Morning Bulletin: China’s Uber embraces bikes, Snapchat drops the chat & fracking fracas
Sweep the Monday morning blues aside with our daily round-up of news nuggets; including a decision by China’s Uber to branch out from four wheels to two, Snapchat’s snappy rebrand and criticism of Friends of the Earth over ‘misleading’ fracking claims.
Snapchat has opted for a snappier title still by rebranding itself as Snap Inc, part of a wider shift in emphasis as the company moves away from being just a social media company.
Retail Week reports that Aldi is planning a £300m spruce up for its UK and Ireland stores as profits drop by 1.8 per cent due to continued aggression on price.
The Australian state of Victoria has made exposure of bare buttocks a crime under an overhaul of sexual offence laws which classifies streaking and mooning as acts of sexual exposure which carry a minimum sentence of two months in jail.
Google has formulated a means of connecting store visits to display advertising within as little as two days by implementing a location extension, which marries business information such as address, maps and images. Moreover, Google Maps technology can also tell marketers when their ads lead directly to increased footfall.
The Advertising Standards Authority has issued a withering rebuke to Friends of the Earth over a series of unsubstantiated claims made by the environmental campaign group over the alleged impact of fracking, according to reports in The Times.
Budget airline Monarch has been forced to scotch weekend speculation that it was experiencing cash flow difficulties in the wake of Brexit by stating that it is ‘trading well’ and planning significant investment over the coming days.
Chinese Uber-rival Didi Chuxing is branching out into two wheels with investment worth ‘tens of millions’ of dollars in the country’s largest bicycle sharing business, enabling it to include pushbikes in its roster of transport options.
Adweek has got its hands on some ‘intriguing’ new IPG MediaLab-led data, the take home message of which is that branded content leads to 59 per cent better recall than other forms of digital advertising.
Coronation Street star Marc Anwar has been unceremoniously axed from ITV’s long-running soap after a series of racist tweets were uncovered originating from his personal Twitter account, in which the Pakistani-born actor referred to Indians as “bastards” and “piss-drinking cunts”.
The BBC is considering cooking up a Great Britisih Bake Off clone following its loss of the hit format to Channel 4, with sources claiming it could be out of the oven before Love Productions can switch the official show to its new station.