Morning Update: who’s winning the agency review rollercoaster; Pinterest begins promoted video; Gawker Media finds buyer
Ad Week: The Agency Review Rollercoaster Shows No Sign of Stopping. Here’s Who’s Winning
Last year’s unprecedented string of Mediapalooza agency reviews involving some of the world’s biggest advertisers (Coca-Cola, Walmart, P&G, etc.) was not an aberration. According to a new report released by top global consulting firm R3, it was a signal of the new normal on both the media and creative sides of the advertising business.
“Everyone thought that things would slow down, but it seems that’s not really the case,” R3 principal and co-founder Greg Paull told Adweek. “There have been just as many media reviews this year.”
https://youtu.be/k7-6B3erKEk
Campaign Live: Pinterest rolls out video ads in UK and US
Pinterest is rolling out video ads in beta to test partners in the UK in the US, as it builds out its ad business to compete with Twitter, Facebook and Google.
Video ads appear as a user scrolls through Pinterest’s home or category feeds and will animate as the user scrolls back and forth.
The in-feed video acts as a preview, and the user will have to click in or save the video to view it in full. Video ads can be up to five minutes in length and will autoplay once the user clicks in.
Recode broke the news, reporting the acquisition price was $135 million and would cover all seven of Gawker’s websites. The company’s founder Nick Denton confirmed the deal in an email to reporters:
Gawker Media Group has agreed this evening to sell our business and popular brands to Univision, one of America’s largest media companies that is rapidly assembling the leading digital media group for millennial and multicultural audiences. I am pleased that our employees are protected and will continue their work under new ownership — disentangled from the legal campaign against the company. We could not have picked an acquirer more devoted to vibrant journalism.
https://youtu.be/STGwaPXK2sA
Ad Week: A Dangerous Disco Ball Ends Up With the Perfect People, Thanks to Letgo
We’ve all been guilty of going to great lengths to hang on to items with sentimental value, but a new ad for marketplace app Letgo reminds us there’s always a better home out there.
The spot, ‘Disco Ball’, from Crispin Porter + Bogusky Miami, keeps up the app’s marketing approach of creating ads in the style of big-budget Hollywood action films (see below in case you missed the earlier spots). This time around, the director is Craig Gillespie, best known for 2007’s Lars and the Real Girl and 2011’s reboot of Fright Night.
Buzzfeed: Why Isn’t Twitter Taking Down Harassment As Fast As It Takes Down Olympics Content?
When the International Olympic Committee announced that only rights-holding broadcasters can share “sound or moving images” from the games – meaning that anyone else could be liable for copyright infringement – the decision didn’t go down well.
When the International Olympic Committee announced that only rights-holding broadcasters can share “sound or moving images” from the games – meaning that anyone else could be liable for copyright infringement – the decision didn’t go down well.
Mumbrella Asia: Social media becomes key metric for marketers in judging campaign performance
Activity on social media has become more important than market share data in assessing a campaign’s performance, while increasing numbers of brands are using social channels to step up their customer service, a new study has found.
According to the TNS Marketing Monitor Study, marketers across Asia are, for the first time, placing more importance on social media than any other measurement. Social is also the top consideration in the planning process, with information from media agencies only the fifth most important metric.
Earlier this month, a Tesla Model X (assisted-driving car) drove itself to a hospital and saved the owner’s life. Some people still see these examples and think autonomous driving is in our far-off future. Yet, in reality, it’s already here.
The technology isn’t perfect, but it’s improving at a blistering rate. Certainly faster than we humans will improve our driving abilities or improve safety mechanisms in cars. Not only will self-driving cars start to transform our infrastructure, they’ll fundamentally change our culture – something that translates to a big opportunity for marketers.
