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Alert: Millennials do like to shop |
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Today’s newsletter was written by CMO Today Editor Nat Ives.
Hello CMOs. Marketers have been told that millennials are a whole new breed of consumer, more interested in experiences and less interested in, well, consuming. Lots of reporting has suggested that millennials harbor tendencies to buy fewer cars and houses, for example.
Now it appears they may like buying stuff just as much as everyone else—they're just poorer.
“Millennials do not appear to have preferences for consumption that differ significantly from those of earlier generations,” a new Federal Reserve research report concludes. But they are “less well off than members of earlier generations when they were young, with lower earnings, fewer assets, and less wealth.”
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Unilever CMO Keith Weed attends the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last year. PHOTO: CHRISTIAN ALMINANA/GETTY IMAGES FOR CANNES LIONS
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It’s no sure thing that Unilever will name a chief marketing officer to succeed Keith Weed, who said Thursday that he’ll retire in May. While Mr. Weed led a team that accelerated Unilever’s push into digital marketing and is responsible for all Unilever’s relationships with agencies, he doesn’t control its brands’ marketing budget, which is instead directed by division heads, people familiar with the company’s structure pointed out to CMO Today. One option now, according to one of the people, is for Unilever to scrap the central CMO role and assign responsibility to marketing chiefs within those categories: beauty and personal care, home care, and food and refreshments.
Unilever has been trying to become more agile and responsive, a drive it accelerated after Kraft’s approach.
Other marketers paid tribute to Mr. Weed: “Your legacy runs deep and wide,” Facebook CMO Antonio Lucio wrote on Twitter. GE CMO Linda Boff called him a “sage and a brilliant light.”
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Liza Koshy arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala in May. PHOTO: EDUARDO MUNOZ/REUTERS.
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Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee in September. PHOTO: JIM WATSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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Lean In, the women’s empowerment organization, is confronting a shift in the perception of its founder, Facebook Chief Operating Officer and “Lean In” author Sheryl Sandberg. “I don’t want to take anything away—how could I?—from Sheryl as the inspiration for the work that we do,” LeanIn.org President Rachel Thomas told The New York Times. “But the book came out six years ago. It’s become less and less about Sheryl with every passing year.” The group says more than 40,000 Lean In Circles meet regularly around the world.
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“I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year's Oscar's....this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists. I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”
| — Kevin Hart in a Twitter post announcing that he will not host the Academy Awards in February, following renewed attention to past homophobic comments and tweets |
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1 million |
The downloads that Burger King said its app generated since Tuesday, when the chain began its “Whopper Detour” stunt offering 1-cent Whoppers to app users as long as they ordered near a McDonald’s.
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A week after Payless promoted its success masquerading as the fictional luxury brand Palessi, Dunkin’ promoted its revamped espresso by secretly serving it at a fake cafe called S!p. [Ad Age]
Bleacher Report’s bid to turn its sneaker-focused Instagram account B/R Kicks into a broader business starts today with an event called The Drop Up, set to include a sneaker release by Adidas. [Digiday]
Amazon is looking at bringing its checkout-free Amazon Go stores to airports. [Reuters]
Booking companies and hoteliers are increasingly pitching experiences like parasailing and food tours to cash in on the last area of travel that’s still relatively analog. [WSJ]
Airbnb and Google are coming to take over hotel bookings the way Amazon took over retail, according to business professor and consultant Scott Galloway. [Gartner L2]
Uber and Lyft drivers in San Francisco and Los Angeles are adding rooftop digital displays for a cut of the ad revenue. [VentureBeat]
The U.S. Marines has begun a review for its ad business, which has been handled by WPP’s J. Walter Thompson for more than 70 years. [Campaign]
It's not a filter: Instagram is working to fix a glitch that’s making bars appear on some Instagram Stories, although some people like the look (“thanks for all the sick glitch art”). [Mashable]
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