The 10 things in advertising you need to know today
1. Publicis Groupe has named its next CEO to succeed Maurice Levy. Arthur Sadoun, who currently leads Publicis' creative agencies, will take over as CEO of the group June 1.
2. Verizon is exploring a merger with Charter. The move would put the telecoms company in direct competition with AT&T to fight the cord-cutting trend.
3. Facebook will start pushing longer videos in the newsfeed. It's likely a bid to serve more mid-roll ads to users.
4. Snapchat is reportedly seeking $200 million in ad spend commitments from agencies. Here's how those deals actually work and what they would mean for its IPO.
5. Twitter could be looking to get rid of its Moments feature. The curated tweets feature will now be at the bottom of a new Explore tab and is a likely sign that the curated tweets feature will be phased out.
6. Google still won't explain how it will advertise on voice controlled gadgets. On Google's Q4 earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai said that voice-controlled interfaces will only be one way people interact with computers.
7. Yahoo execs may be looking to get fired. Employees of the company have a "double trigger" provision in their contracts giving them a large severance payout and large parts of their unvested stock if they get fired after the company gets acquired.
8. KFC unveiled another new Colonel Sanders mascot. The actor Billy Zane, known for his role in the movie "Titanic," appeared covered in gold in the advertising for the launch of the new Georgia Gold chicken.
9. A new ad for the Nintendo Switch console tries to persuade you to use it on the toilet. The ad from Nintendo Germany is meant to showcase its portability feature.
10. Google's mobile search and video ads boosted revenue in its latest quarter, but parent company Alphabet missed its profit targets. Spending in hardware and other businesses as well as a higher than expected tax rate affected the company's bottom line.