Table of contents for May 3, 2021 in Adweek

Turner Sports and the NHL struck a deal for the league’s second TV rights package, bringing live sports to parent company WarnerMedia’s streaming service for the first time. The company is expected to pay close to $225 million per year for its seven-year NHL package, which includes three Stanley Cup finals on TNT, 72 exclusive national regular season games each season and livestreaming and simulcast rights for HBO Max. The other four Stanley Cup games will air on the Disney networks as part of a TV, streaming and media rights deal. Both deals start with the 2021-22 season and run through 2027-11 28. Disney overtook NBCUniversal as the NHL’s top television partner.…

Even in today’s ever-shifting corporate nomenclature, it’s rare to come across a title like chief true officer. This unique moniker belongs to Alvin Stafford, who is also a partner at Black-owned and minority-led marketing consultancy Think TRUE. Stafford had been in the business of multicultural, purpose- and authenticity-led marketing for 15 years before Think TRUE came to be. He was running his boutique agency, The Blueprint Collective, with a specialization in basketball, community and entertainment marketing. While playing basketball for a league in Venice Beach, Calif., Stafford met with Deb Murray (now Deb Lemon), who worked at Nike and connected him with a position managing a Nike event space. That experience taught Stafford how to market and produce events, after which Stafford started The Blueprint Collective with the capital he…

JAN. 2017 Nike Air Force 1 Scott’s enduring partnership with Nike has proven to be a match made in sneaker heaven. The Cactus Jack customization not only makes for a one-of-a-kind design, but also makes it one of the most sought-after shoes on the market. JUNE 2019 Reese’s Puffs For General Mills, Scott designed a limited-edition Reese’s Puffs box to be sold exclusively on his site. Retailing at $50, the boxes sold out within an astonishing 30 seconds. He also designed a bowl and spoon for the event, which flew off of digital shelves just as rapidly. MAR. 2020 Anheuser-Busch What stemmed from an appreciation for tequila became Cacti Agave Hard Seltzer, which rose to the top of its market within its first week of release, a running trend throughout…

When we asked Travis Scott to appear on Adweek’s May 3 cover, the multihyphenate star didn’t just say yes. He said he wanted to take over the cover. And so for the first time in my six years at the magazine, we handed the keys over to Scott and his creative team at Cactus Jack, which is doing incredible work that straddles the branding and entertainment worlds. Our only rules: 1. Scott’s face should be visible. 2. He should do literally anything else he wanted. Then everything went silent. Three weeks later, he delivered the cover you see today. Yes, he broke one rule, but no one is complaining. While you might not make out Scott’s face on the cover, his thumbprint is all over it—it’s awash in the vibrant…

How do you foster strong professional relationships as you grow in your career? For me, professional relationships are not very different from personal ones. Whatever the context is in which you meet someone, relationships are about putting the other at the center generously, empathizing with them and truly listening. When you have this kind of engagement and you focus on giving, connecting becomes natural and informal. ‘Needing help is not a sign of weakness, and reaching out for help is the best gift you can give yourself.’ What’s one way you’ve invested in yourself that’s had the most impact over the course of your career within the past year? This past year, my two biggest investments have been to prioritize my physical well-being no matter what was going on around…

With Travis Scott, no creative choice is obvious or predictable. In fact, he didn’t even want his first album to be released on CD, still the standard format of the day in 2015. “I wanted to put my album on a USB and sell it with action figures,” he tells Adweek. “But even then, people didn’t really understand. ” With only a fraction of the industry clout he has now, Scott lost the battle to publish Rodeo on a thumb drive, but he did release the accompanying action figures—a move that got the attention and respect of hip-hop legend Nas. “I was like, ‘Damn, I wish I could have thought of that,’” Nas told Scott in a conversation for Playboy in 2019. “And then I just heard your music, and…

Dance Creator of the Year (Tie) KEARA ‘KEKE’ WILSON Keara “Keke” Wilson (aka, “Keke Janajah”) established the ultimate TikTok dance challenge in 2020. Her routine perfectly matched Megan Thee Stallion’s scorching Savage with every step. The 19-year-old had been building up to her spotlight moment since she began dancing 10 years earlier, and the challenge was the first of several lightning-strike moments for Wilson that would attract the attention of Megan Thee Stallion, Beyoncé and Janet Jackson—as well as marketers. TikTok dance culture certainly didn’t begin with the #SavageChallenge, but Wilson’s work on the platform set the bar higher.—Leonardo Faierman @keke.janajah 2.5 MILLION FOLLOWERS Dance Creator of the Year (Tie) MYA NICOLE Mya Nicole achieved fame long before her TikTok dance for Cardi B’s “Up” went viral. But the 15-year-old…

They’ve all done it—Brad Pitt, Rob Lowe, Mickey Rourke, Matt Dillon, Justin Bieber and plenty more. They’ve all worn their hair tousled, donned a white T-shirt, dangled a cig from their lips, and practiced that hurt, sensitive stare. And where’d this look come from? Marlon Brando, sure, but in 1955, the classic persona of the disaffected young buck reached its apogee in the form of a 24-year-old James Dean. Had there been an internet back then, Dean would surely have been called an influencer. And now that we’ve got thousands of influencers, Dean still is one of the best. Sixty-six years after starring in Rebel Without a Cause and dying behind the wheel of his Porsche 550 Spyder, Dean continues to be the patron saint for young men in search…

Most people might see these packed bags delivered to my door by my parents throughout the pandemic as mundane and unremarkable. But it’s a love language. Each practical item says “I love you”/“I remember you”/“I’ll take care of you.” For many children of immigrants, these are unspoken phrases—because of cultural and/or language differences. But each time I welcome a packed bag, I announce my Chineseness in America: that my identity, these traditions, my family and my community are something to celebrate, not to conceal or shirk. 1 Broth to Warm Me Slow-simmered broth packed up in reusable containers recycled from restaurants. Home-cooked meals. 2 Food to Comfort Me A small dining nook showing my pandemic projects; learning the traditional “meal preps” of my mother’s hometown: a daikon radish waiting to…

Verizon just announced a new responsible marketing action plan to further diversity throughout the company’s marketing ecosystem. How is this different from your existing DEI efforts? It’s the most in-depth and comprehensive set of actions that we’ve ever taken and addresses the entire marketing ecosystem versus one channel. We spent the last 12 months identifying the biggest issues in the industry: a lack of diversity and equity within the creative supply chain; bias and stereotypes in advertising content and media; work environments that are exclusive and don’t foster retention; and content policies that allow hateful and discriminatory content. Each one of these issues is significant. Our plan takes a multifaceted approach that addresses the entire spectrum, from representation to economic investment within Verizon and with our agency partners. Agency partnership…

Of all the Americans who’ve eschewed air travel in favor of the charms of the train, perhaps none has been more loyal than a man nicknamed Amtrak Joe. Having lost his wife and daughter in an auto accident in 1972, he began commuting to his job in Washington on Amtrak—a 250-mile round trip from his home in Wilmington, Del. He made the trip every working day for 36 years. By his own reckoning, he figured he’d logged over 2 million miles on the train. Today, of course, Amtrak Joe has a new moniker. He’s President Joe Biden. Not only is the election of the 46th president good fiscal news for America’s passenger railroad—Biden’s American Jobs Plan earmarks $80 million for rail—but he’s the sort of passenger that Amtrak no doubt…