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DiDi Warns On Revenue As China Orders App Removal From App Stores
DiDi, China’s largest ride-hailing service, has been banned by Chinese regulator from app stores in the country for allegedly violating laws by illegally collecting and using personal information. In response, the company said it expects that the app takedown may have an adverse impact on its revenue in China.
DiDi said it maintains normal operations globally apart from the suspension of new user registration in China that was previously announced on July 2 as well as the latest app takedown in China.
The Cyberspace Administration of China or CAC notified app stores in China to take down the “DiDi Chuxing” app after it was reported and confirmed that the DiDi app had the problem of collecting personal information in violation of relevant PRC laws and regulations.
In a statement, the mobility technology platform, which has which has around 377 million active users in China, noted that CAC required the company to strictly comply with relevant laws and regulations, follow the relevant standards set by the PRC government authorities, and rectify the problem to ensure the security of users’ personal information.
The company, which recently went public in the United States, said once the “DiDi Chuxing” app is taken down from app stores in China, the app can no longer be downloaded in China. However, existing users who had previously downloaded and installed the app on their phones prior to the takedown may continue using it.
Didi said, “The Company will strive to rectify any problems, improve its risk prevention awareness and technological capabilities, protect users’ privacy and data security, and continue to provide secure and convenient services to its users.”
Didi went public on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30 in the biggest US share offering in recent times.
Meanwhile, two days after the company got listed in the U.S., Chinese cybersecurity watchdogs filed a security probe against the company related to national security and public interest. The company then stopped new user registration as the CAC investigation was going on.
Source: Read Full Article


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Indraprastha Gas Q2 net up 16.5%
PTI October 19, 2011Indraprastha Gas Ltd, the sole supplier of CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in the national capital region, on Wednesday reported 16.5 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 77.22 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, 2011.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 66.27 crore in the July-September quarter of 2010-11.
Its revenues rose by 32 per cent to Rs 663.2 crore, IGL said in a filing to the BSE.
CNG sales increased by 14 per cent and piped natural gas' sales rose by 62 per cent in the reporting quarter, it said.
"On an overall basis, there is 23 per cent growth in sales volume during this quarter over the corresponding quarter of FY11, with daily sale averaging at 3.22 million standard cubic metres per day," it added.

domain: news


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WOERTH, Germany–Daimler's industry-leading truck business expects a return to growth this year after unit sales fell 9.4 per cent to 467,700 vehicles in 2007, the company said Wednesday.
"Our extremely important market in the NAFTA region and the Japanese market will recover as the year progresses. The market volume there will once again increase significantly," Daimler Trucks chief Andreas Renschler told reporters after giving a sneak preview of the refreshed Mercedes-Benz Actros heavy truck.
"Market conditions in Europe are expected to remain stable."
He reaffirmed his forecast that the U.S. market would recover in the second quarter. Daimler's sales plunged 36.5 per cent to 119,000 vehicles in the NAFTA region last year due to a cyclical market decline in the United State and pre-buying in 2006 ahead of the introduction of stricter emissions regulations.
While the group's NAFTA brands like Freightliner and Sterling suffered a sharp drop in demand, its Asian business with Mitsubishi Fuso managed sales growth of 1.1 per cent to a record 188,700 vehicles as rising exports offset declining demand in Japan and Taiwan.
Daimler's core Mercedes-Benz trucks increased sales by 12.5 per cent to a record 159,900 vehicles and received more than 200,000 orders for the first time, roughly half of which were still for the current, outgoing Actros generation.
"Never has the market boomed as much; 2007 was the fifth year in a row in which it's been super," Mercedes-Benz Trucks head Hubertus Troska said.
Thanks to "phenomenal" growth in Russia, Daimler expects to decide this year to proceed with plans to build a complete knock-down plant (CKD) to assemble trucks from kits in the country.
Renschler expects it would take about one and a half to two years to get CKD production running once all the necessary government approvals are extended, but it could already begin the assembly of semi knocked-down parts in six to nine months.
Daimler shares had fallen 1.7 per cent to 48.97 euros by 1150 GMT, while shares in German truckmaker MAN had shed 6.2 per cent to 78.06 euros after UBS cut its outlook for the European truck market and reduced MAN to "neutral" from "buy."
Shares in Sweden's Volvo, the global number two truckmaker, fell 5.4 per cent to 87 crowns, while Scania stock retreated 5.7 per cent to 128 crowns.
UBS cut its recommendations for Volvo to "neutral" from "buy" and downgraded Scania to "sell" from "buy." UBS cut its price target for Daimler but kept its "buy" rating.


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January 10, 2017
A new version of MyHeartCounts, one of the original ResearchKit apps, is now available. The app, which was developed by Stanford University and BioTime subsidiary LifeMap Solutions, measures activity from any wearable device linked to the Apple Health App and takes each user's cholesterol and blood pressure results to offer a risk assessment for future heart attack or stroke, and the updated...
March 21, 2016
At the same time as it announced CareKit, Apple announced in a press release that ResearchKit would be updated to more easily make use of users' genetic data, via a module designed by consumer genetics company 23andMe. Apple also added other modules for common medical tests to ResearchKit.
“The response to ResearchKit has been fantastic. Virtually overnight, many ResearchKit studies became the...


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UK watchdog probing PwC audit of Berkeley
LONDON, Sept 16
LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Britain's accounting watchdog said it has opened an investigation into whether PricewaterhouseCoopers was acting independently when it checked the books of UK house builder Berkeley Group Holdings.
The Financial Reporting Council said on Monday the probe will look at PwC's audit of Berkeley's financial statements for the year that ended April 30, 2012, as a result of a former PwC partner joining Berkeley's board.
- Housing, jobs data weaken, but overall economic picture still upbeat
- Target cyber breach hits 40 million payment cards at holiday peak |
- 'Duck Dynasty' anti-gay fallout sparks debate on religion, tolerance
- UPDATE 3-Saab wins Brazil jet deal after NSA spying sours Boeing bid
- Zuckerberg to sell Facebook shares worth about $2.3 billion |


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FinAi has received PLN 7.3 million in funding to build a new credit risk model
The National Centre for Research and Development in Poland (NCBR) granted FinAi PLN 7.3 million (ca. EUR 1.75 million) under the Smart Growth Operational Programme. The company aims to build a retail credit risk estimation model using alternative data sources and the latest research and tools in the field of graph theory. FinAi has signed project partnerships with the Faculty of Mathematics and Information Science of Warsaw University of Technology and one of the leading retail banks in Poland.


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The Tony Hawk’s ProSkater games are getting a modern makeover — remastered releases titled Tony Hawk’s ProSkater 1 and 2, which will be rolled out on September 4th. To make the anticipation more palatable, Vicarious Visions, the developer, created a playlist of tracks featured in the THPS legendary soundtrack. It can be browsed on Spotify.
Vicarious Visions has already verified that the remastered ProSkater games will include basically every song from the old ones. The current Spotify playlist, however, offers only 18 tracks out of 26, reports Polygon.
But that still means 18 pieces of exceptional nostalgia with Dead Kennedy’s “Police Truck”, Papa Roach’s “Blood Brothers”, Goldfinger’s “Superman”, the RATM’S “Guerilla Radio” among the others. Plus, Vicarious Visions already published a poster titled “The Hawk Mix” that portrays the tracks as a stash of 1990s bootleg CDs. The poster mentions a trio of songs currently excluded from the Spotify list: Evenrude’s “Vilified” plus Speedealer’s “Nothing to Me” and “Screamer.”
Tony Hawk’s ProSkater 1 and 2 will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC.


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Toys are big business:
In the U.S. alone, families spend $50 billion a year on them.
Unfortunately, more than half of those toys are duds:
Kids either get bored with them quickly, or don’t like them at all — which means billions of dollars of toys end up gathering dust and cluttering up our homes.
But now a new start-up has created a solution to this challenge.
And not only could it bring joy to the kids in your life this holiday season…
But it could put some serious holiday cheer in your pocket.
Kids Get Bored Easily
Most kids get bored with their toys quickly.
Given how fast their brains are developing, this shouldn’t come as a surprise:
85% of our brain develops by the time we’re five-years-old.
This means kids’ interests will constantly be changing — and it means that the toys that interest them will be constantly changing, too.
For parents, grandparents, and holiday gift givers, this creates a challenge:
How can you find toys that kids will like?
Introducing Green Piñata
A new start-up from Massachusetts has created a solution to this challenge:
It’s a subscription-based service for toys called Green Piñata.
Simply put, for $25 a month, the company sends your kid a monthly box of four new toys.
Keep the ones your kid likes, and send the others back.
Kids seem to love this idea — and so do parents:
The company has shipped over 2,000 boxes so far, and is currently experiencing 60% month-over-month growth.
Toys Chosen by Experts
The company is initially focusing on the market for kids up to age five.
With 85% of brain development taking place in a kid’s first five years, it’s critical that they play with toys that help foster learning.
That’s why the company’s toys are hand-selected by educational experts.
In particular, the company focuses on premium, colorful toys like these:
And to ensure that kids get more of what they like, and less of what they don’t like, the company has built a “recommendation engine”:
Over time, as kids keep certain toys and send back others, this software-based technology gathers data about each customer’s preferences, and then uses this data to personally tailor each box.
Now Green Piñata is raising about $100,000 so it can scale up its business.
The minimum investment is just $25, and all investors are welcome to take part.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the pros and cons of an investment:
On the “pro” side:
Strong Team — The team includes a Harvard PhD in Education as its Scientific Expert. And its Chief Marketing Officer has experience marketing to young parents from her time at Care.com and Fatherly.
Huge Market — The market for toys is $50 billion a year. With the company’s initial focus on children up to age five, the market is about $5 billion. The company is estimating that it can capture at least $50 million of this market in the next 5 years.
Clear Expansion Plans — In addition to its subscription boxes, Green Piñata has a plan to start earning revenue by doing promotions for its various sales partners, and by offering gifts for newborns and special occasions.
On the “con” side:
Competition — Now that the company has proven the validity of its business model, it faces competition from a number of enterprises (potentially including Amazon.com) that have far greater resources.
Supply — The company doesn’t manufacture its own toys. Instead, it relies on third parties to meet its contractual obligations with its customers. If its suppliers don’t deliver, the company could be adversely affected.
Capital Constraints — The company is raising just a small amount of capital in this funding round. It’s unlikely that it’s enough to help the company reach breakeven or profitability. While it may seek to increase the amount it’s raising, and may aim to raise additional capital in the future, there are no guarantees it will succeed.
But if these risks don’t scare you off — and if you understand how hard it can be to find the right toys for kids — why not dig a little deeper?
Remember: investing in start-ups is risky, so you need to do your research!
For more information about Green Piñata, click here »
Please note: Crowdability has no relationship with Green Piñata, or with any of the companies or platforms we write about. Crowdability is an independent provider of education, information and research on start-ups and alternative investments.


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COMPANIES are putting their hard-earned positive brand image at risk by providing a poor service to customers looking to buy online, according to new research.
Despite advances in internet technology, a YouGov poll of adults in Wales has revealed that customers' online experiences still need to be improved.
The survey, conducted on behalf of KPMG, showed that while more than three-quarters of people described the ease and overall experience of banking or buying on-line as "generally OK", only 8% rate it as "excellent", while 9% find it only "average".
Other than the price of goods, reliable websites that were easy to use most influenced customer loyalty to a site. Some 81% of those surveyed said this was more important than knowledge of the security measures used on the site to protect personal information (9%) or association to a
well-known brand (7%).
Phil Morgan, senior manager in information risk management at KPMG's Cardiff office said, "The attractions of e-commerce are well documented: easy searching, cheaper goods, and, supposedly, the ease of visiting the bank or the shops without leaving the house.
"Yet, often customers fall away, deterred by the very issues highlighted in the re-search, of poor site design, technical problems and inadequate online service."
The overwhelming problems remain the same old bugbears, with 42% of people picking slow website response or the time it takes for transactions to be processed as their most commonly encountered problem.
Poor site design which is confusing to use, came second, garnering 21% of the votes, while 13% were put off by frequent website crashes.
The research showed that
companies only have a small window of opportunity to capture customers.
Moreover, more than half would give up trying to process a transaction on a website after only four minutes of experiencing difficulties, while only 25% would keep persevering for up to 10 minutes if they hit a technical problem.
Moreover, only 15% would actually take pains to contact a help-line, if there was one.
The survey also revealed that brand damage is also still a real issue where poor online service is concerned.
When asked if a poor experience of using a company's website would deter them from returning to the site on another occasion, 58% said that they would give the site one more try but would not return after a second poor experience.
Meanwhile 16% said they would categorically not use the site a second time, while 19% said they would continue to use the site - but only if there were no better alternatives.
Mr Morgan said, "It's surprising more companies are not deploying tools similar to those their high street businesses have used for many years - such as analysis of foot fall, conversion rates, customer behaviour and mystery shopping.
"If companies want to keep on enticing customers to spend and save with them online, they'll need to do more to make the experience one worth returning for. Companies which address the problems consumers report stand a real chance of gaining competitive advantage, so this presents a real opportunity for business large and small to attract and retain customers."


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The new government are bringing in a series of measures designed at increasing wages in New Zealand.
The new government are bringing in a raft of measures aimed at increasing wages in New Zealand. Some of the new measures are already announced and some are in the pipeline, but all look like they will have the effect of increasing labour costs in New Zealand. This is not bad news as it will also positively affect the lives and incomes of many New Zealanders but small business owners need to be preparing for this now. Beany will be commenting on each new change as it comes up so this is the first of a series – let’s look first at the likely increases to the minimum wage.


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Twenty years ago, people were not concerned about obesity rates, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or the negative health effects of processed foods. Americans frequented fast food restaurants and drank diet soda believing it was best for their waistlines. Today, organic goods are available in most supermarkets, fast casual restaurants boosting fresh, natural ingredients have gained in popularity and soda consumption has declined to a 30-year low.
Pew Research Center surveyed Americans on their eating habits compared to 20 years ago. The results were published in December. Some of the key findings follow.
Americans Perceive They Are Unhealthy
When asked if people pay more, less or an equal amount of attention to food today compared to two decades ago, 54% of survey respondents said more attention, 26% said less attention and 19% said about the same.
However, when asked if eating habits were more or less healthy or the same, 54% said less healthy while only 29% said healthier.
What is the biggest problem among Americans? Twelve percent said people eat too much and 24% said the types of foods eaten; but the majority, 63%, thought both were to blame.
Nonetheless, 72% said they believe eating habits contribute to longevity. A near equal number, 72% to 71%, believe eating habits and exercise contribute to a healthy life while 61% cited safe housing and 47% cited genetic factors.
When asked about their own eating habits, 55% said they focused fairly well on healthy eating, while 18% said they focused very well. Others said they focused on the taste of the meal and on eating what is convenient. An additional 36% said not caring at all about what they eat described them very well or fairly well.
Attitudes Vary By Group
Among those who believe GMOs are an issue, 67% said Americans eat more unhealthy compared to 53% of those who don’t care about GMOs or care very little. The majority, 87%, said they believe food has a baring on long life.
Individuals who have devoted their own lives to eating healthy were likely to think what Americans consume is the largest problem, 34%, and that what a person eats contributes to longevity, 86%.
Vegetarians and Vegans are a Minority
Three percent of Americans consider themselves strict vegetarian or vegan, while 6% consider themselves mostly vegetarian or vegan.
Vegetarians and vegans tend to be younger: 12% of those age 18-29 and 12% of those 30-49. After the age of 50, rates drop to 5%.
Food allergies are present among a third of vegetarians and vegans.
Finally, but not surprisingly, the survey found that those who eat healthy as well as those who don’t, tend to have family members and friends with the same eating habits.
Melina Druga is an American journalist and author for ReportLinker, a search engine for economic and industry statistics that turns data and PDF documents into structured knowledge.


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It was rumored recently that Halle Berry had gotten engaged to boyfriend, Olivier Martinez, after he popped the question with a stunning emerald and diamond ring from Gurhan. Now, we’ve heard that they are actually not engaged, so our congratulations were premature.
A spokesperson for the jewelry company had originally confirmed that they had supplied the “engagement ring”. After the reports came out, a source close to Halle revealed that she is not engaged, even after she was seen wearing the new ring.
A rep for Gurhan said, “Although Halle is a great fan of Gurhan we cannot confirm that she is wearing a Gurhan design.”
It is still unclear why they referred to the ring in reports as an engagement ring, but we can guess. Just like Kim Kardashian, they just wanted some media attention perhaps?
What do you think? Were you surprised to read that they could have been engaged? Sound off in the comments with your thoughts!
Photo Credit: © Survivor, PacificCoastNews.com


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Advanced Micro Devices said today that chief executive Dirk Meyer has resigned in a “mutual agreement with the board of directors.”
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker has appointed chief financial officer Thomas Seifert as interim CEO. The announcement comes as a big surprise just after the company debuted its major Fusion microprocessor family — which combines graphics and a microprocessor on a single chip — at the Consumer Electronics Show last week.
Since Meyer has been a visionary CEO for AMD, which is a huge company but is always an underdog to Intel, his departure is an industry earthquake. In that sense, it’s on par with the announcement today that Intel will pay $1.5 billion to Nvidia in a six-year patent license agreement.
Meyer, 49, was a former chip architect and executive at Digital Equipment Corp. He became CEO in 2008, replacing Hector Ruiz, and has been a key visionary behind AMD’s chip strategy. During that time, AMD engineered a turnaround and outwitted Intel on a couple of fronts. As an AMD microprocessor design executive, Meyer and colleague Fred Weber came up with Opteron, the chip that gave AMD a foothold in the server chip market for the very first time. That started a long rebound for AMD and got Meyer the CEO job.
On Meyer’s watch, AMD extracted a billion-dollar settlement from Intel, ending antitrust claims. AMD also spun out Global Foundries, a chip making contract manufacturer, during the Meyer-Ruiz years.
The company announced its preliminary fourth quarter revenue and gross margin and affirmed that its product roadmap for 2011 is on track.
The CEO search committee will be headed by Bruce Claflin, chairman of AMD’s board. Claflin will become executive chairman as he assumes additional responsibilities during the transition. Seifert will maintain his current job as CFO and has asked not to be considered for the permanent CEO job.
“Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives, including the launch of GlobalFoundries, the successful settlement of our litigation with Intel and delivering Fusion (accelerated processing units) APUs to the market,” said Claflin.
”However, the Board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time,” Claflin continued. “This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns. We believe a change in leadership at this time will accelerate the company’s ability to accomplish these objectives.”
Seifert joined AMD in 2009 and has more than 20 years of general management, global operations and financial management expertise. Immediately prior to joining AMD, Seifert served as COO and CFO of Qimonda. Seifert said in a statement that AMD is entering 2011 with considerable product and financial momentum.
AMD said preliminary results show that revenue increased 2 percent in the fourth quarter to $1.65 billion and gross profit margin was 45 percent. The company reaffirmed its previous guidance disclosed in November.
[photo credit: Reuters]
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dELiA’s Going Out Of Business
Back in the day, dELiA's was the big place to order the most fashionable teenage clothing from, especially because it was such a novelty. There were no stores locally here in the Capital Region. Then, a few years ago, the big news hit that we were getting a dELiA's at Crossgates Mall and part of my inner childhood resurfaced and I got excited for a hot minute, forgetting that I was probably a big too old to be shopping there still.
Unfortunately, for all the upcoming teenage girls around the U.S., dELiA's announced Friday that they are liquidating their stores and merchandise. The company is now filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
While their catalog was very popular in the 90's, the store only had $137 million in sales last year -- down nearly 47 percent from its peak of $258 million back in 2006.


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Little, the ‘app only’ marketplace in the online to offline space (O2O), has announced the appointment of Amisha Sethi as chief marketing officer. Sethi is an executive scholar in marketing and sales management from Kellogg School of Management, and has more than a decade of consumer and brand marketing experience.
In her last role, Sethi was the CMO Global of a leading MNC in Vancouver, Canada. Before that she worked as the chief commercial officer at AirAsia and has been the director of brand marketing Asia Pacific at BlackBerry and marketing manager at Airtel. She also recently debuted as an author with her book “It doesn’t hurt to be nice”.
In her role as chief marketing officer (CMO), Sethi will be spearheading the brand building activities for Little.
She will be focusing on numerous strategies to enhance customer acquisition and also intends to build an in-house innovative team of marketers called – ‘Jugaad Marketers’. This team will focus on introducing unique marketing initiatives and transforming the O2O space in India.
“The O2O market in India offers huge potential to create and execute interesting marketing campaigns. With our new 3C’s concept of Crazy, Compassionate and Creative innovators, we will be creating a first of its kind marketing team called ‘Jugaad Marketers’,” said Sethi.
Founded by Manish Chopra and Satish Mani, the entrepreneurs behind the leading online fashion brand Zovi, Little is an app only marketplace for deals in the burgeoning Online to Offline space (O2O). Little is looking at offering 50,000+ live deals across 11 cities by March 2016. It already offers deals from over 8000+ merchants.
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- Indian IT to see little impact due to Donald Trump ban on H-1B workers in federal contracts
- New FDI rules had little impact on Amazon
- Private equity has trillions. Women get little


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HUNTSVILLE - Bigger is better.
That’s the idea the owners and employees at the Fireplace King had when they moved into their new home at 3 Cairns Drive in Huntsville. With a bigger showroom, bigger parking space, and a bigger warehouse, it’s everything the staff could’ve wanted, according to office manager Nancy Nickason.
“We wanted to upgrade the showroom, as we needed more space to show more product. We wanted to show it better than we showed it at the old place.”
The Huntsville Fireplace King outlet was originally located on Bickley Country Drive of 4,500 square feet in space for around 20 years, before the company’s owners decided two years ago to make their big move.
Both a want and a need were presented for a larger floor space to accommodate more products for their valued customers, according to Nickason. They finally made the jump at the end of September to almost double their previous floor space, to 8,000 square feet.
Besides the bigger showroom, they were desperate for more parking space and a larger warehouse. “We were running out of space. The warehouse space was really tight. Parking was a mess,” said Nickason.
Because of their new and larger location, the possibility of hiring more help might even be in their future. “We’re the same so far, but we may have to increase this year. We’ll just see how things go.”
Nickason said that the showroom turned out to be better than expected. “I think it turned out really well.”
The new showroom makes customers feel right at home, greeting you with a huge fireplace when you walk in and many more beautiful ones in the room. “I think they can see and they can visualize what the fireplace is going to look like in their house, better than we were able to before. They can come in here and see something finished,” said Nickason.
The new Fireplace King location is now open and ready for business. You can find more information at www.fireplaceking.com or by visiting their new location.


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Internet colossus Yahoo! plans to enter the daily fantasy sports (DFS) business this summer.
After reporting an underwhelming Q1 profit of $21.2m on revenue of $1.23b, CEO Marissa Mayer announced that Yahoo! was embracing the “rising trend around daily fantasy games.” Touting the company’s 16-year history of offering season-long fantasy contests, Mayer revealed that Yahoo! believes it has created “a unique take on this [DFS] genre.”
Mayer made note of the fact that “normally, we do not announce products before launch but this has been such an area of interest for our fantasy players and our investors that we wanted to announce that we have a new daily fantasy offering in the works that will launch this summer.”
Yahoo!’s entry into the DFS arena will likely coincide with the arrival of Amaya Gaming’s new DFS product, which Amaya has pledged will be in place before the new NFL season kicks off. Both sites will provide a welcome counterweight to a market that was increasingly looking like the exclusive domain of FanDuel and DraftKings.
Those two firms have a serious head start, but Yahoo! could bite off a healthy chunk of the DFS market. As Mayer noted on the earnings call, “our users spend 30 billion minutes a year playing fantasy sports on Yahoo!,” so there’s a large pool of potential customers to convert. And there are definite visibility advantages that come with being owned by a major search engine.
Given its existing online profile, Yahoo! may be less inclined to compete with FanDuel and DraftKings for league and team sponsorships. But Yahoo! has extremely deep pockets, so it just may throw some cash around in order to push the other sites – neither of which has yet to turn a profit – to spend more time fundraising.


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President Trump touted on Monday a “very strong” relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the two leaders reached a trade truce over the weekend and predicted it will lead to further cooperation on halting an arms race between China, Russia and the U.S.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi agreed Sunday to a 90-day armistice on the mounting trade war that would halt plans for the latest round of tariffs in exchange for China purchasing a large number of American products to cut into U.S. trade deficit.
On Monday, the president tweeted that U.S. farmers “will be a very BIG and FAST beneficiary” of the trade truce.
“They intend to start purchasing agricultural product immediately. We make the finest and cleanest product in the World, and that is what China wants,” he tweeted.


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Italian fashion brand The United Colors Of Benetton has chosen Milanese rapper Ghali as its newest brand ambassador for 2021.
The rapper will also create a capsule collection for the brand set to drop later this year.
The brand stated it is the first time it’s partnering with an artist who embodies its founding values of multiculturalism and integration.
Born in Italy to Tunisian parents and raised in Milan’s suburbs, Ghali’s songs mix oriental and electronic sounds. Simultaneously, the lyrics speak explicitly of dialogue and integration, with verses in Italian, French, and Arabic.
“We admire his style, his ideas, his attitude,” commented Massimo Renon, CEO of Benetton Group, in a release. “We are thrilled to partner with a great artist, especially one who shares our values.”
Ghali added similar sentiments: “Every opportunity to experiment and expand my art delights me. I am very proud and happy to create a capsule collection for a brand like United Colors of Benetton. It’s a great challenge, and I can’t wait to get to work.”


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That’s going to happen for real, and Samsung knows it will be doing a great disservice to itself if it should release the Samsung Galaxy S8 without this feature. One other reason why this feature should come with the Samsung Galaxy S8 is because of the disappointment that the Note7 has been known to be.
Samsung obviously doesn’t want to waste time before it uses Viv’s artificial intelligence know-how, and just as we have stated earlier, the tech and consumer electronics maker have revealed that it will be releasing the Galaxy S8 with Artificial Intelligence as one of its standout features.
The company didn’t give in-depth clues as to what purpose this feature will serve, but one we know quite well is that the AI assistant will be helping developers attach and upload services to the AI’s functionality. That comes as a pretty cool one since you will be able to bend the AI assistant to suit you, what you want, and what satisfactorily serves your needs.


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In recent times, monetary funding alternatives have elevated considerably. Accompanying it’s a rise in fraudulent foreign exchange choices buying and selling affords of varied sorts. On this gentle, a brand new federal legislation in the US was enacted in December 2000 referred to as the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA). This act duly appointed the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) to research and take motion on totally different unregulated companies that provide or promote international forex within the foreign exchange market to most of the people. On the identical time, CFTC can be approved to conduct the identical fraud investigation on registered companies and their associates.
CFTC additionally issued an advisory close to foreign currency trading to assist most of the people determine forex buying and selling scams. Apart from the official advisory, CFTC additionally launched a separate Shopper Alert that warns most of the people who’re coaxed to take a position on choices and futures. There are gross sales pitches that seem on the tri-media in addition to the web that guarantees excessive revenue in international forex buying and selling emphasizing on low dangers. CFTC urges the general public to be skeptical about these too-good-to-be-true claims particularly if the chance requires them to shell out cash.
Though not all foreign currency trading affords are fraudulent, anybody who’s all in favour of buying and selling should first know how you can detect if a proposal is a mere rip-off. The US federal authorities is a bit cautious about rising recognition of investing on monetary markets which poses dangers on uninformed merchants.
To make sure that a buying and selling system will not be a get money back from scam, the commerce must be carried out legally on an change or board of commerce as permitted by CFTC. In any other case, CFTC nonetheless has jurisdiction over a buying and selling exercise if a minimum of one of many buying and selling events is regulated or affiliated with a financial institution, insurance coverage firm, an entity or particular person with a excessive web price or some other monetary establishment.


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On Wednesday, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) granted approval for Upside Foods and Good Meat, a subsidiary of Eat Just, Inc., to produce and sell their lab-grown cell-cultivated chicken products in the United States.
Both companies are gearing up to debut their products with well-known restauranteurs. Upside Foods plans to debut its products at three-Michelin star chef Dominique Crenn's Bar Crenn in San Francisco. Good Meat is teaming up with celebrity chef José Andrés at one of his restaurants in Washington, D.C., though there's no word on which one or when customers will start seeing the meat on the menu.
Good Meat's products have been available in Singapore since 2020 and are sold everywhere from fine-dining establishments to roadside vendors. In a press release, Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of GOOD Meat and Eat Just, called its entry into the US market a "major moment for our company, the industry, and the food system."
Upside founder and CEO Uma Valeti told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday that it believes its "delicious, complex, and whole-textured chicken product" will "set the gold standard for the industry."
Both companies cultivate their meat by placing chicken cells in large steel vessels. They then feed the cells nutrients to help them multiply and grow. It takes the meat about two to three weeks to develop and be harvested before it's ready to eat. On its website, Upside compared the process to that of brewing beer, "but instead of growing yeast or bacteria, we grow animal cells."
For now, however, cultivated meat will come at a cost. Valeti told Yahoo Finance the company will start with premium pricing.
“Our aspirational goal at the moment is to beat the conventional prices....we're going to start out with premium pricing when we come into the market...that's because we are on a small scale," Valeti said back in December when it received FDA approval. He said prices will likely come down over time. "We expect our products to be at parity with conventional meat, but that's going to be five to 15 years away.”
As of now its production center, known as the Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) can produce up to 50,000 pounds, with plans to expand capacity to 400,000 pounds.
A spokesperson from Good Meat said pricing for its products will be similar to those at the upscale restaurants where it's being offered. He added that the company is willing to lose money as it gains customers' interest.
"We strive to work with restaurant partners to price our chicken dish on par with traditional dishes. We're not making money on sales, in fact, we're losing money, but it's important that our consumers are paying what they would for a traditional dish. As we scale, the cost will come down."
Neither company plans to enter grocery stores in the near future. Good Meat said it will be "quite a while" until it will hit grocery stores.
The industry is only beginning to heat up though. Per Grand View Research, the cultivated meat market was valued at $246.9 million last year and is set to grow at an annual rate of 51.6% from 2023 to 2030.
Brooke DiPalma is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Japan’s Largest Bank Enters Metaverse
Japan’s bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has announced that it plans to offer financial services to its customers over the metaverse from 2023. To this end, MUFG cooperated with ANA Holding, which provides air travel and transportation services.
Within the scope of the Collaboration between MUFG and ANA Holding, it was stated that MUFG will become a part of the metaverse platform “ANA Granwhale”, which ANA Holding is preparing to make available. The new metaverse platform is expected to launch with a user base of 38 million.
According to the transferred details; “ANA Granwhale” will be available to users in 2023. Users will be able to visit different stores and stands in three dimensions through their avatars on the platform. Avatars on the platform will be able to interact with each other. MUFG, on the other hand, will make its own financial services available in the metaverse through “ANA Granwhale” as well as in the physical world.
With this move, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group wants to have the opportunity to interact with customer categories that are difficult for banks to reach under normal conditions.
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Treasury Wine Estates, the Australian-based wine group, has announced that it has divested 12 non-core brands within its US portfolio.
The firm, which owns Wolf Blass and Blossom Hill, said that the brands were sold at approximately book value and represented around one million cases of non-core Commercial wine. The name of the buyer was not specified.
In a statement to the Australian stock exchange, Treasury Wine Estates said: “Over the past two years, TWE has been taking deliberate action to manage-down this portfolio of brands”, adding that the move was expected to have nil value on the group’s earnings in this financial year.
The divestment follows the group’s acquisition last year of the majority of assets from Diageo’s wine operations in the UK and the USA, in a deal worth $600 million.
Source: Treasury Wine Estates


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The European Commission’s latest investigation into Google won’t conclude before the end of the year, the EU’s antitrust chief said Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference at the Slush tech conference in Helsinki, Finland, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the EU’s probe involving Google’s AdSense service would “not be done before New Year’s.” Vestager said last month the investigation was nearing an end which could potentially mean a fine for the search giant.
The EU started investigating Google over its Adsense ad service in 2016, accusing the tech giant of hiding advertisements from competitors in its search function. It has denied the charges. It is the third antitrust case the European Commission has brought forward against Google.


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Apple is broadening its user safety features, launching a new satellite service Tuesday that lets iPhone 14 users send emergency SOS messages when there is no WiFi or cellular service. In addition, new technology can detect when you and your Apple device are in a car crash and reach out to 911 for help.
Apple CEO Tim Cook told CBS News that the company wants to enrich people’s lives. Cook has been with the tech giant since the late ’90s, and succeeded Steve Jobs as the leader of the brand in 2011.
The introduction of Apple’s iPhone helped push smartphone adoption to the masses, and in the years since its 2007 debut, the company has continued to refine its flagship handset while developing products like watches and tablets.
Cook even acknowledges that the company is pushing into the health and wellness space.
“I started getting notes about people that found out that they had heart issues that they didn’t know about,” Cook revealed about Apple Watches.
Now, with the addition of the Emergency SOS via satellite service, users can communicate in places where they wouldn’t have been able to connect before. To make the service work, the iPhone needs a clear view of the sky and horizon and the system will guide the user through a number of screen swipes, moves and taps.
“It sends my location information, including my elevation. It sends my medical ID if I’ve set that up, even my battery level on the phone,” said Kaiann Drance, vice president of Apple iPhone marketing.
Cook shared some of his thinking when it came to development of the feature. “I’m a hiker. And so, I’m frequently out in places where there is no service.” He continued,”The national parks are largely not covered by cellular service. And so, this happens to people all the time. And it feels so great to be able to talk to a satellite hundreds of miles away, traveling at 15,000 miles an hour.”
On privacy, Cook said, “We’re not sucking that information up into the cloud to make decisions off of it. We believe in getting the bare minimum level of information that we need to provide somebody a service and we see privacy as the issue of the century.”
And while Cook has watched the company gain trillions of dollars in market value and hold its position as one of the world’s most valuable companies since he took the helm, it.
“What we’re doing as a consequence of being in this period is we’re being very deliberate on our hiring,” Cook revealed about Apple’s hiring freeze. “That means we’re continuing to hire, but not everywhere in the company are we hiring. We believe strongly in investing for the long term. And we don’t believe you can save your way to prosperity. We think you invest your way into it.”
Cook doesn’t seem like he plans to retire anytime soon.
“It’s a privilege of a lifetime to be here,” he said. “And I get to work with people I really love to work with and spend time with them. And so, there’s a lot of joy in my life because of Apple. And it’s really hard to envision life without Apple.”


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A company which helped set up a string of Carl's Jr fast food stores in New Zealand has taken a franchisee part-owned by former All Black Michael Jones to the High Court.
The details of the case were suppressed this morning by Justice Susan Thomas, who allowed media to report only that the proceedings were taking place.
In the action, a consultancy company called Retail Focus Group is seeking an interim injunction against Forsgren NZ at an Auckland hearing.
Forsgren NZ, a franchisee part-owned by former All Black Michael Jones, has the rights to open eight Carl's Jr stores in Auckland and already operates seven outlets in the city, including those in Glen Innes, Takanini, Henderson and Avondale.
Other Carl's Jr outlets are run by NZX-listed Restaurant Brands, which also operates KFC and Pizza Hut in New Zealand.
Retail Focus' website said the company worked with Forsgren NZ to develop "several new Carl's Jr restaurants".
"Retail Focus had total project management capabilities for this project, which included assisting with site procurement and negotiations, procurement and installation of internal operating equipment, operational management responsibilities, as well as the full build and interior fitout," Retail Focus' website said.
In a testimonial on the website, Forsgren NZ managing director Barry Forsgren said Retail Focus helped select sites, negotiate terms with developers and coordinate new sites.
"Together with retail focus, we were able to open two very successful Carl's Jr. restaurants", Forsgren said in the testimonial.
The interim injunction application continues today.


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True Craft in San Diego
Stone Brewing Co. is one of the top business in San Diego and one of the leaders in the San Diego beer scene. While Ballast Point sold for $1 billion last year, Stone Brewing isn’t looking for money, in fact, they’re looking to give it away!
Greg Koch, the CEO & co-founder of Stone Brewing, joined The Mike Slater Show share his new idea, True Craft!
True Craft is focused on investing in other smaller craft breweries, in order to avoid being bought out by bigger beer companies.
Want more details? Listen below!
Greg Koch on "True Craft" http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/kfmbam/podcast/audioimport/2016/05/stone-brew.mp3


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Lerøy Seafood CEO Henning Beltestad has responded to a report linking a company slaughterhouse in Sandstad, Norway with more than 700 reports of listeria contamination between August 2022 and November 2023.
The slaughterhouse is operated by Lerøy subsidiary Lerøy Midt.
"Food safety is Lerøy's top priority, and we have several measures in place to prevent listeria in our raw materials and finished products. Our employees make a tremendous effort through systematic improvement work to maintain our high standards of food safety," Beltestad said in a 29 January statement. "Lerøy and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority share a common interest in combating listeria in the best possible way. Therefore, we seek open and constructive dialogue with the Norwegian Food Safety Authority to find good solutions where both parties are confident that food safety is well-maintained."
According to NRK, in January 2024, the Norwegian Food Safety and Authority and Swedish health authorities confirmed the source of several cases of listeria contamination as the Lerøy Midt slaughterhouse after an inspections found numerous traces of listeria on processing equipment there.
"In our opinion, the test results indicate that you do not have adequate management of identified hazards,” the Norwegian Food Safety Authortiy recently wrote in a public note to the company. "The results show more than 700 detections in the production environment, with around 320 of the detections in the slaughter department and around 370 in the fileting department.”
The 700 detections over 15 months were exceptional, experts said, according to the NRK.
“If these are findings on equipment where one would not normally expect to find listeria, then it is very high,” Veterinary Institute Biochemist Taran Skjerdal said.
Beltestad said his company has the problem under control.
"Our strategy is to search and find, and then take action. With such extensive sampling, listeria will be found over a period, which is natural as it is present everywhere in the environment around us. This is also the purpose, to be able to take action and reduce the risk of listeria appearing in products. When listeria is detected on fish, actions are taken, and non-conformance reporting is carried out. Although the regulations do not specify any obligation to notify for a raw material supplier like Lerøy Midt, Lerøy also has its own procedure for information to the next level, ensuring food safety," Beltestad said. "Lerøy's facilities are certified according to very strict food safety standards controlled by independent third parties. Lerøy has a detailed system for daily cleaning and disinfection of production facilities and non-conformance handling. We have also collaborated with our equipment supplier to make equipment easier to clean, thus reducing the risk of listeria occurrence. This is work that has resulted in new and improved machine designs that are now also available to other companies."
In December 2023, Lerøy Seafood recalled 160 kilograms of a gravlax product due to concern it might have been contaminated with listeria. The product was sold in bulk to Stanseveien 33, Fjelberg, Vulkanfisk, Tjuvholmen Sjømagasin, Fromagerie, Meny CC Vest, Meny Holmen, Meny Sandvika Storsenter, Meny Høvik, Meny Fornebu, and Meny Røa stores. The packaging for the product varies depending on where it was sold but has a best-by date of 8 December.
At the time, Lerøy said listeria was detected in one of five control samples taken by the manufacturer, and asked consumers who bought the affected products to discard it. The company conducts between 8,000 and 10,000 samples annually at its factory and on its equipment.
In November 2023, the Swedish Food Agency traced several cases of listeria in Sweden back to smoked salmon products produced by Lerøy Seafood at its Smögen-based smokehouse. The outbreak, which occurred summer of 2023, sickened 19 people, and six people with listeriosis died in Sweden, though it was unclear whether consuming the tainted salmon was the primary cause of death, as most of the deceased suffered from other severe diseases, according to Food Safety News.
Seafood safety hazard notifications from EU countries have accounted for the majority of the notifications per the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). Between 1996 and 2020, the most notified seafood commodities were shrimp (13 percent), tuna (10 percent), swordfish (9.6 percent), salmon (5.5 percent), and mussels (4.7 percent), study finds, according to Food Safety Magazine.
In total, 27.6 percent of RASFF notifications were due to microbiological contamination, 6.4 percent from listeria monocytogenes, 4.1 percent from salmonella, 3.9 percent from E. coli, 3.6 percent from vibrio, and 2.2 percent from norovirus.
Within the E.U. over that time period, the highest volume of notification-impacted seafood was exported from Spain (11.3 percent), followed by Germany (7.4 percent) and France (5.8 percent). Outside of the E.U., Vietnam was responsible for the most notification-impacted seafood at 8.6 percent, followed by India (54 percent), and China (4.8 percent).
Photo courtesy of Lerøy Seafood/Facebook


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Alibaba Receives SWF Investment to Help Buyback Shares from Yahoo
According to the press release, “Alibaba Group Holding Limited, China’s largest ecommerce company, announced today it has completed the initial repurchase of shares from Yahoo!and restructured its relationship with the Silicon Valley company in transactions valued at approximately US$7.6 billion. The closing follows the May 20, 2012 announcement by Alibaba Group and Yahoo!of a comprehensive plan for Yahoo! to reduce its stake in Alibaba Group in stages over time and a series of agreements to implement the restructuring of the ongoing relationship between the two companies.
The initial repurchase of shares, which represented one-half of Yahoo!’s 40% stake in Alibaba Group on a fully diluted basis, was valued at approximately US$7.1 billion. Of this, Yahoo!received approximately US$6.3 billion in cash and US$800 million in preference shares in Alibaba Group. Concurrent with the initial repurchase, Alibaba Group paid Yahoo!a one-time cash payment of US$550 million in connection with the amendment of their existing technology and intellectual property license agreement. Under the terms of the agreement with Yahoo!, Alibaba Group has the right to repurchase one-half of Yahoo!’s remaining stake upon a qualifying initial public offering in the future. Yahoo!originally acquired its stake in Alibaba Group in 2005 in exchange for US$1 billion and sale of its Yahoo!China business to Alibaba Group.
“The completion of this transaction begins a new chapter in our relationship with Yahoo!,” said Jack Ma, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group. “We are grateful for Yahoo!’s support of our growth over the past seven years, and we are pleased to be able to deliver meaningful returns to our shareholders including Yahoo!. I look forward to working with Marissa Mayer and her team in our continued partnership.”
Alibaba Group financed the transaction with a mixture of cash on hand, senior debt and the issuance of convertible preference and ordinary shares. The financing package is the largest ever private financing for a private sector Chinese company, and the largest non-LBO private financing for a technology company globally. The new equity financing was completed at a valuation of approximately US$40 billion.
“Over the past several months we have witnessed significant dislocations in the financial markets driven by global macro events and developments specific to China and the Internet industry. Our ability to raise financing in these difficult market conditions speaks to the strength of our business, our market leadership position and the confidence our investors and financial partners have in the future of Alibaba,” said Joe Tsai, Chief Financial Officer of Alibaba Group.
Eight international banks – Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Barclays Bank, Citi, Credit Suisse, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Mizuho Corporate Bank and Morgan Stanley – provided US$1 billion of senior debt financing for the transaction, while China Development Bank was the sole Chinese bank that provided a parallel senior debt facility of US$1 billion.
The issuance of ordinary shares was subscribed by lead investors CIC International Co., Ltd. and two of China’s leading private equity firms, Boyu Capital and CITIC Capital, as well as CDB Capital, the equity investment arm of China Development Bank. In addition, existing shareholders including Silver Lake, DST Global and Temasek participated by increasing their investment in the company. The convertible preference shares were successfully placed with global institutional investors from Asia, Europe and the United States.
Read more: Alibaba Group Press Release
CIC International Co, a subsidiary of the China Investment Corporation, invested around US$ 2 billion in the Alibaba Group subscription.
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Mazda has lifted covers on the big-selling little car that marks the next step in its successful SkyActiv programme.
The all-new Mazda2 will be available with a range of three different engines, dependant on market, including SkyActiv-G 1.5 and 1.3-litre petrol engines, or a SkyActiv-D 1.5-litre diesel engine.
SkyActiv is a programme implemented to increase efficiency without compromising performance. The company says a host of improvements are packed into its compact body and Kodo design, giving the car the look of a living creature.
Developed around the same engineering concepts as those in larger next-generation models, new SkyActiv engines, transmissions, body, and chassis allow the new Mazda2 to provide both improved safety and fuel efficiency while enhancing the all-important fun-to-drive factor.
The new Mazda2 line-up offers a range of cutting-edge technologies such as MZD Connect, Mazda's next-generation car connectivity system.
Available for the first time on Mazda's smallest model are advanced safety features that aid the driver in recognising and responding to hazards.
The new Mazda2 is the fourth in Mazda's line-up of next-generation models which adopt the full range of SkyActiv technology and "Soul of Motion" design philosophy.
Mazda2 has been New Zealand's favourite small car in recent years, and Driven will be having an early look at the new car next month.


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IF savers losing interest
INTELLIGENT Finance customers will see the interest earned on their current account plummet when the company stops its policy of 'pooling' funds.
The bank pays 2.75% interest on its current account, but customers have been able to boost that to 4.75% by saving just £1 in the Direct Savings account.
The company said that it will scrap the benefit from 10 April due to a lack of customer interest. Customers will now be able to earn the 4.75% on cash only in the Direct Savings account.
A spokeswoman said: 'By removing the 'pooling' feature we have reduced complexity that few customers valued. Pooling added extra complexity to our product, led to significant numbers of customer complaints and wasn't used by the majority of our customers.'
The company said the change should not disadvantage customers if they manage their accounts 'effectively' by switching funds between the two accounts. It added the move would affect a 'minimal' number of customers as most are offsetting their current account against their mortgage.
Meanwhile, the battle for current account customers is raging. Lloyds TSB is trying to entice consumers with a £50 offer and 4% interest on its Classic Plus account, while Halifax has launched a cash back credit card on its current account.
Other top current account deals includes Alliance & Leicester's internet-only Premier Plus 4% (5% before tax), and Nationwide's 2.4% (3%). Both need £1,000 minimum paid in each month.
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State of Podcasts 2018: Takeaways from Podcast Movement on monetization, diversity, and discovery
We spent last week in Philadelphia at Podcast Movement, the largest annual conference for the podcast industry. We’re big fans of podcasting, and it’s been exciting to see the conference grow from a few hundred attendees in 2014 (with a $32k Kickstarter budget) to 2,500+ attendees today. The event brought together podcasters and podcasting companies (Gimlet, Panoply), tech companies (Spotify, Google), media companies (NPR, Buzzfeed), and even consumer brands (the closing party was sponsored by Jack Daniel’s!).
Over the last ten years, the percentage of people in the U.S. who reported listening to a podcast in the last month has grown from 9% to 26%, a significant jump (read more stats at Edison Research). There are more than 500,000 active podcasts on the Apple Podcasts app alone, with 10,000 new shows created every week. However, the size of the podcast ad market falls far short of this level of consumer traction, at only $314 million in 2017.
This year’s Podcast Movement focused heavily on how to close this monetization gap, while also covering topics like diversity in podcasting, attracting younger listeners, and how the tech industry can promote podcast creation and discovery. Here’s our five key takeaways from the event.
The audience for podcasts has gotten larger — but has quite a ways to go in terms of listenership and diversity.
Edison Research’s 2018 “Infinite Dial” survey found that only 17% of respondents reported listening to a podcast in the last week. While this percentage has been steadily increasing, we haven’t seen an exponential jump in listenership, even as podcast creation has exploded over the past few years. The question of how to capture and engage the “other 83%” was a major theme of this year’s conference. Our thoughts on a few demographics that need to be welcomed into the podcasting community:
- Women and people of color. Most early adopters of podcasts were white, affluent men, and serving a broader audience continues to be a challenge. This issue was front-and-center at Podcast Movement (and the focus of one of the keynote sessions) — but some attendees criticized the conference for not having broader representation on non-diversity-focused panels. We won’t pretend to have all of the answers here, but we believe that networks and broadcasters need to be held accountable for hiring and retaining more diverse hosts, promoting their content, and inviting a more diverse range of guests on their shows.
- Kids. Kids podcasts have started to take off thanks to shows like NPR’s “Wow in the World,” WHYY’s Eleanor Amplified, and Gen Z Media’s audio dramas. As parents try to cut down on screen time, podcasts are a great way to entertain and educate kids. Kids Listen recently conducted the first study of children’s podcast listening habits, and found that 80% listen to an episode more than once, and 18% listen ten or more times (!). 74% start discussions about the podcast after listening, and 56% tell others about what they’ve learned. Kids clearly love podcasts, but many parents struggle to find the right content, especially since Apple’s podcast app features dramas for teens alongside stories for preschoolers. There’s a big opportunity to curate and categorize content for the under-18 crowd.
- Fans of “casual entertainment.” Edison Research did a survey of non-listeners to learn why they hadn’t tried podcasts, and 78% said that podcasts “aren’t for me” — many said that they were too long, too educational, or didn’t cover topics that they were interested in. We need more podcasts for people looking for “guilty pleasure” entertainment like The Bachelor, celebrity news (check out Juicy Scoop), sports content, and sitcoms. As Edison Research’s Tom Webster noted during his keynote, Apple’s “Top Charts” doesn’t do the industry any favors, as it’s dominated by daily news shows, political analysis, and deep-dives on informative content. Podcasts aren’t just for people who consider themselves “intellectuals,” and the industry needs to promote other types of content.
Discovery remains a major issue.
Another limiting factor in the growth of podcasts? Friction in accessing content. Edison’s study found that 48% of non-listeners weren’t sure how to access podcasts, 47% said that subscribing to a podcast costs money, and 80% said they don’t have a podcast app on their phone (despite the fact that many had the Apple app pre-installed on their iPhone). For people who haven’t listened to podcasts before, it can be tough to know how to find them— it’s not as easy as flipping on your TV or radio.
In addition, 65% of respondents said that they were overwhelmed by the quantity of content and didn’t know how to find something of interest. Many podcasters only advertise on other podcasts, and therefore miss the entire market of people who aren’t podcast listeners but may be interested in their content. Why shouldn’t a true crime podcast advertise to Facebook users who watch crime TV shows? When a user clicks on the ad, he or she could be directed to a guide on how to listen, solving the access and content discovery problems. A good example of this is Happier With Gretchen Rubin’s eponymous host — Rubin was a bestselling author before she was a podcaster, and leaves instructional sheets on seats at some of her book readings to show attendees how to subscribe to her podcast.
To be fair, podcast listening apps should also share the blame for poor content discovery. Even if you’re a podcast fan, it can be difficult to find new shows to listen to. Unless you’re regularly scouring the Internet for new releases or combing through the Apple charts, you’ll likely miss content that you would love. We’ve tried a lot of podcast apps, and have shockingly found none that provide good recommendations for new content based on shows we already like. Continuing to serve relevant content is key to retaining listeners over time, so we’re excited to talk to anyone working on this problem.
The discovery problem is a major pain even for established podcast creators, like Marc Smerling (Crimetown, The RFK Tapes). Smerling said that cross-promotion of shows (advertising one show through another) was the “fastest, most effective way to build an audience.” Given the quantity of podcasts in the Apple Podcasts app, Smerling says even high-quality shows can easily “get lost” without a concerted cross-promotion effort. This sentiment was shared by How Stuff Works President Conal Byrne, who said the network reserves 50 to 100 million (!) ad impressions to promote each of their new shows — even at a $15 CPM, this is the equivalent of a $250k+ ad campaign.
Ads are typically significantly better received on podcasts than in other forms of media.
According to the IAB’s latest Podcast Ad Revenue Study, the vast majority of podcast ads (67%) are delivered by the host(s). Another 32.5% are delivered by a separate announcer — this often occurs when a news organization doesn’t allow journalists to read ads. Only 0.5% of ads are supplied by the advertiser, which is the type of ad you would typically see or hear on TV, radio, or even YouTube videos.
This is great for advertisers. Host-read ads are often more entertaining, more memorable, and less “skippable” than other types of ads, for a few reasons:
- Every ad is different. One of the most annoying things about traditional ads is that you see and hear the same ones repeatedly, so even the best ads quickly sour. Many podcast hosts record new ads every episode, so you rarely hear the same ad twice. You may hear ads from the same company across multiple shows, but each host will likely have a different take.
- Hosts incorporate personal anecdotes. Listeners often consider podcast hosts to be friends and mentors, and value their opinions. Personal anecdotes can be powerful. A good example of this — Lisa Zambetti, one of the co-hosts of Real Crime Profile, has told listeners about her struggles using at-home hair dye. She’s now using a color kit from Madison Reed to dye her hair (“Sienna Red”) and keeping listeners updated on the process.
Mimi O’Donnell, the director of scripted content at Gimlet, took advertising to the next level in the network’s recent AI/technology-focused fiction show Sandra — ads were integrated almost into the storyline. O’Donnell said the show creators actually “loved” the opportunity to work on the ads, as they had more of a say in how the ads were placed in the podcast, and could therefore keep the listeners in the world of the story.
- Podcasters are great storytellers. The best hosts can turn ads into funny or memorable moments, creating stories around the ad content. When Matt Gourley’s show I Was There Too was added to Stitcher Premium (and the ads were removed), fans took to Twitter to ask for the ads to be added back in, as they were some of the funniest parts of the show.
Coleman Insights did a study of listener affinity during different sections of The Bachelor-focused podcast Almost Famous. Listeners were asked to turn a dial indicating their satisfaction with the content throughout the podcast (Coleman called this the “media EKG”). They found that the EKG score dropped immediately at the beginning of an almost three-minute long ad for the FabFitFun box once listeners realized it was an endorsement. However, by the end of the ad, the score had almost recovered to the level of the actual podcast content — with listeners commenting that they liked hearing the hosts’ funny takes, or that they learned something new about the product.
However, monetization lags audience growth, for a number of reasons.
According to Nielsen, more than 73 million people listen to podcasts monthly, and more than 15 billion episodes are downloaded annually. $314 million in annual ad revenue isn’t just small on an absolute basis, but also relative to other types of media. Using Nielsen data, we calculated ad revenue per consumer per hour for different types of media in the U.S., and found that podcasts monetize at only a penny per listener hour, on average.
This is more than 10x less than the next closest competitor, radio. The discrepancy is confusing given that podcast ads are especially effective, as discussed above — a Nielsen study found that pre-roll podcast ads increased purchase intent by 10.8%, slightly higher than the 10.3% lift from video ads. The podcast listening audience tends to be young, urban, and affluent, an attractive demographic for advertisers. Apple analytics data presented by Panoply showed that the average listener completes 85–95% of an episode, regardless of show duration — so both pre-roll and mid-roll ads should have very high completion rates.
So why are podcasts lagging so significantly in monetization? Brands seem to be valuing podcast ads at an appropriate level — CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) generally range between $25 -$50, and have actually been increasing as more listener data becomes available. The main issue seems to be the fact that only an estimated 15% of podcasts are able to monetize, and that existing ad standards don’t account for the “evergreen” nature of many shows. Here are a few of the factors at play:
- The dominant platform isn’t monetized. Though alternative podcast platforms (Stitcher, Pocket Casts, etc.) have grown, Apple still owns 55% of podcast market share. Unlike YouTube, where brands can easily run ads via the TrueView program, it’s much more complicated to monetize on Apple Podcasts. Brands and podcasts have to connect directly, usually via networks. Most networks will only take on podcasts that have 50k+ monthly downloads, an extremely difficult benchmark to reach. Radio Public launched a Paid Listens platform partially to solve this problem — any listen of any show that is published on Radio Public gets a guaranteed $20 CPM.
- Detailed data on listeners is just now becoming available. Brands, understandably, need data on audiences and ROI to be willing to allocate part of their marketing budgets to a relatively new medium. Apple Podcasts is famously secretive with data — it just turned on a beta version of an analytics feature in December 2017, which still gives fairly basic data on listeners, devices, and time listened per session. Programs like Panoply’s Megaphone Targeted Marketplace, which allows for dynamic targeting of listener segments, as well as Nielsen studies showing significant brand lift will help brands gain confidence — but it will take time.
- Lack of cohesive ad standards, and inconsistent (and sometimes unfair) measurements of a “listen.” Thus far, there hasn’t really been a consistent way for brands and podcasts to measure KPIs of brand campaigns, as everyone has different answers to questions like: “Does a download count as a listen?” and “What’s the acceptable time range for a listen to be monetized?” The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently released a set of guidelines that will go a long way towards resolving these inconsistencies — and most podcast networks plan to adopt them by EoY 2018. The continued development of the dynamic ad market (where ads are not permanently placed in the show, but can be removed and replaced over time) should also help clear up these issues.
“It has become clear that unless we have a set standard, brands will say, ‘We don’t get it, we’re not sure the numbers are right, it will be easier to spend on TV or Facebook.’ [The IAB’s] V2 is it and we all have to get on that bus, whether there’s short term discomfort or not.”
-Marshall Williams, CEO of Ad Results Media (largest purchaser of podcast advertising in the world)
This is especially true for “evergreen” shows, like Serial, which continues to get huge amounts of monthly downloads even three years after season 1 was released. Ads on shows like this should be treated differently than time-specific podcasts like NYT’s The Daily, which likely gets the bulk of downloads on each episode within a 24 or 48-hour time period.
Aside from direct response ads (which make up 73% of podcast revenue), we expect branded content and IP licensing to become increasingly large sources of revenue. One of the first branded shows was GE’s scifi podcast The Message, created in partnership with Panoply. The GE team was so happy with the content that they asked to take out the GE ads, as they interrupted the flow of the show. Gimlet has also been aggressive in the branded content space, inking deals with Mastercard (Fortune Favors the Bold), eBay (Open for Business), and Tinder (DTR), among others — but VP of Brand Partnerships Anna Sullivan said that this money is still primarily coming out of brands’ marketing experimentation budgets, which “isn’t sustainable or scalable.”
On the IP licensing side, Gimlet has formed Gimlet Pictures to sell shows to Hollywood, and currently has seven projects in development. Sullivan said it was “very unexpected how hungry Hollywood is for new IP from podcasts.” The trailer for the Julia Roberts-helmed adaptation of Gimlet’s Homecoming dropped on Amazon last week. How Stuff Works’s Byrne agreed: “I believe LA is invested. I believe it when I heard catchphrases like ‘podcasts are the new scripts,’ and people are thinking that audio translates even better than text to the big screen.”
Tech companies are starting to invest in podcasting.
Apple has long been criticized for essentially ignoring the podcasting market — the Apple podcast app is extremely difficult to navigate, analytics are limited, and, as previously mentioned, there’s no built-in monetization. While Apple’s listening app has long dominated the market, Google is now making a major push to have a bigger presence in the space. Google launched a podcast app for Android in mid-June, and PM Zack Reneau-Wedeen gave a keynote at Podcast Movement about the tech giant’s move into the space.
The current app is integrated with Search and Assistant, giving listeners personalized recommendations of shows and allowing them to easily start and stop playing across devices. Why now? Reneau-Wedeen said that his team has noticed that the “number, quality, and variety of podcasts has really taken off,” and believes that Google is well-equipped to tackle the challenge of categorizing and curating content. Google’s goal is to double worldwide podcast listenership, and the company has launched a Podcast Creator program to help train and amplify the voices of diverse podcasters.
Another tech company making moves in the space? Spotify, which reportedly spent $1M to acquire the exclusive distribution rights for Amy Schumer’s new podcast. Dossie McCraw, the company’s Global Head of Podcast Partnerships, wouldn’t confirm this amount, but commented that $1M would arguably be a “good deal” for access to exclusive content from an A-list celebrity.
Spotify’s spending isn’t limited to Schumer’s new show. McCraw noted that the company has dedicated “more and more money” over the past year to make consumers aware of the presence of podcasts on Spotify. These marketing campaigns seem to have worked — according to Libsyn data, Spotify is now the #2 most popular podcast listening platform in the world, representing 6.8% of listens. With stiff competition in the music streaming from Pandora, Apple Music, iHeartRadio, and many others, it makes sense for Spotify to differentiate itself through a robust podcast offering.
Thanks for reading our thoughts on podcasting! If you’re interested in more of our podcast-related content, check out the five-part series we published last year summarizing the space, the history of podcasting, listening stats, monetization, and what needs to happen for the industry to expand.
We loved our time at Podcast Movement and would recommend that anyone interested in podcasting check out next year’s conference in Orlando. Even as just a fan, it’s a great opportunity to meet your favorite podcasters in real life (we got to meet a few!)
If you’re building a company in the podcasting space or have any thoughts or feedback on this article, please email us at email@example.com or reach out on Twitter at @venturetwins.


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Nine Transalis Customers in International Top 200
Transalis has nine customers in the 2017 Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200, published in The Sunday Times 11th June. This means Transalis has helped nine of Britain’s top 200 mid-market private companies reach their fastest-growing sales.
Paul Simpson, Joint Managing Director at Transalis said “These extremely valued customers have used Transalis digital services for many years and we are extremely happy for them to achieve this growth and success and we are proud to have been of service to them.”
League Table Position
*Courtesy of The Sunday Times International Track 200
Founded in 1887 in Yorkshire as a clog manufacturer for local workers, this family-owned business now distributes more than 10m pairs of shoes a year. With factories in China, Vietnam, Laos and India, William Lamb supplies supermarkets and retailers across Britain and Europe and generated international sales of £3.4m. It owns the brands Buckle My Shoe and Gluv and holds footwear licences with Disney, Pokémon and others.
Established in 1984 by chairman Joe Hemani, 70, Westcoast distributes IT products and services to more than 12,000 customers in the UK and Europe. Last year the Reading-based company bought out its Adveo joint venture in France, which supplies security systems and fingerprint readers across Europe, helping international sales reach £321.2m.
Coat-of-arms keyrings bearing common surnames were this Rotherham firm’s first product. Founded by Malcolm Ogg, 56, and Dianne Clothier, 52, in 1992, it has since expanded its range of impulse buy gifts to include children’s gifts and home fragrances. Overseas retail outlets for its products include Monoprix and Toys R Us. Demand in Europe for its scented candle range helped boost exports to £20.6m.
This Lincolnshire company supplies fresh ingredients such as garlic and ginger and makes branded and own-label sauces, as well as its “Just Add” range of flavour sachets and tubes. It exports to 12 countries, ranging from Ireland to Australia, and its customers include Tesco and Mars. A £4m expansion of its Lincolnshire production facility helped international sales grow to £2.9m, under co-founders Tim Bertin, 53, and Jon Chesworth, 55.
With bestsellers that include Game of Thrones Monopoly and Big Bang Theory Cluedo, this company has the licensing rights to develop and supply special editions of Hasbro games. It also owns the worldwide rights to the Top Trumps card game. It has offices across Europe, Australia and India, and overseas sales reached £13.6m, under chief executive Tom Liddell, 44.
From a single store in London, this cosmetics retailer has expanded to more than 60 locations, including 27 in North America, its largest overseas market. Its website also ships to 56 countries. Founded in 1993 by Nicky Kinnaird, 53, the firm was acquired for an undisclosed sum in 2007 by the American private-equity firm Manzanita Capital. Overseas sales hit £12.8m, under chief executive Chris Garek, 60.
More than 450,000 customers eat this chain’s sandwiches, soups and salads every day. Pret, run by chief executive Clive Schlee, 58, has more than 450 outlets in six countries, which helped overseas sales hit £202.2m. Its first store in Singapore opened this year and private-equity owners Bridgepoint are reportedly planning to float the business on the New York stock market.
Led by managing director David Byk, 49, this 125-year-old firm makes paper tableware, gift wrap and tinsel at its Kent and South Wales factories. Its distribution and manufacturing hub in Hong Kong produces a home baking range as well as Christmas crackers. The company acquired greetings card company Ling Design, helping international sales rise to £9.1m.
Visit International Track 200 at: www.fasttrack.co.uk


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The consumer price index (CPI) in September has bounced back with an increase of 0.54 per cent from the previous month, ending the period of decline that started this May. — VNA/VNS Photo
HÀ NỘI – The consumer price index (CPI) in September has bounced back with an increase of 0.54 per cent from the previous month, ending the period of decline that started this May.
In the first nine months of this year, the CPI increased 2.07 per cent compared to the same period last year, the General Statistics Office said at a press conference in Hà Nội on Saturday.
Explaining the rebound, Đỗ Thị Ngọc, Deputy Director of the GSO’s Price Statistics Department, said an upturn ocurred in 10 out of 11 major goods and service groups, with the biggest increase reported in education at 7.19 per cent—as 53 centrally-run cities and provinces raised school fees in accordance with a Governmental decree.
Transport services prices followed with a 0.55 per cent increase, due to several petrol price hikes.
The only decrease was in the price of telecommunications, at a drop of 0.07 per cent.
Ngọc said the CPI also rose 3.14 per cent from last December. With this figure in mind, it seems the Government’s target of 5 per cent CPI growth for the year is a feasible one.
However, many factors could pressure the CPI in the remaining months of this year, including the prices of health services, year-end expenditures, gas and oil.
She said relevant Government ministries and agencies should continue watch inflation closely. In addition, the State should consider timing its price adjustments for some essential goods to prevent psychological pressure on the CPI.
According to the GSO, September core inflation (excluding food and fresh foodstuff, energy products and State-controlled commodities such as healthcare and education services) increased a marginal 0.07 per cent from the previous month and 1.85 per cent from one year ago. The nine-month core inflation climbed 1.81 per cent against the same period last year.
October’s CPI is forecasted to increase due to hikes in health services fees and gas and oil prices caused by looming hikes in the world’s gasoline and oil prices.
Ngô Trí Long, former director of the Price Management Institute under the Ministry of Finance, forecasted that the whole year’s CPI increase could reach 4.2 per cent. However, he said the Government should be cautious as many internal and external factors could cause the real inflation exceed the target.
From now to the end of the year, unforeseen factors like natural disasters, harvest losses and basic salary increases could also pressure the CPI.
In addition, the money supply and the excitement of the real estate market must be strictly controlled, Long stressed.
On the same day, the HCM City’s Statistics Office reported that the city’s CPI in September increased 0.43 per cent from the previous month, and 2.71 per cent from the same month last year.
A price hike was seen in seven out of 11 major goods and services groups, with the highest rise spotted in education at 4.06 per cent due increasing demands for learning equipment for the new school year.
Some commodities in the city also experienced very slight drops in their prices, including culture and entertainment with 0.3 per cent, telecommunication 0.2 per cent, other goods and services 0.02 per cent, and pharmaceutical and health services 0.01 per cent. – VNS


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They truly kicked up the worldwide power of
branding, got viewers to rethink late-night
TV traditions, made going back to the 1920s
something to look forward to, and introduced
a revolutionary way of consuming multimedia and Web
content. And then they made everybody want to smell
like a man... while riding backwards on a horse.
There were hundreds of pushes on behalf of products,
services and content in 2010, but five stood out and earned
the honors in our first annual “Media Campaigns of the
Year” list. The programs we chose used innovative TV and
other media to communicate a compelling message about
their brands—and motivated consumers to act. They are:
• iPad’s “Meet iPad”
• Nike’s “Write the Future”
• TBS’ “Conan on TBS”
• Old Spice’s “Smell Like a Man”
• HBO’s “‘Boardwalk Empire’—Season One”
Here is our inside look at who was behind these campaigns,
and how they did it.
Campaign Description: Introduction of Apple’s newest must-have gadget,
with the kind of hip style and fun music familiar from campaigns for
the iPod and iPhone.
Creative Agency: TBWA/Media Arts Lab
Media Agency: OMD
Buzz Factor: You might have heard something about this new little gadget
from Apple. That came thanks to the huge buzz that built when it
was at long last announced back on Jan. 27; on April 3, the first day they
were available, more than 300,000 of the tablet computers were sold.
By the end of the month, the tally was up to 1 million, making it arguably
the product of the year.
A series of Apple’s typically stylish ads began airing in March on the
Academy Awards broadcast on ABC. In the audience was Apple founder
Steve Jobs, the largest shareholder of ABC owner Walt Disney Co. The first
commercial, Meet iPad, featuring the tune “There Goes My Love” from the
Danish band The Blue Van, stressed the many magical things the tablet
can do, and the clip went viral with 2.4 million views in its first week.
By Apple’s fourth quarter, production problems held sales down to a
disappointing 4.9 million units. Bigger things are expected next year, with
one analyst forecasting 2011 sales of 43.7 million.
A little harder to calculate—but no less important—was the iPad’s remarkable
impact in the media and on the media. Just before it went on sale,
the iPad had a starring role in an episode of ABC’s hit comedy Modern Family.
One of the show’s characters, Phil, has to have one for his birthday, and
the rest of the family spends the episode tracking one down. Was product
integration part of Apple’s campaign? The company said it doesn’t pay for
product placement . . . but it did provide a pre-release iPad for the show.
The media business took notice in more hands-on ways as well. The
networks—not only ABC—lined up to create apps for the iPad that will let
users view primetime programming. Publishers were even more gung ho,
creating iPad versions of newspapers and magazines. The product was
even hailed as the savior of print. Magic indeed. —Jon Lafayette
Write the Future
Campaign Description: With the world’s attention focused on
the World Cup, Nike captured soccer fans with a star-studded
ad focusing on great moments in the game.
Creative Agency: Wieden & Kennedy
Media Agency: Wieden & Kennedy
Buzz Factor: Nike scored a goal before the World Cup even
started with an epic three-minute commercial featuring soccer
stars Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney and
Landon Donovan, plus cameos by Roger Federer, Kobe Bryant
and even Homer Simpson. The ad, directed by Alejandro Inaritu,
first ran online, where members of the Nike football community
could get a preview of what would soon be unleashed on the
world—and they weren’t just talking about vuvuzelas.
The ad was viewed 52 million times via Facebook, YouTube and
other online platforms. Befitting the global nature of the tournament,
Nike’s ad aired in 32 countries, including the U.S., where it
appeared during coverage of matches on ESPN and Univision.
“It was really the talk of the World Cup,” says Derek Kent,
media relations director at Nike. In fact, the campaign led some
consumers to believe that Nike, and not Adidas, was the official
sponsor of the tournament. “We consciously choose to have an
impact through the players, because they’re the proving ground
for our products on the field of play, and the teams themselves,”
The result for Nike was a campaign that drove its biggest and
most successful World Cup ever. “Our soccer business was up, so
that’s a good indicator of connecting,” Kent adds. “And it provided
a great halo effect for the entire brand because the World Cup is
such a seminal moment in time, when the whole world is watching.”
As icing on the cake, the purple-and-orange Maestri soccer boots
featured in the campaign were worn by Spain’s Andres Iniesta
when he scored the championship-winning goal.
Conan on TBS
Campaign Description: Starting with the Team Coco Website,
TBS took a “fans first” approach to marketing a late-night talk
show that was all-new to TBS but already well-known and loved
by legions of fans.
Creative Agency: Print: Blue Sky and Canyon; Digital: Breakfast
and One Trick Pony; TV: TBS creative team
Media Agency: TMG (planning) and MediaVest (buying)
Buzz Factor: Most marketers focus on building a brand, taking it
from something that no one knows about to—if all goes well—
a household name. When TBS convinced former Tonight Show
host Conan O’Brien to take his late-night seat to the network,
O’Brien’s brand awareness was at an all-time high. So TBS went
straight to the foundation, and targeted the Conan faithful first
“The campaign was all about letting Conan be Conan, and all
about the fans who rallied to his side from the beginning,” says
Jeff Gregor, CMO for TBS, TNT and TCM. TBS’ challenge was not
to persuade viewers to come see something new, but to persuade
them that TBS’ version of Conan would be, at its core, the
same show they knew and loved.
“A lot of it started with the Team Coco Website,” says Tricia
Melton, senior VP of marketing for TBS, TNT and TCM. “There
already was a well of support behind Conan. We recognized
that, so we wanted to give fans unprecedented access to what
was going on with Conan.”
So, when anything new was happening, Team Coco got first
dibs. “We’ve used social media in our campaigns as long as it’s
been around, but never to this extent,” says Melton. “More than
30 commercials, four behind-the-scenes videos and one amazing
trailer for theaters all were released online before they went
out to more traditional forms of media.”
TBS’ plan played out: Conan premiered to more than 4 million
viewers on Monday, Nov. 8, beating its broadcast network rivals
among both total viewers and adults 18-49.
Smell Like a Man
Campaign Description: TV ads take a new approach to manliness
to sell body wash and deodorant, and in the process breathe fresh
life into a venerable brand.
Creative Agency: Wieden & Kennedy
Media Agency: Wieden & Kennedy
PR Agency: PainePR
Buzz Factor: When former NFL receiver Isaiah Mustafa said, “look
at me,” millions did. As the man your man could smell like in commercials
for Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice, Mustafa generated a lot
of attention for deodorant and body wash—and for Isaiah Mustafa.
The “Smell Like A Man” campaign became an online sensation
when Old Spice invited consumers to submit questions via Twitter
and Facebook to be answered personally by the Old Spice Guy.
More than 2,000 questions poured in during a 48-hour period, and
200 personalized responses were posted on YouTube, where they
were watched more than 46 million times. P&G estimates it got
about 1.2 billion media impressions when the campaign was featured
in news stories and when Mustafa appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s
and Ellen DeGeneres’ talk shows.
“That’s a great example of the connection between TV and digital
going all at the same time,” says Marc Pritchard, P&G global marketing
and brand building officer. “We’re selling out of Old Spice.”
The campaign ultimately pushed Old Spice into the No. 1 position
in sales among body washes and deodorants, with growth in the
high single/low double digits, according to P&G.
The campaign was also pretty good for Mustafa. The budding actor
signed a talent deal with NBC under which he will audition for
roles in the network’s current sitcoms, as well as for parts in future
pilots. He also landed movie roles in Horrible Bosses (with Jennifer
Aniston) and Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family.
No word if he’ll be on a horse in any of those pictures.
Boardwalk Empire—Season One
Campaign Description: HBO’s campaign for Boardwalk Empire
refl ected the show’s lush theatrical look. Elaborate on- and off-air
promotions resulted in a big opening for the premium network’s
Creative Agencies: BLT & Associates: launch key art, vintage tourism
artwork & Prohibition bus shelters; Red Interactive Agency:
online creative; Civic Entertainment Group: promotions & partnerships
(Bloomingdale’s, Caesars, Canadian Club); Cornerstone:
speakeasy promotions; HBO Creative Services: all A/V creative
Media Agency: PHD
Buzz Factor: HBO spent north of $10 million to promote the launch
of Boardwalk Empire, which features the talents of Oscar-winning
director Martin Scorsese, The Sopranos’ Terence Winter and actor
Steve Buscemi in the lead role. The push got results: The beautifully
shot and meticulously designed show was HBO’s highest-rated
premiere in six years (since the 2004 debut of Deadwood), with 4.8
million viewers tuning in to the premiere and nearly 12 million viewers
cumulatively watching the show by the end of the first week.
HBO’s primary aim was to emphasize the show’s period feel, creating
elaborate promotions with brand partners to draw in viewers.
In front of New York’s fl agship Bloomingdale’s store, the channel
created an authentic boardwalk and adorned the windows with
neo-vintage fashions from the 1920s, which also happened to be a
part of Bloomingdales’ new Twenties-inspired clothing line.
Canadian Club whisky, whose historic role in Prohibition is featured
in the show, sponsored promotions in upscale liquor stores
across the country. And Caesars Atlantic City, in the town where
the show is set, offered 1,920 hotel rooms for the price of $19.20
per night, a promotion that sold out bullet-fast.
“We wanted to allow people to escape into another world—
the sexy and violent world of the Roaring Twenties,” says Chris
Spadaccini, HBO VP of advertising and promotions. “We wanted
to position the show as an epic crime drama and a real must-see
television event. The marketing had to refl ect the scale and scope
of the production.”
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