Chick-fil-A Inc. is being sued by two consumers who claim it uses hidden charges while promoting low delivery fees.

Chick-fil-A has declined to comment publicly about the class-action lawsuit, filed one month ago today in the Southern District of New York.

In the past few years, there has been no shortage of lawsuits against such third-party deliverers as DoorDash and Grubhub by municipalities and restaurants for a variety of alleged misbehavior.

In their lawsuit against Chick-fil-A, plaintiffs Aneisha Pittman and Susan Ukpere claim that the country’s third-largest fast-food chain has employed “deceptive and untruthful promises to provide a flat, low-price delivery fee on food deliveries” ordered through its app and website.

The low-price fees are “usually” in the amount of $2.99 or $3.99.

“On delivery orders only, Chick-fil-A secretly marks up food prices for delivery orders by a hefty 25%-30%,” the suit alleges.

“In other words, the identical order of a 30-count chicken nuggets costs approximately $5-$6 more when ordered for delivery than when ordered via the same mobile app for pickup, or when ordered in-store.”

As a result, “hundreds of thousands of Chick-fil-A customers like Plaintiffs have been assessed hidden delivery charges they did not bargain for.”

The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages and restitution, among other things.

Meanwhile, when Chick-fil-A believed it had been victimized by poultry producers, it went to court along with other fast-food chains.

In December of last year, Chick-fil-A joined with retailer Target Inc. in a lawsuit accusing more than a dozen companies—including Perdue Farms, Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms and Tyson Foods—of conspiring to rig poultry prices.

When Chick-fil-A was sued multiple times last year for the adverse effects of its vehicle-jammed, drive-thru lanes on nearby businesses in New Jersey, Ohio and Texas, the chain issued a statement saying it strives “to be a good neighbor in a number of ways, including $25,000 donations to local food banks in every community where we open new restaurants,” as reported by Fox News.

Marketing Daily reached out to Chick-fil-A for comment on the class-action lawsuit but had not heard back by deadline.

The company has until Dec. 7 to respond via court.

Anyone who lived during the psychedelic era of the 1960s and early 1970s might have found Mark Zuckerberg's presentation on the company's new direction a little trippy. On Thursday, the Facebook CEO announced a corporate name change, detailing the new vision of the metaverse, an online virtual realm where people would work, exercise, play and shop.

“Metaverse is the successor to the mobile internet,” Zuckerberg said at the social-media giant’s annual developer forum Facebook Connect. 

Rather than looking at a screen, he said, it will enable people to share a space and experience the connection and the emotions of others. Facebook is already investing in creating this new reality of shared online spaces inhabited by digital avatars.

The company recently announced it will spend $150 million to train the next group of creators to build this world.

Avatars will represent people in the metaverse. People will have a virtual home space, with the ability to invite people over and hangout. “Teleporting around the metaverse is like clicking a link on the internet,” Zuckerberg said.

At Facebook Connect, Zuckerberg introduced Facebook’s Horizon platform consisting of Horizon Home, Horizon Workrooms, Horizon Worlds, and Horizon Venues shows and performances.

Since remote work is here to stay, the company believes people we will need better tools to work together, meaning work in the office without the commute. Later this year, the company will introduce a way to customize the workspace and 2D progressive web apps and developer frameworks, making them easier to build.

Educational opportunities also exist. People will be able to "teleport" anywhere in history such as ancient Rome. Learning won’t feel like anything else done before. A medical student can practice a specific operation until they get it correct, for example.

Zuckerberg also is pulling for interoperability, privacy and safety. People can decide when they want to be with others Nearly any time of media in the real world can be brought into the metaverse. People will move across the experiences in a variety of devices. Rather than typing or tapping, people will gesture with their hands.

It may seem like science fiction, but much of the technology is available today to support hand, voice gestures and even mind control.

The Presence platform announced today, along with an interaction SDK, a library of modular components to add hand interactions to apps. It offers developers a range of machine perception and AI capabilities to build mixed reality experiences on Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality system.

Environmental understanding, content placement, voice interaction and standardized hard interactions are all taken into consideration. The voice SDK lets developers integrate voice for things like fitness apps.

Zuckerberg wants developers to build a mixed reality for Quest 2, but privacy and safety must be built into the platform from the start.

He talked about being transparent around how data is collected and safety controls for kids, but he did not talk about policing and protecting against human trafficking, theft of avatars and other similar harm. If he wants to create an alternative universe, perhaps that's something he also should consider.

Apple, seen by many observers as hostile to email given the launch of its Mail Privacy Protection in September, has made one pro-email gesture: It will now allow app developers selling in its App Store to send emails to their customers.

Previously, this was prohibited. But Apple has deleted the following paragraph from its terms and conditions: 

“Developers cannot use information obtained within the app to target individual users outside of the app to use purchasing methods other than in-app purchase (such as sending an individual user an email about other purchasing methods after that individual signs up for an account within the app).” 

Instead, Apple has added this paragraph:  

“Apps may request basic contact information (such as name and email address) so long as the request is optional for the user, features and services are not conditional on providing the information, and it complies with all other provisions of these guidelines, including limitations on collecting information from kids.”

Apple rewrote its rules to settle a $100 million lawsuit with developers. As part of the deal, app developers may now inform users outside of the app about cheaper purchase methods than in-app payments, Market Research Telecast writes. 

But there are certain rules that pertain to apps. For example, the new contract specifies: “All event metadata must be accurate and pertain to the event itself, rather than the app more generally. Events must happen at the times and dates you select in App Store Connect, including across multiple storefronts.” 

In its latest AR experiment, Snap has partnered with Verizon, Google, and Disney to produce a series of exclusive Snapchat AR Lenses featuring “groundbreaking, cinema-quality effects” that showcase the widely loved superpowers of Marvel’s Avengers Infinity Saga. 

In promotion of Google’s new Pixel 6 smartphone, paired with Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband, Pixel users will be first in line for these particularly low-lag, immersive AR experiences. 

The first lens launches on October 28 -- the same day as the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro drop. It features Doctor Strange, and will be available as a 4G and 5G experience.

A new Avengers Lens will drop every week for one month, exclusive to Google Pixel device owners until November 25th. 

The order of Lens releases is as follows:

10/28: Doctor Strange (4G + 5G VZ exclusive)

11/4: Ant-Man & the Wasp (4G only)

11/11: Thor (4G + 5G VZ exclusive)

11/18: Gamora (4G only)

11/25: Captain Marvel (4G+ 5G VZ exclusive)

On November 25, all 4G Lenses will become available to the whole Snapchat community, regardless of carrier or device, while the 5G Lens experiences will remain exclusive to Verizon customers, on any device powered by Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband. 

The Avengers Lenses can be found directly on Verizon’s public Snapchat profile.

At Thursday’s launch, Snapchat will be the only third-party app able to use the wide-angle selfie camera on Pixel 6. 

According to a recent statement on Snap’s newsroom, users can tap the back of their phone to "create Snaps and play with Lenses directly from the lock screen" without having to unlock their phone. "Once a Snap is ready to share," it adds, users can log into their phone’s lock screen to "directly unlock the full app experience.”

The company also claims that special AR Lenses, like The Avengers, wide-angle Snaps, “Quick Tap to Snap,” and the ability to talk with friends in over 10 languages, which are translated in real-time, are just some of the features to come.

Sandy Hook, CT-based media agency Mediassociates has been retained by CompoSecure to provide media, forecasting and analytics services for the marketing launch of Arculus, a new cold storage device for cryptocurrency.

More than 21 million U.S. consumers already invest in cryptocurrency, or use crypto for transactions, and another 50 million are considering it in the coming year, according to a May research study by The Ascent, a Motley Fool service.

There have been reported hacks of some accounts and secure solutions for cryptocurrency storage are seen as vital. Arculus is a “cold storage” device which combines an app for cryptocurrency with a security key in the shape of a credit card, providing 3-factor authentication security in a slim form that does not require a battery. The company claims the Arculus card, combined with the Arculus mobile app, provides advanced security protection and the ability to manage multiple cryptocurrency wallets in one device.

“The Arculus solution will broaden cryptocurrency adoption because of the familiar behavior consumers have using their payment cards,” said Adam Lowe, Chief Innovation Officer at Arculus. “This creates an improved user experience as compared to products currently on the market.”

The Mediassociates remit includes integrated media planning, media buying, results forecasting and full-funnel analytics.

“Arculus is a prime example of the new, technology-oriented businesses that require a new, intensely sophisticated approach to media and analytics,” said Mediassociates President Jeff Larson. “For Arculus, we’ll use new data signals to scale growth by running advertising where it will make the greatest, measurable impact with the people most interested in this new world of cryptocurrency.”

This new assignment continues the agency’s win streak that has more than doubled its client billings over the past two years to more than $200 million. The agency is on track to grow another 70% this year.

This has become a cliché, but Big Data is becoming “the oil of the advertising industry” -- and the phrase has never been more apt.

Nowadays, virtually every component of the ad industry has been impacted by Big Data, with the exception of national television audience measurement. That will soon change.

For example, to remain competitive and grow revenue, ad agencies are reliant on Big Data to improve their proficiency in better analyzing their clients' first-party data, enhance their digital media capabilities and uncover insights to make better media selections.

Over the past five years, every large holding company has invested billions in acquiring a data analytics company or have launched their own Big Data analytics department.

At the same time, traditional media companies have also been investing in Big Data, to keep the flow of ad dollars from being reallocated to digital behemoths.

These include the use of greater analytics to promote their lower-funnel capabilities. Both agencies and programmers have had advanced TV departments for years.

Big Data now impacts virtually every traditional industry, from banking/finance and real estate to health care and agriculture.

In next year’s midterm elections, candidates will use Big Data to geotarget persuadable voters with a particular campaign issue.

In baseball, "Moneyball" has permeated every team that now uses Big Data for scouting reports and adjusting their defensive alignment for each hitter. And so on and so forth. 

When Nielsen came under criticism from the VAB (Video Advertising Bureau) last April, the national people meter panel of 40,000 households came into question.

During the COVID-19 pandemic with lockdowns in place, Nielsen reported lower weekly reach and lower TV usage defying conventional wisdom. The decline in viewing resulted in a loss in ad revenue.

At times, programmers who are angry about their ratings have been critical of Nielsen, but typically these complaints soon fade away. This time, however, the conversation quickly escalated as to whether a nationwide panel is suitable in a fragmented and on-demand video landscape and whether Big Data sources should be used instead.

For example, Comscore -- which passively aggregates return-path data from millions of households -- reported no declines in TV usage during the lockdown.

In addition, in recent years, a number of ad-tech companies reliant on large data sets have emerged providing their clients with programming and consumer behavior.

Big Data has been used for local TV ratings in smaller markets for several years. As Nielsen’s TV diaries became increasingly unreliable, caused by low cooperation rates, this results in “zero cell” ratings and/or unstable (and unusable) ratings.

Advertisers even began using other ad-supported media as a replacement for local television. Some stations and advertisers in smaller markets began using Comscore and their larger sample as their negotiating currency. 

In response, Nielsen announced the long-awaited replacement of TV diaries with a new measurement tool called Viewer Assignment.

With Viewer Assignment, Nielsen uses RPD tuning data from in market MVPD households. For demographic ratings, Nielsen uses algorithms to identify “look-alike” households in their People Meter sample within the region. The People Meter viewing is then integrated with the tuning data from each RPD home. Nielsen’s move to a larger sample was applauded by TV stations, ad agencies and advertisers. 

While RPDs offer a far more robust database than a panel, there are some factors to consider. The number of MVPD subscribers has been declining each year and has not slowing down. Among demographics, younger adults are least likely to have an MVPD subscription. In addition, ethnic groups have historically been underrepresented among pay TV subscribers. 

Another Big Data source that can be used for national TV measurement is connected TV.

Leichtman Research reports that 80% of all U.S. households have at least one connected TV device. A new study from Magnite says 40% of U.S. TV households watch CTV exclusively. In just two years, Vizio, an OEM for “smart TVs”, has noted a sizable shift in viewers from linear TV to streaming video.

More importantly, CTV users offer a better representation of the video audience with younger age groups and ethnicity. 

There has been broad industry consensus that using only panels is no longer acceptable.

Although the pandemic brought to light their limitations, in reality, panel measurement has been inadequate for years.

Many thought leaders agree, in today’s video landscape with streaming video, mobile, on-demand, addressable and other opportunities to view video content, Big Data with their robust sample is needed.

In addition, Big Data can provide better targeting and the ability to measure the impact of ads on sales. Big Data sets and the granularity they provide have become a necessity when negotiating ad rates.

To accomplish these goals will require accessing Big Data from a number of sources. These include RPD from MVPDs, Automated Content Recognition from smart TV’s, CTV devices, programmers and breaking through the “walled gardens” from digital media (including social) among other providers. 

As the industry moves toward audience-based buying and away from demographics, the larger samples from Big Data will allow advertisers to integrate their own first-party to build a better targeted media schedule. 

Panels should still play a role in audience measurement, but the sample needs to be far more robust than now. 

Going forward, the next generation of audience measurement will also need collaboration and cooperation among key stakeholders in addition to Big Data owners; including programmers, measurement companies and advertisers.

Audience measurement will need to be scalable, privacy-compliant, interoperable and transparent with a goal of Media Rating Council accreditation. It must be consistent across nonlinear and linear viewing and must be standardized and flexible with the capability to measure, on a timely basis, any new media opportunities such as ATSC 3.0 (a.k.a. “Next Gen TV”), the rollout of 5G and the impact of the next new social media phenomenon that will have a bearing on viewing behavior.

Similar to any audience measurement provider, Big Data is not perfect -- but it will better address the needs of the advertising community than what is being used now. There are other issues that need to be ironed out. A more robust sample with Big Data still needs to be a representative of the U.S.

It will also require the licensing of Big Data providers which could be costly.

The complete overhaul from the past 70 years impacting every facet of the ad industry will be an adjustment, including the potential of several audience measurement providers. Finally, this could take several years to accomplish, but when completed, will be well worth the wait.

Podcasting, one of the fastest-growing segments of the media marketplace, faces a big obstacle in terms of the validity of its audience measurement: it cannot meet basic ad industry standards.

That was among the significant disclosures made by advertising and media industry measurement watchdog, the Media Rating Council (MRC) during a first-of-its-kind public briefing updating the industry on a variety of standards and processes. Although not part of the formal presentation, the status of podcast audience measurement standards was raised during the Q&A section of the webinar, and MRC CEO and Executive Director George Ivie disclosed that there is a fundamental problem with the way the podcast industry currently measures its audiences that prevents it from meeting the MRC’s minimum standards.

“We want to do podcast accreditation,” Ivie told attendees, adding: “The problem is that the podcast industry is measuring prior to when we would ordinarily consider a good measurement position, I'll just call it that. And I'm using that term very colloquially.”

Specifically, he said the MRC has moved to standard of measuring audience exposure on the “client-side,” meaning when a consumer is actively rendering it on their device, not when the content was streamed.

It’s a similar standard the MRC has set for other forms of served or downloaded media -- including mobile apps, which in many cases are how consumer actually listen to podcasts.

“We want to measure on the client-side when the [ad] has had an opportunity to be seen by the user,” Ivie noted, presumably meaning “heard” in the case of an audio ad embedded in a podcast.

“So, in a podcast context, that would mean, the podcast was downloaded, it was initiated, being played, and the ad was also initiated. That's when you should measure,” he explained, adding: “Right now, most podcast measures are measuring pre-that. They're measuring either when the podcast itself was downloaded, but not nobody's actually started listening to it. Or maybe when somebody started listening to it, but there's no confirmation that anyone's heard any particular ad.”

Ivie emphasized that the MRC wants to audit and accredit podcast audience measurement, but he described the impediment as a “gap” between how the podcast industry has enabled measurement to date, and the MRC’s standard for measuring ad exposure in a downloadable medium.