Need to Know – The latest US media & marketing news: Amazon's new box ads, Obama's malware warnings & Apple Music launches
Morning all, here’s a glimpse at all the media and marketing news you should know today.
1. Amazon is to venture into OOH print advertising, claims MediaPost. The retailer will soon allow marketers to put third party ads on delivery boxes. The new business kicked off with eye-catching yellow boxes promoting Universal Pictures’ upcoming ‘Minions’ movie.
2. Facebook Connect is no longer supported in Microsoft applications, writes the International Business Times. The feature, which stores the online identity of users throughout the web, will no longer be supported on Windows and Windows Phone applications due to alterations made by Facebook to their Graph API.
3. President Obama has claimed that US cyber security issues are only going to get worse, reports NBC. Speaking in Germany, the president said: “We have known for a long time that there are significant vulnerabilities, and that these vulnerabilities are going to accelerate as time goes by, both in systems within government and within the private sector.”
4. Larry Kramer, publisher and president of USA Today is leaving the newspaper and joining the board of directors of the new Gannett, according to Adage. His departure comes as Gannett, owner of 82 daily newspapers including USA Today as well as 46 local TV stations, prepares to split into two separate publicly traded firms.
5. San Francisco officials are considering health warnings on high-sugar soda pops. Star Tribune notes that the ‘Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Warning Ordinance’ would require health warnings on advertising within city limits - on billboards, walls, the sides of cabs and buses.
6. Former Fifa official Jack Warner is being investigated by US authorities for the disappearance of money intended for victims of the Haiti earthquake. The BBC cites documents stating that $750,000 donated from FIFA and the Korean Football Association found its way into accounts he controlled.
7. Apple has unveiled its much-touted Apple Music service app. Business Insider reports that the company has made the ground-breaking decision to release the service also on rival operating system Android – and its 100m users.
8. And finally, Apple is set to make its Apple Watches slightly harder to steal with the implementation of anti-theft tech which enables owners to kill stolen devices remotely. Business Insider reports that Apple will introduce the same security measures present in iPads and iPhones.
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