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Week in Review
Streaming
- Walt Disney Co. is prepping for the Nov. 12 unveiling of its streaming service with a major marketing blitz, which includes: wrapping buses at its theme parks with Disney Plus ads, sending out information to the billion-plus followers on its social media channels and plugging the service on various Disney-owned ABC stations and television shows such as “The View” and “Live With Kelly and Ryan.” Joe Earley, executive vice president for marketing and operations, said the company is “having to do a lot of positioning in a very short amount of time” in order to ensure customers are knowledgeable about the product and Disney’s ownership of Marvel, Lucasfilm and other properties.
- AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia officially announced a target date of May 2020 and a price of roughly $15 a month for its upcoming HBO Max streaming service, which will feature 10,000 hours of shows and movies and some exclusives such as “Game of Thrones,” “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory.” AT&T aims to hit approximately 80 million subscribers for the service by 2025, with 50 million of those coming from the United States, and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said the company will invest $4 billion in bolstering HBO Max over the next three years.
- Apple TV+ launched on various Apple Inc. products in 100 countries with 15 programs in its initial slate, though fewer than 10 were immediately available. The streaming service, which is starting out at $4.99 a month and is focused exclusively on original content, said it has plans to add more titles on a monthly basis and it is promoting Apple TV+ through TV ads, billboards in major cities and showcasing future shows on its website and social media.
Popeyes
- The spicy chicken sandwich is set to return this month to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, after the company spent months making sure it had suppliers for the sandwich’s small-breasted poultry filets and brioche bun, according to people familiar with the discussions. Popeyes’ rollout of the product, its first national launch of a chicken sandwich, ended in August when the company exhausted a three-month supply for the sandwich in 14 days.
Sales and acquisitions
- LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA confirmed its interest in buying Tiffany & Co., with one source familiar with the matter saying the proposed bid values Tiffany at $120 per share, or an offer of roughly $14.5 billion. The deal, which sources say Tiffany has yet to respond to but has hired advisers to review, would be LVMH’s largest purchase to date.
- A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Barneys New York Inc. to Authentic Brands Group LLC, which could result in the loss of more than 2,000 jobs as Authentic Brands is likely to shut down nearly all of the Barneys stores and license its name.
Personnel
- Jamie Gutfreund, Hasbro Inc.’s first chief customer experience officer, has left the company after about six months in the role to “pursue other opportunities,” according to a Hasbro representative. It’s uncertain whether Hasbro will replace Gutfreund, who was charged with “consumer-focused strategies that effectively connect the company’s brands with global audiences” and whose job overlapped with that of a chief marketing officer.
- Juul Labs Inc.’s chief marketing officer, Craig Brommers, and the company’s chief financial officer, Tim Danaher, are stepping down as CEO K.C. Crosthwaite overhauls top-level management and just weeks after the company suspended U.S. advertising. Danaher will be replaced by Guy Cartwright, while the CMO role will be nixed completely, according to a company spokesman, who said Juul’s chief administrative officer and product development executive will also be leaving.
Tech brands and advertising
- Alphabet Inc.’s third-quarter advertising revenue rose to a record $33.9 billion, though overall profit, at $7.1 billion, was down 23 percent from 2018, when it was bolstered by the U.S. tax reform law. While analysts and investors have encouraged Google to explore more ad opportunities in its YouTube and Google Maps units, the company faces regulatory scrutiny over its advertising and data practices.
- Facebook Inc.’s third-quarter ad revenue increased 28 percent from this time last year to $17.4 billion, with profit up 19 percent year over year to roughly $6 billion. The earnings report, which comes amid a federal antitrust investigation and increased scrutiny over the company’s political advertising practices, also shows that the number of daily Facebook users rose to 1.62 billion, up 9 percent from the year-ago period.
- Apple Inc. unveiled its first Pro wearable item, a high-end line of AirPods that follows Apple’s strategy of introducing an upgraded version of its keystone products. The $249 Pro AirPods, which are available to order online now and will debut in Apple stores on Oct. 30, feature noise-cancelling capabilities with a longer battery life, according to Apple.
- Twitter Inc. said it would stop all political advertising on the site starting Nov. 22, with CEO Jack Dorsey saying he was concerned that the ads had the potential for outcomes that “today’s democratic infrastructure might not be able to handle.” Twitter’s decision prompted a response from both sides of the aisle: Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, called the move a “very dumb decision,” while Democratic presidential candidate and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock tweeted, “Good. Your turn, Facebook.”
WeWork complaint
- Medina Bardhi, who previously served as chief of staff to now-ousted WeWork co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in New York alleging she was discriminated against and twice demoted for being pregnant and said that Neumann referred to her maternity leave as “vacation” or “retirement.” Gwen Rocco, a WeWork spokeswoman, said the company has no tolerance for any sort of discrimination and that WeWork will “vigorously defend itself against” the EEOC complaint.
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What’s Ahead
- Brandweek 2019 starts today and runs through Wednesday. It features speakers such as Chipotle CMO Chris Brandt, Electronic Arts CMO Chris Bruzzo, and Jim Babcock, WarnerMedia’s consumer marketing VP.
- More companies are reporting earnings this week: On Monday, Under Armour Inc., Marriott International Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. are among those with earnings reports. On Tuesday, Comscore Inc., Meredith Corp. and MDC Partners Inc. will report earnings, while TripAdvisor Inc., Fox Corp. and Wendys Co. will report earnings Wednesday. Thursday features earnings reports from Walt Disney Co., Activision Blizzard Inc., Nielsen Holdings PLC, Ralph Lauren Corp. and News Corp.
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Events Calendar (All Times Local)
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Morning Consult Brands Top Reads
1) Clicking this link lets you see what Google thinks it knows about you based on your search history — and some of its predictions are eerily accurate
Aaron Holmes, Business Insider
2) ‘Short Holiday Season’ Is Just an Excuse for Panicking Retailers
Anne Riley Moffat, Bloomberg
3) Neil Patrick Harris Stars as Oprah In Old Navy’s Holiday Push
Adrianne Pasquarelli, Ad Age
4) New Juul CEO reshuffles top deck to fix image
Uday Sampath, Reuters
5) As Beauty Norms Blur, One-Third of Young Men Say They’d Consider Wearing Cosmetics
Joanna Piacenza, Morning Consult
6) Hasbro Chief Consumer Experience Officer Out After 6 Months
Erik Oster, Adweek
7) LVMH woos Tiffany to tap fast-growing jewellery market
Sarah White and Melissa Fares, Reuters
8) How to optimize content decisions for the attention economy, a subscription-video-on-demand case study
Parrot Analytics
9) Apple Bets on New $249 AirPods Pro Amid Weak iPhone Sales
Tripp Mickle, The Wall Street Journal
10) Supplies in Hand, Popeyes to Bring Back Its Spicy Chicken Sandwich
Heather Haddon, The Wall Street Journal
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