Amazon Will Open a Pop-Up Store in New York City

Amazon, a longtime foe of brick-and-mortar stores, is hanging out a real sign of its own in a planned New York City outlet. The e-tailer plans to set up a pop-up shop in the Big Apple in time for the holidays.

The temporary store will appear across from the Empire State Building on 34th Street, and could show off some of Amazon's gadgetry like Kindle Fire tablets, phones and connected-TV boxes.

The location could also be used as a hub for gift deliveries and picking up online orders, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the store.

This isn’t the first time that the digital player has tried its hand at real-world retail. Last year, it popped up a kiosk in a San Francisco mall.

Amazon is not the only tech company trying to infiltrate New York with stores. Microsoft is opening a permanent location down the block from Apple's Fifth Avenue store.

Microsoft has opened pop-up holiday stores in Manhattan, as well.

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Here Are the Pros and Cons of Snapchat Taking on Ads

With Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel confirming long-held speculation that his mobile-social app will soon debut ads, we reached out to marketing pros for reaction. From an advertising-minded perspective, here are the pros and cons of adding ads to the app:

Pro #1. It's a brand's chance to be cool

While hanging with the young crowd won't always be easy, consultant David Deal suggested, there are high-risk, high-reward factors in play. "Snapchat ads are perfectly suited for digital natives who prefer instant engagement," he said. "[They] may also spark excitement about ads because by their nature they will contain scarce content."

Dan Lubesky, senior manager of marketing and analysis at SapientNitro, contended that the platform is "primed for native, contextual advertising." Indeed, that's just the kind of marketing that Gen Y is accustomed to experiencing.

Pro #2. It's a new opt-in platform

"Since users are given the option to opt-in to receive ads, the content must be entertaining and engaging enough for users to want to receive it, and stay away from the old banner ad approach that is no longer effective," said Esha Shah, manager of mobile strategy and innovation at Fetch.

Pro #3. The data

Snapchat averages 100 monthly visitors, most hailing from the coveted Gen Y demo. Jon Hook, head of mobile at MediaCom, added that "there are 700 million snaps, 16.5 million daily active users, with an average of 14 visits a day. Why? Because this platform is how the millennials want to interact with each other."

Con #1. The data (targeting/"lack thereof" version)

"When Snapchat ad formats roll out, they will offer little-to-zero data-driven targeting capabilities due to the posting and quick deleting of users short form video snippets," said SapientNitro's Lubesky. "Another social media channel beta-testing advertising to a select group of brands, Snapchat may have the audience, but trust behind analytics, targeting and media verification will surely be lacking."



Paul Bremer, chief revenue officer at Rhythm, asserted that "untargeted ads that appear between 'stories' is, on the surface, a fairly mundane offering."

Added Vishal Sapra, vp of global brand development at MRY: "Snapchat ads won't be able to contend with Facebook and Google until brands can precisely target their desired audience."

Con #2. Unless you offer cheap tacos, the kids won't likely care for 'push' marketing

"This audience doesn't want advertising, they want a brand experience. And that is what you can tease this audience with on Snapchat," said MediaCom's Hook.

Deal added that the ads could "flop if they come across as intrusive. ... The open question is: How many brands will be able to make the transition to Snapchat-style engagement as Taco Bell has?"

Con #3. These eyeballs don't stay still long enough

"Snapchat users' attention span is very short," Lubesky said, "and it's highly unlikely that they will be receptive to advertising seeing that user content posts range from one to 10 seconds."

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The 10 Most Watched Ads on YouTube in September

Dogs, heroes and Samsung were the three dominant themes on Adweek and Google's YouTube Ads Leaderboard last month, ranking the 10 most-viewed commercials posted to the video site in September.

Samsung placed two ads on the list, which were its impressive 10th and 11th entries on the Leaderboard this year. Budweiser, KLM and Freshpet all went to the dogs with adorable ads. And Gatorade and Under Armour reveled in some hero worship. (Also, GoPro's ad was about its HERO4, and the Bud ad is actually about dogs and heroes.)

Meanwhile, Kmart kicked off holiday advertising, while pretending not to, and got a healthy 4.5 million views in process. (In fact, each of the 10 ads this month topped 2 million views, which is relatively high for this list.)

Check out the spots below.

Note: To be eligible for Adweek and Google's YouTube Ads Leaderboard, videos must be marked as ads on YouTube (i.e., they get some paid views) but must also earn significant organic views.

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The Barbarian Group Fills Its Top Creative Post

The Barbarian Group has filled its top creative role with senior creative leader from Wieden + Kennedy.

Edu Pou, head of creative innovation at W+K in Amsterdam, is now executive creative director at Barbarian. Pou fills a role that had been vacant since Jay Zasa left the agency in 2012. Zasa had led the creative department for two years.

Pou spent more than six years at W+K, working on brands such as Heineken, Coca-Cola, Electronic Arts and Nokia. Before that, he was a senior copywriter at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where his brand experience ranged from Domino’s and Burger King to Nike and Volkswagen. Earlier in his career, he was a cd at DoubleYou in Spain.

In making the hire, Barbarian CEO Sophie Kelly cited Pou's success with global brands, adding, "His vision, demonstrated leadership, keen sense for innovation and experience leading international accounts will be invaluable as we grow as a digital creative agency that believes in ideas that provoke a reaction.”

The new creative chief will start Nov. 3.

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JWT New York Finds a Creative Chief at a Digital Shop

In his first big hire as JWT's worldwide creative chief, Matt Eastwood has tapped a creative director from a top digital shop to lead JWT's creative department in New York.

Adam Kerj most recently was chief creative officer at 360i, where he worked on brands like Mondelez' Oreo. As chief creative officer of JWT New York, he'll oversee more than 100 staffers and steer creative efforts on accounts like Macy's, Puma, Vonage, Royal Caribbean and Johnson & Johnson.

In his new job, Kerj fills a vacancy left by the December 2013 exit of Matt MacDonald for BBDO and becomes a key lieutenant to Eastwood, who joined JWT in July.

Kerj spent two years at 360i. Before that, he was ecd and founding partner of Saatchi & Saatchi in Stockholm, Sweden. Earlier in his career, he worked at Leo Burnett in Chicago and Denmark and TBWA in Sweden.

In a statement, Eastwood described Kerj as a "true global citizen" and "modern communicator" who has an appealing mix of digital and traditional marketing experience. The new creative leader is expected to start in early 2015.

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Facebook Reportedly Launching an App Designed to Hide Your True Identity

Facebook wants you to be just as comfortable sharing sensitive information as you are broadcasting mundane details, so the social network is planning a new, anonymous sharing app, according to a recent report.

Citing anonymous sources, The New York Times said Facebook is expected to launch an app within weeks that allows people to sign up with pseudonyms and keep their true identities hidden, which could compete with similar secretive apps like Secret, Whisper and Yik Yak. Facebook didn't comment.

This follows last week's reports that Facebook would work on health care-focused apps, which could require a level of privacy as well. Traditionally, Facebook has strictly enforced the use of true identities on its main network and recently caught fire from drag queens who wanted to use pseudonyms. That boosted sign-ups at competing site Ello.

Real identities are key to Facebook's advertising goals as it seeks to become the people-based marketing platform. Still, there has been a shift toward more anonymity and less digital permanence, especially among young people flocking to Snapchat's disappearing photos or Whisper's seemingly risk-free sharing. Also, forums like those on Reddit allow anonymous communities.

It appears Facebook could be trying to capture some of that popularity with yet another standalone app, which have mostly been met with limited success. Its Snapchat clones called Poke and Slingshot didn't catch on, nor has its most recent Hyperlapse app.

The Times had few details on how the new app would work. Josh Miller, hired in the acquisition of Branch, is reportedly heading the project.

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Ad of the Day: Dead Mice Act Out Plays in the Strangest Pest-Control Ads Ever

You'll laugh! You'll cry! You may cringe a bit, too.

Barton F. Graf 9000's first campaign for Tomcat mouse-killing bait takes an off-off-off-Broadway approach with the introduction of "Dead Mouse Theatre." Essentially, it's a pair of hands manipulating a couple of fake mice with X's for eyes. Add some funny character voices and some atonal singing, and you've got some pretty amusing ads.

Rather than emphasize the kill, the mini-plays find entertainment value in the dead critters themselves, answering a teaser question from a perky male announcer at the beginning of each ad: "What will we do with all these dead mice?"

At their best, these ads feel like a cross between two old Saturday Night Live staples: The Mr. Bill Show and Leonard Pinth-Garnell's Bad Conceptual Theater. At their worst? Well, fringe theater still beats typical rodent-killer advertising. Oh, there's also this Tumblr page.

The tagline, enhanced in the ads by a cat screech, is, "Tomcat. Engineered to kill."

CREDITS

Client: Tomcat (The Scotts Miracle Grow Co.)

Agency: Barton F. Graf 9000, New York

Chief Creative Officer/Founder: Gerry Graf

Executive Creative Directors/Partners: Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal

Art Directors: Jerome Marucci, Ross Fletcher

Copywriters: Steve McElligott, Nick Kaplan, Mark Bielik

Head of Integrated Production: Josh Morse

Producer: Cameron Farrell

CEO/Founding Partner: Barney Robinson

Account Director: Jennifer Richardi

Account Supervisor: Kimmy Cunningham

Production Company: Rattling Stick

Director: Ringan Ledwidge

Executive Producer: Joe Biggins

Producer: Patrick Bailey

DOP: Ray Coates

Costume Designer: Rosa Dias

Production Designer: Simon Davis

Set Designers: Nigel Howlett, Nick Abbott

Puppeteer: Andy Heath

Editorial: Work Editorial Inc.

Editor: Mark Edinoff

Executive Producer: Erica Thompson

Senior Producer: Sari Resnick

Assistant Editor: Adam Witten

Finishing: The Mill

VFX Producer: Rachel Trillo

Telecine: Fergus McCall, Mikey Rossiter

2D Leads: Chris Sonia, Keith Sullivan

2D Assists: Emily Bloom, Molly Intersimone, Anne Trotman, Antoine Douadi, Dae Yoon Kang, Liz Berndt

3D Animation: Aran Quinn

Audio: Heard City

Audio Engineers: Philip Loeb, Evan Mangiamele

Music: Butter

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Facebook Promises More Responsible Research When Users Are Test Subjects

Facebook is promising to more carefully handle how it uses the social network for research after the company was criticized this summer for experimenting on its members' moods.

Facebook publicly admitted that it didn't handle that research or the explanations very well, and it is implementing new guidelines with higher standards. "We're committed to doing research to make Facebook better, but we want to do it in the most responsible way," said Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer.

This summer, Facebook revealed that it studied the social network's effects on people's moods by only showing test subjects negative messages. Researchers wanted to see if overexposure to negative sentiments would lead Facebook users to feel sad.

Schroepfer said the company now has clearer guidelines about how it conducts research. The company is beefing up its review process, especially if a proposed study focuses on certain age groups or involves "content that could be deeply personal," such as the emotions of the users being impacted. Facebook also is creating a panel of senior researchers, engineers, lawyers and privacy teams to review all projects.

Training also is a priority, with a six-week "bootcamp" to educate staff about research protocols. Finally, the company will publish all of its research papers in a single place, so the public can see what Facebook is working on.

"We believe in research, because it helps us build a better Facebook. Like most companies today, our products are built on extensive research, experimentation and testing," Schroepfer said in the post. "We want to do this research in a way that honors the trust you put in us by using Facebook every day. We will continue to learn and improve as we work toward this goal."

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Google Cracks Down on Marketers' Access to Data

Google is tightening its grip on advertising data and some industry sources fear the policies could hamper their ability to market online.

Just this week, Google began talking to ad technology partners about restrictions on how they gather data when running campaigns on the Google Display Network. Some sources said the timing was odd, coming on the heels of Facebook's launch of Atlas, an ad server and data platform that many say is the biggest rival to Google's dominance. Still, other sources said Google is just reinforcing a data regime it has been working on for some time.

In the conversations this week, with companies like Krux, BlueKai and Lotame, Google told data management platform players that they could not use pixels in certain ads. The pixels—embedded within digital ads—help marketers target and understand how many times a given user has seen their messages online.

"Google is only allowing data management platforms to fire pixels on creative assets that they're serving, on impressions they bought, through the Google Display Network," said Mike Moreau, chief solutions officer at Krux. "So they're starting with a very narrow scope."

These third-party data firms are still allowed to use pixels if they also execute the ad buys, acting as the demand-side platforms, but the problem is many marketers use multiple demand-side platforms to buy ads and only one data management platform, Moreau said.

Impact on Ad Buyers Could Be Big

One of the potential impacts is that marketers won't be able to effectively track campaigns that run across the Web from Google to AOL to Yahoo—they might not be able to connect the dots and efficiently allocate marketing dollars, industry sources said. Marketers could wind up buying more impressions than they need from Google if they can’t monitor the frequency of ads being served, Moreau said.

He also said that the talks are ongoing and Google has been open to listening to the concerns of the data executives to get them the information they need.

The wider fear, however, is that cracking down on pixels on the Google Display Network is just the start, and there could be a bigger effect on marketers if Google instituted similar policies throughout the DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX).

"Right now it's a relatively small percentage of marketers buying impressions through Google Display Network," Moreau said. "If it expands to AdX, it starts to become really significant."

Google's data policies are important because they effect how marketers choose to execute online campaigns, and any barriers to gathering data could encourage them to use more of Google's services where there is naturally less friction, sources said. Google, much like Facebook, could become a walled garden of data.

Another data company exec said that Google could threaten the lifeline of their business.

"Google is generally trying to change the way we consume data," an industry source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "It could cause issues for the third-party data market, which could no longer provide measurements for clients."

Google said that talks with data partners this week did not signify changes in its policies. The outreach was about enforcing current policies.

"We routinely run checks of our systems," Google said in a statement today. "If partners aren't compliant with our current policies, we'll notify them and work with them to make any needed adjustments."

Google Looks To Stop The Leakage

Google is taking steps to prevent data leakage, according to Adam Berke, CMO of AdRoll. Leakage happens when data firms operate in a gray area, collecting user information that Google considers proprietary.

"Even before this Facebook Atlas announcement, Google was starting a process of getting its house in order with respect to third parties and data collection on their display network," he said.

Google's adjustments could be part of its broader strategy around identity technology, creating the next-generation data tools to enable cross-device marketing to consumers jumping from phones to laptops to TV. This is the next frontier of digital advertising that both Facebook and Google are positioning themselves to dominate, considering they likely have the most lucrative data on the most mobile users.

"Google is moving forward with more interesting applications of identity, which it can't do if data leakage is a problem," Berke said.

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