“We screwed up,” admits Harris Diamond, CEO of McCann Worldgroup, sitting in his loftlike New York office in Midtown Manhattan. Emily Winiker for Adweek The end of 2018 marked a massive loss for McCann: the U.S. Army, a client it was forced to hand over the reins on after a nearly 15-year run. DDB won…
In 2018, Wieden + Kennedy rose to the top of the industry. But there was one thing the agency hadn’t done: peak. Coming off a year of culture-rattling buzz around its work for Nike, W+K started 2019 in the unenviable position of having to surpass its own successes. Then it did, growing revenue at a…
In a world… I hope you read that first line imagining a deep and dramatic voice. Good, because what I am going to tell you requires the kind of gravitas that creates spine-tingling anticipation. In a world where the skip ad is an advertiser’s worst enemy, where fast-forward is the death knell of the 30-second…
With 180,000 real estate agents who are more familiar with building codes than computer code, Keller Williams Realty was looking for a way to compete with tech-focused startups like Redfin and Zillow. Luckily for the 35-year-old realty company, it didn’t need to teach every agent a bunch of new computer skills. Instead, it found the…
Tamara Littleton has made fighting against discrimination and advocating for marginalized groups an important part of both social-media-centric organizations that she runs. Littleton is the founder and CEO behind London-based social media agency The Social Element and co-founder of social media crisis-management platform Polpeo. The former helps define brand strategies, advises on tone and assists…
When Prohibition became the law of the land in 1919, the near-immediate effect (apart from taking everyone’s favorite libations away) was economic disaster. Across the country, countless companies went out of business: breweries, restaurants and taverns closed their doors. Truckers who hauled beer lost their routes. Even barrel makers laid down their mallets. Economists estimated…
What’s in a name? For CMOs, that’s a complicated question. For decades, the title of chief marketing officer was synonymous with heading up a company’s marketing division and being responsible for building a brand. Today, marketers aren’t just responsible for bringing consumers into a brand but also entertaining them and targeting them so they come…
The cable news networks are already focused on elections again, even though the 2019 races have barely ended. That’s because for outlets like Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC, presidential elections–like the upcoming 2020 race–present a unique opportunity to expand their audiences and attract Americans seeking information on the candidates as they prepare to head…
Let me tell you what’s modern in our world: fear. A fear of losing jobs, of becoming irrelevant before retirement, of suddenly questioning the purpose of our existence as an industry. Consumers may have realized they can do without us, and that epiphany poses a frightening, almost paralyzing reality. That is, unless we prepare. Having…
Prepping for the most significant new product launch in 30 years at Popeyes, Bruno Cardinali traveled to the chain’s Louisiana home turf, steeping himself in the area’s famous Cajun cuisine and hospitality. David Williams for Adweek Cardinali, who joined as head of North American marketing in March, says he wanted to “get to know the…
Staying ahead of the curve as a major company has never been easy, but the pace of change these days is downright breathtaking, and the stakes have never seemed higher. All the more reason to shine a light on the people who work tirelessly to deliver not just in the near term but with an…
More shoppers will buy from direct-to-consumer brands. Purchases are expected to grow in the next few years as Americans cut down on traditional retail in favor of DTC companies–especially in health, wellness and beauty (35%). Diffusion’s annual Direct-to-Consumer Purchase Intent Index revealed consumers are still committed to buying from DTC brands, but maintaining their attention…
On Friday, Nov. 28, 1924, The New York Times carried an item on page 15 about Santa Claus making an early seasonal appearance: “With a retinue of clowns, freaks, animals and floats, the bewhiskered man in red … arrived at 9 o’clock yesterday morning.” The story, measuring just a few column inches, was a throwaway….
Activists at the American Civil Liberties Union recently used Amazon’s facial recognition software to compare photos of 200 Boston-area professional athletes to a mug shot database. The program determined that 27 of the players–roughly one in six–were among the 25,000 criminals in its system. It was, of course, wrong. Amazon has claimed such tests don’t…
Behind influencer marketing’s glossy exterior, there’s a lot of sweat, tears and time spent. For some buyers–particularly those on smaller campaigns with smaller budgets–ad tech is the answer. Recent months have seen a boom in influencer platforms, an emerging tech that promises to do everything from weed out the perfect microinfluencer for your campaign to…
When Disney debuted its streaming service Disney+ on Nov. 12, its original programming rollout looked less like a streaming service and more like a linear TV network. Original series like Star Wars space western The Mandalorian and docuseries The World According to Jeff Goldblum won’t have their entire seasons dumped onto the platform all at…
There’s no shortage of great talent in the fields of entertainment, marketing, media and tech, but each year, we endeavor to identify the people who insist on setting the bar even higher–for themselves and their respective industry. Our picks for this year’s list of Young Influentials define what it means to be an overachiever, whether…
With endless programming to choose from, countless ways to consume media and never-ending social distractions, The New York Times has broken through the noise to win over consumer attention. The Daily, its first daily news podcast, which showcases the NYT’s reporting and reporting process, established a new way of storytelling by showing the journalism behind…
Jay Shetty is not your typical celebrity. Sure, he looks like a laid-back model with his crystalline green eyes and perfectly coiffed hair. He shifts effortlessly in his seat as he locks in with the camera lens. “Somehow I knew you’d be easy to shoot,” our cover photographer says. To prepare for the shoot, she’s…
This might just be the era of the individual–a time of self-care, being your best self and selfies galore. And yet collaboration is an incredibly powerful phenomenon. For proof, look no further than the winners of our first annual Constellation Awards in which a jury of senior Adweek editors selected the best team-led marketing efforts…
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