T-Minus 18 Days Until…
the Super Bowl. And Stella Artois is the first contender to reveal their creative spot, utilizing a corporate sponsorship with Matt Damon’s organization, Water.org. Among the marketing talent is Kraft, taking on a real-life family strategy; Skittles making a commercial for only one person; and Yellowtail partnering with celebrity chef Jeff Mauro as he drives a food truck to the game. The marketing techniques are more impressive than ever, but the question “where are all the women?” still remains. It’s a well-known fact that Super Bowl ads in the past have depicted women in a stereotypical, objectification kind of way. As this has lessened over the years, men were still shown 2.5 times more in commercials than women last year. 2018 has a lot of ground to cover. (Source: AdAge)
Aflac and Sproutel Get Their Ducks in a Row
Aflac and robotic toy company Sproutel teamed up to create a toy called My Special Aflac Duck. The idea? Aflac CEO Dan Amos says the goal is to get this duck into the hands of children newly diagnosed with cancer, to lighten up their lives. My Special Aflac Duck cuddles and quacks and acts as an interactive companion that supports children through their cancer treatment process. Along with the duck, is a bag full of RFID accessories, enabling kids to express how they’re feeling by placing the disc on the duck, which in turn will groan or chirp. It goes even further by enabling kids to act as the caretaker and administer medicine to the duck, reversing the roles, making the duck feel better. Waddle we do without Aflac? (Source: Sproutel & The Verge)
Image Source: Sproutel
Facebook Algorithm Effect
Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that Facebook’s News Feed needs a remodel. Since 2015, when the real-time news search was expanded, a whole lotta click-bait and scammy news surfaced. Now, news stories will be placed in an Explore feed, allowing family and friend posts to triumph in the main feed. Since the announcement, Facebook’s market cap took a $25B hit, dropping in overall web traffic by 20% and shares plummeting 5%. Here are tips for marketers on how to navigate the new social algorithm in the upcoming year. (Source: The Verge)
