Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

NDA News Roundup: Kantar, Interbrand, Elixirr and many more

Kantar, the marketing data and analytics company, has announced the launch of Kantar BrandNowTM, an always-on brand performance tracker. BrandNow delivers daily benchmarks and short-term forecasts for 25 product and service categories to steer brand performance. Brand owners can now measure the impact of market factors and marketing activities, while also tracking long-term brand success. BrandNow generates real-time data that is robust and reliable. In addition to interviewing real people at scale, on a daily basis, it combines proprietary and differentiating IP from across the company, including: Kantar’s Trend AI technology to cancel the ‘noise’ in the data that distort short-term metric movements, and lets customers see category trends with no time lag, Kantar’s Meaningfully Different Salient (MDS) equity measurement framework to deliver robust insights, allowing accurate and timely interventions to grow brand equity, optimise campaign planning and media spend, and mitigate crises, and Kantar’s new market-leading fraud and bot detection AI, Qubed, to keep panels clean and human, ensuring real responses from real people.

Global brand consultancy, Interbrand has launched a Brand Integrity & Ethics offering to support brands and leaders align their business decisions and conduct with the organisation’s purpose, commitments and stakeholder expectations. This practice is the first of its kind offered by an agency. In partnership with Principia Advisory, an advisory network on organisational ethics, the practice will support businesses navigating societal changes – helping brands and organisation leaders understand the increasing ethical dimensions and responsibility of their decision-making. Identifying key areas for improvement across their ethical practices as well as potential risks, opportunities, and challenges, the practice creates a framework for ethical decision-making that brands and leaders can follow.

Challenger consultancy Elixirr has launched its new campaign – BOLD CEO. The B2B campaign has a B2C feel to it and follows a multi-channel strategy. It launches today with a hero video that extends across TV, paid, digital, and social media, and an exclusive event being held for the campaign’s target audience. The campaign aims to reach more than three million senior business leaders in London and South Africa before turning its attention to the US in Q3. Through this campaign, Elixirr sheds light on the synergies between business leaders and elite athletes. While the physical demands of athletes are more visible, it’s the psychological and lifestyle demands of the c-suite that are less often recognised. Elixirr is speaking directly to its target audience to let them know that they see the hard work, dedication, passion and discipline that goes into their success. Phase two will include the launch of research into the similarities between CEOs and professional sportspeople achieving career success.

AppLovin Corporation is bringing performance-based buying to connected TV (CTV) within its powerful mobile user acquisition platform, AppDiscovery. App marketers can now tap into massive CTV supply across hundreds of free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) apps and 3,000+ channels from a single source of access and only pay for installs. CTV will be the fastest-growing medium this year, with ad spending surging 21% to reach more than $25 billion. With 93% of U.S. internet users today reachable by CTV, it’s a prime time for app marketers to add this channel to their marketing mix to reach audiences at scale and achieve their ROI goals. CTV advertising on AppDiscovery is seamless. Advertisers can run mobile and CTV ad campaigns, and even leverage AppLovin’s industry-leading in-house creative team for custom, high-performing CTV ads — all on the same platform. 

The Evening Standard has unveiled an NFT artwork created by digital artist, Trevor Jones, to mark the Coronation of King Charles III. The artwork was published in today’s Evening Standard newspaper and is free to claim for a limited time until midnight on Sunday 7 May. The NFT will also be brought to life in the centre of London, where it will be displayed on W1 CURATES’s billboards at Flannels on Oxford Street, as well as in their exhibition space from Friday to Sunday. The NFT celebrates the modern era of interactive artwork by giving Evening Standard audiences across London the unique opportunity to own an edition of the NFT artwork. To claim the free NFT, readers will need to download the Nifty Gateway app and scan the QR code in today’s edition (Thursday 4 May) of the Evening Standard to visit the Nifty Gateway website and set up an account. No crypto wallet is needed as the NFT can be stored on this platform. The artwork is also available for download through the QR code on the billboards at the corner of Oxford Street and Poland Street that will be on display.

Independent comms agency, Rooster, has won a competitive pitch process to launch international rail ticketing platform, Rail Online, in the UK. With zero booking fees, carrier fare price matching and instant refunds on e-tickets, Rail Online launches in the UK as a consumer champion, taking on the rail booking platform domination of Trainline by offering fairer fares for British passengers. Rooster has been working closely with the Rail Online team and partner creative, media and SEO agencies to develop messaging, positioning, and ensure a clear strategic roadmap ahead of launch. The agency’s brief for launch and beyond is to drive brand awareness and credibility, differentiate product, and set the benchmark for the industry, through sustained share of voice in media.  

Amazon Ads has announced the worldwide launch of Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) Audiences. Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) Audiences is launching worldwide. AMC is a secure, privacy-safe clean room in which advertisers can combine their own inputs with Amazon signals to create a full picture of customer journeys across channels and buying stages. With AMC Audiences, brands can create and update their Amazon DSP audiences within AMC, and activate them in Amazon DSP with just a few clicks. The agency Buy Box Experts, a third-party agency, used the feature to help their client SimpliSafe refine its audience strategy, which helped grow the brand’s return on ad spend by 109% and reduce the brand’s cost-per-unit-sold by 65%.

Cancer charity Maggie’s has appointed The Kite Factory as its strategic media planning and buying partner to oversee its fundraising, communications and brand-building activity and support its mission of becoming a UK leader in cancer care. Working alongside the charity’s strategic and creative partners, the agency is tasked with driving awareness and engagement and inspiring action to donate, access and support Maggie’s growing network of centres.

Creative agency Art of the Possible has announced the launch of Art of the Possible influence (AOTPi), a new agency that will compete on a global level to manage world-class influencer programmes, offering industry-leading value for brands. Since launching four years ago, Art of the Possible has developed a strong social offering encompassing content, paid social, community management and large-scale influencer programmes. Reflecting the growing role of influencer activity in the marketing mix, and increasing client demand for influencer expertise, the agency has chosen to launch a standalone influencer entity, AOTPi. AOTPi will partner with brands to unlock the power of the influencer in a meaningful way, with a focus on attention to detail and value for money. The agency’s full-service influencer offering will include strategy, influencer search and recommendation, negotiation, content management, paid social, community management, measurement and reporting. Based in London, the new agency will be led by Art of the Possible’s Managing Director, Kat Patterson, who will take on an additional role of Managing Director, AOTPi. She is joined on the leadership team by Art of the Possible’s Operations Director, Faye De Marco, who will take on the new, additional role of Chief Influence Officer, AOTPi, and Creative Director, Tim Hedges, who will also be Creative Director at AOTPi while continuing his creative leadership duties in the main agency. AOTPi is launching with a number of clients, including Pernod Ricard, bibigo and Laser Clinics.

To celebrate World Creativity Day, Beavertown Brewery has announced the launch of ‘Beavertown Creatives Untapped’, its new annual list celebrating the best and boldest creatives working in pubs and bars across the UK in collaboration with creative publication ‘It’s Nice That’. The hospitality industry has long been a hub for creatives, with the likes of artists, musicians and actors turning to it as a side hustle on their journey to pursuing their creative dreams. Pubs offer a supportive environment for creative individuals as it values innovation and personal expression, as well as being somewhere to bounce off others in the same position. Submissions will run for four weeks, after which a judging panel co-run by Beavertown and It’s Nice That will select ten winners. The ten finalists will each win a £1,000 cash prize, promotion via Beavertown’s marketing channels and will feature at Beavertown’s Creatives Untapped showcase in London this summer attended by media and industry specialists.