DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ OpenWeb, Which Helps Publishers Target Readers With Ads, Raises $170 Million
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Patrick Coffee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Open Web Technologies Ltd., which helps publishers engage readers and target them with ads, raised $170 million in a Series F round led by Canadian venture firm Georgian Partners, the company said. The new round values OpenWeb at $1.5 billion, up from $1 billion in its previous round, according to the company. It later expanded its services to include live-blogging, polling and data-management tools, as well as the placement of ads across publishers’ sites. OpenWeb counts more than 1,000 publishers as clients, most of which are based in North America, Mr. Shoval said. The company also focuses on content-moderation services to help protect both publishers and readers from harassment, hate speech and offensive content.

☆ Marketers’ Continued Spending Makes WPP Latest Ad Giant to Boost Guidance
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +2 min

PREVIEWLike-for-like revenue less pass-through costs compares net sales at constant currencies and excludes acquisitions, disposals and costs such as expenses billed to clients. The company saw like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs increase 3.8% in the third quarter, compared with the period a year earlier. WPP Chief Executive Mark Read said the company’s clients’ appear to be continuing their spending in the fourth quarter. “We’re not expecting a slowdown in the fourth quarter,” Mr. Read said. In September, Interpublic Group of Cos.’s Magna unit clipped its U.S. advertising growth forecast for 2023, saying a weaker economic environment is likely to cut into spending.

The Musk video by reAlpha included “robust disclaimers” establishing it as satire, said Christie Currie, chief marketing officer. The first Musk video went live days after reAlpha launched a public offering under regulation A+ in 2021. But the ease of creating deepfakes means some celebrities could soon be deluged by ads featuring their unauthorized, but very convincing likenesses, Mr. Moss said. At the same time, the language in contracts written years before the technology existed may be vague enough to allow marketers to use existing footage to create new deepfake videos. Companies most often request celebrity deepfake videos to use internally for training, communications, parties or other purposes—but not for ads, said Daynen Biggs, owner of Slack Shack Films, which produced the Elon Musk videos.

☆ 'Ted Lasso' star Jason Sudeikis on the two rules that have helped him achieve his dream career
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Morgan Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

On "Ted Lasso" Jason Sudeikis' titular character, an American football coach who manages a British soccer team, leads with optimism, camaraderie and the occasional homemade biscuit to butter up his boss. Off-screen, however, the Emmy-winning actor has relied on different strategies to build a successful career. Sudeikis explained to Indeed CMO Jessica Jensen that while he was growing up in Overland Park, Kansas, the goal was to take improv classes and learn about comedy writing. Then, when he moved to Chicago, that goal became finding work at Second City, a comedy club with famous alumni like Steve Carell and Tina Fey. That experience taught Sudeikis another important career lesson that would stick with him: "Pay attention to the people who have carved a path slightly ahead of you."

☆ IPG Joins Ad Holding Companies in Raising 2022 Organic-Growth Forecast
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Organic revenue growth, which removes the effects of currency fluctuations, acquisitions and disposals, was at 5.6%. Mr. Krakowsky told investors that the media planning-and-buying group IPG Mediabrands had seen double-digit organic growth. IPG’s more traditional advertising business, which includes its healthcare marketing agency IPG Health, fared better with organic growth of 6.7%. Its communications and experiential businesses, including agencies Weber Shandwick and Golin, posted organic growth of 7.8%. IPG’s organic growth was the weakest in the U.S., the company’s largest market, where it reached 4.4%.

☆ Apple starts selling front door lock that can be unlocked by tapping an iPhone or Apple Watch
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Apple stores in the U.S. are now selling a front door lock that can be unlocked by a user's Apple Watch or iPhone. The $329 Level Lock+ is the first Home Key-supported lock that's been sold in Apple stores. "The question is, is a smart lock a consumer electronics device? Smart home fans might simply be enthusiastic about a new Home Key lock option. For Home Key support, users will need the Level Lock+ sold at Apple stores or online.

Snap's disastrous earnings is an indicator to some industry insiders that the digital ad market is collapsing. Snap's dismal showing in its recent earnings due to lost ad spend signified an ad market further collapsing in the face of a likely recession. And now, the ad industry is scrambling to figure out what to do in a worst-case economic scenario. "I think the digital ad market collapsed in September," one adtech exec told Insider, noting a precipitous drop that month in particular. One ad industry recruiter who is coming off of one of their busiest years in 2021 for running talent searches for ad agencies amid the Great Resignation said new opportunities have all but dried up, as many ad agencies have instituted a hiring freeze.

☆ GE CMO Linda Boff tells Insider how she'll tailor her marketing plan for a looming recession, and what other marketers should do to survive
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Lindsay Rittenhouse | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

General Electric CMO Linda Boff laid out marketing plans amid a looming recession. She said the company hasn't cut ad spend yet, but they're being prudent with their ad dollars. Boff said GE could scale back tentpole advertising events, but it would be "foolish" to cut search. Many big marketers, like Microsoft and Procter & Gamble, have already cut marketing spend, and ad agencies are bracing for more layoffs as new business pitches diminish. If there's one area GE won't cut, Boff said, it's search advertising.

☆ Uber to Let Marketers Target Riders by Destination
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Patrick Coffee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. wants to help marketers target consumers with ads based on where they have been and where they are going. The ride-hailing ad business could grow far larger, Mr. Grether said, especially when self-driving cars become more common. “Cars will become our next living rooms,” Mr. Grether said. The rider can also conduct transactions, such as clicking the ad to buy a product without leaving the Uber app, said Mr. Grether. Users can opt out of targeted ads on the Uber app at any time, said Mr. Grether.

☆ Publicis Raises 2022 Organic-Growth Guidance Again
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Organic growth refers to the change in net revenue excluding the impacts of acquisitions, disposals and currency fluctuations. Publicis and its rival companies had previously increased their expectations for growth in 2022, despite global factors including inflation and the consequences of the war in Ukraine. Chief Executive Arthur Sadoun said the company hasn’t seen a material impact from clients dealing with macroeconomic challenges. Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun Photo: Publicis Groupe“All of our clients are actually confronted with one, two, three or four major challenges, like inflation, like the supply shortage, like the war in Ukraine,” Mr. Sadoun said. Publicis said its organic revenue grew 10.3% in the third quarter from a year earlier.

☆ TikTokers are smashing the stigma of getting laid off as a recession looms and more people fear for their jobs: 'Posting it on TikTok was the best thing I could have done'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Jason Lalljee | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

"I had suspicions a layoff would happen, but the CMO seemed very positive about building a marketing team at the company, so I didn't let my thoughts wander for long," Baird told Insider. "Getting laid off so many times has made me hesitant about taking another full-time job in the near future," she told Insider. "Posting it on TikTok was the best thing I could have done, it got me real support emotionally," she told Insider. And as businesses reiterated just how much they need workers, those workers expectations' changed, too. Nhon N., a 24-year-old recruiter who documented life after her layoff, told Insider that she's still a "struggling workaholic" who puts "too much heart" into her work.

☆ Kroger-Albertsons Merger Would Create a Big Player in Retail Advertising
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Patrick Coffee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

It also would create a big player in so-called retail media, one of advertising’s fastest-growing sectors. Kroger and Albertsons entered the retail advertising market in 2015 and 2021, respectively. Kroger and Albertsons don’t break out the ad revenue generated by their Kroger Precision Marketing and Albertsons Media Collective divisions. The merger of Kroger and Albertsons would create a fourth market leader at more than 13% market share, Mr. Lipsman said. For marketers, that would help simplify the retail ad market for consumer-goods brands and other advertisers who currently confront a rapidly increasing number of offerings.

☆ Walgreens Chases Customers It Lost During Covid Focus
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is planning to reinvigorate its pharmacy business partly through a marketing push designed to regain customers that stopped spending with the chain during the Covid-19 pandemic. The program lets executives analyze where customers are shopping and what they are buying, and use that information to reach out to them with more personalized marketing, Ms. “This is primarily a digital plan.”Walgreens plans to assess data to group customers into various communities, depending on what their needs are and where they shop, according to Ms. Brown, the customer chief. But a community of “support seekers,” who may need more pharmacy support, would be targeted with marketing around a store’s pharmacy services, Ms. Brown said. Walgreens in May named former Calvin Klein executive Linh Peters as its chief marketing officer, in part because of her experience leading marketing and loyalty programs at Starbucks, Best Buy, Target and Ulta.

☆ These 12 behind-the-scenes execs are innovating TikTok's surging ad business, which will soon be worth more than Snap's and Twitter's combined
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Lindsay Rittenhouse | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

TikTok's ad revenue is expected to triple to $11.64 billion this year, and it's building out products aggressively to hit its goal. In fact, if TikTok's ad revenues triple to $11.64 billion this year from 2021, as Insider Intelligence predicts, it will surpass the combined ad revenues of Twitter and Snapchat combined. Gabriela Comazzetto, head of LATAM global business solutionsComazzetto, another Facebook poach, has been overseeing TikTok's ad business in one of its fastest growing regions for just over a year. Shant Oknayan, general manager of METAP global business solutionsOknayan manages the TikTok for Business platform for the METAP region. Sameer Singh, general manager of APAC global business solutionsSingh oversees the TikTok for Business platform across APAC.

☆ Hollister Lets Teens Send Their Online Carts to Parents for Checkout
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Hollister Co., the Abercrombie & Fitch Co. retailer popular among teens, is rolling out a new system that lets shoppers pass their carts to someone else for payment. “There was a lot of lost sales on the table,” said Samir Desai, chief digital and technology officer at Abercrombie & Fitch Co. The Share2Pay system will initially only be available to customers in the U.S. and U.K. using the Hollister app. It lets shoppers send their shopping carts to the ultimate buyer via text message in lieu of a traditional checkout mechanism. Shoppers using the Share2Pay system can send their baskets to their designated buyers along with a note.

☆ Big decline in warehouse shipments is latest sign of the consumer pullback
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Lori Ann Larocco | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

A big decline in warehouse orders leaving storage and heading to retailers is another signal of the pullback in consumer demand. According to the latest data from WarehouseQuote, outbound orders from customers shipping to retailers is down by one-third (-33%) year over year. Jordan Brunk, CMO of WarehouseQuote, said with fewer products being moved out of warehouses to go into stores there will be less warehouse space available for incoming orders. Year over year the West Coast has seen higher pricing for third-party logistics warehousing, but more recently (Q3 vs. Q2 2022), pricing has decreased, Brunk said, while the East Coast continues to see a rapid increase in pricing as more overseas trade is routed for East Coast ports to avoid West Coast port labor issues.

☆ How GM plans to convince consumers to make the switch to electric vehicles
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-08 | by ( Kaitlin Balasaygun | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Scott Mlyn | CNBCWhen people think of electric vehicles, their minds typically jump to Tesla. GM plans to sell up to 175,000 electric vehicles to Hertz Global by 2027 – rentals are a key method to introduce more people to EVs without having to commit to a purchase. Over the years, GM has created other virtual showrooms like Chevy MyWay and Cadillac Live, but GM EV Live is the first EV-only showroom being offered by GM. Focus on all the in-car technology, not just EV technology GM is focused on advancing technology to create better and safer driving experiences along with sleeker models for EVs. Maintain core principles through EVs Wahl said one thing that has not changed is the underlying principles of marketing.

☆ What to Know About (Legally) Marketing Crypto Assets
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-06 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CMO Today CMO Today delivers the most important news of the day for media and marketing professionals. The cryptocurrency boom has attracted many investors, including less experienced ones, raising questions about what is appropriate when marketing these types of assets. “Over time, especially in the crypto space, we’ve seen [people] try to call it different things to avoid the securities laws,” Mr. Gerold said. What is something else?” Mr. Gerold said. Mr. Gerold said it can depend on what the stars are saying in these ads.

☆ Less Growth Seen for 2023 U.S. Ad Spending
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +2 min

Magna, a media investment firm that conducts industry research, reduced its U.S. advertising growth forecast for 2023, saying a weaker economic environment is likely to cut into spending. Despite the less optimistic outlook, certain factors will still underpin advertising growth, according to Vincent Létang, executive vice president of global market intelligence at Magna and author of the company’s reports on ad spending. Magna also cut its expectations on nonpolitical ad spending for the second half of this year. But it added that the uncertain economy would lead some sectors to spend less than they might have in the second half. Excluding cyclical political and international sports events, ad spending this year will grow 8.1%, Magna anticipated, down from the 9.5% increase it predicted in June.

☆ Unilever Goes Back to the Drawing Board With Accessible Deodorant Design
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

It has been more than 17 months since Unilever PLC-owned deodorant brand Degree said it had created a concept for what it called the “world’s first inclusive” deodorant for people with disabilities. The original design for Degree Inclusive featured a hook for hanging and magnetic closures. An ad for Unilever’s Degree Inclusive deodorant. Unilever introduced Degree Inclusive in April 2021 as a “concept deodorant” designed to make application easier for people with limited mobility. “Inclusive design and industrial design are both quite complex in and of themselves, and when you weave those together…it’s something that doesn’t happen at the snap of the finger,” he said.

Eastward Partners characterized the firms as largely growth-stage companies, or companies in the digital space that have taken external private equity or venture capital funding. The compensation data examines median total compensation, which includes base salary and bonus. Within those companies, CMOs’ median total compensation in August 2022 was 9.64% higher than a year earlier. That was a sharper rise than seen for other roles, such as CEOs, whose compensation grew 7.45%, or CFOs, whose compensation rose 1.96%, according to Eastward Partners’ data. And that’s actually impacting business performance, because they can’t find the savvy, smart digital marketing people to fill those gaps,” Mr. Neale-May said.

More marketers are taking notice of California’s data privacy laws after the state said last month that cosmetics retailer Sephora had agreed to pay $1.2 million in penalties for alleged violations related to its targeted advertising practices. Some companies that have received letters have complied or begun working toward compliance, while others remain under investigation, the spokesperson said. Many companies delayed compliance because they disagree with that definition and don’t want to tell consumers that they sell data, he said. The state’s determination that Sephora didn’t process global opt-out requests played a key role in the attorney general’s decision to take action. “People see a headline about Sephora and everyone thinks they sold data,” she said.

☆ Peloton Seeks First CMO as Marketing Head Exits
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Peloton Interactive Inc. is on the hunt for its first chief marketing officer after Dara Treseder, the company’s global head of marketing, communications and memberships, announced that she was going to leave the fitness technology firm—joining a string of leaders to do so. She is set to join Autodesk, a design and manufacturing software business, as its chief marketing officer on Oct.14. Peloton is now seeking to hire its first ever chief marketing officer, a spokesman for the company said, following Ms. Treseder’s resignation, which was first reported by the New York Times. Peloton doesn’t plan to refill the commercial chief position, a move that, coupled with the CMO headhunt, signifies Mr. McCarthy’s vision to rewrite Peloton’s C-suite roles. Peloton global head of marketing Dara Treseder joined us in Cannes to discuss navigating the complicated conditions of 2022.

☆ Peloton Seeks CMO as Marketing Head Exits
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

She is set to join Autodesk, a design and manufacturing software business, as its chief marketing officer on Oct.14. Peloton briefly hired a chief marketing officer in 2016, but months later decided to place its marketing function under the purview of the chief commercial officer, the spokesman said. Peloton global head of marketing Dara Treseder joined us in Cannes to discuss navigating the complicated conditions of 2022. Write to Katie Deighton at katie.deighton@wsj.comCorrections & AmplificationsPeloton has hired a chief marketing officer in the past. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Peloton is looking to hire its first ever chief marketing officer.

, said in a statement that Drizly is one of the few places where her company can run multimedia ad campaigns. The database allows the company to charge above-market rates for ad placements, according to Mr. Patel. The company also hired Gina Hardy as its first chief customer officer to oversee all marketing operations. Mr. Patel declined to comment on specific growth goals for Drizly, but said the company sees significant potential in its advertising platform, which is independent of its parent company’s Uber Eats ad business. Drizly sales grew 517% from September 2019 to September 2021, according to market-research firm Bloomberg Second Measure.

Search resuls for: "CMO"

25 mentions found