We’ve heard it ad nauseam: The agency model is broken. Consulting companies are coming for us, and Big Tech is stealing our best people with cafeterias that promise carving stations and kombucha on tap. As an agency based in San Francisco, we don’t see doom; we see an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. Silicon Valley is…
Influencers care about their work and about who they work with. The majority of influencers are more likely to work with a cause-based brand, according to Mavrck. The influencer marketing platform found many of them (23%) want to give back as part of the campaign. Other factors for engaging include an authentic fit with the…
In an industry that classifies itself as the business backend of advertising showbiz, even the most ardent of ad ops professionals will concede that monetizing traffic, optimizing CPM yield and managing the private marketplace are the lower hanging fruit. Ad ops is an underserved community that has to deftly blend commercial pressures with technical pragmatism….
We all know online video works. Content is king. Customers use video throughout the entire journey. Online video drives the early stages of the purchase journey, with a 24% lift in ad recall and a 9% lift in purchase intent. But a new study from Google and the 4A’s found key performance metrics were high…
The U.S. has one of the most advanced smart speaker markets in the world, dominated by a who’s who of Big Tech that includes Amazon, Apple and Google. That isn’t necessarily the case abroad, though, particularly in the fast-growing Chinese market, where local players such as online commerce company Alibaba, search engine Baidu and consumer…
It may seem like chatbots are designed to make us go crazy at times. But new research from Publicis Media shows that the ones that are genuinely helpful are moving the needle for brands in positive ways. “When a brand gets a chatbot experience right–by making it easy to use, helpful and fun–it has the…
A public perception crisis around electronic cigarettes seems to have materialized overnight, triggering a variety of responses from the industry. News of vaping-related hospitalizations began circulating in August while teen use continued to trend upward. Juul Labs’ share of the e-cigarette market fell to 64% as of Oct. 5, compared to over 72% of dollar…
Breaking through the clutter in New York is no easy task. Despite the challenges of navigating New York’s subway system and much-needed infrastructure upgrades, the design vocabulary and signage directing riders continue to endure. Massimo Vignelli’s visual map has been a subject of typography and design enthusiasts for years. And it is as timeless today…
When McDonald’s awarded its business to Wieden+Kennedy last month, the entire agency world should have celebrated–or at least taken notice. Since when could a creative agency with a clear competitor on its roster (KFC) even be considered for the business? Where were the lawyers? Were the folks in procurement all on vacation? The truth is…
While Americans aren’t drinking as much beer as they used to, the rest of the world hasn’t lost its lust for lager. The global beer market is worth an eye-popping $660 billion, according to a report from Research and Markets, a firm dedicated to providing international data across industries. So, while the U.S. branch of…
Every second, Americans use 1,500 plastic bottles. And despite the prevalence of recycling, 80% of those bottles end up in a landfill or in the ocean. What’s worse: Plastic isn’t biodegradable–those bottles will take up to 1,000 years to break down. Though still a ubiquitous sight at grocery stores and restaurants, few materials have suffered…
Inclusivity is arguably one of the hottest topics among marketers. Curious to see how it’s playing out with two of the world’s biggest brands, we asked Rick Gomez, chief marketing and digital officer for Target, and Pam Kaufman, president of global consumer products for Viacom and Nickelodeon, to interview each other. In the discussion that…
Getting dozens of celebrities to meet in the same room at the same time isn’t easy. It typically takes an event with the promise of the industry’s most prestigious trophies–the Oscars or the Emmys. Or a really good cause. In 2008, an hour-long telethon dedicated to raising funds for cancer research hosted by Stand Up…
Mass communication is Chrissy Teigen’s lifeblood, with Twitter being her favorite platform (and sometimes weapon) of choice. But the road to social media superstardom has had its potholes, like her July leak of the full premiere episode instead of a brief clip of NBC’s competition show Bring the Funny. In her patented self-deprecating style, she…
Visit Palm Springs and you’ll find stars of all kinds–be they luminous points in the dark night sky or classic haunts and hotels that radiate glimmers of Ol’ Blue Eyes and his Rat Pack crew. This week, California’s desert oasis will shine even brighter, as 700 marketing stars gather for our second annual Brandweek summit,…
Whether you call it hard or spiked, alcohol-infused seltzer was the talk of the town in America this past summer, a fizzy craze that spawned numerous think pieces–media outlets ranging from The Wall Street Journal to The Atlantic weighed in–and, according to CNN, inspired a nationwide shortage of White Claw Hard Seltzer in September because…
A music festival may last only a few days, but the brand potential of live music events begins long before the first band takes the stage and ends long after the last one has left. On average, Gen Z and millennial live music attendees purchase their tickets four to six months in advance, and 59%…
Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean is sitting in his favorite spot in the house, the left corner of a soft gray sofa, flanked by a bronze Nick Cave sculpture covered in buttons. Behind him is a black-and-white photo triptych conjuring the past, present and future. In another room, his wife, the singer Alicia Keys, trades “I…
The 10 marketing executives on this year’s list see opportunities where others see obstacles. They help their brands stand out by uniting behind a common purpose. And they never lose sight of who they’re really working for–namely, their customers. But there is one thing these Brand Genius honorees don’t know: the meaning of the term…
With the divisive nature of politics today and what promises to be a bitterly contentious presidential election just around the corner, the pressure on brands to decide whether to weigh in on the issues that matter to consumers will only intensify. According to new research from performance marketing company Fluent, consumers care most about gun…
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