Sir Martin Sorrell and his former company are at loggerheads over the ad man’s proposed acquisition of MediaMonks. MediaCom continues its winning streak with Adidas score. Elon Musk launches new tweet war on media.
Sorrell gets stick from WPP
It’s been just under three months since Sir Martin Sorrell’s exit from WPP, but the ad man remains in the headlines. Not only was he accused of using company cash for prostitutes, a claim he denies, but now he is embroiled in a fight – playing out in the media of course – with his former company.
WPP reckons Sorrell has breached confidentiality in his pursuit of digital production company, MediaMonks. Their lawyers said he was using information gathered while he was still head of WPP to take over the company. More, they’ve threatened to to stop future payouts to him, worth around £20 million.
Read more in The Guardian.
Another major global win for MediaCom
MediaCom is the new global media agency partner for Adidas. Fresh from its win at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, where it was name Media Network of the Year, the WPP/Group M owned company takes over from Dentsu Aegis Network’s Carat.
An Adidas spokesperson confirmed the win in a statement, saying “Consumer-obsessed, digitally-focused and always creating the new. This is the way we at Adidas and Reebok operate. We are pleased to have found those same drivers in our newly chosen media agency partner, MediaCom”. Adweek voted MediaCom the Global Agency of Year, too.
For more on this mega account win, check out the story on Adweek.
Musk’s searing tweet attack on media
Elon Musk is no fan of President Donald Trump, but he has something in common with the Orange One: an openly expressed dislike of the media. The South African born CEO of Tesla was particularly angry with Business Insider reporter, Linette Lopez (although he had a go at CNBC, Reuters and Bloomberg too), who he accused of publishing several false articles and of paying a former Tesla employee to give her intellectual property on Tesla.
Editor in chief, Alyson Shontell responded that the company did not pay for information, and stood by Lopez’s reporting. Musk used Twitter once again to launch his tirade against media.
To read the tweets, visit CNBC.com for the whole story.
adidas and Nike miss goalpost in World Cup ads
World Cup ads by major sponsor adidas and popular brand Nike fell short of expectations. WARC’s Sam Peña-Taylor, with Kantar Millward Brown, reckons the brands fell short of a series of indicators including enjoyment, involvement, branding (meaning people will realise what the ad is for), relevance, difference, persuasion and brand love. “… it appears that the competition’s hefty advertising work, for which both celebrity appearances and humongous budgets have been a hallmark, are no guarantee of landing the right message”, writes Sam Peña-Taylor. Kantar Millward Brown measured 650 UK consumers’ reactions to the tournament’s ads. Kantar Millward Brown’s Graham Page said the adidas ad was too similar to other World Cup creative: “… lots of celebs and lots of sportspeople. But it lacks narrative”.
Read the full takeout on WARC.
Ad spending surges for internet-age marketers
Media magazine AdAge has released the results of its 63rd annual Leading National Advertisers report. It reported that the biggest advertisers in the US were “tightening budgets, but ad spending is surging for internet-age marketers”. So it wasn’t surprising that Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Expedia Group and Netflix boosted spending by 24.4 percent.
Meanwhile, ad and marketing-services spending for the 200 Leading National Advertisers fell last year in three major categories: Automotive, down 7.3 percent; food, down 3.4 percent; and financial services, down marginally (-0.3 percent).
For all the findings, check out the story on AdAge.
