The 10 Things In Advertising You Need To Know Today
Dec 11, 2014, 15:32 IST
Good morning. Here's everything you need to know before you head into your first meeting.
1. Facebook is tackling recent publisher concerns head-on with a suite of new targeting and insight tools. Facebook hopes it will convince the media to invest more resources into distributing their content across the social network.
2. Alan Rusbridger, who has been the editor-in-chief of the Guardian for almost 20 years, is stepping down from the role in 2015. He is set to become chair of the Guardian's sole shareholder and ownership body, The Scott Trust.
3. A new study has shown Millennial Media, Yahoo, and AOL are among the big name companies selling low quality ads. Pixalate's analysis of 400 ad tech companies rated Google AdExchange the top programmatic advertising seller.
4. Instagram now has 300 million users. That makes it larger than Twitter.
5. McDonald's is paring down its menu in order to improve customer service. The fast food giant is removing eight items and five extra value meals from the menu next month.
6. Former Yahoo COO Henrique de Castro has spoken out for the first time about being fired last year for failing to meet ad sales goals. He told LinkedIn's Isabelle Roughol: "I was fired and that's OK. Being fired is part of your career options."
7. The "tremor" threatening traditional TV viewing has turned into a "quake," according to a new PwC report, covered by the Wall Street Journal's CMO Today. For younger viewers, digital alternatives are "slowly chipping away at cable - and on their way to replacing it entirely," the report says.
8. Unilever's Dove Men+Care is returning to the Super Bowl after a five year absence, Adweek reports. The brand's director of marketing Jennifer Bremner says the ad will celebrate and define what it means to be a man today and challenge typical macho stereotypes in advertising.
9. Insurance company Nationwide is another brand returning to the Super Bowl after a hiatus, AdAge reports. The company's last Super Bowl appearance was in 2006.
10. Facebook held a whiteboard session at the company's headquarters Wednesday to showcase the utility of combining Atlas + LiveRail + the Facebook Audience Network, TechCrunch reports. The subtext of the session was that attempting to pump up its stance as a successor to TV advertising.