Morning Update: Google reveals iPhone keyboard; L’Oreal moves into start-ups; Diageo begins global media review; Vice NewFronts lessons
The Verge: Google releases keyboard for the iPhone with built-in search features
Google has today announced a new keyboard for iOS devices that directly integrates search functions. Called Gboard, the keyboard features a button on the upper left that lets you perform web searches, look for images or GIFs, or even search for emoji without ever leaving the keyboard. Results from web searches can be instantly pasted into a text box. The Verge’s Casey Newton exclusively reported that Google was working on such a keyboard for the iPhone back in March.
In addition to the search functionality, Gboard also offers word tracing. Overall, it appears to be a blend of Google’s best features from its keyboard and Google Now On Tap service on Android, but brought to the iPhone. You can download the new keyboard from the App Store now.
Campaign Live: L’Oreal will co-found two companies a year to explore the future of beauty
The idea is to ferret out interesting entrepreneurs and start-ups innovating in beauty.
L’Oreal and Founders Factory will not only invest and help scale up five early-stage start-ups a year, but create two new start-ups “from scratch”. The two companies will mentor and support start-ups, as well as jointly build new products and services.
L’Oreal hasn’t disclosed its investment, nor how much it plans to invest in the start-ups each year. This is the beauty giant’s first strategic investment in a tech incubator.
Johnnie Walker’s ‘Joy Will Take You Further’ campaign. Credit: Johnnie Walker
Ad Age: Diageo Begins $2.3 Billion Global Media Review
Diageo is the latest marketer to launch a wholesale media review, and is currently overhauling its planning and buying arrangements on a global scale for the first time.
The spirits giant, whose brands include Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Guinness and Tanqueray, did not confirm which media agencies it currently uses, other than to say that it works with four global networks, including Carat in the U.S. and the U.K.
Illustration: Major Savage
Ad Week: What the Golden Age of TV Means for Branded Video Content
At the 2015 NewFronts, Vice Media previewed a slate of 10 TV shows to a room full of ad buyers, press and various attractive 20-somethings. The Brooklyn-based company provided no information—publicly, at least—about where those shows might appear or how brands might buy advertising alongside them. A sizzle reel ended with a screen that said “Coming This Fall.”
Fall came and went. In February, after months of anticipation, the company finally unveiled the home for those shows: Viceland, a 24-hour cable channel launched with A&E. But Vice continues to incorporate a digital sensibility into its programming—one reason it may be presenting again at the NewFronts instead of joining TV programmers with a more traditional Upfront. Having gotten its start as a print magazine, Vice has built a vast and varied media empire by taking a digital-first approach to customer experience. Here are three things marketers can take away from Vice’s transition to TV…
Susana Tsui presenting at the Asia Pacific Media Forum yesterday
Mumbrella Asia: The days of the undisclosed programmatic model are numbered says PHD APAC boss
The days of media agencies not being transparent with their clients about the margins they make from programmatic trading are numbered, the APAC head of PHD declared.
Talking to Mumbrella after giving a talk at the Asia Pacific Media Forum in Bali, Susana Tsui said that transparency has been a key issue in every media pitch she has been involved in since she was hired to run the media network three years ago, and clients would rather take the function in-house than use a media agency that is not above board about the money they make on programmatic trading.
