Increasingly, more buyers are coming to terms with the fact that the open auction is no place for premium video. Earlier this summer, YouTube faced a backlash from some buyers after research outfit Adalytics found that ads often aired not on YouTube videos themselves, but on the Google Video Partner network. Some buyers redirected their…
In May this year, WPP partnered with chipmaker Nvidia to create ads using generative artificial intelligence. Now, numbers are emerging on how environmentally beneficial AI is for campaign creation. The agency’s transition to AI-powered content production could save up to 93% of its carbon footprint compared to that of traditional production, according to the agency….
Get noticed. That’s the point, right? Get the product or service noticed and make people feel something. Leave them transformed and more willing to act–whether that means a click or purchase. For Amazon’s Prime Video, the task was to persuade the public to watch the new season of its original series The Boys. One obstacle:…
For all the windfalls that ecommerce has enjoyed in recent years, it’s also become clear that predictions of the death of brick-and-mortar shopping were … premature. Shopify’s 2023 Retail Trends study, for example, revealed that 82% of businesses are “confident physical stores will continue to play an important role in future commerce growth.” And a…
If there is one brand that has learned how to grow a devoted fan base and bring together a global community, it’s toy giant Lego. Spanning generations of brick-building fanatics, it’s become a rite of passage for a child to be given one of its sets while growing up somewhere in the world, creating a…
Picture the scene. A group of male friends are hanging out playing video games when one of them starts making derogatory comments about women. He remarks that women aren’t good at sports, brandishes a nude photo from his DMs and says a former female classmate was “asking for it.” If you were there, would you…
Procter & Gamble dropped a reference to forest degradation from its anti-deforestation policy in May this year, a move that green investors and environmental groups have denounced, but that the brand claims is due to streamlining terminology. The change comes after the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a complaint late last year with the…
A cocktail of adverse economic factors has brought the number of merger and acquisition deals in the media sector this year to its lowest level since 2020, according to financial data provider LSEG Deals Intelligence. But a recent swell of positive indicators–including, in time for the fourth quarter, a general market upswing and a resurgence…
If you want a snapshot of the sort of conflict that’s always simmering between the CMO’s office and a company’s franchisees, you might start by asking Bruno Cardinali. For three years, Cardinali was the CMO of Popeyes, where he presided over one of the most successful promotional blitzes in recent history–the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich. Introduced…
At first, Francesca Willow ignored the partnership inquiry she received from a Texas-based oil and gas company in mid-May. But when Pheasant Energy sent a follow-up asking about rates for a guest post on her sustainable living blog, “I sent back quite an angry response,” the U.K.-based content creator said. “Or, well, I’m quite British….
On a Thursday morning in April of 1991, New Yorkers trooping through midtown beheld a wistful sight. The Horn & Hardart automat on the corner of 42nd Street and Third Avenue–the lone holdout of a restaurant empire that once counted 40 locations in the city–had closed its doors. With their self-serve, coin-op, cafeteria-style layout, H&H…
Harnessing softball’s big-league marketing power requires brand investment from the Little League on up. At Major League Baseball’s All-Star Week in Seattle, softball players started off the festivities as part of a Junior Home Run Derby at T-Mobile Park. Teams from the Arm & Hammer-sponsored Jennie Finch Classic softball game crowded sidewalks around Edgar Martinez…
A “Where Are They Now” epilogue for the golden years of Crispin Porter + Bogusky would be endless as seemingly every major shop has a connection back to the glory days of Crispin. Those days are gone, as are the clients–Burger King, Mini, Truth and many more–that benefited from Crispin’s genius. MDC Partners and later…
Google’s early reveal of its AI-enhanced Search Generative Experience (SGE) in May has sent publishers scrambling to prepare for a major disruption to their organic search traffic–which typically constitutes their largest source of readership–and ultimately, revenue. When fully incorporated into search, which could happen as early as this fall, SGE could reduce publishers’ organic search…
A giant Barbie towers over Dubai’s business district, unfixing her long limbs from a plastic Mattel box as high as the Burj Khalifa skyscraper. Meanwhile, in London an underground carriage adorned with eyelashes rolls into a station, coating them with a lick of Maybelline’s “Lash Sensational” mascara on the way. These aren’t real ads, they’re…
New data from the 4A’s showed a stunning lack of progress in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) at the highest levels of agencies. According to the 2023 Diversity in Agencies Survey Report, 73% of agency CEOs, owners and C-suite employees identified as white in 2021. In 2022, that number jumped sharply to 90%. Black…
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, streaming television has been perhaps the hottest realm of digital media; however, its sought-after perch became a little shakier this summer. With a faltering economy, the upfronts buying cycle–where both connected and linear TV is sold–was slower than it’s been in years. In addition, large TV publishers such as Disney and…
Freelancing platform Upwork started out as Elance-oDesk in 2013, but it took a dead CEO to bring the company to the forefront of the talent marketplace economy. The campaign, “This is How We Work Now,” by agency Alto, features a dead-but-resurrected CEO, Jack, who sings to his employees to shake it up and make up…
Heads of growth, directors of new business, chief marketing officers–all roles with similar remits that have grown in importance over the years as agencies are forced to claw their ways toward growth in a world where fees are shrinking and shareholder pressure is growing. This past year, there’s been movement across the industry, most notably…
In a series of recent tweets, Doja Cat was asked by fans if she could say she loved them. “I don’t though cuz I don’t even know yall,” was the response, making it clear that she is not interested in rewarding and reciprocating endearment. The Grammy-winning singer presented the ultimate rejection of an intense parasocial…
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