Table of contents for March 26, 2018 in Adweek

When news broke about Cambridge Analytica accessing information from up to 50 million Facebook users without consent, five days of silence passed—until last Wednesday, when the floodgates unleashed. CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke to several different outlets last week, including CNN and Wired, to apologize, share his regrets and provide his viewpoints (he’s “sure” that Russia is using the social media platform to meddle with the midterm elections, he told CNN). But extensive interviews aren’t enough to undo the damage. Zuckerberg, who told CNN he’s willing to testify about the scandal, was called to appear before a House panel on Thursday. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce said in a statement that day that he’s “the right witness to provide answers to the American people,” and that following their briefing…

Imagine an ad playing on an endless loop—a short narrative crafted to seamlessly, infinitely repeat. Taken at face value, that’s the stuff of nightmares. But you’ve likely already seen dozens of ads made to do just that for brands like Amazon, Bubly, Converse and Gatorade—and you may have already unknowingly shared them. That’s the magic of GIFs. At least, that’s what some of the marketers who see the use of GIFs as ads as a growing creative trend believe. “Clever marketers are creating GIFs to help consumers express themselves through these humorous, snackable videos which make them a shareable utility versus an ad,” explained Quynh Mai, founder of digital shop Moving Image and Content. “GIFs are an economical way for consumers to express their moods, and smart brands are creating…

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in January that the site’s News Feed algorithm would further emphasize posts from friends and family, publishers that hadn’t diversified across many platforms faced a reckoning. Publishers like Little Things, despite testing its content on other platforms, found that Face-book was the best place to reach its site’s core audience of women over 30 in middle America. The site shuttered following the algorithm change because Little Things depended on its 17.2 million Facebook fans having frequent and easy access to its content on the social platform. Publishers that continue to thrive in an era when they can’t depend on Facebook traffic have adopted common themes: Diversity of platforms is key, as is showcasing unique content on any and all platforms where people are likely…

SNAPCHAT After a rough first year as a public company, Snapchat is looking for ways to differentiate itself from other social platforms, and it’s possibly found one way: location. The company has acquired two location firms—Placed and Zenly—and has put “significant engineering resources” into location across advertising and revenue, content and product teams. Last August, Snapchat began testing Snap to Store, a product to track whether people who viewed an advertiser’s ad then went to a store. Now, Snapchat is making that feature available to all brands, whether they buy advertising or not.…

Since Amazon’s inception, the ecommerce giant has shaped the industry. Fast shipping? Amazon has same-day. Zombie Plant Grow Kit? Check. And yet, despite the convenience, some ecommerce sites are finding that not all shoppers want to buy through Amazon—or a big-box retailer for that matter. These niche etailers have discovered consumers that need a simpler way to buy products, and as a result, are filling holes to meet their specific needs and at the same time diluting some brands’ identities. “For some brands, online is the only way to directly interact with the consumer,” said Neil Stewart, CEO, commerce, Wunderman. “Focusing on their ecommerce operations—offering the best service and price—can enable them to own the entire customer journey and lock brands out.” Take Brandless and Boxed, two companies aiming to…

A cultural context is an event or idea that shapes an era. Sometimes a cultural context lasts years, like Woodstock (peace and love) and 9/11 (fear and terror), or it can last a few months like optimism around the recently concluded Winter Olympics. Regardless how long it lasts it shapes how we see the world and how we experience our environment. It even shapes the way brands connect with consumers. Today we’re in the middle of a new cultural context born directly from social media. This new context is envy, one of the most insidious of all the Seven Deadly Sins. When you search “social media makes me feel,” the auto fill results include: like a loser, bad, inadequate, lonely, jealous, unpopular, depressed. You get similar results when you search…

THE MASCOT Jack the Sailor was modeled after founder Frederick Rueckheim’s grandson Robert, who died of pneumonia at age 7. THE TREAT To this day, over 122 years after it was perfected, the recipe for the non-sticky molasses coating is a strict company secret. THE STRIPES On the eve of WWI, with anti-German sentiments brewing, the Rueckheims decked out their box with American flag stripes to prove their patriotism. Business partners will often work for years to build a successful brand. The case of Cracker Jack—that century-old mishmash of peanuts and caramel-coated popcorn—is no exception. But Cracker Jack’s story has a unique twist: the inadvertent contribution of a stranger whose sudden inspiration would transform the brand from snack into legend. In 1872, Louis Rueckheim was a German immigrant who joined…

When Rei Inamoto and Rem Reynolds launched Inamoto & Co. in February 2016, the shop didn’t fit in the existing nomenclature, so they called it a business invention firm, positioned “somewhere in between a consultancy, innovation firm and an agency,” explained Inamoto. Early on, the pair decided to eschew traditional advertising to focus on clients’ customer experience, including launch client Uniqlo. “We help them identify what they should do next. We help them imagine, plan and construct the best-in-class customer experience online and off,” Inamoto added. Inspired by famed Spanish restaurant elBulli’s model of alternating between a functioning restaurant and experimenting with new recipes, I&C began with two full-time units: its client-facing business invention firm and a product incubation practice. And it’s clearly working: Last year, it added Asics and…

#MARCHFOROURLIVES Creatives around the country provided poster designs for those who took part in demonstrations demanding tougher gun control measures on March 24. When producers Aubrey Jones and Kara O’Halloran and associate creative director and art director Ellen Page came to McKinney chief creative officer Jonathan Cude with the idea of making posters for the March For Our Lives, they thought of creating them themselves, but then decided it would be much more powerful if they could enlist creatives at other agencies to take part as well. Over 100 designs from agencies like CP+B, Connelly Partners and kbs+ were contributed and listed on Signs4OurLives.com.…

Facebook’s 2.1 billion monthly active users likely had some notion the information they share on the network is mined for ad targeting. However, news of Cambridge Analytica accessing data from the accounts of not just those who downloaded a personality prediction app, but also “friends who had their privacy settings set to allow it,” likely has many of those users pondering data and privacy in the digital era like never before. This breach is far from new, though. Marketers have long had access to far more digital data about consumers than most realize, which powers sometimes unnervingly accurate predictive analytics. In 2003—a year before Facebook was founded—Target used shopping behavior to determine a Minnesota teenager was pregnant before her father did. This infamous example of predictive analytics is just one…

Marina Filippelli’s first stint at multicultural agency Orcí was also her first job in advertising while she was in college. “I was an intern, and then made my way around different departments [while] going to school at night,” she said. “Then I thought, ‘It’s going to take me about 10 years to get my degree this way.’” This became a motto throughout her career: Advertising will always be here. The mantra has served Filippelli well. After studying English literature at Oxford and finishing school in Miami, she returned to advertising, managing communications and creative for clients addressing the U.S. Hispanic market at Zubi before shifting to music video and commercial production for The Maestros in Mexico City. She then worked as a producer on her first feature film, 2006’s award-winning…

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