Apple hasn’t stopped talking about the video and photo potential of its iPhone 11 Pro since the minute it debuted the three-lensed smartphone in September. But today, the brand illustrates the power of showing over telling. The brand’s newest cinematic spot was shot entirely with the iPhone 11 Pro by director David Leitch, the veteran…
Spotify Wrapped 2019 and the Decade, Led by Post Malone, Drake Respectively
Drake was the most streamed artist of the decade on global audio-streaming platform Spotify, while the title for 2019 went to Post Malone. Spotify unveiled its Wrapped end-of-year and end-of-decade campaign Tuesday, saying that 248 million people listened to music or podcasts via its platform this year. Drake was streamed over 28 billion times during…
Meet the McNificients in Dutch Happy Meals, Inspired by Superhero Kids
The bravest people in our world are often the smallest. Too many people know a child who was forced to confront an inhumane disease. These children are the closest figures humanity has to superheroes, and bringing their stories alive, comic-book style, is the new campaign for the Ronald McDonald House Charities. “McNificents” is a series…
Bloomberg Rebrands TicToc, Says It’s Not Because of TikTok
Bloomberg Media’s short-form video news service is getting a facelift. Today, the publisher announced that TicToc–the so-called “social news network” rolled out in partnership with Twitter two years ago–is being rebranded as QuickTake by Bloomberg. Aside from distinguishing the service from TikTok, the massively popular social network with a nearly identical name, the rebrand also…
Hostess Brands Is Buying Canada’s Voortman Cookies for $320 Million
Twinkies maker Hostess Brands is acquiring Voortman Cookies, a Canadian cookie and wafer company, from Swander Pace Capital for about $320 million. Hostess expects to close the transaction early next month. “Voortman is a leading brand with a well-defined consumer position that complements and extends the growing Hostess portfolio into the growing cookie and better-for-you…
IBM’s Bitterman Joins TripleLift As CMO
Long-time ad industry executive Jordan Bitterman has joined ad-tech firm TripleLift as CMO. Bitterman, who has been vice president-digital strategy & sales at IBM for the past three years, previously
was chief strategy officer of GroupM’s Mindshare and held senior positions at Digitas and Foote, Cone & Belding before that.
was chief strategy officer of GroupM’s Mindshare and held senior positions at Digitas and Foote, Cone & Belding before that.
U.S. Proposes Tariffs On French Goods, Suggests Unfair Digital Services Tax On U.S. Tech Companies
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a statement said the move should send “a clear signal that the United States will take action against digital tax regimes that discriminate or otherwise
impose undue burdens on U.S. companies.”
impose undue burdens on U.S. companies.”
Dolan Stepping Down As IAB President, Search For Successor Begun
Patrick Dolan will step down as president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau in June 2020 and the ad trade bureau is launching a search for a successor. Executive recruiter Ann Blinkhorn of
Blinkhorn LLC will conduct the search, reporting to a search committee led by IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg, IAB Chairman Rik Van der Kooi (Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Advertising) and the IAB
Vice Chair Troy Young (President of Hearst Magazines).
Blinkhorn LLC will conduct the search, reporting to a search committee led by IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg, IAB Chairman Rik Van der Kooi (Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Advertising) and the IAB
Vice Chair Troy Young (President of Hearst Magazines).
How to Apologize in the #MeToo Era
It’s been two years since the #MeToo movement gained national attention, and the accused are now re-emerging with apologies and explanations. Maybe they are looking for redemption, forgiveness, clarity or a job. Whatever they are seeking, many of their apologies haven’t been landing. No one outside the courts is here to prosecute these people, but…
Bloomberg is rebranding TicToc to QuickTake — and expanding it as a streaming channel
Bloomberg Media is rebranding its social video news network, TicToc, to QuickTake by Bloomberg. It will also combine all of its digital video operations, both long-form and short-form, under the new brand, which will launch its own streaming news channel in the first half of 2020.
The renaming avoids confusion with ByteDance’s TikTok, a short-form social media app that’s skyrocketed to popularity, and recently surpassed 1.5 billion downloads according to SensorTower. Bloomberg Media originally launched TicToc as a Twitter-based 24/7 streaming video network in December 2017. ByteDance launched TikTok in September 2017, but TikTok didn’t rise in popularity in the U.S. until ByteDance later combined TikTok with Musical.ly in August 2018 under the TikTok name.
Bloomberg’s TicToc has since expanded beyond Twitter and onto other social platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon Echo and U.S. airport TV screens. It now reaches an audience of more than 90 million monthly views. Bloomberg said that in the last year, TicToc’s audience size has increased by 79% and skews toward a “primarily younger demographic.”
QuickTake was originally launched as a brand that examined and explained timely topics to Bloomberg’s business and financial audience, primarily on the Bloomberg Terminal but also on Bloomberg.com and in print.
The newly combined QuickTake by Bloomberg brand will comprise a new 24-hour streaming news channel. It will also have on-demand programming on multiple platforms, offering live coverage as well as longer-form features of five- to 10-minutes in length, small documentaries and the one- to two-minute videos on which the TicToc brand was built. Bloomberg Media hasn’t yet announced its OTT channel partners for QuickTake, but it’s clear the company sees OTT as an area ripe for investment.
In September, Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith spoke about the growth of streaming channels, saying, “OTT is now representing about 30% of actual television viewing, and yet only three percent of the actual TV budgets are directed against that 30% of viewing. So you’re going to see a huge swing of television advertising or video advertising moving toward OTT.”
The new unit will combine TicToc’s existing 60-member staff with the 20-person Bloomberg digital video team and will use the original reporting of Bloomberg’s more than 2,700 reporters based in 120 countries around the world. It will be led by Tre Shallowhorn, who previously led the Bloomberg digital video team, Jean Ellen Cowgill, the former general manager of TicToc and Mindy Massucci, head of global content for QuickTake. Cowgill told Variety Bloomberg plans to add to the QuickTake staff next year. The print version of Bloomberg QuickTake will continue to be led by Leah Harrison Singer.
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