Morning Update: Twitter to close Vine, reduce staff; Burger King ghosts McDonald’s; Hugo Boss to abandon luxury; Google’s growth
Ad Week: Twitter Just Shut Down Vine 4 Years After Buying It for $30 Million
Vine will not be an infinite loop. It was four years ago this month when Twitter bought Vine for a reported $30 million, but now the relationship has fully withered. On a Medium blog post, Twitter revealed that it’s shutting down the looping video app in the coming weeks.
“You’ll be able to access and download your Vines,” the post read. “We’ll be keeping the website online because we think it’s important to still be able to watch all the incredible Vines that have been made. You will be notified before we make any changes to the app or website.”
Creativity Online: Burger King Tries to Scare Customers by Dressing Up as McDonald’s for Halloween
What’s the scariest thing Burger King could do for Halloween? Dress itself up as McDonald’s, apparently.
In a stunt by agency David Miami, Burger King wrapped an entire store in Queens, New York, in a ghostly white sheet emblazoned with the words “McDonald’s.”
Campaign Live: Twitter to cut 9% of global workforce despite ad revenue growth
Twitter has confirmed it plans to lay off 9% of its global workforce despite posting an 8% rise in revenue for the third quarter of the year. The social media platform posted quarterly revenue of $616m (£503m) for the three months ending 30 September.
The company’s ad revenue grew 6% year on year to $545m, of which 90% is mobile ad revenue. The majority of its revenue still comes from the US, which increased in Q3 by 1% to $347m year on year, while international revenue surged by 21% to $242m.
Alphabet, the holding company formed around Google, reported its third quarter earnings today. The company grew its revenue 20% over the same period last year, to $22.45 billion. Its profit also improved, climbing 27% over the same period last year to $5 billion.
These numbers were only slightly better than analysts expectations, and shares of Google didn’t move much in after-hours trading. But its nonetheless impressive that a company in its 18th year is still posting such strong and continuous growth in both revenue and profits.
The Drum: Why Hugo Boss is abandoning its luxury strategy and refocusing on menswear
German fashion house Hugo Boss is reverting to its premium menswear roots after admitting that the luxury market “didn’t prove to be particularly helpful for our business.”
The label is looking to its past success to turn around the business, which has struggled in recent years in key markets including China and the US. Under the leadership of newly-appointed chief executive Mark Langer, Hugo Boss will focus on business suits for its flagship Boss label.
Marketers were justifiably upset by revelations that Facebook’s video metrics had been significantly inflated by between 60% and 80%. The knock-on effect such errors have had on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of brand investment is incalculable.
But what if marketers aren’t measuring the right things in the first place, and haven’t been for a very long time? What if the Facebook error is nothing compared to the bigger picture of what marketers are missing? What if brands are killing themselves more quickly and surely than their existing metrics can reveal?
