The 10 things in advertising you need to know today
1. Publicis Groupe, the third largest ad agency holding group, beat analysts' estimates for its second quarter by posting a 35.5% lift in sales to €4.54 billion ($4.99 billion) and a 39.6% increase in net profit to €363 million ($395 million.) The company benefited from the integration of Sapient, the US-based digital marketing company it acquired for $3.7 billion late last year.
2. Coca-Cola is getting seriously worried about how quickly Diet Coke sales are plummeting. Global Diet Coke volume sales dropped 7% in the company's second quarter.
3. Coke made a big marketing bet that moving to smaller packages would make people spend more on soda overall. And it's mostly paid off.
4. The CEO of WPP's massive advertising trading desk Xaxis explained the three biggest myths about his company. First up, it's "not a trading desk."
5. YouTube just poached an MTV bigwig to jumpstart its plan to take on television. Susanne Daniels served as MTV's head of programming for three years, and will be taking on a new position - VP of originals - at YouTube.
6. Video creators still strongly favor YouTube over Facebook. YouTube content creators post five times as many videos on YouTube than Facebook.
7. Starbucks chose Lyft over Uber to give coffee perks to passengers. Passengers of Lyft can now earn points toward a free cup of coffee every time they take a ride.
8. A t-shirt from Target is causing an uproar. The top has the word "Trophy" emblazoned on the chest.
9. Lululemon is trialing a novel technique to get men to shop there. The athleisure company has released a beer.
10. Wal-Mart is distancing itself from the 24-hour supercenter. Roughly 40 of its 24-hour supercenters will now close for a few hours a night.