Table of contents for September 20, 2021 in Adweek

As a gatekeeper for some of the hottest names among digitally native startups at communications agency The Lead PR, Casey McDonald has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the direct-to-consumer world. Not only does he manage media relations for accounts such as menswear label Mack Weldon and athleisure brand Vuori, but he has also snared new business for his firm, including fast-growing men’s skin care line Lumin and beverage company Olipop. This past spring, McDonald’s hard work led to a promotion to vice president, where he manages a team across the agency’s New York and Los Angeles offices. “On any given morning, I might find myself drafting an annual strategy for an apparel brand, pitching a story about cryptocurrency in a foreign market, facilitating a high-stakes media interview…

CMOs are facing doubt within their organizations that they can drive growth. Time is increasingly committed to counseling CEOs who believe they have a marketing challenge. And they’re not alone—other C-suite executives are expressing the same concerns about their CMOs, indicating an industrywide dilemma about the perception of chief marketers. The data is startling. According to research by Deloitte, only 26% of CMOs are being regularly invited to attend board meetings, and Spencer Stuart has reported that CMOs continue to have the shortest tenure on average of any member of the C-suite at 40 months. The profession is increasingly under fire. As the alarming realities of declining tenure and lack of trustworthiness dawn for CMOs, there is also a drought of resources to diagnose and solve these issues. Without a…

SET THE VISION AND LEAD THE WAY As the CMO, you’re responsible for setting the vision and empowering the team to help execute and bring a vision to life. As any leader in the organization that sits at a senior level, you have to inspire the team with the vision. You have to create a story of what the brand can become, where the brand can go, where you want to take customers, how you can make customers’ lives better. And I think as part of that, as a CMO, you have to be able to tell that story. C-SUITE LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT HIRING GREAT PEOPLE I always joke that once you get to the C-suite level, 90% of your job is the C, 10% is management. Whether you’re marketing,…

When the pandemic first confined much of the world to homes early last year, TikTok was among a handful of apps that were perfectly positioned to capture the zeitgeist. Suddenly desperate for new creative and communication outlets, millions of people found one in the platform’s easy-to-use, audio-centric videos. As the app’s new head of global marketing at the time, Nick Tran had the task of harnessing the explosive momentum the app was experiencing by sifting through a vast user base and packaging its wide-ranging creativity into campaigns that defined the app’s newfound place in the cultural conversation. “People were proactively seeking out ways to be entertained and to have elements of normalcy to enjoy,” Tran says. “We saw the organic trends developing, and we recognized that insight that so many…

A public gesture of empathy can have a profound impact on the community it’s meant to serve. Plenty of marketers would agree with that bit of wisdom—but when the community in question happens to be transgender and nonbinary, you’re likely to find few marketing executives with the courage to make that public gesture. One of them, however, is Raja Rajamannar. In 2019, Mastercard’s marketing department learned that nearly a third of adults who showed identification cards with names or genders that didn’t match those by which they identify suffered negative experiences as a result. Rajamannar and his team recognized the obvious ramifications for the company: Credit and debit cardholders could well be grilled by suspicious cashiers or otherwise publicly embarrassed. The remedy was “True Name,” a program that let trans…

A broken bone is never a minor thing, but for Connor Insula it was life-changing. It happened when Insula was flying around on his skateboard at London’s Crystal Palace Skatepark. “I was having a good time with the homies,” he said later. “Then, out of nowhere, I slipped … and took the whole impact on my left wrist.” Laid up at home, a bummed out Insula began making art to fight the boredom. To his surprise, he discovered he was good at it. One piece especially stands out—a bookcase featuring two oversize plaster bones, the ulna and the radius—the same type of bones Insula broke. Insula’s story is more than just an anecdote from a lad in South London. His bookcase joins 79 other sculptures, drawings, music videos and digital…

Americans have much to thank Canada for inventing. There’s insulin, for example, and the pacemaker. A trio of Canadian filmmakers developed the Imax format in 1967, and a Nova Scotian inventor named Samuel McKeen gave us the odometer. Then there’s a pioneer named Ron McClellan, who told Canada’s CTV in 2015: “I never expected that my creation would circle the globe.” That globe-trotting creation was the McFlurry. In 1995, McClellan, a McDonald’s franchisee in the New Brunswick town of Bathurst, threw some candy into a cup of vanilla soft serve, whipped it up and—voila!—a new dessert was born. “Bathurst has given a lot to McDonald’s guests around the world,” McDonald’s Canada CEO John Betts said on the occasion of the item’s 20th birthday—and he wasn’t kidding. McFlurry shakes are now…

EVEN WITH THE POST-9/11 RECESSION AND 2008’S ECONOMIC MELTDOWN IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR, few economic calamities matched the speed and dread that accompanied the coronavirus. Last year, as service-sector businesses shuttered and layoffs spread like brushfire, America’s GDP took a nauseating tumble of 3.5%. The first half of this year saw a rebound in consumer spending, but not until multiple quarters of profit had vanished into the ether. The last 18 months, in other words, were hardly the sort of period most brands (unless they’re Amazon) would have viewed as an opportunity. And yet, time and again, marketers have proven that few things can foster resilience and creativity quite like a crisis. In this section, you’ll meet 10 of them who proved it. They’re the 2021 recipients of Adweek’s Brand Genius…

‘Our athlete partnerships transcend sport. We take time to find the right partners who have shared values.’ It was one of those news stories that sent shock waves through the business world as much as the sports one. In April, gymnast Simone Biles put her name behind Athleta. Not only was Biles—a seven-time Olympic medalist who also holds 19 golds from world championship competition—among the most famous athletes of the era, but she also walked away from her Nike deal to join the Gap-owned athleisure label. In the annals of celebrity endorsement, it was nothing short of a coup. And for the company, it was a strategic masterstroke on the part of CEO Mary Beth Laughton. “Our athlete partnerships transcend sport,” Laughton tells Adweek. “We take time to find the…

When Barbara Messing joined Roblox as its first chief marketing officer last September, her mandate came directly from CEO Dave Baszucki: Evangelize Roblox’s mission to expand the online gaming, entertainment and gathering platform to include everyday activities. Museum tours. Book talks. Workplace meetings. Strolls through art galleries. And games, of course. In other words, Messing’s brief was to promote the metaverse. That techno-utopian term describes a fully digital world in which people can actually live and, for the uninitiated, it’s a tough concept to understand. But the past year and a half—a time in which millions of us conducted large parts of our lives in a virtual world—has made it much easier. The idea of Lil Nas X giving a concert performance as an avatar might have felt a little…

‘You see it—the pressure that is on underrepresented minorities where you feel like you’re not just representing yourself, but you’re representing so much.’ During the 2019 holiday season, Peloton released a spot showing a yuppie husband gifting his already slim and attractive wife a web-connected stationary exercise bike—one she dutifully rode on the hardwood floors of the couple’s manse in the woods. “Peloton Wife,” as the ad became known, wasn’t just denounced as sexist and then turned into gin-commercial fodder by Ryan Reynolds; it painted the fitness brand as exclusive, elitist and woefully out of touch. That is not the Peloton that Dara Treseder, svp, head of global marketing and communications, knows today. Fresh off a two-year stint as CMO of digital manufacturing company Carbon, Treseder (one of Adweek’s Women…

If you happen to be in the travel industry, you don’t need anyone to remind you that 2020 was a nightmare. With Covid-19 on a rampage and millions of Americans logging extra hours in hopes of keeping their jobs, summer vacations were the last thing on people’s minds. In fact, according to September 2020 survey by LendingTree, 72% of Americans simply didn’t take one. That was tough news for the likes of Vrbo, the vacation rental platform that depends on—that’s right—vacations. But fortunately for the brand, vp of global brand marketing Lish Kennedy was on the job. It was Kennedy and her team who sensed an opportunity lurking in a socially distant, professional workforce. Realizing that the cubicle classes might not want to take time off but desperately wanted a…

ABC Its reboot of The Wonder Years “is a show that, as families return to viewing in the fall, we think people of all ages are going to love,” said Erwich. CBS New franchise spinoffs NCIS: Hawai’i, FBI: International and CSI: Vegas “check every single box for success in the current TV landscape,” said Kahl. Fox Drama The Big Leap should appeal to people who “need a second chance” due to the pandemic, Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier told Adweek in May. NBC Sinkhole thriller La Brea “really does feel like a big family event show; a big, four-quadrant show,” said Berwick.…

How did you get to where you are today? I started my career in magazine editorial and eventually got my MBA at Columbia. It gave me the financial and business acumen to be a better marketer, as well as an incredible network of classmates. From there, I was lucky enough to work with incredible brands at a series of agencies, which was like going to school all over again. Tell us about what you are doing now. I’m responsible for telling the world about Shopify. Ultimately, it means elevating the stories of the 1.7 million merchants on our platform, each of whom have their own unique, inspiring journeys. ‘Don’t put pressure on yourself to fit into someone else’s idea of balance.’ During the pandemic, we saw stories of entrepreneurial resilience,…

Jennifer Lopez grew up dreaming big dreams, and unlike many who aspire to a career in music, TV or film, this sui generis creative force from the South Bronx proved she could in fact do it all. And she did it by staying true to herself. Adweek’s 2021 Brand Visionary has lived her life out loud and on her own terms, becoming one of the most recognizable women in the world. “Jennifer is a natural artist, creator and founder who does a lot of things great,” notes longtime manager Benny Medina, CEO, The Medina Company. “She is limitless. She is resilient. Authenticity is her brand, and with that she chooses to use her influence to help provide others with opportunity and to enhance their lives. Making things better, more beautiful…

Petco’s erstwhile CMO Tariq Hassan is the first to admit that his job’s probably been easier than most CMOs. “People have this incredibly emotional commitment to their pets,” he says. “As a result, it allows us to create a very different dialogue with the customer.” And it’s that dialogue that’s building relationships—and fueling growth. In Q1 2021, for example, revenue was up 27% to $1.4 billion. That’s despite a pandemic that, for many retailers with a brick-and-mortar presence, has spelled doom or close to it. Petco, however, weathered the storm of 2020 and emerged arguably stronger than it was before the chaos began. How? In a word, wellness. As it turns out, that consumer buzzword applies to pets, too. Even before Covid-19, Petco had been making itself into a one-stop,…

Americans hunting for a new vehicle last fall might have been surprised when visiting Subaru’s homepage. Instead of seeing the usual colorful shots of the automaker’s Forester, Outback or Crosstrek models, they instead encountered photos of Pogo, Wuzzle and Elmer. They were dogs—and not just any dogs. Some were senior mutts. Elmer happened to be blind. Pogo was an amputee. Welcome to Subaru Loves Pets month. Throughout October, more than 500 Subaru retailers held or sponsored adoption events, helping nearly 23,000 animals find homes. Almost one in five of the rescued pets were dogs with special needs. Rather than hit the brakes on its philanthropic activity during the pandemic—an understandable reaction, given the catastrophic sales year 2020 turned out to be—the company was proud to do “exactly the opposite,” according…

When Sweta Patel joined Roku in March 2020, she was immediately tasked with growing platform engagement and the company’s AVOD service—The Roku Channel—just as Covid-19 locked down the country. Patel may not have had experience dealing with a pandemic, but she was prepared in every other respect. Born in India and one of six children, Patel grew up in London before starting a 20-plus-year career in the media entertainment field, ascending through corporate posts at Comcast, Cox, Disney, Hulu and Apple. “All of those roles have always focused on helping departments grow,” Patel says. “I’ve always gone in there when there hasn’t been someone running a targeted marketing or CRM team, and they really wanted to focus on getting their marketing to be efficient.” Efficient marketing—which for Patel means moving…

Celebrities endorsing big brands is not a new thing. In the early 1900s, no less a personage than Mark Twain affixed his name to items like whiskey and shaving kits. It’s rarely seemed to trouble brands that their chosen stars might not have many—or any—qualifications to hawk what they’re selling. (What did Tom Selleck know about reverse mortgages, anyway?) But back in the 1970s, Harley Davidson found the most qualified celebrity endorser imaginable in the form of one Robert Craig (“Evel”) Knievel. Clad in his white jumpsuit and cape, the daredevil motorcyclist soared over cars, buses, rattlesnakes and even the fountains in the Caesar’s Palace parking lot. His trusty steed? A Harley-Davidson XR-750. So long as Knievel provided the show, Harley happily furnished the bikes—plus sponsorship money, of course. And…