Posts made in August, 2016

on Aug 30, 2016

By Rebecca Stewart Warner Bros is the first UK brand to make use of Twitter’s Promoted Stickers feature, launching a series of overlays for its forthcoming Harry Potter spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Stickers, which are essentially ‘visual hashtags‘, were developed by Twitter earlier this year to let users personalise their photos via a library of accessories, emojis, and props. Writing in a blog post yesterday (29 August) Twitter’s head of editorial, Gordon Macmillan, announced that the movie giant would premiere them in the UK, adding that the new format offered advertisers the “chance to drive brand Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Aug 30, 2016

By Tony Connelly Saatchi & Saatchi New York has made some surprising changes to its senior leadership after parting ways with chief executive Brent Smart and chief creative officer Jay Benjamin. Both Smart and Benjamin will leave the agency on 1 September to pursue other opportunities following lengthy discussions over who will take up their roles. The agency’s New York president, Andrea Diquez, and Saatchi & Saatchi Latin American chief creative officer, Javier Campopiano, will replace them. “Jay and I started this journey of reinventing Saatchi New York together as partners, and we’ve decided to finish as partners, as we both leave the agency to pursue Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Aug 30, 2016

By Jennifer Faull The European Commission has found that Apple was illegally given tax benefits amounting to some €13bn by the Irish tax authorities, which must now be recovered. During a three-year investigation, The Commission found that selective treatment allowed Apple to pay an effective corporate tax rate of one per cent on its European profits in 2003. In other words, for every €1m in profit made from sales across Europe it paid €10,000 in tax. This dropped even further to a rate of 0.005 per cent in 2014; or just €50 for every €1m in profit. Apple was able to do so thanks to a Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Aug 30, 2016

By Rebekah Miller Christmas is coming, the countdown is on. For retailers and brands alike, 60 per cent of annual sales happen over the festive period so ensuring people are excited about your product is essential. This is as relevant for the everyday products that get us through the festive season as it is for the brands aiming to top the wish lists. By now most brands will have locked their long lead ABL activity, but there’s still time to power that extra buzz, which makes the difference between a product people will queue down the street for and one that’s left neglected in Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Aug 30, 2016

By Tony Connelly Discussions of a possible merger between Oreo owner Mondelez and The Hershey Company have ended after the two companies failed to come to an agreement. Mondelez’s chief executive, Irene Rosenfeld, said the company decided “there is no actionable path forward toward an agreement” following the latest discussions between the two companies. Had the deal gone through the new entity would have represented a global powerhouse with some of the world’s best-known chocolates and snacks in its products range including Cadbury and Oreo. In June, Hershey revealed that its controlling shareholder, the Hershey Trust, had rejected a preliminary Read full story › Source: The Drum...