Business

All companies sell products or services at a price, and managing price is a major responsibility of top management.  Car companies sell cars, and sticker prices are marked on side windows.  Coca-Cola sells concentrate to its bottlers, setting price per gallon to match market circumstances.  Pizza-Hut sells pizzas in restaurants, and pizza prices are marked on the menus.  Bain sells consulting studies to corporations and prices them by study length and complexity.  Agencies, though, are confused about what they sell and how to price it.  Their ignorance of pricing is ruining agency operations and destroying agency value for clients, employees and holding company owners.  The advertising industry is the only industry in the world without a concept of pricing.  By Michael Farmer / Madison Avenue Manslaughter Archives

Criteo S.A. together with Kantar Millward Brown, released “Trade Marketing in Transition,” a study commissioned to better understand how marketers are working with retailers to draw attention to their products.

The technology giants Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook – take the Top 5 places in the 2017 BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking released today by WPP and Kantar Millward Brown.

Last month, the ANA released the 17th edition of its “Trends in Agency Compensation” research. The study, which has been conducted every three years for nearly 50 years, tracks changes in compensation practices. According to key research contributor Dave Beals, president and CEO of JLB + Partners, “Some marketers are choosing to simplify compensation by using a commission method instead of negotiating the different labor and tech cost elements.”  By Kerry Breen, senior manager, marketing knowledge center at ANA

Despite wide concern about cyberattacks, outages and privacy violations, most experts believe the Internet of Things will continue to expand successfully the next few years, tying machines to machines and linking people to valuable resources, services and opportunities

Sabio Mobile announced the appointment of Andrew Polsky as Senior Vice President of East Coast Sales & Total Market Strategy.

The House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee have recently held hearings on reforming the corporate tax code as tax reform efforts are starting to ramp up.  

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com

• In my humble opinion, the open plan office is just a real estate gimmick.
• You know, another of those misleading ad clichés such as, but not limited to:
• Cozy bungalow w/great bones! (tiny shack in need of rebuilding from scratch).
• Once-in-a-lifetime opp. Won’t last. Live the dream! (it’ll take you 30 years to dig yourself out of this money pit).
• The OPO (as in open plan office) is another glass-half-full trick of the trade to apply lipstick to swine.

On May 1, in a novel transaction only made possible by the now-concluded FCC Spectrum Auction, a fast-growing Southern California media player — The Meruelo Group — Now, Hero is backing out of the deal.  By Adam Jacobson / Radio + Television Business Report

The smart-city market is in its early stages of development.  Some of the most common applications include transportation and parking, energy management, water management, lighting, environmental monitoring, public safety and communications, waste management and smart buildings.

In Entertainment content is king.  But getting content into the hands of producers and decision-makers is no easy feat, even for a best-selling author.

Can online behaviors drive more foot traffic … specifically, can influencer content pointed at a specific retailer on behalf of a brand/product increase foot traffic?

We met at his apartment near The Museum of Modern Art in New York. He had invited me over for a meeting in which we would discuss his offer of a position with Univision. I was of course intrigued, a bit flattered and genuinely grateful for his gesture, even though I was content with my job at the head of The Bravo Group. Yet his offer was tempting enough and, as such, somewhat hard to decline in a jiffy.  By Daisy Expósito-Ulla

Emerging in-store technologies and positive social media feedback are among the top priorities for both Generation Z and Millennial consumers.

It wasn’t so very long ago that the industry’s trade press was full of articles berating the agency community for being resistant to change — the common thread being that in a world that is changing so fast the agencies were lagging behind.  This was always rubbish – but it inevitably takes time for changes to filter through and to reach the public domain.  By Brian Jacobs / The Cog Blog Archives

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com

• Open plan offices are supposed to foster collaboration and teamwork.
• They’ve become the norm in the ad world.
• Not to mention in Silicon Valley, where “collaboration” is not just a buzzword but a belief system akin to Scientology and gluten intolerance.
• Disclaimer: I’m no architect or interior designer, I have no particular training in creating work environments and I don’t have hard data about the productivity, or lack thereof, of open plan office spaces.
• However, I personally find them intrusive, distracting and annoying.

Strong team leadership isn’t enough. New research shows the importance—for business impact and career success—of also mobilizing your boss and colleagues.  By Thomas Barta and Patrick Barwise

Compared with adjacent retail channels, U.S. convenience stores have boasted relative strength and sales growth in recent years. Built on the premise of speed, convenience stores are modeled to deliver on specific consumer needs that competing channels don’t yet address fully.

Ten of the 15 fastest-growing large cities were located across the South in 2016, with four of the top five in Texas, according to new population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The three most overused words in the advertising biz this year are “data,” “agency” and “TV.” All three are core to the current status and future direction of the entire industry.