Table of contents for August 31, 2020 in Adweek

NBA legend Dwyane Wade, considering his next move after retiring from the Miami Heat in 2019, decided to help marketers connect with diverse audiences. Doing so would fill a void he identified from years of firsthand experience with brand partnerships during his storied playing career. Wade launched CAA AMP in January to serve as a gut check for marketers trying to reach what he calls “the new majority.” The startup, described as a “cultural strategy agency,” would “amplify voices and represent the audience that’s not often seen or heard.” In the months since its debut, the collaboration with powerful Hollywood talent agency CAA has assembled a senior leadership team despite the country locking down due to Covid-19. And AMP has hit the ground running with clients, advising about a dozen…

LOOK FOR DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES I want people around me who are going to challenge me, who are smarter than me and have more experience than me. I [set up an advisory board] at a young age, and I think that’s helped mature me faster by bringing in lots of experience, diverse skill sets and knowledge. Sometimes when I see fellow CEOs, I think it’s a real blind spot when they surround themselves with “yes” people. Because then you’re not getting 10 good opinions. You’re getting 10 people that agree with your one opinion. COMMUNICATION IS CRITICAL Everyone is nervous and scared of what’s going on for their jobs, the company, their health, their families. So, I think you need to be very transparent. I think you need to be very…

ARLESHA AMAZAN, part of Wade’s inner circle for a decade, beginning at Wade Enterprises and continuing to CAA, was integral in building his extensive sponsor roster, which includes Gatorade, Pepperidge Farm, Stance and a landmark lifetime alliance with Chinese sporting goods company Li-Ning. Vetting the nuts and bolts of endorsements over the years sometimes meant she had to do “authentic cleanup,” she said, so the activations would “fit with who Dwyane was as an athlete and a Black man.” Taking on AMP’s growth and business development, Amazan will continue to consult with CAA’s NBA clients like Gary Harris, Udonis Haslem, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Coby White. DESMOND MARZETTE, former ad creative at Wieden+ Kennedy, spent the last six years at Nike’s Jordan Brand, which he called his “dream job selling the…

Society is more divided than ever, but there’s one thing we all agree on: We have trust issues. Average Americans don’t even trust their own neighbor. Globally, two-thirds of consumers believe humans are less trustworthy than ever before. If we don’t trust our neighbors, then we certainly don’t trust brands. A Havas-conducted survey found that only 22% of brands are trusted by consumers. Social media isn’t immune, either. Brands are boycotting Facebook, TikTok has privacy issues and Twitter is dealing with hacks. Despite these realities, the pandemic is shifting culture to reveal an ownable white space for brands to nurture consumer trust. The time is now to deepen your bond with new and existing consumers. Embrace a values-based economy Today’s consumers are more defined by likes than location. Instead of…

‘I am not afraid of my voice, and I hope to reinforce a more inclusive archetype of leadership while pushing for progress in our industry.’ Big Mistake According to Akuamoah, a mentor would have helped her figure out her next move quicker, but she had to learn a lot of important lessons on her own. “I’m certain a dedicated mentor could have saved me a few steps,” she said. Lesson Learned Mentorship was a “foreign concept” to Akuamoah early in her career. Eventually, she built a support system to navigate challenging decisions. She now feels deeply committed to helping as many young women in the industry as possible. How She Got the Gig Akuamoah joined Arnold + Havas Media Boston after it reached out to her about a leadership role…

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Across the websites of local newspapers such as the Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee and The Kansas City Star, a new embedded narration option now offers to read each article aloud with a cadence, inflection and sometimes even an emotional tone that one would expect from a real human speaker. But the voice reading the articles on these McClatchy media properties is no human—though sometimes it imitates one convincingly enough to fool focus group participants. Rather, it is a neural network trained on thousands of hours of human speech patterns to yield a text-to-speech tool that represents a turning point for a technology long known for its stilted monotone and awkward pacing and pronunciation. McClatchy, which partnered with startup Trinity Audio on the tool in April, is not the only…

1 BLM OUTFIELD WALL, SAHLEN FIELD, BUFFALO, N.Y., AUG. 20, At a game between the Miami Marlins and the Toronto Blue Jays, the outfield wall of Sahlen Field is emblazoned with the words “Black Lives Matter.” Within a week, the Milwaukee Bucks would stage a walkout at a playoff game, and the Marlins and New York Mets would refuse to play a scheduled game at Citi Field in Queens, N.Y., placing a BLM T-shirt on home plate. 2 PORTLAND, ORE., NIGHT RALLY, JULY 20 Protesters gathered in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center, phones raised, on the city’s 54th day of protest. More than 2,000 people attended the nighttime demonstration, including parent groups Wall of Moms and PDX Dad Pod. 3 BLACK LIVES MATTER MURAL, NEW YORK, JULY 10…

Centro spoke with 65 agencies, consultants and advocacy groups that specialize in political marketing, and experts overwhelmingly stated that programmatic and connected TV (CTV) are major players in advertising for the upcoming 2020 election cycle. More than half (63%) said CTV is one of the most favorable developments for digital campaigns, while 53% felt programmatic and the use of data will be integral to any digital campaigns. According to Grace Briscoe, vp of Centro’s candidates and causes group, “With many Americans choosing to stay at home for safety reasons and with news media creating digital content waves around issues such as race relations, a recession and Covid-19, political operatives are grappling with an unwieldy mix of digital elements pivotal in swinging a vote.” In total, the amount of paid media…