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Hello CMOs. It’s hard to get very far in marketing and advertising if you don’t know how to press the flesh and make small talk.
But for some people, especially those only just entering the workplace for the first time, those skills don’t come naturally.
The Journal reports how some companies are taking it upon themselves to train employees in everything from displaying empathy to dressing appropriately and even how to shake hands properly. (I'd suggest they take advice from the folks at NASA.)
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| Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is |
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PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/ISMAGILOV
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Of course, a good CMO would ideally have more than just a firm handshake. Another helpful quality is an ability to spot a potential industry disruptor at a distance. Marketers can often be the driving force behind investments in startups as their businesses try to stay ahead of the game.
Some marketers are now applying those lessons to their personal investments, CMO Today’s Alex Bruell reports. Take Lunch Partners, a fund started last year by former Viacom marketing executive Ross Martin, whose group includes marketing veterans from brands including Citigroup, Petco and Hulu.
Employees currently in marketing roles at large companies will need to keep potential conflicts of interest top of mind when deciding to invest. Mr. Martin says he hopes to shield his marketers from conflicts with a separate investment committee that makes the ultimate decisions. Some companies, meanwhile, are relaxing their rules around employees’ investments to retain the best talent.
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Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) PHOTO: ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) has been taking a close look at the online ad industry—and he’s not happy with what he sees.
Way back in 2016, he and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., NY.) sent a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission to clamp down on online advertising fraud.
Mr. Schumer wrote to the FTC again in October this year, expressing his “continued concern” about digital ad fraud and what he described as “the inaction of major industry stakeholders in curbing these abuses.”
And Mr. Warner got his stationery out once more last week, calling on the agency to scrutinize Google’s dominance of the digital ad industry, saying the company has “minimal” financial incentive to address ad fraud.
Mr. Warner wants to see more action from the FTC over ad fraud. “The fact that the FTC has been so lame on their responses, is it really lack of interest, is it capture by industry, or is it lack of knowledge?” he said to BuzzFeed News.
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For its part, Google was one of the advertising companies that collaborated with the Justice Department to help bring down the Methbot and 3ve ad fraud operations.
Google is also busy investigating another scheme. BuzzFeed News reported that popular apps in the Google Play Store developed by Cheetah Mobile and Kika Tech were found to contain code used for ad fraud techniques known as click injection and click flooding. Following that report, Google removed two apps from the Play Store after finding evidence of “app install attribution abuse”.
Google has since begun emailing app developers, having found three malicious ad network SDKs (software development kits) that were being used to conduct fraud in those apps. Developers are being told to remove the SDKs or their apps will be pulled from the Play Store, too, TechCrunch reports.
Another reminder to thoroughly vet your ad-tech partners. As Google points out in a blog post, most developers probably wouldn’t have been aware the SDKs were being used to game the system.
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PHOTO: HUGH PETERSWALD/ZUMA PRESS
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Regulatory scrutiny of the online ad giants continues to step up across the globe.
A preliminary report released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Monday says a new or existing regulatory body should be responsible for monitoring and investigating how large tech platforms rank and display ads and news content.
As far as ads are concerned, the ACCC said a lack of transparency over digital platforms’ algorithms make it difficult to know whether they’re favoring their own interests over advertisers’. “While the ACCC appreciates the significance of minimizing the opportunity for businesses to ‘game’ the key algorithms, it is not clear that the appropriate balance has been struck between avoiding this risk and ensuring advertisers are appropriately informed,” the report says.
The ACCC’s final report is due in June. Facebook and Google said they will continue to work with the ACCC in the interim. (Disclosure: News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, was one of the companies that made a submission to the ACCC as part of the digital platform inquiry.)
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“I think people need to celebrate the positive. There are issues. Let's tackle them together as opposed to 'he said, she said.' And how do we get back to focusing on growth? That is what everyone in this business wants.”
| — Marla Kaplowitz, 4A’s CEO, speaking to Ad Age |
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The New York Times takes a look at some of the apps that share location data with advertisers. [New York Times]
How (and why) Zippo trademarked the sound of its lighter being flipped open and sparked. [The Drum]
Cresco Labs, the Chicago-based marijuana company that began trading on the Canadian Securities exchange earlier this month, has hired two marketers for senior roles. Cory Rothschild, former director of consumer engagement for Gatorade, has been named vice president of brand marketing; while Cris Rivera, previously a senior director of marketing at MillerCoors, has been hired as vice president of consumer experience. [Ad Age]
The U.S. Marines has launched a mandated review of its advertising account as its contract with J.Walter Thompson, now Wunderman Thompson, comes to an end. [Agency Spy]
Bud Light is putting on a three-day Super Bowl music festival in Atlanta, where Super Bowl LIII will be held in February. [Adweek]
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