The 10 Things In Advertising You Need To Know Today | ||
| | ||
Good morning. The weekend is almost upon us, but before we get there, here's your chance to read up on the most important advertising stories today. 1. These are the top 25 universities to go to in the UK if you want a job in marketing. The London School of Economics tops the list, according to LinkedIn’s rankings. 2. Mike Myers is the star of a silly ad campaign for Sears. He features in the commercial alongside his brother who has worked at the store for more than 30 years. 3. YouTube superstar Michelle Phan has shared her tips for building a social media brand. She advises people to choose a platform with a strong community, claim your name and keep consistent, create content that’s fresh, make a schedule and engage with your followers. 4. These mysterious Craigslist "Missing Connections" posts were actually ads for luxury crystal brand Swarovski. The brand hoped the low-key marketing approach would help dispel the myth that Swarovski jewelry is only for "red carpet moments" and other special occasions. 5. EBay is creating mobile native ad formats that could be traded programmatically next year. The company says it is exploring "native programmatic at scale." 6. High profile marketer Amanda Mackenzie, the CMO of insurance firm Aviva is taking a two year secondment to work with film director Richard Curtis on a UN development project, Marketing Magazine reports. Mackenzie will work with Curtis on a global education program and will be responsible for developing a global marketing campaign to drive public awareness. 7. Viacom has become the latest media company to suffer from the soft ad market, AdAge reports. The MTV and Comedy Central owner said ad sales declined in the US during its most recent quarter, partly because traditional ratings are failing to account for the new ways viewers consume content. 8. Adweek digs into why tech brands are suddenly "in love" with billboard and subway ads. Companies including Facebook, Foursquare and Box have all recently jumped on the trend towards old-school ads. 9. Facebook has updated the look of its terms and privacy policies, the company announced in a blog post. Not much has changed policy-wise (bar the inclusion of more information about payments and location targeting) but the redesign is aimed at getting users to understand and control the types of ads they see. 10. Web browser and software developer Mozilla has cut its first deal with major advertisers, MediaPost reports. Group M's Mindshare unit, its client CVS health, travel site Booking.com and The Weinstein Co. are all testing Mozilla's first ad format, "Tiles," which appear on the Firefox browser home screen. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Oil Crashes | ||
| | ||
Both the major crude oil indexes are trading lower again on Friday morning. Brent crude touched a new 4 year low at $76.79, $4 less than what it was trading on 13 November. The last time the Brent fell so far was in 2010. It's now trading a little higher at $77.45
WTI crude is in similar waters. The per-barrel price is currently running at $73.62, after falling down to $73.32 in the early hours of Friday morning. The price fell 3.66 percentage points yesterday alone. The crude price being so low could have important consequences for the US markets: shale oil needs crude to trade at more than $76 in order to be profitable. A lower rate could simply close down a lot of shale production: for this reason, analysts has alleged that the OPEC cartel of offshore oil producers has agreedto let the crude price fall this bad in order to defend their share in the US market. Saudi Arabia, world's largest oil producer, has dismissed this allegation. At the end of October, Goldman Sachs reported that a decline in crude oil to $75 would start to significantly cut US shale growth. At the moment offshore crude trades between $73 and $74. Here is a long term chart of crude oil prices since the start of 2014. The tag indicates when the price fell below $76.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Russia Just Gave France A Final Deadline To Hand Over The Mistral Warship | ||
| | ||
Russia has given France until the end of November to deliver the first of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers currently stuck in a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, according to reports. The ship, the Vladivostok, was scheduled to be delivered on Friday but that deadline is now certain to be missed. In response a senior Russian source told state-owned news service Sputnik International that the French side now have until the end of the month to hand over the ship or the whole deal could be in jeopardy. “We are preparing for different variations. We’ll wait until the end of the month, and then we’ll make serious claims,” the source told Sputnik. Since the onset of the Ukraine crisis the French government has agonised over the €1.2 billion contract. After tense negotiations France succeeded in getting existing contracts excluded from the European Union's package of sanctions against Russia over its role in supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine. At the time French President François Hollande told reporters: "The Russians have paid. We would have to repay €1.1 billion [if they were not delivered]...at this stage, there are no sanctions imposed that would oblige us to renounce [the contract].” However, with the original deadline for the handover of the Vladivostok fast approaching Hollande imposed two conditions necessary for the sale. These were a ceasefire that was being observed by all sides and tangible evidence of progress towards a political settlement over Ukraine's future. Despite reaching a ceasefire deal in September, the failure of both sides of the Ukraine conflict to stick to it has so far prevented the French president's conditions from being met. Reports on Wednesday from NATO that Russian troops and artillery have been moving into the country may have finally extinguished what little hope France held that the deal can be salvaged. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Here Comes Europe's GDP And Inflation... | ||
| | ||
GDP and inflation numbers are out at 10 a.m. GMT. Here's what you need to know: Inflation for October is expected to come in at 0.4%. That's a smidgen higher than the 0.3% reading in September, but far, far below the European Central Bank target for 2% price growth. Growth is expected to come in at 0.1% for the third quarter. We've already got some major indicators of how each of the three largest eurozone economies is doing this morning. German GDP rose 0.1%, narrowly avoiding a technical recession. French GDP beat expectations, rising 0.3%, the fastest of the three (which says a lot). Italian GDP dropped another 0.1%, keeping the country in recession. According to the Guardian's Graeme Wearden, Italy has now had stagnant or falling GDP for 13 quarters. This post will be updated as the data comes in. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Oil 'price rout' not over: IEA | ||
| | ||
Paris (AFP) - Oil prices are expected to keep sliding well into 2015, held down by weak demand and increased shale production, the IEA said Friday, as it maintained its full-year forecast for slow global consumption growth. Global crude futures slumped on Thursday to lows not seen since September 2010, with London's Brent for delivery in December diving well below the $80 mark. Dealers however do not expect the 12-nation OPEC cartel, which is meeting on November 27 in Vienna, to cut output and thereby help shore up prices. Some observers believe that OPEC might be rather seeking to maintain its foothold in the US market against the flood of oil being extracted domestically from shale rock -- which had in part caused the global glut. The IEA said while there had been speculation that the high cost of shale extraction "might set a new equilibrium for Brent prices in the $80 to $90 range, supply/demand balances suggest that the price rout has yet to run its course." "Our supply and demand forecasts indicate that barring any new supply disruption, downward price pressures could build further in the first half of 2015," it added. Demand growth is meanwhile expected to remain at the five-year low rate of 680,000 barrels a day in 2014, reaching an estimated 92.4 million barrels a day, the IEA said. "Relatively weak Chinese demand growth, coupled with large absolute declines in both European and OECD Asia Oceania, curb the upside momentum otherwise provided by gains in other non-OECD economies and the US," it said. Accelerating global momentum is seen lifting demand growth, to reach 1.1 million barrels a day to 93.6 million barrels a day. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Australia's Johnson wins cricketer of the year award | ||
| | ||
Dubai (AFP) - Fiery Australian paceman Mitchell Johnson was named cricketer of the year by the International Cricket Council on Friday, matching his countryman Ricky Ponting's feat of winning the award twice. Johnson, 33, spearheaded Australia's attack during a 5-0 Ashes sweep of England last year and then helped his team beat South Africa 2-1, picking up 59 Test wickets between August 2013 to September 2014. It is the second time the left-arm paceman has picked up the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy, named after the former West Indian great, after winning the award in 2009. His former captain Ponting won the coveted prize twice in a row, in 2006 and 2007. "Some of the greats of the game have been nominated and won this award and it's a very special honour," Johnson said. "For me it's nice to be able to contribute to the team and do the job that I have always thought I have been able to do," he was quoted as saying in an ICC statement. "This is something that I'll be able to look back on in time when my career is over and be exceptionally proud of." Johnson beat the Sri Lankan duo of Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews and South Africa's AB de Villiers, who were also nominated. De Villiers won the ICC one-day international cricketer of the year while England's Gary Ballance was named the ICC emerging cricketer of the year. Australian opener Aaron Finch's 156 runs off 63 balls against England in 2013 won him the ICC Twenty20 performance of the year award, while Scotland's Preston Mommsen was named the ICC Associate and Affiliate cricketer of the year. England's wicketkeeper-batter Sarah Taylor scooped the ICC women's one-day cricketer of the year award. England's Richard Kettleborough of the elite panel of ICC Umpires won the David Shepherd Trophy for ICC umpire of the year for the second consecutive year.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
These Are The 25 Best Universities In The UK If You Want A Job In Marketing | ||
| | ||
Now LinkedIn has compiled a ranking of the top 25 UK universities for marketing. But it is not based on degree performance. Instead it cross-references members' career paths. It first looked at marketing executive moves and identified the top companies that attracted more candidates than anyone else. LinkedIn also looked at companies that were better at retaining their staff once hired. Then it looked at where those marketers went to college. And finally, for each school, it found the percentage of alumni who landed marketing jobs at those top companies to come up with its rankings. The upshot is that the ranking measures the schools that are the best at sending graduates to the most-desired companies for marketing execs. (You can read more on LinkedIn's methodology here.) Below are the LinkedIn’s top 25 best universities in the United Kingdom for the marketing profession and the top companies their alumni have gone on to work at. 1. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | ||
| |
Italy Just Notched Up Another Quarter Of Recession | ||
| | ||
Italian GDP dropped another 0.1% in the third quarter, as expected. That's following a 0.2% drop in Q2 and another 0.1% decline in Q1, capping nine months of recession for Europe's third-largest economy. We've already had French data Friday morning, with a 0.3% boost in the third quarter. That's slightly stronger than economists expected, but still fairly poor by any other standard. And from Germany, the once-reliable engine of the European economy, things were even worse. Europe's largest economy reported a 0.1% increase in GDP, narrowly avoiding a technical recession. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
