Equinox Pulled Its Edgy Ads – A Wise Move

Looking at the latest Equinox ads, you might think they are for shoes or lingerie. The glossy photos were taken by famous photographerTerry Richardson,and were supposed to promote high-end gym chain Equinox.

The ads should promote luxury fitness, which is ironic since none of the ultra-thin fashion models are doing any real athletic activity. Instead, the female models are draped around ultra-fit nude male ones. However the target audience consists of well-heeled professionals – in their 30s, 40s and 50s as well as baby boomers. It is therefore doubtful that the ads will appeal to them.

Equinox hired ad agencies Wieden+Kennedy New York and R/GA to go edgy. According to insiders, Equinox paid R/GA $8m to overhaul Equinox’s digital platform and blog,

It is not the first time that Equinox went for edgy marketing. It hired fashion photographers Steven Klein, Gilles Bensimon and Ellen von Unwerth for previous ad campaigns.

Due to public backlash, Equinox decided to pull the ads and go for a mainstream, sportier look. Equinox creative director Liz Nolantried to downplay the debacle by stating: “We worked with Terry Richardson for three extremely successful campaigns. The natural point has now come to explore a fresh direction, and we’re really excited to launch a provocative new brand campaign in January 2014.”

Photographer Richardson has since moved on and directed Miley Cyrus in her controversial “Wrecking Ball” music video.

McDonald’s Is Going to Replace Heinz Ketchup

A peeved McDonald’s is in the process of cancelling its 40-year old partnership with Heinz. The fast-food giant has approached Hunt’s and Del Monte to replace Heinz ketchup.

The move is the result of a management change at Heinz. In June 2013, Heinz appointed Bernardo Hees as its new CEO. Hees used to be the CEO of Burger King, one of McDonald’s main business rivals. The appointment is the result of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian 3G Capital taking over H.J. Heinz Co.

The switch will mainly impact McDonald’s 34,000 restaurants outside of the US. Only outlets in the Pittsburgh and Minneapolis areas serve Heinz ketchup; all other US-based restaurants use local suppliers.

McDonald’s went on record stating: "We value the relationship we’ve maintained with Heinz for more than 40 years. As a result of recent management changes at Heinz, we have decided to transition our business to other suppliers over time. We have spoken to Heinz and plan to work together to ensure a smooth and orderly transition of the McDonald’s restaurant business, and are confident that there will be no impact to our business, our customers and our great tasting food at McDonald’s."

Heinz (wisely) could not be reached for comment.

Consumers might not be pleased; Heinz fans believe it to be the best-tasting ketchup.

It’s not the first time that there is a discord between McDonald's and Heinz. John F. Love mentions in "McDonald's: Behind the Arches" that Heinz used to supply 90% of McDonald’s ketchup and pickles until it could not meet demand due to tomato shortage. McDonald’s promptly took its business elsewhere. But this time around, it’s far more personal...

How to Conduct Crisis Management When Your Company is the Victim of a Cyber Attack

It can happen to the best of companies – a cyber-attack. Cybercrime is booming and cyber crooks are fine-tuning their attacks. They are constantly developing sophisticated methods to get their hand on the financial details of customers.

Websites of banks, shopping sites, and online booking sites are popular cybercrime targets. But any website with a large database that contains login data and payment credentials of customers are targeted.

As an organization, once you know that you have been breached, how do you react? That’s when crisis management kicks in. Informing your customers that their details might have been exposed is painful, but necessary.

I recently got the following email. It’s the perfect example of how to conduct crisis management in case of a breach. (I removed the company’s details for obvious reasons).

Dear Valued Customer,

The privacy and security of our customers’ data are of the utmost importance to us, and we are writing to inform you of a recent incident affecting one of our databases.

We recently learned that this database, which primarily houses access credentials and business contact information for some of our customers, was compromised. We are conducting an extensive investigation and have notified appropriate law enforcement authorities. Based on our preliminary review, we believe that customer payment data were not compromised.
As a precautionary measure, we have implemented a mandatory reset of your password to protect your account. The next time you log in, you will be asked to input a new password. Acceptable passwords may not have been previously used, and must contain at least eight characters as well as at least three of the following:

• Lowercase characters
• Uppercase characters
• Numbers
• Punctuation
• Special characters (e.g., !#$@)

As a general practice, we recommend that you use strong passwords and regularly update them for all your websites that require login credentials.

We continue to refine our security approach in light of the ever-changing nature of security threats, and to implement security enhancements and additional protocols to help further protect user portals and customer and proprietary information.

There is nothing we value more than the trust and protection of our customers, and we will continue to work diligently to prevent these types of events from occurring in the future.

We sincerely regret any disruption that this incident may have caused you, and we will keep you appraised of any additional important information. Should you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

As you can see, this letter is the perfect example of how to react in case of such a security breach:

1. State the facts
2. Explain the scope and impact of the incident
3. Inform about the steps you are taking
4. Apologize
5. Be available for questions and reactions

Curapipe Demonstrates a New Category of Leakage Repair at WATEC 2013 in Hall 11A, Booth 15

Curapipe shows its Trenchless Automated Leakage Repair (TALR) Solution – a low-cost alternative for water mains renewal

Curapipe System Ltd, a pioneering provider of an innovative breakthrough leak curing solution for water pipes, today announced that it will show case its Trenchless Automated Leakage Repair (TALR) solution at WATEC 2013, 22 – 24 October 2013 at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Center in Hall 11A, Booth 15.

Curapipe’s Trenchless Automated Leakage Repair (TALR) repairs leaky holes and cracks in urban water pipes that normally remain undetected by existing detection technologies.

“By introducing the TALR solution, Curapipe has launched a new category of leakage repair, thus filling an important gap in the market,” explained Peter Paz, co-CEO of Curapipe.

“Current detection and monitoring solutions ensure maintaining leakage levels but not sustainably reducing them. With the current economic and environmental needs for bulk reduction of water leakage, governmental agencies, water utilities and operators are looking for a “detect & in situ repair” solution for reducing leakage levels,” he continued.

“With TALR, there is now a breakthrough leakage repair technology available that the industry has been waiting for.”

Curapipe’s Trenchless Automated Leakage Repair (TALR) solution offers water utilities the following benefits:

• Trenchless (no digging) enables no / low social and environmental disruption 
• Automated detection, sealing and curing of leaks 
• Low-cost alternative compared to pipeline replacement or renewal 
• Rapid deployment since TALR is much faster than replacement or renewal 

About Curapipe
Established in 2007, Curapipe System Ltd. is a pioneering provider of an innovative breakthrough leak curing solution for buried pipelines. Curapipe addresses the need of urban water utilities by repairing leaks and cracks in their mains and service connections that normally remain undetected. The solution is the result of many years of development by a team of highly skilled and experienced PhD technologists in the fields of hydraulics, materials and pipelining. Curapipe is working with several water utilities to commercially deploy its TALR solution at various global locations.

Under the framework of the European Eco-Innovation program, Curapipe is executing the LEAKCURE project aimed at market uptake of a method of repairing leakages in distribution water pipes applying trenchless technology.

For more information, visit the corporate website at www.curapipe.com

Media Contact:

Debra De-Jong, Marcom
T/F: +972 (0)8 675 1766
E: Debra @ curapipe.com