Interpublic Group is betting on commerce and retail media. The holding company has agreed to acquire retail analytics firm Intelligence Node. Exact terms were not disclosed, but the acquisition is valued at $100 million, which includes the price of the deal and the costs to scale Intelligence Node. Intelligence Node’s 120 employees will become part…Read More
Happy Friday to all who celebrate! In this week’s edition of stories we didn’t write up for one reason or another, we see Byron Allen (pictured) is suing McDonald’s, saying the company discriminates against black-owned businesses, and in the “I guess?” category of news, we see a bunch of anchor dudes have been named to…Read More
The Ad Council, at its 70th annual public service award dinner Thursday night, honored Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger as an outstanding corporate citizenship, including his support for multiple Ad Council efforts, and the event raised a record-breaking $9.2 million to support its efforts. The event was co-hosted by actors Angela Bassett and Lilly…Read More
Allen & Gerritsen (A&G) has launched a customer experience technology agency, CeCo Digital, to help marketers keep and grow loyal customers beyond the sale. The agency has tapped Bain partner Raj Heda to lead the new spinoff. CeCo Digital aims to provide marketers with integrated systems across communications, customer experience, and loyalty. The agency will…Read More
Veteran news director Ed Trauschke is retiring from Raleigh, N.C. CBS affiliate WNCN. He joined the station in 2017. His last day at WNCN will be Friday, December 20, 2024. “For the last seven years Ed has overseen the growth and development of our newsroom. He’s helped guide CBS 17 News to new heights, instilling…Read More
Of all the creative assets in a brand marketer’s toolkit, few are as humble (or essential) as the lifestyle photo–those stills and videos that feature a smiling model appearing alongside the product. Scores of agencies stand at the ready to book talent for jobs like this–often slender younglings who’ll pair their good looks with a…Read More
Cue the scene: me, 14 years old, sitting in the bleachers at my middle school dance. Not one girl wanted to dance with me. I couldn’t figure it out. I had what I thought were top-tier dance moves. But there I was, sulking in a dimly lit corner, on the top row where no one…Read More
With a valuation of $157 billion and a string of strategic moves, OpenAI is setting the stage for what could be a transformative 2025. The company is pushing to dominate the AI landscape by recruiting top advertising talent from Google and Meta, launching a search-integrated ChatGPT, and exploring ad-driven revenue as it refines its for-profit…Read More
If attention is what you seek and attention is what you measure, it’s likely you’ll create drama. And drama is inherently short-lived.
The managing director of Jaguar said, “We’ve certainly gathered an awful lot of attention over the last few weeks.”
Choosing the word “awful” was appropriate.
Here’s the design that made Jaguar iconic:
Sixty years later, it still turns heads and fuels dreams.
And the logo that went with the car did its job as well.
It’s easy for attention-confused marketers to get distracted. They think a rebrand and a re-logo are the same thing, they’re not. A rebrand happens when you change the promise that you make, and the expectations we have for you. A re-logo is cosmetic. Rebrand at your peril, especially when the old brand is trusted, iconic, historic and connected to a basic human need. It’s a mistake to focus on clicks, not magic.
The director of Jaguar finished his statement with a sentence that is almost certainly not going to stand the test of time: “We need to make sure that Jaguar is relevant, is desirable, is future proof for the next 90 years of its history.”
There are potholes to avoid here, even if you’re not a car designer or marketer:
[Whether or not I like the new design is irrelevant. This is actually about the promise a brand makes and the way it measures success. What’s the promise of the new brand? How does the design make this promise?]
Design is story telling with utility. But if the story is only noise and outrage and the utility is missing, the design, by definition, is incompetent.
The thing is, we’re not running out of noise, but we can always use more beauty.
Dave Griek will join News Channel Nebraska as evening anchor next week. “I am honored to continue my career as evening anchor with News Channel Nebraska,” Griek said. “This state is full of wonderful people, and I sincerely thank everyone who has allowed me into their homes, and given me their trust over the last…Read More
