More than a glorified home speaker, the simple plastic cylinder that is Amazon’s Echo device has been billed as a portal into a new way of interacting with technology. It can serve up everything from muse-like creative inspiration to recipes with a few spoken words of command. But despite a saturation of such devices in…
For many years, more than I really care to admit, I’ve covered the ebb and flow of marketing and media, watching the industry successfully navigate emergencies of epic proportions, from 9/11 to the 2003 Northeast blackout and hurricanes. Each time, advancements in technology enabled us to better communicate and serve our customers. Each time, the…
BritBox, the streaming service from BBC and ITV that specializes in British films and movies, wants to thank streaming behemoths like Netflix and Amazon Prime. The series those hefty OTT offerings feature on their platforms, including The Crown, The Bodyguard and Downton Abbey, helped whet an appetite for British TV shows among U.S. audiences, making…
It was nearly four years ago when 7-Eleven announced it completed the first autonomous drone delivery in the U.S. A few months later, Amazon’s Prime Air completed its first drone delivery in England. And while Amazon executive Jeff Wilke said he expected drone deliveries in the U.S. “within months” of June 2019, we’re still not…
On a recent winter afternoon, Tom Nelson looks over the display of luggage at Zero Halliburton’s flagship store in Manhattan. There’s nothing flashy about the place or its cases, which rest atop spindly black-metal stands below the trained gaze of spotlights. But the one thing that truly stands out is the silvery sheen of aluminum…
Samantha Barry’s diverse, globe-trotting professional path in communications may have had its start at a radio station in Dublin in the early aughts, but she thinks her career began to unofficially flourish much earlier than the experiences she has listed on LinkedIn. For Barry, her knack for telling stories is hereditary and a cultural given–birthed…
Heading into 2020, agencies were facing a period of intense uncertainty about where they should invest their resources for future growth. Some might even say the threats to agency success were unprecedented–except that the same was true a decade ago. In 2010, the rise of mobile, social media and Big Data had left agencies under…
Every year for the past four years, Adweek’s Arc Awards have honored the best in brand storytelling. And we find that each time, the bar is set higher and higher. As audiences become more sophisticated, the variety of platforms multiplies and the number of brands rises, the ability to originate and execute powerful stories becomes…
Menswear brand Bonobos is run by a woman–me–and has an executive team that is dominated by women. For some, that may be surprising. After all, you might imagine that in order for us to truly understand our audience, cater to them and drive business results, we should live in their shoes. I beg to differ….
No two days are the same in the modern world of marketing. There’s no typical 9-to-5 for these busy professionals. The Creative Group surveyed 400 full-time advertising and marketing managers and found the average workweek for a marketing pro is 40-49 hours, and many work weekends. But productive doesn’t necessarily mean creative at certain times…
Founded 107 years ago as the Electro-Alkaline Co. with an initial investment of $500 in Oakland, Calif., the firm launched with just one product: Clorox liquid bleach. Horse-drawn wagons delivered the returnable five-gallon jugs of the chemical concoction to clean industrial equipment. The now Procter & Gamble-owned brand has expanded into a slew of other…
Well into the second half of Rear Window, Paramount’s 1954 classic directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Lisa Fremont (played by Grace Kelly) and photographer L.B. Jefferies (Jimmy Stewart) are mulling through the evidence that their neighbor Lars Thorwald has murdered his wife. A key indicator: Mrs. Thorwald has vanished from the apartment across the way–leaving behind…
When Gwyneth Paltrow announced that her lifestyle brand, Goop, was throwing a “wellness” conference aboard a celebrity cruise ship later this year, she joined a cadre of content doyennes. Within the last several years, the cruise ship industry has partnered with the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart to create branded content for each…
There are two ways to sell products–your own or someone else’s–on Amazon: directly, under your company’s name, or by selling to Amazon, which sells for you. There’s also a hybrid option in which a brand or seller sells some SKUs to Amazon and sells others on the platform itself. Amazon has established a Code of…
With the noted exceptions of extended hangovers, a few gray hairs and a deep nostalgia for pre-Tattoo You Rolling Stones, I don’t feel old. I’m 48. Only 48. In fact, I find myself at the very fulfilling intersection of having much to teach and a strong desire to learn. But 48 in advertising makes me…
Google’s decision to become the latest browser to kill the cookie has industry trade groups scrambling to pick up the pieces. The IAB Tech Lab, the research and development arm of the IAB, wants to lead a broad coalition of interests that can come to a consensus about how to continue online advertising. The trade…
The most anticipated attraction opening in Las Vegas this year isn’t a resort or nightclub–it’s a shopping complex. Area15 is an upcoming retail and live entertainment venue anchored by interactive art and technology experiences. The 200,000-square-foot site, which opens in April, is a joint venture from real estate development firm Fisher Brothers and creative agency…
If you’re a skincare brand, you’ve probably put a lot of thought into how your products smell and feel. So reading reviews on Amazon.com that say one of your creams reminded the consumer of “month-old milk” or that “it literally feels (and smells!) like rubbing your face with ham grease” is bound to be distressing….
Even before the recession of 2008, there were signs that the retail sector was in trouble. Many brands at the time didn’t view online as a threat, and when they began to feel the effects in the 2010s, it was too late for many. Leveraged buyouts by private equity of the likes of J.Crew and…
Each year, a host of celebrities take a break from their artistic endeavors to lend their talents to the likes of toothpaste, candy and potato chip brands, all in the name of football. It’s the Super Bowl, where stars are paid millions of dollars by advertisers to help them capture the attention of the roughly…
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