With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• Digital Signage Today reports that "Amazon's growing advertising wing has added a focus on grocery and consumer packaged brands, announcing a variety of expanded options for programmatic advertising in its brick and mortar Amazon Fresh stores during the annual Amazon unBoxed conference … Amazon DSP, the company's proprietary demand side platform, will incorporate omnichannel metrics for grocery and CPG advertising, and Amazon reports positive results of its preliminary testing such as a 40% increase in sales for select products from Kraft Heinz CPG brands."
"Now you'll be able to understand how your ads impact purchases of your products at other stores and outlets," Paula Despins, vice president of ads measurement at Amazon, said in the report. "In addition, we will soon be offering you the capability to automate budget optimization for the total impact of your campaign, inclusive of both the online and offline sales."
• ReposiTrak, a provider of supply chain, food safety and supplier management technology solutions, announced that it "is waiving the $2,000 setup fee for food suppliers connecting to the ReposiTrak Traceability Network," which is "the focus of the recently announced partnership with the National Grocers Association (NGA)," described as the "easiest way for suppliers and their wholesaler and retailer customers to share traceability data that will be required by a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule for high-risk foods, scheduled to be issued this month.
"The partnership brings traceability resources to NGA’s independent grocer and wholesaler members, who represent more than one-third of U.S. grocery retail sales. Complimentary access to the ReposiTrak Traceability Network provides food suppliers with the opportunity to become traceability ready at no cost, making traceability easier for them as well as their retailer/wholesaler customers."
Full disclosure: ReposiTrak has been a longtime and valued MNB sponsor.
• Amazon and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced that they "are launching a public-private partnership to address the gender inequities that exist for women in the climate finance ecosystem and to support female entrepreneurs with the resources they need to accelerate climate change innovations.
"Amazon will commit a total of $53 million to help accelerate women’s climate innovation, including $3 million toward the USAID partnership, and $50 million for Amazon to invest directly in climate tech companies run by women.
"Amazon will serve as a founding partner of USAID’s Climate Gender Equity Fund, a new climate finance facility designed to remove systemic market barriers that prevent women and girls from accessing climate finance. USAID will also match Amazon’s $3 million investment to help launch the fund.
"The Climate Gender Equity Fund will have a global focus and provide grants for businesses, NGOs, accelerators, incubators, and grassroots organizations working on women-led climate solutions. It also will fund efforts to help women access the networks and technical skills they need to accelerate the development of their climate change technologies."
• The Information reports that "Twitter employees will be notified by email by 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Friday whether they will be laid off, according to a communication sent out to all Twitter employees on Thursday evening. It was the first employee-wide communication since Elon Musk closed his takeover of the social network a week ago.
"In an unsigned email, Twitter wrote: 'In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.'
"All offices will be closed on Friday and badge access will be suspended, according to the email."
As many as 3,700 staffers, or half of Twitter's head count, could be laid off, reports say.
The move comes days after Musk, having just bought the company, fired the company's CEOP and three other top executives and said he was doing it "for cause," which could allow him to avoid more than $100 million in severance payments. (Expect that assertion to be challenged in court.)
NBC News reports this morning that "a lawsuit was filed against Twitter on Thursday alleging the social media company … violated federal and state law that requires 60 days' notice of mass layoffs, according to a court document.
"The suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco names five current or former workers as plaintiffs, one of whom was told he was terminated effective Tuesday, according to the lawsuit. It names Twitter as the defendant.
"Three other staff members have been locked out of their Twitter accounts as of Thursday with no formal notice of a layoff, which they interpret to mean they will lose their jobs, according to the lawsuit."
Ah, Elon Musk. Lots of class. All of it third.
