Marketing
KitKat has promoted its new 11-finger Snap & Share bar with a special package sent to 120 innovative companies. The package included one of the bars and a mock parking lot for people to "park" their mobile phones to enjoy a "phone-free" break. The insight behind the work was that people, especially in a work environment, can't stay away from their phone and rarely look each other in the eyes, even in a meeting.
Campaign
Procter & Gamble is planning to consolidate its global creative account for Fairy into Publicis Worldwide, Campaign understands, after ending its longstanding relationship with Grey. In January, P&G made a strategic business decision to consolidate all its "Dish" business -- which comprises the Fairy range (liquid and tablets) and P&G Professional washing up liquid -- into one agency. It pitted the brand's two existing agencies -- Publicis Worldwide in the US and Grey in the rest of the world -- against each other.
The Drum
Google is set to unveil its latest attribution tool geared toward helping advertisers link online advertising to in-store sales as part of its Mobile World Congress activity, where it also hopes to help media buyers better appreciate mobile as a brand-building media. Google Store Visits will help brands better attribute how their online advertising drives footfall using an anonymous set of Google identifiers such as a Gmail address and more, whenever a shopper logs into an in-store WiFi network or joins a loyalty scheme.
Marketing Week
The importance of virtual reality (VR) technology at this year's Mobile World Congress was underlined by a surprise appearance by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a Samsung product launch last night, during which he predicted VR will be "the most social platform." The company put thousands of its Gear VR headsets onto the seats of the auditorium so that every media and mobile industry delegate in attendance could experience demonstrations of the technology during the announcement.
The Guardian
One politician's picture dominated the national newspaper front pages on Monday. And one politician's decision to support Brexit dominated the leading articles. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson MP, old Etonian, mayor of London and political comedian was the centre of press attention. Front-page news stories and inside leading articles regarded his rejection of David Cameron's offer of high office as a lure to support his European Union deal as a severe blow to the prime minister.
The Guardian
One week ahead of Trinity Mirror's innovative leap into newsprint, it has released a photograph of its new national newspaper, the "New Day." Calling it "the first standalone national daily newspaper for 30 years," the company will launch the Monday-to-Friday title on Monday, 29 February. Trinity Mirror stresses that it will not be a sister title to its flagship, the "Daily Mirror." According to a press release issued early Monday morning, it "will report with an upbeat, optimistic approach and will be politically neutral."
Campaign
Viacom, the owner of Channel 5 and MTV, has appointed PHD as its UK media agency after consolidating its planning and buying for all its TV channels for the first time. PHD will be likely to savour its appointment to the estimated GBP15 million Viacom account after MTV dumped the agency a year ago during a trading dispute in the UK between Omnicom, the parent company of PHD, and Channel 5. Five agencies contested the Viacom International Media Networks pitch.
The Drum
British Airways is flying high, having seen off competition from 1,600 brands; including the likes of Heinz, Jaguar and M&S to top the latest Superbrand index for the third year on the trot. The 2016 edition of the survey marks a return to form for traditional transport and manufacturing brands following an onslaught from upstart technology firms in past years, with luxury watch brand Rolex grabbing the second spot followed by Danish toy brand Lego and home appliance specialists Dyson.
Marketing
Cognac brand Martell has created packaging that transforms into a virtual reality (VR) headset to take fans on a journey from Cognac to Shanghai. The packaging for the limited edition 'La French Touch' Martell cognac can be made into a Google Cardboard VR headset and when combined with rendering software WebGL it creates an immersive gaming experience. Gamers can take control of a bird -- the Martell logo -- to bring the bird and the La French Touch house music genre from Cognac in France to Shanghai.
Campaign
The chief executive of O2 has warned that the current environment for mobile advertising "is not tenable" because it is too intrusive and the ad industry must unite to produce more "lean advertising." Ronan Dunne said in an interview with "Campaign" that phone carriers and advertisers need to cut back on "a lot of what can only be described as intrusive forms of advertising that are probably going beyond what customers reasonably want and expect."