NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke will leave the company in August 2020, just months after he sees through the anticipated launch of the broadcaster’s streaming offering Peacock, the company confirmed this morning. Burke, a longtime Comcast executive who has headed up the media and entertainment conglomerate since Comcast acquired the company in 2011, will step aside…
Here we are, at the end of a seismic year for the advertising and marketing world, from the creeping death of the chief marketer role to #MeToo and every company scrambling to find its purpose. While those are important, ongoing stories, they weren’t the headlines that really grabbed the attention of our readers. Out of…
Dallas-based The Richards Group has a new leader at the helm. Stan Richards, who founded the independent agency 43 years ago, has appointed Glenn Dady as his successor. According to the agency, 87-year-old Richards “has no plans to retire,” but is handing over management duties to Dady. Moving forward, Dady will serve as principal and…
In yet another sign that the consumer goods industry is trying to accommodate changes in consumer taste, Nestle just parted ways with H?agen-Dazs. In a deal worth $4 billion, Nestle announced plans on Wednesday to sell its U.S. ice cream division to Froneri, a joint venture Nestle formed with private equity firm PAI Partners in…
These are uncertain times, Google admits. And in uncertain times, people look to heroes to remind them of what’s good, what’s possible and what to put their hope in, or just to escape the complicated and messy areas of life. That’s how the tech giant summed up the theme of a year’s worth of searches–everything…
Walmart has launches its fifth autonomous grocery delivery pilot program, this time with the electric robo-van maker Nuro in the robotics company’s hometown of Houston. Resembling a cross between a Fiat 500 and the discontinued Toyota Prius C, Nuro’s prototype is a custom, low-speed, zero-emission, self-driving vehicle that’s engineered for short neighborhood trips and for…
A former creative director is asking Detroit-based agency Doner to provide personnel and financial information in her attempt to prove that age discrimination was behind her firing in 2018. Nearly a year ago, Susan Walsh filed an age discrimination lawsuit against Doner, prompted by her firing days ahead of her 60th birthday after 10 years…
After two years at the world’s largest retailer, Bonobos founder Andy Dunn is leaving Walmart. Dunn joined the company as svp of digital consumer brands when Walmart acquired Bonobos, the online menswear brand where he had been CEO since its inception in 2007. Dunn, who was a 2018 member of the Adweek 50, announced his…
January tends to be a popular month for people to swear off alcohol, and Heineken wants to give consumers a booze-free alternative. The beer brand has created the January Dry Pack, a case of 31 cans of Heineken 0.0, the brand’s non-alcoholic beer. Heineken partnered with integrated creative agency Fast Horse to create the limited-edition…
JPMorgan Chase today announced the creation of a new U.S. wealth management division led by Kristin Lemkau as CEO. The appointment was effective yesterday. Lemkau (recognized as part of the Adweek 50 in 2016) has been with the bank for 21 years, most recently as CMO. A statement noted Lemkau helped to double CCB revenue…
Iced coffee drinkers looking for another kind of pick-me-up will soon have a new option, courtesy of Pepsi. The soft drink brand is launching Pepsi Caf?, a Pepsi-coffee hybrid product, in April 2020. Pepsi Caf? is a combination of soda and Arabica coffee bean extract, and offers nearly double the amount of caffeine in regular…
Twitter will be funding the development of “an open and decentralized standard” for how social platforms operate, according to the company’s CEO. In a tweet thread on Wednesday morning, Jack Dorsey announced that Twitter would be financially backing an independent team of five architects, engineers and designers to develop the standard, with the goal of…
Popeyes announced today that it has partnered with UglyChristmasSweater.com to create the perfect seasonal attire for the dedicated poultry fiend in the family: a bright orange, chicken sandwich-themed holiday sweater. Building off of a big year on social, Popeyes is looking to prolong the wave of popularity that was sparked by a new chicken sandwich…
Outerwear brand Noize is a relative newcomer to the steadily growing environmentally conscious fashion industry, but it has lofty goals: disrupting the fast fashion landscape. The brand’s vegan puffer jackets and cruelty-free parkas (sold online and at major retailers) are built to withstand Canadian levels of wintry weather with fills entirely made of recycled plastic…
Today, Adobe Stock released its annual Visual Trends Forecast, attempting to predict the emergent visual trends marketers should expect to see and embrace in 2020. This time, the report is part of the company’s first Creative Trends program, which includes two new reports on graphic design and motion graphics that will be released later this…
PepsiCo CMO of global beverages Roberto Rios has joined frozen food purveyor Schwan’s Company as its first chief marketer last month, the company announced Monday. Rios brings 25 years of marketing experience in the global consumer foods industry to Schwan’s, which sold an 80% stake last year to top South Korean food company CJ CheilJedang….
Facebook wants its advertisers to lean into the augmented reality craze. Following the rollout of a suite of interactive ads this past September, the social giant announced today the addition of its augmented reality engine, Spark AR, to its ad manager. With this capability, advertisers worldwide can now create an AR effect within the free-to-use…
In addition to shopping for groceries on InstaCart, ordering an Uber ride, streaming tunes on Spotify, keeping an eye on Ring security cams and even ordering delivery on GrubHub, you can now keep your thirst for knowledge on tap on the Samsung’s Family Hub Smart Refrigerators. Take oxymoron, Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day, for example….
On Black Friday, Benjamin Witte, founder and CEO of CBD-infused beverage brand Recess, promoted his product on Instagram. The problem: Instagram prohibits brands from advertising products that contain the cannabis-derived compound cannabidiol, more commonly known as CBD. “Any products that contain ingestible Hemp and/or CBD are not currently allowed, nor any products that allude to…
Walmart Canada has removed several pieces of holiday attire for sale by third-party vendors from its online store after customer complaints, according to Canadian news outlet Global News. One of those festive wearables was a Christmas sweater sold by a company called Fun Wear featuring a crudely drawn Santa Claus sitting in front of what…
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