Table of contents for Oct-12-15 in Adweek

An insider trading scandal rocked the world of daily fantasy sports last week when it was revealed that a DraftKings employee had won $350,000 on a $25 bet made on rival site FanDuel shortly after a data leak concerning certain NFL stats and lineups had taken place at his company. Both sites denied any misconduct and banned employees from playing fantasy sports, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a class-action lawsuit claiming that the companies had defrauded customers by failing to disclose that their employees had access to valuable insider data. (New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman also opened an inquiry into the sites.) Meanwhile, sports media outlets, which have been blanketed with DraftKings and FanDuel ads in recent months, responded to the scandal. ESPN removed DraftKings’ “sponsored elements” from…

METLIFE In a year of big media reviews, financial-services giant MetLife has chosen to consolidate most of its U.S. buying and planning chores at MEC without a formal competition. The agency, a unit of WPP Group, was already a roster shop, handling mainly print buying. Now, it adds various assignments from MDC’s Crispin Porter + Bogusky. The move reunites MEC with MetLife CMO Esther Lee, who joined the company in January from AT&T, where she had previously worked with the agency.…

Jon Steinberg resigns as Daily Mail CEO after 18 months. Former Bloomberg Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel reportedly in negotiations to join Vice. W+K creative partners and executive creative directors Jaime Robinson and David Kolbusz to step down. AT&T names Omnicom veteran Fiona Carter svp, head of brand marketing, advertising and sponsorships.…

SNAPCHAT USERS 100 million AD REVENUE $50 million NEW FEATURES One feature of the newly announced Snapchat Lenses will allow brands to promote themselves via users’ “sponsored” selfies—for a mere $750,000 per day—and add features such as heart-shaped eyes and fake cracked phone screens. BENEFITS Mike Dossett, supervisor of digital content strategy at RPA, said, “If you want to dominate one-day reach, there is no more effective platform.” Snapchat sells its product to agencies as “appointment advertising,” akin to broadcast TV. CHALLENGES The prohibitive cost of Snapchat ad buys and a dearth of metrics have proven troubling for some brands. Still, the platform’s reach is undeniable, and the scarcity of brands using it makes marketers who are on Snapchat stand out. Pineiro said clients “see it as a shiny object…

As clients and agencies increasingly look overseas to Asia for growth opportunities, smaller and midsize outfits like kbs+ are setting up offices in China, Singapore and beyond, challenging larger agencies such as Ogilvy and Grey with existing footprints in the area. Grace Blue also recently opened offices in Asia, and we quickly discovered that those climbing the ranks in advertising and communications would be well advised to consider that the fastest, most interesting route to the top could involve a detour, or permanent station, in the Asian market. While businesses throughout the world have entered into what I call the Agility Era—a lightning-fast environment where quick thinking, brave decision making and an uncanny ability to see the big picture are valued above all else—the Asian market is particularly dynamic and…

IN THE WORLD OF FASHION, THERE ARE FEW FIGURES AS LEGENDARY AS DIANE VON FURSTENBERG. WHILE THE 68-year-old, Belgian-born designer debuted her namesake brand in 1970, it was four years later that she truly revolutionized the modern woman’s wardrobe with the introduction of her now-famous jersey wrap dress. By 1976, she had sold more than a million dresses, introduced fragrances and cosmetics, and landed the cover of Newsweek—all before reaching her third decade. She eventually sold both her dress design license and beauty line and moved to Paris where she started a publishing company. But von Furstenberg couldn’t stay away from designing for long. In 1992, she boldly reentered the fashion business with Silk Assets, a lower-priced separates collection sold exclusively on QVC, the then-6-year-old shopping network in which her…

LG Watch Urbane Luxe $1,195 Even the most dedicated fans of Google’s Android Wear smartwatches have to admit that when it comes to style, Apple has had the upper hand—until now. Later this month, LG is releasing the Watch Urbane Luxe, a blinged-out smartwatch that gives the Apple Edition a run for its money, but for around $13,000 less. Created in collaboration with Reeds Jewelers, the limited-edition watch comes with 23-karat gold-plated hardware, an alligator strap and lacquered storage case. Specs-wise, the Urbane Luxe features the bells and whistles of Android Wear, from smart notifications to real-time social feeds to fitness tracking. Buy it: reeds.com STEEP N SIP Tea Time Imbue Magnetic Tea-Infusing Vessel $30 Loose-leaf tea enthusiasts swear by its superior flavor, but brewing it can be…

What’s the first information you consume in the morning? The first thing I do—and this has become normal, I think—is check Twitter. And then I hit my regular list of sports websites, like Terez Owens, The Big Lead, Deadspin, and then I do a little BuzzFeed, a little Huffington Post. I feel like because we’re at our computers and on our phones all day, it’s just this constant state of input. I always remind myself of Johnny Five from Short Circuit. There’s just more and more input every day. It never ends. Were you an early social media adopter? No, I actually fought it. When I was first at ESPN, I was doing this show with Colin Cowherd, and the producer came to us and said, “Hey, we’d really like…

Twitter unveiled Moments, the long-rumored contentcuration channel that, as it turns out, has got something for everyone—viewers, media companies and brands. In the advertising realm, Moments promises to deliver more video spots to more consumers. With a multimedia ad unit called Promoted Moments, Twitter will charge brands while they appear on a channel that doesn’t require viewers to have an account to see the content. And the new format gives media players increased distribution of their content. “It’s all white guys, and most of them are named Jimmy.”JAY LENO IN AN INTERVIEW WITH ADWEEK ON HOW LATE-NIGHT TV HASN’T CHANGED.…

FIFA, the group that stages soccer’s World Cup, last week suspended its president, Sepp Blatter, and several other top officials. The move came less than a week after four major sponsors—Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch InBev, McDonald’s and Visa—called for Blatter’s immediate exit. Two weeks ago, Blatter became the subject of a Swiss criminal proceeding, which alleges that he sold TV rights at below market value to a former FIFA official, among other charges. Blatter, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing, has been under intense pressure to step down since news of a wide-ranging bribery and money-laundering scandal broke in May.…

General Electric may be 125 years old, but when it comes to innovative social media campaigns, it’s often light-years ahead of most marketers. GE’s early adoption of emerging platforms and its willingness to experiment with Snapchat, Vine and Instagram—along with a clear strategy to target an audience interested in innovation and discovery—has positioned the multinational conglomerate as a leading voice in branded content. Much of GE’s success in content marketing can be attributed to Linda Boff, a 12-year company veteran, who in September was promoted to CMO from executive director of global digital marketing. Boff helped broaden GE beyond its science and technology roots to become equal parts industrial and digital. As Boff prepares to address attendees at the 2015 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando, Fla., on Oct.…

Should Budweiser’s lovable Labrador pup—whose appearances topped the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter the past two years—return to the big game for CBS’ Feb. 7 telecast? That’s the question Bud parent Anheuser-Busch InBev and its agency, Anomaly, are debating right now, 118 days before Super Bowl 50 kicks off at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Predictably, neither client nor agency officials would discuss the decision-making process with Adweek. Most experts we queried about brands using familiar themes across multiple Super Bowls, however, said the smartest play would be to put the pooch in the game. “This tactic of revisiting characters and themes works because the Super Bowl, and all things associated with the game, are a story in themselves,” said Simon Wardle, strategy chief at Octagon. “For days…

China ‘is still growing at a healthy clip … There remains a long runway for growth ahead.’John Wren, Omnicom Group When the Chinese economy stumbled in recent weeks—its stock market shuddered and sputtered and the Yuan currency plummeted in value in August—the entire global marketplace held its breath for a brief time. The fear was that China’s sudden vulnerability would drag the media and ad marketplace in the U.S., Europe and the rest of the world down with it. Likewise, global corporations expecting their biggest growth from the Chinese mainland swallowed empty at the prospect of diminished returns. Although top executives of major companies worldwide are collectively breathing a sigh of relief, choosing to see the fits and starts of the world’s second-largest economy as merely a correction, others point…

1970 Launched fashion line 1974 Created wrap dress 1976 Newsweek cover 1992 Debuted Silk Assets collection on QVC 1997 Relaunched DVF line 2005 Received Lifetime Achievement Award from the CFDA 2006 Elected president of the CFDA 2010 Created the DVF Awards 2013 Google Glass makes its fashion debut on the DVF runway. 2014 House of DVF premieres on E!. 2015 Hires Paolo Riva as first CEO…

Reddit is looking to get back into the public’s good graces with its first stand-alone property, a news-focused site called Upvoted, which will cull news stories from Reddit threads, attempting to recapture some of the traffic other news sites get by taking stories from its popular forums. Though Upvoted will work in tandem with Reddit to get many of its stories—the site will also have podcasts and videos—it will have one decidedly un-Reddit-like feature: no comments.…

To help keep stadium seats filled this season, teams like the New York Jets are offering sponsored fantasy football scores and TV highlights on their video boards to replicate the second-screen experience that fans enjoy at home. Over the last year, leading daily fantasy sports (DFS) sites FanDuel and DraftKings struck sweeping deals with National Football League teams, blitzing stadiums with sponsored signage, stats and lounges. FanDuel signed 16 clubs while rival DraftKings partnered with a dozen (including the New York Giants). In all, 28 of the NFL’s 32 clubs have deals with one of the two DFS leaders. But with New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman last week launching an inquiry into allegations of insider trading at FanDuel and DraftKings, it remains to be seen what the long-term impact…

What are the risks and rewards for brands that revisit concepts across multiple Super Bowls? With the stakes as high as they are on the Super Bowl, it’s not hard to understand why brands that have tasted success one year might try to shorten their odds the following year by returning to the same theme. The risk, of course, is that you don’t creatively live up to what came before, or that you’ve overestimated the public’s affection for your old idea. Even a good Part Deux rarely brings the same creative kudos as something genuinely fresh and surprising. Talk about following up VW’s “The Force” with another Star Wars-themed ad. Returning to the Star Wars theme in 2012 was ultimately a good idea for us. But it was not a…

What’s your first priority in the new role? I’d like to focus on our customers and try to be as customer-centric as we can. Customers, for my organization, are advertisers and agencies. So, to instill an approach that we can really try to listen to what the advertiser needs and deliver great ad products and great experiences for them so that they’re able to make great connections with Yahoo’s consumers. What’s the biggest opportunity you see for advertisers? A lot of advertisers are trying to figure out how to use mobile as a place to connect with consumers. They’re rooting for us when it comes to mobile and mobile search. We’ve made a concerted effort over the last two years to be a mobile-first company. The second area is all…

China represents the land of opportunity for most every marketer, if only for the massive size of its consumer base. Given its relative newness to media and marketing, it is also a market less fettered by the traditional ways of doing things. For example, mobile and social are not merely ascendant there—they are solidly the dominant vehicle for media consumption. For the 28 airlines that belong to the Star Alliance network—whose members include Air China, Shenzhen Airlines and EVA Air, as well as founding giants United and Lufthansa—China “remains important as an international frequent-traveler market,” says Mark Davies, Star Alliance director of loyalty and marketing. The Alliance introduced its first social-centric initiative in China last year, a campaign that focused on building relationships with opinion leaders in the Chinese market.…

THE SOLE The gum rubber sole gives traction on icy turf. It’s a nice feature—but Sambas are hipster indoor gear nowadays. THE TONGUE Barely visible below the shadow of the laces is Adidas’ tagline, Die weltmarke mit den drei streifen (“The brand with the three stripes”), which pretty much says it all. THE STRIPES Originally a performance feature that supported the wearer’s foot, the stripes are now one of the world’s most recognizable logos. Six years ago, a little-known U.K. film called Awaydays took a nostalgic walk back to the Thatcher-era world of “the casuals,” a pack of working-class English adolescents who smoked, drank, screwed and fought for the love of football, all the while escaping the notice of the police by dressing as dandies in Aquascutum jackets, argyle sweaters,…

A year after the 1906 earthquake ravaged San Francisco, the city began to rebuild by erecting ornate structures. One such Pacific Avenue building, completed in 1907, now houses Grow, a female-owned and -run experiential marketing agency. Long before its current tenant moved in, the space’s upper floors housed a brothel and a nightclub, while its ground-level saloon, owned by boxer Spider Kelly, was considered the worst dive in the world. But now that it’s home to a respectable business, the décor had to match. “Our top priority was for our space to reflect the aesthetic and attention to detail that defines our work,” said co-founders Cassie Hughes and Gabrey Means. “Nothing in our office was designed without intention; every wall, detail and plug was plotted with care. We wanted an…