Table of contents for April 30, 2018 in Adweek

As a nearly 40-year-old brand, Adweek has a rich history of following the key trends shaping the businesses and careers of the people we write about. We pride ourselves on being nimble and scrappy enough to change along with them to stay relevant and valuable to our audience. We have adapted along the way and thrived. Now it’s time to change again for the betterment of our business and the community we are dedicated to and passionate about. I say community rather than audience because our content is consumed in a much more omnichannel way than ever before and—from our Twitter chats to expanding events franchises—it is far more interactive as well. Community is also one of the three Cs—the other two being context and connotation—that we strive to infuse…

‘The whole [media] industry was tarred by one or two rogue players.’Steve King, CEO, Publicis Media “One-sided.” “Inconclusive.” “Immense shortcomings.” The ad world’s response to an anonymously sourced 2016 study on media transparency conducted by the ANA, K2 Intelligence and analytics company Ebiquity was almost universally negative. As Publicis Media CEO Steve King put it, “The whole industry was tarred by one or two rogue players.” Yet the report, which focused on cash rebates and other markups that publishers allegedly paid to major media shops without their clients’ knowledge, has had an undeniable influence on the most profitable part of the agency world in the two years since its release. Its findings frayed an already fragile sense of trust between clients and agencies, and they continue to affect the ways…

YouTube’s biggest challenge used to be delivering compelling content to mobile screens. But while mobile still represents 60 percent of YouTube’s overall watch time, the focus of Thursday’s NewFronts event—which the company calls Brandcast—will shift to “the second biggest revolution that online video has ever gone through: the TV screen and the living room. The TV screen has been our fastest-growing screen for some time now,” says Tara Walpert Levy, vp of agency solutions, Google and YouTube. With more than 150 million hours of YouTube content each day now streamed on TVs, television is now “a core part of the overall effort” for YouTube, says Walpert Levy, with the company announcing a pair of new TV-focused offerings for buyers this week ahead of Thursday’s Brandcast. YouTube is bringing its YouTube…

Facebook wants to hit reset. Its new campaign aims to convince users that Facebook can go back to the days of being a platform primarily for friends sharing photos, messages and party invites, with the sole mission of connection. Of course, the creative team isn’t naive. They know people aren’t going to move past privacy and data issues, clickbait, fake news and all of the other problems that have permeated the platform in recent years. This campaign, especially the out-of-home work, tries to address that with a message that the company is working hard to fix what went wrong.…

On Wednesday, 360i announced the promotion of president Jared Belsky (1) to CEO. His predecessor, Sarah Hofstetter (2), will take on the chair role in what amounts to the latest C-suite shift for the Dentsu-owned network. Last month, the agency promoted CMO Abbey Klaassen (3) to president of its New York headquarters; just this week, former 360i CEO and chairman Bryan Wiener (4) became CEO of comScore as the measurement company looks to re-establish its place in the market. Belsky, Hofstetter and Klaassen will continue leading the organization, along with CCO Menno Kluin.…

Ladies’ lingerie brands are the latest in the fight to fend off digital upstarts. For years, Victoria’s Secret has been the dominant brand, with roughly 50 percent of the women’s underwear market share, but last year its sales reportedly saw a drop-off with each passing month (as much as 10 to 14 percent from month to month in early 2017, per Women’s Wear Daily). And in a recent survey by research firm YouGov BrandIndex, consumer satisfaction has fallen among women 18 to 49. Now a new wave of undergarments, from Tommy John to ThirdLove, is starting to garner attention and win over consumers thanks to new marketing tactics and product innovation. “These competitors have the advantage of being a new voice in this market while Victoria’s Secret is really stuck…

It started for me with a new television. When I set up my new smart TV, I noticed that there, right next to the traditional networks, were upstart new publishers—sharing space on my screen like equals. That, it struck me, is the new consumer economy. People now have access to publishers, to brands and to media directly. OTT is no longer simply “over the top.” It is just media. Direct to consumer isn’t a new type of commerce, it’s just a fresh, new brand. And this economy is not a trend. This is a full-scale revolution. What’s propelling this new consumer economy? The cloud-based internet. Dominant consumer-facing companies have traditionally created value through their ownership and operation of high-barrier-to-entry, capital-intensive supply chains. From CPG to media, the most successful companies…

In the iconic 1984 film The Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso’s sensei, Mr. Miyagi, tells his protégé, “man who catch fly with chopsticks, accomplish anything.” Well, perhaps anything except convince Ralph Macchio, who played LaRusso in three Karate Kid films, or William Zabka, who portrayed his nemesis Johnny Lawrence in two movies, to return to the franchise. “I’ve always been very protective of this franchise and this role. I said no for 30 years because it was always easier to let the legacy stand as what it was, as opposed to try to go back to the well and fall short,” says Macchio. Or as Zabka puts it: “There’s the danger of you tip your hat too much in that way, and there’s no way to get out of it. I…

THE RIDE Apart from a staggering collection of weapons, GTA5 gives players a choice of 464 vehicles to drive, crash, race and, of course, steal. THE LOCATION The game is set in Vinewood within the city of Los Santos—both fictional places. But it’s obvious that this sun-baked, concrete wasteland is Los Angeles. THE PLAYER According to data from Steam, GTA5 averaged more than 44,000 players in the last 30 days alone—and that’s just those who are playing via one online platform. On March 8, President Trump convened a closed-door roundtable at the White House. The meeting was a response to the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and no members of the press were admitted. An outsider might assume the meeting was for congressmen or law…

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