5 things you need to know this week

1. Comparethemarket is filling the gap left by Orange Wednesdays

Price comparison site Comparethemarket.com confirmed it will offer customers 2-for-1 cinema tickets on Tuesdays or Wednesdays with its “Meerkat Movies” scheme, named after the brand’s character.

The offer will launch on 3 April for a year, and will apply to anyone who buys a “qualifying” product or service through the site. Consumers will have to download the brand’s app to take advantage of the offer.

Meanwhile, EE, who dropped “Orange Wednesdays” after 10 years, launched its new promotional offer, “Film Club”, earlier this week, a partnership with video streaming service Wuaki.tv which offers one movie per week for £1.

2. American Apparel is in trouble again

American Apparel was branded “irresponsible” by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after one of its online ads was banned for using a female model, perceived to be a child and under 16 years of age, in overly sexual poses with her buttocks exposed.

The ad received one complaint, which was upheld by the ASA so said: “We considered the model to have a youthful appearance and that consumers would likely regard her as being younger than 16 years. In conjunction with the youthful appearance of the model, we considered the ad could be seen to sexualise a child and was irresponsible, and likely to cause offence to readers.”

This isn’t the first time the high street brand has been in hot water with the ASA- it’s “back to school” adverts last September were banned for “inappropriately sexualising girls and potentially normalising predatory sexual behaviour towards teenagers”.

3. Mums want to see their role in ads as emotional rather than functional

New research from Mumsnet shows that brands should focus less on the stresses and responsibilities of motherhood in advertising and more on the emotional aspects.

Mums see motherhood as a relationship rather than a job, according to the research commissioned by Mumsnet and conducted by Saatchi & Saatchi, which shows that over half (55%) of respondents don’t believe brands understand their desires as a parent.

“Women don’t transform into hygiene-obsessed drudges the moment they give birth,” says Justine Roberts, chief executive officer at Mumsnet. “Brands are rightly happy to portray dads being spontaneous, individual and expressing their joy in their families but they seem to struggle to do the same for mums, which feels like a missed opportunity.”

4. The WFA has released the 7 brand actions that are most likely to annoy consumers

Research from We Are Social commissioned by the WFA, based on an analysis of 670,000 Twitter mentions across 6 months between August 2014 and February 2015, shows that 7 brand actions lead to the greatest negativity from users.

The “7 sins of brand marketing” are Ad Malaise, Interruption, Incongruity, Deception, Overkill, Getting Personal, and Lack of Quality.

5. Facebook is targeting expats worldwide

Facebook announced on its blog this week that it has launched a new product that lets marketers target 92 million expats around the world.

Marketers will be able to communicate with expats within any given country – for example, expats living in Brazil or those who originate from a specific country and now live abroad.

Etihad Airways was the first brand to trial the new service, with Facebook claiming that the airline’s campaign has reached 536,000 expats living in the Middle East, leading to 700 bookings and a 50x return on investment.