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Morning update: Top Gear trio sign Amazon deal, Will.i.am makes music with Lexus cars

top gear clarkson may hammondThe Guardian: Top Gear’s Clarkson, Hammond and May sign Amazon deal

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have been signed up by Amazon for a new motoring show to rival the BBC’s Top Gear.

The trio’s new show will be broadcast on Amazon’s on-demand TV service, with the US giant beating off competition from ITV and its online rival, Netflix.

The announcement on Thursday follows months of speculation where Clarkson and his former Top Gear colleagues would go after he was axed by the BBC earlier this year following a fracas with a producer.

Marketing: Will.i.am conducts a fleet of Lexus cars to create laser triggered music track

Pop star will.i.am has pulled off a stunt with Lexus, which sees a fleet of cars triggering musical notes on a racing track to recreate the celebrity’s record #ThatPOWER.

The car brand developed a racing track with lasers that are triggered to play musical sequences when a car passes the threshold.

The stunt, which required precision driving from three stunt drivers including Rush frontman Niki Faulkner, comprised 350 projection mapped motion and audio sensitive lasers and lights on a disused runway.

Ad Age: P&G Cuts Agencies 40% in First Wave of Consolidation Drive

Procter & Gamble Co.will likely keep marketing spending flat as a share of sales this fiscal year, but global media spending will still rise as the company keeps plowing savings from agency and production costs into media.

Such cuts helped P&G beat analyst forecasts for core earnings per share – excluding a host of restructuring costs – even as it fell well short of projections for the top line last quarter. Organic sales growth was “rounded down” to flat vs. consensus analyst projections for 2% growth for the quarter ended June 30.

Creativity: Little Kid Gets a Superhero Boost at School in Adorable Amazon Prime Ad

In this adorable ad for Amazon Prime, a shy little boy has a hard time fitting in on his first day of nursery school.

But his concerned dad is watching every awkward move, and uses the online retail service to order something that will give him a boost.

The New York Times: NBCUniversal Said to Be Near Investing in BuzzFeed and Vox

NBCUniversal is poised to make a pair of investments in the digital media start-ups BuzzFeed and Vox, seeking to appeal to younger millennial viewers who are abandoning traditional media, according to executives with knowledge of the negotiations.

The film and television group, owned by Comcast, is close to investing $250 million in BuzzFeed, known for its trending quizzes and lists and a relatively recent expansion into journalism. The deal would value BuzzFeed at about $1.5 billion, said the executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal terms were private.

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