Table of contents for March 5, 2018 in Adweek

The “striding man” now walks with a striding woman—and she plans to make her voice heard this year. Diageo’s Johnnie Walker brand has given its iconic mascot a female counterpart after more than 100 years in tribute to women around the world. The Johnnie Walker Black Label “Jane Walker Edition” debuts in March to coincide with Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day celebrations. In a multifaceted attempt to support women in business, culture and politics, the company will donate $1 for each bottle produced to nonprofit campaigns like Monumental Women, a movement to erect a monument honoring America’s women suffragists in New York’s Central Park (there are currently 23 historical statues in the park, none of which honors a real woman), and She Should Run, a group encouraging women…

Call it a movement. Marketers have never faced such challenging times. Technology is moving fast, killing laggard companies laden with legacy thinking and ending careers of those not nimble nor entrepreneurial enough to embrace the pace of change. On the other hand, marketers have never experienced such opportunity to tap technology to create the meaningful, noninterruptive and empathetic relationships that customers crave and demand from the brands they spend money on. And in response, Adweek will spotlight and celebrate this complex and unparalleled time by reimagining the storied Brandweek franchise. Scheduled to convene in Palm Springs, Calif., Sept. 23-25, the event will gather the most influential brand leaders in a forum designed to be as intimate as it is engaging and inspirational. Quantcast has signed on as the first launch…

Sure, children are the future, but perhaps even more so, parents are the future. Now that Gen Z is growing up, how can brands access the ever-changing demo and target them as parents? Pregnancy and parenting organization BabyCenter teamed up with insights and strategy company Collage Group on a study analyzing the future of families and parenting to garner insights on Gen Z moms. The research showed that Gen Z will likely hold traditional values surrounding marriage, families and parenting styles and that while they’re deeply engaged in social media, especially when compared with prior generations, they’re wary of their families being always on. “Seemingly born with mobile devices in hand, they are much savvier and accepting of the quid pro quo of digital advertising, yet the data showed they’re…

After more than a decade struggling on the stand-up circuit, Scott Rogowsky is a bona fide star. Thanks to his gig hosting the addictive, mobile game-show app HQ Trivia, this native suburban New Yorker is recognizable to millions of Americans who log on and play the game twice a day, every day. If you’ve ever played HQ (and to date over 5 million people have downloaded the app, according to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower), you’d know that Rogowsky’s fans have dubbed him “Quiz Daddy” while players are known as “HQties.” High-energy and besuited Rogowsky has helped to push HQ into the popular culture, tapping into his improv comedy background, delighting (and annoying) users with his rapid-fire quips like “Quiz with me, get some money!” Adweek recently sat…

THE FORMULA Liquid Paper’s main ingredient is titanium dioxide, which gives it its chalk-white color and opaque coverage. Mineral spirits help it to dry faster. THE BLOB When it comes to covering errors, there are dabbers and there are brushers. The latter is better. Paper Mate suggests applying with a “smooth stroke.” THE APPLICATOR At first, Liquid Paper came with a brush, but clumping has since led to an upgrade: a triangular sponge that rests in the liquid. Bette Nesmith Graham was in a terrible fix. It was 1954, and the Texas Bank and Trust, where she worked as a secretary, had just replaced its old manual typewriters with new IBM electrics. Graham had never been a great typist in the first place, and the IBM machines’ feather-touch keys caused…

Nike In “Stopocalypse,” Nike’s two-minute homage to disaster movies, the athletic brand visualizes what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning on its axis. Portland, Ore., independent agency Must Be Something and famed director Edgar Wright created the tongue-in-cheek epic, which includes cameos from a litany of athletes and celebs including Kobe Bryant (taking a page out of the Dwayne Johnson playbook), Kevin Hart, Bill Nye, Sadie Sink (Stranger Things’ “Mad Max”), Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Odell Beckham Jr., Simone Biles and more. —David Griner…

SINCE DECEMBER, TWICE A DAY, LIKE CLOCKWORK, Terry Berger, a 17-year-old high school junior from Atlanta, has been playing HQ Trivia, the mobile app game-show sensation. At 3 p.m. Berger, her fellow students and teachers huddle together over their smartphones, answering often silly, mostly vanilla questions about pop culture, science and history for the chance to win cash prizes. At 9 p.m. she’s at it again, this time with her family. In fact, HQ’s daily-double playing schedule is so drilled into Berger’s internal timetable that she doesn’t even need the app’s triggered push notifications to remind her it’s game time. Nearly two weeks ago, Berger won $9.50, and while not exactly Powerball spoils, she calls it “the most exciting moment of my life,” saying, “I just [like] the thrill of…

CPG conglomerate Kimberly-Clark recently launched a global creative agency review as it seeks to restructure the roster of shops responsible for marketing its extensive brand portfolio. The Irving, Texas, personal-care products giant, whose brands include Kleenex and Huggies, has long worked with several WPP agencies, including Ogilvy & Mather and JWT. The review now forces the world’s largest advertising company to play defense amid reports of a disappointing financial performance in 2017 that led investors to temper expectations for 2018. “Kimberly-Clark is assessing the current agency landscape for creative services,” a spokesperson for the company said. “We regularly review our agency relationships, global and local, to ensure that we remain in touch with the latest capabilities in the industry. Beyond that, we would not be able to comment further on…

Pokémon Go and a dancing hot dog: two augmented reality stars that burst into the tech universe over the last two years. One hundred million people downloaded Pokémon Go. And the hot dog, which was a Snapchat filter, has been so popular that Snap recently turned it into a plush doll. For retail brands, AR also is a natural fit. Retailers like Wayfair, Lowe’s and Ikea are using AR to help consumers place scaled versions of their products in their homes. Using a phone’s camera, customers can pick a couch, set it anywhere they’d like in their home and see how it looks. But as these companies venture into AR, they’re finding that replicating the success of a dancing hot dog isn’t as easy as firing up a grill. AR…

In the past few years, mobile has risen to become the most dominant form of media consumption. With this change in consumer behavior, platforms like Google, Facebook and Instagram have grown into virtual monopolies. This shift has not only affected consumers, it has also changed retail and the way smart marketers approach commerce. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the beauty category. Long dominated by well-established legacy brands, a new phenomenon has risen—direct-to-consumer indie beauty brands. And their secret weapon is mastering all things digital. Let’s examine why these new beauty disruptors are growing so quickly when traditional beauty companies are all seeing soft to negative year-over-year organic sales growth. The power of the platform It’s clear that Instagram has replaced the magazine rack as the dominant platform for…

NIKE Immediately after Justin Timberlake wore a pair of $200 Air Jordan III’s during his Super Bowl halftime show last month, the Snkers app “dropped” a limited-edition “JTH” version. Within minutes of going live, they sold out. HEADSPACE The meditation app helps users reach namaste with push notification reminders set at specific times, while yoga-inspired motivational quotes like, “Give your mind some much-needed TLC,” entice them to open the app. ADIDAS Tapping into the 2018 NBA All-Star Weekend frenzy in February, the sportswear maker’s Confirmed app enabled fans to reserve and preorder a slot to buy its $200, limited-edition Kanye West collaboration: Yeezy 500 “Blush.” SUPREME The New York streetwear retailer has digitally replicated its around-the-block lines using its mobile app and push notifications to drop its latest and exclusive…

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