Posts made in June, 2015

on Jun 29, 2015

By Justin Pearse It was more than ironic to return from a Cannes Lions festival where the diversity agenda was the highest it’s ever been to be greeted by the news that Facebook’s workforce is still mostly white and male. It’s easy to be glib about diversity in our industry and the increasing focus on it. However, when one of its leading players remains so far behind, it’s clear the issue burns brightly. Today, over two thirds of Facebook’s employees are male, down just a paltry 1% on the previous year. With the number of white employees having fallen just 2%, it’s clear Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Jun 29, 2015

By John McCarthy Amazon is set to expand its seller loan program to eight new countries to help vendors get on their feet in growing markets. The e-retailer has extended its small seller loan system beyond the US and Japan to Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain and the UK. Amazon Lending, launched in 2012 to extend short-term credit to third party sellers, is available only on an invite basis only, according Reuters. It will be best used to expedite the rate vendors can grab shares in developing markets such as China where e-commerce rival Alibaba has a firm grasp. Amazon Lending will use internal sales Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Jun 29, 2015

By Michael Feeley The Open University’s free online learning platform OpenLearn has launched a new interactive game named O’Fortuna. Although available to all OpenLearn visitors, the new game has been created specifically for the OU’s History Department to complement a new course at the University. It is aimed at students with an interest in Arts and History and helps users understand the key stages of life cycles in the 17th century. The game hopes to bring attention to the new course and to engage prospective students. O’Fortuna was created by creative agency Yoyo, who worked on a similar project for the OU’s International Affairs Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Jun 29, 2015

By Staff Writer Maurice Lévy: Christian Dior is both an amazing character and a brand that has lasted 70 years without a wrinkle, with a distinct style and image. He indelibly left his mark on fashion. Big names have taken on the mantle of the successor, all with very strong personalities, for example Yves Saint Laurent and, much later, Gianfranco Ferré. So how can the Dior spirit stay alive and distinct with this broad group of creatives? How does the brand remain timeless, and how does one define this Dior spirit? Sidney Toledano: When Monsieur Dior showed his first collection on 12 February 1947, Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Jun 29, 2015

By John McCarthy The Cannes Lions festival of creativity this year generated a total of 174,317 tweets from 69,422, showing just how far reaching the event is to those who couldn’t make it. Measuring the #CannesLions, #CannesLions2015 and #Cannes2015 hashtags during 20-28 June, social media analytics platform SocialBro, noted that the festival saw an average of 15 tweets per minute. The peak tweeting period was 7pm on Tuesday, boasting 5561 tweets in an hour. Geographically, the US was the most engaged nation on social media sending a total of 9,900 tweets (23.38 per cent) followed by the UK with 4,600 (10.86 per cent) and France with Read full story › Source: The Drum...