Table of contents for April 12, 2021 in Adweek

What’s the most innovative thing you’re currently working on? Leading social media strategy for a streaming service affords me the opportunity to work on so many innovative projects as Hulu sits at the intersection of technology and storytelling. This week, we launched our new brand campaign, “Time To Have Hulu.” In a world with too many decisions for TV viewers, our new spot highlights the earthshattering moments consumers have when they realize Hulu has everything they love in one app—all their favorite shows and movies, premium channels, Hulu Originals, Live TV and even Live Sports. With this innovative and highly creative 360 campaign, we share why Hulu is truly the indispensable streaming service. From high-impact social to experiential augmented reality, our new brand campaign is truly disruptive. (Huge kudos to…

Despite the success of trailblazing brands like Jay-Z’s Armand de Brignac (also known as Ace of Spaces), Bethenny Frankel’s Skinnygirl Cocktails and Cîroc Vodka, which Sean “Diddy” Combs led to success, the world of celebrity-owned alcohol brands remains predominantly white—and overwhelmingly male. And while many new entrants are reinforcing that lopsided majority, a few Black-owned and Black-run brands have made it their mission to improve opportunity for women and people of color in the space. Lobos 1707 tequila, led by CEO Dia Simms and owned in part by LeBron James, built diversity and inclusion into its brand positioning. Actor Jamie Foxx’s BSB-Brown Sugar Bourbon is aiming to “change the world” and the beverage industry as a Black-led and Black-owned brand while ensuring that it offers a unique story and product…

As the pandemic accelerates the decline of physical shopping malls across America, a new form of virtual space is emerging to provide a futuristic version of the commercial and social experience these institutions once offered young people. While definitions vary for this socalled Metaverse, it usually involves a shared online world of some sort, often depicted with video game-like graphics and populated by digital avatars. Until recently, these worlds have primarily served as hosting grounds for massive multiplayer online gaming platforms like Fortnite and the Roblox game creation service. But now, as gamers have signaled their willingness to spend big on ingame items and quarantine measures have pushed more people into these spaces, the platforms behind them are expanding into areas like virtual apparel, social networking and education. Users on…

How did you get to where you are today? Any noteworthy “aha” moments along the way? Starting my small creative shop, marrón, with my long-time co-conspirator sprang from me not finding fulfillment in the job I had at the time. I needed to find a way to really stretch in a direction that would cause growth and craft narratives through a Black and brown lens, hence the name. These side projects caused me to find a way to pepper the gumbo to my taste. When you don’t like the job you have, make the job you want. ‘When you don’t like the job you have, make the job you want.’ What’s the most innovative thing you’re currently working on? Trying to crack the code on how to make this space…

ASK JUST ABOUT ANY AGENCY what its greatest asset is, and the answer, invariably, will be its people. That was never truer than in 2020, when clients faced critical questions about how best to reach consumers, or even fundamentally reinvent their business, while reacting to the pandemic. These marketers leaned on agency partners for support, and media agencies played a particularly important role. In the early days of the pandemic, that meant a rush to pursue or cancel planned media buys. In the months that followed, these agencies steered clients through the crisis with timely information on how consumers were reacting across different regions and verticals and helped reimagine ecommerce capabilities and consumer relationships. Agencies introduced new tools and practices in 2020 that will be vital going forward. In the process,…

A 20-year media pro who leads a team of 90-plus people, Holmes was a key player in landing $760 million worth of new business (billings expected in 2021) during the chaos of 2020 while steering clients like Bose and Expedia Group’s Hotels.com through the challenges of the public health crisis. Hotels.com, like many in the hard-hit hospitality industry, had to rip up its marketing playbook a year ago to deal with a world on lockdown. With guidance from Holmes, Hotels.com pulled 95% of its global media commitments as nonessential travel was “forbidden, restricted or socially unacceptable” and hatched a plan on “when and how to get back into market,” says Shannon Haydel, director of global media for the brand. The advice, given via Holmes’ characteristically “calm, in-control demeanor,” helped the…

Leung Cain firmly believes that if something matters to you, you can make time for it, and during her more than 16 years in the industry, she has done just that with a “really big passion for understanding consumers.” Leung Cain has had a hand in shaping media strategies for major brands including MTV, VH1, National Geographic and Ulta Beauty. Her dedication to keeping up with the ever-evolving nature of consumer media behavior came in handy when ViacomCBS networks became available to stream on YouTube TV last year. She used that knowledge to bring in new viewers and, as a result, views across networks from partners including YouTube TV increased by more than 400%. Jyoti Menon Varkey, vice president, marketing, media strategy and partnerships, MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo at ViacomCBS,…

After nearly a decade as MediaCom’s global chief digital officer, McGlashan is ready for her next challenge. At MediaCom, she built and led teams across activation, consulting, strategy and technology services. And last year, such digital operations rapidly evolved. In 2020, MediaCom either evolved or “reinvented” its activation, systems tech and consulting practices, which McGlashan claims “serve as key components of how MediaCom helps clients see the bigger picture.” McGlashan’s leadership behind MediaCom’s digital operations played an important role in the agency’s ability to attract new clients last year to the tune of $1.6 billion in new business revenue and expand existing relationships, including Uber’s global consolidation. “I have known Deirdre for probably about 20 years and have worked with her across several continents,” says Maarten Albarda, a former client…

Leaning on her experience developing communications strategies based on inclusive audience-centric insights to deliver authentic stories, Morales partners with Horizon’s internal client teams to lead and advise brands on multicultural marketing efforts. In 2020, Morales says, she developed “cultural programs and workshops fostering diversity and inclusive thinking, [partnered] with brands to reinvent multicultural storytelling and [established] an inclusive planning approach that emphasizes similarities and the interconnectedness of diverse groups rather than the lines that divide them.” Last year, Morales worked on Potential Energy Coalition’s “Vote Like a Madre” campaign to engage Hispanic women voters that helped influence over 800,000 Latinas to vote in Arizona. She also currently sits on the 4A’s committee tasked with introducing an inclusive approach to planning and buying to reach diverse audiences. “Edwina has been instrumental…

Late on the night of April 14, 1912, a distress call crackled over the wireless in the radio shack atop Wanamaker’s Department Store in Manhattan. For the next three days, a 21-year-old operator stayed awake at his key, compiling a list of survivors of the Titanic. His name was David Sarnoff. Today, most people have never heard of America’s first electronic media titan. That’s unfortunate, since Sarnoff not only envisioned AM radio as early as 1916, but it was he who—as general manager of RCA—broadcast the Georges Carpentier-Jack Dempsey boxing fight that made millions of people buy a radio. Sarnoff next brokered the deal that created NBC and hosted its first broadcast from the 1939 World’s Fair. The mogul’s final coup would come after WWII when Sarnoff (shown here with…

Adweek’s annual March Adness tournament drew in hundreds of thousands of votes and millions of spectators on social media. Despite stunning turnouts from fans of brands including Sour Patch Kids, McDonald’s and Aviation Gin, Slim Jim emerged as the victor against Oreo in the championship round. While many competitors called on fellow brands to fuel votes, Slim Jim rallied its army of meme-happy fans, demonstrating the power of, in the words of brand leaders, “community over cookies.”…

MEDIAWEEK A decade ago, Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek were folded into what you see here, the latter two put into a deep freeze in our newsroom and their long-term fate uncertain. It was the end of an era for those of us who bled blue—the signature colors of Adweek’s scrappy siblings Mediaweek (for ad buyers and sellers) and Brandweek (for marketers). But the move had merit, given the growing momentum of a digitally converging media and marketing landscape. Enter Big Tech. With powerful new technologies and groundbreaking AI-based tools, marketing usurped advertising as a key performance lever to target consumers and drive ROI. The business of brand marketing took center stage, and the revival of Brandweek as a summit in 2018 was a no-brainer. This extraordinary event has grown into…

SET YOUR OWN JOB CRITERIA I learned through the job search process to be comfortable with my own set of criteria as to what I wanted most out of the next job. What can I bring to the table that the business would appreciate the most in the sum of all my skills and experiences? Sometimes it’s outside of the boundaries of what people think is the next right move. As marketers, we are constantly calibrating against that list of scope, industry, product. To become more confident and anchored in what I think I can do best for businesses is the primary criteria of how I think about opportunities. LOOK BEYOND THE RESUME WHEN HIRING TALENT I almost didn’t get [my previous] job at YouTube. The initial feedback was, “Your…

After nearly a decade as MediaCom’s U.S. CEO, Sasha Savic faced the kind of challenges in 2020 for which no amount of experience can truly prepare you. Savic’s approach to guiding MediaCom through the pandemic centered on prioritizing and trusting in the agency’s people and working tirelessly as a partner for clients, all of which resulted, against all odds, in MediaCom’s ninth consecutive year of growth under his leadership. In the early days of the pandemic, Savic found himself wearing many hats and reaching out to each of the agency’s clients personally to ensure he was doing everything he could to support them. “For the first three months, I was junior media planner in the morning, strategy director during lunch and marketing partner for CEOs after dinner,” Savic says. “The…

After more than 25 years working with brands such as Kimberly-Clark and SC Johnson, Lee is still finding new things to learn. Last year, she helped Wavemaker secure nearly $1 billion in business, onboarded three new clients and helped lead a campaign to get people to fill out the U.S. census. For Lee, 2020 was a learning experience, not only in terms of adjusting to remote work but also figuring out how to reach 300 million Americans. “Rarely do you get the opportunity to work on a campaign where your target audience is all U.S. adults,” she says. “It was a different way of looking at things because you’re trying to get a very broad audience to take an action.” After initiatives like advertising on pizza boxes and arranging for…

Amid the national protests following the police killing of George Floyd, Reprise’s Harris and UM’s Lowcock started discussing how to address social media platforms’ role in spreading hate and misinformation. For Harris, as a Black American leading social operations for a major holding company agency buying media on channels he felt weren’t doing enough, the crisis was deeply personal. “I had this feeling that I couldn’t persist in my professional role without addressing the task at hand, the reticence for social platforms to self-regulate to match reforms occurring in the general market,” he says. As major marketers trumpeted Facebook boycotts only to silently return to the social network months later, Harris and Lowcock decided to pursue a broader approach for IPG Mediabrands. “All the platforms are flawed. I’ve seen [brand…

Sometimes the change you plan for prepares you for what you can’t see coming. Manas joined OMD as chief media officer in 2019 after leading Omnicom Media Group performance arm Resolution Media. He quickly got to work leading the integration of more than 440 performance marketing and data science resources into OMD. As a result, the agency was able to evolve its planning process to center on audiences rather than media channels while giving clients greater access to performance capabilities, Manas says. That transformation set the agency up to help clients deal with disruption, allowed OMD to double down on ecommerce solutions and led to opportunities in data and mar-tech consulting—OMD’s fastest-growing product, according to Manas. Since last June, Manas’ approach helped drive $800 million in new business from clients…

Walrus chose Gordon, who showed expertise in brand and performance marketing as evp of performance strategy at Media Assembly, to head up its in-house media practice in 2019, a move that paid off amid the challenges of 2020. Gordon restructured his department and brought on new talent to increase analytics, reporting and technology capabilities and strengthened search capabilities—essential for the $1 million-$10 million clients Walrus works with. His leadership helped the practice grow by 200% in 2020, becoming more profitable despite the pandemic. “As the industry was contracting, we found a way to hustle and provide value for existing clients while putting ourselves in a position to win four new pieces of business in the last 12 months [including Jet Edge and Finding Northwest Arkansas Council],” Gordon says. The agency’s…

The Empower team made a lot of bets on innovation and measurement over the past several years that paid off during the pandemic with Derrow leading the way. He built four of Empower’s marquee products, including its EMerge platform that combines and analyzes first- and third-party data and research to map the consumer journey and help clients find optimal moments to engage with audiences, as well as digital marketing and programmatic buying platforms. Collectively, these products helped drive agency growth of approximately 20% in 2020. The agency welcomed new clients including American Standard, The Body Shop and GoDaddy while expanding its remit as media AOR for PetSmart to include digital, and its Chicago office nearly doubled in size. Empower CEO Jim Price says Derrow—who worked his way up over 16…

Clubhouse, the social audio app that’s taken the internet by storm, is reportedly worth $4 billion. But there are still serious questions around the future of the app. Facebook, Spotify, Twitter, LinkedIn and Discord are all developing rival products, a daunting prospect for Clubhouse, which has about 16 million iOS downloads since it debuted a year ago. The app is still invite-only and exclusive to iPhones, missing out on a large chunk of the mobile market. And perhaps the biggest question is behavioral: Does social audio have legs, or will it die out once the pandemic fades away?…

Thirty-five of the industry’s foremost media and marketing executives will make up the first class of the Mediaweek Council. The council’s mission will be to amplify best practices and forward-thinking methods for the ad-buying space. Brand safety, transparency, targeting and scalability across platforms will be top of mind for the council, who will also help guide Adweek’s own coverage of the rapidly changing business landscape. “The next era of media must work harder to create a healthier advertising ecosystem for everyone, especially the people viewing it,” said Christian Juhl, global CEO of WPP’s GroupM, who will serve as the council’s chair. “In reshaping the future of our industry, every part of the system is dependent upon each other to succeed. Working together allows us to find new solutions for the…

IN LESS THAN FIVE YEARS, Raquel Wilbun went from being an account assistant focused on print media to juggling three accounts as integrated media supervisor for IPG’s Mediahub. Wilbun wasn’t looking to pursue a career in advertising when she graduated from college. But after a few years in government and politics she felt burned out, and the IPG media agency is all the more fortunate because of it. Looking for a fresh start, Wilbun landed her first advertising job at Novus Media as an account assistant before moving on to a position as a strategist on the S.C. Johnson account for PHD. She joined Mediahub as a planner three years ago, and since then, she has quickly become a rising star. After building relationships with clients Ulta Beauty and Wyndham…

Backenstose successfully navigated 2020 by focusing on a handful of core principles. “Nobody had a playbook for this,” he says, “but if you had the fundamentals, client trust and a strong team in place, you could execute a strategic change of direction quickly and with a far greater chance of success.” And Backenstose repeatedly found success for Wavemaker’s clients. When Covid-19 prevented Yeti, maker of coolers and insulated drinkware, from screening a handful of short films on a national tour, Backenstose put them in front of large audiences through partnerships with CBS and Vice. In addition to helping DoorDash become the official on-demand delivery platform of the NBA, WNBA and NBA 2K League, Backenstose secured the brand’s first Super Bowl spot. Last March, Wavemaker helped bring DoorDash’s “Open For Delivery”…

Connington was on a train with colleagues on the way back from a leadership meeting in Boston in March 2020 when the coronavirus arrived in the U.S. Connington recalls everyone talking about the effects of the outbreak in other parts of the world and one colleague floating the idea of building a model to predict the impact the virus would have on UM clients’ industries and businesses. “We kind of laughed it off at the time, and then about a week later, Covid hit,” Connington says. Reflecting on the conversation, she examined search trends UM was seeing globally and started comparing and correlating them. Soon, Connington and her team had built the Consumer Demand Forecaster (CDF), a tool that tracks recovery patterns across the world and search trends in the…

Joining Starcom directly out of college, Hawes built his career (and met his wife) at the agency, working his way in 14 years from media associate to vp, brand content director of LiquidThread. Then, he left for five years, during which he worked with satirical digital media company The Onion and did a short stint at Omnicom. Hawes says his return to Starcom a little over a year ago felt like a “homecoming.” But he picked up some valuable insights from the writers at The Onion that help shape his content strategy today. “They’re able to take really complex social-political issues and boil them down to relatable human insights,” he says. “That’s what we’re trying to do as marketers.” That perspective drives Hawes’ creative approach to branded content work with…

In the early years of the 20th century, millions of Americans were afraid to eat meat. It had nothing to do with religion or health mandates. It was because of The Jungle. A fictionalized account of journalist Upton Sinclair’s real-life experiences in the Chicago stockyards, the book featured stomach-turning scenes of meatpacking workers rubbing rotten meat with baking soda to remove bad smells and making canned meat last longer by dumping in dead rats. While the book did result in the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, fears lingered. Few understood this better than a man named Edgar Waldo “Billy” Ingram. Ingram was an insurance man searching for a new career. His friend Walter Anderson, who’d run a few hamburger stands in Wichita, Kan., convinced him…