Happy's marketing news - 07.04.17
It’s been a busy week in the marketing world, here’s what has caught our eye!
Pepsi has pulled its controversial advert featuring celebrity Kendall Jenner at a protest. The video has been removed from YouTube and in a statement, the company said: “Pepsi was trying to project a global a message of unity, peace and understanding. The advert was widely criticised for appearing to trivialise demonstrations aimed at tackling social justice causes, suggesting that protestors and police would get along better if the former were kinder and being insensitive with regard to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Broadsheet newspaper The Guardian is ‘actively considering’ a move back to Manchester. Senior executives at Guardian Media Group are said to have held ‘top secret’ talks about moving the paper’s HQ from north London back to Manchester. The Manchester Guardian was first published in 1821 and stayed in the city for more than 140 years before relocating to London in 1964.
Broadcaster Channel 4 is to relaunch its ‘Superhumans Wanted’ campaign as it looks to follow-up on the commercial success Mars experienced after it won the competition last year. Speaking at the Diversity in Marketing and Advertising Summit this week, Dan Brooke, chief marketing and communications officer at the broadcaster, told the audience that the broadcaster plans to re-run the competition this year following its commercial success. Last year’s competition saw more than 100 entrants getting in touch with Channel 4 when they expected just 20-30 applications.
Facebook is launching an educational tool as part of measures it is taking to counter fake news. For three days, an ad will appear at the top of users’ news feeds linking to advice on “how to spot fake news” and report it. The campaign, which will be promoted in 14 countries, is “designed to help people become more discerning readers”, the social media giant said.
Brands should be using data-driven insights to be more like online shopping giant Amazon and replicate the consumer and shopkeeper relationship of the 1950s at mass scale, according to Air Miles founder Sir Keith Mills. Marketers need to have a suite of communications and offers in their arsenal in order to tailor the experience to the customer’s specific needs. This means exploring a variety of reward options as not all loyalty is discount-led, argues Mills.
