From Morning Filter (Feb. 25, 2014), Marketing‘s daily morning newsletter
Strange vintage endorsements
Collectors Weekly has rounded up 28 of the oddest choices for celebrity endorsements. Among the riches: Mark Twain for Campbell’s, Charles Darwin for the British Overseas Airway Corporation, Groucho Marx for Frosted Flakes and Sonny and Cher for… The Bible. Actually!
[Read more via Collectors Weekly]
Whatsapp to offer voice, service goes down
Telcos, watch out. Following the news last week that it has been acquired by Facebook, Whatsapp announced plans to offer free voice calls at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. According to CEO Jan Koum, Whatsapp will debut voice calls in the second quarter of this year. But it’s not all good news at Whatsapp HQ, though: the service faced a two-hour outage last Friday, likely due to a large number of people downloading the service after reading the Facebook news.
[Read more via Canada.com]
The man behind Microsoft today
That pressure on Satya Nadella’s shoulders? It’s the weight of Microsoft’s future. As the new CEO of the company, he’s only the third executive to lead the charge there in nearly 40 years. You’ve heard the details about his professional past (he’s been with Microsoft for more than 20 years, recently focused on cloud computing initiatives), but do you know what makes him tick? Find out about the advice Nadella got from outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer about staying grounded, how cricket taught him about confidence and how he plans to reshape Microsoft’s culture.
[Read more via The New York Times]
Can Carlsberg find a second flavorful success?
Carlsberg UK is introducing a Blackcurrent-flavoured beer in an attempt to reach younger drinkers. Carlsberg had success in the flavoured beer sub-category in 2013 with Carlsberg Citrus. The company is supporting the new launch with a £3 million ad campaign that will include print, digital and in-store activity.
[Read more via Marketing Week]
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