The U.K. economy contracted at the end of 2022 to the tune of 0.3%, with economists predicting an inevitable recession in the coming months. Despite this downturn, the marketing industry is still growing, though modestly. According to the U.K.’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) quarterly Bellwether Report, marketing budgets for the final three months…
Audio company SiriusXM has appointed Suzi Watford as the company’s first chief growth officer. Watford will lead SiriusXM’s growth strategy in subscription, marketing and analytics across its subsidiaries, including Pandora. At Dow Jones, Watford served as the company’s chief marketing and membership officer, overseeing marketing and subscription acquisition for The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and…
YouTube is back as the title sponsor of VidCon Anaheim 2023 after holding that role from 2013 through 2019. The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, and TikTok, which was slated to be the title sponsor in 2021, did so last year. VidCon Anaheim 2023 will take place at the…
YouTube is making some changes in its return to upfront week. On Wednesday, the company exclusively shared a blog post with Adweek from Marie Gulin-Merle, global vp of ads marketing at Google, announcing that YouTube’s 2023 Brandcast event would once again take place during upfront week, but things are going to shift back a day….
Several new trends have already emerged on TikTok in just the first few weeks of 2023 that brands can follow.
As president of Volkswagen of America, he pushed the “Think Small” ad campaign that helped create a counterculture icon.
For years, Apple has found a variety of ways to celebrate the Chinese New Year through the heightened potential of its products–mainly, the iPhone. This year, the brand explores the humanity behind a holiday tradition: the Chinese Opera. Ahead of the holiday on Jan. 22, Apple is celebrating with the launch of a new campaign…
Tech innovations like AI and AR/VR are playing an increasing role not just in content creation but in all aspects of advertising and marketing strategy.
AMC Networks is shifting its upfront presentation to a new venue. The company will host its event on April 18 in person at Jazz at Lincoln Center, moving from last year’s in-person presentation at Peak in Hudson Yards. AMC Networks plans to focus its presentation around its signature shows, including the upcoming spin-offs from The…
Ad Age is counting down to Super Bowl LVII. In the weeks leading up to the game, which will air on Fox on Feb. 12, Ad Age will bring you breaking news, analysis and first looks at the high-stakes, Big Game commercials—all in our Super Bowl newsletter. Sign up right here to get them via email.
For last year’s Super Bowl, Michelob Ultra and Wieden+Kennedy channeled “Big Lebowski” with two bowling-themed, celebrity-filled spots called “Superior Bowl.” This year, the Anheuser-Busch InBev brand is poised to rekindle another classic movie, “Caddyshack.” It has begun running teaser ads showing CBS NFL analyst and ex-player Tony Romo, soccer star Alex Morgan and boxer Canelo Alvarez re-enacting iconic scenes from the 1980 comedy.
The spots, which were released on Ultra’s YouTube page and ran during last weekend’s playoff games, urge viewers to “order Ultra now” by displaying a QR code that links to an Instacart page. The e-commerce play is an obvious attempt to connect Super Bowl marketing to immediate sales, something that is often easier said than done.
AB InBev will not have the game to itself this year after it surrendered its long-held exclusivity. And this week we learned more about what its top competitor Molson Coors is planning: It teased a faux competition between Miller Lite and Coors Light for the brewer’s lone ad in the game, via a New York Times ad. Droga5 is the agency. (FWIW: The shop also has the NYT account.)
Check out Ad Age’s Super Bowl blog for real-time Big Game updates.
To date, 25 marketers have confirmed Super Bowl national ad buys, including some that will run multiple ads. There were 65 ads in last year’s game. Brands that this week confirmed ad buys for the 2023 game include E-Trade (the baby is back); Heineken (it will plug its non-alcoholic beer via an Ant-Man collab); and Squarespace (it is going the celeb route).
To keep track of all the advertisers running national spots in the game, bookmark Ad Age’s regularly updated Super Bowl ad chart.
Of course, countless brands will seize on the Super Bowl without buying an ad—a tactic that has gotten easier in recent years with the rise of social media. Among those searching for eyeballs will be one that caters to those on four legs—PetSmart, which is trying to take advantage of the fact that the game, played in Glendale, Arizona, is near its Phoenix headquarters. Among the pet retailer’s plans: an “MVPets TAILgate tour,” which asks pet parents in 30 towns in the Southwest to test their skills on a human-sized hamster wheel.
For a behind-the-scenes look at Super Bowl ad planning, check out Ad Age’s Super Bowl Playbook event on Feb. 7. It will feature brand leaders and agency execs behind the ads. Register here for the virtual event.
Super Bowl X was played on this day in 1976 when the Steelers beat the Cowboys in Miami. The game, aired by CBS, featured a halftime show by Up With People (you can relive that here, at your own risk). A 30-second spot averaged $125,000.
Advertisers included Xerox, whose “Monks” spot for its 9200 copier from Needham, Harper & Steers is seen as one of the first notable Super Bowl ads (coming 8 years before Apple’s classic “1984” spot that really put Big Game advertising on the map).
For a complete look at Big Game commercial history, check out Ad Age’s Super Bowl ad archive.
The National Hockey League doubled up on its annual Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award, opening up nominations for the 2023 Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award in the U.S. and the Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award Presented by Hyundai in Canada. The awards are aimed are recognizing individuals who positively impacted their community, culture or society…
A partygoer raises a toast to Ritz Toasted Chips.
Alarming reports have shown that antisemitism is on the rise. For example, a 2022 survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that one in five Americans agreed with negative stereotypical statements about Jewish people, compared to one in nine who said so in 2019. In the U.K., Jews are more than five times likelier to be…
The partnership was signed on behalf of the league’s franchises, which will have access to fan data services for matters such as e-commerce, venues, ticketing and social media.
The pandemic forced b-to-b businesses to completely digitize their marketing efforts virtually overnight–and that digitization coincided with the industry’s transition to a more personalized, human-centered approach to marketing. Human-centered marketing is the strategy for here and now. But marketers are facing new challenges: how to balance making a human connection with prospects and customers through…
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