Morning Bulletin: Advertising downturn, Uber goads motorists & Nintendo NX
This morning brings glum news for advertisers amidst reports that the UK TV market is on course to record its worst year since the depths of the recession in 2009. We also take a look at Uber’s goading of motorists with placard wielding drones and the eagerly anticipated reveal of Nintendo’s NX console.
The guardian warns that the UK TV advertising market is set to weather its worst year since 2009 after cautious brands slashed more than £400m from their marketing budgets amidst Brexit anxiety.
Adweek notes an ‘annoying’ Uber campaign which has seen it enlist a fleet of drones to ‘taunt’ drivers by flying up and down gridlocked highways with placards reading ‘Driving by yourself?’ – An attempt to guilt-trip drivers into carpooling.
A grand unveil of the Victoria Gate shopping centre in Leeds is the focus of Retail Week today which looks around the brand-new shopaholic temple, the only such scheme to complete in the UK throughout the whole of 2016.
AdExchanger makes the bold claim that Chinese tech giant LeEco could ‘one day give Apple a run for its money’ after it announced the launch of an all new video streaming platform backed by Netflix, Lionsgate and others just months after purchasing smart TV manufacturer Vizio for $2bn.
In an apparent change of tack in Donald Trump’s campaign strategy AdAge reports that the spendthrift mogul has begun a spending ‘surge’ to overtake the official Clinton campaign, booking $43m worth of TV and radio advertising versus £36m for Clinton through to election day - although Priorities USA, a third independent group which also backs Clinton, will spend an additional $33m to back their candidate.
Tesla has just unveiled a new line up of electric vehicles, a fully self-driving capable Model 3 amongst them, following a grand reveal by founder Elon Musk. Whilst the vehicles will have the capability of being fully autonomous Musk stresses that it will be a while yet before this capability is enabled.
Nestle has slashed its forward sales outlook after succumbing to a global slowdown affecting food manufacturers with its weakest underlying sales growth in a decade. As a result it has trimmed its full year sales increase expectations from 4.2% to 3.5%.
The latest print title to succumb to the growth of digital is InStyle magazine per the guardian, which reports on a decision by publisher Time to take the fashion magazine online only following a precipitous 18% fall in its circulation to just 121,000 copies.
Separately the paper also reveals that BBC News will let three presenters go as part of a drive to find cost savings of 10% from its 24-hour rolling news channel and BBC World News after the decision was taken not to merge the two services.
Nintendo is set to unveil its hotly anticipated NX system later today, with the gaming giant expected to release a three-minute trailer outlining its plans for the next generation console amidst rumours that it will take the form of a hybrid handheld device.