Publicis Media's Performics picks up four clients
Publicis Media’s performance marketing business Performics has won four clients, including Freedom Furniture, True Alliance (Lee, Lacoste, Coach, The North Face, Speedo, Ben Sherman, Nautica, Riders, Ugg and Wrangler), Sensis White Pages and life insurance provider NobleOak. The contracts cover paid search, content marketing strategy, technical SEO, site migration strategy, conversion rate optimisation and analytics and insights.
The clients join recent new business wins Toys'R'us and FitnessFirst. “We’re seeing an increase in brands lifting their investment in performance content, our all-encompassing data and intelligence-driven approach covering technical SEO, content marketing and user experience. These no longer exist in silo – brands are recognising they need to strategise from an owned media perspective to move the needle in speeds like never before,” Performics Australia CEO Grace Chu said.
Fearless Girl cleans up at Cannes with three Grand Prix
McCann New York’s Fearless Girl statue, placed on Wall Street for State Street Global Advisors as a symbol of the power of women in business, has cleaned up on her first day at Cannes Lions, sweeping the first three competitions by picking up the Grand Prix in the Glass, PR and Outdoor Lions.
Vice valued at $5.7 billion after TPG investment
Vice just got another $450 million to expand its content empire. The investment, from global private investment firm TPG values Vice at $5.7 billion, according to founder and CEO Shane Smith. Vice, which distributes video content for a millennial audience across digital, mobile, TV and film platforms, will use this investment to build out future projects, products and revenue streams. This partnership, which will leave Vice as an independently-operated company, will help promote its programming expansion into 80 territories by Q1 of 2018 across all platforms. The funding has added to speculation Vice will IPO. TPG is one of the companies currently vying for Fairfax.
M&C Saatchi’s LIDA promotes Brendon Harrington to GM
LIDA, the customer engagement specialist business within M&C Saatchi Group, has bolstered its team with the promotion of Brendon Harrington to GM. Previously group account director, Harrington has clocked up over two decades of advertising experience, including a stint at Lavender. The news coincides with an announcement that LIDA is launching an integrated production team, which includes six new hires. In the past year, LIDA has expanded from 37 to 51 people.
Spotify testing 'Sponsored Songs'
Spotify appears to be testing a new “Sponsored Song” ad unit. According to a report in TechCrunch, the streaming giant confirmed the new offering is a product test for labels to promote singles on the platform. Instead of appearing as obvious ad banners like Spotify’s existing ads, labels can pay to have Sponsored Songs appear on playlists you follow or potentially elsewhere on the service. These can be targeted to appear to users with matching listening tastes so they fit alongside their other music. And these Sponsored Songs will be instantly playable and saveable instead of requiring an initial ad click first.
Mars bolsters digital innovation team
Mars has appointed Sandeep Dadlani to chief digital officer and George Corbin as chief digital demand officer. In the role, Dadlani will be responsible for working with Mars’ global business segments to drive its digital transformation agenda. Before joining Mars, Dadlani worked at Infosys where he was president and head of Americas. Corbin joins Mars after 14 years in digital at Marriott International hotels where he led the digital strategy and transformation. The appointments follow an internal restructuring of Mars last year which saw global CMO Bruce McColl's position axed and Andrew Clarke, who was appointed chief customer officer in 2015, take on the role of chief marketing and customer officer.
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