From the Campaign family:
Fifty Shades of Advertising Pain. (Campaign UK) Lucky Generals co-founder reimagines a dysfunctional client-agency relationship as a B&D bodice-ripper. A sample: "That’s when they started to play dirty with each other. He tied her up with red tape, until she had no room to manoeuvre. She frustrated him by not coming when he cracked his whip. Yes, it hurt but, despite their constant moans, they both seemed addicted to the punishment as much as to the pleasure."
In PR, where are the black male leaders? (PRWeek) Kim Hunter (president and CEO of Lagrant Communications, chairman and CEO of The Lagrant Foundation, and managing partner of KLH & Associates) searches in vain for African-American men among the leadership ranks at major agencies. Meanwhile, Latraviette Smith-Wilson (former VP, global diversity and inclusion for American Express) emphasizes the importance of tackling the "uncomfortable" diversity and inclusion issues in order to effect meaningful awareness and change within organizational cultures.
In the UK, beer and wine in Starbucks and Pizza Hut, free home delivery from Burger King, and stomach-rumble analysis from Domino's. (Marketing) This week Starbucks announced that they will be offering consumers beer and wine in their stores as part of an evening programme, while Pizza Hut are creating cocktail bars in each of their venues. Meanwhile, Burger King is rolling out a home delivery trial from eight locations as it looks to test the at-home takeaway market. Finally, Domino's Pizza has created an app that can listen to belly rumbles and recommend a personalized pizza order to satisfy hunger. The app works by holding the phone against the stomach in order for the vibrations to be read, the personalized pizza suggestion then given based on the sound produced.
Around the Web:
YouTubers move to TV. (Los Angeles Times) Though online advertising spending is growing, television remains supreme. Some entertainment industry analysts predict that television shows will become indistinguishable from the Web videos. The LA Times examines deals that lay the foundation for widespread crossover between YouTube and traditional Hollywood.
NY mayor takes a "Fifty Shades" drubbing in good humor. (CBS New York) Mayor Bill de Blasio is laughing off a Twitter attack ad from the New York GOP that depicted him as a character in "Fifty Shades of Grey." Dubbed "Fifty Shades of Bill," it featured the Rev. Al Sharpton in the Christian Grey role and the mayor’s face superimposed over an image of the submissive Anastasia. His head rests on Sharpton’s shoulder. De Blasio responded by joking that he'd asked "Fifty Shades" star Dakota Johnson to play him in any upcoming biopic of his life.
Upworthy says native advertising is thriving. (Gigaom) Upworthy says its native advertising program is working better than expected — pulling in more than $10 million in revenue in the first nine months of last year. Upworthy said that according to NewsWhip — which measures how content from a variety of media sites performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook — the site’s sponsored content performed 38 times better than the industry standard for social interactions involving content at the top 25 social publishers.