By John McCarthy Jack Ma, the billionaire founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, announced he will be hiring no more staff for the rest of the year. In a company memo transmitted through Alibaba messaging app Laiwang and picked up by Reuters, Ma said the company had grown “too quickly”. “Alibaba has really developed too quickly… this year our entire group headcount will not go up by one person. The purpose is simple: we need to get into formation.” Ma concluded: “I think 30,000 people is efficient, when one leaves, we’ll bring one in.” In 2014, Alibaba saw a 63 per cent increase in staff Read full story › Source: The Drum...
Read MoreBy Jennifer Faull Discount retailers Iceland and Aldi are better at emotionally connecting with consumers over a long period of time on social media, compared to their struggling ‘Big Four’ rivals, according to a Twitter study based on data science analytics developed at the University of Oxford. The study analysed 22.7 million tweets from 350,000 individuals to measure the relationship between consumers and eight supermarket brands. It ranked the ‘big four’ in the bottom five. Leeds-based agency Bloom carried out the research based on tools developed by Peter Grindrod, professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford. Waitrose proved to be the best performer thanks Read full story › Source: The Drum...
Read MoreBy John McCarthy The Football Association (FA) is set to sign a £30m deal which could see the FA Cup redubbed the Emirates FA Cup. This season the competition went without a sponsor after Budweiser failed to renew its £9m-a-year deal. The tabled £10m-a-year deal from Emirates would top the previous agreement with the US drinks brand. Furthermore, instead of an “in association” sponsorship the 144 year competition will be fully rebranded as the Emirates FA Cup. An FA spokesman told the Guardian: “We remain in discussions with a number of parties regarding FA Cup partner opportunities.” The FA Cup board is set to discuss Read full story › Source: The Drum...
Read MoreBy Nathalie Nahaï With the general election fast approaching, we need to decide who to vote for and which politician we can trust. In a battle that is increasingly fought on personality, not policy, it’s the rhetoric, emotion and subconscious signals of power embedded in persuasive political language that can reveal covert agendas and likely candidates for the top jobs. Beyond staged political photos and the odd unfortunate gaff, it’s the words and syntax our politicians use that can influence our perception of their ability to lead. It’s also these key elements that can mean the difference between a successful, well-targeted marketing campaign and Read full story › Source: Marketing Week...
Read MoreBy Gillian West Carluccio’s has introduced a new website and ‘Honestly Italian’ strapline as it looks towards providing a best-in-class digital experience for customers. The high street brand worked with Delete on the fully responsive site, built on Kentico’s all-in-one content management solution, which allows customers to find and book restaurants, explore menus and purchase items from the online store. Read full story › Source: The Drum...
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