Table of contents for April 16, 2018 in Adweek

Few creators have had as much of a hand in creating immersive marketing experiences as Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan. Adweek caught up with Nolan, who co-created the show with Lisa Joy, ahead of the Season 2 premiere to find out just how involved he is and what he thinks about a Westworld theme park. The marketing of Season 2 has been insane—Comic-Con, Super Bowl, SXSW. How involved are you in marketing conversations? I’ve been very interested in this side of things from the very beginning. My dad was in advertising and marketing. My brother [Christopher] and I grew up thinking of advertising as its own form of storytelling. With Westworld, Lisa and I knew from the very beginning that it would be one of these projects that really lent itself to…

It was Benjamin Franklin who sparked the debate between freedom and security. Back then, it was a robust conversation among our Founding Fathers as they contemplated the laws and direction of this new land. Today, it’s an even more appropriate discussion as we consider placing surveillance on every street corner in order to keep our citizens safer. After all this time, Franklin’s question remains: What level of freedom are we willing to forego in exchange for safety? A similar debate is affecting marketers and consumers today. The tension between a marketer’s escalating quest for the precision of personal data is in stark contrast to the individual’s desire for personal privacy. Aside from the risk of data breaches, people are simply not comfortable with their information being used to sell them…

There’s a good reason marketers and the C-suite alike continue to focus so determinedly on brand purpose—it’s important to consumers. According to a new study, 75 percent of global consumers expect brands to contribute to their well-being and quality of life. And purpose is an especially important consideration when marketing to millennials and Gen Zers, who factor in companies’ positions and efforts on social and environmental issues when deciding what to buy and where to work. “The boardroom is prioritizing brand purpose, as businesses are keen to play a bigger, more fulfilling and more relevant role in their audiences’ lives,” said Hannah Matthews, managing partner at Karmarama. “Making brands meaningful and rebuilding trust with consumers can equate to significant success for businesses. Those that focus purely on short-term transactions, ignoring…

“Gen Z really cares about products and companies that are value-driven and have a strong, authentic mission. That’s the key.” TIFFANY ZHONG , 21 “I honestly don’t think there’s much brand loyalty among Generation Z. I’ve seen friends go from one brand to another. It’s all about which one is innovating the fastest.” DEEP PATEL, 19 “Social media has been the best way for Gen Z to make a statement. When brands use social media to connect with people that’s huge, but it only works if they’re coming from an authentic place.” MEHAK VOHRA, 21 “There are a lot of brands still trying to stay ‘politically correct.’ If you stay right down the middle on everything, nobody’s going to care.” JESSE KAY, 17…

CHIEF PRIVACY OFFICER Drafts internal policies and programs for making sure consumer data is only used in ways agreed to by a user. Ensures that a company is compliant with privacy laws at state, national and international levels. Handles day-to-day privacy issues while communicating with marketing, engineering and business teams about the important of privacy. Works on minimizing the amount of user data needed at any given time while creating ways to make sure the information is transparent to users that want to know about their data. That might also include auditing apps from which data is collected to make sure they are secure and comply with privacy laws. CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER Builds systems that prevent external actors from accessing sensitive data about consumers. Manages response teams when there is…

This year, Changing the Game adds a new honor for women who use their voices, talent and tools to break through the enduring silence, creating a path for action and change. Called Fearless Voices, it will salute Susan Chira and Catrin Einhorn, reporters for The New York Times. Their coverage of gender bias and harassment at two Ford Motor Company plants in Chicago shined a light on the plight of blue-collar women in manufacturing industries that had long been the preserve of men. The article posed a critical question for today’s corporations: Why is it so hard to change a culture of harassment?…

For parents, sleep is the world’s most precious resource. But many forces seem aligned to deny it to you, from the capricious sleep schedules of children to your mind’s litany of self-doubts and unfinished tasks. In Ikea’s newest ad out of Amsterdam, agency Havas Lemz and production house Czar Amsterdam create a beautiful and calming meditation on good sleep. The visuals tell the story of a same-sex couple catching what sleep they can while their toddler is down, and we see the house magically tidying itself as the moms’ internal batteries recharge.…

Connor Blakley is 18 and already knows more about marketing than most marketers twice his age. Blakley started his first company when he was 14, helping small and midsize firms navigate social media. Over the last four years, as he has built his marketing company, YouthLogic, he has worked with individuals like Mark Cuban and brands like Johnson & Johnson, the NHL, NPD Group and Sprint, advising them on how to message the youth market. “A lot of brands understand they don’t know what they don’t know, and they’re willing to learn from someone who is as entrenched and is as good at it as me,” he said. So what kind of work do you do? We help big companies better ingrain themselves in youth culture. That can mean everything…

IN the annals of data privacy scandals, Face-book’s current debacle is fairly monumental. After allegations surfaced last month that British data company Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed the private data from 87 million (at last count) of its users to target voters on behalf of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, the fallout was swift. In the span of just 10 days, the company’s stock took a nosedive, wiping out nearly $70 billion of its market cap. Several state attorneys general threatened to sue. The Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation and lawmakers in both Washington, D.C., and the United Kingdom demanded that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, appear for questioning. (He testified before Congress last week.) The company itself revealed additional gaffes, including registering the text and call histories of…

In 2000, Harriet Pearson became IBM’s first chief privacy officer, becoming part of the vanguard of early CPOs that set the groundwork for how corporations approach privacy. An expert on corporate data privacy and cybersecurity, Pearson is currently a partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm Hogan Lovells, focusing on cyber and data risk management, governance and compliance. She spoke with Adweek about her thoughts on the most critical issues facing companies today. GDPR First, a company that is doing business in Europe or is targeting or addressing individuals in Europe as part of its business operations needs to put in place a compliance plan for GDPR. That’s clearly occupying many organizations now. Second, GDPR is actually an opportunity for companies to put in place a global company-wide privacy compliance…

Sinclair Broadcast Group entered the wider cultural conversation late last month when the sports and media commentary site Deadspin published a viral video showing dozens of anchors at Sinclair-owned local stations around the country reading what appears to be the same, scripted anti-mainstream media message on-air. Sinclair’s must-run promo includes a warning about fake news from other media outlets, a promise to report fairly and accurately and a request that viewers go to the station’s website and comment “if you believe our coverage is unfair.” The broadcaster’s controversial promotional campaign was roundly criticized. But the promos also received praise, including from President Donald Trump, who tweeted that Sinclair is “far superior” to CNN and NBC. For their part, Sinclair executives have pushed back, saying that it is their critics who…

THE NAME Most people think Act II is a theater reference, and the company’s fine with that. But really, Act II is simply a riff on Act I, the name the brand first bore in 1981. THE FLAVOR While Act II is a brisk seller in Latin America because of its spicy varieties, Americans like the taste of butter—and Act II sells five different kinds of it. THE GOODS Microwaves are exceptionally good at exciting the water molecules inside of popcorn kernels, which pop at 347 degrees Fahrenheit. Sixteen years ago last month, hard-core movie fans from all over the Twin Cities flocked to the historic Heights Theater, tucking into its 398 plush seats for one of the odder events in cinema history. It was called PopFest, and it wound…

Last week, ahead of the Season 2 premiere of Westworld, creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan participated in an Ask Me Anything chat on Reddit, where they set forth a curious proposition: If fans agreed, they would release a video spoiling all of the twists and turns of the upcoming season. Hours later, a video was released but, as some expected, it was an elaborate prank, a Rickroll tailor-made for spoiler-obsessed Reddit fans that featured Evan Rachel Wood, who plays Dolores on the HBO show, singing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” “As someone who spends time on Reddit regularly, I saw this as a way to have fun with a community that I love,” Nolan explained. Reaction to the video was mixed—Reddit fans seemed to love it; critics…

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” I’ve always loved this quote from John F. Kennedy about drive. It transcends the tactic of hard work and the emotion of bravery to the higher strategic plane of purpose and direction—knowing who you are and where you want to go. In this our sixth Digital Transformation Playbook in partnership with Accenture Interactive, we are tackling the hefty theme of brand purpose in a constantly shifting and fragmented media and marketing landscape. There has been no shortage of effort in addressing this issue and increasingly—and refreshingly so for the reporters and editors at Adweek—bravery in the face of change is now more commonly seen among the bullshit than two years ago. Sill brand purpose and direction are massively complex concepts…

When the 2018 Major League Soccer season kicked off last month, Real Salt Lake fans didn’t have to fly down to Toyota Field in Frisco, Texas, to watch the Claret and Cobalt play its Western Conference rival FC Dallas. They didn’t have to turn on their televisions to watch the match either. Instead, RSL’s avid followers could download Salt Lake City NBC affiliate KSL-TV’s new app, RSL on KSL, and livestream the game on the digital device of their choice. The KSL-Real Salt Lake deal marks the first time a professional American sports team has partnered with a local broadcast station on a local-only over-the-top deal. In February 2018, KSL-TV, owned by Bonneville International Corp., the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for-profit broadcasting arm, struck a three-year deal…

The October 1967 ad for Morton Salt features the company slogan “When it rains, it pours,” which originated in 1914 along with its famous Umbrella Girl. The 165-year-old Chicago-based company has a long history of flavoring food and melting ice. Adweek (USPS 458870, ISSN 1549-9553) is published weekly: 34 times a year with 1 issue in December; 2 issues in July and August; 3 issues in January, February, March, April, May, June and November; and four issues in September and October. Publisher is ADWEEK, LLC, 825 Eighth Avenue, 29th floor, New York, NY 10019, (212) 493-4100. Subscriptions are $249 for one year, $449 for two years. Canadian subscriptions are $299 per year. All other foreign subscriptions are $349 (using air mail). Subscription inquiries: (844)-674-8161; outside the U.S.: (845) 450-5203. Registered…