The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Google Virtual Reality (VR) Banjo

Reverberate: US media and marketing news you need to know – Oculus Rift to hit stores in 2016, Facebook and IBM team up and Twitter's porn problem

Author

By Rebecca Stewart, Trends Editor

May 7, 2015 | 4 min read

Morning all, here’s a glimpse at all the media and marketing news you should know today.

1. The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset will be available to the public from early 2016. The Facebook-owned VR firm says it will reveal more details about the consumer model of the Rift later on this week.

2. Facebook and IBM have teamed up to make it easier for large brands to target users with ads, according to Mashable. The partnership, which was announced yesterday, will see the two 'Big Blues' double down on advertisers to make marketing campaigns more personalized.

3. Twitter's porn problems have caused some brands to halt ads on the social network, says the Fiscal Times. TV and digital measurement firm Nielsen was forced to stop one of its paid-for promoted tweets campaigns this week after its posts were served against profile pages dedicated to pornography.

4. McDonald's has brought back its classic Hamburglar mascot, writes Fortune. The fast food chain has revived the character as a suburban dad – prompting a mixed response on social media.

5. Meerkat has launched a developer platform to set itself apart from Periscope, says TechCrunch. The move means the streaming app could allow outside developers to build a wider variety of tools to compete with its Twitter rival – which benefits from the social network's massive team and funding.

6. Banjo has raised $100m in funding, claims the Wall Street Journal. Japanese company SoftBank has invested in the tech startup, with chief executive Damien Patton saying he wants the app to detect world events in real time and build a "virtual crystal ball".

7. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman, Tom Wheeler, has said he wants to give online video distributors the same rights as cable and satellite providers. Speaking at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association's expo in Chicago, he acknowledged that the FCC has “work to do” to clear obstacles to competition.

8. Google apparently has a secret 'bench' program that keeps executives at the helm even when they're not leading anything, reports Business Insider. The search engine allegedly has a rotation policy in place to retain its bench of long-serving executives, meaning that certain staff getting paid to wait until the organization needs them again.

9. And Lenovo has been accused of exposing its users to a "massive security risk” due to major flaws in its software, asserts the International Business Times. The PC manufacturer came under scrutiny from security firm IOActive after it discovered a way for hackers to replace Lenovo’s own programs with malware.

Stay in the media and marketing news loop at thedrum.com and to receive The Drum's US Daily Newsletter sign up here.

Or check out yesterday's round-up here.

Google Virtual Reality (VR) Banjo

More from Google

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +