Morning Update: Volvo gets cryptic with Grey; Facebook’s Trending team ‘toxic’; McDonald’s leaves Leos for Omnicom
https://youtu.be/UBt_niVG4sM
Ad Week: Ad of the Day: Volvo’s Ads Are Getting Artful and Cryptic, and Maybe That’s a Good Thing
A dark diner in Anywhere, USA. A writer chasing his invisible muse. A tree set aflame in the midst of a desert. One lone buffalo, roaming.
The latest impressionistic Volvo spot by Grey New York continues a unusual approach to advertising that started in June with ‘Wedding’, an ad that managed to both intrigue and frustrate viewers who shared their divergent opinions on social media under the #volvowedding hashtag.
The Guardian: I worked on Facebook’s Trending team – the most toxic work experience of my life
Working at Facebook, even as a contractor, was supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime. It was, instead, the most toxic work experience of my life.
As a curator, my job was to choose what links would appear on the Facebook “trending” box on the right side of a user’s newsfeed. Every day, I sifted through hundreds of topics (or “keywords”) that Facebook told me were trending on the platform. Then I’d choose a story about the keyword, and come up with a headline and a short summary that would appear on the trending box.
Ad Week: McDonald’s Consolidates Ad Business With Omnicom
McDonald’s has ended its creative and media agency review by consolidating its nearly $1 billion advertising business with Omnicom, marking the end of a 35-year relationship with Leo Burnett.
DDB beat out the Publicis Groupe shop in the review, which launched in April and sparked controversy across the industry. The announcement comes as welcome news for both Omnicom—which recently emerged as the big winner in AT&T’s creative and media agency consolidation—and DDB, which has now recorded its biggest new business win under North American CEO Wendy Clark.
Ad Age: The Creative Director Role (As We Know It) Will Not Exist in 10 Years
Earlier this year, an ad agency in Japan brought on a robot to work as its new creative director. Then in June, said robot came up with its very first ad, which attempts to sell breath mints by telling the tale of a shaggy dog who learns how to fly as glittering, minty-fresh dog breath spews from his mouth.
In May, Tomas Balžekas dropped a revelation on the crowd gathered at an internet conference in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital city.
Balžekas, the CEO of 15Min.lt, Lithuania’s second-biggest news organization, was onstage with Vytautas Benokraitis, the CEO of rival Delfi.lt. He announced that in a month, 15Min.lt would launch a new plan to fight ad-blockers.
Ashutosh Srivastava recently celebrated his tenth year at Mindshare, the largest media agency brand in Asia Pacific.
In this interview with Mumbrella Asia’s editor Robin Hicks, Mindshare’s chairman and CEO for AMEA, Russia and emerging markets highlights 10 of the top trends that have shaped the media landscape over the last decade, including the polarising power of media in the age of Trump and Modi, the growing influence of China, and the fall in trust between clients and agencies.
The Guardian: Ian Traynor, Europe editor of the Guardian, dies aged 60
Ian Traynor, the Guardian’s globally respected Europe editor, died in Brussels on Saturday after a short illness at the age of 60.
Ian witnessed, reported and interpreted the critical turning points in post-cold war European history including the fall of the Berlin Wall and Germany’s reunification, the rise of Solidarity in Poland, the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia, as well as the European Union’s expansion and subsequent crises.
