Table of contents for November 26, 2018 in Adweek

Instead of having the traditional roast from a comedian emcee, the WHCA has tapped historian Ron Chernow—whose 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton was the basis for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster musical—as the featured speaker at its annual dinner, set for Saturday, April 27. “Freedom of the press is always a timely subject, and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to basics,” said Chernow, who is the first non-comedian to headline the dinner since Ray Charles performed in 2003. The news came as the WHCA is gearing up for another potential First Amendment face-off with the White House, which restored the “hard pass” of CNN’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta following a federal lawsuit earlier this month. But now the White House is instituting new rules for journalists—including…

In pulling together the reimagined Brandweek symposium this past spring and summer we learned a great deal about programming, and hosting, an ambitious thought leadership summit devoted to brand marketers. As part of that journey, we also learned a lot about the evolving brand marketing ecosystem. One of the most interesting and important insights we picked up was that there is an entire class of brands bubbling up behind classic disrupters like Airbnb, Dollar Shave Club, Uber, Warby Parker and others. These are growing, highly nimble companies that are seeing and claiming white space with aggressive and data-informed creativity and entrepreneurialism. Internally we started calling them Challenger Brands, and in short order created a track for Brandweek to feature some of these players ranging from the Drone Racing League to…

Ask any marketer about data and watch how fast they salivate. However marketers collect data—either directly from consumers or purchased through data miners—the advertising industry just can’t get enough of those bits of bytes. Otherwise, how would they sell their wares? The passage of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, though, is proving to be an inflection point for the future of data collection. GDPR, which went into effect in May, imposed limits on how companies can collect and use personal data, and determined that data ownership and control is the user’s right. In the U.S., platforms and third parties still maintain ownership of the data they collect on internet users, but that could soon change. Some state and federal regulators are attempting to crack down on unfettered data…

After months of touting all of the talent it will have on hand for Fox Nation, Fox News has assembled those stars—including Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro—for a promo that plays up the new offering’s “members-only” feel. The ad, which will begin airing Nov. 27, the same day the service launches, on Fox News and Fox Business Network, includes almost all of the talent that will be featured on Fox Nation as they gather at an exclusive club to drink, shoot pool and share laughs. In addition to featuring exclusive content from many of Fox News’ most popular stars, Fox Nation will hold “fan engagement events” regularly around the country.…

In June, Forrester revealed in its Customer Experience Index that satisfaction has fallen for a second year in a row, despite the fact that satisfaction is known as one of the biggest predictors of brand preference and differentiation. What’s missing? We’re not considering emotion and context, meaning we’re not thinking of customers as people. As we move into a cognitive age, this is a big deal. Artificial intelligence is only as good as the information it’s provided. If we’re ignoring major swaths of customer data, like how they feel and what they’re trying to do, then technology can’t reach its full potential. As marketers, we’re familiar with demographic and demand generation data, and for years have used it to make assumptions about our target audiences. Emotional data at scale has…

Despite being the world’s biggest retailer—more than 11,000 stores and over 100 million unique web visitors per month—Walmart views itself as a scrappy challenger in the ecommerce space dominated by titans like Alibaba and Amazon. In recent years, the company has undergone an ambitious transformation as it expands in the digital realm, tapping cyber-savvy executives Andy Dunn and Barbara Messing to help lead the way. Dunn joined Walmart in June 2017, after the company’s $310 million purchase of men’s apparel brand Bonobos, which he founded a decade earlier and led as CEO. Now, leading Walmart’s digital brands, Dunn drives a whirlwind of activity. A flurry of acquisitions—including fashion players Eloquii and ModCloth, along with in-house launches such as mattress and bedding startup Allswell—have boosted Walmart’s digital cachet, with its online…

The first thing to know about Stink Studios is that there’s no narrative surrounding its eyebrow-raising name. The founders thought about making up a fake origin story, but it turns out it’s just a combination of the names of two merging production companies: Blink and Stillking. While it started as a digital shop in London in 2009, Stink decided to take on the “Studio” moniker two years ago as a way to show it handles more than just websites. Now, the company has about 125 employees worldwide, with offices in Berlin, Los Angeles, New York and Shanghai. This past year, content creation has been a key focus for the company, working with brands such as Strava to create new ways for users to engage with each other through “kudos,” with…

IHeartMedia is buying programmatic advertising startup Jelli to help it expand its digital ad capabilities. The acquisition, which the company announced today, builds on the past two years of testing since iHeart first began using Jelli’s platform in 2016. The technology allows iHeart to use consumer data to target listeners across 250 platforms and 2,000 devices while also adding attribution capabilities. According to iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman, Jelli lets advertisers create impression-based media buys. Pittman added the company has been disrupted by Facebook and Google, but Jelli’s platform will help it and its more than 850 stations better compete.…

A few years ago, influencers may have seemed like they’d just be a flash in the pan, but the marketing approach is becoming an established technique that only continues to increase among advertisers, according to new research from IZEA’s 2018 U.S. State of the Creator Economy Study. The report found that influencer marketing is becoming nearly as much of a staple as content marketing, while TV advertising is trailing behind. “Over two-thirds of practitioners now have had direct influencer marketing experience, while less than half have had experience with TV advertising of any kind,” said Ted Murphy, founder and CEO of influencer marketing platform IZEA. “That is a notable shift from previous eras of ‘TV-first’ thinking.”…