CMO Today: L.A. Times’s New Era; CNN’s ‘Facts First’ Ad; John Hancock’s Apple Watch Push
CMO Today: L.A. Times’s New Era; CNN’s ‘Facts First’ Ad; John Hancock’s Apple Watch Push https://csuiteold.c-suitenetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/cmo-today-l-a-timess-new-era-cnns-facts-first-ad-john-hancocks-apple-watch-push.jpg 959 639 C-Suite Network https://csuiteold.c-suitenetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/cmo-today-l-a-timess-new-era-cnns-facts-first-ad-john-hancocks-apple-watch-push.jpg
Staffers at the Los Angeles Times are tired of cuts, tired of turnover and tired of being uncertain about where parent company Tronc plans to take the business. More change is coming, under new CEO Ross Levinsohn, the former Yahoo interim boss who joined the company in August. The Wall Street Journal outlines some of Mr. Levinsohn’s plans, including launching digital verticals focused on entertainment and culture, licensing the publisher’s intellectual property and using data to target potential digital subscribers. One of his first moves was to hire Forbes veteran Lewis D’Vorkin as the new editor in chief, which was to the chagrin of some staffers who are concerned he may bring in the business website’s in-your-face approach to advertising. One takeaway for marketers: the title now has a new group of lieutenants who are going out to market to reposition the Los Angeles Times as a key advertising destination.
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The Los Angeles Times’s publisher needs a boost badly.
News organizations are fighting back in the face of volleys from the White House and skeptical citizens belittling their output as “fake news.” CNN is making its position clear with a new brand campaign called “Facts First” that will initially run across networks operated by parent company Time Warner’s Turner, Variety reports. One of the first promos features an image of an apple on a white screen, while a narrator explains how people may try their darndest to convince you it’s a banana, but it’s still an apple. CNN’s CMO, Allison Gollust, said she hopes the new slogan will differentiate the network from its rivals Fox News and MSNBC: “They sometimes start with a point of view and go from there. We start with a fact.” The stark imagery and the clear nod to the fake news” insult is reminiscent of creative used by the New York Times with its “The Truth is Hard” Oscars spot and the closing frame of the Daily Telegraph’s recent “Words are powerful. Choose them well” ad.
The life insurance market isn’t the sexiest and it can be difficult to stand out. Marketing tends to…
