Table of contents for March 9, 2020 in Adweek

The event casualties of coronavirus continue to mount: Mobile World Congress, Facebook’s F8, Toronto’s Collision conference, MipTV and SXSW. For now, however, advertising’s most prestigious gathering, Cannes Lions, is still “firmly open for business,” according to organizer Ascential, which is hoping the June 22-26 festival in France falls far enough down on the calendar that it won’t be affected by COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus that has infected about 90,000 worldwide and killed 3,000. Cannes Lions, which draws about 12,000 attendees and many more visitors, is in a unique position: Its success depends on turnout, given the large amount of revenue it derives from activations, rather than primarily awards entry fees, complicating the decision to cancel the festival. Adweek is closely tracking Cannes Lions and other upcoming events. Be…

It’s no coincidence UPS and Wing have partnered with pharmacies in customer-facing trials in the U.S. as drones have a history of delivering medical supplies in other parts of the world. In 2016, UPS partnered with drone delivery company Zipline and Gavi, a nonprofit that vaccinates children, to make up to 150 deliveries a day of blood to transfusion facilities in Rwanda. UPS has also conducted flights for healthcare systems in Switzerland and delivered medical supplies via unmanned drones in collaboration with autonomous drone tech company Matternet at a hospital in Raleigh, N.C. Susan Choe, managing partner at Katalyst Ventures and a Zipline investor, said the company is now conducting beta tests for medicine delivery in the U.S. Drones also enable the delivery of medical supplies to remote areas that…

MANY THANKS TO ALL OF OUR STELLAR ADWEEK ARC AWARDS JURORS: JOE BARATELLI evp, chief creative officer, RPA ANDREW BERNARDI associate creative director, FCB/Six HARVEY BURRELL co-founder, head of production, Windy Films KATE CATALINAC creative director, BBDO San Francisco KAREN X. CHENG founder, Wafffle JEREMY ELIAS executive creative director, Atlantic Re:think CHELSEA FRANKLIN creative director, co-founder, Reframe the World AISHA HAKIM senior art director, Venables Bell & Partners FARHOUD MEYBODI co-owner, evp of creative, Wayfarer Entertainment THAS NASEEMUDDEEN CEO, Omelet WHITNEY PATEL group creative director, 160over90 BENJAMIN POTTER global creative director, Clickon Media DREW PRATT group director of branded content, Havas Sports and Entertainment GARRICK SCHMITT evp, global experience director, Essence SAM SHEPHERD executive creative director, 360i TONY SNETHEN executive creative director, VMLY&R KATHLEEN SWANSON creative director, TBWA\Media Arts Lab…

Business development In Brazil, Propeg CEO Vitor Barros noted that the country’s economy is set to grow rapidly. In the past when the economy was down, the agency invested in talent, but today, he said the time is ripe to “reap what we’ve planted.” Requests for proposals Agency o2Ideas is investing heavily in RFPs, something that gets a bad rap at agencies due to the time and cost of chasing new business. “We ignored RFPs for years,” said Bill Todd, partner and president of o2Ideas in Birmingham, Ala. “But when we started getting invited to more of them, we started paying attention and have found some success, and that inspires us to be more aggressive.” Public relations Brownstein Group in Philadelphia grew fivefold in PR over the past decade, with…

Anyone who knows Kim Kelleher knows she keeps it real. So it comes as no surprise to many of us in the media and marketing world that Kelleher is a big believer of authenticity and consistency, or in other words, embracing her whole self. Recently, she made the leap from publishing to television, with a few stops in digital media (and support from her “girl gang” along the way). Here, Kelleher shares some of her valuable learnings, all of which are worth leaning into. How did you get to where you are today? It’s been a journey. Over the past 27 years, I have spent time in several publishing and digital media companies—so the shift that is occurring in the television industry today has similarities to what I have experienced…

On a recent winter afternoon, Tom Nelson looks over the display of luggage at Zero Halliburton’s flagship store in Manhattan. There’s nothing flashy about the place or its cases, which rest atop spindly black-metal stands below the trained gaze of spotlights. But the one thing that truly stands out is the silvery sheen of aluminum and the earth metal that’s stamped, crimped and brushed to form these pricey cases. “We like to lead with the fact that we have our heritage with this material,” Nelson says, running his finger along the concave edge of a carry-on case. “And so that says we know what we’re doing.” CEOs are often guilty of more than a little bravado, but in this case Nelson’s on firm ground: His company does know what it’s…

Americans jittery about Coronavirus have depleted existing stocks of hand sanitizer, ibuprofen, face masks and even oat milk—anything they believe will help them avoid getting sick, never mind that many of these products accomplish very little by way of prevention. But this sort of wishful thinking isn’t new: Two generations ago, it happened with Listerine. Today, consumers know Listerine as the sharp-tasting oral antiseptic that commands nearly half of the market. But in the early decades of the 20th century, Americans saw it as a preventive health remedy. For decades, manufacturer Warner-Lambert advertised that gargling with Listerine helped you to avoid colds. The Federal Trade Commission begged to differ, and in 1976 won a suit that forced the company to launch a $10 million campaign advising that: “Contrary to prior…

Event companies have had to make difficult decisions in recent weeks. At Adweek, we decided to go ahead with our annual Challenger Brands Summit last week in New York, which ended up drawing over 800 attendees. Adweek CEO Jeff Litvack noted that the companies represented accounted for more that $4.5 billion in capital raised and $1.7 trillion in goods sold. “It was a great feeling seeing all the partners who still chose to come and learn and discuss and meet about these topics that will affect their business even after we get through the coronavirus epidemic,” he said.…

In the third quarter of 2019, 27% of broadband households had three or more streaming services, up 20% compared to the year prior, per Parks Associates. In the same quarter, 24% of U.S. households were supplementing a subscription to one of the big streamers (Amazon Prime, Hulu or Netflix) with another service that wasn’t one of those three.* There are over 300 streaming services in North America, most of which are niche offerings. *THE DATA WAS COLLECTED PRIOR TO THE LAUNCHES OF DISNEY+ AND APPLE TV+.…

Samantha Barry’s diverse, globe-trotting professional path in communications may have had its start at a radio station in Dublin in the early aughts, but she thinks her career began to unofficially flourish much earlier than the experiences she has listed on LinkedIn. For Barry, her knack for telling stories is hereditary and a cultural given—birthed in Cork. “I’m Irish,” she laughed. “Storytelling is inherent for us. If you grow up in an Irish household, you live or die by whether your story was a good one.” Before having Adweek Brand Visionary Anna Wintour as a boss, Barry traversed multiple continents and tackled multiple platforms, all for a common goal of getting a good story out there. Previously, her most prominent role was as head of social media and senior director…