By kkaye@adage.com(Kate Kaye)

Pasta maker Barilla has acquired a decent grasp on tough-to-analyze Amazon data using a system that tracks its product sales at the stock-keeping unit level. Skullcandy, the marketer of headphones and other audio equipment, has gained a sense of its market share on Walmart’s site. And brands are now able to track what their rivals are doing on Instagram through a customizable mobile app.

That all might have seemed like a minor miracle not so long ago. Where traditional retail data providers such as IRI and Nielsen had long made it relatively simple for marketers to see how they stacked up against the competition on store shelves, e-commerce had complicated the picture tremendously. Between a lack of standardized measurement systems among online sales partners and an unwillingness among many to share data, online retail threatened a new Dark Ages for marketing executives.

But marketers are now finding a host of intermediaries that have arisen to shine light on their e-commerce performance, and that of their rivals.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

“It’s a new, unexpected way to use office gear,” said Tim Rea, exec VP-CMO, who is hoping the campaign will go viral. Through a survey, the company found that over 80% of workers will be buying gifts for a coworker or boss this year.

“The truth is, we all know our co-workers scary well,” said Tom Murphy, co-chief creative officer at McCann New York, noting that anyone who has ever worked in an office could relate to the promotion. “We created a campaign that has a bit of fun with these co-worker quirks and idiosyncrasies.”

Though Mr. Rea could not disclose what the 29-year-old firm is spending on the campaign, he noted that it’s a significant increase from last year. In 2014 Office Depot spent $62.9 million on U.S. measured media, down 40% from 2013, according to Ad Age’s Datacenter.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

By Sophie Loras Alibaba wants to change the world’s e-commerce landscape, using its Singles Day on November 11 as a springboard.

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Source:: ClickZ – Internet Marketing

JC Penney wants to be the go-to gift destination for shoppers this holiday season. Under the marketing leadership of Mary Beth West, who started as CMO earlier this year, the department store is unveiling a series of gift-tag personas as part of its “Where Giving Begins” campaign, which kicks off Nov. 12. Roughly two dozen in number, the personas have names like “Workout Warrior” or “Bling-Loving Bestie;” JC Penney will offer present suggestions for each.

“We’re trying to facilitate her shopping mission from beginning to end,” said Ms. West, who was formerly with Mondelez International. “We have a wonderful assortment at great value, but people don’t know all that,” she said. She noted that the company began research on the initiative in July by testing its current, former and one-time shoppers with 50 different products to pinpoint the most popular items.

In addition, the company will open even earlier this year for shoppers on the crucial Black Friday weekend — doors will open at 3 p.m. on Thursday, and workers, who will be asked to volunteer, will be paid double for their hours on that day. Last year, doors opened at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving and store associates were paid time-and-a-half.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

Pinterest introduced a feature Monday that allows users to search for products with pictures instead of words.

Dubbed visual search, the technology might make searching for that rondeau pot for your kitchen a little easier. For example, a user looking at an image of a living room could zoom in on a lamp and search for similar ones in different colors or sizes. More so, the tech can even get specific and tell Pinners the lamp is an “antiqued metal funnel pendant” that can be purchased from Restoration Hardware.

“Keywords have always been one of the best ways to determine consumer intent,” said Michael Kahn, CEO of Performics. “But today, searchers are moving well beyond keywords to discover things, as evidenced by this new Pinterest technology. For marketers, this means that search marketing now incorporates interactions like this, without the searcher having to say or type anything. As searchers move beyond simple search language, marketers must focus on moving from keywords to context.”

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

In China’s slowing economy, billionaire Ma Huateng is finding growth by supplying cheap entertainment to the masses.

Smartphone games for the billion users of the WeChat and QQ messaging applications and free streaming of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” are expected to drive a 28% surge in sales for Mr. Ma’s Tencent. That’s four times faster than the rate of domestic economic expansion as China grows at the slowest pace in 25 years.

While WeChat was once just for instant messages, Ma has made the app part of everyday life for millions in China by adding the features of a microblog, social network and e- commerce platform. Along with streaming of HBO shows and NBA games, Tencent is finding content a durable source of revenue as it competes for Internet users with Alibaba Group and Baidu.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

Match Group, the owner of online-dating sites Tinder, Match and OkCupid, is seeking a valuation of as much as $3.36 billion in its initial public offering.

Match Group, a unit of Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp, plans to sell 33.3 million shares of common stock at $12 to $14 each, the company said in a regulatory filing Monday. Based on the total common stock planned to be sold and 206.7 million shares of Class B stock outstanding after the offering, the company aims to be valued at $2.88 billion to $3.36 billion.

At the high end of the marketed share price range, Match Group plans to raise about $466.7 million. The stake is equal to about 14% of Match Group’s shares. The proceeds will be used to pay off debt owed to IAC, according to the filing.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

Serena Potter, a marketing executive with Macy’s, has been watching customers migrate from desktop to mobile for about five years. The shift prompted the largest department store in the nation to double down on mobile, Ms. Potter said, even though it initially didn’t have the space figured out.

“It wasn’t an obstacle for us as much as it was a steep learning curve,” said Ms. Potter, group VP at Macy’s. “You didn’t know what you didn’t know.”

Beyond creating mobile technology, there are myriad issues for traditional retailers to sort out, such as apps, loyalty programs, data collection and anticipating what’s next after mobile. Retailers born with a mobile-first mentality don’t face the same problems that more established ones do, Ms. Potter said. “Macy’s was optimizing and doing desktop for years. And we became really good at it; desktop became predictable. But with this mobile transformation, you have customers accessing different information, with different intent. A lot of research and a lot of discovery is happening and it’s all on the go.”

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

By Dave Lloyd To what degree does neuroscience affect content marketing? Here’s how neuromarketing insights can influence effective storytelling tactics and ultimately increase audience engagement.

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Source:: ClickZ – Internet Marketing

By mcmorrison@adage.com(Maureen Morrison)

Facebook Messenger may be the biggest messaging app in the U.S., and Snapchat may be the buzziest, but a competitor that originated in Israel is hoping to give them a run for their money in the States.

The app, Viber, is targeting U.S. teens and college-age consumers in particular with a campaign themed “Chat It Out,” positioning the platform as a place unlike social media, where small group conversations remain private. The effort is part of Viber’s first marketing efforts in the U.S., using the services of recent hires Droga5 for creative, Laundry Service for social media, Essence for media and Allison & Partners for PR.

The campaign is about “reigniting the good old fashioned conversation, at a time when everyone is constricted by character counts and worrying about ‘brand me’ in social media,” said Mark Hardy, global chief marketing officer at Viber. “We’re about the real conversations that happen in a protected environment.”

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Source:: AdAge – Digital