Table of contents for May 6, 2019 in Adweek

In this day and age, a simple swipe right or left is all that’s needed to make a connection. But for brands looking to make a lasting partnership with prospective endorsers like Kyler Murray, the top overall pick in the NFL Draft last month, an evening of old-fashioned speed dating ignited potentially fruitful relationships. The day before players’ lives changed forever in the NFL Draft, agency The Marketing Arm invited over a dozen brands, many of which are TMA and Omnicom clients and included companies like Hyundai, Nike and Skittles, to spend roughly five minutes with 20 of the most marketable future NFL stars at The Marketing Arm’s Chosen event in Nashville, Tenn. Jeff Chown, CEO, entertainment at TMA, said the agency created the event, which is now in its…

Adweek: What inspired you to take on your role at WW International? Gail Tifford: I had been happily at Unilever for almost 21 years when I got a call from a recruiter who said “I have the job for you … it’s the chief brand officer of Weight Watchers.” My first reaction was, oh my god, this is a brand that changed my life. And then my second reaction was, it’s just not relevant to me anymore on a personal basis. But I went to have breakfast with the CEO, Mindy Grossman, because even to meet a female CEO of a public company was in and of itself so exciting to me. An hour later, I walked away saying, “I want this job.” I was so inspired and so excited…

Ask any media buyer, tech company or cable provider about addressable TV, and they’ll ask a question in return: How do you define it? Because while addressable TV simply means using data—rather than content—to buy audiences, the industry as a whole is still playing catch-up when it comes to the concept of serving different ads to different viewers watching the same programming. At least, parts of the industry are playing catch-up. “Addressable is a term—if I were to be snarky about it—that was invented by the TV business to describe data,” says Scott Rosenberg, general manager of Roku’s platform. “You don’t hear digital people who sell digital media use that term because it’s just baked into the assumption that their media is targetable.” Addressable TV has been hailed as a…

If you happen to be among the 40% of American workers predicted to lose their jobs to machines over the next 15 years, here are a few words of comfort: These dooms have been foretold before. Case in point: This Grand Union in East Paterson, N.J. In 1957, the supermarket installed a wall of fully automated “Quik-Pik” machines capable of dispensing everything from meats to bread to coffee—a “mechanical meal for the whole family”—any time of the day or night, with no pesky humans involved. The machines were typical of the postwar preoccupation with an automated future that, all too often, flew in the face of practicality. What shopper really wanted a halibut filet hanging in a vending machine—much less buying it at 3 a.m.? In fact, not only did…

1 Middlemen take large chunks of ad spend on the programmatic marketplace through what’s colloquially called the “ad-tech tax.” Most recent estimates, courtesy of ad-tech analysts at Warc, puts the tax at roughly 55% of total spend. 2 The proliferation of middlemen makes it much harder to find bad seeds in the system. 59% of ad-tech execs told intelligence firm Ad Lightning that the messy marketplace lets fraudsters get away. 3 Ad buyers have tried to wrangle some semblance of the marketplace through the IAB’s ads.txt initiative. Adoption exploded to more than 500,000 sites and counting last year, according to Pixelate.…

Nineteen fifty-three was a seminal year in world history. Biologists discovered the double helix of DNA. Sir Edmund Hillary reached the top of Everest. Dr. Jonas Salk perfected the polio vaccine. And in a suburban backyard in Fairfield, Conn., a bunch of kids played the first game of Wiffle Ball. Alright, so maybe a kids’ game doesn’t quite rank with those feats—but still, in the traditions of leisure, in the annals of Americana, it’s hard to find a game as accessible, universal and enduring as Wiffle Ball. Consider: While the company does not release sales statistics, millions—likely tens of millions—of Wiffle balls are sitting in American homes at this moment. The U.S. boasts over 40 Wiffle Ball leagues. There is a Wiffle Ball World Series and Fantasy Wiffle Ball, too.…

Say what you want about his skills as a designer, Calvin Klein certainly earned his stripes as a marketer. This is the man who, by casting a salacious (and 15-year-old) Brooke Shields in a 1980 TV spot, sold 200,000 pairs of jeans the first week. In no time, America caught on: Klein’s ads used breasts and bulges to sell the clothes meant to cover them up. But in 1995, he took things too far with a campaign that featured models who weren’t just half naked—they looked barely clear of puberty. Photographer Steven Meisel dropped the youngsters onto a set that, with its purple carpet and cheap paneling, resembled nothing so much as a basement porn set. While the public freaked and the Justice Department checked IDs, Klein pulled the ads.…

Imagine the novel idea of being able to read the news without a pop-up ad or a screen notification for a new email or a tweet from the White House. As some magazines have gone digital-only, other big publishers and brands have reversed course and leaned deeper into the ultimate lean back experience, print, with whole new publications. Recently, The Economist relaunched a lifestyle magazine. Culture Trip, an international media organization, launched a publication about travel. Meredith created a new title centered around pet care. As audiences digest more news on a screen (93% of Americans say they get at least some news online, according to the Pew Research Center), some magazines are investing more into the print product as a way to cut through the digital noise and reach…

RUBICON PROJECT The ad-tech company focuses on the number of “hops” between an advertiser and publisher’s inventory. Soroca added that not all paths to a publisher are created “equally;” some are direct, some are through a reseller and some offer different viewability numbers. For its team, the answer was to trim certain DSPs its firm worked with from networks with dozens of resellers to a series of sleeker omnichannel exchanges. Soroca said that removing inefficient paths means better outcomes. Soroca added the purely direct inventory that advertisers buy is pricier, but ultimately worth it. While multiple hops in inventory makes for cheaper buys, it cause ads to lag, load improperly or appear in less-than-ideal locations. Meanwhile, advertisers who pay premium prices typically land premium placements on the page, more eyes…

Big Mistake While Chung has made quite a few bold moves in her career, she cited “getting too comfortable with being comfortable” as an error she made earlier in her career. Lesson Learned Go for it, even if it scares you. “Change is a deliberate decision, and it doesn’t happen on its own,” she advised. How She Got the Gig “After exploring three different disciplines within advertising, I wanted a role that combined all my passions and interest,” Chung explained. “I did some deep digging to figure out my purpose and designed my dream job. I pitched it, worked with leadership to refine it and here we are! It speaks to the power of manifestation.” Pro Tip “Show up,” she said. “Be intentional. Learn to listen. Get to know yourself…