Stories by Rosalyn Page

Bega Cheese has expanded its product line-up and now moved into the honey aisle with the arrival of B honey, its 100 per cent Australian honey sourced directly from local beehives. And in the process, developed a high-tech bee hive to protect local honey bees.

Smart wearable devices, from smartwatches to health trackers, are giving brands interactive ways to communicate with customers and leading to new types of insights from real-time and location-based data. And with COVID-19, we could see new devices and services developing to address some of the emerging health and medical issues.

The shift towards online advertising will continue and it’s share of total media spend will accelerate with the COVID-19-related economic crisis, according to new research from the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) and Ipsos.

The FutureBrand Index 2020 has just been released, the first comprehensive global study into the perception of global brands since the outbreak of COVID-1. And the findings show well-perceived companies can consistently align the full picture of the experiences they create with their wider corporate purpose.

All the latest martech and adtech news this week from Kantar, Messenger, BigID, Tapad, Yotpo, CreatorIQ, IBM and Neustar

The adtech industry is responding favourably to efforts to provide alternative user identification data mechanisms to replace traditional cookie tracking. But several have warned privacy and security concerns remain a significant hurdle to adoption.

Virgin Australia will cut 3000 jobs, drop the Tiger brand and restructure as it begins the path out of voluntary administration under new owners, Bain Capital. The airline noted it will carry over all travel credits and Velocity frequent flyer points.

Andrew Birkic is now Ford Australia and New Zealand CEO, moving up from chief product marketer for Ford Ranger and Everest, reporting to Ford International Markets Group (IMG) president Mark Ovenden. Birkic has taken over the position from Kay Hart, who is moving to a European-based global role as enterprise product line manager for Ford Van and Bus.

The digital habits of consumers have skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic, although many still prefer to shop in-store, the latest Toluna COVID-19 Barometer has found.

Short-form video app Tik Tok is in line to be acquired by Microsoft in the US, with the computing giant saying it’s discussions are continuing. It comes after TikTok recently launched its marketing offering, encouraging brands not to make ads, but instead TikToks.

For Blooms The Chemist, the last few months have been an exercise in being up close to a health crisis and fulfilling a crucial role in ensuring the supply of medication to the Australian community during the coronavirus pandemic.

Personal safety and well-being support outfit, Sonder, recently debuted a new customer value proposition and core brand messaging with the aim of quickly and succinctly telling its brand story to executives, when time and attention is precious, and limited.

“It’s incredible valuable because there’s nothing that falls through the cracks.”

Joachim Holte has been appointed as the new chief marketing officer at Queensland-based insurer Youi, heading up its award-winning in-house marketing team.

All the latest martech and adtech news this week from Kantar, LiveChat, Shutterstock, Segment, ActiveCampaign, Criteo, Sitecore and Braze