Real Time Trends Network

Home to Amazon’s headquarters, The Spheres were never going to be mediocre. Comprising three distinct glass dome buildings that contain the online retail giant’s workspaces as well as a sprawling urban botanical garden, the structures in Downtown Seattle have drawn intrigue and plaudits for its centrepiece design. Now — in addition to twice monthly tours — the public has a new way to step inside the otherwise private campus: Willmott’s Ghost, a new restaurant from James Beard Award winning chef Renee Erickson. Focused on a crowd pleasing offering of Roman-style pizza al taglio and Italian aperitivo cocktails, the menu here is no doubt a big attraction but the real star of the show is the space, with architecture by Heliotrope Architects and interior design by Price Erickson. Named for a thistle-like flower dedicated to Victorian horticulturalist Ellen Ann Willmott, the restaurant takes its lead from the world-class collection of plants that thrive within the climate-controlled spaces

One month after a group of music publishers sued it for copyright infringement, Peloton is firing back with a countersuit claiming anticompetitive conduct. On Tuesday, the New York-based fitness startup filed an answer to a complaint by members of the National Music Publishers’ Association and other publishers in U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York. “Peloton is not the bad actor that Plaintiffs portray it to be,” the 46-page counterclaim reads. “Peloton values the musical element of its service offering and respects — and pays — the music rightsholders associated with that offering.” The legal move is a response to a March filing in which several members of the National Music Publishers Association, such as The Royalty Network, sued 7-year-old Peloton, seeking damages in excess of $150 million for allegedly using unlicensed recordings from high-profile musicians including Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga. Many in the music business were surprised that a company of Pelo

Verizon Media is banking on 5G mobile internet speeds to set it apart during negotiations with advertisers this spring. The wireless carrier announced a series of programs around shopping, news, finance and sports that revolve around the faster connectivity during its NewFronts presentation on Tuesday evening.  Verizon discussed how faster 5G speeds would help improve its ad products and media partnerships through emerging technology like augmented reality and video streaming. The company also touted its “first-party data” collected from the internet habits of more than a billion users on its platforms. “We’re working hard to connect everything Verizon Media has to offer,” Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan said on stage. The company is making use of data from properties like Yahoo Mail, where it can analyze almost 50 billion coupons sent to users, Gowrappan said. Data is one way the company can differentiate itself from other ad tech firms that don’t have the same direct relationshi

It isn’t exactly a new strategy for digital publishers to position themselves as TV replacements during the NewFronts. But Condé Nast is making the most direct push so far to take on traditional during this week’s NewFronts, introducing new ad products that package its premium inventory, and a deal with Nielsen to measure its content. “We are the new Thursday night and we are always on,” Pamela Drucker Mann, chief revenue and marketing officer, said during Condé’s presentation at Mercado Little Spain in New York City on Tuesday afternoon. Condé Nast is expanding its so-called Prime ad product, packaging inventory from its higher-performing series across its entire footprint, including on YouTube and its newer over-the-top platforms. It’s similar to Google’s Preferred offering, with the goal of connecting marketers to its top-performing videos in an effort to generate more viewership and longer watch times. And to combat ad-skipping and ad-avoidance that are rising thanks to the po

It isn’t exactly a new strategy for digital publishers to position themselves as TV replacements during the NewFronts. But Condé Nast is making the most direct push so far to take on traditional during this week’s NewFronts, introducing new ad products that package its premium inventory, and a deal with Nielsen to measure its content. “We are the new Thursday night and we are always on,” Pamela Drucker Mann, chief revenue and marketing officer, said during Condé’s presentation at Mercado Little Spain in New York City on Tuesday afternoon. Condé Nast is expanding its so-called Prime ad product, packaging inventory from its higher-performing series across its entire footprint, including on YouTube and its newer over-the-top platforms. It’s similar to Google’s Preferred offering, with the goal of connecting marketers to its top-performing videos in an effort to generate more viewership and longer watch times. And to combat ad-skipping and ad-avoidance that are rising thanks to the po

There’s an old truism in the ad business that you can get people to remember an ad by showing something outrageous. David Ogilvy likened it to showing a gorilla in a jock strap. But these days, unless you’re selling jock straps for gorillas, it is unlikely that people will remember your brand. The same notion is alive and well in content marketing where catchy “click bait” headlines vie for your attention but rarely lead to memorable or meaningful engagement. Unless you’re Randy Frisch, CMO of the content marketing platform Uberflip. Frustrated by what he was seeing, Frisch penned a blog post on an airplane with the title ‘F#ck Content Marketing' that even his own staff wouldn’t let him publish it right away. But after four months of cajoling and an insistence that they actually read the post, Frisch got his way. It created quite a stir and lead him to write a book by the same title that came out earlier this year. Redirecting marketers to focus on content experience rather tha

The president's description of abortion was a false narrative of sadistic medical professionals and evil women. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2XRL896 via IFTTT

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rolled out a redesign of his social networking app with a focus on communities known as Groups, and a layout that loses the blue. On Tuesday, Zuckerberg opened Facebook’s F8 developer conference by announcing an overhaul of the apps, including the new look for the main property. Zuckerberg also laid out the plan to unify the platform so people on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp can message each other, and also reiterated a roadmap for better privacy controls that the company started following last year. The redesign of the main Facebook app was the biggest cosmetic change for the company in five years. “The app isn’t even blue anymore,” Zuckerberg said. The company’s “F” icon was refreshed, too. “To make it a bit more lively and modern,” Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg and the rest of the company are hoping for more than just a fresh start with the design, and Tuesday’s announcements were meant to signal more than surface changes. Facebook has

McDonald’s can thank two of America’s favorite foods, bacon and doughnuts, for helping first-quarter results appear strong despite fewer people visiting the Golden Arches. McDonald’s cited its “Bacon Event” (bacon is even more exciting when it’s capitalized and it’s offered with a purchase of anything ), the value-focused 2 for $5 deal and the introduction of Donut Sticks in reporting strong first-quarter sales at longstanding U.S. restaurants. McDonald’s U.S. same-store sales rose 4.5 percent, exceeding analysts’ average forecast of 3 percent, according to Consensus Metrix, and a 2.9 percent increase in the same period a year earlier. Global same-store sales were up 5.4 percent, just shy of a 5.5 percent increase posted in the first quarter of 2018. Still, with thousands of restaurant remodels, increased delivery orders and a renewed emphasis on breakfast, McDonald’s continued to see fewer visits in the U.S. CEO Steve Easterbrook, speaking on a conference call Tuesday, said higher

CVS Health is the first major brand to join the Quit Big Tobacco initiative started by Vital Strategies last year, taking the pledge to cut ties with any agency that counts tobacco and e-cigarette companies as clients. The Woonsocket, R.I.-based drugstore chain that ceased selling cigarettes five years ago in a push to promote better health has begun rewriting its existing and future agency contracts to include the new restriction. Plain and simple, contracts will state: “If you work for CVS Health, you cannot work for a tobacco or e-cigarette company,” CVS Health Chief Marketing Officer Norman de Greve told Ad Age. He said the requirement has been inserted into all of the company’s new master service agreements and over the next few months it will be added to existing contracts with agencies. The company’s agency roster includes Interpublic Group of Cos.' UM; Omnicom Group's BBDO and Publicis Groupe's Digitas. CVS Health already informally avoided working with agencie

Users who want to own that denim jacket Kim Kardashian West wore in her latest Instagram story can now directly purchase it from her posted content. And she’s not the only celeb who can help directly sell products on the platform. Instagram’s “shopping for creators” program, announced Tuesday at Facebook’s F8 developer conference, gives a select group of influencers and celebrities a feature already used by brands: shopping tags on posts. The digital stickers reveal the cost of a product worn in photos, videos or Stories, and then enables users to purchase that item. In the U.S., users can make those purchases directly through  Instagram’s checkout feature , released in March, which keeps a payment in the app rather than redirecting users to a third-party site. Checkout requires that a user enter his or her name, email, billing information and shipping address the first time they choose that option. On top of a product’s price, users are charged a “selling fee.” As of now, creator

As viewers in the most desirable demos continue to scurry away from linear TV like so many high-strung dogs scattering at the approach of a vacuum cleaner, the Big Four broadcast networks will have to do even more bobbing and weaving than usual during next month’s upfront presentations. And while buyers and advertisers can look forward to being plied with the season’s bounty of top-shelf booze and Lilliputian canapés, all the liquor and tiny snacks in Midtown won’t make anyone forget that they’re essentially attending an Irish wake for commercial impressions. According to Nielsen, broadcast C3 ratings in the first quarter fell 17 percent compared to the year-ago period, as ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox combined for an average primetime delivery of 6.26 million adults 18-49. That 4.9 currency rating is the lowest on record for the quarter and effectively means that fewer than 5 percent of the 128.9 million Americans in the key demo saw your ads while they watched network TV. (For the uninitia

Trump sues anyone in his life who doesn't do what he wants; the same is true, apparently, with respect to congressional oversight. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2VweYCM via IFTTT

Business news streaming network Cheddar is being acquired by cable operator Altice USA for $200 million in an all-cash deal—that’s a lot of cheddar. The move underscores the competitive, and growing, landscape of the streaming space, which continues to produce moves from traditional networks that want their own piece of the OTT pie. The acquisition will bring Altice News, which includes broadcasting properties News 12 and i24NEWS, further into the live streaming fray. Meanwhile, it helps Cheddar reach a hyper-local audience, and scale Cheddar’s ad inventory. Using Altice’s a4 ad platform, Cheddar plans on placing its ad inventory into News 12 and i24NEWS channels, and support it with local targeting, as well as on Altice One, Alice USA’s connected service with TV, internet, and streaming apps. Cheddar says it plans on developing additional ad products for Altice USA properties as well. Jon Steinberg, founder and CEO of Cheddar, will transition to lead all of Altice News. “Our goal

A layman's take on 'Avengers: Endgame,' the biggest movie of all time and the culmination of 22 MCU films. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2WeNtuH via IFTTT

After Day 1 of the NewFronts , we are already left asking, Why do many of these presentations still exist? Overall, the kick-off to the week-long event resulted in little buzz and few wow moments. Many of the so-called announcements made across Manhattan, from the TimesCenter to the PlayStation Theater, felt forced and created just to have a reason to get up on stage and remind advertisers that they exist. Hopefully Day 2, which includes pitches from Studio71, Condé Nast and Verizon Media, will have some more meat. As with our Day 1 live-blog , today’s series of dispatches come to you from Ad Age’s Jeanine Poggi, Ilyse Liffreing and Garett Sloane. 3:15 p.m. ET Our YouTube is safe Condé Nast's Chief Marketing Officer Pam Drucker Mann talks up Condé’s partnership with YouTube. “I know buying YouTube can sometimes be a little tricky," she says, but Condé Nast is a different sort of YouTube publisher, she insists, because it creates and controls all of its own content to be b

The latest flexes from the Seth Rogen's new souped-up closet include pink suits and Palace, as he's showed on his Long Shot press tour from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2ZNHqPC via IFTTT

Welcome to the latest edition of Ad Age Publisher’s Brief , our roundup of news from the world of content producers across digital and print. Got a tip? Send it our way . Joining us late? Here's the previous edition . Bigger data: Meredith Corporation and Hearst Magazines are adopting a new Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab data-transparency standard, the two publishing conglomerates exclusively tell Ad Age. A little background: Last fall, the IAB Tech Lab, together with the Association of National Advertisers’ Data Marketing & Analytics division, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement and the Advertising Research Foundation, released what they called  a beta version of a “nutritional label”-style standard  for audience segment data sets to disclose the source of consumer data, how it was parsed, etc. Also part of that trial balloon: a proposed compliance program to keep participants honest. The beta release came with a six-month public comment period,

Democrats in Congress has started the first ever Medicare for All hearings to examine American health care. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2GUDZiR via IFTTT

ESPN The Magazine is now the latest publication to abandon print. Regular editions of the monthly will cease after the September release of “The Body Issue” and the publication will go online-only, Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN said in a statement. “Consumer habits are evolving rapidly, and this requires ESPN to evolve as well,” the statement said. “The only change here is that we are moving away from printing it on paper and sending it in the mail.” The move is part of a broader shake-up in sports media. Meredith Corp. has been trying to sell Sports Illustrated after taking over the magazine as part of its acquisition of Time Inc.; licensing company Authentic Brands Group LLC is a leading contender to buy SI, The Wall Street Journal reported last week. More broadly, magazines have been abandoning their print editions to cut costs, helping them cope with the loss of advertising revenue to tech giants like Facebook and Google. Condé Nast’s Glamour announced in November that it would end i

An investigation into the first full trailer for the upcoming 'Sonic the Hedgehog' movie, which stars Jim Carrey. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2LfnimB via IFTTT

I need Keanu Reeves to stare straight into my soul and say, “Motorcycle jacket.” from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2VAg7cu via IFTTT

When Allyson Witherspoon was growing up she’d sit in the back of her family’s station wagon (yes, the way, way back) with her brothers and check out the details on the cars whizzing past, keeping an eye out for the likes of the Porsche 911. “I just fell in love with design of cars, and particularly the headlamps,” says Witherspoon. While a career in automotive design wasn’t to be, Witherspoon, now VP of marketing communications and media at Nissan North America, has carved out a career on the agency and client sides of the industry. Witherspoon was so enamored with the prospect of an advertising career after taking an international advertising class at the University of Missouri that she quickly switched her major from accounting. She began her career on the agency side implementing brand standards for Mercedes-Benz, working on the BMW account and then moving to Amsterdam as the global business director on Havas’ Volvo team. Then Witherspoon headed back to the U.S. for an opportuni

Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots , new commercials tracked by iSpot.tv , the TV ad measurement and attribution company. The ads here ran on national TV for the first time over the weekend (April 26-28). Kia calls the 2020 Kia Telluride both “down-to-earth” and “a work of art.” Etsy shows off some of the handcrafted goods—including pendant necklaces and personalized pet bowls—it sells. And Delta says it “isn’t flying just to bring us together, but to show we were never that far apart.” from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2UPmsMJ via IFTTT

The 'Boyz N the Hood' director passed away this week at 51. And he shaped culture in ways we're still trying to understand. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2XPtO4O via IFTTT

Famously inept troll Jacob Wohl tried to frame Pete Buttigieg with made-up sexual assault claims that fell apart instantly. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2XUB1QX via IFTTT

Google’s YouTube reached a deal with Major League Baseball for exclusive rights to stream games in the second half of the season, continuing the expansion of live sports to the internet. The 13 games will be distributed on YouTube globally, and exclusively in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, the parties said Tuesday. The actual match-ups, which haven’t been chosen yet, will stream live on MLB’s official YouTube channel and via a new channel on YouTube TV. Coverage will feature pre- and post-game shows, and include YouTube creators. Financial terms weren’t given. “With Major League Baseball’s expanding international fan base, we are confident YouTube’s global audience will bring fans around the world together in one place to watch the games and teams they love,” Timothy Katz, the video sites’ head of sports and news partnerships, said in a statement. The tie-up is similar to what MLB did last season with Facebook, which marked the first time a major U.S. league agreed to show regul

GQ investigates the reasons why a simple iced coffee—a drink for all seasons, when you think about it—is so gay. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2DFsUAh via IFTTT

Traditional holding companies continue the long-held practice of consolidation, but their track record of driving value and efficiencies can no longer address the vulnerability that lies at the heart of their proposition.  Advertising is changing, and most agencies aren’t, at least not quickly enough, or in the right ways. One might say traditional agencies have been slow to react. It would be more accurate to suggest that they may have never seen it coming. Big TV budgets and treasure chests of hidden value go a long way to help drive shareholder value, but as digital has grown, traditional players have been caught off guard by the new demands for accountability and transparency. The limited data skills in the offline-dominated networks can no longer hold up in a world dominated by Gen Z’ers, influencers, big data, machine learning, crowdfunding and pop-ups.  A recent study stated, “72% of digital agencies worldwide say ‘data science and analysis’ are the technical skills that wi

Although some in the industry might not know what Criteo (pronounced “crah-tay-o”) does, chances are everyone sees ads served from its platform on a daily basis.  The company successfully cut its teeth on providing retargeting tools for marketers (someone who has left an item in their shopping cart, for example, has likely seen an ad served from Criteo). At its peak in 2017, the company had a market cap of $3.6 billion. Now, however, it's plummeted to about $1.6 billion, thanks in large part to increasing or looming regulation such as  GDPR and California’s Consumer Privacy Act of 2020 , as well as a broader industry shift to move away from cookies; think  Apple Safari’s ITP  and Google Chrome's likely adoption of a  similar solution , which Criteo uses for retargeting. The company posted its first quarter earnings Tuesday morning, and the results suggest that it's still trying to return to its former glory. Revenue increased 3 percent to $558 million when compared to

Traditionally, social media users logged into platforms to actively engage in some way -- to post a status update or watch a specific video, for example. But the rise of social media "stories" is a winner because it taps into an audience that is more receptive to advertising than other social media users. Why? Because users who are simply swiping through stories aren’t necessarily in pursuit of anything; they’re casually perusing social media for anything that grabs their attention. Enter advertising. When brands advertise to social media users while they’re actively doing something, such as writing on a friend’s Facebook wall, they’re not targeting a receptive audience. Those users are busy and aren’t as open to seeing content they’re not actively searching for. For example, I recently watched the Saturday Night Live clip of  Steve Martin as Roger Stone . It is absolutely hilarious. But before I could see the video, I had to watch a 30-second ad. I honestly can’t rememb

Whether it’s a tech company, marketer or agency, there’s a growing belief that every interaction a brand has with a consumer should be “personalized,” with a single ad being spliced into a million iterations optimized to appeal to the individual who sees it. Many companies say they can achieve these granular interactions—claiming that AI and machine learning will enable millions of ads to be served using only a handful of creatives, while increasing engagement and return on investment—but they often oversell their capabilities. “I could see a future where Coke has 200 different versions of a specific product and lets Facebook pick the best-performing creative,” says Simon Lejeune, head of user acquisition at Hopper, a popular hotel- and flight-booking app. “But ... issues will happen.” Lejeune says Hopper shifted its entire budget toward so-called personalized ads after seeing performance double compared to the running of “generic” ads. The deals “are very good clickbait,” he sa

Homing in on your ad target through technology is only half a marketer’s job: The other half is maintaining that customer relationship. Seductive rewards programs give consumers easy access to brands they already buy and give companies lots of data to mine—and the better the program, the higher the adoption rate, enticing customers to spend more. A Harvard Business Review report in 2014 says that acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. According to marketing technology and CRM specialist Punchh, an anonymous customer’s lifetime value to a brand is about $12 per year, while a brand loyalist is worth $173. Loyalty programs pay off “because they allow you to protect those customers that you’ve acquired,” says Guy Cierzan, managing partner at marketing engagement and analytics company ICF Next, which works with brands such as Hyatt on loyalty strategy and execution. According to a report from YouGov, 68 percent of wome

Brands like Nike, Champion, and K-Swiss want to make gear built for the sport of the future. The players just want to get ‘fits off. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2VsYStJ via IFTTT

A workout routine can be hard to maintain in the app-heavy fitness space, but writing things down helps to keep perspective. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network http://bit.ly/2LcWq6q via IFTTT

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. You can get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device; sign up here . What people are talking about today Chase sent a #MondayMotivation tweet that backfired--it struck many people as tone-deaf and poor-shaming. Taking a casual, chatty tone, the bank offered up a hypothetical conversation between a customer and his or her bank account. "You: why is my balance so low. Bank account: make coffee at home Bank account: eat the food that's already in the fridge Bank account: you don't need a cab, it's only three blocks...” In other words, if you're struggling to make ends meet, you're probably spending too much on Starbucks Frappuccino and avocado toast. Many did not appreciate that sentiment. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, weighed in,  tweeting  that taxpayers "lost our jobs/homes/savings but gave [Chase] a $2