Elton John announced Wednesday that after his upcoming 300-date, three-year worldwide tour, he's taking a final bow, retiring from touring. A cryptic invite for a "special event" hosted by the artist included clues like "I've finally decided where my future lies" and "a special announcement delivered in a revolutionary way." The event, which brought more...
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Elton John Used VR in a Surprising Way to Announce His Retirement From Touring
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NFL’s Regular Season Ad Revenue Fell 1.2%, as Makegoods Overtook Unit Rate Increases
It didn't happen until the final month of the regular season, but the 10 percent drop in NFL ratings this year finally dented the bottom line when it came to football-related ad revenue, according to new data from Standard Media Index. In-game NFL advertising revenue during the regular season declined 1.2 percent this year, to...
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Vince McMahon Wants to Reimagine Pro Football With the New XFL
WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon is stunning the sports media world by giving professional football a second try. Less than a week after making an appearance on the 25th anniversary broadcast of WWE Monday Night Raw, McMahon announced the creation of the new XFL. XFL is a previously defunct American professional football league that...
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How to Turn a Super Bowl Ad Into a Campaign for the Mobile Era
With Super Bowl LII fast approaching, there's no doubt that creatives have been putting their heads together to come up with what they hope will be the year's most talked-about Super Bowl commercial. However, in today's world, it's not enough to simply develop a compelling spot for game day. As the role of digital and...
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First Female Celebrity Colonel Sanders, Reba McEntire, Sings a Honky-Tonk Song in New KFC Spot
KFC has a new celebrity wearing Colonel Sanders' signature white suit and goatee--Reba McEntire, who stars in a new 60-second spot promoting the fried-chicken chain's new Smoky Mountain BBQ flavor. A 30-second version of the ad from Wieden + Kennedy in Portland will air during Sunday's Grammy Awards broadcast on CBS. McEntire replaces the noncelebrity...
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CBS Won’t Let the Winter Olympics Interfere With Its Promo Plans During the Grammys
Other than NFL playoff games, there's no bigger annual spotlight for CBS than the Grammy Awards, which airs Sunday. Last year's show was 2017's No. 9 most-watched single telecast by Nielsen, with 27.6 million viewers in Nielsen's live-plus-seven ratings. It was the only non-sports entry on the top 10 list (other than The Oscars on...
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Amazon’s First Ad for the Echo Spot Is About Togetherness, Not Shopping
Ah, Alexa. The voice assistant that, like Amazon, wants to be your everything. But "everything" isn't really a position. With Apple's Siri going (Rock!) hard on facilitating your sassy lifestyle, and Google plying people with donuts to get them used to making even the most banal voice-based demands, where does one put Alexa, the amenable...
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McDonald’s Taps New Leaders to Oversee Brand Content and Cultural Engagement
McDonald's USA has appointed two new leaders to its marketing team. Kenny Mitchell joins as the fast food conglomerate's vice president of brand content and Lizette Williams comes aboard in the newly-created role, head of cultural engagement. Mitchell replaces the former vp of brand content, Joel Yashinsky, who retired in 2017, according to a spokesperson....
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The Martin Agency Promotes Karen Costello to CCO in the Wake of Joe Alexander’s Scandalous Departure
The Martin Agency of Richmond, Va., has promoted executive creative director Karen Costello to chief creative officer, a role left unfilled since her predecessor Joe Alexander departed last December amid an investigation into claims of sexual harassment. Costello joined Martin less than six months ago as executive creative director leading creative on the entire Mondel?z...
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Nielsen Social Content Ratings Will Now Include Instagram
In January 2016, Nielsen added data from Facebook to its already existing Nielsen TV Twitter Ratings, rechristening the offering Nielsen Social Content Ratings. Nick Grudin (now vice president of media partnerships) and Brian Robinson (now director, media partnerships analytics) said in a blog post at the time that Instagram would be added to Nielsen Social...
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Apple Gets Its Animojis to Sing Nominated Songs in Amusing Ads for the Grammys
Animojis are one of the more buzzed-about features of iPhone X. The phone's TrueDepth camera analyzes your facial expressions and mirrors them in a dozen different Animojis, creating little animations that you can send as texts within the Messages app. Apple is pushing the feature (four new Animojis are coming to iOS 11.3 this spring)...
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Why You Should Be Prepared for Facebook Ad Prices to Rise
Mark Zuckerberg recently shared that Facebook is revamping the news feed to prioritize content from friends over content from brands, businesses and publishers. Facebook's stock price dropped 5 percent immediately following the announcement. This change should not be taken lightly. While Facebook does update its news feed algorithms regularly, as Adam Mosseri, Facebook's news feed...
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Another Campaign Wants You to Adopt a Dog After Listening to Its Playlist
Dieste's got your new Jam! We're referring to the computer-generated star of the agency's unconventional push for nonprofit Dallas Pets Alive. He's not the typically cute, cuddly canine we've come to expect from animal adoption campaigns, though. In the two-minute clip below, which ties-in with music streamer Spotify at the end, you might notice the...
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Facebook Launched a Gaming Creator Pilot Program
Facebook officially launched its Gaming Creator Pilot Program, aimed at helping video game content creators build their audience on the social network. In a Facebook Games blog post, Leo Olebe, global director of games partnerships at Facebook, listed the program's focuses: Helping gaming creators build more meaningful and more engaged communities on Facebook than anywhere...
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Apple’s Beats to Bring More Work In-House as Lead Agency Anomaly Takes ‘a Breather’
Beats Electronics, the brand formerly known as Beats by Dre that was acquired by Apple in 2014 for $3 billion, is making more big changes to its ever-fluid global ad agency roster. According to multiple parties familiar with the business who spoke to Adweek on background, the audio company will be taking more of its...
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Amazon Imagines What Would Happen If Alexa Lost Her Voice in 30-Second Super Bowl Teaser
Amazon will be in the Big Game. The tech giant has released a 30-second teaser for its Super Bowl spot, which will be 90 seconds and run during the fourth quarter. The teaser imagines what would happen if Amazon's Alexa lost her voice. CEO Jeff Bezos has a starring role in the ad. Creative shop...
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Facebook Made Its Privacy Principles Public for the First Time Ever
Facebook is going public with a lot more information on privacy settings for users. Chief privacy officer Erin Egan revealed the social network's privacy principles for the first time ever, and her Newsroom post also detailed ways that Facebook is making its core privacy settings easier for its users to find. Egan wrote in introducing...
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Logic Narrated a Powerful Google Ad About Suicide Prevention After His Grammys Performance
One of the Grammy nominees for Song of the Year was a phone number: "1-800-273-8255" by Logic. The track is a soulful piece of work that features Alessia Cara and Khalid, and the lyrics are a personal account of loneliness, seeking death, and finding hope in life again. It also served as a powerful PSA....
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It’s Local News’ Turn for a Facebook News Feed Algorithm Boost
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post earlier this month that he asked the social network's "product teams to make sure we prioritize news that is trustworthy, informative and local," and Facebook revealed Monday that its News Feed algorithm has been tweaked once again to prioritize the former. Head of news product Alex Hardiman and...
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How Minneapolis Brands Are Making a Lasting Impact on Their Home Turf
The Super Bowl offers tremendous opportunities for brands to connect to consumers in host cities--and the cold of Minneapolis will give fans a little more motivation to head indoors and visit the 10-day Super Bowl Live festival, which is free for all and will be littered with eight to 10 blocks of hometown brands. Minneapolis-based...
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