5 things you need to know | |  | The fierce rise of gender-neutral advertising: Why now more than ever big brands from Coca-Cola to Barbie are increasingly pushing out gender-neutral messaging. | |  | Former top Wall Street Journal editor John Crowley discusses his new role as U.K. editor at International Business Times. | |  | Thinx and Casper are two emerging online e-commerce startups that offer very different products. But when it comes to marketing, however, the two have one thing in common: Eye-catching subway ads. | |  | Publishers will soon have greater ability to run native ads on Facebook's Instant Articles, as ad tech company Polar is extending support on the platform for its clients, which include The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and Slate. | |  | At the Digiday Brand Summit in Key Biscayne next month, we will cover the internalities of brand building, from content studios to the growing influence of hyper-speed video production to social listening. Reserve your spot today. | |
Tanya Dua A wide range of brands are breaking gender stereotypes, narrowing the sexual divide and embracing gender neutrality in its advertising. Retailers and brands in the $22 billion toy industry and the $250 billion fashion industry, are getting increasingly wary of marketing along gender divisions — going in favor of gender-neutral products, clothes, labeling and store aisles instead. “Gender used to be a way to simplify marketing, but now there are opportunities to think well beyond the old constructs," said Jamie Gutfreund, global CMO at Wunderman. |
| Lucia Moses One gripe publishers have had about fast-loading Facebook Instant Articles is that it's hard to monetize, especially with native advertising. Publishers will soon have greater ability to run native ads there, though, as ad tech company Polar is extending support for its platform to Instant Articles for its clients, which include The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and Slate. |
| Tanya Dua Marketers have been embracing Snapchat's on-demand geofilter feature in hoards since it launched last month. But an agency is now taking things a step further, using geofilters to enlist interns for its summer internship program at college campuses across the country. Space150, with its headquarters in Minneapolis, began rolling out the filters for its annual internship program yesterday, targeting college campuses, its offices as well public locations to promote it. The agency's filters will prompt the students to follow it on its Snapchat handle, where they will be given a creative brief on the basis of which they can apply to the internship program. | | Garett Sloane Phones, tablets, TVs and devices like Amazon's Echo are all equipped to pick up audio cues and respond, and these capabilities are becoming ever more useful in the marketing world. There are two types of audio technologies that are embedding themselves deeper into the marketer’s' playbook: acoustic fingerprinting and watermarking. Both can be transformational in giving brands entree to people's devices, but they can raise all sorts of privacy questions. |
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| Hilary Milnes Valentino is the top luxury fashion brand on Instagram, according to Engagement Labs data. But much of the brand’s success and high engagement rate is banked on high post frequency. “They were hitting people because they were always in the feed,” said Mariana Rittenhouse, head of brand strategy at Dash Hudson. Now, Valentino will have to scale back posts while figuring out which content drives the most engagement, as well as continuing its trend of interacting with followers in its community. |
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