Marketing Week
Morrisons is getting rid of the price-matching element of its Match & More loyalty scheme in an overhaul that will see the supermarket adopt a more traditional programme that rewards spend with points. The scheme has been under review since former CEO Dalton Philips left the business earlier this year. He introduced "Match & More" a year ago. However it has been criticised for its complexity. Morrisons says shoppers will now accumulate five points for every pound spent online or in store.
The Drum
Channel 4 has announced that Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer will be the official sponsor for the return of its TFI Friday show hosted by Chris Evans. The seven figure deal will run over the course of the ten episode series due to begin on 16 October. The marketing campaign is themed around the line "Give it Some Ginger" -- a play on the drink's name and Evans hair colour -- and will feature an eccentric central character turning inanimate objects, people and animals ginger in a series of live-action 15-second spots.
The Drum
Argos is set to introduce a new same-day home delivery service as is it looks to "bring shopping into the digital age". The Fast Track service will run seven days a week with around 20,000 products eligible for order. Delivery will take place during one of four allocated slots every day, and customers who order by 6pm can get an item delivered by 10 p.m. the same day. Orders placed before midnight will be delivered between 7 a.m.-10 a.m., or 10 a.m.-1 p.m. the following day.
The Drum
Publishers and advertisers' struggles with ad blockers have been dealt a significant blow with the news that Apple has, for the first time, approved an app that will block in-app ads. The Been Choice app sharpens the threat to the publishing and ad industries that spawned from Apple's decision to allow users to block ads in their mobile browsers. The new app takes things one perilous step further with the the ability to block advertisements which appear within apps; it even blocks ads from Apple's own News app.
The Times
Britain's biggest regional and local newspaper group, Trinity Mirror, is exploring a plan to stop readers using ad-blocking software on their iPhones or iPads from accessing its Web sites. The move, confirmed to the "Times" by sources at the company, is a sign of the threat the apps represent to publishing groups that rely on advertising because they give away their content free. The popularity of ad-blockers exploded last month after Apple allowed mobile customers to download the software for the first time.
The Mirror UK
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has been named the new Twitter CEO -- a job he was sacked from just 7 years ago. His predecessor, Dick Costolo, quit the social network just months after he admitted that Twitter "sucks" at dealing with abusive behaviour and content. This marks Dorsey's second stint as chief executive since he helped start the San Francisco company more than nine years ago with Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass.
Press Gazette
The Emap name is to be "retired" as it plans to move completely out of print over the next 18 months. The move comes eight years after Guardian Media Group and Apax paid GBP1.1bn for Emap. Business publisher Emap changed its name to Top Right Group in 2012 but retained the name Emap for its business-to-business publishing division -- which includes print titles Drapers, Retail Week and Health Service Journal. Emap, 4C, Planet Retail and MEED are to be merged into one as yet un-named division.
The Drum
Mars is waking up to the value of its owned data -- sharpening how it collects, organises and activates those insights to ensure it doesn't have to go through third parties to access insights on its audiences. "We need to understand why managing and keeping your own data is important," Dan Burdett, global brand director for Snickers, told The Drum. "In the past, we, along with other companies, have fallen into the trap of allowing the data and information to be held by third parties."
The Drum
Rugby World Cup brands O2, Marriott Hotels and Heineken have downplayed the expected commercial losses from England's early exit from the tournament, although sponsorship experts believe the humiliation of the defeat bears a damaging cost of association. Tickets for England vs Uruguay, along with England's likely knockout games, are flooding back onto the market at a fraction of their original cost, ITV is reportedly set to lose almost a million pounds per game in advertising revenue now England are out.
The Mirror UK
Facebook is planning to launch a satellite to provide Internet access to remote parts of Africa, the social network's founder has said. Mark Zuckerberg announced that the satellite was under construction and would be ready for launch into space in 2016 as part of the company's free mobile data schemeInternet.org. In a post on the site, Mr Zuckerberg said: "Connectivity changes lives and communities. We're going to keep working to connect the entire world -- even if that means looking beyond our planet."