Morning Update: MullenLowe and PETA want hunters to use rubbers; Is Sorrell worth £70m?; why brands should ‘skip ads and tell stories’
Mumbrella Asia: MullenLowe Singapore creates condom to stop hunters reproducing for PETA
The Singapore office of MullenLowe has released a case study for a global publicity stunt it created for animals rights charity PETA to combat trophy hunting. The idea, based on the insight that since hunting is passed on from generation to generation, was to launch a condom brand to stop hunters from reproducing.
The idea, developed in APAC, has rolled out across North America, Europe, Africa and India, according to the agency. Erick Rosa, ECD of MullenLowe Singapore commented: “With this idea, we bring the conversation back to the forefront. PETA is a bold, courageous and amazing partner; they not only championed the idea, but worked with us hand in hand from day one to effectively market HUNTSMAN as a brand with real purpose.”
The Guardian: Can anyone be worth £70m a year, Martin Sorrell?
Sir Martin Sorrell has defended his bumper pay package, arguing that he has put three decades of his life into building WPP from a maker of wire baskets into a £21bn global marketing business.
Sorrell, whose total remuneration is likely to hit £70m when full details are revealed in WPP’s annual report in the summer, is set to face a backlash from shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in June.
Leo Burnett Madrid’s Christmas Lottery ad (2015) was viewed 5 million times
Ad Week: Why Brands Need to Skip the Ads and Start Telling Stories
You can skip this ad in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 … skip ad. C’mon, you know you want to. We all do. While the stats vary, there’s evidence that around nine out of 10 people who can skip an ad do—whether by hitting the “skip ad” button online or fast-forwarding through a commercial break while watching time-shifted programming.
The online countdown clock that accompanies many pre-roll spots is one of the more honest things to ever happen to advertising. It’s the most explicit admission yet that advertising isn’t something you want; it’s something in the way of what you want.
The Drum: Under Armour blames lack of female sports engagement on ‘lazy storytelling’
Brands need to up their game when it comes to storytelling if they want to take advantage of the growing opportunity of marketing sportswear to women who are increasingly getting involved in health and fitness, according to Under Armour.
The sportswear brand’s EMEA marketing director, Christopher Carroll, told an audience at Advertising Week Europe today (19 April) that the lack of growth following the Olympics in sports that females were successful in is due to “lazy storytelling”.
Ad Week: This San Francisco Agency Wants to Fix Everything That’s Broken About Client Contracts
Many clients don’t want agencies of record anymore or loosely affiliated networks of freelancers to satisfy their marketing needs.
Stephen Goldblatt is proposing a solution that diverges from both models. Goldblatt, who was named among Adweek’s Top Creative Minds in Digital in 2011 while serving as executive creative director at EVB, based his newest venture, Partners in Crime, on his varied experiences in the agency world.
In order to refocus on those relationships in an era that demands ever more of agencies, Goldblatt has made his new unit’s business model flexible in every way, from payment methods to staffing efforts to the sorts of clients it chooses (currently ranging from the Oakland Raiders to startups of various sizes).
Jim VandeHei, co-founder and former chief executive of Politico, says that “journalists are killing journalism.” Credit T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times
NY Times: For News Outlets Squeezed From the Middle, It’s Bend or Bust
Earlier this month, a couple of inventive young go-getters at BuzzFeed tied enough rubber bands around the center of a watermelon to make it explode. Nearly a million people watched the giant berry burst on Facebook Live. It racked up more than 10 million views in the days that followed.
Traditional journalists everywhere saw themselves as the seeds, flying out of the frame. How do we compete with that? And if that’s the future of news and information, what’s next for our democracy? President Kardashian?
Ad Week: What Netflix and BuzzFeed Can Teach Brands About Building Seamless Experiences
Remember when binge watching was an indulgence reserved for a sick day? Well, those days are over. A recent study revealed that almost a third of U.S. consumers binge-watch TV shows on a weekly basis. And we’re talking full-fledged binging here, with 70% of people viewing an average of five episodes per sitting.
Binge watching is officially the norm, and it is transforming the way marketers approach customer experiences. This ‘binge effect’ means users expect to pause a show on one device and pick it up in the same place on a different device, not to mention having constant access to a wealth of quality content. And it’s not just TV viewing. Consumers are increasingly frustrated when their devices don’t sync automatically.
