Table of contents for September 17, 2018 in Adweek

ALEXANDRA WILLIAMSON, CHIEF BRAND OFFICER, BUMBLE Adweek: How do you stay relevant and competitive while still being true to your brand? Williamson: I believe staying true to our brand has always been natural for us because we are so committed to the mission Bumble was born out of, which is to end misogyny and to hold people accountable for their actions online. This message was clear from day one of Bumble. We’re able to stay relevant and competitive because there are no other brands in the social networking space that do what we do. We were the first dating platform where women make the first move, which was far from the social norm at the time. Since our launch, we have evolved from a dating app to a social networking…

No one in our industry can ignore the seismic business and cultural shifts that are reshaping our definitions and expectations of the advertising world. One only needs to read Ken Auletta’s Frenemies book—or the annual earnings reports of the ad holding companies—to know that being an advertising agency in today’s world is fraught with peril and derogation. In fact, to many of our clients the idea of an ad agency is either anachronistic or irrelevant. In 2017, for the first time ever, four consultancies cracked the top 10 of the world’s largest agencies in the world. Consultancies are seemingly taking over ad agencies’ purview because CMOs are now hyper-focused on business growth and not just brand goals. Consultant work is less prone to being scrutinized by procurement departments that make…

Restaurants tend to put a lot of stock in founding stories. And while Shake Shack, the luxe-burger phenom, has a great backstory, it didn’t start with burgers. It didn’t even start with a restaurant. In 1999, Danny Meyer was already among the most acclaimed culinarians in America. His Union Square Hospitality Group counted Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern among its holdings. Another heralded restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, overlooked Manhattan’s Madison Square Park. That’s where the trouble began. Once a Gilded Age oasis, the park was a dump, a weedy tract of broken benches only recently cleansed of drug dealers. Meyer, a big proponent of urban parks, cofounded a conservancy to restore the grounds and opened a hot dog cart to help with fundraising. Meyer ran the cart from the…

Following the survivors of a mysterious plane crash (played by Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly and Josh Holloway), the ABC thriller premiered in fall 2004 and ran for six seasons. Carlton Cuse, Lost’s executive producer, is back in the headlines with Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, now streaming on Amazon Prime. Adweek (USPS 458870, ISSN 1549-9553) is published weekly: 33 times a year 1 issue in December; 2 issues in February, June, July and August; 3 issues in January, March, April, May, and November; and four issues in September and October. Publisher is ADWEEK, LLC, 825 Eighth Avenue, 29th floor, New York, NY 10019, (212) 493-4100. Subscriptions are $249 for one year, $449 for two years. Canadian subscriptions are $299 per year. All other foreign subscriptions are $349 (using air mail). Subscription…

I’m filing this editor’s letter from inside the bustling and international pressroom at the 10th annual DMexco conference in Cologne, Germany. There are 40,000 people gathered here for a concentrated two-day media, marketing and technology conference as well a huge exposition showcasing all types of startups and stalwarts in the ad- and mar-tech space. Adweek has been a media partner at DMexco for the past four years and it has become an important touchstone in terms of better understanding the confluence of marketing and technology. And that industry has changed quite a bit in those four years. We’ve gone from the anxiety of disruption to the hopefulness of transformation. And now, it seems to me—based on the conversations I’ve had here about data interrogation and responsibility, re-architecting consumer trust and…

IT’S NOT EVERY DAY that one comes across a human body encased in plastic at a public bus stop—even in an eclectic town like West Hollywood. The dystopian Netflix series Altered Carbon operates on a simple premise: 300-plus years in the future, people can download the entirety of their experiences into new bodies, extending their lives indefinitely. Armed with that backstory and several interactive sculptures so meticulously lifelike that they appeared to be breathing, Mediahub, a division of MullenLowe, went about setting up a public “marketplace” for these bodies. “With all of our campaigns, we strive to find unique and creative ideas that really stand out,” says Netflix vp of marketing and consumer products Shauna Spenley. “For Altered Carbon, we asked ourselves, ‘If a campaign for bodies existed in the…

Julia Beizer was a reporter at The Washington Post when her boss went on maternity leave and left Beizer as the stand-in newsroom liaison to the company’s new article page design. It was Beizer’s first introduction to the product side of the newsroom’s operation. Keeping “the seat warm” for her manager gave Beizer an opportunity that, ultimately, led her to a career in product management—and what she calls “the best job in the world” as the first chief product officer at Bloomberg. “If I hadn’t gotten that opportunity, I wouldn’t have found this great career,” Beizer said. She stayed in her reporting role for a couple more years until she felt an “itching” to do something else. Luckily, a role at WaPo presented itself, and Beizer jumped at the opportunity…

“Today is the day we march ourselves out of the margins we’ve been forced into. Because every one of us deserves respect. Every one of us deserves acceptance. And every one of us deserves to feel safe. Together, we are united in this quest for equality. And united, we are catalysts for a future that celebrates every one of us. Not in spite of what makes us different but because of what makes us unique.” —The 2018 ADCOLOR Manifesto…

THE AD OF THE YEAR The Talk, Procter & Gamble, BBDO New York, Egami Group Part of the My Black Is Beautiful initiative, the spot takes on the harsh realities of being black in America by showing the discussions African-American parents must have with their children about the difficulties that come from racial bias. Declaration Descendants, Ancestry, Droga5 New York For July 4th, Ancestry’s genealogy specialists tracked down the descendants of the Declaration of Independence’s signers to recreate the famous John Turnbull painting. Instead of 56 white men, they become a diverse group that includes African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, East Asians and Filipinos. Another Silent Night, United Nations’ CERF, VML 32 women from 17 countries—all of whom fled to the U.S. from a conflict area—share their stories of loss,…

1 FIND STRONG PARTNERS AND TRUST THEM HBO partnered with Spotify, Hypebeast and Teen Vogue to garner more buzz for the event by hosting Instagram Story takeovers, with Rae scoring 483,000 views for Spotify’s story—a great fit considering Insecure’s strong focus on music. “HBO was very open to our ideas of creatively weaving in Insecure into the content we created,” Huan Nguyen, vp of brand partnerships, Hypebeast, said. “The great thing about HBO is they trusted us to put together an action plan to promote the show for our readers, through our lens.” 2 THINK BIG InsecureFest was a big hit this year, but Martinez said HBO likely won’t replicate the festival in its current form ahead of Season 4. “This is something we can expand beyond just music,” she…

THE JUDGES MANY THANKS TO OUR ESTEEMED PANEL OF JURORS WHO CARVED OUT TIME TO JUDGE ANOTHER RECORD YEAR OF MEDIA PLAN OF THE YEAR ENTRIES. IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN SERVING AS A JUROR IN 2019, PLEASE CONTACT JEMIMA MENDENHALL AT JEMIMA.MENDENHALL@ADWEEK.COM. JURY CHAIR: SASHA SAVIC, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER USA, MEDIACOM JONATHAN ANSELMO, CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, PRESIDENT, OMNICOM MEDIA GROUP SCOTT DALY, EVP, INTEGRATED MEDIA, 360I SUSAN EBERHART, EVP, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BLUE 449 BEN GADDIS, PRESIDENT, T3 ED GORMAN, CLIENT PRESIDENT, CARAT USA ANNIE GRIFFITHS, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, PHD USA JUNIUS HILL, VP, MEDIA DELIVERY, CONVERSANT GINA JACOBSON, EVP, MANAGING DIRECTOR, STARCOM USA LARISA JOHNSON, BRAND MEDIA DIRECTOR, LYFT LAURA KAVANAGH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEW YORK, MULLENLOWE MEDIAHUB JOHN LAGROSSE, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN, INITIATIVE EVE LESHAW, EVP, GLOBAL MANAGING PARTNER,…

Welcome to the 12th Annual ADCOLOR Conference & Awards special section. This year, the stakes have never been higher. With so much confusion in the world, Team ADCOLOR knew instinctively that we were well placed to bring truth to the table. This year’s theme— “Moment of Truth”—is reflected in every aspect of this weekend: the conference, the activations, the awards and the hosts, Endeavor CMO Bozoma Saint John and actress/host Jeannie Mai of The Real. The ADCOLOR Manifesto created by our agency partner GSD&M gives us the strongest message yet that advocacy is at the core of who we are. We have celebrated, inspired, motivated, educated and advocated. Now it’s time to activate. We chose honorees and nominees who have turned their moments of truth into actions that have changed…

ADCOLOR Board of Directors ADCOLOR Advisory Board ADCOLOR Diversity Summit Members ADCOLOR Honorees & Nominees ADCOLOR Futures Class of ‘18 ADCOLOR Council of Judges ADCOLOR Awards Presenters ADCOLOR Awards Panelists Adriana Contreras, Crown+Conquer Adrianne Lipscomb, American Advertising Federation Adu Adu, THX Ltd. Akintayo Adewole, Adewole Photography Alcides Hoy, Twitter Alexis Toney, Translation Alina Waag, Stamp Event Management Allen Yang, Cashmere Agency Amanda Gardley, Arizona State University Ana Leen, GSD&M Analysa Cantu, Wieden+Kennedy Portland Anastasia Garcia, TBWA\Chiat\Day Andrew Hatch, Twitter Angela Guzman, NBCUniversal Anthony Del Monte, Squeaky April McDaniel, Crown+Conquer Arjan Dijk, YouTube|Google Ashley McGowan, Facebook Ashley Osborne, OWN Ashley Simms, Fleishman Hillard Ayeshia Toy, Wieden+Kennedy Bozoma Saint John, Endeavor Brianne Pins, Cashmere Agency Britt Hayes, DDB Worldwide Brittany Allen, 72andSunny Cameron Crane, Cashmere Agency Cameron Kato, Apple Music Candace Queen,…