• H&M to Launch Upmarket New Brand
    H&M said it will launch Arket as a premium concept that will offer "a broad yet selected range of essentials for men, women and children, as well as a smaller, curated assortment for the home." It is Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz's first new brand in three years. Some stores will also include cafes serving "new Nordic" cuisine.
  • Amazon Pushes Brands To Bypass Wal-Mart
    Amazon.com Inc. has invited execs from General Mills and Mondelez to its headquarters with the aim of convincing them to start shipping products directly to online shoppers and bypass chains like Wal-Mart, Target and Costco. Executives will attend the three-day gathering in May, according to Bloomberg. Attendees will tour an Amazon fulfillment center and hear a presentation from Jeff Wilke, worldwide consumer chief.
  • Americans Trust Ads More Than News
    A study by market research firm YouGov found the American public's faith in the ads they see has grown over the past few years, just as trust in mass-media news and government sink to new lows. Nearly three-quarters of people surveyed now say they think advertising is generally "honest" - a 16% jump from March 2014.
  • Wells Fargo To Introduce Cardless ATM
    Smartphone-toting customers will soon be able to withdraw money at Wells Fargo Bank's 13,000 ATMs without inserting their debit card. Customers will be able to get a single-use, eight-digit code from the bank's phone app which they will input with their ATM PIN number to access ATM options. "We believe the future is cardless," says Brett Pitts, the company's head of digital for virtual channels.
  • Palmer Luckey Is Out At Facebook
    Three years after he sold his VR startup to Facebook for over $2 billion, Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey is leaving Facebook. It is unclear if this is voluntary as he caused a ruckus after donating $10,000 to an organization seeking to discredit former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
  • Unilever CMO Keith Weed Talks Strategy, Metrics
    Unilever has the second-largest marketing budget in the world, spending $8.4 billion. One of Unilever CMO Keith Weed's biggest concerns is getting people to watch its ads online in a world where people have many distractions. Weed is particularly worried about how the advertising industry decides whether something has actually been viewed or not.
  • Coca-Cola And The Rise Of The 'Chief Growth Officer'
    Coke's global CMO Marcos de Quinto is retiring and the company is getting rid of the chief marketing officer role and replacing it with a chief growth officer. It is a sign of a transformation at the brand as it moves from being a classic beverage company to a tech company. Coke is far from the only brand to hire a CGO. Consumer goods giants including Colgate-Palmolive, Coty and Mondelez have all hired CGOs.
  • Intentional Walk: MLB Welcomes Canines To 'Dog Day' Promos
    There will be no shortage of TAIL-gating during Major League Baseball's Dog Days of Summer promo. About half of MLB teams will host a version of the promos this season, with many of the events benefiting a local pet adoption or rescue agency. AvoDerm Natural Pet Foods, Nylabone and Rachel Ray's Nutrish are some of the partnering brands.
  • New Perfume Makes You Smell Like A Kitten. Really.
    Demeter Fragrance Library has come out with a new fragrance called "Kitten Fur" which smells "almost like a combination of skin and sunshine." According to the company website, the fragrance captures "the olfactory essence of that "purr-fect spot, just behind a kitten's neck." Other scents the company produces include "Bacon" and "Puppy's Breath."
  • Levi's Adds MLB Brands To Collection
    Levi Strauss & Co. has added eight teams to its MLB collection, bringing the total to 12. The collection is being positioned to leverage the brand's "all-American aesthetic." Baseball team logos "represent much more than just a team, they represent the city itself. When combined with a Levi's silhouette, it makes for a very special design."
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