Table of contents for December 3, 2018 in Adweek

2019 will be the year of the pig—except in the TV industry, where it will be the year of the Mouse. That’s because Disney is going to dominate 2019, bookending it with a pair of seismic moves. The first is the imminent close of the Disney-Fox merger, which will relocate most of 21st Century Fox’s assets (FX, National Geographic and the Twentieth Television studio among them) to the Mouse House; the rest, including Fox Broadcasting, Fox News and Fox Sports, will be spun off into a new iteration of Fox. Then there’s the year-end launch of Disney’s long-awaited subscription streaming service, Disney+. Even with more than a year of preparation, the Disney-Fox merger will be a bumpy transition that will be felt throughout the industry as FX and National Geographic…

In recent years, brands that take a stand have created some of the most memorable marketing. If anyone asked you to recall 2018’s biggest campaign, you’d be talking about Nike’s Colin Kaepernick work in an instant. You may not have liked the work (I hate State Street’s Fearless Girl) or even think the marketers believe what they are pitching (again, hard to buy into State Street’s message when you look at how they paid women and people of color), but it’s clear that the marketing that resonates with consumers today is all about standing for something. My inbox is filled with pitches for studies that say the same thing. Millennials and Gen Z want to put their money where their mouths are, so to speak. Of course, it’s not just…

In an increasingly digital world, brands have to constantly reevaluate their strategies, and branded sweepstakes are no exception. New research from digital marketing solutions company HelloWorld found that the key is to keep it simple: 64 percent of consumers would prefer a prize that makes their daily lives easier over one that makes them feel special. “Consumers have come to expect seamless brand experiences that simplify everyday life, and our findings suggest that prizes are no exception,” said Amy Burnside, HelloWorld’s marketing director. “We’re seeing a shift away from special, more luxurious prizes toward those that are convenient to use and add utility to consumers’ lives.”…

Tom Goodwin is not a futurist. However, as the head of innovation for ZenithMedia, he does get paid to see what’s coming around the bend. As we close out 2018 and get ready for 2019, we talked with Goodwin about which “innovations” caught his eye—for good and bad—this year and what he’s excited about for next year. “Generally, we’re way too keen on everything new and tangible in advertising,” he said. “We tend to want to innovate around things we could buy from a SkyMall catalog, not around business challenges or opportunities. We assume what is old is boring, not proven.” Adweek: Biggest fad of 2018 you think should have died on the vine? Tom Goodwin: Innovation today is too gestural and gimmicky; it’s facing the wrong direction; it’s about…

On Thursday, executives at digital news publisher Mic managed to lay off nearly the entire company and secure a new owner all in one day. The company, which launched with a splash as a go-to news source for millennials, is officially being sold to Bryan Goldberg’s Bustle Digital Group. Sources say a cash-strapped Mic had been aggressively looking for a new buyer to no avail when a looming cancellation from Facebook to its Watch program, Mic Dispatch, made the publisher’s financial situation plummet from bad to desperate. The Wall Street Journal estimated the deal to be worth $5 million, a significant discount on what it was valued at just a couple years ago. A spokeswoman for BDG confirmed the sale but declined to comment on the price.…

2018 was anything but dull for the ad-agency world. One could argue that it was a year defined by industry whiplash. In one moment, we heard about another agency leader being shown the door. The next, Martin Sorrell reemerged, thumbing his nose at the advertising establishment he helped create. Then Alex Bogusky got back in the mix (and wants to wrestle Gary Vee?). In between all of that, in-housing, consolidation and sagging performance painted a reasonably bleak picture for the agency world. But there were also plenty of bright spots—campaigns and creativity that addressed some of the world’s most pressing issues and proved that good ideas are still a powerful currency. And amid it all, there was one timely, perspective-shifting reminder about the importance of agencies in the marketing landscape.…

This is our last Digital Transformation Playbook. For the past 12 months, in a close and unique partnership with Accenture Interactive, we have covered a wide span of topics and themes confronting—often vexing—and inspiring brand marketers stepping into the future. So, it’s apt that this last edition focus on what’s ahead and the futurists who believe that they know what’s out there. The one key learning that the Adweek and AI partnership has made abundantly clear is the need to give into the fact that the customer is now in charge. Their experiences and journeys have to be charted and supported rather than measured and interrupted. The customer is always right—the golden rule of a client-based economy. But in the future, the customer will not only be right but also…

As 2018 draws to a close, Wieden + Kennedy co-president Colleen DeCourcy can finally exhale. This past year saw the fiercely independent shop both courting controversy and reinvigorating core American brands like KFC and Delta—and somehow never losing its way. “We’re a company that’s at its best when we’re in the eye of the cultural storm,” DeCourcy says. The agency’s wild ride effectively began on Super Bowl Sunday with a onetime throwaway line echoing through the stands as “Dilly Dilly” became “Philly Philly” and the Eagles’ upset of the New England Patriots turned into an unprecedented branding opportunity for Bud Light. Seven months later, W+K marked the 30th anniversary of advertising’s most transcendent tagline, “Just Do It,” with a spot starring former 49ers-quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick. Threats of boycotts followed, as…

PS260, a creative editorial company that specializes in postproduction and visual effects, didn’t launch at an ideal time. The bicoastal firm opened its doors shortly after 9/11, “a time we wanted to feel rooted in New York,” managing partner Zarina Mak explained. In fact, the shop’s name is a nod to the city’s public school system. In 2012, the focus was on editing—a lot of commercial editing—for brands including Harry’s, Intel, JetBlue and M&M’s, helping them tell their story through the postproduction process. Now, the shop wants to take a crack at content creation. In September it worked with director Brendan Gibbons of Station Film on a PSA for VoteEmOut.org that uses dark humor (and the Stop the Madness hashtag) to address the idea of arming teachers to prevent school…

Stephen Hillenburg, who created one of the most popular animated series of all time in Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants, died on Monday after a struggle with ALS. Hillenburg, who was 57, had shared his ALS diagnosis last year. In a statement, Nickelodeon said the company is “incredibly saddened,” adding that Hillenburg was “a beloved friend and longtime creative partner to everyone at Nickelodeon, and our hearts go out to his entire family.” SpongeBob SquarePants has been the most-watched animated show among kids 2 to 11 for more than 17 consecutive years. The show, which debuted in 1999, is now in its 12th season.…

For countless years, creative marketing has been defined by the ads it generates. But ask any ambitious creative team about 2019, and you won’t hear them talking TV spots and preroll. Instead, they’re looking to create ideas that will pierce the culture and defy easy description. An event? An experience? A stunt? A movement? I’ve been covering the creative industry for more than a decade, and while getting consumer attention has never been harder than now, the work that succeeds has never been more fascinating. Here are some creative trends you can expect in 2019: BRANDED EVERYTHING Blurring the lines between irony and loyalty, consumer brands have spent the past year slapping their names and logos on apparel that, shockingly enough, you might actually want to wear. I mean, who…

As much as companies have transformed in the past several years, it’s clear that even more dramatic disruption lies ahead. According to research from Accenture Interactive, human-machine collaboration will require more than half of the workforce to learn new skills in the next five years, and IoT technology will be in 95 percent of new electronics by 2020. Meanwhile, one-third of companies are planning to increase their innovation-related investments by more than 50 percent, as worldwide spending on technology and services to enable digital transformation reaches nearly $2 trillion by 2022. “Many of the innovations we were told would disrupt and revolutionize the way our clients engage with customers are finally fulfilling that promise,” said Accenture Interactive global content lead Jamie Posnanski, who also predicted “rapid, continued evolution as new…

For automakers like Ford, where cars can take three years to go from concept to completion, the ability to see what’s coming down the road isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. That’s why, for the last two decades, Ford has had a team poring over data and examining trends in the social, economic, environmental, technological and political arenas. A major trend the team identified early on was that people were living longer, says Sheryl Connelly, Ford’s manager of global consumer trends and futuring. And as people age, their vision degrades, their reaction times get slower, their range of motion becomes more limited. As a result, car doors now open wider and seats are closer to the ground, making it easier to get in and out. Because older drivers can’t easily…

Managing director and Fjord central regional director Tanarra Schneider is a product of an eclectic background. She’s been a dancer, cook, event planner, designer and, most recently, a mother. She credits all of these experiences for inspiring her and informing the way she works at Accenture every day. Schneider’s first professional design gig was an internship at the Beit Hashoah Museum of Tolerance, designing experiences for children too young to visit the core exhibits. Now, years later at Fjord, she uses design every day to lead more than 100 design professionals to change clients’ businesses and leave the world a little better than she found it. Hopefully. Base Chicago Twitter @tanarra_chicago…

THE MODEL The vehicle for 1982 was an homage to the tanker truck Leon Hess made deliveries with as a teenager in 1933. THE RUBBER Among the truck’s realistic features were real rubber tires and a coiled rubber hose that actually drained the tank. THE LIGHTS Powered by a concealed battery compartment, the truck’s lights really did light up–both the headlights up front and the brake lights in the rear. Driving his father’s tanker truck around Asbury Park, N.J., in 1933, 19-year-old Leon Hess probably had little inkling that he would become one of America’s most successful businessmen—and, almost as an afterthought, create one of the most successful holiday toys in history. The business is petroleum colossus Hess Corporation. And the toy, of course, is the Hess Toy Truck, a…