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New Commercials Contract Terms; Facebook Builds a Voice Assistant; Customized Everything (Even Gatorade)
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SAG-AFTRA members picketed Bartle Bogle Hegarty last September in West Hollywood, California, after the ad agency ended its agreement to use only union actors. PHOTO: RACHEL LUNA/GETTY IMAGES
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SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents commercial actors, will soon ask members to vote on a new agreement with Madison Avenue after a contentious battle. Proposed new terms include ways for advertisers to pay a flat fee to run campaigns with union talent for up to a year, instead of paying usage fees that accumulate over time, and to create versions of the same ad without having to pay separate actor fees each time.
Many advertisers and ad agencies have historically agreed to use union talent and adhere to SAG-AFTRA payment terms, but agencies under pressure to cut costs and produce more online ad content have become increasingly frustrated with the pact. Publicis Groupe creative agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty said last year that it was ending its agreement with SAG-AFTRA to use only union actors.
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Gatorade this year plans to roll out sweat patches that are read by an app to match a customer’s sweat rate and content with the Gatorade formula best suited to his needs. PHOTO: GATORADE
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Demanding consumers, new technology and data everywhere have brought us to this: personalized shampoo, skincare and even sports drinks.
Gatorade this year plans to introduce Gx, a “customizable hydration system” that derives its formulas from consumers’ sweat rate and salt content, as calculated using a disposable “sweat patch” and an app. Once the right Gx recipe is determined, people can buy concentrated pods of it online, load it into a special Gx bottle and add water.
“You can go to Netflix and decide what you want to watch and when you want to watch it,” says Leslie Harris, global general manager of L’Oréal’s SkinCeuticals line, which includes $195 serums that are customized and machine-mixed in doctors’ offices. “Online there is personalized information curated to what is known about your habits as a user—it makes sense to me that it would extend to other aspects of one’s life.”
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Mapmakers like Panasonic want to turn in-flight map into a shopping and information portal with ads, alerts like when dinner will be served and data on nearby sites. PHOTO: PANASONIC
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The in-flight seat-back map is getting major upgrades with implications for marketers: Fliers will be able to get encyclopedic details on Mount Fuji as they fly past, track a spouse’s flight and zoom in for details like the top 10 rides at Disneyland according to social media.
But passengers may want their credit cards within reach. Airlines will use the maps to sell things like tickets to those popular Disneyland rides, the Journal reports. Hotels, theme parks, restaurants or other attractions will throw ads onto passengers’ routes. Shopping malls and stores, too. They know where everyone’s going, after all.
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“We’re not trying to get them to put their iPads down.”
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— Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz on reviving the toy marketer as kids spend more and more time with screens
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36%
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The percentage of female CMOs at the top 1,000 U.S. companies by revenue, up from 32% a year ago, according to Korn Ferry. CMOs saw the biggest percentage increase in women of all C-suite roles, and finance had the highest percentage of female CMOs: 53%, up from 45%.
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Samsung will investigate why screens broke on several Galaxy Fold phones issued to reviewers, casting a shadow over the rollout of the first mainstream foldable-screen device. [WSJ]
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Facebook is developing a voice assistant that would compete with Amazon’s Alexa, the Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri. [CNBC]
NBCUniversal will sell not only commercial time during its coverage of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, but sponsorships of Team U.S.A. and marketing at the Games themselves, functions usually handled by the U.S. Olympic Committee and local organizers. [NYT]
After selling Time and Fortune magazines, Meredith decided to pull Money off the block, end its print edition after the June/July issue and continue publishing Money.com. Sports Illustrated is still for sale. [Adweek]
Ad verification company Integral Ad Science named Tony Marlow its new CMO, succeeding Maria Pousa, who is leaving the company. Mr. Marlow had been CMO at data firm Infogroup. IAS named Lisa Utzschneider its new CEO in December. [Marketing Interactive]
There will be no CMO Today newsletter tomorrow, Friday, April 18. See you here Monday.
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We bring you the most important (and intriguing) marketing news every day. Write me at nat.ives@wsj.com any time with feedback on the newsletter or comments on specific items. We want to hear from you.
And follow the CMO Today team on Twitter: @wsjCMO, @natives, @alexbruell.
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