The Best Marketing Stories of the Week, Oct. 28

Welcome to the first edition of the Marketing News Weekly Roundup! This week we’re highlighting the spooky-scary: Doesn’t it feel like somebody’s watching you? (If you’re using streaming devices, they are.)

Twitter to Ban All Political Ads Ahead of 2020 Election

After all the brouhaha over Facebook’s unwillingness to ban politicians from posting false claims on its site, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced Wednesday that the company will not allow any political ads on its platform. The company’s CFO Ned Segal said on an earnings call last week that Twitter made less than $3 million from political ads around the 2018 election. “While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions,” Dorsey tweeted.

We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…🧵
— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019

Streaming Services Collecting Data, Regardless of Limit Options

Recent research from Princeton University and the University of Chicago found that even when users of streaming services attempt to shield their information their data is still sometimes tracked without permission and shared with brands. The study found Roku sent information to more trackers when the “limit ad tracking” function was enabled than when it was turned off. The researchers also found that choosing “disable interest ads” on the Amazon Fire TV Stick made little difference in the number of device serial numbers and other identifiers that were sent to trackers.

Software Tracking High School Students’ Whereabouts Raises Concerns

E-Hallpass is the latest software to join the dubious list of technology raising eyebrows over data privacy concerns. At Heritage High School in Loudoun County, Va., for instance, E-Hallpass is used to collect data on students’ comings and goings on school grounds, whether it’s trips to the bathroom, nurse’s office or the principal. E-Hallpass, in addition to other apps such as Google’s G Suite for Education and ClassDojo, claim that student data isn’t shared with third-party advertisers, but families are still left to sift through endless privacy agreements, policies and federal regulations to understand how data is being used.

Title of CMO on the Decline

New data shows that the title of CMO is slowly being phased out of big corporations, but this shift can signal good news for marketing efforts. Experts argue that distributing the responsibilities of a CMO across multiple departments results in a larger focus on marketing across the board, which aligns the entire company towards a streamlined customer and brand experience. Alternate titles, such as chief experience officer or chief growth officer, are less ambiguous and therefore integrate more easily into larger business strategy.

Hasbro’s First-Ever CXO Leaves Company

After only six months, Jamie Gutfreund, Hasbro’s first ever chief customer experience officer (CXO), is leaving the company. Prior to Hasbro, Gutfreund served as the CMO of Wunderman Thompson, where she worked to establish the company as a global brand after the merger of Wunderman and J. Walter Thompson. It’s unclear where Gutfreund will land, as the company announced that she left to “pursue other opportunities.” The fate of the CXO role is also uncertain, even though the job shared many duties that would typically be folded into a CMO position.