‘South Park: The Fractured But Whole’ Captures Look, Feel And Humor Of TV Show Brand

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Despite its crude humor (or perhaps because of it) and an animation style that looks like paper cutouts, the South Park television show created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker remains as strong as ever. It’s now preparing for the launch of its second video game developed and published by Ubisoft.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole releases in October for PC and consoles and is the direct sequel to 2014’s The Stick of Truth, which was the third-bestselling game in North America behind Titanfall and Infamous Second Son when it launched. In February, Ubisoft announced that it had shipped five million copies of the game.

The Fractured But Whole brings players to the town of South Park as “the new kid,” and they play superheroes alongside recognizable characters from the animated show. If the title isn’t enough of an indicator, South Park isn’t shy about its particular brand of humor, which was further evident with the E3 Fractured But Whole demo, which included a character named Captain Diabetes. Attendees were tasked with helping him to find lost cats at a local strip club.

Speaking with AListDaily, Kimberly Weigend, associate producer for South Park: The Fractured But Whole, said, “we’ve taken some of the concepts from the first game and beefed them up.” Improvements include changes to the combat system, the inclusion of a crafting system and a tweaked role-playing system, all making for a bigger and better sequel.

“Making a sequel has been challenging and very fun,” said Weigend. The development team looked at the comments it received from fans of the first game, making sure what they liked from the first game were kept and enhanced. Meanwhile, the parts that were not as well received were kept in mind so that those issues wouldn’t necessarily arise in the new game.

“We looked at the feedback from gamers from the first game and we’re taking that into account,” said Weigend. “We work with Matt and Trey and they’ve given us a whole new story to tell, so you’re not going to be rehashing the same things—it’s all brand new. I think it’s over two seasons worth of content in our game, so they’re working hard, [and] we’re working hard to tell the best story we possibly can.”

Weigend expanded on how Ubisoft has been working with the South Park creators and the show’s crew in developing The Fractured But Whole by explaining how the development team meets with them almost every day. “They’re with us every step of the way,” said Weigend. “We’ll get scripts from them, we’ll react to those scripts by reading them and seeing what we have to do [and] we’ll put things in motion.”

They mostly converse about gameplay mechanics, but Weigend added that “the timing of our game is very important because it’s a comedy game, and a big part of comedy is timing. We work very closely with them [the South Park crew]—it’s a very collaborative and iterative process and it’s been a lot of fun.”

This year’s E3 marked the first time Ubisoft has shown a public demo for The Fractured But Whole.

“We’re actually seeing gamers get hands-on experiences with our game and it’s really exciting to see their reactions,” said Weigend. There were things and characters that they knew gamers and South Park fans wanted to see in the game, and she said, “we were able to see that it’s paying off. I think people at E3 were in love with it—we had some great reactions and some shocked reactions from what they were playing and seeing. I think they were very excited to see what the full game will have.”

South Park is notorious for its crude, edgy humor, and the games reflect that. Weigend discussed how much of that adult-oriented humor Ubisoft decided to show at a public demo.

“You know what? We have not held back at all,” said Weigend. “We are not pulling any punches. This is our game and it’s South Park’s brand, so there’s no reason to hide any of it. We have a demo that I think people have been surprised to see and I think it solidified in their minds that, ‘yes, this is a sequel to Stick and it’s going to be just as good, if not better.’ We’re not holding anything back.”

The South Park TV series has been around for over 20 years, and Weigend says it makes it an enduring brand to capture.

“A big part of the South Park brand is not only the comedy and the voice of Matt and Trey coming through their characters, but there’s also the look and the feel,” Weigend explained. “We really wanted this game to look just like an episode of the show, just like the first one did.”

Actual show assets are included in the game and the South Park TV show team reviews the game and provides feedback to make it feel even more like an episode.

“I think that’s really hitting the brand pretty well,” said Weigend.

Twitch Tag Teams With Lucha Libre To Leverage Mexico Market

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Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, Mexico’s biggest wrestling promotion organization, is creating a “parejas increíble” with video streaming site Twitch, livestreaming Triplemania XXV beginning with a pre-show marathon on August 24.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Triplemania XXV will be the “match of the decade,” pitting luchador Dr. Wagner Jr. against Psycho Clown. The event will be broadcast worldwide in both English and Spanish languages, featuring specially themed emotes for the Twitch chat.

“Prior to our relationship with Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, we saw that the community was rallying their favorite wrestling leagues to start broadcasting on Twitch,” Christian Borneman, Twitch’s Latin America director, told AlistDaily. “This let us know it was a category worth exploring. This is the closest to being ringside you can get from a viewership perspective. Latin culture is very much about live events, participation with your friends and being there. Twitch offers that digitally and globally.”

The fast-action wrestling style of Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide is gaining a dedicated following outside of Mexico, as evidenced by its recent partnership with FrontRunner in the UK. This first-ever Lucha Libre broadcast in the region aired in June to 19 million homes across the UK and Northern Ireland.

Of course, the art of lucha libre, dating back to 1863, is most at home in its native country of Mexico, where Twitch shares a passionate user base.

“Twitch is very strong in Mexico since there is a passionate gaming scene in that part of the world and we’re constantly onboarding new streaming partners,” said Borneman. “We expect our base to continue to grow since our goal is to make the platform native to Mexico by amplifying some of the great participatory content the country is famous for, like lucha libre.”

Known for gaming livestreams, Twitch has also earned credibility within the worlds of competition—joining the advisory board for Nielsen Esports—live marketing and other forms of entertainment such as TV, film and anime. This partnership with Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide shows that sports will become an important part of that lineup.

“As with all emerging content areas on our platform, we’ll be looking to the community to guide us toward areas of interest,” explained Borneman. “Since traditional sports already have a presence on Twitch through video games—including this recent Twitch Prime initiative around Madden—and we also attract a lot of athletes who livestream, there is always the possibility of more sports.”

The Triplemania pre-show marathon on Twitch begins August 24 at 3 p.m. PT, with the live broadcast of Triplemania XXV beginning on August 26 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. PT.

How Brands And Bands Are Working Together In Harmony

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Corporate partnerships with musicians are nothing new—cigarette companies have used music endorsements as far back as 1941.

But, just as love-song similes have become much less hackneyed over the ensuing decades, the face of brand-music partnerships has changed dramatically as well.

Business-first artists like Sean “Diddy” Combs exemplify this shift. In 2014, six years distant from his most recent album, a healthy serving of the $60 million he earned from ventures came from working closely with French vodka distiller Diageo. Diddy brought the luxury liquor Cîroc to his fans and split profits with the manufacturer, going as far as calling himself “Cîroc Obama.”

Now, free streaming services like Spotify and Pandora are making it more and more difficult for artists to make a living from royalties—the music sponsorship industry is set to pass $1.5 billion in 2017. Brands and bands are finding it necessary to collaborate much more closely than ever before.

“The best marketers today know that loyalty is in short supply and so they have to deliver experiences and emotions that tap right into people’s desires and aspirations. Those brands that successfully create emotional engagement are the ones that succeed in turning customers into fans,” Olivier Robert-Murphy, global head of new business at Universal Music Group, said in last year’s “IFPI Global Music Report.”

It takes more than just a winning smile and slow-motion footage to sell these days, and just this year, brands like Sprite, Chipotle and Converse are proving themselves amply prepared for the task.

Converse Rubber Tracks

With its Rubber Tracks campaign, Converse finds itself as one of the vanguards of this trend. Ironically enough, the most modern implementation of the musician-brand partnership has been a reversion to a medieval patronage system.

The idea was simple enough. Converse, with its extensive clout, reach and most importantly budget, set up recording studios in 18 different cities around the world, and offers free studio time to up-and-coming artists. Musicians can hand over limited rights to their recorded songs to allow the brand to publish them on their website and social media, and the company hires full-time sound engineers to work with artists in the studio. But otherwise, Converse keeps its hands to itself and lets the music do the talking (or singing).

The strength of the Rubber Tracks campaign lies not just in its simplicity, but its necessity. As the streaming model has choked album sales and squeezed revenues for modestly successful artists, major labels have invested heavily in developing already-known bands and producing smash-hit singles, leaving many small or experimental artists out in the cold. Converse has stepped in where the music establishment has failed, and in the process is building genuine goodwill among a younger crowd—no mean feat.

RZA And Chipotle: Savor.wavs

Scoring points for sheer unorthodoxy, Chipotle worked with rap legend RZA to cook up 51 different beats to represent their 51 “real ingredients,” from pizzicato violins representing bell peppers to a lonely trumpet riff to symbolize distilled vinegar. Chipotle then made the samples available to the public with an announcement video featuring hand-drawn animation and a somewhat bored-looking RZA, but not before passing them along to artists like GRiZ, AWOLNATION and Wu-Tang Clan to remix.

Despite RZA lending his name and talent to the project, it’s clear that Chipotle maintained creative control. “Tastes good . . . feels good” is the first line in the Wu Tang remix, and “all the good things come together” features prominently on the hook.

Given the call to the public to mix the samples themselves and get a free coupon, the musician partnerships are just one arm of a consumer campaign rather than an attempt to build a lasting relationship with any of the artists themselves. In any case, like with their “The Scarecrow” short film, Chipotle is seeking to garner brand engagement through noteworthy executions, using music as another chance to turn heads and earn press.

OK Go And Morton Salt

OK Go’s “The One Moment” stands at the opposite end of the spectrum from Chipotle’s starkly controlled content—the creative freedom stands at the opposite side of the brand-musician relationship.

This activation, filmed in slow motion over 4.2 seconds, links to Morton Salt’s “Walk Her Walk” water crisis campaign, but the song speaks about clinging to individual moments rather than making a difference, and the video includes no reference to salt or their cause.

Vince Staples And Sprite

Up-and-comer Vince Staples’ critically acclaimed track “Norf Norf” begins with the line, “Bitch you thirsty, please grab a Sprite,” and thus began the whirlwind romance.

Most recently, in connection with their “Summer Sprite Cold Lyrics Series,” the soft-drink brand produced the music video for “Rain Come Down,” the first time they’ve ever directly financed an artist’s music. The video ends with Staples, sitting woodenly in a diner booth, sipping from a bottle of Sprite like a Disneyland marionette. Additionally, he appears in a 30-second TV spot, in which he apathetically acknowledges soda-ad tropes.

Staples describes the union as a “fair and honest partnership,” adding, “they’re not trying to be anything other than Sprite.” Just so, Staples isn’t trying to be anything other than himself either, and the fact that both parties aren’t trying to oversell either themselves or each other adds an air of authenticity that builds trust in both.

Brands Celebrate Back-To-School Season With Humor, Positivity And Magic

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It’s time to go back to school, and that means shopping carts both physical and electronic are being filled with everything from crayons to the latest electronics.

Retail sales are estimated to reach $867.18 billion this year, according to eMarketer, with a 14.8 percent growth for e-commerce. With so many stores to choose from, this can only mean one thing for brands—creative back-to-school marketing.

Converse—#FirstDayFeels

Stranger Things star Millie Bobbie Brown teamed up with Converse to capture 32 different emotions teens feel on that first day of school with a series of animated GIFs. Appropriately named #FirstDayFeels, Brown acts out a number of scenarios from hyper to nervous, all in bite-sized, easy-to-share images through Giphy.

Converse partnered with publishers like BuzzFeed and Teen Vogue, which will also help the brand get in front of a relevant audience of young women and teens.

Ikea—Oddly, Ikea ASMR

Going back to school can bring feelings of anxiety and excitement, but Ikea is using its own products to elicit feelings of relaxation through sound. “Autonomous sensory meridian response,” or ASMR, is a popular genre of relaxation videos on YouTube that uses soft narration, scratching, tapping, brushing and other gentle sounds found to be therapeutic by many people.

Ikea created a series of ASMR videos using these sensory techniques on products such as sheets, clothes hangers, lamps and other items one might find in a dorm room.

“Back to college is a highly competitive space, and brands—both in- and out-of-home furnishings—are offering unique services and multichannel experiences,” Kerri Homsher, external communications specialist for Ikea, told AListDaily. “So, you always need to be doing something that’s going to make people engage, especially during this time of the year. Whether going off to school or staying close to home, these are big family decisions. We target both the parents—whose focus is on affordable, quality solutions—and the student who wants a stylish, fun space. Their mindsets, priorities and how Ikea can support them are different, so we aim to tailor the messages accordingly.

GapKids and Lionsgate—Back To School, Forward With . . .

GapKids partnered with Lionsgate to bring positive messages to kids as they head back to the classroom with a series of short films. Each of the four shorts highlights a way in which school can be a positive experience—focus through meditation, creativity through art, confidence with a mantra and kindness to one another. Each video ends with the slogan, “Back to school, forward with (focus/creativity/confidence/kindness).”

The final short in the series, focusing on kindness, features actor Jacob Tremblay (Room) and ties into Lionsgate’s upcoming adaptation of the book Wonder. Tremblay plays a young boy named Auggie whose unique face and personality inspire kindness in his new school.

GapKids is, in turn, participating in Lionsgate’s #ChooseKind campaign to coincide with Wonder‘s release in November and World Kindness Day on November 13. Students can participate in a T-shirt contest, creating designs that represent what kindness means to them. The eight winning designs will be sold in select GapKids stores, with profits donated to myFace and Children’s Craniofacial Association.

Shoe Carnival—A Surprise In Store

Shoe Carnival recruited YouTube star Zach King to perform his trademark magic tricks and highlight new styles around the store. In a series of commercials, King “magically” changes customers’ shoes, splits one sneaker into a pair and more, all in the name of back to school shopping.

“More than ever, our category is fragmented, consumers are demanding more, and everyone is shouting about back to school offers,” Todd Beurman, senior vice president of marketing for Shoe Carnival said in a statement. “We had to create a campaign that would break through the clutter and get people to pay closer attention to Shoe Carnival.”

Spending on shoes will average $119 per US parent this school season, according to predictions by Brand Keys. US parents are expected to spend an average of $716 on back-to-school items this year, a six percent increase over 2016 spending of $675.

https://youtu.be/atWqlm_cjf0

How Xfinity’s Brand Marketing Revolves Around Product Experiences

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With consumers increasingly relying on staying connected to a cavalcade of devices, Comcast is positioning its Xfinity brand to capture a market share in the cable television, internet, telephone and wireless services categories with a variety of marketing.

The activations have been wide-rangin and varied, like Xfinity leveraginged celebrities and tentpole movies to help promote Xfinity X1 features, including Kevin Hart, the Minions, Olympian Carli Lloyd and The Secret Life of Pets. They’ve also partnered with social media creators like Josh Peck, King Bach, Meghan McCarthy and Zach King to create content based on their favorite features.

There is also the X1 Challenge, which takes Xfinity X1 on the road with Chris Hardwick with an interactive bus, to let people compare X1 features to competing video platforms. The X1 Bus Tour is now in its second year and visits nearly 50 major events, including state fairs, city festivals and sporting events.

For more emotional and relatable marketing that celebrates family and togetherness, Xfinity activated with “Hooking Up Grandma’s House” for the holidays last year, which put the spotlight on families that miss their favorite technologies while visiting their grandparents during the holiday season.

AListDaily sat down with Peter Intermaggio, senior vice president of brand marketing and communications for Comcast, to discuss how the Philadelphia-based subsidiary is positioning the brand with marketing across a variety of different verticals.

What is the company’s mission in the space in reaching new consumers? Why do you think Xfinity is emerging as a household brand?

We operate in an exceptional marketspace that really matters to people—at the intersection of technology, entertainment and media. Over the last few years, we’ve worked hard to position Xfinity as a technology and lifestyle brand by highlighting industry-leading products, authentically connecting the Xfinity brand with popular culture, and deploying aggressive customer acquisition campaigns. Meanwhile, our category is intensely competitive, with a mix of traditional distributors and new entrants. And still, this year Xfinity debuted at No. 23 on the BrandZTM global top 100 only seven years after the brand was launched.

What categories are you emphasizing on?

I look to the work we’re doing with music tour sponsorships (Taylor Swift and Katy Perry), with award show programming (The Oscars, Country Music Awards and Billboard Awards), in sports partnerships (NASCAR Xfinity Series sponsorship along with NFL, NBA and MLB sponsorships), and our investment in esports, including sponsorship of the ESL gaming league and the Evil Geniuses esports team. These are all examples of how we are reaching audiences and building the Xfinity brand.

Why is a presence in eSports critical for the brand?

Gamers are classic “heavy users.” They’re among the most demanding internet users, so we’re using our esports presence to highlight our industry-leading internet speed and reliability. We’re sponsoring ESL, the world’s largest eSports company, and Evil Geniuses, the most successful North American professional gaming organization. We’re just entering our second year with both ESL and Evil Geniuses, and through these partnerships, we’ve opened up two Xfinity training facilities for Evil Geniuses—one in Alameda, California and another in Bloomington, Illinois. Both facilities are serviced by Xfinity gigabit internet speeds, the fastest available in the area. As an official ESL partner, Xfinity naming and branding is present at industry broadcasts, tournaments and events. We’re also working with the ESL to create and distribute unique content, as the eSports market has clearly shown a strong desire for behind-the-scenes access.

Considering you are a Comcast-owned brand, how are you influencing overall industries and trends for marketers?

We market through the funnel effectively by aligning brand and product features with hardworking, every day “always-on” acquisition campaigns on TV, in digital and in direct mail. Our ability to work within our company with the marketers and brands of NBC Universal is a particular advantage. This year, we produced a small film which highlighted Xfinity Internet speeds by featuring a wild ride in the cars from the movie The Fate of the Furious. We got 34 million views and incredible engagement levels. We also worked with virtually every network and property of NBC Universal to promote our X1 Voice Remote and got outstanding results. Outside of NBC Universal, we’ve partnered with a number of music award shows to highlight the X1 Voice Remote’s capabilities. This has included in-show integrations like using our voice remote to announce award nominees.

What was the mission behind your experiential activation at San Diego Comic-Con with the themed TV diner last month? Is experiential something you want to explore further?

If you want to have a lifestyle brand, you have to go where people are engaging with entertainment. At Comic-Con, we recreated sets from Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black and Marvel’s Luke Cage so fans could immerse themselves in the settings of these popular shows while enjoying some food made famous by the programs themselves. We had thousands of people come through our space and have fun with their favorite shows and with our brand. It was a great way to highlight our recent Netflix integration and to celebrate the new season of Game of Thrones.

Peter Intermaggio, senior vice president of brand marketing and communications for Comcast

How are you offsetting challenges from new competitors?

Our products and our marketing are truly insight-led. These innovations allow us to strengthen the Xfinity brand and separate ourselves from the competitors. We’ve really put an emphasis on product experience as a differentiator. For example, Xfinity X1 has changed the way people enjoy television. Our X1 Voice Remote provides dozens of moments of “surprise and delight” for customers every day. Our recently launched Xfinity xFi internet platform gives customers visibility and control over one of the most important technologies in their home—wi-fi.

How is the Xfinity X1 platform being positioned to capture market share through innovation in entertainment programming?

Xfinity X1 is at the center of our video strategy and scores well on every metric—customer satisfaction, video consumption and retention, among others. It’s an easy-to-use platform that puts all of your entertainment experiences in one place—live TV, 130,000 Xfinity On Demand choices, DVR, Netflix and web video—and it’s controlled by the X1 Voice Remote, which makes finding what you want to watch fast, simple and fun. We’re really proud of the way we’re showcasing these innovations. Every day we’re finding new ways to highlight our brand and product story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sladeQUjR5Q&index=18&list=PLD351AF0C54E8E7A5

KFC’s Edgy Marketing Wins Millennial Trust

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If your kind of marketing is finger lickin’ cray-cray, then Kentucky Fried Chicken has your back. From chicken-scented sunblock to sandwiches from outer space, KFC has taken its world famous buckets of chicken on a marketing crusade to win the hearts—and affection—of millennials.

“We’ve learned that we need to extend our brand positioning beyond traditional advertising to really break through and make a dent in pop culture,” George Felix, KFC’S director of advertising, told AListDaily. “Our tongue-in-cheek humor and over-the-top selling is something that has been working well for us since many millennials distrust advertising to begin with. Instead of running away from that, we run right toward it. We believe that our ability to poke fun at the conventions of typical advertising has given us credibility with millennials. We know the new brand positioning and advertising have put KFC back on the map.”

Love it or hate it, KFC’s zany marketing stunts are, at the very least, consistent.

Colonel Sanders is portrayed by a revolving list of actors and comedians like Billy Zane, Rob Lowe, Jim Gaffigan, Rob Riggle and Norm Macdonald. The restaurant even used old footage of the real Colonel Harland David Sanders to poke fun of its new portrayals of the icon, as well as make goth kids happy. The brand is continually topping itself with outrageous campaigns that include a Mother’s Day romance novel, a WWE “Sandoslam” activation, sending a chicken sandwich into the stratosphere and even a line of merchandise with the slogan, “Dance like no one’s watching. Sing like no one’s listening. Dress like you haven’t eaten lunch yet.”

On Fried Chicken Day (July 6), select restaurants were outfitted with a robotic Colonel Sanders in the drive-thru. H.A.R.L.A.N.D. (Human Assisted Robotic Linguistic Animatronic Networked Device) repeated whatever the drive-thru operator said, but in the Colonel’s classic Southern accent.

The Colonel also joined forces with DC comics for an exclusive comic book available to fans at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. KFC #3: Across the Universe sends Colonel Sanders and The Green Lantern on the hunt for an intergalactic chicken thief.

The famous fried chicken has been creative in other parts of the world, as well. For Canada’s 150th birthday, the restaurant changed its name to K’ehFC for the summer. This celebratory name was reflected on special bucket packaging and at the first Canadian KFC, approved by Colonel Sanders himself in 1955. In China, KFC celebrated 30 years in the country by partnering with Huawei to release a limited-edition branded cellphone. The device comes pre-loaded with KFC’s Chinese app that allows the customer to place orders and even pick songs they want to hear inside a KFC restaurant.

In June, the company just completed their eleventh-consecutive quarter of same store sales growth. They’ve also seen 45 percent increase in brand consideration among millennials over the last two years.

“No brand can be everything to everybody,” Felix said.

But as KFC found out, sometimes weird and whacky just works.

Nielsen Esports Explains How Standard Metrics Are Essential For Brands And Players

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It’s official—the esports industry has grown so big and has so many components that Nielsen created an entirely new business vertical to track it. Nielsen Esports will provide sponsorship valuation, fan insights, custom industry research and consulting services for those venturing into the $892 million industry.

Nielsen has been tracking esports for years from viewership to ad spend, and it even created Esport24, a syndicated sponsorship tracking service for tournaments. Findings from Esport24 data include how the playoff rounds of major 2017 esports tournaments to date have yielded anywhere from $75,000 to nearly $17 million in sponsorship value. The company says numbers like this emphasize the need for standard metrics to help industry players understand the value they are providing, receiving or missing out on.

“Non-endemic brands—and their investment decisions—were a big reason we felt there was an opportunity for Nielsen Esports to play a role in the industry,” Nicole Pike, vice president of Nielsen Games and global research and project lead for Nielsen Esports told AlistDaily. “Nielsen will bring these brands an unbiased view of esports, both in terms of the opportunity it presents but also the questions they should consider before jumping into the space. Esports has come too far for a desire to reach millennial males to be the only deciding factor for brands—it’s a nuanced industry, and we want to help brands understand and navigate that nuance.

“[Additionally], our valuation data will allow these brands to build a sound case when or if they do decide to invest in esports—and to set proper expectations for the value they will receive,” Pike added. “Not only this, but they will also be able to compare and contextualize this value relative to other sponsorship activations across other forms of entertainment to help optimize their entire sponsorship portfolio.”

Tracking esports data such as viewership and money spent is not only helpful to investors, but also to the professional players. A lack of transparency in the industry makes it difficult for players to gauge how much they should be paid based on audience draw and performance.

“Team and player sponsorship is a significant opportunity within the esports space,” says Pike. “To date, the lack of credible standards around sponsorship valuation in esports has made many brands hesitant to jump into esports sponsorship. By providing clarity around the value of brand activations, Nielsen Esports’ goal is to empower our clients to make sound investments in this space, which will in turn support esports teams and players. Furthermore, our ability to consult around sponsorship strategy can help esports teams determine how to develop an effective, authentic relationship between a team sponsor and its players.”

Competitive gaming exists across different platforms, from mobile and local events to massive, international tournaments, and Nielsen Esports will be tracking them.

“One of the exciting things about esports is how an amateur, everyday fan can interact and compete in the same way their favorite professional is able to—there is an accessibility to esports that is hard to rival,” said Pike. “Our fan insights data explores both the professional and casual/amateur side of esports—and importantly, the interplay between the two. And certainly, as amateur esports events continue to expand, more sponsorship opportunities outside of the professional realm will present themselves—which Nielsen will be well-positioned to value.”

Def Jam, Daimler, Conagra And Credible Expand With New Leadership

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Def Jam Recordings has brought on Scott Greer as executive vice president of marketing and commerce, where he will lead the company’s marketing, branding and creative content initiatives.

“Now more than ever, we are seeing the global reach of that culture, and Def Jam is rightfully at its center,” Greer said. “Authenticity and cutting-edge artistry have always been at the core of Def Jam’s spirit, and its incredible roster includes some of the most influential voices and exciting new trailblazers in music today.”

Greer joins the label after a six-year tenure as senior vice president of marketing for Columbia Records, where he worked on campaigns for Adele, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Lil Yachty and many others.

Manufacturer Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) is promoting David Giroux internally to the newly created position of director of channel marketing. Giroux will head communication and strategy for DTNA’s Detroit and Freightliner brands. Filling the now-vacant position of director of public relations and corporate communications is Katja Bott.

“David’s accomplishments for DTNA are tremendous. For over six years, he and his team have ensured industry leading communications. We are grateful that he will continue to push communications for DTNA in this new critical role for the company,” said Roger Nielsen, president and CEO of DTNA. “We welcome Katja to the DTNA family. With her breadth and depth of public relations and leadership experience, she will continue leading communications in our industry.”

Giroux was DTNA’s director of communication for seven years, and Bott has served at the Daimler Goup for 14 years.

Packaged foods conglomerate Conagra Brands is bringing on DeLu Jackson to fill the new role of vice president of precision marketing. He will oversee transition to a more personalized consumer marketing approach using data-driven activations.

“DeLu has achieved incredible results as an integrated marketing leader and he will play a vital role in transforming our marketing function so that our brands are reaching consumers in the ways their connectivity and lifestyles dictate,” said Darren Serrao, executive vice president and chief growth officer. “As we focus on growing our brands and business, DeLu will help accelerate our progress by partnering with our teams involved with insights, innovation and marketing strategies to create breakthrough programs.”

Jackson most recently was vice president of digital acceleration for Kellogg Company, and before that was corporate vice president of global marketing at McDonald’s Corporation.

“Conagra Brands is transforming into a more contemporary company and with that comes opportunities to deploy more innovative marketing strategies for its brands,” Jackson said. “I’m looking forward to digging in and helping the team drive results and having a positive impact on Conagra’s growth objectives.”

Personal loan marketplace Credible.com has hired its first chief marketing officer Alan Gellman.

He will focus on building word-of-mouth marketing among consumers and stimulating further company growth.

“Credible has established that our core values of transparency, simplicity and choice are widely appreciated by millennials,” said Credible founder and CEO Stephen Dash. “We’re excited to welcome Alan to our team—we share a vision for doing the right thing by consumers, and Alan’s experience is both significant and highly relevant.”

Gellman previously held the position of CMO at online-centric insurance agency Esurance, where he was named one of the 50 most innovative CMOs in the world by Business Insider.

“Credible’s mission of helping consumers make smarter financial decisions is enormously appealing to me, and the opportunities for scaling the company’s business are exciting,” Gellman said. “The disruptive approach to student lending—where Credible provides clear choices and active guidance— has tremendous potential to extend to other financial services categories.”

Meelad Sadat is joining video game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment as director of global corporate communications. Sadat is jumping ship from virtual reality headset manufacturer HTC, where he was director of public relations for the Vive. Sadat previously served as the Ayzenberg Group’s communication’s director as well.

T-Mobile has promoted Andrew Sherrard to the newly created position of executive vice president and chief commercial officer. Sherrard, previously the brand’s CMO, will lead all offer and operations strategies for the company.

President Donald Trump has dissolved the economic advisory and manufacturing councils after numerous executives from brands like Under Armour and Intel resigned in protest of his remarks regarding the events in Charlottesville, Virginia this week.

Members of the two councils held leadership positions in firms such as JPMorgan Chase, IBM, Campbell Soup Co. and PepsiCo.

Angela Courtin has signed on to YouTube as global head of YouTube TV and originals marketing, joining recent hire Jon Wax (head of drama) and promotee Dustin Davis (head of comedy development).

Previously, Courtin worked at Fox Broadcasting as chief marketing officer, where she oversaw brand strategy and both on- and off-air promotion.

Mike Connolly has been hired by internet radio giant SiriusXM as their latest head of ad sales, where he will oversee attempts to grow revenue across the full lineup of SiriusXM channels.

“Mike is a proven ad industry executive and we are excited to have him lead SiriusXM’s ad sales team and continue its strong sustained growth,” said Scott Greenstein, president and chief content officer. “Mike’s extensive experience in audio entertainment will be of crucial importance to SiriusXM as our programming depth and variety expand and the national audience of subscribers and listeners continues to rise.”

Connolly joins SiriusXM from his previous position as vice president of advertising and affiliate sales for ESPN Audio Network.

“I’ve been a longtime listener of SiriusXM content and have always been a huge fan,” said Connolly. “A vast majority of my career has been in radio sales, so the opportunity to lead the sales effort at SiriusXM is a dream come true.”

Monumental Sports and Entertainment (MSE), owners of the Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics, have recruited Grant Paranjape as director of esports business and team operations. He will oversee their investment in Team Liquid, which recently won the Dota 2 tournament.

“We see esports as the next great frontier in sports and entertainment, and a crucial part of our larger strategic efforts to engage younger fans,” said Zach Leonsis, senior vice president and general manager. “In addition to launching two AFL teams, we are relentlessly building our esports business to meet this young, voraciously growing audience where they are—on digital and over-the-top platforms.”

Paranjape is joining Monumental from a previous position as business development lead at Splyce, where he contributed to improvements to their League of Legends team.

“MSE has been a visionary in working to develop a robust esports operation and I’m looking forward to working with the team here to further expand our esports practice,” Paranjape said. “With a history of innovation and technological experience, MSE’s focus on esports will allow our team to provide fans with industry leading content and an exceptional viewing experience.”

Kid’s media brand pocket.watch is bringing aboard Stone Newman as chief revenue officer, where he will oversee sponsorship and merchandising of the brand’s affiliated YouTube channels.

“Stone is what I would call a mythical CRO, an executive who can do it all from merchandising, to content sales, to cultivating sponsorship opportunities,” said Chris M. Williams, founder and CEO of pocket.watch. “He combines the right mix of big company experience, with a roll up your sleeves startup attitude, to help us achieve our goals during this explosive stage in our business.”

Newman joins pocket.watch from his previous role as president of global products licensing for Genius Brands International, where he negotiated the company’s first content sales to Nickelodeon and Netflix and secured a worldwide toy deal with Mattel.

“From the moment I was introduced to pocket.watch, I knew it was going to be a revolutionary business,” said Newman. “I never thought I’d say this, but being a father of toddler twin girls and a seven year old son, I can’t wait to bring my new work home to my kids.”

Music lifestyle company Gibson Brands has appointed its first global brand ambassador in Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash. In the role, Slash will develop new products and provide exclusive content to the brand.

“We are thrilled to recognize Slash as Gibson’s first Global Brand Ambassador,” said Henry Juszkiewicz, chairman and CEO of Gibson Brands. “Slash embodies the characteristics of creativity, passion and excellence that are so closely aligned with Gibson and we are very proud of the friendship and mutual success we have shared together for over 30 years.”

Slash has used Gibson guitars throughout his 30-year rock career en route to selling 30 million albums.

“It’s an honor to be Gibson’s first Global Brand Ambassador,” said Slash. “I’ve been working with Gibson since the early days of my professional career and playing Gibson guitars since before that. I’m proud of the creative relationship we’ve developed over the years.”

The LEGO Group has appointed Niels B. Christiansen as CEO.

“Niels is a great leader who delivered outstanding results while CEO of Danfoss,” said Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, executive chairman of LEGO Brand Group. “His experience in digitalization and globalization, implementing a transformative strategy and creating an agile, high performing, international team will benefit the LEGO Group.”

Christiansen will be replacing Bali Padda, who will stay on in an advisory role once Christiansen joins the company in October. Christiansen comes off of a nine-year tenure as CEO of industrial technology company Danfoss, during which time the company doubled in value.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to join an organization as iconic and purpose-driven as the LEGO Group,” said Christiansen. “I have loved building with LEGO bricks since I was a child. As I look at the challenges facing this generation of children, the group’s mission, to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow, is more important and urgent than ever.”

Netflix announced a multiyear television deal with writer and producer Shonda Rhimes and her production company Shondaland. She, along with her longtime partner and producer Betsy Beers will develop a new series exclusive to the streaming platform. This announcement comes on the heels of the news of Disney moving several of its properties off of Netflix to a planned proprietary streaming service, and is sure to shore up any concerns about new content available to subscribers. The streaming giant has also been steadily growing more autonomous of late, partnering less with studio producers and offering showrunners more control over their projects than at larger media conglomerates.

Rhimes’ current shows Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder will continue to air on ABC.

“Shonda is one of the greatest storytellers in the history of television,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer. “Her work is gripping, inventive, pulse-pounding, heart-stopping, taboo-breaking television at its best. I’ve gotten the chance to know Shonda and she’s a true Netflixer at heart—she loves TV and films, she cares passionately about her work and she delivers for her audience.”

Rhimes has led her company Shondaland for 12 years, starting with Grey’s Anatomy in 2005 and continuing on to produce six more shows, of which four are still on the air.

“Shondaland’s move to Netflix is the result of a shared plan Ted and I built based on my vision for myself as a storyteller and for the evolution of my company,” said Rhimes. “He understood what I was looking for—the opportunity to build a vibrant new storytelling home for writers with the unique creative freedom and instantaneous global reach provided by Netflix’s singular sense of innovation.”

(Editor’s Note: This post will be updated daily until Friday, August 18. Have a new hire tip? Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.)

Job Vacancies 

Sr. Brand Manager Trion Worlds Redwood City, CA
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VP, Brand Marketing TOMS Los Angeles, CA
Director, Marketing Sony Music Entertainment New York, NY
Director, Brand Management Warner Music Group Nashville, TN
Director, Strategic Partnership Marketing NBC Universal Universal City, CA
Director, Talent Strategy & Influencer Marketing Disney Glendale, CA

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TAG Is Designed To Back Brands And Fight Bots In Ad Ecosystem

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The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) white lists companies as legitimate sources for digital ad impressions, and business for this certification is booming.

Why? Because marketers lose around $7.2 billion per year to ad fraud, piracy and malware—and they’ve had enough.

Founded by the ANA, 4A’s and IAB, TAG offers marketers a way of verifying companies as legitimate members of the digital advertising industry. After a proprietary background check and review process powered by Dun & Bradstreet and subsequent approval by TAG, companies can be verified by name or by their unique, persistent TAG-IDs in a database.

The process is tedious and expensive—with an annual fee of $10,000—but the initiative is designed to promote transparency while hitting criminals where they hurt the most—their money.

“We obviously need to get a step ahead of the criminals—and then try to remain a step or two ahead,” TAG CEO Mike Zaneis told Ad Exchanger. “But there will always be dark corners of the ecosystem where unscrupulous actors will continue to operate. The key is making sure that the smart money doesn’t go there.”

A program called Methbot, for example, siphons between $3-to-$5 million in video ad revenue from premium publishers every day by posing as sites like ESPN, Vogue and Fortune. Once marketers pay for ads, the bot creates fake impressions and hikes up the price of CPMs.

“We can’t deal with this shit anymore,” IAB president and CEO Randall Rothenberg told Ad Age. “This is serious.” Beginning next June, IAB is requiring all its members to be TAG registered.

TAG announced that more than 350 companies have applied for TAG Registration, an increase of more than 75 percent in the last three months. Applicants represent 26 countries on six continents, the group said in a blog post on Monday. The growth has been so great, in fact, that the company has taken on new hires, including Michael Hahn as general counsel—who was recently brought on by IAB in the same role.

The sudden increase in TAG registration displays a united front against ad fraud, but also a response to pressure from IAB and Proctor & Gamble.

P&G, who spent $7.2 billion on advertising last year, drew a line in the sand this past January when its chief brand officer, Marc Pritchard, announced it would no longer buy media from companies who aren’t TAG registered.

“We’ve been giving a pass to the new media in the spirit of learning,” Pritchard said during the IAB’s annual leadership meeting. “We’ve come to our senses. We realize there is no sustainable advantage in a complicated, nontransparent, inefficient and fraudulent media supply chain.”

‘Steven Universe’ Jumps From Mobile To Consoles

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Created by Rebecca Sugar, Steven Universe is a popular animated series on Cartoon Network. The show involves a boy named Steven Universe, who lives in the fictional town of Beach City alongside three humanoid magical aliens who are collectively referred to as Crystal Gems. Steven himself is half-Gem, and episodes focus on his adventures as he teams up with friends to protect Beach City from malevolent Gems.

The whimsical show was made into the mobile game Steven Universe: Attack the Light in 2015, where players controlled Steven and his friends as they traveled the world and battled a variety of enemies in order to retrieve prism weapons. The game released to high critical acclaim, earning a 91 score on Metacritic. Now Cartoon Network and Steven Universe are out to take on the console gaming world.

In an unusual move, Cartoon Network decided to release Steven Universe: Save the Light, a direct sequel to Attack the Light, as a console exclusive instead of starting a new spin-off series. Releasing this fall for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the game will be the second self-published console game from Cartoon Network (the other being OK K.O.: Let’s Play Heroes), and it continues Steven’s adventures as he and his friends seek to retrieve a prism weapon that was stolen in the previous game.

“We got such a strong response from the mobile game that people wanted it on console, but we made it specifically for mobile devices,” Zachary Moore, producer for Cartoon Network Games, told AListDaily. “When we went to make something new, we wanted to go bigger—and if you want to go bigger, you’ve got to go console. We wanted to explore the horsepower of a console and the longer play times of a console to tell more of a story that we couldn’t on mobile.”

Moore confirmed that Save the Light will have deep ties with the show.

“We work with the show team on basically every aspect of it [for] the dialogue and overall story,” he said. “If you’re a fan, you’re going to see some references that you might recognize from the series.”

A cinematic intro will get new players up to speed by explaining the basics of the Steven Universe show and what happened in the previous game. Moore is confident that players who are unfamiliar with the TV series and mobile game will still be interested in the console release.

“Honestly, it’s just a fun role playing game (RPG),” he said. “Anyone who is into this type of RPG can enjoy it. There’s no need to know every little detail about it, but fans will get a little more out of it.”

In Save the Light, players can interact with characters from the show in numerous ways, especially through combat, as players control characters using their signature weapons from the TV series. Outside of combat, the characters can talk to each other, and Steven has dialogue choice moments to direct the story.

But beyond interacting with the characters in the game, Moore doubts that there will be much cross promotion between the TV show and the game. Instead, the developers are treating Save the Light as its own semi-separate universe.

“It’s going to come down to episodes airing around the same time as the game [launches]. There are going to be little touch points between them, but it’s not heavily tied into a show storyline per se. Rebecca has been gracious enough to give us our own story universe to play in within hers. It’s really its own separate storyline—like the adventures that you don’t see in the show are being played out in this game.”

Similarly, Moore admits that there probably won’t be any updates to the mobile game to help drive attention to the console sequel, largely because the mobile game exists on its own. He described Attack the Light as a self-contained experience, and the console game is simply a continuation.

Moore suggested that Save the Light does promote the mobile game by virtue of being a sequel. “If you missed the first game, now is a good time to catch up on it to make sure you’re prepared for this console game.”

At the same time, Moore hopes that the console launch will encourage the mobile game audience to migrate over to consoles.

“People who have mobile devices and consoles—if they enjoyed the last game, I think they’ll really enjoy what we have for them,” said Moore. “It’s basically everything about that game, but even better.”

Moore also shared his thoughts about how the Steven Universe brand has inspired such a dedicated fan base.

“I think the essence of Steven Universe comes down to the teamwork, caring for each other, and supporting one another—that’s such a tenet of the show—and being tolerant and respectful of each other. That’s a strong point. You’re better off when you’re working together and being a team.”

stevonnie character intro