Walking around Austin, Texas, during South by Southwest this year, Rivian was nearly omnipresent. That’s due to a two-year headlining sponsorship deal that Rivian inked with SXSW in December. The singular headline sponsor is a new model for SXSW, which has tiers of sponsorships for brands to choose from, and generally has several in the…
The CEO of Brooklyn-based creative shop Madwell, Christopher Sojka, is lashing out against distressed employees–according to internal communications obtained by ADWEEK–for pushing back against the agency’s in-office policies after not being paid in time, and for speaking to the press about the company’s financial woes. The indie shop, which has serviced major brands including Verizon…
The food and lifestyle publisher Food52 reduced its headcount by around 40% on Friday, a sweeping round of layoffs that are part of a broader restructuring afoot at the privately owned media outlet, according to chief executive Erika Badan. The cuts will shrink Food52’s workforce from 140 to around 90, and they primarily affect staff…
Brand activations are a big part of South by Southwest, but it takes a lot to stand out in the midst of such a busy, crowded event. And while nothing from this year’s slate of experiential stunts were as elaborate and creative as some of the greatest hits from the pre-pandemic years, there was still…
Compared to the other chairs around the C-suite table, the chief marketing officer’s seat (CMO) is, famously, rarely occupied for long. However, the average tenure of CMOs increased slightly in 2024, per fresh data from Spencer Stuart. The search and advisory firm found the average time CMOs at Fortune 500 companies spent in situ was…
As Donald Trump settles back into the White House for his second term as president, another transition is taking place: Republicans are warming up to Big Tech. Following Trump’s election victory in November, Meta, Google, and Amazon all donated $1 million to his inauguration fund. Apple CEO Tim Cook gave the same amount from his…
South by Southwest, a sprawling series of conferences and festivals that takes place over 10 days each spring in Austin, Texas, kicked off on March 7. In addition to music, film, tech innovation, and celebrity speakers, the event has come to be known for over-the-top brand activations that take over parking lots, music venues, restaurants,…
In its February earnings call, The Trade Desk set an ambitious goal to get all its advertiser clients onto a major platform upgrade, Kokai. Adoption, to that point, had been sluggish, and the company had taken a financial hit. CEO Jeff Green blamed The Trade Desk’s surprisingly bad fourth quarter earnings–where it didn’t meet revenue…
Trips to the dentist can be stressful under the best of circumstances, whether you’re a marathon man or a kid from Skid Row. But keeping regular dental appointments is a particularly big ask if you’re among the 20% of the population who are sensory sensitive or neurodivergent. For those individuals, the lights, noises, and physical…
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a longtime critic of pharmaceutical companies running advertisements on television. Now that he’s U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, he has an opportunity to do something about it. If U.S. regulators prohibit drug companies from airing ads on TV, the ad dollars will have to flow somewhere. Billions would…
Earlier this month, when a driver on his way to the Big Ten collegiate athletic conference saw the flashing lights of a police car behind him, he pulled over. It’s easy to see how he caught the cops’ attention. The vehicle heading for Sacramento was a 20-foot-long fiberglass almond weighing 10,600 pounds and powered by…
Retail media’s quick growth has made it a buzzy topic at nearly every industry conference over the last couple of years, but it’s also faced criticism for what some marketers see as inflated pricing, especially as many retailers struggle to offer the kind of scale, user experience, and measurement capabilities that media buyers want. Emarketer…
The National Football League has updated its privacy policy, rolled out new consent prompts, and introduced more explicit disclosures around its advertising practices after it was found tracking users’ precise geolocation data without their knowledge. The league, as well as all 32 of its teams, violated advertising transparency guidelines set by self-regulation body the Digital…
The National Football League has updated its privacy policy, rolled out new consent prompts, and introduced more explicit disclosures around its advertising practices after it was found tracking users’ precise geolocation data without their knowledge. The league, as well as all 32 of its teams, violated advertising transparency guidelines set by self-regulation body the Digital…
John Halley, the president of advertising at Paramount, wants publishers to work with multiple identity solutions. While speaking at The Trade Desk’s FWD25 event in New York on Feb. 27, Halley encouraged publishers to adopt more flexibility in integrating with media buyers’ preferred identity solutions. “The future of advertising is not going to be dependent…
ADWEEK’s Agency of the Year honors the advertising agencies setting the standard for where the industry is heading in 2024. ADWEEK values creativity, business results and, ultimately, how agencies treat their people–because it’s the people who drive the business forward. The winners will be revealed in December. The awards: Global Agency of the Year: Excellence…
It’s time once again to assemble the annual ADWEEK 50, spotlighting the behind-the-scenes luminaries in advertising, marketing, media and technology who were essential growth drivers in 2024. ADWEEK 50 isn’t about recognizing the CEO. Instead, it’s about honoring the leaders who keep the operation running efficiently and profitably, and put innovation and team culture at…
In March, NBCUniversal announced it would allow advertisers to buy ads programmatically for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris for the first time. At the time, the broadcast giant said its programmatic inventory would be available through its partner, the adtech company The Trade Desk. ADWEEK has now learned the details of that…
WPP landed top honors across Cannes, winning Creative Company of the Year, while Ogilvy won Network of the Year and client Coca-Cola snagged Creative Brand of the Year. Before learning of those distinctions, CEO Mark Read and global chief creative officer Rob Reilly sat down with ADWEEK to discuss several topics, including its creative offering…
Data company Alliant has hired investment bank BrightTower to conduct a sale process, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Alliant calls itself a data cooperative, which means it’s a hub where brands can add their data to share with other brands. Most of that data is about what consumers bought. Alliant has more…
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