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The generally complicated sweetener picture (sugar and corn sweeteners) appears to be entering 2014 with at least one aspect becoming clearer — corn sweetener prices will be lower than in 2013. That’s largely due to a record 2013 U.S. corn crop, but also contributing pressure are continued below-year-ago sugar prices, and uncertainty about sugar and corn sweetener demand in Mexico, and ethanol, which affects corn and sugar.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in November raised its estimate of 2013 U.S. corn production to a record 13,989 million bus, with some in the trade expecting that number to push above 14,000 million bus when annual revisions are made in January. That’s up 30% from the drought-reduced 2012 crop of 10,780 million bus.
While there are numerous factors in addition to the cost of corn that determine the price of corn sweeteners, buyers largely have focused on the size of the corn crop and the price of corn, with nearby corn futures down more than 40% from last December and down nearly 50% from record highs set in August 2012.
In 2013 high-fructose and regular corn syrup prices were raised by about 2½c a lb and dextrose prices were raised about 1c from 2012 contracted levels. (The dextrose increase was moderated by a larger boost in 2012 from 2011.) One of the key arguments for higher prices in 2013 was that corn supplies were tight, especially in areas where the bulk of corn wet mills were located. When corn refiners issued their initial 2014 pricing letters in early November (prior to the U.S.D.A.’s crop forecast), most products were offered at 2c to 2¾c a lb below 2013 contracted levels. Some refiners noted that other costs, especially rail freight, were higher this year (increased demand due to larger crops) and offset some of the impact of
lower corn prices.
But buyers have shown little concern about the impact of transportation costs. Some are holding out for 3c- to 4c-a-lb reductions from 2013 contracted levels for 2014 corn sweetener prices. Before Thanksgiving there had been barely a trickle of 2014 contracting, with indications of a couple of deals down 3c a lb from 2013. At that point, most corn refiners still were not moving from their initial offers of 2c to 2¾c a lb lower. But since the holiday, it appears buyers may have dug in a little deeper to the idea they can do better than 3c lower. At the same time, there appeared some movement that would result in deals being completed at the 3c-a-lb discount to 2013, if for no other reason than to get contracts concluded before the Christmas break.
In some years, corn sweetener contracting for the next year is completed before Thanksgiving. In a few years it has continued into the new year. Buyers noted that in most recent years, the longer the negotiation period continues, the lower the prices they have been able to receive.
In addition to the corn crop size and price, buyers also have in their favor lower competing refined sugar prices than a year ago, and little prospect of higher sugar prices due to forecast ample supplies again in 2014. Refined sugar prices last year were down more than 40% from 2011 and currently are down about another 20% from 2012.
Also potentially impacting prices are questions about sugar and corn sweetener demand in Mexico because of a new sweetened beverage and snack tax that begins in January. Since the remaining tariff rate quotas restricting sales to Mexico ended on Jan. 1, 2008, in the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S. exports of corn sweeteners, mainly 55% HFCS used in beverages, have soared, as have exports of Mexican sugar to the United States, with both able to cross the border duty free.
Although U.S. imports of Mexican sugar reached a record high 2,124 million tons in 2012-13 (October-September), a glut of sugar in both countries, and the world for that matter, resulted in multi-year low sugar prices. Another result was the first forfeitures in about a decade of sugar held by the U.S.D.A. as collateral for loans to U.S. sugar processors.
One of the responses to low sugar prices in Mexico has been a growing pushback against imports of U.S. HFCS, not unlike the pushback by U.S. sugar producers against U.S. imports of Mexican sugar. The U.S.D.A. earlier in the fall forecast Mexico would use about 10% less HFCS in 2014 than in 2013, and that was before the “fat” tax, which applies to both sugar and HFCS in Mexico. One may surmise the tax will have a greater negative impact on imported HFCS than on domestic sugar consumption in Mexico. And what impact lower HFCS prices may have in maintaining market share also is uncertain. The bottom line is, if Mexico imports less HFCS, the extra supply mostly stays in the United States.
U.S. consumption of HFCS has been in a decline since the late 1990s, but corn refiners have been able to offset much of that decline in recent years with increased exports to Mexico. Prices for HFCS, and other corn syrup products, typically have followed corn price and production levels, typically moving higher by showing declines in years following.
Then there’s the ethanol factor. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the first time has proposed a reduction in the U.S. ethanol mandate, or the amount of ethanol that must be blended with gasoline. Between 35% and 40% of total U.S. corn production has been used to produce ethanol in recent years, with many attributing that use as the primary factor in pushing U.S. corn prices to a new “plateau.” While there is considerable debate about whether the lower mandate will have any negative impact on U.S. ethanol production, it has the potential to reduce corn demand, which may make more corn available for other uses, including corn sweeteners. Those who see no impact suggest ethanol production is driven by profit margins, which currently are the best they have been for months if not years, and any excess ethanol output will be exported, mainly to Europe. They also note that lower corn prices will increase demand from livestock and poultry feeders, which will compete with corn demand for other uses.
It’s complicated, but corn sweetener prices will be lower in 2014.


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“You don’t believe me? Bing it.”
That’s Daniel Dae Kim, lead actor of CBS’s hit TV series Hawaii Five-0, during an early episode in which he casually suggests to his partner that she “Bing” a query rather than “Google” it.
To many, the scene wasn’t jarring so much for its egregious product placement but for Kim’s laughably unrealistic dialogue. After all, few, if any, say they are going to “Bing” anything. Unlike Google, a brand and word synonymous with search, Microsoft’s rival engine has yet to enter our lexicon as a verb, despite CEO Steve Ballmer’s hope that it would. That “Bing” is not a verb reflects the huge challenge Microsoft faces in the space–the service has yet to make significant gains on king Google, which owns two-thirds of the U.S. search market. And now, it appears as if Microsoft has even given up trying to make “Bing” a verb that’s as much a part of our web-surfing habits as it is our vernacular.
“We don’t have an explicit strategy to go chase the verbiness,” says Adam Sohn, general manager of influencer marketing at Bing. “We don’t have that as a goal–like we’re not spending money [on it]. We’ve never tried to verb it.”
Of course, it’d be hard for Sohn to deny that Microsoft would love for “Bing” to be a verb just like “Google” is. The company has clearly spent money in the past on Bing product placement. Ballmer has said that he loves Bing’s potential “to verb up.” And even the tagline of its big new marketing campaign–“Bing It On,” a sort of Pepsi challenge for search–uses “Bing” as a verb, albeit as a pun.
Traditionally, companies have fought against what’s called “genericide” or “generification,” an industry term for when a brand name becomes so commoditized that it loses association with the company that first created it. Think: Aspirin, Band-Aid, Xerox, Frisbee. As Graeme Diamond, principal editor for new words at the Oxford English Dictionary, once told me, “Some companies aggressively resist generification…We don’t much care since we reflect language as it’s actually used–not as executives wish it were.”
But in the tech industry, most executives are happy to have their brands become verbs: to Google, to Facebook, to Netflix. And Bing higher-ups, which refer to Google as “the Kleenex of the search category,” have come to accept the fact that the verb “to Google” is here to stay. “I think we’re conflicted but happy if someone said ‘Google it’ but they were going to Bing and giving us the query,” says Sohn, who believes there is some benefit of Google’s genericide. “The thing about Kleenex is once you pull it out of the box, it looks exactly the same, whereas with online products, the brands are a bit more forward. So if you say, ‘I’m going to Google it,’ and you go to Bing–cause that’s what you have set as the default–over time, you’re going to understand the brand that you are using.”
Even internally, the verb “to Bing” is not standard. “Some people say the verb–sometime they say, ‘Hey, Bing this,'” explains Mike Nichols, corporate VP and chief marketing officer of Bing. “But it’s rare.”
In the coming months, Microsoft and its partners will begin to push out its new Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 operating systems, a big marketing effort that is likely to garner Bing some more attention. The company is also looking to strike more deals with third parties to include its search engine on their platforms, such as with the Kindle Fire HD, Amazon’s new flagship tablet, which will come with Bing by default instead of Google search.
Nichols says it’s still early in Bing’s life, at least too early to try to make Bing into a verb. “I don’t think we’re even ready to set it as an objective,” he says.
But one thing is for certain. In Redmond, Nichols says, “Nobody ever uses ‘Google it.'”
[Image: Flickr user Chandler Hummell]

domain: news


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Latvia is allowed state aid to boost economy
Adelina Marini, April 23, 2009
Latvia received green light from the European Commission to help companies that experience financial difficulties because of the economic crisis. The scheme allows the granting of subsidised guarantees for initial investment and working capital loans concluded by 31 December 2009. It meets the conditions of the Commission’s Temporary Framework for state aid measures to support access to finance during the crisis because it is limited in time, respects the relevant thresholds and applies only to companies that were not in difficulty on 1 July 2008.
Competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said "The Latvian guarantee scheme is an effective way of encouraging business investment and economic recovery, without unduly distorting competition.
Latvia has serious problems because of the economic and financial crisis because its economy had been growing rapidly in the last years which lead to credit, building and investment boom. This seriously hindered Latvia's ambitions to introduce the European single currency. The intensive economic growth, inflation has not been falling under 15 % on an annual basis. Even now, with the rapid contraction of the Baltic state economy, inflation is still high. Latvia was one of the few European countries that received financial assistance from the IMF and the EU.


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For the first time ever, The Francess Barbara brand is having a private showcase of her latest collection on October 29 in Lagos as part of activities marking the fashion week season.
The Francess Barbara brand is involved in a wide-ranging of activities, from luxury wears to skincare, and has been in business for about five years.
“I am very excited about this collection, it’s fierce, glamorous and of course speaks luxury. I am a bit overwhelmed. I really just want people to see the designs and how tasteful they are,” the company said in a statement yesterday.
This high end wares are available in the walk-in store in Abuja. There’s a stocklist in Dubai and South Africa. The brand is looking at a possible expansion to Lagos, Ghana and the UK.
The Francess Barbara foundation would also be launched on October 29 but there has been a number of personal charitable works. “We are more than excited to make this more official and put a debut to it”.
The showcase, casted and produced by M and I Casting and Productions, is for awareness, for people to understand what the brand is really about and to know that a lot more projects are on the way.


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The future of India lies in the MSME sector, says Piyush Goyal
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal urged industries from the chemicals and allied sectors to think of ways and means for increased value addition to their products in the export basket, and to be bold and nimble footed.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Railways Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said the future of India lies in the MSME sector and urged MSME industries to demand government support in development of clusters near ports, availability of land in bulk, common effluent treatment plants, and common testing facilities.
According to a government press release, the Minister made the statement while giving away the export awards of CAPEXIL (Chemical and Allied Export Promotion Council of India) in New Delhi. Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, was also present.
Goyal said, "Investing and caring for the environment is an advantageous proposition for everybody, the industry, and citizens, as it helps to create a conducive business climate and acceptability for Indian products worldwide."
He added that the chemicals and allied sectors have some of the oldest industries in the country. According to him, these sectors now have more potential than what has been tapped, and it is time that the entire sector makes a combined effort to take up new challenges, set higher goals, and aspire for extraordinary results.
Goyal also noted that India’s exports of the chemicals and allied sectors amount to 10 percent of the global chemical market. He then said it is now time to aspire to be the number one exporter of products from this sector. For this, the Commerce and Industry Minister urged the industries from this sector to think of ways and means for increased value addition to their products in the export basket, and to be bold and nimble footed.
The minister added that the CAPEXIL sector industries must embrace new technology and explore new markets, make value addition to the products that are being manufactured, and not just remain in their comfort zone as manufactures and exporters of raw and basic products.
(Source: Press Information Bureau, Government of India)


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Lotte Group ousts 92-year-old founder
The board of directors at South Korean-Japanese conglomerate Lotte Group voted this week to remove general chairman and founder Shin Kyuk-ho from his post, Japanese media reported.
The move is seen as part of a power struggle between the founder’s two sons, Dong-joo and Dong-bin, who own comparable stakes in the company, and are vying for control of the 90 trillion won ($77 billion) business.
According to Business Korea, the decision was made after eldest son Dong-joo travelled to Japan with his father earlier this week where they planned to dismiss six board members, including younger brother, Dong-bin.
In retaliation, the younger Dong-bin convened an emergency shareholders’ meeting to eject his nonagenarian father and declared his decision null and void.
Lotte Group declined to comment on why its own founder abruptly attempted to oust the board, including his second son, who until this week seemingly had the backing of his father.
The elder statesman previously stripped Dong-joo of his executive titles at three Lotte affiliated in Japan earlier this year, leading many to believe that his younger brother would be named as his successor.
Shin Kyuk-ho founded Lotte in Japan in 1948 as a snack maker, but entered Korea in 1967 and has grown the business to be the country's fifth-largest conglomerate.
Some pundits have suggested that the succession battle will continue until Shin Kyuk-ho designates his shares. The 92-year-old is thought to be in poor health.
LVMH posts second-quarter revenue rise of 23%
Leading luxury family empire LVMH said this week that second-quarter revenue rose 23% as the company benefitted from a weak euro and improved performance at its Louis Vuitton brand.
Profit from recurring operations was €2.9 billion ($3.2 billion) for the first half of 2015, an increase of 15%. Group share of net profit amounted to €1.5 billion.
Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, commented: “The excellent results of the first half are witness to the efficiency of our strategy, which relies upon the strength of our brands and a very entrepreneurial style of management.
He added: “Building on the first half performances, we face the second half of the year with confidence and count on the quality of our products and the talent of our teams to further strengthen our leadership in the world of high quality products.”
Today, luxury group Christian Dior is the main holding company of LVMH, owning 40.9% of its shares, and 59.01% of its voting rights. Bernard Arnault is the majority shareholder of Dior.
LVMH was formed through the merger of fashion house Louis Vuitton with Moët Hennessy in 1987.
Sweden’s Ikea buys forest in Romania
Swedish furniture giant Ikea, owned by Kamprad family, has bought 33,600 hectares of forests in Romania, making it the largest forest owner in Romania.
Forestry has been a contentious issue in the country in recent months. Austrian family-controlled empire Schweighofer has been under investigation by the environment ministry for encouraging illegal logging, a matter that is now before the supreme court. The investigation came the same month that the business, owned by one of Austria’s wealthiest families, threatened to boycott Romania if it introduced a new code intended to reduce deforestation.
Romania’s Carpathian Mountains are home to almost half of Europe’s population of brown bears, wolves and lynx.
“The investment in woodland is a way for us to diversify our assets. We are happy to expand our forestry activities to Romania, a country that’s important for our furniture production,” said Frederik de Jong, chairman of the board at Ikea subsidiary IRI Investments SRL.
While the cost of this investment has not been revealed, market data available on the price of Romanian forestland suggests the deal could be worth €100 million.
In 2012, Ikea revealed plans to double sales to €50 billion by 2020. The business posted revenues of €29.293 billion in 2014.


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Cox Automotive’s Autotrader is rolling out a new website and other enhancements that aim to provide a faster, more personalized vehicle shopping experience.
More than 2 billion car shoppers have visited the popular third-party vehicle website the past 20 years. But the company felt the need to evolve, said Jessica Stafford, Cox Automotive senior vice president and Autotrader general manager.
The new Autotrader went live in January with the launch of a mobile-first homepage. There will be a staged roll-out of other enhancements throughout the calendar year, Stafford says. The brand is planning a cross-promotion with TNT/NBA sponsorship to make consumers aware of the changes.
“We have a robust marketing strategy planned to support the all-new Autotrader, including a new consumer-focused TV, digital and social marketing campaign scheduled to roll out in the coming months,” Stafford tells Marketing Daily.
Zambezi is handling creative. The redesign of the Autotrader homepage, along with other site enhancements, are being led by Autotrader’s internal product team.
The mobile-first homepage offers faster loading times and a more efficient shopping journey that connects more consumers with the cars they want to buy.
“We’ve also started to introduce Kelley Blue Book Price Advisor on Autotrader listings, giving car shoppers the confidence to purchase with pricing from the industry’s most trusted resource,’ she says. “You’ll see additions and transformation every month to come.”
Major enhancements include online deal-making and integration with Kelley Blue Book. These enhancements also will result in more engagement, higher quality leads and actual car sales for Autotrader’s dealer clients, Stafford says.
Car shoppers have set clear expectations of how they like to shop and transact online, she says. They want to have a trusted and transparent experience that’s fast and enjoyable.
“We have done both qualitative and quantitative research, but we also run constant testing in an audience split of our site that allows for real-time and real-life testing,” Stafford says. “Being the top car shopping site allows us to gauge consumers’ wants and needs every day in how they interact with the site and the feedback they give us.”


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Consumer confidence dropped in Nebraska during April while business confidence remained strong, according to the latest monthly surveys from the Bureau of Business Research at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Responses to the April Survey of Nebraska Households indicate that consumer confidence fell to 95.6 during the month, below the neutral level of 100 and well below the March value of 110.
Nebraska business confidence stood at 107.8 in April, based on responses to the monthly Survey of Nebraska Business. This is well above the neutral value of 100 and down only slightly from a reading of 108.9 in March.
“The decline in consumer confidence suggests that recent flooding has affected Nebraskans,” said Eric Thompson, an economist and bureau director. “Yet, Nebraskans also face a number of other, ongoing concerns.”
Sixteen percent of responding households indicate that their top financial issue is health-care costs while 15 percent chose a general increase in the cost of living, including the cost of groceries, utilities, insurance and education. Twenty-nine percent of businesses chose customer demand as their top business issue. However, competition in the product and labor markets also were top concerns, with 27 percent of businesses choosing labor availability as their top concern and 19 percent choosing competition with other businesses. Six percent of responding businesses and households reported flooding or weather as their top issue.
The surveys are sent each month to 500 randomly selected Nebraska businesses and households. During April, 135 businesses responded to the Survey of Nebraska Business, for a response rate of 27 percent. There were 122 responses to the Survey of Nebraska Households, for a response rate of 24 percent.


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Rocketworks Launches Marketing Campaign for Gradeworks.com
Posted on December 1, 1999Rocketworks, Inc. has announced the launch of a marketing campaign for Gradeworks.com, a new online educational tool. The Gradeworks.com marketing plan includes print and onlin media buys and education conventions and conferences. Gradeworks.com is also looking to establish strategic partnerships for the site.
"We feel that grassroots efforts are key with this audience," said Wendy McAllister, Marketing Manager for Rocketworks, Inc. "Education trade shows are an important part of our mix, and there is a lot of opportunity to reach educators via viral marketing on the Web."
Gradeworks.com contains class information, not only about student grades but also announcements, personalized teacher comments and the due dates for tests and assignments. Building a Gradeworks.com site takes communication between parents and teachers to a new level, eliminating common occurrences such as parent/teacher phone tag, miscommunications, or written messages that "mysteriously" disappear.


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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has only been in production for a few months. Regardless, this didn’t stop the cast and crew from offering an early look at the highly-anticipated sequel during today’s DC FanDome event. The livestream delivered a brand new sizzle reel that showed James Wan, Jason Momoa, and others dropping hints about what we can expect from Arthur Curry’s next big-screen outing. You can check it out for yourself below.
The filmmakers couldn’t reveal any finished scenes from the movie just yet. Instead, fans will have to settle for a mix of behind-the-scenes footage along with some new concept art. Producer Peter Safran noted that Wan and his cohorts have turned the dials up to 11” on the next installment. And judging by the illustrations shown, it’s not hard to see why. Most of artwork highlights some of the new creatures and worlds that will be introduced in the sequel, from giant jellyfish to new island and desert locations, and beyond.
RELATED: Three More Actors Join Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
The new reel also showcased some of the movie’s other returning cast members, including Patrick Wilson’s Orm, Amber Heard’s Mera, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Black Manta, who still blames Arthur for his father’s death. Momoa also promised that the sequel will expand on some of the environmental themes that were touched on in the original Aquaman. According to Wan, these are important to the film’s overall tone.
“People are going to be in for a treat when Aquaman 2 comes out,” said Wan. “They’re going to get a movie that’s more mature, but yet still retains its fun. [It will] give the audience something different, something new that they haven’t seen before.”
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom hits theaters on December 16, 2022.
Are you excited to see more from the upcoming sequel? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Aquaman by Geoff Johns Omnibus
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CEO of Coinbase Brian Armstrong says that Apple has banned features of crypto apps on its App Store which could be seen as a potential antitrust issue.
Armstrong spoke to the Superteam podcast about his and Coinbase’s journey, its launch in India, and future plans and roadmaps.
He hinted that one-day crypto investors might one day be able to make use of “crypto-compatible” smartphones with specific hardware features built-in, before going on to call out Apple.
He said that “Apple so far has not really played nice with crypto”, stating the company had banned a bunch of features that they would like to have in the app but that the company wouldn’t allow.
Armstrong didn’t expand specifically on any such features or Apple’s specific policy towards them. He has previously hailed Apple’s growth and how “it empowered developers and gave mobile users an easy way to access new innovative apps.” In comments last year he said that he wanted Coinbase to become the Apple of cryptocurrency.
Crypto smartphones of the future would likely have a leaning toward security and better integration for payments. This week, one crypto investor reported losing some $650,000 in NFTs and crypto after handing over his Apple ID verification code to someone posing as Apple over the phone. This information was used to reset his Apple ID password, giving access to iCloud keychain including his MetaMask vault password.


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An apparent AdWords rejection sparks free speech controversy.
A Southern California t-shirt company, which says its AdWords ads were rejected by Google, has accused the search company of stifling free speech.
The company, Y-Que, is known for politically incorrect and humorous t-shirts. At issue, according to owner Bill Wyatt's posts on the site, are the company's attempts to buy Google AdWords ads that point to its site, where it sells t-shirts criticizing President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and even one taking aim at Democratic challenger John Kerry.
"Google is becoming the modern version of Big Brother, as if we didn't have enough Big Brothers already, and unless the current trends against Free-Speech [sic] are reversed there will be no place left to promote uncensored ideas or products," Wyatt posted on his site at yque.com.
The accusations come as Google is said to be preparing for an initial public offering of stock, a move that would place the company under still more public scrutiny. The dispute with Y-Que highlights Google's difficult position as a gatekeeper between the public and the wide world of information, in which it's compelled to deal with public outrage, such as the recent "Jew Watch" controversy, and expectations by some to police trademark violations. Google did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Wyatt posted a letter he says Google sent him, which says he must remove certain merchandise from his site to continue advertising with AdWords. The search company cited the following merchandise: "Recall Bush - White T-shirt (with radio control on head); Dumb and Dumber White T-shirt - Bush and Blair: The Movie; You're Fired - George W. Bush White T-shirt; Dump Cheney White T-shirt - "Halliburton" tattooed across head; Miserable Failure T-shirt - George W. Bush; Kerry sucks (too) - T-shirt."
Interestingly, the "Miserable Failure" t-shirt refers to a Google-centric incident in which anti-Bush Web activists conspired to create a "Google bomb." By linking the words "miserable failure" to Bush's biography on the White House Web site, they manipulated Google's search results so the biography was returned as a result when someone searched under those keywords.
Wyatt says Google repeatedly rejected his ads, citing "unacceptable content." A letter Wyatt says he received from Google cites an AdWords policy "of not permitting advertisements for language and site content that advocates against an individual, group, or organization."
The same issue arose back in February, when environmental group Oceana's ads were yanked from Google. One of the non-profit's ads read: "Stop Cruise Pollution. Royal Caribbean is dumping inadequately treated sewage!" According to the group, Google removed the ads, citing "language that advocates against Royal Caribbean."
While Y-Que's Wyatt is concerned that the removal of his ads from Google will quiet traffic to his site, he's doing what he does best. He's accepting submissions for an anti-Google t-shirt design contest.
Pamela Parker is a former managing editor of ClickZ News, Features, and Experts. She's been covering interactive advertising and marketing since the boom days of 1999, chronicling the dot-com crash and the subsequent rise of the medium. Before working at ClickZ, Parker was associate editor at @NY, a pioneering Web site and e-mail newsletter covering New York new media start-ups. Parker received a master's degree in journalism, with a concentration in new media, from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
2015 Holiday Email Guide
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Big data holds a lot of promise for marketers, but are marketers ready to make the most of it to drive better business decisions and improve ROI? This study looks at the hidden challenges modern marketers face when trying to put big data to use.
December 2, 2015
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Getting your online video distributed on multiple sites on the Web can be a bit of a time consuming task but TubeMogul looks to make your life a lot easier. With Berkeley-based startup TubeMogul, you can simply upload your video once and then configure it to be sent to a number of video platforms at one time (i.e. YouTube, Blip.tv, MySpace Video, etc). TubeMogul, founded by a handful of Berkeley graduate students, also offers video metrics for all the videos that you upload through the service to help paint a more clear picture of exactly how your video is performing online. This could come in pretty handy when it comes to selling advertisements around online video. TubeMogul recently announced a series A round of funding from Knights Bridge Capital.
I caught up with Director of Marketing, Mark Rotblat, at DEMO08 a few weeks ago where they launched a premium service offering for publishers looking to get serious about online video distribution and metrics. Mark also gave me a quick walk through of TubeMogul. The TubeMogul video is included at the bottom of this article. It can also be found on my new video podcast SOMEWHAT FRANK TV.
You can also watch TubeMogul's DEMO08 launch in its entirety.


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Strict econo mies don’t stop Europeans from shopping
American motorcycle manufacturers work for the domestic market, so the fall in domestic demand has an extremely negative impact on them.despite the pent-up demand for the same products around the world. There are a number of reasons for this, both economic and political, and one of the main American players, Harley Davidson, is trying to do something about it, taking production outside the United States and planning a large number of new low-volume models available, but it has been swinging for a very long time.
At the same time, the world market does not suffer from stagnation. The past couple of years have seen an increase in sales, for example, in 2018, global motorcycle sales reached the third level – at 62 million units, up 1.8 percent from 2017. The booming Indian market and the nascent Latin American markets – in Brazil and Ecuador – provided moderately optimistic sales forecasts for 2019 at the beginning of the year, however, the first quarter of 2019 showed that those forecasts did not appear to be coming true: sales were down 5.4% from last year and amounted to 14.1 million units. However, there is still hope to catch up at least last year’s figures.
In the most populous continent, sales for the first quarter fell to 8.8 million (down 9.9%). Asia is home to the two largest markets, India and China, both showing extremely modest results since the beginning of the year. It was also unexpected news that one of the fastest growing markets – Pakistan – also showed a downward trend in sales.
Spurred on by the rapid development of the Eastern European markets, the Old World saw strong sales growth of 23.6 percent in the first quarter. Poland (+ 87.3%), Romania (+ 86.9%), Hungary (+ 72%), Lithuania (+ 71%), Slovakia (+ 54%) showed a growth in the market for new motorcycles and provided a boost in the region. France (+ 31.7%), Italy (+ 17%), Spain (+ 19.1%), Germany (+ 22.1%) also contributed to the overall statistics. And even with the country-shaking BREXIT, the UK grew by 10%. Sales growth in Europe has been a trend in recent years, despite increasingly stringent economic regulations.
Unlike the Europeans, the US market continues to lose ground, spending the next year in a decline, albeit insignificantly. The Canadian market fell 5% after several years of steady growth. Argentina and Ecuador showed significant declines, while Brazil and Colombia gained more than 15%. And although there was a ray of hope in the Latin American markets, there were still no positive figures for the first quarter.
Sales in Indonesia were up 15%. Malaysia also posted positive earnings, while Vietnam and Thailand, two emerging markets, posted negative gains. Overall, the region posted sales of 34 million in the first quarter, up 5.9%.
The sales figures for the first quarter are sobering, and now the step is for manufacturers, who will be forced to develop promising products that will ensure sales growth in global markets, even if we are not talking about those products and markets that were initially relied on.


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One of Sheffield city centre's most popular bars is putting its weight behind a scheme to raise money to help the beleaguered hospitality industry thanks to Sheffield-born Hospitality Gin.
Leopold Square's Bamboo Door has signed a deal with the brand launched in lockdown by entrepreneur Tom Lord.
His spirit - which has already sold hundreds of bottles with orders coming in from the four corners of the UK - will become the house gin and form the basis of a brand-new cocktail menu.
Tom Lord, who had a long and successful career managing and developing bars like FirePit Rocks on West Street, decided he couldn't sit back and watch the pandemic wreck the hospitality industry.
He launched Hospitality Gin to raise awareness and give all profits to charity.
Tom Lord said: "It's fantastic news that Bamboo Door have made us their house gin. They're one of the most successful bars in the city and I'm looking forward to the partnership bringing more much-needed help for the industry."


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Local man creates virtual bar for all
Vicente Peña is passionate about traditional recreational activities like golf and hunting — but also in something that can only have come about in 2020: virtual bars.
As bars all over the city and state have closed, Peña’s bar, Vicente’s Virtual Bar, has remained opened for more than four months on Facebook and is gaining traction as the days pass. What started as a novel idea to see how many people would watch him play piano has now become a passion he believes can revolutionize the way people spend the night “out.”
“All this started because one day I was just sitting here with no lights and no nothing,” Peña said. “During these times, I created the first virtual bar ever because of the lockdown, not because of the pandemic. ... This allowed me to find a way to heal people and provide them some fun from the comfort of their home. It provides an escape no matter if there is COVID or not.”
Although he started with little traction as only his friends would watch him from time to time, he has gotten more views since people began making it a daily custom to watch his shows and share his videos as he plays requested songs on piano.
“I have gone from five to 10 views to now getting about 3,000 to 5,000 views a day,” Peña said.
His viewers do not just include people from Laredo. Seven different countries are represented, with most viewers being from the United States and Mexico. At times he has been able to serenade people from as far away as Germany and Spain. He enjoys hearing the stories of people who chat with him in his videos.
“I just want people to know that I am not here for them to see me, I am here to see them,” Peña said. “I get excited every time someone joins the live feed and a bubble pops up. This is the safest bar — you can drink from home and have a party from home.”
Even after the pandemic, Peña said his virtual bar would present a safe alternative for people to drink whatever they want from home and not have to worry about driving.
His goal is to make a network of virtual bars all over the world. He hopes to create several virtual bars that are not the typical bar experience or even necessarily centered around alcohol. These would include options focused on specific age segments such as places for children, teenagers or the elderly to come together.
“I want to be that guy that they call for parties. People say that they don’t want to go to the club because it is dangerous, but let’s just turn on the virtual bar and go there directly,” Peña said. “It is a complete virtual experience where these people are interacting and performing similar activities as in bars all through online while I listen to their requests and engage with them.”
He is glad his bar format has no capacity restrictions, so nobody ever needs to be turned away.
“I have no limit. I can invite the whole world into this bar. There is an eight billion capacity,” Peña said. “There is no 200 or 400 capacity in my bar as this is the best bar in the world.”
Although Peña knows what he wants out of his idea, he also knows the journey to reach it has not been easy and he continues to evolve.
Before creating his virtual bar, Peña worked on video production for the whitetail deer business for 25 years. His videos were popular in the U.S., Mexico and even earned him recognition in Iraq. Because the videos reminded United States soldiers of hunting back home, they flew a 2008 mission in his name and later presented him with the flag.
The videos also helped Peña find a new calling. Since he had to incorporate music and narration into his films, it drove him to explore musical production and take out his piano for the first time in 10 years. This new passion helped him make video and music for local stores such as Los Jacales Mexican Restaurant, various Walmart stores and other stores locally and nationally such as Academy Sports and Cabela’s.
Since his first attempt at the virtual bar setting, it has now become a custom that he hopes to continue to share to the world and the community as he drinks a toast while playing to the tunes of those who attend the only bar open in town.


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CryptoVoxels is making a huge step towards the future! So join the team in its journey of transformation at the upcoming Voxcon rebranding event. Say hello to future Voxels on May 3 at 8:00 PM EDT!
CryptoVoxels is a virtual world on the Ethereum blockchain. You can buy land, build shops, galleries and much more through the platform. Mainly, the CryptoVoxels game focuses on arts and visual culture fans, making it the perfect contender for an Android mobile game.
Voxelians, please join us on our rebranding event at the Voxels #metaverse…
The future is bright, say hello to future Voxels! 🎉
Save the date.
— Cryptovoxels (@cryptovoxels) April 29, 2022
CryptoVoxels Welcome a New Era
“CryptoVoxels” will welcome its new era with a grand carnival of entertainment. During the event, the team will shake off the cumbersome ‘Crypto’ alias, leaving the streamlined and altogether more accessible “Voxels” as the all-encompassing brand name. This move aims to expand the reach of the platform to non-crypto enthusiasts. In addition, it will be easier for users to recall a shorter brand name and it is more universal.
Based on the official video trailer, Voxels is welcoming its new phase with an extravagant gala of outlandish distractions. The festivities will start with the grand unveiling of the brand new, freshly designed Voxels logo. Then, a host of fantastic art, live DJ sets, documentaries, guest speakers, workshops and voxelated ‘food’ will make the event more lively. In parallel, there would be fantastic giveaways. So attendees would have a chance to win some of the finest NFT goodies the metaverse has to offer.


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McDonald’s is offering at limited locations a Twix McFlurry.
The dessert has been offered in other countries for years, like the United Kingdom. According to the McDonald’s U.K. website, it features “soft dairy ice cream swirled with Twix chocolate coated biscuit pieces and a chocolate caramel sauce.”
If you’ve tried it or seen it at your local McDonald’s, let us know in the comments.
(Image via McDonald’s Peoria Twitter)


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Pure Chat unveils pricing plans for popular live chat service
Pure Chat, a popular live support and sales software, announced to its users that the company will introduce a pricing plan beginning September 1, 2014. In a newsletter from the company, Founder Pure Chat Hamid Shojaee explained that the fees will help the company invest in improvements to the live chat software.
Shojaee assured users that Pure Chat will continue to be affordable, and will also offer a “Pure Simplicity” plan-a free of charge, but limited, service for casual live chat customers. The new “Pure Awesome!” pricing plan will be available at a low-cost of $5 per operator. All existing customers and those who sign up by June 30 will get six months of free service.
In 2013, Pure Chat went through a revamp and offered new features such as downloadable transcripts, new UX/UI, an autocomplete option, structural changes, OnTime help desk integration, audio notifications, operator availability updates and chat filters for reorganization.
Shojaee shared that more than 65,000 companies have used Pure Chat and usage is doubling every three months.
Hamid Shojaee is also founder of Axosoft, TransferBigFiles.com & AZTB
Graphics provided by Pure Chat


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Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has issued the draft Green Energy Open Access Regulations, 2022.
According to the proposed regulations, consumers will be eligible for open access via the intrastate transmission system of the state transmission utility or distribution systems of the state’s distribution licencees. Under the proposed regulations, any consumer with a captive power project will have the right to open access. Also, non-captive consumers with a sanctioned load of 100 kW or more will be eligible for open access. Also, charges like transmission charges, wheeling charges, cross-subsidy charges, additional surcharge, banking charges, and standby charges will be determined by the Commission using the methodology specified for green open access. The aforementioned charges will be determined on a case-by-case basis by the Commission, until the methodology is finalised. Also, banking will be permitted on a monthly basis after payment of the Commission’s fees. The banked energy will not be allowed to be carried forward to subsequent months, and the credit for the banked energy will be adjusted during the same month.


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Star Wars 1313 Announced By LucasArtsBy Marhgil Macuha on Jun 1, 2012 in Gaming, United States •
Star Wars 1313 was officially announced by LucasArts, several gaming news sites reported on Thursday, May 31, 2012.
Image Credit: LucasArts
According to reports, the announcement was made during Spike’s Game Trailers TV show on Thursday night. Titled Star Wars 1313, the game is said to be a third-person action-adventure game.
“We’re excited to share one of the projects LucasArts has been hard at work developing. Star Wars 1313 dives into a part of the Star Wars mythos that we’ve always known existed, but never had a chance to visit. We are committed to bringing the best gameplay experience and visual fidelity to life and I truly believe the work we are showcasing at E3 will speak for itself,” Paul Meegan, President of LucasArts reportedly said.
Reports said that the game’s hero will use human skills and gadgets instead of supernatural force powers. Furthermore, it will feature a combination of platforming, cover-based combat and playable cinematic gameplay.
Release dates and game platforms have not been revealed yet. The game will make its formal debut at the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on June 5-7, 2012.
Spread The News!


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MGM Home Entertainment has confirmed what retailers have been listing for several weeks now: Troll 2 is coming to Blu-ray Disc on October 5.
The film that inspired the recent documentary “Best Worst Movie” is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year which is why you’ll be able to add it to your collection in high definition. Unfortunately there will be no bonus features, not even the new documentary, so Troll 2 in 1080p video and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with an inclusive DVD version will have to suffice.
Here’s the official Troll 2 synopsis:
Joshua Waits has been warned by his grandfather’s ghost that his family is about to embark on a dangerous vacation to the town of Nilbog. Although he tries to stop them, Joshua fails to make his parents see that there is something suspicious about the town. The residents are extremely friendly but are constantly trying to feed the Waits with strange, green delicacies. Joshua soon realizes that the town of Nilbog is actually “goblin” spelled backwards, and that his family has been lured into a trap. With the help of Grandpa Seth, Joshua must save his family from being turned into vegetables and devoured by the vegetarian goblins!
Pre-order Troll 2 on Blu-ray for only $14.99 at Amazon.com.


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In a bid to encourage businesses to think twice about sustainability and come together to achieve ethical growth, Mary Portas OBE will be heading up the speaker stage on day one of Yorkshire Sustainability Festivals’ two day conference hosted later this year. Last month, Kevin McCloud MBE was announced as keynote speaker for day two.
Kate Hutchinson, Founder of Yorkshire Sustainability Festival (YSF), said:
“We are absolutely thrilled to have both Mary Portas and Kevin McCloud joining us for Yorkshire Sustainability Festival 2024. Mary will be taking to our speaker stage on day one of the conference which focuses on circular economy and I couldn’t think of anyone better to represent this category. Mary’s passion and determination for driving innovation and conscious change for the good of our planet is persistent and I can’t wait to hear what she has to say.”
“There’s no doubt that Mary will deliver an inspirational talk which is sure to set off lots of lightbulb moments (powered by sustainable energy of course!) for our audience of leaders from the public, private and third sector.”
High profile businesswoman, Mary Portas OBE, famously known for her brand & retail expertise, is also a successful broadcaster, author and is Co-Chair of Better Business Act, an organisation set to change UK legislation for people, planet and profit. She is a relentless changemaker who asks questions, raises complex topics and has the conversations that people shouldn’t be avoiding if we want to live in a more sustainable environment.
In a recent documentary with Kevin McCloud (speaker at day two of YSF) and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, The Great Climate Fight, Portas and her co-hosts suggested that despite the Government having a plan to combat climate change, they’re not taking the action required to meet those goals within the set timeframes.
The two week festival of events (10th-19th June) featuring various round table discussions and a two day conference will bring together leaders from the public, private and third sectors all passionate and committed to building a sustainable future for Yorkshire and beyond.
Mary Portas OBE will be speaking at day one of the conference, held at Cloth Hall Court in Leeds. The first day of the conference will be focused around a circular economy with tracks including manufacturing, SME support, economy and finance and waste.
Key sponsors and partners of the event to date include: Leeds City Council, Alrose Productions, Beyondly, boxxe, Imageco and Severfield.
Yorkshire Sustainability Festival offers a range of events to help organisations reduce their carbon emissions, improve their sustainability, and create new business opportunities in the green economy; from roundtable Sustainability Symposiums to a wide range of fringe events, including The Yorkshire Sustainability Conference. As well as attending events across the week, businesses are also invited to organise their own fringe events under the Yorkshire Sustainability Festival banner. Businesses and individuals can book event tickets here: https://ysf.thesustainabilitycommunity.com/


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Americans are doing the primary factor that drives the US economy: spending, but accelerating inflation is in dire straits.
Quite a few financial information printed Wednesday confirmed the economy on a stable foundation, with Americans growing their revenue to ranges not seen as a result of the Beatles have been nonetheless collectively and decreasing unemployment claims.
But hovering costs for all the things from gasoline to lease generally is a main financial indicator for Americans to debate at Thanksgiving dinners.
The Commerce Division reported that US shopper spending recovered 1.3% in October. Regardless of inflation, it has accelerated sooner than every other level in additional than 30 years up to now yr.
The surge in shopper spending final month doubled from a 0.6% improve in September.
On the identical time, shopper costs rose 5% in comparison with the identical interval final yr. That is the quickest rise within the 12 months because the identical interval resulted in November 1990.
Gus Faucher, Chief Economist at PNC Monetary, stated:
Private revenue, which is able to drive future spending progress, fell 1% in September after which elevated 0.5% in October. This displays a decline in authorities funding.
Funds to Americans are growing as companies crave for employees, and authorities stimulus measures earlier this yr crammed their financial institution accounts even additional. It is a signal of a powerful vacation season, and main US retailers say they are prepared after some corporations, resembling: Walmart and TargetRegardless of the widespread scarcity, the cabinets have turn out to be extraordinarily lengthy to ensure they are full.
Analysts stated the sturdy improve in spending in October, the primary month of the brand new quarter, inspired proof that general financial progress slowed to a modest annual fee. 2.1% in the July-September quarter, Posts a good quantity of rebounds within the present quarter. Except latest will increase in COVID instances and issues about inflation undermine vacation procuring, that’s anticipated.
“After experiencing probably the most critical financial shocks of the final century in 2020, the US economy confirmed one of many quickest restoration in trendy historical past in 2021,” stated the Chief US Economist of Oxford Economics. One Gregory Dako stated: shopper. Daco predicts that GDP will get better to five.6% progress for the present October-December interval.
Then again, the variety of Americans making use of for unemployment allowance is Fell last week From 71,000 to 199,000, the bottom since mid-November 1969. Nonetheless, seasonal changes earlier than and after Thanksgiving holidays contributed considerably to the bigger than anticipated decline. Unadjusted claims really elevated from over 18,000 to almost 259,000.
The College of Michigan reported in a observe on Wednesday that the buyer sentiment index fell 4.3 factors to 67.4 this month, heightening inflation issues and the bottom degree since November 2011.
And in the US Rapid increase in COVID-19 Circumstances that may worsen because the household travels the nation for Thanksgiving holidays.
President Joe Biden acted on Tuesday to counter rising gasoline costs. Release order From the nation’s strategic petroleum reserves, economists count on actions to have minimal impression on rising gasoline costs.
The Federal Reserve Board is making an attempt to implement an rate of interest coverage to attain annual earnings with a most well-liked value index of about 2%. Nonetheless, for the previous 20 years, inflation has failed to fulfill the Fed’s 2% inflation goal.
At its November assembly, the Federal Reserve introduced the beginning of a $ 120 billion month-to-month discount in bond purchases that central banks have been making to place downward stress on lengthy-time period rates of interest to revitalize the economy.
Minutes From that meeting The Federal Reserve has indicated that it’s more and more involved that undesirable value pressures might last more. Authorities must be ready to maneuver to make sure that inflation is uncontrolled, to scale back bond purchases extra shortly, or to begin elevating the Fed’s benchmark rates of interest sooner. I identified.
The discount in bond purchases was the primary technique to withdraw the massive-scale help the Fed has offered to the economy. Economists count on the Fed’s benchmark rates of interest to rise within the second half of 2022, affecting hundreds of thousands of shopper and company loans. That proportion is at a report low of 0% to 0.25% because the outbreak of the spring 2020 pandemic.
Americans are spending but inflation casts pall over economy Source link Americans are spending but inflation casts pall over economy
Americans are spending but inflation casts pall over economy – /


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Ecommerce role is explored at talk
Many of North Wexford's business owners recently attended an early morning gathering in the Ashdown Park Hotel, Gorey, to hear an informative and timely talk on the necessity of having an online presence and the importance of ecommerce.
The breakfast briefing, organised by the Love Gorey campaign, saw ecommerce expert Patrick Doran outline how online activity can boost business - a very relevant topic given the central role of websites, ecommerce, and social media in business today.
Patrick is a lecturer in the School of Retail and Services Management in Dublin Institute of Technology, specialising in retail information systems.
He also explained how different age groups interact with the internet and social media, and the increasing importance of Instagram in businesses such as fashion and food, that have a visual element to their offering.
The event also marked the one year anniversary since the revamp of the Love Gorey campaign to promote Gorey town and the North Wexford area as a premium destination for locals and visitors.
Since then, the campaign has achieved great success, and PR co-ordinator Deirdre O'Flynn highlighted the different elements of the campaign, and pointed out that each month, Love Gorey engages with over 10,000 people, across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the LoveGorey.ie site itself.
The Love Gorey website and its social media profiles are focused on making Gorey, Ferns, Courtown, and the surrounding areas a key consideration for holidays, short breaks, gourmet dining, shopping, historic viewing, walking, family fun, corporate events and more.
The event was also addressed by Gorey Chamber of Commerce president Jim Hughes who highlighted how Gorey is strategically placed to benefit from its retail, tourism, agriculture, and tech offering.
Gorey Municipal District Manager Amanda Byrne also contended that Gorey is well placed to become the Westport of the east coast, as a go-to destination for both locals and tourists.
To find out more about the Love Gorey campaign, visit www.lovegorey.ie, like LoveGorey.ie on Facebook, follow @Love_Gorey on Twitter and see lovegorey.ie on Instagram.
The Love Gorey campaign is supported by Gorey Municipal District and Gorey Chamber.


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Lawsuit Claims Microsoft Intentionally Designed Phones to Track Customers
Accuses company of lying to Congress about how customers are tracked
A lawsuit filed in Seattle federal court Wednesday alleges Microsoft intentionally designed its Windows Phone 7 to track customers without their consent, Reuters's Dan Levine reports. The lawsuit claims Microsoft lied to Congress in a letter sent during hearings over how technology companies are using location data. Congress was following up on revelations that Apple's iPhones tracked customers' whereabouts even when the location software was turned off; Microsoft assured lawmakers it only tracks customers with their express consent.
The litigation, brought on behalf of a Windows Phone 7 user, claims Microsoft transmits data -- including approximate latitude and longitude coordinates of the user's device -- while the camera application is activated. It seeks an injunction and punitive damages, among other remedies.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.


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Several food industry leaders from across the United States, including partners of the former Garden Fresh Gourmet in Ferndale, have come together to launch a new plant-based protein brand in a manner never before attempted — nationwide in both retail and virtual restaurants.
Garden Fresh Gourmet was launched by the late Jack Aronson, his wife, Annette Aronson, and David Zilko, and was sold to Campbell Soup Co. for $231 million in 2015.
Today, under the brand Skinny Butcher in Detroit, the partners have moved forward on a new concept by inviting L.A.-based Golden West Food Group to exclusively manufacture the line, be equity stakeholders, and serve as the vendor of record, ensuring speed to market on a national scale.
In addition, Wow Bao, originated by Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE), has created a virtual kitchen concept for the Skinny Butcher. Wow Bao is a leading virtual restaurant operator that has opened more than 650 units throughout the United States and has already begun onboarding Skinny Butcher onto their existing platform.
As part of the rollout, LEYE chefs created a Crazy Crispy Chick’n menu that includes Chick’n Parm, Jumbo Chick’n Tenders, Chick’n Caesar Salad, Teriyaki Chick’n, sandwiches, and sliders.
Wow Bao, which has partnered with REEF Kitchens to launch Crazy Crispy Chick’n across the country via third-party delivery, has a longstanding relationship with Valor Equity Partners, an operational growth equity firm. Valor Siren Ventures, Valor’s early stage food, food technology, retail, and retail technology investment fund, made a $10 million investment in Skinny Butcher.
“Our mission is to go to market with a line that wins on branding and on flavor profile,” says David Zilko, CEO of Skinny Butcher and former vice chairman of Garden Fresh Gourmet. “No other plant-based program possesses the brand personality of Skinny Butcher; he endears himself to the consumer at the point of sale and that relationship continues through consumption.
“Skinny Butcher does not take himself or our Crazy Crispy line of Chick’n Nuggets, Tenders, Patties, Sliders, or Breasts too seriously. This kind of food should be fun, while also being sustainable.”
Skinny Butcher is importing a progressive vegetable fiber strain, employing pea protein, and adding to it a proprietary spice blend that results in products virtually indistinguishable from animal-based comparables.
From there, the soy-free line further differentiates itself with a unique breading system that allows for the sub-brand “Crazy Crispy,” in response to the white-hot fried chicken sandwich wars playing out in QSR (Quick Service Restaurants) outlets across the country.
“We have always been a food first company, and Dave Zilko and (his) team have created an unparalleled product that we are proud to partner with and represent on a national scale,” says Geoff Alexander, president and CEO of Wow Bao. “While other plant-based chicken companies have nuggets, we have a full line of menu items that will please any and all eaters.”
Zilko concludes, “We’ve assembled an amazing collection of thought leaders from across the country. Skinny Butcher offers instantly iconic branding at retail and an industry leading flavor format with a virtual restaurant program and the resources to scale nationally.”
Detroit-based Skinny Butcher is committed to a skinny planetary footprint via its breakthrough line of plant-based protein poultry items, being offered nationally both at retail and via its unique virtual kitchen program.
Golden West Food Group is a premium manufacturer of food products with headquarters in Vernon, Calf. GWFG offers thousands of products nationwide to a variety of customers in food service, military, private label, and retail channels.
Valor Siren Ventures is a leading innovation engine and investor in early-stage food, food technology, retail, and retail technology investing.


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Consumers prefer clear and positive label messages. A good reason that retailers, farmers and even more distant value chain members like feed millers should integrate these messages into their communication strategy. This is just one of the interesting results that showed a recent study about label messaging for poultry meat.
However, often absence label claims, like “cage-free”, “gluten-free” or “no added hormones” have been misused as a fear-mongering tatic (1). How could you use label messages the right way?
Nearly half of U.S. millennials say that knowing their meat or poultry was fed phytogenic ingredients would make a very positive impact on their brand choice.
Who are millenials?
Millenials (also known as “Generation Y”) are people, which were born in the 1980’s and later up to mid 1990’s.
Those people are the most active subjects of the economy right know and they represent the most purchasing power.
Who is a phytogenic fan?
Phytogenic Fans are a consumer segment that is already making careful food choices, and phytogenic messages appear to influence their purchase behavior. This segment of U.S. millennial consumers (from age 26 to 36), responded very positively to the phytogenic message.
From several tested label messages “fed phytogenic ingredients to be environmentally friendly” was the top performing.
Phytogenic Fans said seeing the term “environmentally friendly” was attention getting, important and unique.
This just one of the reasons because food retailers should overthink their approach on negative label messaging and instead empower consumers with information that describes specifically what is present in the chicken’s environment or diet.
This is only one interesting outcome of a recent survey, conducted by Delacon.
(1): Vilsack, Tom. “Stop the Food Label Fear-Mongering.” U.S. News and World Report, 30 Jan. 2018.


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Webgistix, a provider of e-commerce order fulfillment, in partnership with 4PX, an order fulfillment firm in China, has announced the new eGlobal Order (eGO) service for eBay China sellers to speed delivery to US eBay buyers.
Webgistix said the new eGO service is available immediately and is integrated with eBay Selling Manager Pro, simplifying the order fulfillment process.
Orders that ship via eGO reach US customers in one to three days through FedEx, UPS or USPS.
eBay China chief operating officer Oliver Hua said they believe the partnership of Webgistix and 4PX, both global order fulfillment leaders, brings the technology, logistics, and US order fulfillment expertise needed for eBay Sellers in China to grow their business in the US marketplace.
4PX president Kevin Lee said eGO presents an expanded market opportunity for eBay sellers in China by putting them on equal footing with eBay sellers in the US.
"eGO makes order fulfillment easy for Chinese sellers who frequently send shipments to the US," Lee said.


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Who doesn’t like a little sprinkling of tasty parmesan cheese from time to time? You might think you’re familiar enough with the taste of parmesan cheese to detect a fake, but a recent investigation by the FDA indicates that you might have been enjoying a lot more wood pulp in your cheese than you expected. In fact, there might not have been any parmesan cheese in your “cheese.”
A recently released document pertaining to an ongoing cheese-related FDA investigation makes clear how widespread cheese fraud has been. It’s common for manufacturers to use a small amount of wood pulp (cellulose) as a bulking agent. The acceptable limit set by the FDA is just 2% of the total weight. Several manufacturers were using much, much more.
Cellulose is the main sugar in plants — a polysaccharide that humans aren’t equipped to digest. It’s the main constituent of paper and cardboard, and cotton fiber is 90% cellulose. Most of the offenders caught by the FDA had cellulose content higher than allowed, but not by much. Cheese from manufacturer Jewel-Osco was 8.8% cellulose and Walmart’s Great Value brand was 7.8%. Those were still mostly parmesan cheese, though.
Castle Cheese Inc. was producing fake parmesan cheese and distributing it to some of the largest grocery chains in the US including Target. Acting on a tip, the FDA inspected a Castle Cheese facility and found that it’s 100% grated parmesan cheese was actually equal parts swiss, mozzarella, white cheddar, and cellulose. Castle President Michelle Myrter is due in court this month to plead guilty to charges that she directed the adulteration. She could face up to a year in prison and $100,000 in fines. The world is again safe for lovers of hard Italian cheese.


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COLES is adding 130 staff members in central Victoria to meet customer demand even as other businesses shut in the face of coronavirus.
Forty-five of the new employees have been fast-tracked into supermarkets and liquor stores in Bendigo and the wider region.
Some are from industries like travel, sport, fitness and hospitality, which have been decimated by restrictions.
Some businesses will thrive during the crisis itself because of their essential service status, even if the number of people they can put on pale in comparison to the jobs lost in the wider economy, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank managing director Marnie Baker said.
Her bank has been approached by businesses needing the capital for extra staff.
"We know that essential service businesses are putting a lot of people on to help with logistics to keep up with online demand, and to get groceries into stores," Ms Baker said.
It is a bright spot amid surging numbers of people off of work and warnings that coronavirus could radically alter Bendigo consumers' habits if the crisis wears on.
"If this does go for six months you have to assume things won't go back to what they were a few weeks ago," Ms Baker said.
"Things will have changed because we all will have adapted."
Several of the city's largest industries have already been hit hard by social distancing restrictions including retail, accommodation and food services.
Those sectors alone cover one fifth of Bendigo's 48,000 jobs, statistics compiled by economic consultancy REMPLAN suggest.
Up to $90 million could have been wiped from the city's $14.5 billion economy when tourism collapsed, REMPLAN director Matthew Nichol said last week.
But that was only a very early estimate of a crisis that has enveloped other sectors and at a time when data is only beginning to trickle in across Australia, he cautioned.
Economists are now watching the thousands of Bendigo office workers now working from home, Mr Nichol said.
"We will be teasing out if, in the middle of this crisis, businesses have learnt things that they might keep doing - or at least elements of them," he said.
"There's no silver lining to the crisis. But you take councils and businesses: we are all working from home now.
"There might be elements that are not working so well but I'll tell you what, it's incredible to see how people are innovating to make it work."
Mr Nichol group will track that as part of a wider national business survey as it scrambles to help clients track economic damage.
With the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Bendigo rising to seven on Monday and to 821 across Victoria, Ms Baker said it was way too early to tell when the economic crisis would end and recovery could begin.
In the meantime, businesses and workers would have to keep turning to emergency measures like the government's newly announced $130 billion worth of JobSeeker payments to affected workers.
Ms Baker said her bank was among those supporting a separate federal relief package allowing eligible customers with facilities up to $10 million to defer repayments on business loans for six months, with interest capitalised into these existing loans.
"The banking industry has been working with the government all the way through to make sure we are supporting our business and mortgage measures," Ms Baker said.
"Outside of that, we are asking all our business and mortgage customers to please get in touch with us and talk about the impact of COVID-19 on them, and see if we can be of assistance. It's what we are here to do."
Ms Baker urged Bendigo residents to keep supporting local businesses.
"I think it is more important than ever that people stick together and support each other," she said.
We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we want to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.


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GM will be dropping three exterior colors from the 2021 Chevy Equinox crossover during its final months of production, GM Authority has learned.
|Color||Last production week|
|Pacific Blue Metallic||March 22nd|
|Nightfall Gray Metallic||March 31st|
|Cajun Red Tintcoat||April 12th|
The three colors in question are Pacific Blue Metallic, Nightfall Gray Metallic and Cajun Red Tintcoat. They will be discontinued during the production weeks starting March 22nd, March 31st and April 12th respectively.
None of these colors have been available on the current Chevy Equinox in the base (L) trim level. Nightfall Gray Metallic is a no-charge color starting with the LS trim (not available on L), while Pacific Blue Metallic is optional starting with LT and Premier (not available on L, LS or 1FL). Cajun Red Tintcoat is $495 option that’s available on LT and Premier (not available on L, LS or 1FL).
The deletion of these three colors means that, within a month from now, the Equinox will be built with five fewer colors than the 2020 Chevy Equinox, since Chocolate Metallic and Cayenne Orange Metallic were not carried over to the 2021 model, and no new colors were added for the 2021 MY.
Like many other General Motors vehicles, the Equinox was scheduled for a mid-cycle enhancement (MCE) for the 2021 model year, but the update was delayed due to complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The refresh will instead be applied to the 2022 Chevy Equinox, which is due to go into production in June of this year.
The Equinox is currently one of GM’s best-selling vehicles in the United States. Despite a 22 percent downturn, 270,994 examples were sold in 2020. This made it not only the second most popular Chevrolet model, behind the enormously successful Chevy Silverado pickup truck, but also the second most popular GM vehicle of any brand.
The equinox even outsold the Silverado’s corporate cousin, the GMC Sierra, whose own sales improved by nearly nine percent. The Equinox accounted for 15.6 percent of Chevrolet sales and 10.6 percent of all GM sales in the United States for the year.
Sales Numbers - Mainstream Compact Crossovers - Q4 2020 - United States
|MODEL||Q4 20 SHARE||Q4 19 SHARE||YTD 20 / YTD 19||YTD 20||YTD 19|
|MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE CROSS||0%||1%||-47.52%||10,319||19,661|
In the mainstream compact crossovers market segment, the Equinox placed third, behind the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V but ahead of all other rivals, including the Nissan Rogue, Ford Escape, Subaru Forester and Mazda CX-5.


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Tesla’s FSD Beta has been making headlines lately, and people on Twitter are suggesting that it should drive from LA to NY. Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to these suggestions with a simple tweet, saying “Soon.” With Tesla’s Autopilot making significant breakthroughs, could this challenging goal be achieved soon?
In my opinion, the Highway AP feature is already proven. Using Enhanced Autopilot (EAP) since 2018, and it’s almost flawless by now. So, driving from LA to NY is not a big deal. However, achieving fully autonomous driving without any driver intervention is a challenging and valuable goal that Tesla has been working hard to achieve.
Way back in October 2016, Musk told everyone Tesla was aiming to have fully self-driving cars go coast to coast without any human help by the end of 2017. Talk about ambitious! Luckily for Musk, “soon” means a lot more now since Tesla’s self-driving tech has come a long way, shouldn’t be too long before that vision’s a reality.
Looking back, that was one heck of a goal to set. Tesla has been working on a pure vision-based autonomous driving solution, which only uses cameras without the need for radar. Tesla has already started producing Model 3 and Model Y models without radar and hopes to achieve Autopilot and FSD functions only with cameras. Elon Musk has referred to radar as the “crutch” of autonomous driving and has always planned to use a camera-based solution.
While Tesla is announcing that the full driving system is coming soon, Mercedes has received permission to drive fully autonomously in California with a speed limit of 40 mph on highways. This shows that the race for autonomous driving is heating up, and Tesla is not the only player in the game.


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Euclid-based Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LECO) recently announced the acquisition of both Overstreet-Hughes Co. in Tennessee and Shoals Tubular Inc. in Alabama, which both serve the HVAC sector.
Terms were not disclosed. A news release stated that the companies have combined annual sales of about $50 million. The companies make "copper and aluminum headers, distributor assemblies and manifolds" in the U.S. and Mexico for the HVAC market, the release said. The companies will be part of the Harris Products Group business.
"Our combined portfolio now offers HVAC OEMs with the broadest portfolio of solutions and application expertise for high-quality and efficient HVAC coil fabrication," Lincoln Electric chairman, president and CEO Christopher L. Mapes said in the release. "The acquisition also positions HPG to better capitalize on the attractive HVAC growth opportunity as part of our Higher Standard 2025 Strategy."


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At SMX Social Media in Scottsdale, Arizona, Kurt Krejny, director of online marketing for Fathom, said that social media marketing success starts with identifying a target audience and shaping all social and content marketing material to their behavior. This is a rule that can be applied to a wide variety of forms of social outreach, but Twitter, in particular, is a space that is inundated with frequent updates. Businesses that want to stand out need to set their Tweets apart.
In his presentation, Krejny said that audience understanding is one of the most common problems for businesses developing social media campaigns. These organizations likely have an idea which consumers or companies they hope to sell to. However, understanding the behavior of these people on Twitter is very different from selling to them in store.
In general, online content marketing enables businesses to give consumers round-the-clock, easy access to content (instead of putting it in TV ads that might be missed or fliers that might be lost). But with Twitter, content is has a short life-span on a users’ feeds, so identifying the times of day and media most likely to draw microblog users to convert is critical to developing a successful Twitter marketing campaign.
Planning Twitter campaigns can require massive paradigm shifts for small businesses, but the benefits achieved when done correctly can drastically improve your bottom line. In fact, ContentLEAD reported that more than half of consumers are likely to become frequent customers of business they follow on social media platforms.
Here are three critical considerations businesses must make to ensure their Twitter marketing campaign is a success.
1. Set Twitter marketing goals you can later measure
On the surface, the goal of every marketing campaign is to drive sales and conversions. However, drawing traffic and a consistent prospect base on the web requires marketing strategies that often have motivations other than strict sales.
The sales are the end game. They will come if your marketing campaigns are effective. But before that, there are a few other goals your businesses must achieve on the web. These will be different for every company, but Twitter has proven a valuable component for each.
Some small businesses focus on developing their position as a thought leader. Twitter marketing supports this goal when businesses use social media content that links back to informative website content. As more content is posted to your Twitter account, monitoring the reaction to and sharing of the articles and other media will give a business some idea of how their content is received by their target audience.
Ultimately, though, the amount of followers a business gains as a result of sharing its news content marketing is a good demonstration of its position as a thought leader. Make it a point to document your company’s Twitter followers and measure changes each month.
Monitoring the true quality of your followers is equally important. Twitter can be a strong tool for connecting your business with quality prospects, and ensuring that those you engage with are also thought leaders or quality prospects will help you reach those goals.
Some companies point to web traffic increases as their ultimate hope. As traffic increases, businesses can use their analytics tools to track the origination of each visit. Even if traffic increases after the implementation of a social campaign, monitoring where traffic stems from is equally important. Any traffic increase is a good thing, but the analytics data will help inform adjustments to web marketing strategies – in Google Analytics, is Twitter a referral source for your site traffic? If so monitor how much traffic it drives over time to see whether you are achieving this goal.
Certain pieces of content will be more beneficial in helping businesses realize goals, and there are tools customized specifically to Twitter that can help inform your decisions on the social platform. Krejny mentioned Twitalyzer as a tool used by businesses of all sizes to assess the effectiveness of their social media marketing campaign. Measuring the engagement rate and overall influence of a specific campaign can help influence your future social strategy.
2. Decide which content can achieve business goals and engage audiences
Krejny has found that maintaining detailed profiles of a few key followers or fans has helped companies using social media marketing target content effectively.
The tools available on social media platforms, such as Facebook Insights and Google’s newly launched social media insights platform, will provide information related to the age, race and other characteristics of your followers. As a small business’ reach on social grows, this data becomes as valuable as conversions to an extent. It will clearly tell you when people are viewing your content, how they got on the page, where they are, etc.
Once you have this information, adjust Tweet content to the specific demographics most likely to visit your accounts. Think about what will be most relevant to unique audiences; ContentLEAD reported on Friday that a majority of consumers and business decision makers engaging with social media marketing content are most likely to convert when a business demonstrates its value in their content. You can share blog post headlines with Twitter followers looking to learn, and maybe share product pages to engage those who are doing clear-cut purchase research. Moreover, engagement directly with a follower can be a massive plus for a company.
Followers are going to ask questions, make comments or even lodge complaints. Each of these actions can be used as an opportunity to gain new business. Moreover, a study conducted by Extole found that a Facebook marketing campaign’s fans resulted in an average of three additional fans for the business. With this in mind, remember that when you see engagement from a Twitter contact, it’s likely that other people of a similar background or industry have the same concerns and behave in the same manner on social media platforms – you stand to reach all of them with your response.
Plus, finding the content that engages key Twitter personas can inform your broader content marketing strategy. Treating these instances as though they exist in a vacuum is a wasted opportunity. As Krejny said, data gathered on social media should be used “to determine effective content.” across campaigns.
The development of social analytics tools offered by major platforms has made it easier to collect data. Failing to use this and act accordingly can’t be explained away with a lack of time anymore. Facebook, Google and Twitter are doing all the work for you now.
The data is there, and your content should reflect it.
3. Determine the best Tweet times to reach your audience
For every company, whether in the B2B or B2C sector, there is a group of consumers or businesses most likely to purchase your products. This is the audience you should focus on when scheduling your Tweet times.
Content marketing‘s appeal to businesses is apparent and their reliance on the channel is growing. However, sharing this content at the correct times and in a manner that will compel conversion is as important as the message conveyed in the content itself.
In October, ContentLEAD reported that the best times to share actively are during the work day. Twenty-six percent of Baby Boomers say they are most active on social between the hours 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. However, 23 percent said they engage socially between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and 32 percent visit these websites and accounts later in the evenings.
With that said, it’s clear that versatile, fluid social media marketing strategies can reach prospects best. Consider the motivation for their visits. It’s likely that business owners and B2B decision makers visiting these websites during the work day are doing so from the office, while their visits in the evening are for their personal (B2C) use.
Millenials and “Generation X” report visiting social websites throughout the day, so the chances to reach these prospects are far greater. The same report said that 44 percent Millenials are active on social platforms between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and continue to access social accounts later in the evening.
As campaigns evolve, businesses must maintain and use data to inform decisions, Krejny said at SMX. Initial roll outs will be based on original research and educated guesses. It’s inevitable that some of these instincts will not result in the type of ROI a small business needs to maintain investment. However, abandoning plans for social altogether is unlikely to lead to a better plan.
Looks at your results after a month or two. See what is and isn’t working. What’s more, identify why certain Twitter efforts aren’t working. If you find people don’t click your Tweets, try sharing something new. If you’re seeing traffic but low conversions, maybe it’s time to look at the calls to action on your website. That’s not a failure of social, so much as an opportunity to adjust campaigns by capitalizing on your successes and moving away from your failures.
The web is evolving constantly. What’s true today may not be the case in a few weeks. Keep an eye on your Twitter campaign, and the way your prospects are interacting with it. Making a few key changes at the right time can mean the difference between success and struggle. The effort in perfecting your Twitter marketing campaign will be worth it in the end: More than one-third of businesses find leads on the microblogging site.


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Generative AI has emerged as an investment priority for CEOs despite the risks it poses, according to a recent KPMG study. Findings of the study reveal that CEOs continue to pour money into AI technology, which they believe will give them a competitive edge.
This comes as businesses from across sectors are assessing the potential that generative AI brings to their operations as the technology continues to gain recognition.
Bullish sentiment on generative AI
The KPMG 2023 Outlook surveyed 1,300 CEOs of some of the world’s biggest companies, which showed that political uncertainties and geopolitics weigh on business growth and are perceived as the top risks. These concerns appear unique to 2023, as they did not even make it into the top five in 2022.
However, CEOs are upbeat about generative AI. This has become a top investment priority for most businesses due to its ability to enhance the customer experience, derive revenue growth, and optimize costs.
According to the report, about 70% of CEOs agree that generative AI remains high on their lists of priorities and strongly believe they will see a return on investment in the next three to five years.
“Business leaders are facing challenges and obstacles to growth on multiple fronts, from geopolitical uncertainty and politicization to increased stakeholder expectations in the ESG space and the adoption of generative AI,” said KPMG International global CEO and chairman Bill Thomas.
According to the research, businesses are investing heavily in generative AI as they seek to leverage its transformative power and stay ahead of the race in the cutthroat business environment. Of the surveyed CEOs, 52% are certain such investments will start bringing positive results in three to five years, despite the challenges.
“What I find reassuring is that, despite the many macro-economic and geopolitical challenges right now, mid-term global confidence remains relatively robust. There’s a consensus that we can, in time, return to a path of international, sustainable long-term growth,” said Thomas.
There are concerns too
Although the CEOs expressed willingness to push AI into their investment agendas, they were not short of reservations. They cited ethical concerns as the biggest challenge to the implementation of generative AI in their businesses. Despite gaining support from all sectors, generative AI has also been criticized for several reasons, among them biases of all forms against minorities coupled with being open to manipulation into creating malicious content.
Apart from ethical concerns, the cost of implementation came in second at 55%, while lack of clear regulation and technical capability jointly ranked third at 50%.
“Generative AI is an increasingly hot topic in board rooms, with leaders looking to better understand its potential and how to implement this technology in their business strategies,” said KPMG International global chief digital officer Lisa Heneghan.
“The challenge is spending the money in the right places and with the right skills to fully exploit the opportunities it presents. AI is unquestionably the internet moment of our time.”
While there have been fears of job losses due to AI, experts have called on businesses to adopt the technology to remain relevant.
Heneghan therefore highlighted the need for businesses to adopt “responsible, robust AI frameworks” while leveraging on the technology’s ability to “genuinely unlock value for the business, its people, and wider society.”


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Graham Packaging, a portfolio company of The Blackstone Group, has acquired a minority stake in PPI Blowpack Pvt. Ltd., a Mumbai-based container manufacturer. No financial terms were disclosed. Graham recently agreed to go public via a $3.2 billion reverse merger with Hicks Acquisition Co., a SPAC managed by Tom Hicks.
Graham Packaging Company, L.P., and PPI Blowpack Pvt. Ltd., have formally consummated a transaction giving Graham Packaging a minority ownership interest in the Indian container manufacturing company based in Mumbai. No terms of the transaction were announced. The new company will be called Graham Blowpack Pvt. Ltd.
Ashok Sudan, Graham Packaging’s executive vice president and general manager, welcomed the signing of the finalized agreement as an important step in the expansion of Graham Packaging’s global reach.
“India is a vibrant growth market in which we are excited about participating,” Sudan said. “We believe that aligning with a forward-looking, customer-focused company like PPI Blowpack is the beginning of great success story.”
Graham Packaging, based in York, Pennsylvania, is a worldwide leader in the design, manufacture, and sale of technology-based, customized blow-molded plastic containers for the branded food and beverage, household, personal care/specialty, and automotive lubricants product categories. It operates 28 facilities outside the United States and has a strong presence in both Europe and South America.
The two companies originally announced a tentative deal in February. Executives in both organizations described it as an advantageous match of Graham Packaging’s blowmolding technology, design strengths, and focus on quality and PPI Blowpack’s market knowledge, strong management, and technical capabilities.
Kapil Gami, business development manager for Graham Packaging, and Puneet Deora, managing director of PPI Blowpack, emphasized that the companies were highly compatible in terms of shared vision, commitment to quality, and customer focus.
PPI Blowpack, which has been in business since 1972, produces rigid plastic containers for the food, pharmaceutical, chemical, and fast-moving consumer goods markets in India. It is a part of the Deora’s Group of Companies, which is focused on the packaging solutions business and education, with some interests in real estate as well. “The partnership with Graham Packaging signifies an important step for the group to become a leader in the rigid plastic packaging business,” Deora said.
One World Resources acted as the exclusive financial advisor to PPI Blowpack in the transaction.
Graham Packaging has an extensive blue-chip customer base that includes many of the world’s largest branded consumer products companies. It produces more than 20 billion container units annually at 82 plants in North America, Europe, and South America, and had sales of $2.58 billion in 2008.
The company is a leading U.S. supplier of plastic containers for hot-fill juice and juice drinks, sports drinks, drinkable yogurt and smoothies, nutritional supplements, wide-mouth food, dressings, condiments, and beers; the leading global supplier of plastic containers for yogurt drinks; a leading supplier of plastic containers for liquid fabric care products, dish care products, and hard-surface cleaners; the leading supplier in the U.S., Canada, and Brazil of one-quart/one-liter plastic motor oil containers; and a leading supplier of bottles for personal care products.
The Blackstone Group of New York is the majority owner of Graham Packaging.