As the weather warms and coronavirus infection rates decline in some places, out-of-home metrics firm Billups has found hard data that people are beginning to return to the streets. The company tapped the analytics it otherwise uses to measure billboard viewership–a combination of anonymized mobile location coordinates, screen activity and other data–to show that driving…
Every June, an increasing number of brands roll out special edition products for LGBTQ Pride Month that are often swathed in garish rainbows, causing a sort of rainbow fatigue in the community. So it’s a relief to see that Skittles has gone in the opposite direction, removing the rainbow–in fact, removing color entirely–from its packaging…
If brands want to come out on the other side of the Covid-19 crisis with consumer loyalty intact, they need to lean into empathy, says Greg Lyons, the chief marketing officer of PepsiCo. “I do fundamentally believe that something good will come out of this shared experience,” Lyons said. “It will force us to have…
Most every upstart brand hopes for a big breakthrough, that golden moment when its product gets picked up by a magazine, featured in a TV segment or appears on some celebrity’s social media account. There are many ways that a formerly obscure brand can suddenly gain the spotlight and, with it, the chance to go…
Welcome to First Things First, Adweek’s daily resource for marketers. We’ll be publishing the content to First Things First on Adweek.com each morning (like this post), but if you prefer that it come straight to your inbox, you can sign up for the email here. Lizzo Covers The Beatles for Facebook’s Ad Launching Messenger Rooms…
One of the unintended consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown is the effect that it’s had on the environment. According to the journal Nature Climate Change, daily emissions declined by 17% from January to early April. It’s not a surprising development as people aren’t flying or driving as much, but it may also be a…
As companies start considering how to safely transition employees back into the workplace, one startup is turning the brainstorming into a competition. Commercial real estate startup SquareFoot is in the midst of a hackathon of sorts where employees are divided into groups to generate ideas addressing various challenges of phasing employees into the office once…
With the Tribeca Film Festival confined to digital spaces, event organizers have landed on an outside-the-box way to keep people engaged with the idea of filmmaking. The festival has rolled out a set of colorful augmented-reality avatars of creators that do things like break dance, exercise and applaud with lifelike movements modeled on real people….
A walk down the street in New York right now can be downright depressing. Restaurants, boutiques and salons–many of which were brimming with life mere months ago–are now shuttered and dark inside. It’s a reality made all the more eerie when juxtaposed against the cheery spring weather. In an attempt to make the outdoors a…
The Economist Group will fire 90 non-editorial employees and shut down the print edition of its lifestyle magazine 1843. The magazine will become digital-only, executives said Friday. “We have made the difficult decision to restructure and reduce roles in the parts of our business most affected by Covid-19,” Lauren Hackett, svp, global communications for The…
Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc announced today that the media company will lay off 155 employees, starting with 55 staffers in the U.S. today and 100 more international employees in the coming weeks. In a letter to staff, Dubuc reportedly noted the economic hardships for the media business, which have been even more pronounced amid…
Welcome to First Things First, Adweek’s daily resource for marketers. We’ll be publishing the content to First Things First on Adweek.com each morning (like this post), but if you prefer that it come straight to your inbox, you can sign up for the email here. These Brands Are Still Tapping Into Nostalgia for Slavery, Whether…
As unemployment soars amid the coronavirus pandemic, meditation app Headspace is offering free, year-long subscriptions to those out of work. The offer comes in conjunction with the company’s first television campaign, created by agency Gut and Nexus Studio. The pass will unlock access to all of the meditation app’s hundreds of hours of content, including…
In late April, Insecure creator Issa Rae tweeted an ad for something kind of surprising for a young Hollywood star: a new data-monetization app. Rae’s tweet got a lot of people asking questions about what data is, who owns it and why a company would want to collect it and pay consumers for it. Black…
Since travel has come to a near total standstill during the Covid-19 pandemic, there will be a ton of pent-up consumer demand once travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders lift. That’s according to a survey by marketing agency Mower, which measured 1,000 Americans’ willingness to travel once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted (whenever that may be). It’ll…
Although there’s present tension in America’s auto manufacturing industry, most companies have started to schedule workers to return to its factories. Ford is reopening in phases–it’s scheduled to open its doors on Monday–and has launched a campaign aimed for network television to remind everyone what its been doing since the outbreak of Covid-19. Created by…
Move over, VMLY&R, because there’s a new longwinded agency name in town: Dentsumcgarrybowen. The new creative entity, which is part of Dentsu Aegis Network, encompasses Mcgarrybowen’s various offices around the world and a number of agencies that operate under the Dentsu name outside of Japan. A spokesperson for Dentsu Aegis Network said these agencies are…
In the latest of dozens of initiatives to mitigate the disastrous impact of the coronavirus pandemic on service industry workers, Hendrick’s Gin created a support campaign that it hopes will move organically through the bartending community, creating a domino effect and criss-crossing the country. The “Pour it Forward” initiative asks bartenders to record themselves demonstrating…
Welcome to First Things First, Adweek’s daily resource for marketers. We’ll be publishing the content to First Things First on Adweek.com each morning (like this post), but if you prefer that it come straight to your inbox, you can sign up for the email here. Online Shopping Spikes, Grocery Sales Reach 50-Year High As Covid-19…
When Americans return to restaurants, they’ll be facing a different sort of dine-in experience. That’s according to Jos? Cil, the CEO of Restaurant Brands International (RBI), which owns Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons. In an open letter published today that RBI shared with Adweek, Cil addressed the changes that RBI’s locations will incorporate upon…
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