has selected Firstborn as its digital agency of record, following a review launched in October which included four undisclosed agencies, in addition to Firstborn.
Firstborn will be tasked with handling all digital duties for the brand. Jägermeister will continue to work with global lead creative agency Opperman Weiss, Cross Media, which was named media AOR for the brand last year and Integer on point-of-sale.
“We are a brand that likes to be first—so we were looking for a digital partner that could not only conceive of, but execute, technologically-driven ideas that would push the norm and bring innovative thinking to our marketing,” Mast-Jägermeister U.S. vice president, integrated marketing and services Heather Kozera said in a statement. “Firstborn is the perfect agency to provide that leading-edge digital expertise.”
The appointment follows Jägermeister’s first major rebranding campaign in its 80-year history last year. For Firstborn, it follows the agency picking up work for NYU Langone, luxury apparel brand Lafayette 148 and travel brand Tauck.
The 90th Academy Awards will be handed out Sunday night, but YouTube already presented its award for most-viewed trailer among the best picture nominees to Dunkirk. The war film’s trailer had nearly 44 million views as of Feb. 14, outlasting second-place Get Out (30 million) and No. 3 The Shape of Water (18 million). YouTube…
Shopping for insurance online can feel so impersonal, it’s like trying to connect emotionally with a robot, says a new campaign from a firm promising a more human touch. In two 30-second TV ads from Farm Bureau Financial Services and The Richards Group, a distracted android plays the comic villain, representing a generic “Insurance Corporation.”…
In his monologue last night, CBS “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert bid a not-fond farewell to White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, who announced yesterday that she’ll be leaving the Trump Administration. But first he dissected her reported admission to the House Intelligence Committee that her job required her to tell white lies for the president. (See The New York Times story about her testimony, which is shown in the “Late Show” segment above, here.) Colbert’s response to that admission: “Well, duh. Telling lies to white people is what got Trump elected.”
Keep watching the segment to see how Colbert imagines a training session for Hicks’ “replacement liar” will go.
Another retailer is changing its policy when it comes to gun sales in the wake of the Parkland, Florida mass shooting that left 17 dead. Fred Meyer, the general market chain store owned by grocer Kroger, said Thursday that it will restrict sales of firearms to consumers who are at least 21 years old. Cincinnati-based Kroger, which operates more than 130 Fred Meyer stores, follows in the footsteps of Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart, which both said earlier this week that they will raise the buying age to 21. Dick’s also said it will stop selling assault-style rifles; Walmart discontinued such sales three years ago.
“In response to the tragic events in Parkland and elsewhere, we’ve taken a hard look at our policies and procedures for firearm sales,” Kroger said in a statement. “Recent events demonstrate the need for additional action on the part of responsible gun retailers.” The company, which cited “softer demand” in gun departments, also noted that it stopped selling assault-style rifles in Oregon, Washington and Idaho stores years ago and that it will no longer accept any special orders for such guns in Alaska.
As retailers change buying policies, several brands, including MetLife, Delta Air Lines and Enterprise, are also severing ties with the National Rifle Association by ending discounting perks for members.
Microsoft has said that its ongoing drive to hire autistic talent and spearhead inclusive design is driving creativity and innovation across the business.
A marca de roupas francesa Lacoste vai mudar de logo temporariamente. O icônico jacaré da empresa de vestuário dará lugar a outros dez animais em extinção, que estamparão uma edição limitada de camisas pólo criada em parceria com a União Internacional pela Conservação da Natureza (IUCN), uma famosa organização de caridade que luta pela preservação …
> LEIA MAIS: Lacoste substitui o famoso logo do jacaré de suas camisas pólo por espécies em extinção
Indicados, surpresas, esnobados, o que esperar da premiação e, claro, nossas apostas
> LEIA MAIS: Cinemático – Oscar 2018
U.S. internet users between the ages of 18 and 24 are flocking to Snapchat and Instagram, usually on a daily basis, according to the new Social Media Use in 2018 report from Pew Research Center, released Thursday. Pew surveyed 2,002 U.S. adults about their use of eight online platforms–Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter…
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