Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Programmatic Please Programmatic ad spend is up from the trough of the pandemic. Through the end of July, total programmatic spend grew 11% since April, and the number of advertisers running programmatic ads increased 36% since January, according to MediaRadar. That’s a rebound from […]
Unilever’s sales and marketing channels are shifting rapidly during the pandemic, and these changes will be a permanent part of the business, executives told investors on the company’s earnings report on Thursday. “Online shopping, especially online grocery shopping, will not revert to pre-COVID levels once social restrictions are no longer in place,” said CEO Alan […]
More big names are joining the Facebook ad boycott, including Unilever, Verizon and Honda, and Mark Zuckerberg is doing damage control. On Friday, Zuck went live on his Facebook page to outline how Facebook is preparing for the 2020 presidential election, cracking down on voter suppression and trying to regulate hate speech on its platform. […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Store Of Value Many direct-to-consumer brands haven’t been able to maintain growth rates or flip to profitability. It’s been more than three years since Unilever dropped $1 billion on the men’s grooming brand Dollar Shave Club, and that business is still losing money, The […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. CMO++ Unilever has promoted Conny Braams to Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, replacing legendary CMO Keith Weed. Formerly EVP of Unilever Middle Europe, Braams is taking on the position during a time of rapid change in the marketing org. Unilever CEO Alan Jope, a […]
Most of the information brands have about influencers is flawed. “There’s no validating evidence from the platforms,” said Casey DePalma McCartney, head of PR, influencer marketing and digital engagement at Unilever, at an ANA conference in New York on Thursday. “The biggest issue is validation of the data.” Since Unilever sparked an industry conversation about […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Member Me? It’s been just over a year since The Guardian promoted Lee Glendinning from US director to its first executive editor for membership. It’s been important to have a decision-maker who can bridge the newsroom and the business side of things. “Roles like […]
CPG giant Unilever has 400 brands in its portfolio. Multiply that by a fragmented media landscape, an international consumer base and a crowded vendor ecosystem and it’s fair to say that Unilever’s global media manager, Luis Di Como, has a complex job. Unilever, in Di Como’s view, has four main challenges when it comes to […]
Keith Weed announced Thursday that he will step down from his role as Unilever’s chief marketing and communications officer in April. Weed has worked for Unilever for more than 35 years, the last eight as Unilever’s top marketer. His departure, which he announced in a tweet, has been planned for more than a year. It […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. CPG OG Unilever CMO Keith Weed will retire next May, the company said Thursday. Weed has been at Unilever for more than 35 years, and held the top marketing and communications position since 2010. News of Weed’s departure comes shortly after Unilever named Alan […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Hand Over The Keys Facebook has confirmed that last week’s hack affecting 50 million accounts did not extend to third-party apps using the Facebook login, The Wall Street Journal reports. “We have now analyzed our logs for all third-party apps installed or logged during […]
by Allison Schiff, Alison Weissbrot, Sarah Sluis, James Hercher and Ryan Joe Getting a big brand to shift its marketing approach is about as easy as moving a planet out of orbit. Yet, many see the writing on the wall: If they don’t change, consumers will leave them behind. As such, big marketers have to […]
The world’s largest consumer product brands are struggling to grow their US businesses. While some of the challenges are macro-economic, like increased transportation costs, the biggest factor is the growth of retail private-label brands, which can’t be acquired or stamped out like startup competitors. Large CPGs are also adjusting to new direct-to-consumer and ad-heavy startup […]
In an early draft of his prepared remarks at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting on Monday, Unilever CMO Keith Weed threatened to stop advertising on digital platforms that “do not make a positive contribution to society.” But when he actually took the stage in Palm Desert, Calif., a few hours later, Weed struck a softer […]
The largest advertisers in the world are still dead set on cutting advertising costs and reducing agency fees. On earnings call after earnings call in the past week, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies sent a clear message to the ad industry: The belt is tightening. On Thursday, Procter & Gamble CEO Jon Moeller told investors […]
As agencies struggle to transform under continued fee pressure from clients, executives are reassessing whether descending on the French Riviera for a week of endless rosé and parties on yachts sends the right message about the state of the industry. “If clients are using zero-based budgeting, let’s use it for Cannes,” WPP CEO Sir Martin […]
The in-housing trend continues to reshape agency and ad tech relationships. CPG giant Unilever announced on Wednesday that along with WPP it will invest $15 million in mobile creative management platform Celtra. The move aligns with Unilever CMO Keith Weed’s rather blunt approach to marketing strategy. “Get out of marketing if you’re not going to […]
Before he tried on agency life, Babs Rangaiah was a bit of a star on the CPG circuit. After more than a decade driving media innovation for global CPG Unilever, a shakeup in Unilever’s marketing org last spring led Rangaiah agency-side. Now, as a partner leading global marketing solutions for IBM’s in-house agency, Interactive Experience […]
T.O by Lipton, Unilever’s Keurig-like tea brewer in France, was struggling to turn analytics from its ecommerce platform into actionable insights. “With [tools like] Google Analytics, I could know what consumers were doing, but I had difficulty knowing why they were dropping off or why they weren’t buying our machines,” said Mathieu Bernard, ecommerce lead […]
by Allison Schiff, Alison Weissbrot, Sarah Sluis, James Hercher, Kelly Liyakasa and Ryan Joe Programmatic advertising comes in many flavors. A handful of brands load up to take their buying fully in-house. Many give their agency partners carte blanche. Other brands take ownership of the tech contracts and segmentation, while letting their agencies pull the […]
Billboards are lighting up with the promise of programmatic. Out-of-home (OOH) is projected to grow almost 12% in spend by 2020 – faster than any other traditional media – thanks to opportunities in digital, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. Digital OOH accounted for $2.7 billion in ad spend in the US […]
Boxed, a bulk shopping startup that competes with Costco and Sam’s Club, wants to woo a younger demographic of shoppers to its version of the wholesale club. The three-year-old company is on a hiring spree and expects revenues to exceed $100 million this year. Now Boxed is dabbling in brand marketing for the first time […]
Knorr is developing a taste for native. The Unilever-owned seasoning and sauce brand has been experimenting with interactive sponsored content and plans to make it a stock part of its media plan. That’s because it’s the kind of thing that engages millennials, an audience Knorr is particularly interested in courting. Awareness isn’t an issue for […]
During his first US appearance, Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang pledged the commerce giant wanted to help brands with cross-border commerce, not that it planned to expand into the US market. It appears he is making good on this strategy. Alibaba on Monday formed a strategic partnership with consumer packaged goods brand Unilever in order to […]
Change or die. The smart brands acknowledge this. It’s one of the reasons why ad tech cabanas and beach houses have taken over the sandbars surrounding the Cannes Lions festival, and why ad tech yachts almost exclusively line the port. “It’s important to us to understand what will change in the future and what will […]
Unilever’s open-door approach to data and technology are on display in the brand’s Foundry effort, a program that invites startups to pitch their wares and work on digital innovation with the consumer packaged-goods company. Global Marketing SVP Marc Mathieu noted today’s data-obsessed marketing landscape has little to do with the French railway advertisements he remembers […]
Data, to the marketing organization, is like a vitamin – good for your overall health, but sometimes an afterthought (or you forget to take it entirely). That was a core theme at The Economist’s Big Rethink conference in New York City Thursday, where marketers gathered for a day of discussion at the Time Warner Center. […]
One hundred percent desktop ad viewability sounds like the simplest thing and an easy standard to meet. But advertisers still are in want, publishers wish they could provide it and this demand has generated frothy press releases from the ad tech community with “100% viewable” bolded in the header. The problem is that “100% viewable” […]
It’s becoming acceptable for men to moisturize – and Unilever is very happy about that. “I’m also happy the world is recognizing that men should be portrayed as parents, as bright human beings and not just bumbling idiots,” said Kathy O’Brien, VP of skin and marketing services at Unilever, speaking at the ANA’s Brand Masters […]
Among the recurring themes Wednesday at Dreamforce in San Francisco was the need to develop customer-centric experiences that are both channel-agnostic and measurable. Online job finder CareerBuilder and CPG giant Unilever were among the major brands that took turns on stage and dished about their digital priorities, best practices and thoughts around their marketing investments. […]
