Hello marketers,
This week, editor-at-large Patrick Coffee reported that Netflix had dissolved its brand marketing team. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung's CMO ouster was part of an audit of its marketing department. Two separate news stories, but it has us wondering: Are major brands looking closer at where marketing dollars are going and whether it's prudent to have large in-house marketing teams?
Obviously, brands are always taking stock of when and how they should be spending their dollars but usually we're seeing agencies cut rather than in-house teams. It's certainly notable, especially following the Kraft-Heinz/3G Capital news cycle. If you hear of anything or think there's a larger story here please let me know: kristina.monllos@adweek.com.
In other news, the battle of the beer brands—at this point, I will not dignify this on-going madness by naming them and giving the attention they so desperately want—continues, much to the chagrin of every reporter on our team. Obviously, it's an attention war and both brands are hoping to win out but arguably they've just made consumers want to tune out the whole thing. Isn't it time to hang it up?
Quote of the Week: “When you see someone from Silicon Valley with an incredible idea and it’s a woman, you so want that story to be true that you’re blinded,” Stan Fiorito, former managing director at TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles told Patrick Coffee as part of his investigation into Theranos marketing. “That included Theranos investors and the board of directors.”
Say What? We're hitting subscription fatigue, per a new survey by Deloitte, which found that "47 percent [of those surveyed] said they are frustrated by the growing number of subscriptions and services to watch their shows" and of those "57 percent of consumers said it frustrates them when shows and movies disappear from their streaming libraries," wrote reporter Sara Jerde.
Thanks for reading,
Brands Editor
Kristina Monllos
