Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is a busy man these days. In the last week or so, he’s thrown his weight behind numerous initiatives to help his home state, including SBA loans, food distribution and the procurement of a COVID-19 testing machine. But another of Portman’s maneuverings affects people across the entire nation. That’s because Ohio…
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced brands to postpone or cancel in-person events for the foreseeable future, so marketers are adapting their experiential strategy to connect with people in self-isolation. “Pivoting” is the buzzword experts have pushed the past few weeks, and brands are beginning to show what that means with stunts and digital experiences that…
As the coronavirus has forced people indoors, fitness brands are trying to keep the sweat flowing, even if doors to their gyms are closed. Both traditional and boutique studio fitness brands have turned to streaming platforms to shift their audiences away from the squat rack and toward their televisions and laptops. Although it isn’t enough…
Rigel Cable is a director of data analytics at digital commerce agency Astound Commerce–but you might know him better by his influencer persona, Rigel Gemini. Though Cable makes sure to keep his influencer advocacy and day job separate from each other, he still tries to bring “visibility and presence” to both ends of his life…
There’s no other way to say it: We are facing an unprecedented international crisis in COVID-19, a pandemic that’s rapidly unfolding before our eyes. The information evolves daily. The road ahead is tough to see. But one thing is clear: The hard work has just begun. Stopping the spread requires each and every one of…
While the coronavirus pandemic has clearly had a stalling effect on the marketing industry, the global lockdown of home quarantine has had one unexpected benefit for rising talent in the field: a surging interest in one-on-one mentorship and networking. Fueled both by the exponential growth in daily usage of video chat platforms like Zoom and…
Catalyst’s #BiasCorrect campaign grew in its second year in terms of participation (a 52% increase) and scope of inclusion. The project features photos of women accompanied by stereotypical words alongside alternate adjectives. Donated media that ran the campaign on New York bus shelters, Captivate elevator screens, Hulu and digital helped raise awareness, with over 49…
As the coronavirus spreads around the world, it leaves a trail of misinformation in its wake. On social media, where the algorithms reward engaging content regardless of its veracity, platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube carry the hefty burden of cleaning up harmful rumors from innocent users, bogus claims from profiteers and disinformation campaigns from…
Programmatic trading is entering a new era. Marketers are increasingly taking media buying in-house as changes in privacy laws, growing suspicions about just how much spend goes toward working media and Big Tech’s dominance puts pressure on the legacy business models of network media agencies. In response, some of these players are starting to alter…
In 1930, residents of Havana gazed upwards and for the first time saw something other than the withering tropical sun. They saw a sculpture of a fruit bat. It was massive, cast in bronze and sitting atop the city’s first skyscraper built by the Bacardi Corp. The structure was a 12-story colossus of red granite…
Dutch-born Marga Balvert’s career has taken her across the world, from her own country’s capital city of Amsterdam, where she started her career at Nike’s European headquarters in the events business. From there, she’s worked in Berlin, Antwerp, Buenos Aires and now, London, where she’s set to start a new role as the head of…
We can thank the Reefer Madness era for stigmatizing the cannabis plant. This powerful bit of propaganda paired with the efforts of big players in cotton, tobacco and pharmaceuticals aimed to keep cannabis from thriving and becoming a competitive force. But the film was also made during a time when the known applications for cannabis…
With the coronavirus pandemic preventing any large gathering for the foreseeable future, The One Club for Creativity was one of many conference organizers that announced plans earlier this month to move its slate of major industry events online. Now, with a mid-May deadline looming, the nonprofit’s executives are finding that preparing large-scale virtual trade shows…
As the global health crisis continues to wreak havoc on businesses of all kinds, large and small, industry leaders are battling to adjust to a vastly changed marketplace. There’s no question that the challenges they’re facing are unprecedented, and there’s also no question that they are facing them head on. We know because we reached…
I’m writing this week’s editor’s letter from my home office. Painted sky blue, it’s decorated with portraits of fish my 12-year-old son, Gabe, likes to catch: striped bass, northern pike and, he hopes, one day soon, a blacktip shark. By the window is a fleet of Star Wars Lego fighters and ships. On the floor…
Fast-food giant KFC debuted a new commercial recently that features 60 solid seconds of people eating chicken and then sticking their hands in their mouths. There’s no dialogue, just a lovely classical piano backdrop and lots of satisfied-looking diners ignoring their napkins. What better way to viscerally bring to life the iconic tagline “It’s finger-lickin’…
In the age of sustainability messaging, more companies are cognizant about reducing their carbon footprint. By the end of this year, PepsiCo says its premium water brand Lifewtr will no longer use virgin plastic in its bottles. The conversion to 100% recycled PET (rPET), or recycled polyethylene terephthalate, means plastic bottles don’t become waste. It’s…
Social networking companies employ people from all backgrounds and walks of life, not just technology and engineering majors. Rembert Browne, creative lead, brand and voice at Twitter, certainly fits that bill. “I wanted to be the mayor of Atlanta until I was 22,” Browne said. “I still kind of do.” The Atlanta native graduated from…
If you’re enjoying the soft feeling of your jeans or shirt against your skin at the moment, the odds are good that you owe a debt of gratitude to a woman named Audrey Gaiser. She wasn’t an inventor or an executive or a marketer, but something better than all three: She was an inspiration. In…
In the months leading up to the November debut of Disney+, Disney’s various entities weren’t the only ones helping to boost the OTT offering through major marketing and promotional pushes. The media and entertainment giant found a friend in Verizon, too. A wide-ranging partnership between Disney and the telco, inked last summer, offered certain Verizon…
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