U.K telecom O2 has just been announced as the official sponsor of ITV’s Love Island, Britain’s buzziest reality TV show. For its top marketer Simon Groves, the deal presents an opportunity to experiment with more “agile and reactive” marketing. Each year, Love Island plants single people in a luxury villa for two months and asks…
This week Starbucks joined McDonald’s in retreating from the Russian market entirely. However, people still don’t feel like brands are doing enough to help Ukraine, as the Kremlin continues to wage its brutal war. What’s more, they’re placing greater accountability on advertisers than their own governments. Data from Forrester, gleaned from 1500 consumers in the…
If it seems like every brand is suddenly talking about the position of Mercury and how you should eat (or smell) based on your star sign, you’re not wrong. The list of brands using astrology in their marketing campaigns–from Pandora to Del Taco to McCormick & Company–is long, and only getting longer. Earlier this month,…
A new climate change manifesto will see U.K. agencies, intermediaries and clients bake greater sustainability into their working processes, including media buying, briefing and production. The declaration will seek to ensure that the industry plays its part in reaching the goals set out under the Paris Climate Agreement and reduce carbon emissions. Organized by voluntary…
In November 1991, Chelsea Clinton was at her father’s presidential campaign headquarters stuffing envelopes while a news segment aired. Magic Johnson had earlier that day publicly disclosed he was HIV positive. News commentators, Clinton remembered, remarked on Johnson’s “courageous decision” to disclose his HIV status. Tony Coles, president of the Black Information Network, interviewed Clinton…
Former Droga5 London chief creative officer David Kolbusz has taken on a new role as creative leader of U.S. independent agency Lightning Orchard, which is rebranding as just Orchard. As one of the ad industry’s most esteemed creative leaders, Kolbusz’s next job has been much anticipated since he revealed last month that he would be…
While the egregious sexism of the Mad Men-era might be behind us, brands are still guilty of promoting products through a male gaze. In April, Samsung caught heat for an ad showing a woman jogging alone through dark city streets at 2 a.m. More recently, Adidas stood accused of “dehumanizing” women with a series of…
Founded in the social media age, activewear brand Gymshark, valued at over $1 billion in 2020, has developed a following most apparel brands would kill for. To showcase that fanaticism, and to reward its many fans, the company opened a pop-up stall in London, fronted by its founder Ben Francis to sell authentic branded products…
Welcome to Marketing Morsels, a menu of delightful news items from the past week. Enjoy the assortment! Morsel #1: Spanx hides nudes under its opaque white fabric Spanx Model Ashley Graham did a nude photo shoot for a Spanx billboard–but you won’t be able to see her nude body on the billboard, because the photo…
For agencies, pitching, at its worst, can be an expensive, time-consuming exercise leading to late nights, low morale and diminished creative output. For brands, they’re often procurement-driven with the potential to diminish relationships with agency partners and lead to churn. To tackle these problems in the U.K. sector, ad trade bodies the Institute of Practitioners…
Conveying a sense of elegance throughout, airliner Air France has released a film that outlines its ambition to showcase the best of its native country to customers. Created by dedicated creative unit Aura by Omnicom, the one-minute and 15-seconds long film features a lady dressed in red, running through Paris and up the Eiffel Tower,…
Covid-19, as it has with everything, transformed the luxury market. The past two years have seen high-end brands evolve their digital strategies, stand up and take sustainability more seriously and forge relationships with resale platforms. Post-pandemic turmoil luxury sales and profits have rebounded. Last year, 117-year-old British car marque Rolls Royce announced global sales had…
Earlier this year, Adidas caused a stir with a series of ads which used bare breasts and nipples to promote its new sports bra range comprising 43 different styles and 72 sizes. The “Support Is Everything” push was first unveiled as a billboard at Adidas’ Germany headquarters as a photo gallery featuring dozens of breasts–from…
Brands are under mounting pressure to stop digitally manipulating the images of models used in their advertising in a bid to promote body positivity. 77 U.K. politicians from across the spectrum have signed an open letter calling on businesses to stop creating a “warped sense of reality” by touching up promotional photos. Skims and Vanity…
In a world abuzz with Whatsapp pings and email notifications, handwritten notes are a rarity. Whether it’s a poem in a birthday card, an apology letter or silly scribble on a Post-It, the written word has the ability to evoke emotions in ways that can elude the digital form. Customer loyalty–and the drivers behind it–are…
Amazon, a giant in the e-commerce space, is also seeing streaming success through its Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Studios platforms. Ukonwa Ojo, the chief marketing officer for both platforms, stopped by Adweek’s Convergent TV Summit to discuss how the brand uses three pillars to create marketing magic and how they plan to use that…
As the ad industry races toward a cookieless future where first-party data will be the guiding light for marketers, several new studies have offered insights into how chief marketing officers are struggling with their data and measurement strategies. In a global study from measurement firm Nielsen published in April, 69% of 2,000 senior marketers agreed…
Cryptocurrency and sports betting have been two of the hottest emerging advertiser categories over the last several months, but what will come next? Executives from NBCUniversal and Disney made up a panel at Adweek’s Convergent TV Summit, where they discussed how these two trends are impacting advertising and what’s to come. The emergence of crypto…
Have you ever felt excited when you notice your favorite character driving the same car you own or drinking the same beverage in your fridge? Audiences are inundated with advertisements on every medium. However, product involvement on television is becoming more relevant and effective. Shana Barry, head of music, celebrity and entertainment at Anheuser-Busch, and…
Digital media company Cond? Nast, the publisher of more than a dozen titles including The New Yorker, Vogue and Vanity Fair, saw its year-over-year digital advertising revenues rise 38% in 2021, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The company attributes much of its recent success to its investment in digital video. Given the…
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