Table of contents for May 13, 2019 in Adweek

On Thursday, Omnicom Media Group promoted Philippa Brown, CEO of Omnicom Media Group U.K., to the role of CEO for PHD Worldwide, effective July 1. She’ll be based in London and report to OMG CEO Daryl Simm. Brown succeeds Mike Cooper, who was appointed Group CEO for Omnicom Media Group APAC and EMEA. The news follows an announcement from Colin Gottlieb, who formerly held Cooper’s role, that he will step down after nearly 20 years. In her previous role, Brown oversaw a team of 1,600 serving a roster of over 270 clients. She joined Omnicom Media Group U.K. in 2007 and helped expand U.K. operations. “Philippa is a proven leader and a natural fit to lead PHD globally,” Simm said in a statement. “… She has singular insight into PHD’s…

Adweek turns 40 this year and it’s with pride, and a bit of astonishment, that I can say that I’ve been with the brand for just over half that time. Looking back over those 21 years, the mind bends trying to recall the people, too many heroes, saints, villains and sinners to catalog here, who deeply influenced my career. Equally remarkable are the trends, both internal (ownership changes) and external (technology), that informed the job and what it took to approach success week in and week out. I have been here for a long time, yes. But it feels like I have had many different jobs, especially during that last two years when the pace of change shifted from rapid to torrent. When I started in 1998, we as young…

DISCRIMINATION Advertisers can exploit ad-targeting technology to prevent certain people from seeing housing, credit or job ads—or specifically target certain people with predatory ads like payday loans. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development hit Facebook with a discrimination charge based on these concerns. REINFORCING STEREOTYPES Targeting people along race or gender lines sends societal messages, even if the content of the ads themselves are not discriminatory. Heavily targeting women with stereotypically feminine products and targeting men with stereotypically masculine products, for example, reinforces stereotypical gender roles that aren’t necessarily reflective of who actually uses those products, Duarte said. UNSEEN ALGORITHMIC EFFECTS Even if a platform is not designed to target along race or gender lines, the data feeding it might reinforce stereotypes or create proxies for protected classes…

Adweek: What are you working on now that’s innovative? Mary Yee: With the PlayStation VR, we are pushing the boundaries for the next level of immersion by putting the gamer in the center of the amazing worlds that gaming enables. We’ve sold 4.2 million units and continue to bring innovative titles to the platform, including the recently announced exclusive partnership with Marvel Games and Camouflaj to bring Marvel’s Iron Man VR to PS VR this year. We’ve really focused on how we demonstrate a different type of immersion that PlayStation VR enables that is a step above PS4. The campaigns that really demonstrate that are the Skyrim VR and Borderlands 2 VR campaigns. Both stories are told from the narrative of the gamer, transported to the game world through PSVR.…

Consumer attention is fleeting, and only the bold and brave cut through the noise. To that end, media in all of its forms needs to work harder and smarter. This year’s Media All-Stars are not only up for the challenge but steaming ahead to create unforgettable work for brands and exciting opportunities for their teams. Our Executive of the Year, Michael Epstein, led the charge for Carat in the U.S., reinvigorating the agency by investing heavily in talent and training, and the positive results speak for themselves. And Rising Star Nadalie Dias of Hearts & Science developed a system to keep her team energized, engaged and always looking forward. Times are changing, but this year’s class of Media All-Stars continues to stay ahead of the curve.…

Because advertising awards tend to focus on creativity, sometimes the importance of media strategy gets lost in the shuffle. But Colleen Leddy believes strongly that both the science and art of campaigns are central to their success, especially when both work together from the start. “There was a time, maybe 20-plus years ago, where media and creativity were unbundled,” she says. “And we lost a little bit of creativity in media strategy. I think the way to put some creativity back into media strategy is to bundle it with creativity and think about it up front in the process.” Indeed, some of Droga5’s most successful campaigns ended up with monster numbers and had a heavy dose of creativity. Last year’s campaign for Tourism Australia—featuring “Dundee,” the ambitious fake remake of…

Pedro Rodriguez, one of Adweek’s 2018 Young Influentials, has established himself as a media luminary skilled at cultivating a more inclusive communications landscape. Since being appointed to his position last summer, he has become an indelible part of Horizon Media’s fabric by implementing strategies that promote business growth, leading special projects like Horizon’s Voice practice and creating content outside of general media planning, like the digital video series he put together for SXSW. In short, Rodriguez’s position allows him to have a hand in everything, and the young professional cherishes the access. “What I love about the role is that it spans across all of the different products and services, whether they’re built for Horizon or not,” Rodriguez says. “I think in the past year, one that I’ve honed in…

Shane Ankeney’s illustrious career so far has taken him to multiple agency ports of call: six years at JWT, two stints at TBWA\Chiat\Day, plus time at Carmichael Lynch and Doner. He also spent close to six years at media agency Initiative before heading to Havas Media Group in 2015, where he is president of North America. A member of the 2017 Adweek 50 cohort, Ankeney has been in the business of momentum for clients and helped develop Havas HealthMedia, a robust agency practice that initially served Bristol-Myers Squibb, only to grow with the addition of other clients like Sanofi. Today, Ankeney also oversees the entirety of Havas’ New York office, the anchor for Havas Village, which includes agencies, creative and media under the same purview. According to Ankeney, there are…

At Enter, an experiential agency founded by Zev Norotsky in 2014 and formerly in partnership with BMF, caffeine’s a big part of the company’s DNA—and not just for the usual reasons. Its Los Angeles headquarters is a coffee shop dubbed Agency Coffee Co., which Enter opened with La Colombe as a partner. For Norotsky, it’s one of the ways he’s innovated on the agency front. The second? He developed another partnership with 19 York, a holding company based in Sausalito, Calif. Enter gets a “front row seat” to see what projects and deals 19 York is working on, as well as a chance to work with any of these brands. It’s exactly what Norotsky wants for his company and his career: the ability to pick and choose which clients are…

J.P. Aguirre is the first member of his family to go to college and the first Latino on UM’s global leadership team. The 39-year-old’s most significant accomplishment, however, is the continued success of UM, which is now San Francisco’s largest full-service media agency thanks, in large part, to the 25 clients added to its roster during his nine-year tenure. “When I inherited the office, we were kind of in a state of free fall,” he notes, with San Francisco losing Microsoft global and Wells Fargo digital as New York picked up Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson. Aguirre says one of his favorite efforts from the past year is an execution that took its cues from the temperature. “In Chicago, any time the temperature dips below 30 degrees,” he says, “our…

When it comes to the birds and the bees, most people would agree that a talk between parents and their children is a good idea. Of course, nudging Mom and Dad to start that squirmy discussion is another matter entirely. Three decades ago, Planned Parenthood devised a novel way to try. In fall 1986, billboards and bus posters popped up around Baltimore featuring an inquisitive prepubescent boy posing the question: “What’s an orgy?” Adweek, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, was among the many media outlets to say uh-oh over this one. Though the tagline made clear the campaign’s noble intent (“If your kids aren’t asking you, they may be asking for trouble”), Baltimore nevertheless “erupted” over the ads, we reported. Why had Planned Parenthood chosen Baltimore? Charm…

Nadalie Dias joined Hearts & Science in September 2017 and before the end of 2018 was promoted to her current role as senior director of digital activation, a critical leadership position on the AT&T account overseeing a team of 45. Her career trajectory is especially impressive for someone who says she “fell into advertising” after taking a year off to study for the MCATs in preparation for medical school. Before landing at Hearts & Science, Dias was at 360i, where she particularly enjoyed working on Spotify, which she called “an important step in my career” because it was such a large global account. At Hearts & Science, she helped create tools from programmatic data and behavioral signals to allow AT&T to maximize its total video reach while increasing the flexibility…

The true value that Digitas provides to clients is right there in its name: digital media. And as the Publicis network’s newly promoted chief media officer, Clint Simpson brings a disparate group of talent around the world together to deliver against brands’ changing needs. Since March, Simpson has led the global media practice for Digitas clients like Whirlpool and Taco Bell—and in the last year alone, he helped add Macy’s, Dunkin’ and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway smash School of Rock to that roster. The skill sets on his team range from data science and media technology to programmatic expertise as they adapt to a demanding client set that has led Digitas to call itself the “Connected Marketing Agency.” “[We have] a diverse set of capabilities, which means we can quickly…

In the 17 years that Jeff Pray has spent at Starcom MediaVest Group, he has embodied a teamwork ethos. But that philosophy was put to the test when Lionsgate joined because the movie industry doesn’t sleep, so neither could Starcom. Meanwhile, Red Bull had also just joined the agency. While Starcom was onboarding both accounts, Lionsgate was launching movies “at the same time, and opening weekends don’t wait for the media team to be ready,” Pray, an entertainment and pop-culture junkie, recalls. “So we buckled up, ramped up fast and got the job done with great results.” In the Los Angeles office, Pray preaches the importance of data. And with the transition away from traditional channels, finding the data that really matters has become crucial. The terms “OTT, CTV and…

GUIDING BRANDS AS CONSUMERS EVOLVE. LaToya Christian is largely responsible for promoting the growth of multicultural audiences through nuanced data and media strategy. Though she adopted her current role only last November, Christian has spent the past four years flexing her strength in synthesizing data on demographics often overlooked in advertising, like black, Latinx and LGBTQ consumers. AARP, for instance, tapped Christian for assistance reaching the Latinx market. Her media strategy helped grow brand awareness in the demo by 34% and renewal rates by 10%. Her data-driven approach (and the results) indicates that representation does matter, especially in advertising. Christian and her team also leverage data that helps brands remain mindful of the evolving consumer terrain. Gender fluidity, for example, is not only rising in the public’s consciousness but is…

On Nov. 9, 1976, a local story from Washington, D.C., managed to land in newspapers across the country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that Smokey the Bear, age 26, had died at the National Zoo. He’d gone, the obituary read, to “that great honey tree in the sky.” That was 43 years ago, but it was not the end of Smokey. The black bear who died at the zoo was a real-life casting of a character who’d existed even longer. In fact, Smokey is the star of the longest-running public service campaign in American history. He turns 75 this summer. “Smokey Bear [is] truly a beloved icon that we’ve seen stand the test of time,” said Lisa Sherman, president and CEO of the Ad Council. “As new modes of…

Boutique hotels—distinguished by their small size, swank décor and personalized service—are a $16 billion industry nowadays. Little wonder that chain hotels have gotten into the act, with grizzled industry players like Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott opening boutique concepts such as Curio, Andaz and Le Meridien, respectively. But none of those behemoths would have gotten hip to the boutique approach were it not for Ian Schrager, the reclusive moneyman behind Studio 54. After serving his time in a federal pen for cooking the discotheque’s books, Schrager bought Manhattan’s crumbling Paramount hotel in 1986 and transformed it into an elegant auberge whose lobby of Venetian stucco, velvet sofas and fulsome flower arrangements set the stage for a hipster scene that helped to rescue Times Square. In the years to come, Schrager replicated…