Table of contents for February 24, 2020 in Adweek

Authenticity at work can mean different things to different people. We believe it’s the ability to put your best self forward, being true to your values and not having to sacrifice your integrity and who you are. When you are around people who are like you, it’s a lot easier to be your true self. But when you are different, then it can be challenging. It’s especially challenging for black people, as our difference walks in the door with us and carries a set of stereotypes that we are still fighting today. As black people, we are inclined to bend, fold or otherwise mitigate our blackness to fit in. We hesitate to wear ethnic jewelry or wear our hair in braids for fear of standing out or making someone else…

PRESENTED BY GOOGLE, HINT, THE INFATUATION, THE TRADE DESK AND UBER EATS.…

A little over four years ago, Canvas Worldwide dove into an already-competitive media agency landscape. As a joint partnership between Innocean and Horizon Media, the bicoastal independent, with main offices in both New York and Los Angeles, it had a good head start, opening with bakedin clients like Hyundai, Kia and, later, Genesis (Hyundai owns Innocean). Over the years, the agency picked up several new brands and, in 2019, really hit its stride, snapping up Heineken (from Publicis) as global media agency of record and being recognized as the fastest-growing media services agency in the U.S. by COMvergence. With those gains came a 14.5% increase in billings and a 23% rise in revenue. And it has yet to lose a client. That combination of business performance, strong strategic moves and…

IN late 2018, a gripping documentary called 5B came out that told the story of nurses who were on the frontline of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. The movie was screened at the Cannes Film Festival last year and covered by the likes of NPR and The Washington Post. The film originated from an unlikely source: UM. A media agency that makes movies? For UM’s executives, projects like these help Adweek’s U.S. Media Agency of the Year keep pace with a diversity of clients and their ever-changing needs—whatever those needs might be. “We are here to solve our clients’ business needs. They evolve over time, all the time,” notes Eileen Kiernan, UM’s global CEO. “If we have the skills and the wherewithal to solve that need and step…

Nascar is making an effort to be more diverse at all levels. With Nascar just kicking off its season with this month’s Daytona 500, a growing number of fans scattered across the country are tuning in. More women are watching, too, with 1.2 million female TV viewers for every Nascar Cup Series event. As for Nascar itself, there are currently five women in the C-suite, including CMO Jill Gregory and vice chairman Lesa France Kennedy. Nascar also has plans to hire an officer for D&I efforts and create a diversity council this year. “As we work to reflect the evolving demographics of this country, our mission extends across the sport—from the racetrack to the corporate offices to the audiences we’re pursuing to be fans,” Gregory said. Nascar’s Drive for Diversity…

“Meat snacks” might not be the most pleasant phrase, but as a consumer goods category, its success is anything but rare. In the U.S., total retail sales of jerky and other dried meat products grew from $2.6 billion in 2014 to $3.4 billion in 2019, a 31% increase, according to numbers from Chicago-based market research firm IRI. Marissa Gilbert, associate director of health and wellness at market insights agency Mintel, noted that while beef and turkey jerky remain robust, fish and pork jerky are also finding their way onto shelves. “While plant-based foods may be grabbing headlines, meat-based snacks are actually faring quite well with consumers who are seeking protein-rich snacks,” said Gilbert. Part of the reason behind this growth spurt, say experts and insiders alike, is the prevalence of…

FLIP THE NARRATIVE We determined very, very quickly that what we were lacking in our story was the emotional part of the brand—the humanity. So, the result of that realization was pulling a whole bunch of great marketers into a couple of day sessions where we just ripped through what we stand for, what we want to stand for, how we want to show up.… We actually flipped the narrative on our storytelling. We put consumers at the center and we told their stories of how each and every day they welcome what’s next with Citi as their life partners. DEMAND DIVERSITY Where I could’ve just said OK but didn’t, is really demanding that our agency partners and people we do business with support diversity, at least 50/50 representation.… Demanding…

After suffering a string of client losses in 2016 and 2017, OMD managed a remarkable turnaround in 2018, going from the bottom to the top of COM-vergence’s new business rankings over the course of a year. But OMD Worldwide CEO Florian Adamski still couldn’t sleep at night. “After year one of our internal transformation, I was highly paranoid,” he says. “The question that kept me up at night was whether the success we had seen in 2018 and early 2019 wasn’t highly dependent on a few individuals in this organization.” So OMD got to work breaking down silos and establishing centralized leadership teams, “creating a process and unified technology that would democratize knowledge and capabilities” to ensure that “more offices were capable of delivering the same type of service over…